Founder of ONELOVE For Music, Lee Waterworth believes “There Is An Art to Change.” The Saucy Englishman is about to deliver this message with a red carpet celebration of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace in Los Angeles on September 26, 2009. While the official Day of Peace is on September 21st, BOXeight studios in L.A. will showcase eight bands, independent films and a silent auction with 100% of the net proceeds going toward an organization called Global Angels.
It’s a campaign that Waterworth and a team of dedicated volunteers will hope raise awareness about peace and unity around the world.
Racket Gail: Since ONELOVE is relatively new [started in 2008], how did it all come about?
Lee Waterworth: You know what? We sat in a coffee shop and I went to see Live Earth and Live Aid, a couple of years ago. I was really touched by what they tried to do and how they tried to raise money for charity and money for global warming and all the rest of it. But it kind of looked to me as an outsider, as a bit of a rock star’s party that I couldn’t get involved in- on any level. All I can do was buy a ticket, show up to the event and actually watch the action and go home and there’s nothing further that could be done about it. My ultimate goal was to try and create a series of worldwide concerts like Live Earth and Live Aid that have an element in it, where people can actually get involved. This is basically how I’ve started and then I had no money, so I was like, “Right. Well how on earth do we start getting to that point where we can develop a company with enough following that’s got the respect and approval of the public?” Because we’re actually completely transparent about what we’re trying to do and how we’re trying to do it- to build up to the size where hopefully in about 2012, we can have this series of worldwide concerts and kick this whole plan into gear.
RG: Okay.
Lee: That’s where it started from and then we were working on a film at the time called, “Peace Pilgrim.” [It’s] a film about this lady who walked across America eight times like literally 28 years, she never stopped walking without a single penny in her pocket. She just walked coast to coast, coast to coast non-stop and did it all on faith, you know, never asked anybody for anything- didn’t ask them for a penny, would never ask for shelter. You know, she never got ill and all this time, [a] really, really amazing woman. Obviously with her research of looking into her life, we found out about the United Nations’ International Day of Peace which is on the 21st of September. We also discovered that practically nobody knows about that day and that’s been a United Nations sanctioned day since the early 80s.
RG: Yeah.
Lee: which was baffling to me personally. It was like, “how on earth can people not know about such an important day?” So I sussed about trying to find a way to honor the day and trying to do something really simple, just for a short amount of time that would actually unite people, bring them together and hopefully work on building towards breaking down the cultural divide that exists within the world and that are causing so many problems.
RG: Wow.
Lee: That’s where it came from, [laughs] in a nutshell.
RG: Out of all the bands scheduled to perform on September 26, which one closely delivers the message of peace or how do each of them bring out that message?
Lee: They are all trying to do something different on the actual night of the event. So we’ve got filmmakers, we’ve got artists, we’ve got musicians. So one thing that we’ve asked the artists to do because it’s gonna be a charitable event and it’s gonna be for the charity, Global Angels which is a children’s charity and they give 100% of all of their donations back to the actual cause. It was founded by Molly Bedingfield, whose Natasha Bedingfield’s mother.
RG: Oh, I did not know that!
Lee: Yeah, which is a really nice relationship that we’re developing and we’ve been developing that with her now for a while and doing some pretty awesome stuff next year on the London Eye and with MTV and National Geographic. So that could tie in the grander vision further down the line for the 2012 idea. But, basically we’ve asked the artists, each artist to come that’s displaying their work to actually create a piece called, “One Love.” So, however they best want to express themselves, they are going to create a special division peace; every single one of them that’s displayed on that night called, “One Love.” Most of them will be actually be auctioning that off for charity as well.
RG: So what’s the evening going to be like on September 26th?
Lee: Basically, we’ve got fifteen artists, we’ve got (at this point) eight bands, and we’ve got four films. So each artist is going to display their own work but they are all going to create a piece inspired by the evening that they are going to call, “One Love,” and they are going to auction off for the charity on the night. So we got some pretty cool artists there and they will be displaying their other stuff as well, their other work because the space down at Boxeight is quite huge. So there’s pretty of wall space for people to get their stuff up on there and to have a look. In respect to the bands, we have got some bands that are actually creating songs called, “One Love,” specifically. They’re playing to do songs, perform songs around peace and love and they’re also gonna be performing some of their new EPs like Saint Motel is just about to release a new EP and they’re gonna debut that at our event which should be pretty fun because I quite like their stuff to be honest, on a personal level.
RG: Okay.
