In our kick off episode Timmy and John talk about everything from who they are, The Ziggy's All Stars Jam, and starting a band. They talk about some of the key things of what it takes to start a band. You will here some of the good, and some of the tough things to think about when you are starting a band. Whether a cover or an original band, this episode is for you!
Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube page and never miss an episode! Make sure you follow us on Facebook to keep up with the action as well!
This episode is Brought to you by Ziggy's Live Music, Bar & Restaurant in Hudson, WI.
Make sure you visit www.thestageunhinged.com to keep up with everything we are doing. Be sure to find us on facebook and chat with us!
For more information about the Ziggy's All Stars Jam and to sigh up, go to www.ziggysallstarsjam.com and also follow on Facebook!
Be sure to visit the KoMax Studios Youtube page, KoMax Studios for more videos to check out including videos from the Ziggy's All Stars Jam!
The Stage...Unhinged Website
The Stage...Unhinged YouTube Page
The Stage...Unhinged Facebook
In our kick off episode Timmy and John talk about everything from who they are, The Ziggy's All Stars Jam, and starting a band. They talk about some of the key things of what it takes to start a band. You will here some of the good, and some of the tough things to think about when you are starting a band. Whether a cover or an original band, this episode is for you!
Make sure you subscribe to our YouTube page and never miss an episode! Make sure you follow us on Facebook to keep up with the action as well!
This episode is Brought to you by Ziggy's Live Music, Bar & Restaurant in Hudson, WI.
Make sure you visit www.thestageunhinged.com to keep up with everything we are doing. Be sure to find us on facebook and chat with us!
For more information about the Ziggy's All Stars Jam and to sigh up, go to www.ziggysallstarsjam.com and also follow on Facebook!
Be sure to visit the KoMax Studios Youtube page, KoMax Studios for more videos to check out including videos from the Ziggy's All Stars Jam!
The Stage...Unhinged Website
The Stage...Unhinged YouTube Page
The Stage...Unhinged Facebook
music, music music, music.
Speaker 2:Alright. So here we are, the staged we kicked off our first show that we did with, which was our New Year's Eve show. That was a lot of fun. Then we brought up a new co-host.
Speaker 3:John Sonic is with us so that's amazing yeah, I saw the podcast on New Year's, watched it live. I thought that was a really cool idea and I remember you were texting him yeah, yeah, I was. I thought that was awesome, knew there was going to be some Ziggy's all star stuff on there, so yeah, yeah, that's true.
Speaker 2:So welcome to the stage and hands. A little bit about what the vision is here is is basically we're going to talk to everything Minnesota music absolutely it's just music in general but we're going to take you from everything from starting a band to way beyond. Now you're probably playing festivals and talk about all the good things and, of course, the bad things. It's the good, the bad, the ugly. I put that out there a lot because, while being in a band is great, it also has its downfalls and if you're starting a band or trying to join a band, you can learn from our past experiences and I think we do have a lot of information to share for bands and also it's just the ongoing scene of what's happening here in the Twin Cities absolutely.
Speaker 2:We want to help everybody's audience grow. These bands I mean everybody works hard. We especially know how hard everybody works. You recently retired from doing the every weekend thing. I'm still doing the every weekend thing, so it's we definitely have a lot of knowledge to share. We're going to have guests on the show that have knowledge to share again, experiences of both the do's and the don'ts but and also talk about your band and give the general audience. Something I've always wanted to do is give the general audience people who are in bands and might be watching this an idea of what we go through absolutely can pull back the curtain and let them know you know everything that goes into it ought to make you appreciate it all the more so yeah, I mean they see us out there on the weekend, some some week days, depending on festival time, and they see the end result, but there's a whole lot more that goes into that for us anyway, you know.
Speaker 2:I mean even things like leaving your family. Yeah, like last year I didn't see my daughter one summer at all or one weekend during the summer, and that was kind of a bummer. But I mean, it's just, it's part of the part of the gig that we do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely can be tough balancing all of that out, and you know so we have any insights to share on that. We will absolutely it's gonna be a fun journey we're here to support musicians and local bands, artists, and whether you're a cover act, a tribute band or original yeah we'd love to have some of some of our great talent around the Twin Cities to come in on the show. It's gonna be amazing. Maybe we can get a little acoustic performance or something. It'd be awesome sometimes.
Speaker 2:And, yeah, definitely do what we can to support Twin Cities local musicians and, yeah, let's rock and, aside from doing these shows that we're gonna try to do at least twice a month, you never know when we're gonna pop up live right at a bar or venue where we can have a live audience. We'll talk more about that later we'll let you know ahead of time.
Speaker 2:We don't know what's gonna happen. We don't know where we're gonna be. That's part of, I guess, the fun. All of a sudden we're popping up here. Hey, come hang out with us, and we absolutely encourage you to come hang out with us well, I see it as a very important thing.
Speaker 3:You know that you created and I'm glad that you brought me on board and I think oh, it was so.
Speaker 2:It was such an easy decision. It was like I remember just seeing the videos of you performing and watching you perform, and because I have the pleasure of recording you and it was just like that guy's got it, he's got it and just watching you interact with people and the way people interact with you, it just made a lot of sense to bring you on and I'm so happy that you were like, yeah, let's do this right on.
Speaker 3:So with that, john, tell everybody a little bit about yourself, what you bring to the table, your background uh, yeah, my name is John Sonik and I've been singing in bands since I was 14 years old, which, uh, you can do the math, but that was in 1988, I won't tell you how old I was, yeah and um.
Speaker 3:You know I learned a lot about the business aspect of being a band and through all that time so I've been in cover bands. I was in a Stone Temple Pilots tribute act so I got to know a lot of that. Community tribute artists and now running we did mention the Z's all start jam in Stillwater every other Wednesday and it has really been very rewarding to me to see, to give these people an opportunity to get up on stage with some great musicians and learn first hand. For some of them it's their first time ever playing with a group of people you know we'll actually talk about somebody special here whether it was in their basement or whether it was on stage.
Speaker 3:So we're giving them a trial by fire for sure and they get to see what it's like.
Speaker 2:And I think, for a lot of people wondering if it's something I want to do, everybody thinks they want to be a rock star. Until you're a rock star and you're like, so it gives them a real chance to get in front of people and I think that's amazing because they're going to open you up and you're going to love it and want to run forward to it or you might be like which I know some people that are like that too, and there's nothing wrong with that. But well, I mean, yeah, the jam is amazing. I'm Timmy.
Speaker 2:I've been drumming ever since I was two years old. You know, start out with pots and pans type thing, but music goes back in my family and we've traced it back a very long ways. I started playing in shows when I was five years old. They're polka shows, but whatever, I'm in front of an audience making people dance, so I've had that going. I've done drum core, marching band, all that good stuff. Start playing bigger shows. I did a few warped tour stints starting at age 18-19 and just been going in original bands and also now more so, cover bands. Punk rock is my life, so anytime somebody wants to make something faster, harder. I'm all for it. Elvis, by the way, which we talked about, that you were singing with this last weekend, and that sounds good. Punk rock in the punk rock style.
Speaker 3:I don't know if I've heard too many of them. I have to work something up.
Speaker 2:I think there's definitely some good ones out there. So, yeah, okay.
Speaker 3:So let's talk about the jam every other Wednesday right now, except for March, two Wednesdays in a row you gotta be a little flexible sometimes with people's personal schedules, trying to make it work and still keeping it at least twice a month event.
