I love music. It’s affected me more than any other form of art that exists. It creates a soundtrack for our lives. My first love happened in the midst of albums. I had my dentist pull out my wisdom tooth to my favorite song (at the time). Strong memories have been locked in with songs.
I spent countless hours in my room learning how to play guitar and piano because of my affection for moving people. I tried. I started playing shows before I was any good; I just wanted to play for anybody. I cleared out rooms with my terrible music. But I learned.
I had the chance of a lifetime at the end of highschool. I talked my way onto a Top 40 radio station in my area (KOSO B92.9FM, formerly B93.1FM). The DJ, Dave Mazzy, had a sense of humor and I called him nightly and goofed about everything. One night, I called in and sang a parody song about Monica Lewinsky. He loved it and aired it that night. The next week I called in and told him I was coming to the station. Dave exclaimed, “Bring your guitar!”
That was the beginning of the bug. I was able to go on the radio station every Friday night, listen to great music, perform parodies and my own songs, and feel famous. I made local bands jealous. There was literally no other local band on Top 40 radio every Friday night. How often do you hear local bands on the radio? Maybe one night a week during a special local hour. You don’t hear local bands co-hosting shows and hanging out during the whole show every week. I did. Dave Mazzy made me and my music come to life outside of my bedroom.
Not only did I get to perform on the radio that year, I also figured out a way to get onto all of the B93-sponsored shows. Summerfest was their BIG show yearly. In 1999, they hosted bands like Better Than Ezra, The Flys, Blessid Union of Souls, Stretch Princess, and… my band. We played on the main stage (there were no side stages) in front of 10,000 people to kick off the event. My life was never better. When Halloween came, I played B93’s Retro Halloween event featuring Berlin and The Romantics! I had pimples because of nerves, so I had my girlfriend at the time apply her cover-up to my face. I am pale. I’m very pale. Needless to say, she was more tan than I was. I found out later that my face looked orange on stage. Fuck it. It was Halloween.
Dave Mazzy had this crazy idea that he would come on stage wearing a Bill Clinton mask and make some jokes and talk with me. When he got on stage, he started yelling and doing his thing… and I couldn’t understand one word he said under the mask. It was almost like he had a rag covering up his mouth and he was trying to communicate with me through that. I had no idea what to say on stage in front of thousands of people. I don’t even know how that bit ended, but it was hilarious for us.
When the 90’s ended, something began to change. Modesto, California began to lose it’s local music scene. I remember when I went to a couple of B93-sponsored shows downtown, and hardly anybody showed up. A band named Radford played downtown outside of a restaurant called Red Pepper Cafe. About 50 people were there (maybe less). We didn’t realize what was happening to music in our area at that point; we just thought it was a bad showing. One of my favorite artists, Matt Nathanson, had an interview on B93 one night and said he was going to play a quick impromptu set at the same cafe before the big Christmas show that B93 put on. My friend Scott and I bolted over the restaurant to catch his impromptu set. We were the only people there to see him. He was grateful we were there, and we got to request every song. But that was the first night I noticed it. People weren’t going out as much for music. When Splender, Stroke 9, and SR-71 played in Modesto, that was the final straw. With all of these continuous weak audiences, people were losing money. It really wasn’t anything that the radio station did. It wasn’t anything the bands did. I saw some of the best shows of my life during that time, but people weren’t reacting.
B93 soon noticed it too and had to cancel their Summerfest series. Even MTV pushed music videos to a new channel called MTV2 (that was really hard to get unless you paid for a badass cable package). My band broke up, I met a new girl and stayed in her room most of the time watching MTV2. I got a job at Wherehouse Music and sold records for a living. I was still working there when they filed Chapter 11. I quit before they went out of business.
In 2003, I was living in Orange County and started to play music again. I found myself booking a lot of shows back in Sacramento (I knew more bands in Sacramento). I moved back and met one of the most inspiring musicians and most beneficial people in my music career to date. Michael Grant played in a band called Endever, and he caught my set one night at a little coffee shop. We shared an equal respect for each other, and we began jamming and hanging out together often. Often became daily as we were building a best friendship. Mike even came to my Speech class in college to play Inspector Gadget on guitar with me for a skit. We were just there for each other. I wrote my EP over the next couple years, and in 2006, I asked Mike to help me record my first legitimate EP. We went into a studio in Sacramento (Pus Cavern) and recorded the whole thing in one week. Mike played half the instruments, and I played the other half. I was so proud of it. I still am.
