Check out Joe Maier’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Maier.

Joe, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
It started when I was a GameStop manager. In the last year there, I was working longer hours on a weekly basis and always feeling tired. My father suggested I get a couple of blood tests taken after constantly hearing this. After that, it was revealed that my health was deteriorating from stress. I stepped down from that position to remove the stress and went back to pursue a second college degree.

Although, there was a matter of finding a place that removed stress from my life. I remembered that the concerts I managed to attend around that job that did just that. So originally, I made it a goal to go to a show once a month. That slowly got traction as people remembered me from mosh pits and prior shows. I would drink so I used my Facebook timeline to take phone pictures to remember bands from each show. As I made friends with those musicians, they liked the pictures, so I continued that portion. Between making friends with local musicians to only increase shows I was invited to along with the praise of the phone photography, it just starting to grow and grow into what became Every Show Joe today.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do, why, and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
It is mostly photography, both on phone and a DSLR camera with additional writing on my website. I take pictures of bands from their live shows to spread the word of the music I enjoy. You will notice the abundance of photos do not include me as my purpose is for highlighting the music. In addition, expanding on this ideal, I have launched a brand new video show called Concerts to Consoles. It streams live on Twitch, and I put to YouTube and podcast after. In this show, I sit down with musicians, and we play videogames while doing an interview at the same time. If someone who follows me has discovered at least one new band through my work, then I feel I’m accomplishing what I want out of this.

Have things improved for artists? What should cities do to empower artists?
I feel that they have got more complicated and saturated thanks to how easy the internet has made most artistic fields to get started. It feels like the fight to stand out is a grind in most artistic fields nowadays. Then if you do stand out, it is a matter of trying to keep the attention of people who follow you. In addition, the matter of making a living off of it has either you living a very minimalist means or working another job to support it financially. In a way a positive because it does show that artists are doing it for the love of their field of work rather than to get rich.

Cities could put together block parties and festivals that allow artists to showcase their work. They can put more grant money out there to support creative ideas in these areas. They can work to avoid the gentrification of areas that become rich in artistic talent from being taken over by rich developers and wealth like what is happening with the Roosevelt district. The spirit of the art and artists that made it that way dissolves with that.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
You can find my work on EveryShowJoe.com for my DSLR camera and editorial work. My video shows on Twitch.tv/everyshowjoe and Youtube.com/everyshowjoe. On social media as Every Show Joe on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr where I post my phone pictures from the shows.

If you want to support, I do have a Patreon at www.patreon.com/everyshowjoe with a couple of tiers to donate money.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.everyshowjoe.com
• Email: joe@everyshowjoe.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/everyshowjoe
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/everyshowjoe
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/everyshowjoe
• Other: www.youtube.com/everyshowjoe

Image Credit:
Joe Maier/Every Show Joe

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.