Speaker 3:I think people would go nuts if they didn't have it. Yeah, I'm starting to see just how much people really do enjoy it and look forward to it, and that's a blessing to me to see how much it means to them so we'll show a quick video here, what we're gonna call the John Sonic educational minute.
Speaker 3:So let's cut to that so one time a couple of jams ago I did a little short PSA requested by Mr Baker and people wanted me to make that a recurring event, so something I thought of watching Ryan, which would be a good PSA. I like how you've gotten more comfortable on the stage and you're owning it. So for all of you performers that come up, you notice phones out all over taking pictures of you do something for those pictures, because they're gonna last forever. So while you're up here on stage, feel free to own this place, be comfortable, put on a show that's why we're all here. So this time let's be show people all right, so welcome back now.
Speaker 2:We just saw John's educational minute, and this time around was about stage presence it was interesting.
Speaker 3:I didn't really intend to do these. At one jam, our great sound, jeff Baker, was like hey, can you just say something about people using the microphone? And you know, don't point it at the monitors, don't hold your hand over while you're singing, right, right. And so I did that and Timmy makes a video of it.
Speaker 2:I watched it.
Speaker 3:I'm like, oh, this is gonna be a tall thing everybody thought, well, now you better make this a series and keep doing these little informational things. I'm like, really, it helps a lot yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2:I mean, everybody's looking for that advice and I mean the microphone thing was great, especially for, like what we talked about for the people coming to the jam that are brand new, that have done this before they don't know not to go like this. They don't know not to hold it down. So, being new, I mean it's definitely good to have that. Music, music, music, music, music information.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and I think what's always been very near and dear to my heart and very important is be a showman when you're on stage. Yes, you know it's um. You could be the most talented band in the world, but if you all just stand up there, you might as well be listening to a jukebox.
Speaker 2:Nobody likes to watch a robot, right, and I mean those are. So those are some of the bands and we'll start getting into this in later episodes but those are some of the bands that are most successful right, that are doing the bigger shows, because they're I mean they also rehearse what they're doing sometimes, but spot in 80 is also really good, but they're, they're out there, they're not just. This is my section of the stage, this is my three by three square. Stay away from me. No, they own right the entire thing, like everybody's bubbles getting popped.
Speaker 3:Yeah it's. You have to make a connection with your audience as quickly as possible because you capture them then and that energy will build the entire night between you and the audience. Right? And so, yeah, most of my favorite bands look at the front man and it's like he's an incredible performer. When he's on stage, you know he's got style, he's got a great voice, he, you know, works the crowd so well that those are very important things to me. And I did notice when I said that early on in the gym Wednesday night, they, they all picked up on it.
Speaker 2:They took off on it yeah they did.
Speaker 3:Everybody put on such a cool, great show and I could tell that they all stepped it up. The energy was just fantastic Wednesday night.
Speaker 2:See, and I want to, when I'm recording it, I have. Well, now I have six cameras set up, but I have, you know, there's five stationary cameras, so I got one on each side of the stage covering the whole stage. Drummer keyboard Now that we have a keyboard, but you have a keyboard player, but I have one that I'm constantly moving and trying to get different angles, and I noticed that I wasn't able to just sit in my normal spot and capture I actually to move, yeah, to make sure I was getting people moving on stage and doing so that I mean that was and that's fine with, I don't care, I have a monopod that I use that I can move around, so that makes it nice for me. But it was nice to have to actually get up, move like, oh wait, I'm not, I can't just sit here anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah they took that information to heart. Definitely.
Speaker 3:And I've seen so much growth for a lot of these performers that have been coming for weeks and weeks. You see that build and, yeah, for a newcomer who's maybe never been on stage before, I know you're nervous, you're going to be looking at your guitar, make sure you're not going to screw up, right. But then the next step from that is to okay, now engage, get it, get the first one out, yeah get it out.
Speaker 3:You'd see some of these seasoned players you know, and they're out there rocking out and they're just all over the place, and then it would be a stark contrast, for if somebody was really inside themselves, that's very noticeable, right. But this whole level I've seen get better and better each time and it's really become you know, I think it's a great show to sit back and watch.
Speaker 2:It is, and I mean the thing is is you can sit back and watch, but with a lot of these performers and especially after what you know, the educational minute that we had this last time I mean you're also not just going to sit back and watch, you're going to get up and have a good time with these guys and I think it works out. It's great. It's in the middle of the week, so it's a great breakdown, right. And then your, these people are coming up on stage, and especially the newbies who are trying to break out of their shelves. So they, they took what you said. We're going to run with this and I mean everybody's up, everybody's moving, everybody's dancing, everybody's having a great time. Yeah, it's just, it's so awesome to watch. I mean I'm yeah, I'm behind a camera, but I'm still seeing everything going on, and right, it's amazing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's. The following that we've had and the fans that we have are so fantastic. It's amazing to see a dance floor packed at 7pm on a Wednesday, you know and it doesn't stop. Right, you and I have been in bands for years and years and years and you know usually that first set kind of dull.
Speaker 2:Well, people are getting drinks in them. Sleeper songs.
Speaker 3:Before they're really your mom and pops getting you know up to feeling like they might dance. You know, after a few drinks.
Speaker 2:But I mean, you also set the set list to be what it is and I feel like every time I look at the set list I'm like this is banging, every time like it's it's a nice flow of the way the song's, like it's almost like you're looking at your own band. Okay, how would I want this set list?
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I've always taken pride in putting together a set list and thinking, Okay, this should kind of flow. There should be like a wave to it. You want to start out big and grab everyone and then, if you've got some of your slower ballads or something, you got to work those in, but then gradually bring it back up and by the time you get to the end you know you're, you're rocking hard.
Speaker 2:The climax should almost never died out, right? And we'll talk more about set list in a minute, because there is a science to it. Yeah, I mean, and it's not a one size fits all, but you seem to. I mean Ziggy's, we know, you know the crowd that's coming through there, you know who's going to be there in the majority of the time. So I mean, you have it set pretty well that you know. Hey, if I here's the flow and it's gonna and it works.
Speaker 3:It works. And but also I should mention, I mean the songs that we're playing on any given night.
Speaker 2:I don't pick those everybody signs up to make a new set list every single time.
Speaker 3:They pick what we're gonna play, yeah, from a list of I think we've got over 130 songs and choose from at this point and we keep adding new ones and, yeah, people will have something in mind that they want to do, right, and if they can talk musicians into coming up with them and you don't need the house band, we can play whatever you want Right Within within limits.
Speaker 2:So this last week also at the gym, we lost somebody special to us. We lost Izzy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did.
Speaker 2:That was. That was kind of a, I mean I remember she. So she's been there since the beginning, right, and she was there when I first came in back in December and I mean she was very welcoming, she was very just talkative and was very interested in what was going on.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, izzy, she's a great server. Her first day was our first day and so, yeah, we got to know her. But just such a great, cool girl, kind personality, absolutely Just became a favorite of pretty much everybody. Yep, that came to the jam and so we couldn't let her to leave without joining the band. So we got her up on stage to sing and, yeah, that was great. So she's forever part of the band now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she is, and what I did was and this was, this was totally spontaneous is we did a quick interview with her, kind of an exit interview, if you will. Now I apologize now for the sound. I was not expecting this, so I didn't have any of my like lab layer mics. We were using the straight microphones from the camera. So I tried to edit the best I could. But let's check this one out. Hey, what's up?
