Photo credit: Gracie Meier
Tell us about your tour vehicle.
We have a 2005 Chevy Suburban and a large enclosed trailer that we purchased for touring right before the pandemic hit. We’ve canceled 2 major tours and are just beginning tour plans for 2023. After barely fitting all of us and our gear in the Suburban when on the last runout, I think we’re going to try splitting up into 2 vehicles for this next one.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Our manager is like our “band mom” and usually makes sure we have tons of food stocked. She’s made sandwiches and snack packs for us in the past. She does a lot of bulk shopping at Costco and likes to make stuff from scratch. We’ve been lucky to have meals provided at a lot of the venues we’ve played. I think our last show on the road before COVID hit, we were playing at the Mothership in Taos and they had the greenroom stocked with enchiladas and salads and just a massive amount of food. It was awesome!
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Almost none! I buy sets in packs of five and change them when they start to fray or get rusty or the fingerboard gets grimy.
Where do you rehearse?
It’s in the back half of our house, an old dance hall from 1930. It’s full of instruments and show posters. We’ve done all our Tiny Desk contest videos there, learned and rehearsed all our songs, rehearsed Halloween cover band gigs (Cake, Bowie, Aerosmith, Stones), had a bunch of IPAs and margaritas, and rehearsed with babies and toddlers rolling around.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
“Kartok,” about an alien. “Convicted victim of a foreign sky/chases remnants of thoughts denied…” really good.
Describe your first gig.
(Paul’s first gig) A trumpet player from the high school jazz band hired me to play bass with a combo of some older dudes at a trade show or something, lol. They were mad at me because I kept getting lost. I think I got $50 that I did not deserve.
(DCO’s first gig) We recently had our 4th anniversary of our first show as a band. I was playing bass for a CD release show for another band and nominated myself–with an as yet unformed band–to be the opener. With two rehearsals, a few originals, and a few covers we made it happen. There’s a video on youtube of us playing the Felice Brother’s song Frankie’s Gun from that show.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
I think washing dishes was the last one. The owner had violent, screaming fits every day. She was insane. “I’LL PUT A BULLET IN YOUR FUCKING HEART!” Yikes. I had an interesting one driving dead bodies to and from autopsy. Some gruesome stories in there.
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 had a goal of doubling my music income every year which I was able to maintain for surprisingly long. I don’t have much in the way of expectations, hopefully make enough that I can keep doing it.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I wish I’d known about the availability of online courses. The few I’ve taken recently have really demystified aspects of songwriting, recording, and producing and taken a lot of the heartache out of it and made it so much easier and more accessible and enjoyable.