You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - How to Make Your Regular Gigs Addictive to Your Audience - #45

Episode Date: March 16, 2018

Peter and Adam discuss some things you can do on your regular gigs to draw and keep a crowd. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm Adam Menace and I'm Peter Martin and you're listening to the You'll Hear It podcast. Today we're going to tell you how to make your regular or steady gigs addictive to the audience. So what you got to do, C, is you got to give them one for free and you come back and you charge him about 10 bucks per pop after that. That's right. Wait, are we talking about, oh, you said gigs. Okay, sorry. Cigs, right. Sorry, not drugs. Not drugs. Confused. Old industry I was in for a while. Yeah. Now, Adam, you actually have a steady gig that has been going a regular gig that's been going on now for at least a weekly gig that's been going on for at least a year and I don't presently have that so maybe you should speak first on this and then I'll

try to remember how to do it from my earlier years yeah that's right so I've built up this weekly gig on Thursdays here in St. Louis and it's a it's a cool gig like we have a regular crowd that comes and packs the place and there's you know we see the same faces week to week and always we're trying to make new fans out of people who might be there and and there's some things that I've done consciously to try to build this audience. And one of the first things that I thought of was to repeat hit tunes. In other words, if I play something one week and I notice that the audience is really into it, I'm going to make a note of that and I'm going to drill that home the next week.

I mean, this is nothing new under the sun, right? This is what Hollywood does with every single comic book sequel under the sun or whatever. If it works, keep throwing out of them. But it works. And now people have favorites, you know, that they come back and they want to hear and we get requests for our own original tunes, for our own original arrangements of tunes that have become sort of mini hits at this regular gig. But having that sort of regular lineup of tunes that you could pull from that your audience may recognize your version of is very helpful in building up an audience that will know that when they come and see you, they get to hear not just a familiar song, but a familiar version of the song. That's your own. Yeah, and I never think as jazz players, we need to worry about, oh, people are going to get sick of hearing the same thing.

Because we have to remember that, you know, we change things up so much, so much more than we even realize we do in terms of how it sounds to the audience, that that's pretty much built in. We could play the same set list every week on a gig and, you know, different improvised solos, different improvised introductions, endings, interactions between the different musicians. there's enough that changes it that anyone looking for something different will have that. That's right. And, you know, the added bonus of this one to repeat the hit tunes is that the more you play it with your group, I have a regular trio, the more the arrangement starts to evolve organically into something that you didn't even think it was when you started playing it, you know, the first week and the better it gets.

You know, you talk about having like the old days of gigs, you know, you'd have a gig for two weeks straight where you would develop these tunes, and that's just not, not. the case anymore. So any chance you can have a regular gig and try to work on the hits. Absolutely. So the next thing I'm thinking for the regular gigs would be to play standards. Totally. But I like to give them a different spin. So the whole thing with playing standards is that's kind of like a built-in hit before you even have to make it a hit because people know it. That's why it's a standard. Now, not everyone's going to know every standard, but in general, you're going to get a good percentage of the audience that's like, hey, that's Autumn Leaves, that's Green

Dolphin Street. But I think it's important that you give them a different spin because otherwise it's going to come out sounding stale. So you've got the advantage of I'm playing summertime, people recognize that. But because people recognize it, that means they've heard it before. So you're kind of jumping into them hearing it for the 85th time or the 150th time. So you kind of have to give it another spin if you want people to become addicted to your gig. So it's like, oh, cool, he does different tunes. He plays Gershwin stuff, but he puts his own spin on it, you know, and people really like that and want to keep coming back for more. They want to hear something they recognize, but your personality put onto it. That's right. And the added

bonus of that, especially on a weekly gig, is you can learn new tunes that way. You know, standards you've always wanted to learn. It's a great opportunity to put them in the rotation of your set lists. And then, you know, you perform them for a month, and you'll know that for the rest of your life. The next point we have is, You know, we talked about repeating the hits, but one thing I always try to do is every week I throw in at least one new song or one new arrangement, sometimes multiple in a week. You know, I'll keep the ones that I know that the crowd definitely wants to hear. And sometimes I'll call an audible. If I see someone there that I know they like this particular tune, I'll definitely try to play that.

Man, you're a real crowd pleaser. I like that. A little bit of a crowd pleaser. But then I always try to throw in something new for the audience, but also for the trio. You know, to keep it fresh for the musicians, to keep it fresh for me, I want to always be playing something new. I always want to try to get that spark. Well, I like that a lot because the next point I was going to talk about is to keep it fresh.