Speaker 1:What's up, 2013? Here at Ciggies All Star Jam. This is a sad day for us. This is the last time I was Izzy. She's been here longer than me actually. You've been here since I started Day one, my second day. Oh, was it?
Speaker 2:Yeah it was like my second or first day?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's crazy. So you're leaving. That's awesome. You've been amazing. What have been some of your favorite options? Um, honestly, I have not had a bad week like this entire. Every time that we have this is great, every single time. Um, I would say that probably my favorite moments are, you know, I'm a server, so like I've tried to take care of everybody, but my favorite moments are probably when I could, you know, get out of the dance floor and like no, and all that good stuff. And then, obviously tonight I got to sing for the first time.
Speaker 2:How was?
Speaker 1:that it was, so I was so nervous. I've never sang with a band before. No, it was like first time. So I will say that, if you're planning on doing this, maybe listen to some live versions of the music that you're playing to, because I was only going based off of karaoke versions, and so when I got up there and I heard the live music, I was like, oh my God, it sounds so much different.
Speaker 1:So that's like a little bit tidbit. If you've never performed a band before, listen to live versions, you know you're going to hear when you're on stage. It's actually great advice Listen to the actual song, not the karaoke version. Live versions are always good. So what are you going to miss? I'm going to miss the people, for sure. I'm super amazing, talented people. Since my six months of working, six months of this, I, yeah, for sure the people.
Speaker 1:And just seeing you know my favorite, one of my favorite parts is little things seeing people have never played together, play and it's like, it's so awesome to just be like walking around the tray and then be like, oh my God, and they're doing so good, they're rocking all that good stuff. And then obviously, the showcase bands are always super sick. Yes, I did enjoy watching you tonight, the 20th, yes, yes. And then during walk, you and April were, oh, absolutely Absolutely.
Speaker 1:I know we're all going to miss you. It's been so much fun. So the final goodbye, okay. Thank you to everybody who came and did the All Stars and made my night super awesome. We're missing you, and thank you to everybody who supports this, because this is a super awesome thing and I'm so glad that I was back. All right, this is Izzy. I hope we will see her down the road and finish the stop by From the stage of Hinched Izzy Jimmy.
Speaker 2:All right. So that was. That was Izzy's goodbye. We wish her the best of luck, Chicago, and yeah, I mean hopefully she'll come and hang out with us again sometime when she's ever in the cities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we hope to see her again and definitely do wish her well, absolutely. When you brought this up, I thought somebody died or something.
Speaker 2:Oh, we lost, I mean kind of part of us did, part of our souls died. So the next jam, this is our, is this our longer? And yeah, this is our longer in admission.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we'll be back March 13th. We'll be the next one, wednesday, seven to 10, same as always, but what will be different? Usually we have a spotlight, a showcase act that can play a 30 minute set in the middle of the jam. So we have one hour long jam set. We take a break to get the showcase band set up. They can rock out their stuff and show us what they got for 30 minutes. Then we convert back to the jam for another hour. Coming up on March 13th, we are not going to have a showcase, we're just going to jam all night long and we're going to get some more musicians up there than we normally do. It's become something that fills up rather quickly.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, I'm noticing, and if you are watching this, you know you watch the Facebook posts. Yeah, jam's open. Five minutes later, jam's closed. Right, it's quick.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it went, somebody made the joke.
Speaker 2:Somebody's sitting there just refreshing, waiting for it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, in the very beginning I had to pull in a lot of favors and I'd be calling people directly and telling them you're coming down to sing at this jam.
Speaker 2:You don't get a choice.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You're needed.
Speaker 3:No, a lot of great people did. And once it started picking up it found a life of its own. And yeah, like you said, we've had them fill up in 30 minutes and to me that's amazing that people want to be part of it so much that they're going to kind of rearrange their lives a little bit to be ready to sign up.
Speaker 2:To sign up, one thing real quick that I wanted to touch on and that people may not know if you are a showcase band or a band that wants to be a part of showcase. Rather, how do they go about to that? That's not the normal sign up, I imagine.
Speaker 3:Not the normal sign up, but you go about it same way. There is a link on the website to sign up a showcase act. Okay, it's also been very popular. I'd say right now we probably have spots open January of next year, but there you go. There you have it. All of that can change and I think it might.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean even the jams change, because I mean this last one. You know we had singers that had something come up. Yeah, anything, anything, especially during the week, anything can come up.
Speaker 3:I mean right, you never know, Some band that signed up to play in August might not be together in August.
Speaker 2:Be ready to be on that standby list Reality of it all. Yeah.
Speaker 3:So when you sign up you know we can give you a date that is set and you can also check a box that says hey, please keep me on the waitlist. So if something falls out or I might drop a little hint here If we were to add another Wednesday gym, that would open up a lot more spots for showcase acts.
Speaker 2:Hit. He says Hit so.
Speaker 3:Awesome yeah.
Speaker 2:No, no, we're, we're. I know it's a no hold show, but we're holding out of that one.
Speaker 3:Yeah, a little bit for now. We'll talk about it again later, but Things are in the works. Yeah, definitely want to do what we can to make sure that more people can get in when they want to, and it certainly seems like, yeah, more people want to. They want more of it, I would agree with that 100%. We, you know, always trying to see what we can do about that.
Speaker 2:So moving on now to get into the nigga, the nitty gritty of the stage, unhinged, starting a band, right, oh, do you remember starting your first band? Yeah, did you start it or did you join it?
Speaker 3:At that point I joined it. But there were years before where you know, we fantasized and built guitars at a cardboard, you know.
Speaker 2:Mine was a broomstick.
Speaker 3:Tennis rackets or something Mine was always the broom Just acted a fool because you know everybody falls in love with music in their own way and but you know you're gonna grow up around music. But what hits you and what tells you I gotta do that right, you know. So it's that inspiration that really is the spark that starts you on a band, and you know that I think the biggest influence of that is seeing a live performance 100%. You could watch it on.
Speaker 3:MTV or you could listen to it on the radio, but seeing a live band and it's the energy, yeah, and it's the energy that you can't explain. That tells you I gotta do this. Yeah and yeah, I can tell you a story. I was 10 years old and this, this band here on my t-shirt they're called Obsession.
Speaker 3:Okay they were started from North St Paul and I grew up in North St Paul and they were playing at our local high school there in the gymnasium. So these guys are an original act and just I yeah, I was just a little kid went and saw that and blew me away. I'm like this is awesome, I need to do that.
Speaker 3:And as time went on, you know it comes out what you know, you think about, what position you want to be in the band, and I always just felt like you know I'm gonna be that lead singer. You definitely got it and there's no question. Years and years of researching singers and deciding what you like and what influences you and what you feel works well, what you want to try to adopt and adapt and make it part of you. And so, yeah, the first band that I joined was in eighth grade, okay, and so the end of the year we had the school talent show and a buddy of mine and myself we are the emcees and I don't know if you remember this bit from Saturday Night Live way back in the day.
Speaker 3:It was Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon playing, hans and Franz, yes, so they were these big bodybuilder guys. You know they're gonna get you pumped up. So we ripped off their act and we emcee'd, as Hans and Franz you know and want the pump you up. So we did the show and some of our other friends had started a band, so they were playing. They played a couple of songs and it wasn't long after that that I was asked to sing, because, I don't know, they didn't want their singer. They had, and you know, tried out doing that and just thought this was the greatest thing. I remember. The first song that I ever learned to sing with the band was Welcome to the Jungle by Guns N' Roses.
Speaker 2:How hard was that. I feel like that's gonna axle tough your songs.
