BURSTThe “Metchosin one” hit a gaming home run this spring that’s providing dividends ahead of a fall tour.
West Shore-based singer-songwriter Jesse Roper, whose home community gave him the affectionate moniker, landed a title on the PlayStation MLB The Show 26 soundtrack that launched in March.
Does Anybody Know comes from what Roper deems his most popular album to date, Horizons album released in 2022.
“The core soundtrack brings together a dynamic mix that mirrors the diversity of the baseball community,” the company said in its launch release. “Music can swiftly propel a narrative forward or slow it down; it elevates the dialogue and helps create an emotional link between the screen, the controller, and the audience.
The soundtrack features 47 songs, putting Roper alongside perhaps more widespread household names such as Bad Bunny, Benson Boone, Outkast and Teddy Swims.
It helps fuel the beast, quite literally in some cases, as the cost of touring and performing rises.
“Everything goes up, it’s a long way to breaking even, and I have never done that really. I’m surviving on luck, and the MLB is part of that luck,” Roper told the Goldstream Gazette, saying it outstripped previous placements in film and T.V. “Thankfully there are a lot of companies out there purchasing music and it’s still preferential to use real artists.”
The announcement came as he was releasing new music, which also got a kick-start. Streaming numbers this time last year were averaging 250,000 a month and topped out around 300,000. It got up to 450,000 listeners a month when the PlayStation soundtrack launched.
“I get paid from that, not a whole heaping amount but … for them to double was like ‘right on’,” Roper said.
Life continues with more – writing, getting ready for tours, releases “and more of me trying to find time to fit in other life.” He hopes those streams turn into ticket sales as he starts his tour on Sept. 24 in Bellingham and moves across the country for the next several months. It finishes with what has become tradition – a show at the Brackendale Art Gallery in Squamish on Dec. 5.
The tour is punctuated with 10 days in the studio in the middle.
“Rinse and repeat, with sweet times in between,” he said with a chuckle.
Perhaps not the icing on the top, but a fun title nonetheless, Roper topped the polls in the Best of the City, where Victoria News readers vote on a variety of their favourite things to see, do, buy, and visit in Victoria. Roper was named best local band/musician.
Find the full list of winners in the Best of the City special publication at digital.vicnews.com/specialsections.
About the Author: Christine van Reeuwyk
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