Behind The Backline

Very few of us know exactly what we want to do when we grow up, regardless of our current age (under 20 and over 80, I’m talking to you too!).  In fact, for most of the human race and society, the expectation to go from childhood, to grade school, to high school, to college, to career, to family, and end in retirement has become a bit of a scary “cookie cutter” way of life.  There aren’t enough of us asking “why do we do that?”.  What if everyone on this planet was able to easily identify their true passion, their true calling and accept that as what each of us are meant to do to contribute to the world during our time here?  In modern times, it’s more common to hear about this story in technology and philosophical industries where people are following their dreams to change the world for the better, but it’s not as often that you hear about this kind of story coming from the world of DIY arts and music outside of the superstar record deals and the American Idol type success stories. 

The music industry is an interesting place to be. A path you might start down might not be the path you end up on. What you think you want to do may not be the thing the industry picks for you. For creative musician types, there isn’t necessarily a typical “corporate ladder” structure that provides a single path like other industries.  In fact, the music industry is more like a series of (tuning) forks or a “choose your own adventure” book that dictates your career path.  ONCE UPON A TIME IN BROOKLYN...  Born and raised in Brooklyn, Dave Hillis grew up next door to the future lead vocalist and bass player for Type O Negative Peter Steele. At the age of 5, Dave started playing piano and guitar, and had a chance to watch Pete play in bands and become inspired by the rock and metal scenes.  Finding that he wasn’t good at playing cover songs, he found a passion for writing his own original music. Noting the record labels on his favorite bands’ album cases, he started just sending tapes of his

No one can predict the future. No one can ever know what’s coming next (except me, just kidding). A lot of times we have to roll with what life throws at us, regardless of how predictable we want our life to be.  As humans we are creatures of habit, loving every minute of having a routine, going to work, coming home, advancing our career, staying organized and having everything in its place, and knowing that we have the power to make tweaks to it whenever we want, as long as its within our comfort zone.  But as we very well know, life enjoys throwing the occasional right hook at us to see how we handle it.  This is something that both Michael and I, your humble podcast host, have experienced in recent years.  THANK GOD YOU FOUND A REAL JOB  Michael had two career path options in his early years: music and journalism. As you’ll hear, his father was super happy he chose journalism, a job that he knew was stable and had a future (cough).  As time (and the Internet) will tell you, m

Most people who go into business have an idea they want to try and make a valiant effort and are aware that things are either moving or not moving. Most people need to put in the work to watch the seed they plant grow. Every once in awhile, though, it seems God and fate are in the driver’s seat and you just come along for the ride.  That’s what happened with John, the snot-nosed kid from Tennessee. Poor guy!  ONCE UPON A FAMILIAR STORY…  The story begins like others you’ve heard: boy meets guitar, boy hates the sound guitar makes, boy sees a lot of guitars, boy breaks up with lots of guitars, boy thinks he can do better himself, boy makes snot-nosed comment in one store, boy gets “scolded” with a random opportunity to apprentice with a guitar shop owner who teaches him the ways of guitar building, and so on.  Stop me if you’ve heard that one.  Wait, you haven’t?  Well, shhhhhhhhhhhh…..  THE FAMILIAR PART ENDS, FATE CHAOTICALLY TAKES OVER  After leaving his last job as a

Let’s face it: online retail store options are pretty cut and dry. Predictable discounts and sales. The same standard website design and layout. The same old shopping cart experience (unless you’re Amazon).  And most online music gear stores aren’t much different.  But there’s one online store that hopes to change all that. Less than a year old, Capital Music Gear is hoping to bring a couple of unique and welcome disrupting features to the online music store: heart and help. Let me explain. HEART  Capital Music Gear (CMG) is built with nonprofit music organizations in mind.  Every sale on their site gives 1% to the music non-profit of your choice, assuming that organization is registered with CMG and listed on their site’s checkout process as an option.   You also have the option to write-in a non-profit you think should benefit and CMG will attempt to reach out and connect with that organization. Last, if you don’t have a preference, you can let CMG decide which nonprofit your