Speaker 3:I was kind of a late bloomer, so I think I hadn't really even hit puberty yet.
Speaker 1:Made it a little easier for you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it was easier, but then you know, you spend time and you'll learn about how those tones came to be you know, how did Axl Rose become Axl Rose? You didn't always sing that way, right, and you fiddle around with that and I always tried to learn to. As a cover singer, you know, do my best to adapt and emulate the style right. The person I'm performing as because I don't know, maybe part of it is I always felt like nobody wanted to see me sing these songs.
Speaker 2:They wanted to see the real person sing this song.
Speaker 3:Right, you try to just give them that element of you know, sincerity, or what they hope to hear.
Speaker 2:And something we'll get into. I feel like as a singer you don't have a lot of room to really improvise Like as a drummer. I mean, I, as long as I'm keeping the root of the song, I can throw in a fill here or change a fill here. You, as a singer, don't have that option.
Speaker 3:Well, I think, because of what I said, trying to be what people?
Speaker 1:are expecting.
Speaker 3:They want to hear it played the way it is on the radio. And sometimes that makes it more of a challenge because a lot of singers, even of their own songs that they wrote they're cheating them when they're doing it live. Yeah, and they might sing it in a way that makes it easier for them to sing all of these songs, you know, and maybe they're up there three hours singing. They want to get more mileage out of their voice, so they're finding ways to sing it differently. Maybe sometimes they're even bringing it down a key or something you know.
Speaker 2:Going going lower, right, higher. I noticed that one a lot.
Speaker 3:But you know, if you do that live and somebody comes and sees that you just did it in a lower key than it was recorded, well, they think you're not a very good singer. You couldn't even do it the way he does.
Speaker 2:And I think for that it's just people that don't understand. Yeah, when you're singing that much, you're, you're, it's a muscle and I mean you got to, you got to make sure that that muscle is working top notch.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, you have to make changes and sometimes I've seen bands change things live. I'm like that's actually cooler than what you did on the record, like, right, I like that, I like that version a lot. But why wasn't that there? And you know we, there was a. There's a saying is that records, when you're recording, they're, they're, they're never done, they're just giving up on. You know, you can always go back and put it's like at some point you just got to give up on it and send it back.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:But so I mean starting a band, it's, it's, it's not, it's not easy. No, it's not easy. It takes work, it takes commitment, it takes time. I mean, whether it's a cover band, whether it's an original band. Yeah, I feel like an original band might be maybe a little bit easier than a cover band, because an original band, you know, you know exactly like I'm going to do metal, I'm going to do rock, I'm going to do grunge, whatever it is. So you are able to find those like-minded people that want to do that exact same style as you and it's going to flow.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Being in a cover band. You have a lot more choices to make. You have to decide what songs you want to do. Do you want to be more poppy? Do you want to be more rocked? You want to be more country, do you? There's so many avenues, and I mean mixing them is also an option. But then now it's like, ok, how do you mix it and find a flow? But then you kind of like what we're talking about earlier is you want to make sure that you're building a show.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:That's the most important thing is building a show. Like when, if you're starting a band or joining a band, whatever the case is you, I always have the notion of thinking of the future. So, like if I'm going through songs, deciding what I want to, what I want to bring to a band, say, ok, how do you imagine what it's like live, imagine all the players, how are they, how are they, are they able to really rock out to it and have fun with it? Or is it more a robotic song, where you're going to be more robotic on stage and that's a big part of using your, your set list and then finding people. You know, I think one thing is you have to if you're starting a band and you're a band leader.
Speaker 2:One thing you want to make clear is and something you just mentioned, which we actually probably might differ on a little, which is totally fine Are you going to do it exactly like the record that was originally done, or are you going to kind of keep the root of the song? Obviously, you're going to keep the, the, the, the guts of the song, but maybe make it your own a little bit, because that's going to make a difference too on who you're bringing into your band because there are some people that will not deviate, and that's for whatever reason that might be. They just want to do exactly how it's written and that's fine. I am more of a person who says let's make this our own. How can we add the crowd? What cool things can we do? And oftentimes, what I'm actually end up doing is I will try to find a live version of a song.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And if I can find a live version, and I'll listen to that live version and kind of see what's different and see what they're doing live, and a lot of times that's what I'm taking from, because the live version I mean, obviously there's a reason why that band will take poison. For example, look at some of the ways that they do their live songs, like when they break down, nothing but a good time. He does a little bit, you know, extended the middle, he's working the crowd and he's having fun with the crowd. And to me, when you're doing a show, stuff like that is so important Because, yeah, you want your crowd dancing, but I've always had the notion that I want to give my audience a concert like feel as well, you know, because we, yeah, we get a lot of bands that come through Minnesota, but we also don't get a lot of bands that come through Minnesota, so we might be playing that song with band you've always wanted to see but haven't.
Speaker 2:So we want to make you feel like you're at that show. What are, kind of, your thoughts on that?
Speaker 3:Well, no, I agree, and I didn't want to sound like I'm very rigid. As you know, it's got to be performed like the record, but it's people. Yeah, oftentimes you have a very short first impression that you can make.
Speaker 3:Extremely short On. You know a potential fan of your band and so I think oftentimes they judge your ability based on if you sound like that band. Right, you know. But then, once you bring them in and certainly there are there's so many elements of what you can bring into a live performance. But I want to go back to another point you brought up about starting a band. How do you choose? You know the type of music you're going to play, the genre or styles, and I think it really you know. From my point of view, I feel like it should come from what made you want to do this. Right. First place, your influences do the stuff that you love and always have loved, because that's going to come out of you. Right, if you choose something that you're not even interested in, like, I'll say it, I don't like country music.
Speaker 2:So if I were to think a lot of people are going to agree with you on that. I don't mind some of it.
Speaker 3:But if I were to say, yeah, I'm an audition for a country band and I'm going to take that gig because you know these are established guys and they make a hell of a living, you know, doing this I wouldn't enjoy it.
Speaker 2:I would be using music as a business at that point it truly feels like a job, right yeah, and that makes a lot of sense to you. Or the other thing you could do and I'm seeing I'm actually seeing a lot more bands kind of do this is take a style that you like, if you really like rock, but you know these pop songs are going to work.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, rock them up, be as long as you do a good job and you're not butchering the song, people are going to like it. People are going to enjoy it because it's kind of a fresh take. You know, sometimes you've heard that version so many times and you'll hear people say, oh my god, that song is so overplayed. And then you bring kind of a fresh take on it and I'm like, oh wow, that's actually really cool and all of a sudden they're singing and they're having fun with you. So that that is an option too, is.
Speaker 2:I mean, I know my band and I mean now we take a lot of country songs and we rock them out more. So you know, you're not getting the banjo, you're not getting, you're getting full electric guitars, distortion, and that's just what you're getting. That's because that's what we do and that's what we enjoy and it works as long as it works, and that's the big things. That has to work. And a lot of times I think you'll hear it. You know, when you're in rehearsal, you're in your practice, you'll hear, you'll start playing something like you know what that's actually. It doesn't, it's not doing the song any justice, doesn't sound that good, let's on to the next, you know. So I agree 100 percent. It's make sure you're you are enjoying what you're doing, because if you're not, yeah it's a job.
Speaker 3:Right and back to the initial spark, you know, starting a band, of course. Ideally you take a few of your buddies and you pick what spots you're gonna do.
