December 1, 2025 • 49 mins
Lexxi Garza-Hartless brings a rare blend of talent, grit and honesty to this episode. She is an accomplished musician with a diverse background in the entertainment industry, currently serving as the Entertainment Director at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar and co-owner of Sound City Entertainment, where she works alongside her husband, Jason Hartless, whose touring credits include Ted Nugent and several other major rock artists. Lexxi has built a career around adaptability performing leadership and staying grounded in an industry known for constant change.
In this conversation she talks openly about rebuilding after unexpected setbacks learning to adjust her career path and how she and Jason navigate life and marriage as full time working musicians. She shares the pressure of entertainment roles in Nashville the demands of piano bar settings and the personal discipline required to stay healthy both physically and financially.
We also get into money decisions and real world financial challenges that musicians face. Lexxi talks about saving planning and how she sees the Infinite Banking Concept as an important tool for musicians who often do not have steady predictable income. She explains why this approach makes sense to her and how it can create stability safety and options when life and work take unexpected turns.
If you are a vocalist, a pianist, a touring member, a Nashville musician or an artist who wants to build a career that lasts, this episode will speak directly to you.
Backstage Money is where music and money collide. Host Jason K Powers brings you real conversations with artists and industry pros about the business of staying in the game financially mentally and creatively.
Lexxi Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lexxigarza/
Jason Hartless Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jasonhartless/
Sound City Music Group: https://soundcitymusicgroup.com/
https://www.instagram.com/soundcity_musicgroup/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason K Powers (00:13):
Welcome to Backstage Money, real World Finance for Musicians.
I'm your host, Jason K. Powers, andthis is where music and Money collide.
Today I am joined by Lexxi Garza,Hartless powerhouse, vocalist and pianist,
originally from San Antonio, Texas.
Now in Nashville.
She has toured nationally andinternationally, lights up dueling piano
stages, and is a multi-instrumentalistwho will jump from bass to drums,
(00:38):
to keys in a single night even.
She's the entertainment directorwith Pete's Dueling Piano bar and
co-owner of Sound City Entertainmentwith her husband Jason Hartless.
In recent years, Lexxi has also joinedlegendary rocker Ted Nugent on tour,
appearing on stage during various showsin his US tours, becoming the only female
(00:58):
to perform live with Nugent himself.
Lexxi, welcome to the show.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (01:03):
Hi.
Thank you
Jason K Powers (01:03):
Yeah.
I appreciate you coming on.
This is, uh, this is an exciting time.
We've been doing lots of recordings and,and I've, I've really enjoyed meeting
everybody and, and I've heard some ofyour story and I'm, I'm really excited
to, to share that with everybody.
So let's jump right in.
Let's, let's hear about, I alwayslike to start with origin stories.
(01:24):
We call it, you know, how didyou, how did you get into music?
You started at a pretty young age.
And kind of found your giftpretty early on, I think.
Right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (01:37):
Yeah.
Yeah, I was five and it's kindof a, a really dorky story.
So when I was a kid, I was obsessedwith Little House on the Prairie.
Like that was my favorite show.
I watched it all day every day.
and I don't really remember doing this.
This is just a story that my parentstold me, um, later, but I had like
a little Fisher-Price piano andthey heard me, um, figure out the
(02:01):
theme song with no reference in theexact key in on the piano at five.
And they were like, notnormal child behavior.
Yeah.
And so they, they put me in piano lessonsand I, I studied classical music for.
Probably 10, 15 years after that.
I didn't start singing until, uh, college.
(02:21):
So that was kind of a labor bloomerfor me as far as singing goes.
But, um, yeah, so been in it
Jason K Powers (02:27):
Yeah, so, where did you kind of excel and, and did you think
growing up in, in junior high and highschool, you were gonna be a performer?
Or were you, did you just loveit or what were you, what were
you thinking at that time?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (02:42):
Yeah, so you know, I always kind of
knew that being a performer is.
Is in my blood.
It's kind of where I belong.
You know, I, I have a, a pretty bigpersonality that was allowed to shine in
that sort of an environment, you know?
My parents were, were really supportive.
I was homeschooled
Jason K Powers (02:58):
Okay.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (02:59):
17, so I was kind of able to have the fLexxibility
to do the tours and, and do all thedifferent kinds of bands and all
the different projects and stuff.
And so, I, I always knew thatthat's what I was supposed to do.
I just, at the time, you know, I knewhow fickle the industry was and I wasn't
sure if it would ever happen, you know?
'cause there's a lot of timesthe people out there that.
(03:19):
know, it never really happensfor, it's just, it's very common.
So I didn't know what thefuture had in store, but yeah.
I'm glad I stuck with
Jason K Powers (03:28):
Yeah.
And, and here you are.
Right.
Right.
See, as, as we say, myhaven't we come a long way,
you know?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (03:35):
Yes,
Jason K Powers (03:35):
right.
Well, so, so when didyou start going on stage?
When did you start performing infront of crowds and, and how did
you get sort of from, I'm gonnasay a prodigy musician child right,
to performing where you're at now?
I mean, what, what was kind of that?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (04:00):
Yeah.
Yeah, it was, you know, I, it's so,it's so funny looking back on it
to say, because be 28 on Friday andit's crazy to, to say, you know,
I've been here doing this thing for.
Jason K Powers (04:11):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (04:11):
years, you know, that it's just, it's,
it's crazy and I'm really lucky.
my first recital when my first timeplaying in front of people was a piano
recital because I studied classical.
Um, we had like a, a sort of, youknow, all the students for this
teacher would perform for this recital.
And I was so nervous.
I remember sitting down.
(04:32):
And I played my pieces like 10 timesfaster than they were supposed to go.
I just was like, my brainjust like completely quit.
