Music as a way out: How musicking helped a collaborative rock band of ex-inmates

Abstract

This article explores how the members of Me and THE BAND, a rock band consisting of three ex-inmates and a music therapist, experienced playing together, how it helps them, and whether and how this can be related to the concept of self-help. Focus group interviews were conducted to explore the members’ experiences, analysis was grounded in a hermeneutic philosophical understanding and the theoretical framework is based in a community music therapy approach. The study indicates how musicking helped the band members of Me and THE BAND’its to create agency, structure, meaning and community. The band appeared to function through collaborative processes, and the music therapists as facilitator need to prepare the qualities of equality, mutuality and participation. As a conclusion, the members of Me and THE BAND’its do not identify as being a self-help group, although they clearly report that musicking helps them. The crux of this paradox is that it is important for the group members to identify as a band, but they still include self-help concepts and traditions. They maintain their own uniqueness and independence, while making musicking a possible way out of criminality.

Keywords

collaboration community music therapy focus group interviews musicking rock band self-help

Introduction

This article sets out information gathered from a participatory action research project which was conducted in Norway. It explores how musicking helped a rock band called Me and THE BAND’its, a group that originated from a Norwegian crime-rehabilitation programme called ‘Music in Custody and Liberty’. The rehabilitation programme itself was organised into three phases: The first phase consisted of band activities while participants were in custody; the second phase of band activities took place in a community arts centre after participants had regained their freedom; and the third phase consisted of self-initiated musical activities as a hobby or occupation while participants maintained their freedom (Tuastad, 2014a). The first author followed the band members for approximately 10 years through different phases of the programme. Throughout 2010–2014, he took the role of the bass player in Me and THE BAND’its while acting as a facilitator of the participatory action research project. According to standard principles for action research (Reason and Bradbury, 2006), he worked closely with the participants during the research period, establishing goals in cooperation with the rest of the band, as well as initiating and evaluating action plans. The research project explored whether and how music could be a sustainable, everyday resource for this group.

The excerpt below is taken from a focus group interview with the rock band. The discussion relates to a crucial part of the agenda of Me and THE BAND’its: to inform audiences, through performances, of the importance and necessity of music in the crime-rehabilitation process. The band members who participated in the focus group interviews are quoted in this article and are noted by their first names: Lars was the bassist, music therapist and facilitator of the participatory action research project (to be called ‘facilitator’ for the purpose of this article); Geir was the drummer; Kjell was the lead singer and accompanist on acoustic guitar; and Siggen was the lead guitarist on electric guitar. Brynjulf was the moderator of the focus group interviews:

Lars:

Earlier, we have discussed music as the third force …

Geir:

… what are the alternatives? What can prisons offer? You could become Christian and get released. Then you could get rehabilitated through medicine. But then we found out that music was the third alternative.

Kjell:

Music is only a word …

Geir:

What is essential is to find the alternative.

Kjell:

Because the third alternative is THE alternative.

Geir:

For us it was music.

Brynjulf:

That’s true. It could probably mean different things to different people, but what seems obvious for you is that music in addition to being something special for each one of you also is essential for you as a band, that it makes you joined-up. In my opinion that is really special.

Siggen:

We do have a common vision and that is extremely important I think.

As the participants of the focus group interview stated, two approaches dominate crime rehabilitation in Norway. First, volunteers from Christian organisations work in the prison context and use religion and spirituality in an attempt to rescue prisoners from a life of crime. Salvation in this setting means finding hope, strength and meaning in relation to existential concerns, as well as being part of a mutually supportive community. Second, cognitive and behavioural crime-reducing programmes, especially related to alcohol or drug abuse, have been supported by the Norwegian Directorate for Correctional Services. A crucial premise for these programmes is that, by changing the prisoners’ mind-sets, prisoners will adopt non-criminal behaviours.

According to Me and THE BAND’its, there is another force that can be viewed as an alternative to the two mentioned above. ‘For us it was music’ is a statement indicating that the band members themselves identified this as a desirable alternative within the rehabilitation process. It also gives a hint of the strong, mutual community growing out of a common prison background mixed with a shared passion for music.

However, it is important to emphasise that taking this option does not provide an easy way out. For example, two of the band members have been admitted to hospital during the last 2 years, with life-threatening conditions that they both, luckily, survived. Many of the struggles faced by the members of Me and THE BAND’its are related to side effects of having served sentences. A history of being incarcerated impacts everyday lives on a very practical level. This relates to managing the complexity of modern society, how to find one’s way in the public service jungle, knowing the rules, knowing who to contact, knowing who to talk to and so on. Also, the band members talked about experiences of being stigmatised, how people stare at them in the street and how they often encounter scepticism and negative attitudes among people in society.

