If the Great Salt Lake's moving into an unprecedented time of water loss, it's perhaps also moving into a season of unprecedented public attention. Walk down any busy street and you'll see signage in a window—or 10—with various GSL initiatives, websites and public efforts advertised.
Salt Lake City songwriter/producer Alireza Vaziri, who writes and records as Ali Rez, isn't a Utah native, having moved here from his native Queens, New York. However, he's incorporated his own ideals into the city's activist culture since arriving, antennae ever up. As an example, while walking through the city, he noticed yard signs saying "water to survive, not thrive." Over time, the phrase stuck in his head. Combined with an increasing interest in the region's water policies, a curiosity he picked up while volunteering with Wasatch Community Gardens, he put all the components together and created a song for fundraising and awareness purposes.
"I became aware of the drought through working with the Wasatch Community Gardens," he said. "I saw how the drought was impacting their gardens. I then learned about water policy in Utah, how it works from a pricing structure and how different it was than on the east coast. I started digging and found out about the Great Salt Lake Coalition and learned a little bit more about what's going on, this immense sense of urgency."
He adds that "I actually didn't really see the lake until the last two years," noting that he's been coming to Utah for about a decade. "Living here, I became aware of some of the issues around air quality, which I'd come to know of through the inversions. With the forest fires and some of the windstorms that we were getting, I was curious what was going on, why was there this excessive amount of dust coming into downtown Salt Lake City."
The Great Salt Lake became a focal point of his interests. To the point where he felt called to write and record a track.
Via the music streaming/purchasing website Bandcamp, Ali Rez recently offered up a short cut called "Save the Great Salt Lake: Water to Survive, Not Thrive," with proceeds slated for the Utah Rivers Council. This type of track isn't wildly out of character for Rez, as he's tackled a variety of issues in his music over the years, while living here and elsewhere. Included in that mix are short videos that were recorded and released in SLC last year, called "Everything on the Menu is Vegan." Just last week, he released a song for Earth Day called "You're Trash If You Litter." (Videos for many of these tracks can be found at his Instagram at: yo_alirez.)
The performer doesn't hide his points of view, tackling his topics with a straightforward, earnest voice. The start, he argues, comes with everyone taking a role as their own researchers, no matter how long they've been Utahn.
"Salt Lake is a very young city," he says. "People are educated and are active outdoors. I think there's a lot of encouragement and motivation to protect the lake. I think people will continue to fight and the movement will continue to grow."
As for himself, "I have a background in law and a background in activism. Right now, I'm just trying to use music as a form of activism."
Information about Ali Rez's efforts can be found at alirez.org; the track "Save the Salt Lake: Water to Survive, Not Thrive" is directly available as a pay-what-you-wish option at Bandcamp.
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