And I was like, let me just get throughthis as fast as possible, you know?
and then as you know, I started to performmore, you know, every, anywhere I could.
My dad, you know, he.
(04:53):
Kind of helped me get exposurewith a bunch of different bands.
And he was always like,don't worry about the money.
Like getting your name outthere, getting your face out
there, your talents out there.
That's what's important.
And everything else is gonna comealong naturally, you know, and
that's exactly what happened.
You know, by the time my, uh, Iwas in college, I had been a part
of, know, leading worship teams andclassical recitals and jazz bands
(05:15):
and rock bands, and I'd kind of done.
All of this stuff, which was was awesome,moving into a more professional stage
of my life that I had all these sortof tools under my belt, as it were so.
Jason K Powers (05:26):
Then what's your involvement with, so take me
now, you start doing the dueling,the dueling piano thing, right?
You have the, uh, what,how did you get from.
That, uh, Pete's dueling piano war,
right?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (05:45):
Yeah, so long story short, so I went to college for classical
music when I was 13, and it was fun.
It was great.
That's kind of where I realizedthough, that I am a rocker
at heart and I would like, it would bea chore for me to learn these Beethoven
sonatas, and I really just wanted tobe listening to Iron Maiden, you know?
(06:07):
Um, and it, it sort of developed,you know, down the road that
I wanted to be a front person.
I wanted to be
as big of a personality asI could be on the stage.
And I, my first job comingout of college was actually on
(06:28):
carnival, uh, cruise ships, and I
Jason K Powers (06:30):
Okay.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (06:31):
piano
bar entertainer
Jason K Powers (06:32):
Um.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (06:33):
and right out the
gate.
Um, and it was awesome.
It was fun.
It was a lot of work.
It was, you know, six nights aweek, four hour show solo, um,
which is a long time to be on
Jason K Powers (06:45):
Yeah, sure.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and entertaining singing. (06:46):
undefined
And, um, when I got off the ship, Idon't know how this happened to this
day, somebody, um, from a, a companycalled Howl at the Moon found me.
Me and I sort of fellbackwards into dueling pianos.
I had no idea
Jason K Powers (07:04):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (07:04):
it was, and spent about five years really honing that craft,
and that's how I ended up at Pete's.
Now Pete's is a very prestigious,um, dueling piano brand.
Like it's very hard to getyour foot in the door there.
And I was working for them inTexas just as a sub, and that's
how I ended up landing the E.D.
Jason K Powers (07:25):
Yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (07:26):
here in Nashville.
Jason K Powers (07:27):
yeah, yeah.
So for the listener who isn't privvy tothis, explain the dueling piano thing.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (07:38):
Yeah, doing pianos is a very interesting concept
and I think everyone would have adifferent answer for this for sure.
but to me, you know, wehave, we have two pianists.
They face each other, um, and wedon't have a set list up there.
We take song requests.
the audience, so the audience can writedown their favorite songs, they can
(07:59):
write down what they're celebrating.
If it's a birthday, they writedown, you know, what, whatever they
would like to pay attention to usto pay attention to on the stage.
They bring it up to us andwe play it, it's very chaotic
Jason K Powers (08:12):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (08:13):
Um, there's definitely a comedic element as well.
We bring people up on the stageand we make 'em feel special.
We play games with the audience.
We give away jello shots.
I mean, it's, it's a whole.
a whole night of shenanigans.
It's not just like, I'm gonna play asong and then my partner is gonna play
a song, and then I'm gonna play a song.
It's very cohesive, it's very fun.
(08:34):
Um, I mean, we'll, we'll gofrom Janice Joplin to Cardi
Jason K Powers (08:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (08:40):
you know?
Um, so it's awesome.
It's, it's really, really fun.
I'm, I'm so
Jason K Powers (08:45):
yeah.
We, we had a really great one in Denver.
We go do for a long time and, and.
You can't walk out of there.
Not smiling.
I mean, it was, it's alwaysjust a lot of fun, I think.
I think
everybody
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (08:58):
Yeah.
And I
Jason K Powers (08:59):
before you knock it right, everybody needs
to go check it out and uh, I.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:04):
yeah,
and it's, you know, every club thatyou walk into does it differently.
Like, Howell is different than Pete,which is different than sluggers
in Chicago, which is different thanNew York and New York and Vegas.
You know, it, it's such a, it's such abroad concept and it really allows the
entertainer to shine because the waythat I do the show is different than.
You know, somebody else on my team.
(09:24):
And it, it's so awesome to have allthese personalities and all this talent
to create this one big cohesive ball of
Jason K Powers (09:31):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:31):
energy,
Jason K Powers (09:32):
Right, right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:33):
you know?
And it's it's so much fun.
It's, it really feels like I get paid to,
Jason K Powers (09:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:40):
a week, and then I walk, I walk home and
Jason K Powers (09:43):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:44):
it's
Jason K Powers (09:44):
But there's some, there's some entertainment aspect to this where.
It's really on you guysin a way to kind of lead
the entertainment, you know,and keep the momentum going and
keep the fun going and right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always tell people, you know, totreat the show with brand new doers
when they come in, they have no idea.
You know, they're like,how do I do this gig?
I'm like, treat the show like thisis a house party and the audience,
or your guests, you know, and atthe end of the night, you know,
you want this table from New Yorkto be best friends with this table
Jason K Powers (10:17):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Oh, I'll cross the bar. (10:19):
undefined
You know, it's, and that's really,it's so true, is what we're trying
to do is through music and we'retrying to help people forget
Jason K Powers (10:30):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (10:31):
for a
night, you know, and just come in andhave fun and celebrate their birthdays,
and celebrate their bacheloretteparties and just come in and have
Jason K Powers (10:38):
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
And we've talked about thatbefore on other shows about.
Just for the music entertainer you are.
That is an importantthing to keep in mind.