Speaker 3:You go get some crappy instruments and you suck at it, you suck at it for a long time but you keep practicing and you take lessons and you learn and you get better and you know all of that growth makes you so much better as a musician? Absolutely, but I know, you know, I know a lot of players that you know. Maybe they learn to play an instrument because they love it and but they've just never taken that step, you know, to join a band. So they might be extremely talented. You know, maybe it's a guitar player, he's, he's a great, great guitar player would really help any band he chose to be in and could easily find one and step into it and start auditioning and then it's a different way of going about it. But it also, you know, it gives you a step up from having to go through that whole period of just playing awful noise.
Speaker 2:Making your neighbors go crazy.
Speaker 3:Yeah and there, uh, there were many years of that for me in eighth grade, ninth grade.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, yeah, like I said earlier, I was. I was a punker, so imagine how my neighbors felt right here in screams and all that good stuff. But yeah, I mean it. It all All boils down to do what you love. Don't do what you think you have to do. And if you think you have to do it, find a way To do it in a way that you love. Yeah, otherwise you're never gonna enjoy it and you're just gonna want out. There's so many I don't want to do this anymore. Why I'm just I'm not having fun. Why are you not having fun? Because this music sucks? Okay, that's kind of your choice. You can change it, yeah you can change it.
Speaker 3:If you started doing this because you loved it, then you should find a way to love it again.
Speaker 2:Always go back to that love. It's so Important. I mean, I know that even I hit a while there where I was like, why am I drumming? I Mean, I love drumming, that's that's, I love to breathe it. But there were and this is actually recent what am I doing? I want to do this anymore.
Speaker 3:Well, and yeah, and you and I talked about you have all these different outside influences too. You know you've got other things going on in your life. We're doing this for fun, so it's a.
Speaker 2:Most of us have a full-time job on top of that, and Families that you know we want to spend time with you get taken away from that, so it's Then you just have to find Balance but see, for me I can't remember what it was, but like last night was great we and this is this is just to go off of what you had mentioned earlier it's going to that live show. So last night I was at, you know, pennywise and dropkick Murphy's, to the bands that have been my biggest influences and just watching I mean I always watch the drummers, obviously and just watching them go at it and watching the crowd watching the band I'm. That's why I do right there, because I hope for that same energy, that same interaction, reaction. So you do what you love and in like, yeah, if you are questioning it, then sometimes you do need to take a step back and Ask yourself and find out what it is.
Speaker 2:But starting a band, if you're, if you're a band leader, again, original Cover you. I mean I think it is important to have an established Leader, somebody who kind of takes reins on on the business side will say, yeah, right, because booking and all this stuff will get too later. But booking is a big thing. Having one point of contact, if you have. If you have so many point of contact, you know message is gonna get lost, you know. And if you do know, like, okay, I'm gonna start a cover band. This is what I want. Communicate that effectively, don't you know? If you know in your heart, you've made up your mind we're doing these songs, we're doing it this way, then communicate that. Don't blow smoke up people and I Experience speaking. Don't blow smoke up people to get them in your band because you want your band to take off. It's better to take the time to find the right players that are gonna fit what you want to do and they're on board with you. It's gonna be less friction.
Speaker 3:And yeah, it's. The term band leader doesn't necessarily mean that there's a hierarchy to the band. You are like the king of the band and everybody has to listen to what you said. It's. The Point of contact that you brought up is extremely important, whether you're dealing with a booking agent or a bar whivers.
Speaker 2:Could be any you know you're talking to yeah.
Speaker 3:They want it to be the same person exactly and you can.
Speaker 2:It's easier to relay the message and it doesn't get lost and you can have a complete democracy in your band, but somebody could be the one person that takes everything you agreed upon and then voice that.
Speaker 2:You. And the other thing is, if you are gonna have a democracy in your band, you are gonna get people to say don't. And I literally have had this said to me before and I'm never gonna mention that. We're never gonna mention names of anybody. That's negative. So I yeah, if you think this is you, I'm sorry, but I did have somebody In an email. It was like I'm not trying to be a dictator, but we're gonna do exactly what I say almost like, and I responded it's exactly what a dictator is. So I'm not that bad anymore. But you know what they're doing. Well, they they found players that that are doing what he wanted, and good for them. I Just didn't fit and I don't. I mean, I never wished to be anything bad, it's just sometimes and that's just it.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you're not gonna fit right now it is can and it it can be. Yeah, I've worked with a lot of different people now and sometimes it's and I've expected to say you know, I need to know everyone's opinion about this. And sometimes they're like Just do whatever you want and we'll follow.
Speaker 2:I'm like what okay?
Speaker 2:see, and I have been told y'all do what you want. And when I do what I want and I get yelled at, I'm like, wait, but you just told me, do what I want. So I mean, I think it is clear. It is good to have clear communication. You know, if I am and I've always said this and and I and I take criticism, I try to take criticism. Well, I know some don't, but like, if somebody tells me that I'm doing something that they don't like or that maybe Want me to try it different, I'm, I'm open to that. You know, maybe they're seeing something I don't see and and in vice versa, I might, you know, I might say to a guitar play, hate, try to do this lick with me. Or you know, we might do a pause or something we try. It either works or it doesn't, and I mean that. But just be clear, communicate, be effective with with your bandmates, because if you're not, like I said, you're gonna have friction and you're just gonna have problems from the from the start.
Speaker 3:Right, and that's like anything else. You know, you have friction with people you work with on a day-to-day basis, or friction in your family. It's, you know it. It's not something specific to Music and being in a band, it's just. How are you going to communicate with one another to get over past that right?
Speaker 2:you know, and I mean if you're, if if you're joining or starting joining or starting a cover band and you know you really want to, maybe you don't know the direction you want to take or maybe you want to kind of Try feed everything. I highly encourage go out and see bands. Go out and see the bands, the ones that are that are Successful and I get that's all perspective. But but watch what they're doing. See what they're doing. I'm not saying emulate them, I'm not saying copy them, but just at least you're gonna get an idea of of their stage presence. Okay, obviously the stage presence is working. Also, the the one thing I'll say is notice what songs clear the dance floor. Um, because that is important, I've been in bands in the past where we're doing good, we're doing good, and then we play that one song that clears the dance floor and what sucks is sometimes you never get them back and that hurts.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it can happen. Um, yeah but I think, from my perspective, I've always hated the idea of well, we've got to play these songs that we can't stand Because that'll get people out on the dance floor right Like no.
Speaker 3:You can play songs that you love and still get people out on the dance floor. I mean, you think about the history of rock and roll music and all of these songs are popular, Right right. People have heard of them before. So I bet when that band goes out and plays them, they play them to 15-20 thousand people and they're going nuts for it.
Speaker 3:So, there are people out there that are gonna love these songs. Sometimes it's not the right audience, wrong bar, wrong area yeah, absolutely. But I think you can always, you know, stay true to yourself and play the music that you love and build that following. That's going to love hearing you play those songs.
Speaker 2:Absolutely it's. It's it like you said. It's finding your audience, yeah, which there's something out there for everybody, right um? All right. I had a, I had a train thought.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah it's when you're creating your setlist and your songs. It doesn't matter what genre. There's no, while there is a science to your flow. There's no one size fits all. You know, I I've done things where we're at this bar, we're playing these songs and they work phenomenally. We've got them all night. Then you go to the other side of the state and you're playing that same set list and Everybody's like the hell is this. You know, and so you got it. You have to be willing to adjust. So that brings the question.