DISCLAIMER: No cats were harmed in the making of this episode. But one was seen in the background of our video chat.  Fuzz War. Cats. Absolute Destruction. Cats. Apocalypse. Cats. Interstellar Overdriver. Cats. Evil Filter. Cats. Robot. Cats. Supersonic Fuzz Gun. You get the picture (of cats in your head).   This conversation was anything but your standard run of the mill podcast discussion. Oh, and besides the overuse of the word “Cats”, all of those are the names of DBA’s guitar pedals. NOT methods of global domination (or are they?! *wink*)  FROM HUMBLE BEGINNINGS  Death By Audio was started in 2002 as a guitar effects pedal company after Oliver started tinkering with new sounds and ideas for his own bands. He started making pedals for other people, and over time the pedals got more and more crazy and more and more in demand.  The rest, as they say, is history.  As for the name of the company, rest assured no one died or fell victim to any of the pedals DBA makes. Rather

First of all, 3 drummers on a podcast don’t make a right.  But they do make the occasional awful pun and have lots of fun! Hell they even rhyme sometimes! And to top it all off, 2 of them are bald and one resembles Andy Samberg!  Lonely Island anyone?  DON’T JUDGE A BOOK (OR INSTRUMENT) BY ITS COVER  Sometimes a product comes along that may not give you any clue as to what it is or does upon first encountering it. Sometimes you need to spend some time learning about it or trying it out to see if it works for you. Yes, this is one of those products.  In a creative quest to figure out new sounds and new ways of producing those sounds on an acoustic drum kit setup, sometimes the product you initially pictured doesn’t end up being the “unique” item that comes out on the other end.   It’s at this very moment that I now realize what I described above is not a trip to the bathroom (my full apologies), but actually a new type of percussion instrument that, ironically enough, produce

DISCLAIMER: YES, this is our one-year anniversary episode! NO, this is not our last episode.  NO, this guest does not kill podcasts! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming.  Everyone personal story and every business story comes from humble beginnings of some kind. This story, like many others, could be chalked up to a supportive family, a motivational spouse, and a desire to never work in a grocery store again.  A MAGICAL STARTUP! Starting a business in any industry is not an easy feat, but starting a business in the music and entertainment industry in a smaller regional area almost requires you to be a sexy magician!  But if you know what you’re doing, have the ability to network, build connections, build your list of people you prefer to work with, establish a reputation in the industry as the local production company that will do things others won’t, and put in the long hours day and night, anything is possible!  MASTER OF SEXY EVENT LOGISTICS An event production company

As a drummer for 25 years, I feel it’s fairly safe to say this: for years, the concept of the bass drum pedal has remained fairly unchanged. Aside from a few variations on the chain drive, such as the bike chain, fabric strap, or other materials used for the strap, and perhaps some enhancements to the spring mechanism, the overall design and operation of a drum pedal has been pretty consistent and trustworthy. (Cue the action movie music) UNTIL. NOW.   The Bass Drum Pedal. REIMAGINED. Have you ever stopped to think that those chains, straps and/or springs could be getting in the way of your performance?  Maybe they are creating unnecessary friction or (in the event you drum barefoot like me, sue me) unnecessarily ripping open too many toes?  Damn you bike chains and teeth gear wheels!  What if I told you I came across a drum pedal that relied on the invisible repelling power of magnets to do the exact same work? What if I told you that a bass drum pedal existed that was virtually mainte