I think people are going to these thingsto kind of get away from it, so to speak.
You know,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (10:57):
Yeah,
Jason K Powers (10:57):
and,
just disconnect and have a grand time.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:04):
Even we, as the entertainers show
Jason K Powers (11:05):
Yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: to forget about stuff (11:06):
undefined
in our life, you know, it's like,
Jason K Powers (11:08):
that's great.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:09):
it's
just as much benefit for
Jason K Powers (11:10):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:11):
for them.
So
it's definitely a privilege to be in that
Jason K Powers (11:14):
That's fun.
That's fun.
Well, and so you're married
and you do you get to performwith your husband much?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:25):
I
Jason K Powers (11:25):
You do.
So I, I wanna, let's pause that thoughtfor a second and back up a little bit.
You have a, a pretty interesting howI met my husband story, I think, and,
and why don't you tell us who yourhusband is and then how you guys met.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:41):
Yeah, so my husband is Jason Hartless, show appear on well.
Jason K Powers (11:45):
Yes.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:47):
Um, he and I'll, I'll let him, I'll leave most of his
intro for him when he comes on here,but, um, he drums full-time for Ted
Nugent has for the last, uh, 10 years.
And I met Jason when I showed up onthe Ted Nugent 22 Detroit Muscle Tour.
Um, and when I showed up, youknow, everybody was running around.
(12:08):
They're getting ready for theshow, they're still setting up.
And I, I showed up and I askedour tour manager, who at the time
was Ted Emporellis, he, he's, he'stour managed for huge acts like
John Bon Jovi's with for years.
And I was like, Hey, Ted, like,where can I stand where I'm not
in the way of all this stuff?
'cause everyone's like going crazy.
(12:29):
like, oh, you can wait in there.
And he points off to this littleroom on the side in the back.
And I'm like, all right.
And I walk in there and there's Jason onhis little drum pad and he is warming up.
He looks up and he's like,what is this girl doing in
Jason K Powers (12:43):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (12:46):
And come to find out later, that was Jason's dressing room
and no one was supposed to be in there.
And the tour manager had sentme in there trying to set us.
Which
Jason K Powers (12:57):
it's worked.
That's funny.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (12:58):
which worked.
Um, and he, Jason, like,did not want to talk to me.
He was so shy, like hehad no idea what to do.
He was just like not making eye contact.
I was like, this is not gonna be awkward.
Like, this man is gonna talk to me
Jason K Powers (13:13):
Oh funny.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:14):
or not.
And so that's kind of how all thatstarted and that's how we met.
And then I went out on stagewith him later, and then
we became best friends and.
Jason K Powers (13:23):
Then there you,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:24):
We just celebrated our one year wedding anniversary
Jason K Powers (13:26):
that's great.
That's great.
That's great.
Well, so you guys now, how didyou get hooked up with, with.
Ted's tour and in the first place.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:40):
Yeah, so I got called to open for him last minute,
like five days before the show.
He was performing in Waco,Texas, and they're opening band
had lost their lead singer.
And I got called in.
It was just, it was aset of like, Zeppelin and
Jason K Powers (13:56):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:57):
stuff.
uh, it was one of thoselike domino effect things.
It just, it was crazy that Ted andShemane just happened to be there
early and they heard the whole setand, uh, get a call from an unknown
number on my phone the next day.
I almost didn't answer it.
And it was Ted and he was like,would you wanna come out and sing
(14:19):
some songs on my tour this year?
And I was like,
Jason K Powers (14:23):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:23):
we
Jason K Powers (14:23):
Gimme,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:24):
you know?
Jason K Powers (14:24):
gimme one second.
Okay.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:27):
Yeah.
And so that's kind of how that happened.
It started out with just the,the Texas chapter of the tour.
'cause that's where I lived.
So I was able to, tomake it out to all those.
And then it kind of becamemore, more than that.
Um, and then this year I finally gotto do the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in
Michigan, which was a bucket list for me.
'cause that's where bothTed and Jason are from.
Um, so that
(14:48):
was
Jason K Powers (14:48):
Very nice.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:50):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (14:50):
And so, okay, let's.
Talk a little bit about thetouring session work and
then also your work at Pete's
and
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (15:01):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (15:02):
with Sound City Entertainment, which we'll talk about.
Like how are you one, howare you juggling all of this?
Or are you, I guess I we were under theassumption you're juggling it right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (15:15):
Yeah.
Well Jason, Jason and I, I'm really luckyto have him because everything that I'm
not good at, he's good at and everythingthat he's not good at, I'm good at.
so we kind of all of these things,you know, like I just, I just finished
four nights back to back at Pete's andI had no energy to do anything else.
(15:35):
And so he was the one that was handlinglike the accounting for our company.
handling all the stuffthat I couldn't get to.
And then there's some weeks when he's onthe road where I'm the one that does that.
know?
So it is really, I don't knowif I could do it without him.
Um, I don't think there's any way couldpull off that kind of responsibility
(15:55):
and schedule without cloning myself at
Jason K Powers (15:57):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (15:58):
um, yeah, I really, I really make my
mental health a priority and.
I've got severe A DHD,so making lists is like
Jason K Powers (16:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (16:09):
to make sure I get to everything, you know?
Um, yeah, I, I like being busy.
I like having all these things going
Jason K Powers (16:15):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (16:15):
once, and so
it's good.
It's really great.
Jason K Powers (16:19):
What, uh, what's your favorite part of the dueling
piano format and in that area ofentertainment, what's something
musicians can maybe learn from that togrow and build from, or get exposure
or, you know, what's that look like?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (16:39):
Yeah, I think, you know, to, to do doing pianos,
it's way harder than it looks.
And I say that because youhave to be pretty fluid on.
All of the instruments and be able tochange around at a moment's notice.