And that's as much as keeping it fresh for the audience, we have to keep it fresh for the musicians. In fact, it's not possible to keep it in an authentic way fresh for the audience as jazz musicians unless it feels fresh to us. Otherwise, it's going to come across, contrive, and compiled, you know. So, you know, playing different materials, putting a different spin on it, basically the goal is that it sounds like we're playing these tunes and these arrangements for the first time. But we've got the advantage of playing them many times. So there's that interplay,

there's that development, there's that comprehension by the whole group of what's going on, but you've got that kind of innocence of it being the first time. And so for the audience, you know, you want it to sound like you're playing it for the first time so that if they're just getting there for the first time. Like, wow, this is cool, but then they stick around week after week, and they're like, man, it's fresh every time. Otherwise, it's going to become stale and they're going to go find another gig. That's super important. You know, I always try to, like, if we're playing a tune that we play, you know, on a weekly basis, I sometimes try to throw Bob and Montez, the guys my tree out, try to throw them like a curveball. Just, just like at the beginning or

somewhere so that they're like, oh, we're going to do something a little bit different on it. That's great. Yeah. And I mean, that's, you know, for me, comments after the gig, for years, you know, some of the most common ones are based around, wow, I love the interplay of the rhythm section. I love the interplay of the band. I love the way you guys were listening and playing off of each other. That's such an inherently exciting part of this music, and it's so authentic. When we do it authentically, it comes across in such an exciting way, a way to the audience that it really is addictive for that. Yeah, I think one of the best compliments that I ever get is when people say, you guys look like you're having so much fun up there.

Right. Because I'm like, well, first of all, we are having a blast, but that means that that's being relayed to them and that we're interacting in the way that we should be. Right. Because we are having fun. Yeah, because to fake, it is possible to fake that, as we know. It is, yeah.

But it's a lot of energy. It's too much energy. So if you can find a way to set things up, the setup of the group, the setup of the instruments, the combination of the players, the set list, the arrangements, all that. If that can be set up in a way that you actually can have a lot of fun and a majority of the players, if not everybody is having a lot of fun most of the time, you're never going to get 100%.

But I mean, most of the time, then you don't have to expend so much energy pretending like you're having fun. You're actually having fun. That's great. So the next thing that we're talking about is to recognize your regular patrons. Not your patience. Not your patience. No, I do this pretty much every week. I go after the first set.

I'll go throughout the crowd and I'll introduce myself if I don't know someone. thank them for coming, you know, ask them if they've seen us before or ask them if they enjoyed the set. And just, I mean, you know, do you kick them out if they say they didn't like it? I've actually, yeah, I've gotten arguments with people. Yeah, I'm not going to take anything from anybody. But no, I mean, just to show your face and to get to know your audience, man, it's a huge thing. People love that. And I love it. I love meeting the people that are there, like, supporting and I find that in general and if I connect with someone after a set or have a nice conversation I almost always see them back at some point they almost always come back and hang

and support the gig and we're talking about you know authenticity I think that you know you're great at doing this you know presenting your your music and then yourself if you're talking to people in an authentic way and what that leads to then for the folks that are already addicted to the gig you get the network effects so then they're going to go tell their friends they're going to post on social media, whatever. It's like, man, I heard this great gig and this guy, you know, Adam, it was really cool. We talked, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It becomes a personal thing, and then it spreads out in a very authentic and organic way. Totally. How many times have you been talking to someone after a gig and they're like,

I need to tell my sister about you? She would love this music and she would love the band or whatever. I mean, that happened to me, but I'm not a people person like you. I've seen it happen many times. Well, no, no, and I love that. I mean, truly because I'm playing music for people. And I love just to hear what they think and to hear about their life and all that kind of stuff. And so that's one of the greatest things about this music to me is how you can connect with people. I agree. And I mean, another way to do that that we've experimented with some that's great, the technology allows us to do,

is to live stream your gigs. So then you're getting to reach a little bit of a bigger audience than just who's there. And I think it's nice for people, too, to see a gig in that way because they don't have to fully commit to coming out to the gig and paying and everything and ordering a drink or whatever, parking, but they get to sample your music. And if you're confident in your sound and what you're presenting, I think it's a great promotional thing and a great way to get people addicted to your sound before they even see you live. And let's face it, once they come to the live event, I think they're going to enjoy it

even more because it's so much better than watching on a little bit, little screen. Totally. And if, you know, if the club owner that you're working with or the venue owner that you're working with is worried that, oh, if we live stream this, that people won't show up. up, take them over to the Jazz at Lincoln Center Facebook page of the Smalls website where it's always packed and they live stream pretty much every night. When we started live streaming at Thurman, it only got people out to the gig because they saw what was going on. There was a crowd and they were into it and they started, they said, we saw you on Facebook,

we came out the next week. Right, right. And, you know, there used to be, I don't hear it as much anymore, but you still hear a little bit from venues and musicians and managers and promoters that, oh, don't live stream the gig because then you're giving it away from. free and people won't pay to come out. But I think most people, you know, that might be a few people, but they probably weren't going to pay to come out anyway. Yeah, totally. But it's just a great thing to introduce them to the music. Or if they can't make it, I mean, we're talking about keeping them addicted week by week to a gig, to a regular gig. If they can't make it to the gig for whatever reason, they're tired or whatever, at least they can still hear what's going on. That's

going to make them want to come back. You know, if they're totally shut out, out of sight out of mind, who knows? You might have lost them. And especially if you're relatively, you know, an unknown musician or not a super famous musician, it's a great way to get exposure. I mean, that's a naughty word, I know, but like, it is a really good way that people, you know, might see you that wouldn't otherwise. Right. Well, either live or online, you'll hear it.

Smooth. I'm trying. I'm trying. Thanks for listening to this episode of the You'll Hear It podcast. You can go to you'll hear it.com to get more information, submit a question, or just say hello. Wait, you can do that? Absolutely. All right, and if you like what you heard, please leave a review and a rating below.

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