Photo credit: Brian Adler
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
Shannon Koehler: As my brother Spence likes to say, I’ve been the proud owner of several passenger vans. LOL! All of them have had flat tires or engine issues, but one time our van and trailer disappeared. I woke up in the morning about six years ago outside of Dallas, TX at a La Quinta, went to get something out of the van, but it was gone. I called the rest of the guys to see if they had taken it to gas up, but no, it had been stolen. All of our gear, ALL OF IT. We rallied and finished the nationwide tour, thanks to our amazing fans, and even some help from Sammy Hagar (thank you again Red Rocker)! A year later we heard that the police had found it, burnt to a crisp in the desert, never to be seen again.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Shannon Koehler: We’ve been down the road of eating poorly on the road–fried foods and semi-fast food for days on end…it’s a dark place. So we like to go to healthy grocery stores and stock up on good stuff to make sure we can feel good on stage. May I interest you in some bell pepper and hummus? We also make sure our rider has lots of healthy organic stuff on it so we’re not just munching on chips before a show. Nothing against chips of course.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
Spence Koehler: I used to break strings on my SG all the time! So often that I even tried those graphite saddles for a while. Breaking a string is fine in practice, but during a show, especially during a song where you’re relying on that string for a particular riff, it can really throw me off mentally. So I decided to just pony up and change strings before most shows. A new pack of electric strings is around five bucks, so I just take the time to throw a new shiny set on and give ’em a good stretch the night before or during soundcheck so they don’t dive out of tune during the first song of the set. And always have a backup guitar on your rack!
Where do you rehearse?
Spence Koehler: These days we just rent out whatever space is available for a few hours, we let our lock-out room of many years in SoMa go when the pandemic hit. When we used to all live together in the Sunset of San Francisco, we just practiced in the garage – we added mattresses on the walls, carpet on the floor, the drums were up on a sandbox, old show posters, a picture of Vanna White, all for “soundproofing.”
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
Shannon Koehler: This is incredibly embarrassing, but the very first song I wrote lyrics for in my sophomore year at high school was called “Country Twang.” It had some famous country singer names in it, but the only lyric I can remember is, “I still got that country twang.” You can imagine what it sounded like. I think I even had a cowboy hat on when I sang it. We grew up in the foothills of the Sierras, please forgive me!
Describe your first gig.
Spence Koehler: Our first gig was on the lawn at an ice cream social that an older couple at our church threw in their backyard. We were in middle school then and had stars in our eyes after the gig when they handed us $30 to split!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
Shannon Koehler: Outside of music, I work for a great non-profit called Community Music Center in San Francisco. Our mission is to make music education accessible to everyone, providing lessons on a sliding salary scale. The organization has been around for over 100 years and going strong. I do operations for them and I love getting to hear the kids and adults play while I work. Having me be an active/touring musician is helpful for them so I can be a link to what’s happening in the music industry and it works great for me so I can play and keep the music flowing!
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?
Shannon Koehler: I used to depend on my music income to sustain me much more than I do now, but I wouldn’t say the income has changed. I think my perspective on how I see my career in music has changed. Getting married and the post-Covid world has shifted a lot for me. I don’t really care what my income level is from the music. I mean, of course, you wanna make some money and make more money and not lose money and do more music, that’s obvious, but now I’m just doing it because it’s what I love to do. I’ll always make music with my brother. That will never change.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Spence Koehler: Play every show like you’re playing a sold-out headlining set for a packed house. If the room is sparse, turn into your band and play with them. That conscious shift as a band really improved how we performed together live and how we felt about our set after shows.