And I think, you know, at the end ofthe day we, we play other people's
(16:59):
music for a living, you know?
I think as long as we don't losesight of what we're trying to do,
which is make the audience thestar, like it's about the audience.
It's about them coming in and givingus their business and giving us
their time, and being respectful ofthat, and us being grateful for that.
And I think.
(17:20):
You know, staying humble isreally, really important.
And reminding yourself like, Hey, there'sa lot of talented people out there, and
I'm the one that's getting to do this.
I'm the one that
Jason K Powers (17:32):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (17:32):
the stage.
I'm the
one that has This privilege tobe a facilitator of this night
and this person's life right now.
know?
And I think as long as italways is centered that.
It is not always about you, you andyour abilities and you know, it's,
(17:53):
you wanna create a party and create anenvironment and I think as long as you
don't lose sight of that, everythingelse just kind of comes along.
You know, I think stayinghumble is so, so important.
And I know I live in likeone of the big three cities.
There's LA, Nashville, andthere's New York and there's,
you know, there's some ego's out
Jason K Powers (18:12):
sure.
Sure, But it seems to bea recurring theme though.
It, you know, and other peoplewe've talked to there, there is
that recurring theme of humility
and
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (18:23):
yeah,
Jason K Powers (18:24):
your fans are the reason you're up there still.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (18:27):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (18:29):
And even for the guys that have been at the longer you're
at it, I, it seems like the moreyou appreciate that, I think, but.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (18:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I, I think the industry, like,it's, it's so tough and it always has
been, and it's always been competitiveand it's always been, you know, dog
eat dog and sometimes, and I stayingabove that and staying above, you know.
Getting into the fray and getting intothe mix and just staying grateful.
You know, I'm, I'm really, reallylucky to be where I'm at right now.
(19:00):
You know, where people are, are reallyhurting for work and, and there's
the whole component of ai, which, you
Jason K Powers (19:05):
Yeah,
there's a whole nother show on that.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (19:08):
later.
Yeah.
Like, it, it's, it's, so gratefulto be one of the few people that
has this work and this consistentopportunity and that will
Jason K Powers (19:19):
Mm-hmm.
There's this humility aspect, and thenthere's the entertainment aspect, right?
I've gotta be, you gotta have a certainpersonality to, to draw the crowd
and to, to, to draw them outand, and entertain, whether it's
dueling pianos or whether it'son stage in front of thousands.
(19:43):
You know, there's that aspectof you've gotta be on your
game when you're on stage,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (19:50):
Yep.
Jason K Powers (19:51):
you know?
And, and some of that attributes tokeeping up on your mental health.
We've, we've had these conversations withpeople, making sure your mental health is
in check when you can, and, and so you canget up there and be on top of your game.
And, and you also have a perspective,which is also a common theme on
kind of physical health, right, too.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, a hundred percent. (20:12):
undefined
Yeah.
And you really, you reallyhave to take it seriously.
This is something that Jason andI, my husband, were, we're just
talking about the other day.
It's like, you know, he justturned 30 last year and I'll
be 30 coming up here soon.
And it's like, we really wanna giveourselves the best chance at being in this
industry for as long as we possibly can.
(20:34):
And that really means that youhave to live like an athlete.
You know, and there'sno other way around it.
'cause it just starts
Jason K Powers (20:41):
Yeah.
Yes, for now.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (20:44):
you know?
It just gets harder and harder.
Um, so I think I'm a big believerin implementing those healthy
habits early on creating alifestyle out of it, um, is really
Jason K Powers (20:54):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are your maybe non-negotiablesduring heavy week shows or,
or what's maybe overrated?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (21:03):
Yeah, I, uh, I drink a gallon of water
Jason K Powers (21:06):
Okay.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (21:07):
no
matter what.
Um, I'm a big hot yoga fan.
Um, I deal with a lot of anxiety in mylife, and so I kind of carry my tension.
my body, you know, and when I'm likereally anxious, I'll literally just
kind of sit like this, which createsall these issues like in my neck
and, which is horrible for singingAnd, uh, you know, yoga, I'll go
(21:28):
probably four or five times a week.
And it really helps just to keep melike limber and stretched out, which
is really important for, you know, notjust singing, but piano playing too.
And, um, eating healthy.
I've, uh, I've got celiac disease, soI. Can't eat bread or pasta or anything.
So that's kind of helpful thatI'm forced to be But um, eating
(21:52):
healthy is really, really
Jason K Powers (21:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Sound City Entertainment.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (22:00):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (22:01):
How did this get started?
What is, what is Sound City Entertainment?
How'd you guys get it started?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (22:07):
Yeah, sound City Entertainment is the company
that Jason and I co-own, and weprovide various entertainment to
clients, um, all across the world.
that could be doing panels orit could be an acoustic guitar
player, it could be a juggler, it
could be whatever The client needs.
Um, and we, we provide thoseservices to different clients.
(22:28):
So.
Um, and it got started becausewe had this opportunity with,
um, Park West Art Galleries.
They were looking for entertainmentand they, um, they'll have, you know,
70 events across the US throughout theyear, and they wanted Dualing Pianos
and as well as some other things.
We just brought EricMartin in a couple of weeks
Jason K Powers (22:49):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:08):
but I just didn't wanna deal with
like, the business side of it.
I didn't feel equipped, I didn'tfeel I could handle that well.
Um, which is where Jason comes in.
'cause Jason graduated fromBerkeley in with a music
Jason K Powers (23:19):
Okay, good.
There you go.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:22):
Two, our two forces kind of collided and we were
like, Hey, let's, let's do thiscompany and see what we can, what
Jason K Powers (23:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:29):
So
Jason K Powers (23:30):
that's been, uh, for how long now?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:34):
we started that, say in the beginning of
Jason K Powers (23:38):
Okay.
Okay.