Lee: We’ve got Steven Rowe, who’s a pretty famous Australian western singer, whose come over here…doing a song specifically called, “One Love,” and he’s just released a new album as well. So he’ll be performing there on the night. It’s not gonna be through a massive PA system, a lot of it is going to be very acoustic, very intimate feel. There is a chance we that might have a very special guest out, who I’m not allowed to talk about at this point because [we’ve] not signed anything…who might be doing a cover of Bob Marley’s “One Love” for us, there on the night. If he actually agrees to do it, it’s gonna be pretty awesome.
RG: Who came up with the motto, “There is an Art to Change?” and what does it mean to you?
Lee: Basically, we have a group of eight or nine volunteers. I think it’s actually nine now, we’ve just [put on] a new production manager this week, who’s producing this particular event. We all kind of get together on Saturdays every week and we go through the plan and put together our ideas and talk about the people we’ve met in the week and all the rest of it. Obviously, when we decided on doing the event, we needed to find a name for the event. We were very influenced by the Obama campaign [because] he has coined the words, “hope,” and the words, “change,” but also [we were] very aware of the fact before the campaign started and he did actually coin those words, we were already promoting a change of our own and trying to inspire a change through creativity. We believe that we need to show the world what a difference that creativity can actually have instead of focusing on marching, and focusing on the negativity of things, we believed that the only way that we could really inspire change is through active creation; and whether that’s through the forms of art that we recognize: music, film, fashion, visual arts, graphic arts, or whether it’s people writing or people reciting poetry. These are all different forms of art that touch people very, very deeply. A lot of talent, a lot of time and a lot of passion goes into…and I think that’s what we should be focusing on- the positive creation rather than the negative aspect in order to be able to influence a real change.
RG: What does peace mean to you personally?
Lee: Well some would say it’s an unattainable reality, even in California.
RG: [Laughs]
Lee: Where I think is the highest concentration of people in the world that to do actually think it’s attainable. I think it’s attainable. Whether it’s attainable in my lifetime or not, I don’t know, but [it’s] my job to try. It really hurts me to turn on the news and see all of the civil unrest that’s happening all around the world and the cultural divide that are causing so many problems. I think we’ve all been given the gift of life and I think everybody wants to be able to go home at night know they could lie safely and not have to lock the doors, and not be worried about having the kids sleeping next to them.
RG: Oh yeah…
Lee: It’s a basic thing of life that everybody, I think wants, no matter who they are. So why can’t we go back to that and actually try and make it happen…and that’s what it means to me. It’s something that I have to work for every single day of my life.
RG: That’s really touching and I didn’t really think about it in that sense. I know it’s a universal concept but to have art explain that in different ways is probably the most powerful way to deliver that message.
Lee: Yeah. We’re trying to align with organizations like the United Nations, who drove the whole political aspect. You can’t take the politics away from these things overnight. It’s the way that we’re gonna operate; it’s embedded into us because that’s the way we operated for so long. But I think it is literally time for the people to show that peace is what each and everyone needs and then once we’ve shown that, the governments will follow.
RG: Do you think this [Day of Peace] is one step closer to electing a Secretary of the Arts because I know that other countries have [one] and I know that Obama mentioned it too. Do you think it’s gonna get there someday?
Lee: Yes, I do. I think that the way that we know government right now; we’ll be completely different [in] the way that we see or view government in twenty years time. There will be ministers for all kinds of different things, hopefully there will be a Minster of Peace in there, you know?
RG: Yeah.
Lee: Everything can be done through negotiation…I really believe that.
RG: [Laughs]…No, I believe it too.
Lee: Yes, there are a lot of selfish people in the world.
RG: Yeah, but there are a lot of selfless people like what you guys are doing- it’s really amazing. As far as the radio stations are concerned [in regards to the day leading up to the event], who came up with the idea to play the Bob Marley song, “One Love?”
Lee: that was me…that was the coffee shop. That was the coffee shop moment of clarity. I was like, “Well, what a simple idea would it be to just try and get as many of the radio stations around the world, that was the first way that we all, you know, listened to music that wasn’t sat around the campfire, or at home live being played, in front of us. That’s the first way that everybody could experience music, over the radio waves. There’s this thing about the frequency of the waves going through your body and the RA frequency. They say if you go on the RA frequency that the actual waves going through your body uplift your experience, puts you in a better state, no matter what song it is you’re listening to. I’ll let you do the research on that one.
RG: [Laughs].
Lee: What a great way to just try and reincorporate that old tradition of radio- just to get as many radio stations around the world just to play this one song for three minutes, at the same time, whether people know about it or not. They are listening to the same thing…it’s a song essentially about love, unity and enjoying life. I think that might have the really great effect, especially if get people consciously thinking and recognizing the fact that song is played at that time for that reason. But trying to get radio stations on board is an entirely different thing all together because everybody looks, “Well what’s in it for me? Why should I play it at this time?” We’ve got some radio stations and we had some last year and we’re building on this year but the big ones that we really need is Clear Channel because they own so many radio stations around the world. We some of those came in last year, some of them are coming this year but there must be a decision maker at the top that I’m trying my best to get to. You could just say, “You know what? Yeah, Clear Channel. We’re gonna try and promote peace and unity around this world and it’s not gonna cost us anything and we can put our names in this.”