Reflecting on the band’s ability to help the members face everyday life challenges, the authors explored the notion of self-help as one way of understanding the process. This perspective seemed relevant because the band members often talked about how playing in the band helped them in various ways, while they also underlined that the band was different from therapy or a rehabilitation programme.

Self-help

A review of self-help literature shows that researchers traditionally have viewed self-help from two different angles: (1) as an alternative strategy for marginalised groups to gain a voice in the public arena, or (2) as a support system to complement established healthcare measures through mutual support, sharing experiences and information, or social contacts in a group setting (Aglen et al., 2011). As such, self-help represents an experience-based perspective on health rooted in mutual support and the participants’ own knowledge and reflections about dealing with life problems. Herein lies an alternative way to cope with problems compared to what is common in the public or private healthcare systems. In Norway, the Directorate of Health has launched a national plan for self-help as part of a national strategy for public health (Helsedirektoratet, 2014).

In Correctional Services in many countries, it has become a priority in recent decades to offer self-help through therapy and rehabilitation programmes aimed at improving and changing the cognitive and behavioural patterns of offenders. These include occupational, religious and educational rehabilitation programmes, as well as group therapy and specific programmes related to anger management, sex offenders and alcohol and drug abuse (O’Connor et al., 2006).

In the field of music therapy, a small number of studies have focused on self-help and self-help groups (see, for example, Krüger, 2009). Furthermore, ideas related to self-help have been explored through the concepts of recovery (Solli, 2014), user involvement (Procter, 2004) and empowerment (Batt-Rawden et al., 2005; Procter, 2001; Rolvsjord, 2004, 2010). Bolger (2013, 2015) explores the related theme of collaboration in music therapy, through a participatory action research project with three separate communities supporting groups of marginalised young people.

Self-help today is perceived as part of a large commercial industry and as such has been the subject of considerable critique (Cherry, 2011; Ilouz, 2008). The Norwegian cultural psychologist Madsen (2014a, 2014b) argues that it individualises societal issues, or as he puts it, ‘problems are being understood as psychological, when the problems should actually be viewed in light of systems of meaning other than the mental aspect: the social, the political, the structural, etc’ (p. 198). To ‘psychologise’ societal issues means to disguise problems and structures in the society. Issues are placed inside of us, in the brain or as part of an individual self-actualisation project.

Theoretical framework and focus of the study

As authors of this article, we are positioned within a community music therapy approach, and our understanding is anchored in an ecological view of music and health (Aasgaard, 2002; Ansdell, 2014; Stige, 2002, 2003; Stige et al., 2010). Small’s (1998) concept of ‘musicking’ supports such ecological perspectives, where music is understood as situated practice and process rather than as an object. Furthermore, we identify with participatory principles in community music therapy, advocating user involvement and collaboration with participants, in the service of empowerment and social change (Bolger, 2013, 2015; Rolvsjord, 2004, 2010; Stige, 2002; Stige and Aarø, 2012; Stige et al., 2010).

When we take interest in the notion of self-help, we are conscious of the risk of individualising societal problems (Madsen, 2014a, 2014b). In this regard, we are critical of the position of the various therapy and rehabilitation programmes dominating Correctional Services in many countries. There is an emphasis on self-help in many of these therapy and rehabilitation programmes, but it is important to emphasise that they are all controlled and led by professionals. Critical voices claim the potential danger of power inequality due to asymmetric relations in such top-down organised self-help groups in contrast to nonprofessional and experience-based self-help groups (see, for example, Carlsen, 2003).

We acknowledge self-help groups as non-expert and self-driven groups that develop shared resources for increased knowledge, dignity and empowerment (Aglen et al., 2011). From such a perspective, self-help is a force for change on an individual, group and community level. This suggests that processes are based on the experiences and intentions of the participants themselves. Therefore, a crucial step in our research was to explore Me and THE BAND’its’ own understanding of how band membership helped the participants. We were interested in the words and metaphors the band members used to describe their situations and processes, and our research was guided by the following questions:

What is the language used by the members of a rock band of ex-inmates in describing how musicking helps?

How and to what degree could these descriptions be linked to the concept of self-help?