And so far, so good.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:40):
So brand new?
Jason K Powers (23:41):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:42):
Yeah.
So far So
great.
Jason K Powers (23:44):
Good.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:45):
We're, um, we're really grateful to, um.
Be able to
Jason K Powers (23:48):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:49):
people.
Um, and we, we often go out onour own gigs, which is where, you
know, we get to play together and
Jason K Powers (23:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So from the artists, from the musicianstandpoint, how can they get connected
with, you know, companies likeyourself and, and, and what's one way.
Maybe some advice you would give toartists who are trying to get themselves
(24:16):
out there, get connected in everyway possible, you know, and, and get
that exposure, get things booked.
You know, what, what, whatadvice can you give on that side?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (24:27):
Yeah, I think know your brand.
I think if you come in with a, a verydeveloped, solid um and product, then
that's really important so that you canbe like, Hey, this is what I can offer.
You know?
Um, I think really workinghard on your skills.
And not money or not worrying aboutmaking it to the big stage, not worrying
(24:52):
about fame, just sticking with yourcourse and sticking with your guns.
And don't ever
Jason K Powers (24:57):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (24:58):
Don't ever let anybody take your dream away, you
know, because these things take time.
Jason K Powers (25:02):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (25:03):
These things take
time.
you know, even Jason and I, we'vebeen at this for years and years and
years and, you know, I, I only wentout with Nugent in 22 and I'd been
in the industry for like 20 yearsat that point, you know, so things.
You know, they take time.
And I would say just try notto, to, to be discouraged.
You know, when
things don't as fast as youthink they should or as well
(25:25):
as you think they should.
Just, you know, remember your passion or
Jason K Powers (25:28):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (25:30):
Um, and I think everything else will happen along the way.
Jason K Powers (25:33):
I love the don't ever quit, you know,
that's the, that's the thing.
That's hard, I think forartists is like the long road
to, you know, for, for most, forthe average person at least, you
know, it's, it's that long roadand you've gotta really, as, as
I would say, think long range.
(25:54):
You know, you have to
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (25:55):
yeah.
Jason K Powers (25:56):
looking down the road, what are you working towards, you know?
And keep work in that directionand, and don't give up.
I love it.
And.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (26:07):
And a
lot of people, a lot of peopledo, which is unfortunate.
You know, it's, sorry,I'm gonna cut you off.
Um, know, and I, know, I'd belying to you if I said that I never
thought about quitting before.
I mean, that's definitely crossedmind in my husband's minds many times.
Many times.
But there's this, like, there'sthis thing inside both of us that
(26:30):
like every time we've tried to quit.
We end up coming right back to itbecause it's not an option for us.
There's something in us thatprevents us from leaving what we
Jason K Powers (26:41):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (26:42):
and yeah.
We'll go on a sabbatical.
Yeah, we'll take a hiatus.
Yeah.
We'll, you know, we'll take a break orwhatever, it's just not possible for us to
Jason K Powers (26:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (26:51):
We're just, we're
Jason K Powers (26:53):
It's, well, it's part of you.
It's like, you know, the music sidethrough and through, you know, in,
in your life.
And, and that's like, I guess like losingan appendage, you know, to, to quit.
That kind of thing.
You're like, I'm, I'm, I'm notquite ready to lose my arm.
So, you know, you get right back into it.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (27:12):
exactly.
Jason K Powers (27:13):
not quite ready for that.
Yeah.
Uh, well, let's talk, let'stalk money for a minute now.
What is in from your vantage point,what's, say what's a reliable way
you've earned income through musicacross seasons, and maybe one lever
you're leaning into this year even?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (27:36):
Yeah.
Well, I'm, I'm, really, reallylucky dueling pianos, has
always been there for me.
It's, I, I tell peopleit's my nine to five.
And it's so, it's so awesome because Ican go out with Ted or I can go out with
whoever and I come back and dueling pianos
Jason K Powers (27:56):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (27:57):
for me.
and I know many, many musicians arenot in that, um, in that situation.
And so, you know, I'm, I'm really gratefulto to have that always there for me.
Um, I know that a lot of musicianswhen they're off the road.
(28:17):
They'll, you know, session workis big here and in Broadway, like,
they'll pick up shifts on Broadway.
Um, which is really unfortunate becauseof how little Broadway pays these days.
You know, it's, it's reallyterrible to have all these
people getting paid, you know,
Jason K Powers (28:32):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (28:32):
for a four
hour show.
It was really insane.
Um, I, Jason is always like, man, you'rein the, the 1% that has consistent work.
He's like, nobody hasconsistent work and I'm just.
I am so grateful to, to be there, butat the same time, like my heart goes
out to all of my friends that are not
Jason K Powers (28:51):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (28:52):
boat, you
know?
And that it's really heartbreaking tosee these people with all of this talent
that are struggling, you know, and, andwith this technology now, and the way
you know the world is it's just getting
Jason K Powers (29:06):
Right,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:06):
day.
You know?
Hopefully it'll balance out andturn itself back around, but right
Jason K Powers (29:11):
right, right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:12):
you know?
Jason K Powers (29:13):
So what's some of the best advice, best financial
advice or career advice anothermusician or mentor has given you?
I.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:22):
Um, always
have a contingency plan.
Jason K Powers (29:24):
Yeah.
Love it.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, have a backup plan. (29:26):
undefined
I don't mean that like, you know,make sure you have a degree in
Jason K Powers (29:31):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:33):
What you wanna do,
Jason K Powers (29:34):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:34):
for it.
Like, by all
means, mean, you know, have a plan for the
dry season, you know, and have aplan for when things aren't going
exactly how you expected them to go.
You know, I, um, I injured myvoice in 2023 and I was touring
and I got COVID that turned into
Jason K Powers (29:54):
Oh man.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:56):
I coughed so hard.
