Actor Observer brings light to the reality of local musicians with 'Fool's Gold' video

For Boston-based post-hardcore band Actor Observer , music has always been about community — even in the face of rising costs and closing performance and rehearsal spaces .

That’s the message of their newly-debuted music video for their track “Fool’s Gold,” off of the full-length debut album, “Songs for the Newly Reclusive,” which Actor Observer self-released last year.

At the top of the video is footage of vocalist Greg Marquis at Boston Calling speaking about the importance of supporting local music beyond one festival weekend.

“We’ve lost music venues, rehearsal spaces, friends, homes, to rising costs of living and lack of community support," he explains. "Don’t let this weekend be the only time you show up for your local music scene.”

Marquis said there wasn't much of a music scene when he was growing up in Connecticut. He would come to Boston because, by comparison, things were flourishing, particularly for the hardcore scene he was in. But once he got here, he noticed the environment becoming less viable for many local artists.

“Not everyone has the privilege and opportunity to just move anywhere, it’s an incredible cost and you don’t know if it’s going to work,” he said. “So I was like, ‘nope, I’m sticking it out here, I’m going to make it work.’ ... What I wasn’t prepared for was the transient community [of students in Boston] that makes it really hard to have any staying power or build any momentum as a community because you have so many people coming and going.”

When Actor Observer were offered the opportunity to perform at Boston Calling in 2023 after years in the city, Marquis said the event had “a double-edged presence in our music scene. ... On the one hand, it’s amazing that we have this huge festival and all these nationally and internationally renowned artists come to our city.”

But in a city that, according to Marquis, suffers a "crisis of affordability" while also deprioritizing the arts, the festival couldn’t represent Boston as a music city. “Fortunately, because so many local people are involved with Boston Calling, they’ve added more and more local representation,” Marquis said. While that is a great opportunity for a handful of local musicians, he wonders what comes afterwards.

“When Boston Calling wraps up and leaves town, just like the Olympics, what’s left and what are you doing to actually support local artists? Because not all of us get the opportunity to be on a stage like that, and it’s not a consistent thing for us.”

While there is still a long way to go, Marquis recognizes the work the city has done to incrementally improve conditions for artists — such as plans to implement what the mayor's office is calling "long-term accommodation for the Allston-Brighton artist community" following the closure of the Sound Museum.

“To the credit of the mayor’s office,” he said, “they have been doing more, and there is the whole mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture, and they’re well aware of these issues, and we’ve worked with them directly.”

There are also opportunities for music enthusiasts to be advocates for local musicians. “The simplest thing people can do is just write to city councilors. Email them, write them a physical letter, tweet at them."

Residents can also attend regular town or citywide meetings where they can weigh in on development plans. “Developers have to show up to those meetings and propose [their development plans],” Marquis said. “As a community, you get to discuss it, ask questions and vote for or against it.”

In collaboration with his bandmates in Actor Observer and friend Lizzie Torres , Marquis helped form Boston Artist Impact to collectivize these efforts. Other groups have also formed across the city for similar purposes, such as Art Stays Here . Arts administrator and founding member of Art Stays Here Ami Bennitt, echoes many of Marquis’ concerns.

“I think the creative sector is struggling, which is not necessarily new,” Bennitt said. She agreed that community is among the most important elements of supporting local arts: “We could make an argument that even though you can listen to music online or watch a music video or a concert online, ... it definitely is not in place of the visceral experiences of being with other human beings at a concert or at a gallery exhibition.”

Bennitt encourages audiences to support the arts in-person as an easy way to bolster the cultural sector. “For anyone who’s interested in doing more,” she said, “they could join an advocacy [group], whether it’s MASSCreative — they’re involved with a lot of legislative policy regarding arts and culture across the state — or with us. We’re involved with different campaigns and spreading the word and trying to support advocacy.”

For those interested in supporting live music in-person, Actor Observer is embarking on a tour the first week of September, including a show at Taffeta in Lowell on Saturday.