RG: What are some of your favorite songs of peace?
Lee: Well, you know I guess it’s gotta be “Imagine” by John Lennon, really. I think it kind of wraps it all up though.
RG: [Laughs].
Lee: That’s another thing, next year. If this is a success this year, we hope that we’ll change the song around and get some public input into that because I know that when I talked about doing the Bob Marley, so many people have turned around to me and said, “Ah, why don’t you do this with ‘Imagine?’”
RG: [Laughs]
Lee: Well the thing is we can do it with “Imagine,” maybe we do it with “Imagine,” next year.
RG: So then…really? There are no other songs that you can think of? Was there anybody that you felt really inspired to think about peace?
Lee: As an artist?
RG: Yeah.
Lee: [Pauses] Well, I mean obviously John. John Lennon. I just covered that one and you know, at this moment in time, I’m really drawing a blank from this [Pauses] As time as you think this is, some people would say, “WHAT?!”
RG: [Laughs]
Lee: Michael Jackson.
RG: Yeah!
Lee: Because he spent a lot of his life promoting human rights and promoting peace that was essentially his life’s mission. So he certainly springs to mind and you know, obviously a deep and terrible shame that he’s gone.
RG: Yeah…
Lee: But he did tried and I really appreciate what he tried to do for humanity. The other one is Bono. With Bono, wherever you look…
RG: [Laughs]
Lee: The guy’s involving himself with really formidable companies and organizations that are trying to change the world and he’s really to sticking his names there. And then of course, good ole’ Sir Bob Geldof from England.
RG: [Laughs] Exactly.
Lee: because he’s such a legend. He came up with the whole Live Aid concept which is an ingenious concept- just a concept I’m hoping to build upon.
RG: So would you say that you want to be the next Bob Geldof?
Lee: I would love to be the next Bob Geldof!
RG: [Laughs] You want to be knighted? It’d be great!
Lee: I’d love to. I’d love to work with Bob Geldof, you know? It would be good to come together with him to produce this next series of concerts that I’m hoping we’ll be able to produce.
RG: Yeah. What do you hope people will get out of the event? I know it hasn’t happened yet, but what is your main goal?
Lee: The event on the 26th or the actual radio event on the 21st?
RG: Both.
Lee: From the 21st, I’m just hoping that people will realize that there are most people then they initially thought out there, in the world, that want to spend time focusing on coming together, uniting, creating peace within this world. I want them to realize that, you know what? People aren’t alone. There are lots and lots of people that are out there doing it. There are also a lot of people pooh poohing it that make you feel terrible and make you feel like a hippie. Which I, you know, is something I consider myself to be.
RG: [Laughs]
Lee: So not a bad thing, at all. From the event itself, I just really want to get a buzz in Los Angeles about this company, about what we’re trying to do, about local and emerging talent, I wanna to build a platform for these local artists, local bands, local filmmakers so they could have recognition within the industry- they’re a part of something good and they could go on and fulfill their dreams in life in a peaceful world.
RG: Well I hope you get to do that I’m glad that I’m learning so much from this interview, right now. So are there any new developments up to this point about the Day of Peace event, not the radio event.
Lee: Not at this point, no. We’ve pretty much got our line-up sorted now. We know where it’s gonna be, it’s gonna be at the Boxeight studios Downtown. We’ve got an MC called Carla Collins, who’s pretty famous up in Canada. She’s doing a television show down here. But she’s going to be MCing the evening and doing some comedy. We’re just hoping for some really special guests on the night. Tickets go on sale!
RG: Can people still get involved? Where can they go to find out more information?
Lee: I would send people to the website and we always welcome people getting involved on any level. If anybody wants to get involved, all they’ve got to do is send us an email. We’re a team of volunteers at this moment in time, we need more volunteers, [and] we need people’s time. We need to capitalize on people’s talent because we can’t do it all ourselves. But we’re determined to grow it from what it is now.
RG: Is there like an after-party because [the website] mentioned DJs.
Lee: Oh no, it’s all on the same stage.
RG: Is there anybody you would personally like to thank for making this event possible?
Lee: I’d love to just thank all of our partners and all of the sponsors that are actually bringing something to the table and believing in us as a viable entity and as a viable opportunity in something that they trust is going to happen over the next few years.
–Gail Navarro