Um, my right vocal cord started bleeding.
Jason K Powers (30:00):
Gosh.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Which sucked, sucked. (30:02):
undefined
And I had to take eight weeks off.
So that was two months of no income.
And I didn't really safetynet or a contingency plan, so
I just kind of sucked it up,
Jason K Powers (30:14):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:16):
really, like got my butt kicked on bills because I
didn't have, know, any sort of plans.
I just didn't think that wasgonna happen to me, you know?
But it really opened my eyes.
And I think the most important thing Icould say on, on that is make sure you
Jason K Powers (30:31):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:31):
net.
Um, whether it's financially orotherwise, you know, because I mean,
I could fall down my stairs out, outof the studio coming down from this
Jason K Powers (30:41):
Right,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:42):
and break
Jason K Powers (30:42):
Right,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:43):
You know,
Jason K Powers (30:43):
right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:44):
it's such a
fickle, um, thing that we do.
And so I think being prepared.
if God forbid, something wereto happen and you couldn't
Jason K Powers (30:53):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:53):
while or, you know, you ran into some,
some financial issues to have
Jason K Powers (30:58):
Yep.
Yep.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:58):
for you.
Jason K Powers (31:00):
Yeah, there's a pretty common theme throughout
in, in the music industry where
the planning ahead thing is trouble,let's call it, you know, it's, it
spells trouble for people 'cause.
I, the industry is built on almost astruggle till you make it struggle,
(31:22):
struggle, struggle, struggle.
You know?
And you're that literal starvingartist at times trying to make it.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (31:29):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (31:29):
And you want to, you want to build.
And so you go, okay, well we're gonna,we're gonna penny pinch, we're gonna
penny pinch until we have enough.
You know?
And, and I get that mindset andthat, and that's a very common theme.
But every single musician Italk to, this is a conversation.
How can we, how can we buffer thatsomehow, or I wish I would've focused
(31:53):
more on buffering that ahead of timerather than waiting until the, the
time is now when I really need themoney and I don't have it, you know?
And, and yeah.
And we see it all the time.
You see it, you know?
And, and, and God bless 'em all.
I mean, when there's.
The GoFundMe pops up, incident happensand the GoFundMe pops up and, and the fans
(32:14):
wanna jump in and help and that's great,but it's really a conversation, you know,
and that's one of the reasons I do whatI do in helping musicians is like, let,
let's try to get away from that scramblemode, you know, and try to get away from
the, I am in so much trouble tomorrow.
If I get injured, you know,really, it's a scary place to be.
(32:38):
It is.
It really is.
Uh, and, and that's why I thinkit's, I think it's important
and, and every musician agreesthat that's out there making it,
you know, like it's so important
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (32:49):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (32:49):
to be finding that buffer for you to finding that safety net.
Finding a way to, I'll say, warehouseyour money a little bit along the way,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (32:59):
yeah.
Oh
Jason K Powers (33:00):
you know?
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:02):
Yeah.
I think it's, won't find asingle successful musician who.
Didn't struggle
Jason K Powers (33:09):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:11):
You know, even, even the people that, that had the
funding to start and, and had all theright stuff, you know, it takes, it's
Jason K Powers (33:17):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:18):
It's hard work.
for everybody and I think that I, if youare out there and you are getting paid in
any it's 40 bucks it at Tootsies downtownor wherever it's $400,000 because you're
touring with Post Malone or whatever.
You know, if, if you're doingthat, if you're getting paid to
play music, you've already made
Jason K Powers (33:39):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:40):
And I think people should stop being so
Jason K Powers (33:44):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:45):
you know, and give themselves.
And I, I'm like the biggest personthat, that is really hard on myself.
And it, it's never enough.
It's never enough thatsometimes to look back and see.
What I've come from and how much, youknow, I've accomplished in my life and
how much I hope to continue to accomplish.
And I think there's a beautyin, in giving yourself
Jason K Powers (34:05):
Yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (34:05):
you know, and not comparing yourself to other people.
You know, it's just because,you know, your, your friend
over here is touring with Steely
Jason K Powers (34:13):
yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (34:14):
You know,
it doesn't make what you're doing any
Jason K Powers (34:16):
yeah.
sure,
sure, sure.
Well, it's for everybody, I thinkwe are our own worst critic.
In many ways.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (34:24):
yeah.
Jason K Powers (34:25):
And, and that's it.
That's it.
That's it.
so you and I met through this sameidea of how do, how do you build a
system, uh, in a place that buildsa buffer for you that you can access
along the way and is your safety net?
That is something you could fall back on.
(34:46):
It's also something youcan use along the way too.
And, and that's, you know, you metsomeone a while back that taught
you about this and, and theyintroduced us and, and here we are,
you know, having this conversation.
And, and I think that's great and I, Iwas gonna have you talk about that for a
second about, you know, one of the mainthings I teach musicians is this vehicle,
(35:07):
what we call the Infinite Banking Concept.
And it is this.
The concept is about how do we putour money into places that we control,
into something that we have controlover, versus constantly putting
our money into something, somethingelse that we have no control over.
Like, for example, putting our moneyin the stock market, for example.
(35:28):
We don't have any control.
The market's control,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (35:31):
Right.
Jason K Powers (35:31):
uh, being controlled by debt.
The, the bank, the debt instrumentis what controls us once we've
gotten out of control with that debt.
Or we're constantly leveraging, you know,in the music space, maybe it's labels.
I'm not gonna camp there.
Maybe it's getting over leveragedon, you know, with labels.
(35:53):
And now you, you don't have any control.
And so how can you build up a system?
What vehicles allow you to buildsomething up that you have control over?
Over That money and, and enterthe Infinite Banking Concept.
And that's what it's about.
