Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
When I’m on the road by myself or with a small crew, I tour in my trusty Subaru Outback. I have no notable break-down stories to date, but the time is likely coming! When I tour with the band, we always seem to end up renting a Chrysler Pacifica. We had a Dodge Grand Caravan once. Worst vehicle I’ve ever driven, and we wound up stuck with it in an apocalyptic ice storm in the Pacific Northwest a few years ago—big-rigs jackknifed all over the road and more crashes than we could count. I have pictures where you can see each individual blade of grass in its own sheath of ice. I had to crawl into the rest stop when we stopped to avoid falling. That was one for the books!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Go to the grocery store! Not every meal has to happen in a restaurant. Insist on eating plant matter. You will lose your voice if you neglect hydration.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I hardly ever break strings—which means I don’t replace them nearly as often as I should! My fiddle strings run me about $70 a set, and my banjo and guitar strings about $12.
Where do you rehearse?
I am an apartment dweller and consequently have no stable rehearsal space! It’s a drag. During the school year I’m able to use facilities at Brown University, where I’m currently working on a Ph.D. in Musicology and Ethnomusicology. During the summer I’m mostly out of luck, though, so it’s more of a “rehearse at the gig” situation unless I want to rent a space. If I need to rehearse with a band I book space at a place called JamStage in Providence, which is cool. It’s also pretty funny, because I usually wind up playing with my string band in one room while a dad band does Linkin Park covers or whatever in the next room over. I love ending up next to such different sounds!
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
My sister recently unearthed a song we co-wrote in our youth called “Song About George.” It began with “I keep my dead neighbor in the spice cabinet.” I’m pretty sure George was actually a chicken we were making for dinner, and at some point we started calling George a neighbor, and you cook chickens with spices (ideally, anyway). It made a lot of sense to me when I was nine, but it was pretty horrifying to read out of context!
Describe your first gig.
I think it was a Battle of the Bands at the 9:30 Club in DC! I think we played “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots and “Slither” by Velvet Revolver.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
I did some odd jobs to supplement gig income early on, but the last steady thing was probably one of my on-campus jobs during college! I had jobs in the admissions office and the center that handled diversity and advocacy. I’m not sure I have a favorite, though!
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?
I’m not sure how to track the changes, necessarily—it’s certainly gotten better as I’ve gone! Ultimately, though, I realized making a comfortable amount of money would require artistic compromises I didn’t want to make and a set of priorities that isn’t mine. I like performing, but I don’t necessarily love touring, and if I spend too much mental energy on the business stuff I start to hate the music. It became clear I needed to make a different model for myself, and that’s part of why I decided to go back to grad school. Now I probably take in less money than I did at my touring peak, but I also don’t have to spend it, and I’m not living on it since I have my stipend—which means I’m saving in a way I couldn’t before, and I’m able to stockpile the money needed to actually make my creative projects happen. I highly recommend that everyone have a livable income stream outside of music. It makes your music much, much better.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I guess similarly to my last question: playing more does not actually make you a better musician. Ensure that you have space, time, and resources to practice and create with intention. Playing a show every night for three months will not help you musically if you’re doing the same fifteen songs every day. If you want to road dog like crazy and create a career for yourself, that’s a different question—you have to tour a lot to do that. But really, that’s the crux of it: what’s best for your music career will often be the opposite of what’s best for your actual music. Find the right balance and protect it. You have to let some opportunities go in order to take maximum advantage of others.