Behind The Scene: Backline’s Hilary Gleason
photo credit: Dylan Langille/ontheDL Photography
“I come from a pretty cut-and-dry global health background,” explains Hilary Gleason. That may very well be the case, but at age 17 Gleason also had the wherewithal to join forces with a neurosurgeon from Duke Hospital to help create a neurosurgical training program in Uganda.
After graduating from the University of Tennessee in 2012, the North Carolina-native worked for the United Nations and Global Health Corps. Two years later, the lifelong music fan joined Global Citizen’s policy team, which blended her vocation with her avocation. From there, she moved to Denver and launched Level, a consulting firm that matches clients—many of whom have music connections—with philanthropic campaigns. (She also continues to champion her Uganda program, visiting the country twice a year.)
Gleason drew on all of these experiences in 2019 when she co-created Backline, a mental health and wellness resource hub designed specifically for the music community. The nonprofit defines itself as “a critical connector for touring professionals who often lack the resources they need to address [their] mental health and wellness needs on the road.”
From the start, Gleason and her partners realized that Backline needed to provide members of the live-music world with virtual assistance anywhere that a tour or gig may take them. As the organization states, “It is Backline’s mission to support our community as we navigate the challenges associated with this lifestyle.”
What initially led you to launch Backline?
In college, I fell in love with bluegrass music and followed Yonder Mountain String Band around the country. By the time I moved to Denver and started my consultancy, I was entrenched in the bluegrass scene and became friends with Yonder Mountain String Band, Greensky Bluegrass and so many of those people in the jamgrass world.
Then, we lost Jeff Austin last summer and, two months later, we lost Neal Casal, who was also a friend of mine and a member of our community. So many of us felt both of those losses deeply. We started to have daily conversations— we couldn’t continue to lose people in our community. We needed to do better by each other. We needed people to know that there was a safe place to go if they were struggling— someone to talk to about something that they couldn’t share with anyone else.
So we had a series of conference calls with people across the industry, including representatives from Dayglo, AEG, Live Nation and a number of different bands. Maybe they did or did not know Neal or Jeff specifically, but they were committed to taking action and changing the way that the music industry accesses mental healthcare.
We reached out to organizations that already help out the music industry like MusiCares and the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, and what we heard on those calls was that many artists and tour managers didn’t know about their resources or didn’t know if they were even eligible. Many people had been in situations where they had to run a Google search in order to get help.
This industry is unique, especially with the amount of touring that was going on when we launched in 2019. So many people were on the road constantly. And it’s hard to figure out how to find a therapist or how to get help, even when you’re not on the road. There was this underserved need here and a need to put everything in one space because, with mental health, everyone is different. The needs are very unique; some people have insurance some people don’t. We launched Backline six weeks after those initial conference calls because we felt the need to let people know that we had heard them—that we were going to do something to help.
We created a resource hub and referral center that you can use as the first stop on your mental-health journey. You can determine if you’re eligible for MusiCares. We’ll help you find a therapist in your hometown who can also have video calls with you when you’re on the road. We offer personalized care plans through our case management system. There were 100 people on these conference calls and everyone said, “Man, if something like this had only existed when I needed it or when my partner needed it…”
We decided to create a starting place that provides people with a list of local organizations, practitioners and funds that they can apply for. There’s no stupid question—you can come to us and say, “I’ve never talked about it but I’m feeling this way” and there will be a licensed therapist on the other end of that phone who is going to dive into that feeling with you—dive into your needs and what resources you have.
It’s just a different way of thinking about this— recognizing that it’s a hard journey and that you shouldn’t have to do it alone. So we’ve built our structure around having a good understanding of all the different organizations that already exist. We found clinicians around the country who had already been working within the music industry. We want to provide a support system where you can talk about issues relating to your next album cycle or tour. We want to promote a different level of understanding and offer a place for people to get the help they need.
You were up and running rather quickly. What were some of the initial hurdles you faced while setting things in motion?
One of the reasons that we were able to move as quickly as we were is that we had those 100 people on the initial conference calls. We sent them a survey saying, “We’re gonna launch Backline, we’ve heard you and we’re gonna build it around what you told us. How many hours would you be willing to donate a week or a month to this cause?” And the responses that we were getting back from high-level music industry executives were: “I have five hours a week to donate to this” or “I can lend my support in terms of PR” or “You can have my interns for the week.” That really helped. There were all these different people stepping up, even before we were a nonprofit. We acquired a fiscal sponsor, which is Conscious Alliance, but we launched without being able to accept donations.