Method

Focus group interviews were conducted to explore the members’ experiences of playing together in Me and THE BAND’its. These interviews were performed in the context of a larger participatory action research project on the development of the rock band and its relationships to broader society. Focus group interviews were chosen because they allow for collaborative exploration of issues of shared interest (Krueger and Casey, 2015; Morgan, 1997). The group interviews were conducted with the second author as moderator. The interviews included simple questions about whether and how band members feel playing in the band helps them, and whether they link such processes to the concept of self-help. The interviews took place in the workplace of the authors; they lasted for 90 minutes and were video- and tape-recorded. All audio-recorded interviews were fully transcribed. After the first interview, a preliminary version of categories and quotes was presented to the group in a follow-up, multi-step focus group interview (Andvig, 2010). During this interview, some of the topics were clarified and discussed. Selected parts of the multi-step focus group interview were transcribed and used in further analysis.

Our analysis has been a hermeneutic process (Alvesson and Sköldberg, 2009). In this regard, we recognise abduction as an applicable strategy that ‘allows zigzag movements between experience, interpreted empirical material, and theoretical reflections’ (Stige, 2003: 39). These ‘zigzag’ movements have included phases of transcribing, reading and re-reading the interviews. Two core categories emerged from our analysis of the first focus group interview. Both of these categories were rich and complex. The first core category, Music as revenge, explores the themes of community of practice, rock culture and identity construction in Me and THE BAND’its and has been written about in the article ‘The Revenge of Me and THE BAND’its: A Narrative Inquiry of Identity Constructions in a Rock Band of Ex-Inmates’ (Tuastad, 2014b). The second core category called Music as a way out is presented here.

Results: music as a way out

The phrase Music as a way out indicates our interpretation of what seemed to be a key theme in the narratives developed by the band members: the music project could make a comprehensive and decisive change in the participants’ lives, serving as a lifeline for renewed existence. They identified their mutual histories, as shared life experiences and as a background for the band’s existence. The sub-categories that emerged from the analysis were Musicking creates agency, Musicking creates structure, Musicking creates meaning and Musicking creates community.

Musicking creates agency

In the focus group interviews, the participants in Me and THE BAND’its expressed how the music project created agency in their lives. The band was described as a community where you could be yourself, develop yourself and, at the same time, work together as a band. The changes and influences the music project had on the band members are best illustrated by individual stories related to such aspects.

The guitarist, Siggen, created a slogan for Me and THE BAND’its: ‘There are some good rehearsals and some unbelievably good rehearsals’. This slogan implies that he is completely dedicated to music. Siggen also expressed how the positive experiences with the band affected his self-respect and self-esteem. He discussed the relationship between musical and personal development as follows:

Siggen:

I’ve got a great deal of self-respect now, because I’ve found out that I can play the guitar. Or, I’ve actually found out that I’m fucking good at playing the guitar (laughter). But, to be honest, it has contributed to improving my self-esteem.

Brynjulf:

That also influences other situations?

Siggen:

Yes, yes, yes. Nobody can take that away from me or us. Therefore I’ve got a great deal of self-esteem out of it, absolutely. As in those early days when we practiced, when we started in the spring, and I rode my bike home afterwards feeling like the best guitar player in the whole wide land. I was like up there, right.

Geir, the drummer, also stated the importance of music. He indicated that it was the basis for the whole project when he declared, ‘Music is fun; so playing music is my main motivation’. Moreover, he stated that playing together helped him and the band to improve as musicians: ‘We become better on our instruments, and we become better playing together’. Geir saw the band as a learning arena:

Geir: At least I got the impression of, OK, you learn a lot. Inside your head you learn a lot about what it is all about. Expand, in a way … It’s like when we talked about going to school or being an apprentice. In a way you learn it all by yourself, just by playing together three times a week.

When talking about how the band had been an arena for musical development, Kjell, the lead singer, noted that it had also been part of a personal changing process. The band activities made him take care of himself and offered an opportunity for him to be included in society:

I know I have become a better human being. In the past I drank when it suited me. In the past I avoided waking up in the morning, that is; I didn’t ever go to bed. In the past I didn’t care about the days, but now I do. I have always enjoyed life and the days, but now it has a totally different importance. And I have also become included. I am part of society. (Kjell)

Despite the differences in the stories about changes in agency, there seems to be a strong, shared understanding connected to the main aim of the band project: to make a performance out of songs and stories from the band members’ own experiences. As an outcome of the focus group interviews, the expression ‘gig talks’ came to be used as a way to describe the band’s practice of presenting experiences through songs and stories. Geir explained, ‘Gig talks, yes, that’s what it is. We give lectures about the hard realities of life, where even the tough ones can shed a tear’. In this way, he explains, gig talks might have an uplifting function that could induce change in the audience, by providing a medium that allows consideration of difficult experiences. The following excerpt refers to a memorable encounter the band had after performing in the northern part of the country for the first time:

Geir:

A kid came up to us and said that both his father and uncle were doing time in prison … When he [Kjell] was talking about our prison lives on stage … For him it was important to dare to tell it.

