Photo credit: Carl Press
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
We’re renting transit vans at the moment. There are pros and cons of owning vs renting but after our first van, Paco, died tragically on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere se we we decided to rent until we get to a bus, which will hopefully be soon because our trailer these days is massive and very hard on the vans. We were getting around 6 miles to the gallon on this last tour through the midwest and actually did run out of gas one time and I had to jog a mile to the gas station and hitch a ride back. We screeched back into ATL after the tour with barely any brake pads left on that thing.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
We try to eat greens and veggies as much as possible, and I’d say we’ve definitely gotten better about eating well on the road. But at our level you just end up at fast food places a lot traveling so many hours during the day. Favorite fast food burger: Culver’s.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Strings break all the time and are actually kind of expensive, around $12 a pack. We used to break a lot more before we were better about keeping our guitars in good shape.
Where do you rehearse?
We don’t have a rehearsal space of our own, yet. We get AirBnB’s for a couple of weeks or so at a time and demo/rehearse/write. We love that process.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I wrote a love song to my girlfriend in kindergarten. “mary lucy, will you marry me, i love you.” I can still hear the hook. Catchy stuff.
Describe your first gig.
First gig, in general, was a boy’s quartet in high school. I was a baritone and we were terrible.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My last official day job was landscaping in Athens, GA about a decade ago. I don’t have a favorite day job, they were all terrible but if I had to choose, I’d say the summer before we recorded our first EP I was the fry-guy at a place called Knuckleheads, which was basically a B-class Loco’s if you can imagine something that bad. My best friend was the manager and our girlfriends were 2 of the waitresses. It was like a reality TV show.
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?
Income was relatively the same for about a decade ha. Which was almost nothing. The biggest change was post-Teamwork / pandemic. Basically went from being in debt to being a homeowner, and thus having larger debt haha. But we’ve worked hard and we’re also very lucky. I have no reason to believe that we won’t experience a lotta growth over the next decade as well.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Wow there are so many things you learn over time that only experience will teach, but perhaps more than any one fact would maybe be the concept and many facets of honesty. Being honest with yourself takes practice and is crucial for the long-term. And also be extremely careful when picking your team. 98% of the people in this industry are posers. Find a crew you can trust and stick with them.