We registered as a nonprofit, but then you also have to submit a 1023 [IRS form] and all that, so we brought on a fiscal sponsor. But while we were setting up the administrative side, we ran our donations through their accounting because we were already hearing from so many of our friends and coworkers that they were having a hard time.
The losses that we experienced shook us to our core and we needed everyone to know, “We’re here and we’re gonna do better.” A lot of it has been building the plane as we fly it. But, we have an amazing clinical director, Zack Borer, who came to us through [SiriusXM’s] Ari Fink. He’s a therapist in Los Angeles who works specifically with artists and managers.
Zack had already been working in the music industry on a therapeutic level for years. He’d already been thinking about some of the systemic things that can make it hard to get mental health care. So he was the driving force behind Backline’s clinical side. The case management system is built around the fact that Zack and our other case manager, Hallie [Lincoln], already had a deep understanding of the music industry but saw everything through this strong clinical lens. So, when we create programs at Backline, they come from them.
How has COVID-19 impacted your work?
Like everyone else, we had big plans that changed quickly. So much of what we were doing before COVID-19 was trying to meet the industry where they were. We have a venue program and a festival program where volunteers will hang up signage about Backline in different backstage areas so that people can see the name and remember that, if something happens, that’s where they can go. So we were planning to be at festivals this summer and delivering workshops and working with live events to fundraise.
Everything changed with COVID, but our team reset the first week things started to shutdown in the U.S. Our team launched our Come Together Crisis Initiative, which provides virtual support groups, meditation, breathwork and yoga. We recognize the financial burden that COVID-19 has had on the music industry and people now need to find support for free or at a low cost. So as important as our case management program remains, the free virtual support groups that meet twice a week are also a good option for people. Everyone who’s there is part of the music industry and is experiencing a loss of income or some sense of uncertainty about when live music will start back up.
That’s been powerful, and we’ve also seen our case management numbers quadruple. It made us thankful that we launched in the fall and that we were here to meet this new need that is coming about as a result of the industry fallout. So many of us are feeling a new sense of financial insecurity. Plus, we’re also seeing new mental-health challenges. Performers now need to livestream in order to pay their bills, which has put immense pressure on them—you’re now playing to your fan base as often as you can, as opposed to building a new fan base every night of a tour. The need to get up and get dressed and get ready to livestream to bring hope to people who need it right now is challenging.
We’re hearing a lot from performers or crew members who miss the energy that they get back from the audience—that connection with people, that ability to put a smile on someone else’s face. And, without the audience interaction, they’re missing some of that fuel.
So it’s been tough on the music industry as a whole, and we are glad to be able to help in the ways that we are able to help. We want to guide people through the paperwork processes that are already set up to support them financially. Everything’s changed now. Looking at the long term—when we do go back to live events as we knew them before—there are additional mental-health challenges that will come about. Just as the transition into COVID-19 has been challenging for some people, the transition back to road life will be challenging, too. We want to make sure that we are thinking proactively about what that looks like and how we can meet the industry with these resources and make sure that people know it’s OK if it’s hard; there’s somewhere to go and someone to talk to about it.
What is your advice to a music fan interested in supporting Backline?
You can follow along on social media. We post a lot of tips and tools there that aren’t specific to the music industry. There’s also a section on our website where you can offer to help in a variety of ways. We have yoga teachers and wellness practitioners and lawyers—all these people who reached out and said that they wanted to support us. We know that we are supported across the country in these different ways and that’s really cool. So if you think that you have a particular skill set that could be helpful, then let us know and let’s have that conversation.
And, of course, we can use help with donations. One of the interesting things about Backline is that, thus far, we’ve been entirely funded by musicians, independent promoters and festivals that think this service is really important.
Fans can be a part of that, too. They can donate and that’s an impressive way to say, “Hey, I’m helping keep the music going, and I’m helping keep it healthy and happy and safe.” That message has to get out there. It’s an opportunity for all of us to be a part of that big change and make sure people have the resources they need.