For most of us, we will never be directly involved with the production of a major television production. Sad but true. But that doesn’t mean we can’t hear the stories from someone who is and use our imagination to transport ourselves to those stages, right? While most every day people probably haven’t heard of CenterStaging, there’s a pretty good chance that the majority of people have seen their work and gear.   The Greatest Support on Earth Based out of Los Angeles, with a more recently opened location in New York, CenterStaging is one of the industry’s premier rehearsal and backline facility.  Known for their state-of-the-art studios and extensive collection of musical instruments, CenterStaging’s backline gear is practically famous on its own, having been used on just about every major television show, including the GRAMMY Awards, Academy Awards, MDA Telethon, Billboard Music Awards, American Music Awards, several Presidential Inaugurations, the Olympics, American Idol, Dancing With The Stars, T

For most people who come into contact with drums, they have a very basic understanding of the relationship between a drummer and his tools. And the case is the same for some drummers too, who only enjoy the basic level of understanding when playing and performing live. But for some, where the art of drum building and performance is serious business, they have a zen-like passion and obsession with the science, the materials, the sound, and the craftsmanship that goes into each finished drum..  For some, the deep connection between a drum and its builder can be a beautiful state of mind that most people will never understand or experience.    Another Reason for Jam Sessions  As I learned more about how much I didn’t know about my drums in 25 years of playing, a single drum can be played by 12 different people and reveal 12 different characters based on the connection it has with each player.  The sound that is heard from behind the drum is entirely different from what the audience exper

How do you make the drummer from Brooks & Dunn, Reba McEntire and Jewel drop his jaw? All it takes is three simple steps:    1.) Work for a legendary drum brand for 5 years  2.) Observe and see where their process could stand to make improvements  3.) Start your own drum brand to make those changes happen    Easy right?

Have you ever been to a concert and noticed the sexy, awesome band logo or custom artwork that the drummer has on his front bass drum head?  Have you ever wondered how they do that or where they get it from?   You haven’t? Well, tough noodles.  I’m still going to tell you.  Be prepared to be amazed!   DrumART has been around since the early days of the Internet, having now designed and/or printed over 50,000 custom bass drum heads for drummers of all ages and levels, from beginner to internationally famous. Hell, even I’ve had two heads printed by these guys, so as a customer myself, I can safely and honestly say that these heads are the real deal!   A major piece to the success of their business model is their state of the art, web-based drum head builder, which allows drummers of all skill levels to easily drag and drop pieces to design their own drum head. Customers can either upload their own custom graphic or photo, or use one of around 70 million+ photos in DrumART’s stock library and then add text, cha

Imagine if you were alive 700 years ago and, while hosting a concert that was giving out free rats for every ticket sold, you accidentally caused the Bubonic Plague?  What would YOU do?   If you were Lords of the Trident, the most immortal, most metal band on Earth, you would go into hiding for the next 700 years and let the whole “Bubonic Plague thing” pass over and allow history to correct itself and remove you from any future history books so that you weren’t destined to have that finger pointed at you for all of eternity, right?  RIGHT?!  Well, yes, that’s right and that’s exactly what they did too.   According to their website (which by the way is the most metal website on the Internet), their metal is so pure that only diamonds can scratch it, even though it’s usually the diamonds that are the ones that end up getting hurt in the end.  Their amps are so loud that even Manowar knocked on their door and asked them to turn it down (please?).  In the end, it’s probably just easier to succumb to their greate

When you’re a drummer that has made custom furniture for 20 years and your drums age to the point of being unplayable, what options do you have?  Well, you could wait to scrap together enough money to buy a new one, or decide to put those woodworking skills to even more use, learn how to build drum shells and build your own kit.  I’m sure you can guess which path Jefferson took.   Behind every Sugar drum is 20+ years experience with woodworking techniques, knowledge of quality wood selection, and a passion and obsession to create high quality, high standard products. And behind the Sugar name is a standard of quality, passion and love that can only be matched and surpassed by the relationship Jefferson has with his daughter and company namesake, Ms. Ruby Sugar.  If a drum doesn’t meet his criteria, it becomes unworthy of bearing her name.   Sugar, while a small operation of only two drum builders, is on a mission to preserve the true definition behind the word “custom”, focusing on building a drum all the way