Kjell:

And later there will be more young men who can be able to tell their stories, and then I get completely blown away. Because it takes away …

Geir:

It’s an entrance for them to talk, I guess.

Kjell:

It takes away the fear connected to the life I have been living.

Musicking creates structure

The participants in the focus group shared stories about how the band activities formed a structure for their lives. Likewise, the activities helped the members maintain focus and highlighted the values of respect, honour and responsibility.

The first structure identified was time. They expressed this by focusing on the role of the fixed rehearsal times in organising their week:

Kjell:

… music, or what we do today, has created three days a week in a community. Therefore, the four other days in the week are not so hard to go through …

Siggen:

Because, instead of fluttering about with friends at nights and things like that, I can sit alone at my computer playing music. I prefer it because I want to play. Like my friends said, I’m never out of my accommodation where I live now, because the room is sound proofed and then I just have fun playing undisturbed. And when I get bored, I only get more creative. So why should I bother to flutter about when I’ve got all I need in one place?

Structuring time through music engagement helped the members maintain focus and staying out of a criminal lifestyle:

Geir:

Playing drums and being part of a band have kept me away from all of the other stuff. That is, it is the first time I have been going out of the prison gate without coming back again.

Brynjulf:

How can playing in a band pull it off?

Geir:

That’s because, when I understood I could be playing drums, that this was something I could learn, then I purely focused on that issue. And I haven’t got time to think of anything else.

While structure can help construct the rhythm in the band, rhythm can also construct social organisation. The head of the rhythm section of the band, the drummer Geir, was honoured to be playing a leading role in this process:

… I wouldn’t manage without the rhythm in the band. And here Geir has been solid as a rock. For he’s the man that doesn’t give up, and he’s the man telephoning saying: ‘Come on, pull yourself together!’ And Siggen used to be an hour late, even one and a half hours, but Geir simply encouraged him to be on time. That is, no sulking, gesticulating, or things like that. He just straightens things up. (Kjell)

The band members articulated a view that structure helped them organise time and the social setting for the band, but it also created an orderly existence:

Kjell:

I have to confess that I wouldn’t manage things because I’m too disorderly as a person … there are too many distractions in my life.

Brynjulf:

So, the band provides a setting?

Kjell:

Its entirety makes me concentrate on something … so for me this is as much medicine as it is … or at least it is less music than it is medicine.

In this conversation, the medicine metaphor relates to music by alluding to the health benefits of being part of Me and THE BAND’its. For Kjell, an important investment in the band’s community involved keeping promises and being a man to rely on:

Because, if I had been following the pattern of the older times, I would have packed my rucksack and just disappeared without telling anyone when the world was too hard to live in. But, then I would have ruined the fun of the (band) community and put it all in the garbage, and then I would have been a bad guy. (Kjell)

Musicking creates meaning

According to the members of Me and THE BAND’its, an existential and spiritual dimension emerged from being part of the band and engaging in musicking. Kjell declared that this dimension was key to his way out of prison life. At the same time, he also stated that the potential was always there; it was just a question of finding and realising it:

The reason for [me] not being in prison nowadays is that I have found something else to do. It is as simple as that. And to play music and what I do today is what I really have lived to achieve. For some this could be seen as a coincidence, but it’s not. I have known since I was a little boy where it would end. If I only survived I would tell the rest of the story. That’s exactly what we have done. That’s what I have done. And then it’s only giving it all for the stories, and it will continue to be like that the rest of my life, I hope. (Kjell)

Musicking and telling your story gives meaning and direction to life. Members were explicit in attributing a spiritual dimension to this:

Kjell:

… one of Jesus’ disciples must have been a musician … It has religious undertones, but not because I’m that religious, but because the book has a meaning of something …

Brynjulf:

So, if I understand rightly, what I hear you say is that music is so strong that normal words wouldn’t be enough to understand it, in a way?

Kjell:

Exactly. Reducing it to a pun wouldn’t work.

Geir:

No, I can’t point at anything that is cooler than sitting behind the band playing drums on stage. That’s something you can get addicted to … It’s so cool, stimulating as hell.

Kjell:

And that’s where I, all of a sudden, see it as strong as religion. I can easily understand a Christian who sees the light. But then this is the light for me, and its name is music.

