Gigs And Busted Teeth

The album release party I talked about last night wasn’t our first show.

We’d had a couple years experience playing already. But even after we released that first album we were very much in the business of saying yes to every live opportunity that we could get.

And it was great. We were on the road every weekend two or three shows. Lots in the southeast and midwest, some in the northeast and even a few out west. Learning how to play, to put on a show, understand our chemistry, craft a setlist, make mistakes, try new stuff.

It was quintessential new rock band on the road. Absolutely fantastic.

And truth be told, I was the head cheerleader of ‘lets book a million shows and say yes to everything’.

But after a couple more years of that I started to become less and less right. Only I didn’t know it.

We did a gig on a Sunday night somewhere in North Carolina. It was a dud. Everything about it was a dud. And we knew it when the gig got booked months earlier. But hey, we say yes to everything. To add injury to insult…during the last song of the set a girl crashed into our guitar players mic stand, hitting him right in the teeth and there was blood.

We should have never been there. His bloody teeth were the physical representation of a great idea that didn’t evolve.

Saying yes to everything was spot on when we started. But the longer we toured the less it was right.

The right ideas can become the wrong ideas. It happens so gradually, it’s easy to miss. 

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

It Was Ten Years Ago Today

It Was Ten Years Ago Today

Ten years ago today I was in a band, releasing our first album. That night we played to a sold out a club called Exit/In in Nashville. Everyone was there.

We somehow stretched our one album into a full headlining set and for the encore played the second half of Abbey Road (well, from Golden Slumbers to the end).

We were young, ready to rock, naively optimistic and had black leather boots.

It was pure electricity.

So ten years later…

It’s even more magical that when it first happened. I had the joy of spending that night (and a bazillion more) with guys I love. Guys who had the magic, the extra something. It was a thrill.

Releasing that first album kicked off a wild ride and sequence of experiences that taught me more than I could have ever dreamed.

Have a listen on Spotify or Apple Music.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Master Of The Tour

The whole tour takes on the vibe of the lead singer of the headlining act.

If the lead singer never talks to anyone and stays on the bus all day, the vibe across the whole tour is disjointed, uncertain, fearful, hiding, wondering, egg shell stepping. It’s weird and doesn’t make for a pleasant time on the road. And this happens all the time.

On the other hand when the lead singer knows everyones names, invites the opening act into the dressing room, hangs out at soundcheck and has a sense of humor…That is an infectious, safe, warm, inclusive vibe that flows through every interaction of every person on the tour.

The vibe is always drawn from the leader, the master of ceremonies, master of the tour.

***This idea can be applied to lots of situations but one parallel that I want to make sure isn’t missed here as it’s so practical and important…When someone comes over to your house, you dictate the vibe. Plain and simple. You are the master of the house and the vibe flows through you.

And here’s a little trick…always have a little bowl of m&m’s out. Doesn’t matter if anyone actually eats them. The fact that they’re there makes it better.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

Hooky Hook

The whole song can be hooky but you still need a hook.

While the hooky makes you a great artist, the hook makes you a hit artist.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com

The Raconteurs In Nashville

I saw The Raconteurs play at the Ryman this past weekend. A great rock band playing great rock songs. 

There was lots of stuff worth noting, but I’ll share two…

Patrick Keeler (drummer) is a force. He’s bold and he has finesse. He’s wide open but nails the details. But even more than that I was stunned at how he was simultaneously leading the band and following. Because the drummer is the engine, and he definitely was. But Jack is the leader…

Jack is both playing the show and thinking of what might work best next. Thinking of ideas in real time, in context of the night, weighing them, deciding yes or no and implementing the result. Some of them work really well, some of them are meh, sometimes there’s obvious mistakes. So the strike outs are real but so are the home runs. But he is responding to his creative voice right there on stage thinking ‘hmmm, maybe this will work…’

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The Contract

You get woo’d by a rep at the record label or publishing company and everyone loves everyone and wants the best for everyone. They say they want to sign you and are going to send over an agreement. You’re pumped.

Then the rep sends over the contract and the contract is awfully skewed toward their benefit.

Here’s the thing…The contract that gets sent to you is never written by the rep that you’ve been spending all this time getting to know.

It was written by the company lawyer.

The rep likely has little to no relationship with the company lawyer so the thought of the rep getting you favorable terms right off the bat is not going to happen.

It’s their standard agreement. You might be special in the rep’s eyes, but you are not special in the lawyer’s eyes. You get what everyone else gets.

Artists get confused and frustrated at this realization because the dinners and coffee meetings with the rep were so fun and buddy buddy.

A few things here…

1. If you have your own bulldog lawyer who has a relationship with their lawyer, that’s your best shot at negotiating.

2. The person who sends the first version of the contract always wins. And the artist rarely has the guts to go first.

3. The rep still likes you and that is important. Once the deal is negotiated and signed, their enthusiasm and relationship can take center stage again. Their lawyer is meant to be the evil buffer, so you get to hate the lawyer and love the rep.

4. The honeymoon ends and the real work begins after the contract is signed.

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Drop me an email: gabe@gabethebassplayer.com