Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1500716
C A S Q U A R T E R L Y I S U M M E R 2 0 2 3 77 see people's eyes light up, nobody expects what it feels like. DB: We [also] had an event here in LA, and at the end, they came to Paddy, and I said, "Listen, we want the drums to be on our wrists." And I never put the drums on the wrist. Usually, I used to put [them] in the back and the ankles. But I said, "Okay." But I was thinking, "Why?" At the end of the concert, they came in to return the device, and I said, "Why'd you want the drums on the wrists?" "Because we wanted to wave our hands in the air like everybody [else]." So, it is social. It's not just a tool for them to enjoy music; it's to feel part of the integrating concert... So that was a huge thing for us. In 2018, we had a concert at Life Is Beautiful with Zappos and Avnet [in Las Vegas]. We have won a few awards, the Tribeca Film Festival, IDEA, Chemo Center, and a bunch of stuff. And it was cool. After the 2018 event where we finally could see the vision of everybody enjoying together, actually, in the end, we had this one video. One deaf attendee came to me and said, "Daniel, you don't know, man." He was crying. It was a very emotional moment. And he said, "You made me... It's a life-changing experience because I always enjoyed being at live-music shows. But I never understood why people are so excited when, at the end of the rock concerts mainly, the drummer was waving his arms very quickly, and everyone was so excited." For him, it was just like somebody waving his arms. Now I understood. And he was crying. This kind of thing that I never thought of. It was really rewarding. After that, like, so what's next? So now we integrate. We are able to integrate deaf and hearing—everybody enjoys the experience. Fine. Now we should empower the deaf and hearing alike to be composers. So I moved on to develop a whole compositional platform because I was doing the whole thing. But it was kind of like, there was a steep learning curve. You must be kind of a programmer, you have to know a lot about how to program media. It was very complicated. I worked with the Sound, Art, and Music Center director in Mexico, Francisco Colasanto. He's an amazing programmer and engineer. And we created this platform. We invited 12 artists. It was called the Creator Network. Photo courtesy of Zappos