Speaker 2:I mean, an average set list is what 40, 45 songs for three hours said night yeah so I mean, I mean, when you're starting out, do you think that you would you recommend saying, okay, we got our 45 songs, or would you say we're in 60? And just on the fly if needed, because you you might be going one direction with with certain set of songs and this could be any genre again, but you're like, okay, they're not liking these ones, let's try couple of these one and While you're working your way up to that three hour night, there always are these opportunities around, like being a showcase act In the middle of a jam where you can really test it.
Speaker 3:There are there are more than one jam, you know they're all over the place and they have.
Speaker 2:Two of them, I know for sure to uh Ziggy's In january of 20.
Speaker 3:You only need, once you're up to a heck, five, six, seven songs that you feel like really represent who you are. You know, go play one of these 30 minute showcase spots right out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you see how it feels To be up on stage with your band and how people are gonna part of an audience extremely important, because what you're playing in your garage and and what you you know, obviously, like I said, you're you're I always try to think about the future, but what I think may not be reality. So I think you're absolutely right get in front of that audience, you know, and test the waters. Yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean, you're gonna learn that over and, over and over again. I am you know it's in the same band for 10 years and we still kept learning new songs, thinking this is gonna be so great, this is gonna go over so well, and it's kind of like You're disappointed after you play right right, I mean um.
Speaker 2:that was nothing like I had hoped we were doing when it was two weekends. I can't remember what my band was playing and we were doing. We were doing awesome things, we're going great. I mean we, we got to an acdc song. We're normally everybody gets up on acdc, like you know, everybody's ready to rock. But for whatever reason, that night and I didn't work and I remember my guitar player and he literally was pouting like where did everybody go? And to me it's highway to hell, and highway hell is one of my favorite songs to play. It's just, it's, I mean, it's just one of the ones where I get to hit hard and so to any, we always have the audience right there, you know, singing along. So to lose the audience that night over that song, or it's like it's a heads up out here, like what the hell happened here?
Speaker 3:Yeah, oftentimes you don't know and maybe it's some outside and influence that changed things or. But you just, you know, give it a few tries. If it happens the same each time, then now you start to think maybe this isn't gonna work right. But don't, yeah, don't get discouraged if one night no, it was a dud and it the adverse can be the same as well. Like we had a song, boys are back in town. My thin Lizzie love that song. Never would have expected this massive group of you know 21 year old dudes to be out rocking out to this song. Because I'm like, right, guys know this, yeah, and Sometimes, sometimes you're really shocked right.
Speaker 3:It's like I thought you'd just refer to us, as you know, people from the 1900s.
Speaker 2:Some songs I heard, we're out like I, because we'll call audibles and kind of Look at the guitar player, I'm like sure you want to do that one. Like I just don't think it's gonna work.
Speaker 3:And we do it and, and sometimes yeah, you're like okay, and I have to sit there and give them the nod like good call and, yeah, another thing along those lines, and I'm no, we'll get into another episode talking about the show itself, and it's your established and you're playing. But yeah read your audience 100% and if you're set on, 100%.
Speaker 3:If you look at the next song that's coming up in your set list and you know You've got a big crowd right now. That's hanging on what you're doing, and maybe that next song was gonna be One of your slower ones Well, change it, yeah, change it. Grab something else and just keep that yeah energy up Absolute, though come back to that later, right, but grab on to that energy while you've got it and keep it. Yes, and if you're going to go into something slow, find a way to keep their energy through that. And what I would do often and you've seen me is Take it out into the audience.
Speaker 2:Love that. That, to me, is the greatest thing. I actually bought my monopod because you did that.
Speaker 3:I'm gonna be able to follow them so Right, doing a slower song like Creep or champagne supernova or something like that, I always felt like now's the time for me to go make a scene of.
Speaker 2:That's exactly what we do. We do what's up for non blonde and the singer will go out and and she does her thing. Sometimes she's given the microphone to other people, which is not always good when you have any or 10. No, no offense, anybody not is I mean, we love that. You're doing it regardless. But you know, you hear, you hear everybody singing and everybody having a good time and that's the song, those are the songs to do it, whereas you know you might be doing Say talk dirty to me, you're gonna stay on stage, you're gonna do the whole crowd on that one. At least, that's my thoughts. So that, absolutely.
Speaker 3:I'm glad you said that, because that it's another factor of stage presence right, and I've learned from doing that that oftentimes that will be kind of the icebreaker that gets people to Realize that they can't Look away right and they want to follow what you're got you, yeah. So if if you're doing something slower that you think might lose people will then just go out and get them and grab their attention.
Speaker 2:Don't do it in a creeper way. People do that and we're like, oh Right, maybe you should have stayed on stage. But just, I mean, you know what to do. We're all professional, we're all adults. Yeah, you know, just have fun. That's the biggest thing is have fun when you go out there and you have such charisma when, even when you're walking around, I mean.
Speaker 3:I have tested out the structure of a few tables and chairs and yeah, sure, make sure your bars and sure. I just haven't fallen off and broken my foot on occasion, whoops, accidents happen.
Speaker 2:It's all rock and roll right, absolutely, and that's what makes it fun.
Speaker 3:Give yourself to it.
Speaker 2:So also was starting a band, and I know we talk about covering original blind. I'm kind of leaning more towards cover at. What I'm saying, or what I'm going to say here is you need to establish how much free time you have, you know, because Some people's goal is to play one or two times a month, and that's totally fine. Some people want to be playing Friday, saturday, sunday, every weekend right, and that's also fine. But if you're like us and you're married and you're gonna have, you have the potential for pissed off wives at home, or or husbands or whatever the case, because you're not home.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, and that's just another thing that you need to communicate when starting.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Okay, what's our target? How many times a month do we want to play? Where do we want to play?
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm, how far are you willing to?
Speaker 3:travel Right. All of those things are very important to get out early on. Yes, we, we haven't even talked about what is maybe one of the most important things.
Speaker 2:What's that? What are you gonna?
Speaker 3:call your band oh.
Speaker 2:The naming.
Speaker 3:That naming. That's usually the worst. You have sheets full of like hundreds of ideas and you talk about them and somebody loves one and the other not know.
Speaker 2:I hate that and I feel like tribute bands are a little easier in a name Because I mean you can do a thing. We're paying after a song, after a lyric, an album or something exactly I I'm in If anybody out there is watching I want to start an event seven-fold tribute band. I'm older, event seven-fold from nightmare back. Yes, I am advertising right now and I already have the name from for the band which is from their wake in the fallen album chapter four. I don't know. Just to me like pops, like that's, like we're gonna see chapter four, and for events seven-fold fans, they know that's an event seven-fold tribute band. So a tribute act. That feels a little bit easier. But yeah, when it comes to a cover band or even original band, you need to find something that pops, that sticks out and that grabs. I mean, if you have, I Can't think of a and I don't want to call anybody out anyway, but if your name doesn't pop, people aren't gonna even look twice at you right.
Speaker 3:And then you know, I think still, even if you're a tribute band, you can do something. I think something deeper. It doesn't have to be just so out front, right, like just reading the name doesn't mean you have to know, right. That is, I was in a stone temple pile of tribute and I wanted so hard to call it deathbed motorcade. Okay, cuz there's a lyric and tripping on a hole in paper heart that. And so there's deathbed more, okay. And so I thought that's it.
Speaker 2:That'd be a great name and People it's yeah, I mean it's definitely gonna make you look yeah, people kept shooting that down, saying, well, I don't know that, that's stone temple.
