Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
A few tour busses, several vans and my own medium size SUV. With me it’s a lot about fitting an upright bass with whatever else and whoever else travels with me. So a few relationships went bad cause there just wasn’t room, ha.
On last tour in Italy (solo) the car I was loaned broke down twice right at the border of Switzerland and Italy, I had to say let’s save these shows for next time, when it is supposed to be.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
You have to ask around at the gigs and the locals and find the best for the buck. Try and find salads! Sometimes when you’re in the middle of nowhere you gotta go ahead and eat the Denny’s burger but then travel with some good multi vitamins and take one with it. Secret of the road, works for hotdogs too… and pizza.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I really don’t break strings, knock, knock on wood, ha, maybe once every 3 years, but I do change them every 6 gigs or so, so they stay fresh and bright in a good way. I get boxes of 3, good deals for $20.
Where do you rehearse?
Rehearsal is really wherever everyone can meet, that can be someone’s living room, it can be their studio or it can be a paid rehearsal spot. In general pick one with lots of free parking, you don’t want that to be an issue as you gather your troops to learn 10 new songs of yours. And always esp in this day and age BYO mic.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
“Sunny Day” – Woke up it was a sunny day and I thought about last night, I thought about last night . . .
Describe your first gig.
Playing upright bass in a jazz ensemble in NYC, I was under age in a club uptown, 15, I loved every minute of it!
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
Never had much of a day job, sometimes when I’m composing for a show, I’ll call it a “cool day job”. I was a pretty good sous chef at a seafood restaurant in Fire Island NY, however I wasn’t great at shucking oysters . . .aw shucks.
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?
The hustle is real, you gotta stay on it, and ask for what you deserve, and also take some gigs that are wonderful in other ways, to make up for the short change. I think it will rise for those who work hard and persist. Right now it’s the same as it was 5-10 years ago so who knows? The obvious elephant in the room is STREAMING, making .003 cents a play is very hard to gather big funds to cover living expenses, so you have to sell material and keep gigging.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Gather your band and keep them close by, make it a troupe, so you can help each other along the way. Share the benefits, split the disappointments. Be there for each other like a team. #musicteam 101