Most companies, new and old, can trace their origins back to a similar story of when their founder had an idea and how it evolved over the years to become the company we know and admire. This story starts with a doorstop (for real).   Mahalo founder Richie Mays used to tinker a lot with building his own amps after finding that the amps he was using didn’t produce the right sound for him. While it was a 5-year process of piecing together parts in his pursuit to build his dream amp, he still didn’t have an output transformer to make it reality.   One day while he was at the repair shop he worked for in Atlanta, he saw an output transformer being used as a doorstop.  He was immediately drawn to it and knew it was the answer he had been looking for to reach his goal amp. He asked if he could take it.  The only form of payment that was asked of him?  A replacement object to continue propping the door open.  The next day in came in with a brick and got his wish.   Upon acquiring his doorstop find, his mission was c

A lot of businesses usually follow a pattern of starting out family-based and traditionally small with a focus on the customer. But as growth happens, it can be really easy to lose sight of that in order to accommodate the ever-changing landscape of a growing business.  Leadership changes, employee turnover, hiring people who can fill support jobs but don’t necessarily know the product inside and out, and a focus on the bottom line become more important than the roots you came from.  It’s nobody’s fault, and most of the time it is a natural part of growth.   But as this and a few of our other interviews have revealed, the younger brands are attempting to keep customer-centric cultures intact while attempting to grow out of that new business mindset into one that can scale and be successful. This is great news for the music industry as it slowly makes the shift from solely corporate-owned to one that once again puts the fans and artists first.   Dream Cymbals and Gongs is no exception to this new (and revived)

In an industry that has evolved from making its products by hand to making them via machine in order to ensure consistency, it can be hard to be the one that resists and insists that the original way is still the best way.  Technology is changing all the time, and experts think that keeping up with it is the only way to stay relevant.  But is that really true?   In the midst of all of this technological upheaval, Istanbul Mehmet Cymbals is one of the few brands that can honestly say that the old way is the best way. In all of the years of change, it has successfully been able to set itself apart by resisting the change and upgrades technology offers and continuing to produce cymbals that are made one at a time by hand and hammer in its home country of Turkey.   The result is a beautiful line of products that consists of cymbals that each contain their own slight variations and characteristics to give each drummer who ones one his own “custom” cymbal.  Their philosophy of staying true to their roots has proven

It seems like everywhere you look these days there’s another music streaming service or music discovery tool that caters only to popular mainstream music, including Spotify and Pandora.  But did you realize that by focusing on only this music demographic those services only really represent and promote the top 10% (or less) of music on the planet?  Where can you discover the other 90% of music?!   Live Undiscovered Music, or LÜM, hopes to change all that. Starting in August of 2018, bands and fans will get the chance to experience a much larger catalog of music than you will ever find on Spotify, Pandora or even SoundCloud.  This streaming service will come built into a new kind of music-focused social media platform that will allow fans to discover, share and rate new music that is truly new and “undiscovered”.   For those of us who are old enough to remember the good ol’ days of MySpace, you might argue (as I did in this episode) that a music streaming service coupled with a social media platform has alread

It can be hard for lesser-known bands and musicians to get a foothold in several areas of the music industry without having the right connections or, as old school as it sounds, a record label. This is true when it comes to trying to get licensing agreements to place their music in radio, film, TV shows, advertising campaigns, and video games.   But what if there was a social network built specifically for that reason?  What if bands and artists could connect with each other, build relationships, collaborate, and easily find music licensing opportunities to help support their revenue goals?   Broadjam.com, founded in 1999, is one of the world’s largest and oldest music community websites that provides services aimed at independent musicians and bands. The website is home to over 500,000 searchable songs and over 190,000 artists from all over the world.   To help independent musicians find opportunities, Broadjam holds a variety of sponsored contests throughout the year with the purpose of exposing and rewardi