Speaker 3:Pilots them. I'm like well.
Speaker 2:If you're a fan, right, if you're a fan, that's just it. And those are the people you're trying to capture, right? Is that bands fans, because you know they're gonna come see you, right, and that's kind of right we're, was that what? Chapter four? Like I, you can say chapter four.
Speaker 3:It can mean anything, but for event seven fold fans and true events up, they know, oh, that okay, and usually a tribute act also has kind of a byline too that says deathbed, motorcade, a stone temple, pilots tribute.
Speaker 2:Exactly you know exactly now you know.
Speaker 2:So I, yeah. Then the naming of an original band and a cover band, I guess it's, it's fitting. We'll talk about my Punk cover band, which we have not played since before, covid strike 13. That's from the 1984 book. You know, the clock strikes 13 and it was kind of like Well, that kind of kind of works, because in the book it talks about how, like you know, if a clock ever strikes 13, it's all bad. And you asked me the other day, like what did Timmy 13 come from? I'm like, because my it's all bad, just a lot of bad luck in my life, just a lot of just like, oh, what, what can go wrong? What else can go wrong? So it just kind of like strike 13. Like I literally woke up and Was like I'm in the college, strike 13, and then Timmy 13 came with that and then what was kind of cool Is that everybody that's been in or out of the band. I've always had a solid drummer and a solid singer, you know, jenna 13, ryan 13 and then we've got Mike 13.
Speaker 2:We everybody comes in. We just don't 13 at the end of their name. So if you ever come a thing, you now you're John 13, like it. Just that's just how it works. So it Is it just like.
Speaker 3:It's like it's not that easy. It's not too much like a Bible verse.
Speaker 2:Sorry. I mean I'm sure we could come up with something, right, but I mean, yeah, so what? How would you suggest what?
Speaker 3:what's I? I wouldn't even know how to begin to suggest. Yeah you just keep making lists and sometimes I didn't know there was such a thing.
Speaker 2:But on the on the inner webs. Yeah, I know to just Create your whole, entire persona.
Speaker 3:I don't know right but um, yeah, I. I guess I still consider myself old school and I'd have to pause the cassette and rewind to say what the hell did he just sing there for people, I don't know.
Speaker 2:Cassettes are these little?
Speaker 3:But yeah, now you just quick Google search, type in the name of the song and lyrics and there they are.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I actually like the. I like the idea of sitting down and writing the writing it down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think it helps to memorize. To yeah, well, you can actually write it out by hand. It helps you learn it better than just reading it.
Speaker 2:Well, and as you're writing it down to especially, man it like you can visualize right, visualize that banner, visualize People screaming like I. Choosing names is not the easiest thing in the world.
Speaker 3:No, it's not, and sometimes you know it. You can kind of be lighthearted about it and just say we will make this name be what it is, Right. I mean the name Pearl Jam is like what the hell is that is these days to say it was his grandma's hallucinogenic Jelly is that she made and that's not true but, you know, everybody knows it now and it's just, it is what it is and it's great.
Speaker 3:I used to be in a band years and years ago with our Ziggy's All Stars house drummer brand and it was called white squirrel and everybody thought that's just the stupidest name, what? And you know they'd send us pictures of albino squirrels every time they saw. I saw an albino squirrel in my backyard. I'm like it's not truly a white squirrel unless it has black eyes.
Speaker 3:But no, but it also created interactions right and we, you know, because we're sitting around trying to think up names and you know it's okay, let's go through all of these names of bands that we like and at the time you know we're talking about, you start listing off all of these bands and it just became there's so many bands with the color white in it. You know there's white lion and white snake and great white and right, all these others and Our guitar players set it in this tough voice, white squirrel, and it just cracked up laughing cuz, you know it's. All of these bands are like these tough, tough a shark, you know lion and you ever seen a pissed off squirrel?
Speaker 3:right Like white squirrel. That's where it's at. Seems pretty cool.
Speaker 2:And that's and that's just it is. So you guys had fun with it, right, and an attorney had you did have reactions, regardless. People are sending you pictures of white school. I got one of my backyards as long as my dog doesn't get to it, you know, now I'm gonna send it to you, just yeah it's not, it doesn't. Black eyes though.
Speaker 3:I remember thinking we we'd really made it because we were playing this gig on St Patrick's Day and, like the music critic from the Pioneer press happened to be there. Nice and so he wrote up a bit about the band and he was like, yeah, real great band, worst name. I've ever heard him. Okay, I bet you he better than being the other way around. I guess you still remembers you today though. Yeah, probably. Yeah that's better than hearing worst band I've ever seen, but the greatest name.
Speaker 2:I, I think I would rather have the the other right, absolutely. So yeah, I mean, take, take time, don't. I always say like that's not something you want to rush, you know, unless you have something that is stellar. But I mean like, take your time, think about it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, pearl Jam. When they first started playing there. Mookie Blalock.
Speaker 2:Oh, we mean how many names of guns and roses go to before they became yeah officially guns and roses, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:Hollywood Rose. Oh yeah, LA guns, LA guns.
Speaker 2:And that's definitely important, see. I mean there's there's there's kind of a lot that goes into starting a band and not just starting, but you know, joining a band and you can do it at any age, I mean we're we're seeing people at the jam that are coming out that are and between mine and your age.
Speaker 2:And just you know, they Decided that. I mean, that's actually how I met my wife, was, you know she Decided that she wanted to learn how to play drums and she walked, you know. She came to the store that I was working on. She doesn't drum anymore, which is fine, but it's never.
Speaker 3:You're never too old, right, you never too old, and that's just it. How do you start a band? Well, decide you want to and then do it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, do some research. I mean you got the, the Google machine. That's a. It's a big helper. Youtube's a big. I mean there's YouTube videos on everything, including this one. Now.
Speaker 3:So, yeah, I mean starting a band is really just that spark that gets everything going. It's like this show. Well, here's our first episode here.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we don't know what it's gonna be. You know, down the line got willing. We're still doing it down the line, but, just like a band, you don't know what it's gonna be, but start and learn and find out and see what it takes go out to shows.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean when you go out.
Speaker 3:Get there early. Yes, see what happens, how much work they put into getting set up and you know there's so much that goes into it. As a singer, I gotta say this to I hate the damn memes as the drummer who also does sound and lights, that say the singer just walks in with his microphone, because nowadays I had to cart around our In-ear monitor rat yeah, and you know I just set up and you've got no whatever else.
Speaker 3:You know that goes along with it. If you're playing, you know you're gonna be playing a tambourine or maracas, or you're gonna be using a megaphone or whatever All these other elements. You know I I've got a crossover jam-packed full every time I went to a gig, right, and you know I wasn't just setting my microphone down.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's true, that's absolutely true. But like for, like me, for my band, if I know that I have to do everything and our show, say, starts at, let's just say, seven, I'm getting to the place at two o'clock because I have to set up my drums, I have to set up all the speakers Lights. I also run everybody's in here.
Speaker 3:So I mean, you got it all.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's.
Speaker 3:It's a lot of work, that's why you got that big truck out there.
Speaker 2:Oh, that truck, and yeah, it pulls the trailer like it's nothing, but understand it's, it's a commitment. It is a commitment. I mean you get these shows, books. I mean, right, you got a whole. True to what you say, because if you Screw up on one or two, you know that these bars are not gonna want to call you back, you know. So make sure that you're holding up your end and you're doing what you're saying you're gonna do. Know that you have to practice right, it's a lot of commitments.
