Photo credit: Rodneri
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
I don’t have a vehicle! I live in Brooklyn so I use the subway when I’m at home and rely on taxis/Lyfts/rentals to get around on the road. I once broke the front windshield of a taxi in Shanghai, China because I was trying to fit my upright bass in the front passenger seat. Other than that, it’s been pretty smooth sailing!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
I have had a Macrobar for breakfast every morning for the last 2 years. They are easy to travel with and it’s nice to have some consistency while moving around so much and to have the first meal of the day accounted for so you don’t have to go in search of anything early in the morning. Other than that, I like bananas and cornichons (the little tiny pickles) as road snacks. Stay hydrated with sparkling water!
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I almost never break strings, but recently broke one in front of Madison Square Garden where I was with my bandmates in Lake Street Dive taking a photo to promote our first show there that we have coming up in September. I’m thinking of it as a good omen for the show!
Where do you rehearse?
My rehearsal space is my basement in Brooklyn. I’m very lucky to have an apartment with a basement and my bedroom/kitchen are above it on the first floor so it doesn’t bother any neighbors! I keep lots of fun knick-knacks around to make rehearsal joyful like a candy claw machine, a Joe Dart bobble-head and a Cory Wong bobble-hand, and many many photos of my hero Paul McCartney.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I wrote my first song when I was probably 6 years old and taking piano lessons. It had a little left hand bass line on the piano and then a melody over the top that went:
“Walking along in the forest
Singing a song with a chorus”
I remember the thrill of having my own song stuck in my head and hearing my family humming it to themselves around the house!
Describe your first gig.
Hmmmmm…I think my first paid gig was when my friend Nelle Dunlap hired my junior high rock band, Metro Pilot, to play at her birthday party. It was really fun!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My most recent and favorite ever day job was selling foam fingers for The Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. I loved that job!!! You got to be outside, walking around in the sunshine…everyone there was happy to be there. We would finish selling each game after the 7th inning and then I would go settle up at the office and grab an ice cream cone (vendors got free ice cream!) and watch everybody sing “Sweet Caroline.”
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
My music related income is and has been primarily from live performance for all of my career. People talk about the glory days of the recording industry where people were living lavish lifestyles off their record advances but I think I missed that era by a couple of years and have always been used to the idea that recording is not profitable. Of course, it would be nice if it was… But I’m also grateful that I didn’t get used to that and then have to adjust to the current model.
In terms of the future, I’ll be happy if I can keep doing what I’m doing for as long as possible! Maybe at some point it will make sense to tour less and focus more on writing songs or producing records…but honestly I’m not overly eager for that phase! I love traveling and playing shows and meeting new people all the time in different cities.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I think it would have been helpful to know that the job of being a musician is not just playing music. It’s taken me a long time to adjust to that and to learn to love the other aspects of being a musician–making music videos for example. It used to feel like such a chore and an afterthought to me, like “can’t we just stick to the music, man?!” But I’ve finally turned a corner with it recently where I love that part of the process and get a lot of joy and creative spark and fulfillment out of it too. Now anything that’s part of the job I try not to fight it and instead to make everything it’s own creative project!