Final Third: Infinite Login How Brian d’Souza used the pandemic to launch a radio station for the good health of its listeners and the bank accounts of its artists, by Skye Butchard
Natural fit Brian d’Souza never intended to create a radio station. Ambient Flo began its life as a series of impromptu livestreams filmed in his back garden. When the world shrunk into itself during the first lockdown, and we were all looking for ways to reach outwards, those livestreams offered connection and calm for its viewers. As a maker of warm and richly textured dance music as Auntie Flo, as well as a killer DJ, it would be natural for him to create a virtual club space, as many others have. Instead, he curated ambient music sets; a welcoming place to breathe and filter out the noise. “For me, it was the obvious choice of genre,” he says. “Isolation calls for tunes that help you escape, feel calm and maintain sanity. For me, this is ambient music. “Dance music needs a sweaty crowd and large soundsystem in a dark room… I figured I’d play music that had helped me find some inner peace, and do it in the mornings too, when no one else seemed to be streaming.” — A paradigm shift — Those sets morphed into a 24-hour radio station that offers not just gorgeous music but a sustainable source of income for the artists it highlights. Ambient Flo was designed using an Artist Profit Share system that places emphasis on collective support and fair pay, where 300 selected tracks are played an equal number of times each month. In a time of deep uncertainty and upheaval for our industry, the site looks for a new way forward, emphasising longevity and artist-led initiatives. The website itself is a dream to use. Each month, leading voices in the genre curate playlists, separated into Morning, Daytime and Nightime that offer distinct atmospheres. Morning is bright, gentle and reassuring. Daytime brings a stronger sense of rhythm and melody. Night is vast and otherworldy. There is even the option to mix in natural sounds like birdsong, which can lead to surprisingly moving moments, like one moment this afternoon where gentle bird calls seemed to harmonise with Henrietta Smith-Rolla’s piano. None of this was in view when Brian d’Souza first started recording. “The first lockdown was a bittersweet time,” he says. “Obviously, everything stopped – there was massive and very
64
serious health implications, which I don’t want to belittle. But for me personally, it was a paradigm shift moment. “A level of stress that I wasn’t really aware of that had built up over years suddenly lifted. Plus, the weather was nice, and I got to enjoy the change of pace in life. Doing the livestreams gave me a focus for the week – I bought so much music and really loved sharing it with everyone who tuned in.” The move from livestream to radio, though now clearly a good one, stemmed from humble beginnings, it turns out. The time and space required for the project became a problem for his family. “My young son loves playing on the decks,” Brian explains, “so my wife had to take him out when the live streams where on otherwise the nice ambient flow would have been interrupted by him scratching the records!” He started thinking about ways to bring it to a larger audience. Frustrations with the economics of the music industry were also becoming more noticeable. Despite being an established name who’s released award-winning records (the excellent Radio Highlife from 2018 took home the Scottish Album of the Year), Brian doesn’t make any money from streaming.