Speaker 3:You have a commitment to your, your band mates. Yeah, first of all, you know you're gonna show up, you're not gonna be wasted and fall off stage. That's a whole nother episode in itself. But also you know, yeah, you're right, you have a commitment to the bar. You know you're there to sell drinks as much as they are, Absolutely so make sure that you are Bringing in the money for them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you have advertising.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the fans, the people that are coming in, put on a good show, make them entertained.
Speaker 2:And we'll talk about all that in our next episode. It's actually marketing. But I mean, and also, you know you think you talk to your if you are Involved in any kind of relationship at home. I mean, talk to your spouse, your loved one at home and let them know like, hey, this is what we're doing, make sure they're on board too, because if they're not, I Mean I'm sure you've seen it, I know I've seen it breakups happen, divorce has happened. Yeah, because it's a commitment. It is a commitment and I mean, if you are truly passionate about this or you didn't truly love what you're doing, you know it's better to have that support system, because it's gonna be easier. It's gonna be a whole lot easier for you if it's, if it's somebody who's not supporting you and it's just gonna be mad at you Every time. You know life's gonna suck. Be clear, be precise About what you want, about what you want to do, whether you're joining a band, whether you're starting a band. Know what you want and find it. Take your time, don't rush it.
Speaker 2:I mean that's. That's kind of what I'm Know you roll, know what you're doing in that band you know yeah know what you bring to the table and Show what you bring to the table.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just Communication in any kind of relationship is always key, whether it's a romantic relationship or a band. You have to communicate how you're feeling about certain things, absolutely or you can talk through the difficult things absolutely yeah, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that that's. Um, that's where we're at at the, the episode 101, starting the band and joining the band. So we want to talk a little bit about the stage and hinge and opportunities we have for for different businesses, different where we're looking to go last year, very last day of the year In fact, we there's when we kicked off and we started the award system or the word show.
Speaker 2:You know, that's, that's a whole thing that we want to kind of build up to again this year and we'll talk though I'll have to talk about what that looks like, but again, that all goes into the live Shows and the live things. You want to talk a little bit about what we're, what we're looking for, what we're Basically spot sponsorship opportunities.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, I mean, and what we're looking here to do is to partner with a lot of businesses, whether you're a brand, a product or you any, any energy drinks. Whether, yeah, and especially you know the, the bars that we work with as bands, we want to drive traffic to you.
Speaker 2:Like I said at the beginning, we're here to help grow your audience right, and that's not just bands, it's your bar, your restaurant, that's absolute, your establishment, and so where I see this going, I see this really taking off and I.
Speaker 3:That's our goal, right, that the Advertising partnerships that we can have with this can really benefit the places we're working with. And you know it helps us too because it sustains us, right? You know we can't, as much as we love the things we're talking about, we can't afford Especially with all this equipment you've got here Keep doing it for free.
Speaker 2:It's not cheap, I'll tell you yeah. So if you're interested in working with us we have different levels I Go ahead and I would say contact us. I mean, if you have our numbers, John, especially Otherwise we do have an email info at the stage and hinge calm and that'll be forwarded to the correct person.
Speaker 3:I think we can put this on a website link.
Speaker 2:Yep, absolutely. We actually have a whole. We're working on the website. We'll have it. We'll have it launched soon. We do have a whole spot for for sponsorships, which you know that you could be on it. You could be featured on that page. You know we we again drive traffic. That was a great way to put it. We won't drive traffic to you. We want to help you and you know it's helping you. Help us, help us, help you type situations. That's how I feel about it.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. Well, on that note, do we talk about our first one or wait until next month?
Speaker 2:Let's uh, let's, let's, If you you've got their show schedule.
Speaker 3:I do.
Speaker 2:So let's, let's go ahead and give them a shout out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our very first sponsor is Ziggy's live music in Hudson, Wisconsin. Such a great place to play, right.
Speaker 2:I love their elevator too. Yeah it does help whenever you.
Speaker 3:Play a lot of those clubs, or you've got a narrow hallway up two flights of stairs.
Speaker 2:Oh, we won't. We won't talk about the one bar, because I said I will never mention names, but the stairs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but yeah, and so Ziggy's Hudson is a great place. I think they really Support live music 100. That's what they're, they're all about. You know, everywhere you see it on the backs of their shirts it says love, live music and they really show that they do.
Speaker 3:You know they back that up and all that they do, and so, as yeah, as part of their sponsorship plan, we will talk about upcoming events that are going to be at Ziggy. So the bands that will be playing there from now until our next Podcast is released We'll talk about next Friday night. Well, first of all, I should mention they've got live music five nights a week.
Speaker 2:You were telling me that earlier and I. The one thing that caught me, and then I think I might have to go out to one Night, is the piano.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I love that stuff right.
Speaker 3:So every Sunday night they've got a piano bar, every Wednesday night karaoke, and I think For aspiring singers out there that is a great place to start. It is absolutely a great place to start because no longer are you singing along to the song but you still have cues, yes, and that helps quite a bit and get you your timing down to a great way to rehearse, to absolutely great way to rehearse on your own.
Speaker 3:Every Thursday night they've got Tim Grady live playing piano and singing and he is fantastic. If you haven't seen Tim, I highly recommend you check that out. So this coming week Friday, thursday and Friday they've got Tim Grady. He's there Saturday night as well Playing piano and singing on the main floor. On the second floor, friday night They've got schizo-phonic Nice. A couple of great name bands here. Schizo-phonic on Friday and on Saturday some shitty cover band Not that I'm bashing on the band that's playing.
Speaker 2:That's their name that is absolutely their name and it works again. We were talking about, maybe, conventions earlier. I mean, you're. You're never gonna forget who they are right, right.
Speaker 3:And then following weekend, on the ninth, they've got rough house great band to go check out. They play there quite a bit.
Speaker 2:Nice and you said they always have food specials right?
Speaker 3:yeah, they do, and we'll talk about that as we go on, because Eventually we'll do a live Broadcast from now. Wait, ziggy's and Hudson. That will be fun too. Be a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:But yeah, there's a, there's a ton of sponsorship opportunities. Again that email, throw it up on the screen. Swipe Info at the stage. On hinge comm Also. I mean we, we, we want to have guests on the show. We want to have people come and talk about their experiences. You know, yeah, what the episodes are. So if that's something that interests you, I Will say don't be mad if we don't have you or if we don't respond, right, because I mean, even before this episode comes out, I've already had so many people saying I want to be part of your show. I was like whoa, whoa. We got to see what that looks like, so hold yeah, we're gonna find our way.
Speaker 3:Yeah, as we go like anything else.
Speaker 2:I know that our next episode is about marketing and I know that there is somebody I would love to have on with us. It's just gonna be if we can figure out scheduling, and that's another big thing is scheduling. You're a busy person, I'm a busy person, you're all a busy people, so you know I'm. If we can have them on and it works out, I would love, because they're they're, their knowledge of marketing is just Far none. They, they helped me a lot. I won't say the person's name, just in case they can't make it for whatever reason.
Speaker 3:Yeah, right on. Yeah, you mentioned having guests on at that at any time. You know, we could bring in a A band to the studio to do something live, absolutely, whether it's just an acoustic, we've got a keyboard set up if you want to we've got.
Speaker 2:We've got options. The sky's the limit for us. That's awesome. Well, thank you guys for tuning in. Make sure you Smash that subscribe button, follow, share. We can't do this without you. So Thanks for watching and we'll see you. We'll see you next time. Bye guys.