This passage is a testimony to the power of music, comparable to how people speak about religion: it is a strong ‘light’ that one can easily become ‘addicted’ to. In the following extract, the band members warn Christian communities and therapeutic drug communities against taking credit away from the band:

Geir:

… The gig talks could be able to use a biblical way of telling things, for instance for us to use the bible verses about turning the other cheek.

The result is anyway the same, so that’s kind of cool.

Kjell:

But religion or the drug politics shall not take advantage of this. That’s what it’s all about. Of course we could have given this to the church and the church would have swallowed it easily … And if given to a therapeutic community for drug addicts, they would have used it for all it was worth. But that’s not what it’s all about. Because now we got the opportunity to convey an adventure in a way that I feel is the right way.

Musicking creates community

A strong sense of community is the basis for the existence of Me and THE BAND’its, based on shared histories and experiences. Kjell, the lead singer, emphasised the significance of being seen and accepted in his first meeting with the facilitator:

I swear there must have been hundreds who’ve tried to change my behaviour. And then this clown comes to ask, ‘Do you want to join me playing the guitar?’ And for me … I have met a lot of people during my life, but Lars and his demeanour is the reason why we sit here today … because he started a fire in me at once. He came into my cell and said, ‘Do you want to join me playing music?’ … It was like it should be the most obvious thing to ask. And then I was completely astonished and thought it was totally insane; of course I wanted to join in! (Kjell)

The band members connected while they were in prison and together they went through the various phases of the ‘Music in Custody and Liberty’ programme:

Geir:

So, we didn’t spend time together before we served the last part of our prison sentence. I did know Siggen, and Kjell I have known over a long period, but …

Siggen:

Yes, I had heard about him [Kjell] since I was a little boy.

Geir:

… And then we met out there [in prison] and started to play together. So, that was okay. I could play the drums, Siggen said, that was cool because he is a good guitarist. Then I knew it would be all right.

Going through different phases of the music programme led to a community of shared backgrounds, transformed in the shared exploration of music. These common histories and shared experiences created a safe platform for the band:

I believe in the benefit of what we are doing, the benefit of being gathered together … that we have a [shared] background. We have a background that is so far away from the reality [ordinary life] and we all have that common background. Because Lars, he has ten years in prison, he has only been working there [laughter]. Thus I know Geir and Siggen are not drug addicts. I know that both of them have done time in prison, and those guys know the same thing about me. (Kjell)

Kjell also emphasised how having membership of a music community improves the quality of performances, compared to the result of acting alone:

… I could have been [alone] on stage getting rid of all the verbal crap I sometimes do, but that isn’t any fun. Accordingly, it has no depth; it hasn’t anything to do with anything. Besides, it [music] becomes much prettier when it is done with people who manage it better than me. (Kjell)

The band also strongly emphasised the importance of being mutually dependent on each other and having a common background.

Geir:

Kjell couldn’t be replaced with his stories. Siggen couldn’t be replaced either, we have tried some guitarists but …

Brynjulf:

And a solid drummer is also necessary …

Geir:

Yes, from prison. He has to be chosen from prison, to fit in the concept.

The band members also reflected on the band as a community that makes the members maintain connections during challenging times. The following dialogue recounts a time when the whole band perhaps should have taken sick leave, but managed to get through a tough time together:

Geir:

Yeah, we have spent a lot of time together for the last year …

Lars:

We were really some kind of a gang for a period, with you [Kjell] and the spleen destroyed, me going on crutches with my Achilles broke, you …

Geir:

The gallstones.

Lars:

And Siggen the damaged guitar finger. We were all so sickly we could have got gigs in touring Nursing Homes [laughter].

Considering the authenticity and integrity of the music project, the band members communicate a sort of ‘worse-is-better’ ethos where the criminal past in the present gig talks is used as a resource:

Kjell:

… Because the past is what will bring the future.

Geir:

And the worse it has been, the better it is for our project. Some simple sentences for drinking and driving would not suit us. So luckily, we have all served a lot of years in prison.

Kjell:

That’s right, because that’s exactly how it is. The better it suits the mission of our project.

Discussion

There are four different qualities of musicking that helped Me and THE BAND’its, namely, agency, structure, meaning and community. These qualities will now be discussed in relation to the concept of self-help.

How musicking helps create agency

The members of Me and THE BAND’its told different stories about how engagement in musicking created agency. This included psychological factors, such as self-respect and self-esteem, as well as the learning aspects of playing together and having a good time with music. The life-changing aspects of the project were described by the participants as making them ‘better human beings’ and allowing them to become included in society.