Once I had the EP in my hands, I scheduled an appointment with the Program Director at B93. I played a song called The Party for him, and he seemed to like it. He decided to play it on Dave Mazzy’s show one evening. I took a Music Business class in Orange County and the teacher had given us advice for these moments. He told us to have fans call in after the song had played to voice their support for it so the radio station would know to keep playing the song. Well a lot of people called that night. A LOT. Dave was pretty pissed, and so was the Program Director. I didn’t really understand why because I was only trying to get people to listen to their station and participate in the music scene. I wanted my fans to be the fans that still cared…. the fans that still showed support. B93 did not want that from me. In fact, I still believe that night was the moment I destroyed my relationship with them (Dave and I still communicate). I was depressed and stressed out about it because my intentions weren’t bad at all. In fact, I’d never heard of a radio station’s employees getting angry for having people participate in it. It just blew me away.
On September 9, 2006, I had a CD Release Party at The Underground in Roseville, CA. Over 300 people came to the show. I broke pre-order sales records for the venue. We had near 100 pre-sales. I was ecstatic. The show was great and we sold 100 CD’s that evening (which was incredible). The Underground went out of business about a year later.
In 2009, I released my second and third eps on the same evening at a beautiful theatre in Downtown Sacramento called The Guild Theatre. I had to rent it out myself and purchase liability insurance. Although I probably pissed off a lot of promoters in Sacramento (they would’ve made money if I would’ve held my second CD Release in their venue), I didn’t care anymore. I wanted a theatre to perform in. I didn’t want my fans to come into a run down bar and stand way too close to each other and feel uncomfortable all night. With what I’ve seen in the business, I knew that if I held my show in a venue that wasn’t accommodating, people wouldn’t come back to my shows. I needed to make my show believable. I wanted to be larger than life. I sold out The Guild Theatre the night of my show. My friends and I ran everything from sound to concessions to tickets…. we did it all. I pre-sold about 115 tickets and sold that in albums.
Since then, I’ve toured 3 times around the Western United States. I’ve had some successes on the road and some major failures. On the last tour, we played in a town called Colton (California). Apparently we weren’t the only ones who hadn’t heard of it because the only person that was there was the bartender. Instead of setting up our gear and playing a show, we played pool. It was disheartening. I remembered Matt Nathanson at Red Pepper Cafe. This year, Matt’s single “Come On Get Higher” has been played on American Idol. He’s doing better than ever. It still gives me a little hope for the music business.
But I’m getting older now. I’ve been playing for a long time. If my music doesn’t break soon, I have no choice but to get real and start another career that easier to break into. I’ve had an AMAZING 10 years of playing music, and I’ve done a lot of things that most local/independent bands cannot say they’ve had the opportunity to do. I don’t know many local Sacramento bands that draw 200-300 people to their CD Release Shows (there are a handful). I’ve been lucky. I’m not complaining. I’d like to continue on my music path, but I’m not going to be one of those ridiculous types. There’s a documentary called “Anvil” that is exactly about that. It’s a band that has been playing Metal since the 80’s. They are all pretty old now, but they are still trying to make it in the industry. If you haven’t seen that movie, watch it. It’s what the business is REALLY like. 2% of all of the musicians that try to “make it” in the industry are actually successful stars now. That’s the part you normally get to see. Anvil is what the other 98% go through (mostly). It’s not all glamourous. But it’s an experience. Music guides people. It’s so important, and I still believe that. I just hope that people come back to that belief again.
In the age of ‘computers in our phones’ and information literally in our fingertips all day, it’s harder and harder to get people to ‘go out’ to experience life. I’m as guilty as charged; here I am blogging on my MacBook. My iPhone is right next to me. I’m attached to them. I go out less. But local live music still needs support. Don’t forget about what got your favorite artists onto major labels, radio stations, and their albums into Best Buy…
it was YOU.