And of course, the vehicle that weshow people how to do this is properly
(36:13):
structured dividend paying, wholelife insurance from a mutual carrier.
I see that 10 times fast.
But, but
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (36:20):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (36:20):
it's a mouthful.
But I, I'm not gonna get into itfor this show, but it's a mouthful
because it's very particular
for the listener.
You heard a few words there and you'relike, oh gosh, that sounds boring.
I'm curious, when you first heard aboutthis, what was your first impressions
and then your understanding of it now,how do you see that being impactful
(36:42):
in your own life, in your own career?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (36:46):
Yeah.
Well, so when I first heard about it, um,I was a part of like a, a video class.
And if I'm being honest withyou, I was like so confused on
how it worked.
I was
like, what do you mean?
I like, I put money in and then it growsby itself and there's no tax, but how
do I, you know, like it was very, um, itwas not clear to me at first, and so I
(37:10):
really spent time trying to understandit and I decided to open my own policy.
because I got tired of trying to gospend money that is mine and being
told, oh, you can only, you know,spend $3,000 as your daily limit.
It's like, that's my
Jason K Powers (37:28):
Yeah.
Right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (37:30):
Um, and it was very appealing to me to have a,
a, a concept that would work thatway, um, that would be there for me
if I were to injure myself again.
Or if, you know, maybe not even like worstcase scenario, if I wanted to buy a house.
Or buy a car, you know, andhave it controlled by me 110%.
(37:51):
That was really, really appealing, um,to me to be able to have the control
my own money, since that's not reallysomething that I had experienced before.
Um, and so now I, I wanna sayI'm a year in and I'm funding
it still, and it's, it's great.
It's growing, it's doing exactly what
Jason K Powers (38:09):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (38:10):
do, and I think I have that condition.
I'm more in control ofthe choices that I make.
I don't have to take out loansanymore if I don't want to.
I don't have to rely on, oninstitutions or other people for money.
I have my own
Jason K Powers (38:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's what's important formusicians is understanding, you know, like
in this example, this vehicle would begreat to buffer when you have this vocal
injury and you're out for eight weeks.
Yeah, you have this nowemergency fund that's, it's
(38:50):
different than a savings account
because
you can, you can access this quote,emergency fund, but that emergency
fund is actually still growing
as if the money never left.
And then you could backfill thatemergency fund at your own pace down
the road once you've gotten pastit and while you're not using it.
(39:13):
It's there to be used on other thingsif you need some money for Right.
Touring, for equipment, for
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (39:21):
Mm-hmm.
Jason K Powers (39:22):
these kinds of things.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (39:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, I'm about tohave to make a really big purchase
'cause my keyboard is super old.
I've been playing on it sincehigh school and I like straight
up, doesn't work anymore.
And I really want to get aYamaha Montage and they cost
Jason K Powers (39:40):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (39:41):
and I, there's no way I would be able
to, do that in my normal life.
You know, there.
I couldn't just go and buy this keyboardnow if I didn't have this banking policy.
But now that I have this banking policy,I don't have to take things out on a loan.
I don't have to doanything I don't wanna do.
(40:02):
I can pull from my own bank, myown banking concept, which is me.
I'm in control, I can go buy thisYamaha tomorrow with no strings
attached and pay myself back on
Jason K Powers (40:11):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (40:12):
you
Jason K Powers (40:12):
Yeah.
But it's that idea of investingin yourself along the way.
It's, it's that idea of just, Hey,every penny I earn, commit to pushing
some of it, a small percentage of it
through this kind of vehiclebecause of all the advantages.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (40:35):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (40:35):
know, it, it is a, I would call it a Both/And Strategy.
We're not, you know, a lot ofpeople want to see this as just
a, a glorified savings account.
You know, okay, well, Iwanna put money into this.
I need to save money.
Because we have this perception,we, we think linearly.
and we, we want to put moneyinto a savings account.
(40:58):
And then when we are ready to buywhatever, we then spend that money
and that savings account goes tozero, and then we start saving again.
And I, I, I'm obviously biased, but Ilove this type of vehicle because even
though we're gonna access that money.
We, we were putting the money intosome small growth vehicle, not an
(41:19):
investment product, but it's growingalong the way, and then we're
accessing it, and then it can stillgrow even though we've accessed it.
And then we can put themoney back at our own pace.
Because what was your alternative?
You were gonna go finance it.
You're gonna finance a $5,000 keyboard,and then you have another payment,
or you're gonna save up for it, andso that money's still coming outta
(41:40):
your pocket until you have enough.
So either way, that money'scoming outta your pocket.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (41:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, you know, to be able tohave the control is everything.
And there's so many, so many avenues andso many situations where musicians can get
Jason K Powers (41:59):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (41:59):
of when it comes
to this.
You know, tours are expensive.
Albums are expensive.
Um, and you know, and my husband and Ihave very different opinions on this,
a hundred percent in favor of the DIYmusician, you know, because I've seen a
lot of, of really talented artists who alot of really, really good people taken
(42:22):
advantage of by these record labels.
Um, 'cause they don'tknow what they're signing.
And
a lot of times,
you know, like the examplein your book is perfect.
So one about, you know, we'llgive you the $60,000 loan, but
you have to, you know, recoup,
Jason K Powers (42:38):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (42:38):
amount of dollars and it's, that's half a million dollars
worth of music that you gotta sell.
You know, and that's just not, youknow, unless you're one of the.
Billion people, that is anovernight sensation, which is
Jason K Powers (42:49):
Yeah.
Right?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (42:51):
Not that it can't
happen, but it just,it's, it's rare, you know?
Then you're, you're stuck and notonly do you not have rights to
your stuff, you know, now you're,you've got this big IOU as well, you
Jason K Powers (43:03):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:03):
it's just, it's
complicated and it can getreally tricky, especially for
Jason K Powers (43:08):
Yep.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:09):
for sure.