Agency, in the context of social and cultural theory, refers to the capacity of human individuals to act in any given environment and to promote changes and better conditions in their own lives (DeNora, 1999). Human agency, then, is constituted through internalisation and creative use of cultural artefacts in social contexts (Stige, 2002). In the music therapy literature, there is a tendency to see agency as an aspect of related processes, like quality of life (Ruud, 1998) and empowerment (Rolvsjord, 2004, 2010). Agency is then understood as the development of the participants’ self-acting competence, which makes them become actors in their own life situation. A critical view of self-help, then, might contribute to the understanding of the concept of agency in music therapy.

Many of the excerpts about personal development from the band members are echoed in the cultural ethos of the self-help industry. Self-help books frequently use descriptions connected to development of the self by using terms such as self-esteem, self-respect and self-actualisation. Madsen’s (2014a, 2014b) critique identifies how these humanistic terms may be part of a current neoliberal climate that makes the individual responsible for societal issues. This idea of self-help might prevent us from working on important concerns in society, for instance, issues concerning equality, justice and solidarity.

The individualised processes discussed by Me and THE BAND’its developed through the collaborative processes of a community. Siggen’s self-esteem as a guitar player required hours of training at home, but it evolved even further as the musical skills he learned were mirrored in the rehearsal room and during performances. Geir expressed similar thoughts: ‘you learn it all by yourself, just by playing together three times a week’. Kjell’s personal process of change seemed to be closely related to his responsibility to the band community, which has also opened up an opportunity for him to be more included in society.

In this perspective, agency is more than, and different from, individual development. It also includes a communal and societal dimension. Agency involves being an actor in one’s own life for which you need a community where that acting can be recognised and developed.

How musicking helps create structure

The members of Me and THE BAND’its discussed different ways in which musicking created structure to help them organise their time. Engaging in a highly motivational activity as part of their schedule helped members get through weeks that could otherwise be rather chaotic and unstructured. Playing in a band provided structure by keeping the members focused on a task with the aim of learning something for themselves and for the band.

Participating in music improved the quality of Me and THE BAND’its as a band. They ‘grooved’ together, and this seemed to be a musical-social type of groove. Anthropologist Charles Keil (1994) uses the expression participatory discrepancies to explain musical groove: ‘It is the little discrepancies between hands and feet within a jazz drummer’s beat, between bass and drums, between rhythm section and soloist, that create the groove and invite us to participate’ (p. 98). Studying the tradition of jazz, Keil argues that ‘the best music must be full of discrepancies, both “out of time” and “out of tune”’ (p. 104). This is what makes the unique, colourful quality of music making (for instance, to get the ‘swing’, ‘motion’ or ‘feeling’ of a song). Groove invites participation, and allows for togetherness where you need to pay attention to the other group members, and they need to pay attention to you.

The groove of Me and THE BAND’its included being organised outside of the rehearsal room to find groove in everyday life also. The band members tell several stories about how it is important to be structured, focused and have the willingness to adapt to the social community in order to have the opportunity to participate in the musical groove of the band.

How musicking helps create meaning

Me and THE BAND’its discussed how musicking helped them create meaning in their lives. Music had a spiritual dimension that created an orderly existence. The term spirituality encompasses purpose, meaning, hope, creativity, identity, transcendence, God and personal relationships (Lipe, 2002). In the music therapy literature, spirituality can be linked to healing traditions (Gouk, 2000; Kenny, 1982); transcendental experiences, such as in Guided Imagery and Music sessions (Blom, 2011; Grocke, 1999); or related to meaning, peace and faith through music in terminal phases of life (Magill, 2007; O’Callaghan et al., 2014). In the setting of Me and THE BAND’its, the power of music was compared with ‘seeing the light’ and was described as a strong and stimulating force that the members could become ‘addicted to’. Musicking was something to be engaged with and have faith in.

When considering the meaning of self-help, it seemed important for the members of Me and THE BAND’its to declare their own self-healing power as something that grew out of their own strength and independence as a group. We saw this especially in relation to how they described the two other forces that have traditionally dominated crime rehabilitation: religion on one side and drug abuse programmes built upon cognitive behavioural approaches on the other.

Me and THE BAND’its used images from Christianity as metaphors for the power of musicking, such as seeing music as ‘the light’ or one of Jesus’ disciples as a musician. A somewhat similar comparison was made with drugs, in which music was described as a power that one can become ‘addicted’ to or at least find ‘stimulating as hell’. There was a clear awareness among the group members that both the church and the drug rehabilitation programmes could have ‘abused’ the band and utilised them for their own interests. Me and THE BAND’its stated that their own merits allowed them to make their way out of prison and to survive outside the prison gates. The spirituality that grew out of Me and THE BAND’its included a strong faith and belief in their own music community, while acknowledging musicking as something larger than themselves.

How musicking helps create community

The band members in Me and THE BAND’its explained how musicking was a way to create community. Being a band of musicians with shared backgrounds helped to shape a collaborative community where members took responsibility for taking care of each other. The band members had the capacity to improve each other’s musical and social competencies, and it also provided an arena in which they endured and even enjoyed being mutually dependent on each other.

Some similarities are found when linking the descriptions of how musicking helped the members of Me and THE BAND’its to the traditional concept of a self-help group. One aspect is that the findings related to mutual support in Me and THE BAND’its seem similar to the experience-oriented foundation for non-expert-driven self-help groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous. Group dynamics, social support and a base built upon cooperation are the foundations for such thinking (Kaskutas et al., 2002). According to sociologist Richard Sennett (2012), cooperation is a craft that requires skill which must be acquired through practice. Using Sennett’s theory, the skills of cooperation can be learned through rituals performed in a community such as Me and THE BAND’its.

The relationships of the members of the band began forming in prison and continued to develop further outside the prison gates. Using collaborative as a synonym to Sennett’s term cooperative, we argue that the collaborative competency developed in Me and THE BAND’its is the shared experience of improving musically and socially in the community of the band. As a result of collaborative processes, the band members felt that they acted more in tune together. Consequently, the band members grew mutually dependent on each other.

How agency, structure, meaning and community are fostered by collaborative work

The collaborative approach seems to be a basis for the existence of Me and THE BAND’its. In collaboration, decisions concerning the band have been taken, aims have been elaborated and action-reflection cycles of planning, initiating and evaluating have been performed. As an alternative to the traditional rehabilitation or therapy programmes, which is not a religious one, the band members insisted on their independence but also acknowledged the music therapist’s necessary contributions to the collaborative practice of the group.

Collaboration does not occur naturally, but requires practice and effort. This is highlighted in Lucy Bolger’s (2013, 2015) study of collaboration in music therapy that concluded, ‘Collaboration is a process, not an outcome’ (p. 107). For the music therapist, this might involve complicated, daunting and often chaotic challenges, and the music therapist’s capacity to negotiate is crucial. Based on our material, we identified the processes of facilitating equality, mutuality and participation which we will now summarise.

Facilitating equality

By facilitating equality within a group, there is a desire to organise democratic processes. Bolger (2015) refers to equality as ‘an awareness of the equal rights of all participants and an active intent to contravene imbalanced power relations throughout the collaborative process by acknowledging and valuing the different strengths and skills brought by different participants’ (p. 79).

Me and THE BAND’its strove for symmetry in the power relations between band members. Of course, the band members had different roles based on their positions, but the band was fundamentally built upon structures that acknowledge equality. The music therapist as facilitator was in a special situation considering this matter. His roles were varied and complex, switching between therapist, researcher, musician and friend. However, the interviews show that these roles do not substantially affect the power balance in the band. For instance, the facilitator was honoured for having ‘ten years in prison, he has only been working there’. This statement indicates a deep respect and an understanding of different worldviews. On one hand, it says, ‘Yes, the facilitator knows the context’; on the other hand, it says, ‘No, he is not an ex-inmate’. Nevertheless, the facilitator’s worldview is accepted as one out of four contributing parts of the band community. The focus group interview also revealed how Geir led the group through a troubled situation in ways the facilitator probably could not have done. Kjell explained in the interview that Geir ‘just straightens things up’ using ‘no sulking, gesticulating or things like that’. Such actions, which build on the resources of the group, are echoed in empowerment philosophy emphasising the importance of equality, determination and active participation in the decision-making processes (Rolvsjord, 2004, 2010). Each band member had a different role and each was recognised as contributing parts of Me and THE BAND’its band community.

Facilitating mutuality

Bolger (2013) describes mutuality as ‘a shared and responsive relationship between participants, resulting in shared responsibility for the process towards a shared goal or understanding’ (p. 79). The band’s agenda has been clear from the start, strongly connected to the aims of the participatory action research project. To reach their goals, the band members have had to depend on each other, while also being organised and structured. Mutuality is a craft cultivated and used in helping each other in vulnerable phases of life.

An important premise for mutuality is establishing trust and confidence. Such mutuality is illustrated by Kjell’s story about the first meeting with the facilitator as ‘the clown’ simply asking him to join the group. In prison, Kjell was excluded from all social contact because the prison guards feared his violent temperament. Following the rules in the prison system, the facilitator should not have entered the prison cell to meet Kjell without accompanied by a prison guard. In meeting Kjell alone, an environment for mutual trust could be created, where both parts needed to have confidence in each other. In less than a few minutes, Kjell decided to be part of the musical community in prison. Kjell moved from being excluded to being included, while the facilitator had recruited a new participant for the music programme. This first meeting was the starting point for a collaboration that years later became established as Me and THE BAND’its. The story illustrates what became an important learning experience for the band’s biography: relationships built from strong personal meetings are a foundation for building trust and mutuality among the band members.

Facilitating participation

In music therapy, there has been a growing emphasis on participatory approaches, highlighting issues such as democratisation, empowerment, inclusion and citizen participation (Rolvsjord, 2004, 2010; Stige, 2002, 2003, 2006; Stige et al., 2010). Bolger (2013) elaborates on this by discussing ‘active, collective participation in decision-making by all collaborators, including the music therapist, throughout the process’ (p. 79). Stige (2006) clarifies that participation is more than ‘being there’ or ‘joining in’; it is about having voice and responsibility in the context.

With regard to Me and THE BAND’its, we observed that the groove of the band encouraged participation. Getting into the groove involved becoming an active participant in the music-making process, but also being prepared to face everyday challenges. Facilitating participation might mean planning, discussing and organising to make musicking possible. It involves being supportive, especially during challenging moments in their lives. This might entail organising the practical conditions for the musical activity to occur and being aware of possible problems that could arise. Logistically, a facilitator might need to book rooms for band rehearsals and gigs, send out messages about when rehearsals and gigs are taking place, and have ‘management’ tasks, such as organising travel and financial issues. The facilitator might meet individuals face-to-face in vulnerable situations and assist with different life challenges. Facilitating participation is being involved in different contexts with different roles. To paraphrase Bolger (2015), it is an investment and the facilitator needs to have commitment to this part of the process.

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored how musicking helped Me and THE BAND’its, a rock band consisting of three ex-inmates and a music therapist (called ‘facilitator’ in this article). Focus group interviews were carried out in the context of a broader participatory action research project. An analysis of the band members’ narratives about how musicking helped them revealed four different qualities: agency, structure, meaning and community. Furthermore, the band appeared to function through collaborative processes, and this article has discussed how the facilitator needed to consider the qualities of equality, mutuality and active participation.

As researchers, we see similarities between the band members’ narratives and the literature on self-help as social practice: the band seemed to challenge stigmatisation and to help members gain a voice in the public arena, and also it worked as a social support system complementing established healthcare measures. On the other hand, the narratives from the band members clearly differed from the kind of individualised self-help that characterises most of the modern commercial self-help industry.

The band members did not identify with either of these self-help concepts, however. This project highlighted that Me and THE BAND’its is primarily a rock band with members who want to make music together. The participants did not come together to focus on a problem or to fix life’s challenges; they wanted to be better musicians and performers. To reach their goals, they needed to avoid actions that might lead to incarceration. Changing behaviours, becoming better humans or improving quality of life are not the reasons for forming a band such as Me and THE BAND’its, but can be the result for some or all members. The stories told by the band members are rich in strong metaphors and comparisons, to the degree that they claimed that one of Jesus’ disciples must have been a musician.

It is possible that what worked for Me and THE BAND’its also could work for other people in similar situations, offering an alternative voice within Correctional Services. This implies a need for more participatory and user-led music therapy projects within the Correctional Services, and also the importance of more research within this area.

Footnotes

Author biographies

Lars Tuastad is Associate Professor in Music Therapy at the University of Bergen (UiB). He is also working as a music therapist in the field of mental health. His clinical and research interests includes user involvement, rock culture and community music therapy. E-mail: lars.tuastad@uib.no

Brynjulf Stige, PhD, is Professor in Music Therapy at the University of Bergen (UiB) and Head of Research in GAMUT – The Grieg Academy Music Therapy Research Centre (UiB & Uni Research Health), Norway. He is also Coordinator of POLYFON knowledge cluster for music therapy, and Co-editor of Voices: A World Forum for Music Therapy. Main interests of research include practice theory, music therapy philosophy, and community music therapy. E-mail: brynjulf.stige@grieg.uib.no

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