Jason K Powers (43:10):
Yeah.
Well, and I think sometimes losingsight of, as we talked about
earlier, the thinking long range.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:19):
Mm-hmm.
Jason K Powers (43:20):
You kind of lose sight of that.
And, and same with this type of vehicle.
You really need to think long range.
What's it gonna do for you over time?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:27):
Right.
Jason K Powers (43:28):
tomorrow,
but over time,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:31):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (43:32):
you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:36):
yeah.
Jason K Powers (43:36):
That's.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:37):
definitely grateful
for it.
I now feel.
I know how I, I, I don'twant to feel ever again.
And that's how I felt when I injuredmyself, where I had no control and even
know if I was gonna get to sing again.
I didn't know what wasgonna be returned to me.
And I was like, crap.
Like I have nothing.
Like I have, have no playing,being, um, and I know that I don't
(43:58):
want to feel like that again.
And so I'm really happy that I have this,this avenue behind me, this, this concept
that I can contribute to and that I knowis gonna be there for me when I need it.
You know?
Jason K Powers (44:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's great.
So let's start landing on the planeand I want you to tell the listeners
a little bit about, you know, wetalked about Sound City, sound City
Entertainment a few minutes ago, andjust what you guys do there and how
they can connect to you that way.
And any closing advice, financialadvice for musicians, uh, that you have.
(44:35):
We're all ears right now.
The floor is yours as we.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (44:39):
Yeah.
Well, like I mentioned, you know,Sound City Entertainment is all
about providing the top quality.
Talent and musicians andentertainers to our clients.
Um, and we have various needs at varioustimes for various things coming up all
the time, and we're always looking toexpand our roster of talented people.
(45:00):
And so if people are interested in, inbecoming a part of that, they can reach
out to myself or on business cards andstuff like that, but probably the fastest
is through, um, my Instagram and we're,Jason and I are very, uh, approachable
and reachable, um, through that.
And so we would love to, to connectwith, with musicians and, and
talent and, and stuff like that.
(45:21):
So, um, and what was your other question?
Sorry.
Um, oh, what advicethat was the other part.
Um.
Just keep doing what you'redoing and don't, don't ever give
up and don't get discouraged.
I mean, it is tough out here, but whenyou believe in yourself and you believe
in what you're doing and you're workinghard, the stuff will, it'll find you.
(45:46):
find you in
its own time.
And
something that got said to me when Iwas young is A, what's meant for you?
We'll find you.
You won't be able to get away from it.
And I think that's so.
So powerful and so important.
And I know it's cliche to belike, oh yeah, it's work hard,
but it's, it's so, it's so true.
And I think if you stay humble and takethe time to really, really get good at
(46:11):
what you do, whether it's singing ordrumming or playing bass or painting,
whatever it is, whatever your thingis, do everything in your power to
get as good as you possibly can at it,and everything else is gonna find you.
Jason K Powers (46:27):
That's great.
All right.
Every show we wrap up withwhat we call final riffs.
Basically short questions, quickanswers, snapshots to take us home.
So the first thing that comes to mind, andyou can always say pass if you wanna pass.
All right.
Are you ready?
All right.
Who was your biggest musicalinfluence growing up?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (46:47):
Iron Maiden.
Jason K Powers (46:49):
Iron Maiden.
That's great.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (46:51):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (46:54):
What band or artist will you never get tired of listening to?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (46:57):
Iron Maiden,
Jason K Powers (47:00):
That's so funny.
Good.
All right.
If you could share the stagewith anyone, who would it be?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:06):
well, iron Maiden, but also Prince.
Jason K Powers (47:08):
Besides Iron Reen.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:09):
I'm a huge, huge Prince fan.
I would've loved toshare the stage with him.
Jason K Powers (47:14):
Yeah.
Most embarrassing gig or performance?
Fail.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:19):
Uh,
Jason K Powers (47:19):
Everybody's got one.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:20):
that I was touring when I was in high school
and I went to go do a solo and mykeyboard stand completely broke and
my whole rig fell onto the ground.
Jason K Powers (47:31):
Oh my goodness.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:32):
was
Jason K Powers (47:32):
Oh my goodness.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:33):
moment.
Jason K Powers (47:37):
One city or rev or one city or venue you
will never forget playing in.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:42):
Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Detroit, Michigan.
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (47:47):
Okay.
If you were not doing music.
Which we can't imagine.
What would you be doing?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:52):
Um, I would probably be a personal trainer or something
Jason K Powers (47:55):
Think so.
Yeah?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:56):
Yeah?
Jason K Powers (47:58):
Yeah.
Good.
All right.
What is a non-music hobbyor passion of yours?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:02):
I love hot yoga so much.
I would do it every
Jason K Powers (48:06):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:06):
muscles allowed.
Jason K Powers (48:10):
All right.
Coffee, tea or something stronger.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:11):
Tea and something stronger.
Tea and
Jason K Powers (48:14):
Tea and something stronger.
Yeah.
There you go.
There you go.
Uh, any pets and what are their names?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:20):
I have a dog.
He's a blue healer.
He's seven years old.
His name is Prince.
Jason K Powers (48:25):
Pr,
the dog.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:26):
prince the dog.
Jason K Powers (48:27):
That's great.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:28):
in the, but.
Jason K Powers (48:28):
Very cool.
All right.
All right.
All right.
Lexxi, that was fun.
I appreciate, uh, how open you wereabout your journey and, and launching
the business with Jason and takingcare of the body and, and what, what
the 2023 injury taught you, you know.
We're gonna be puttinglinks for our listeners.
We'll be putting links to Pete'sand Sound City Entertainment
(48:50):
and the Instagram handles
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:52):
Yeah,
Jason K Powers (48:52):
to reach out to Lexxi and Jason.
So go follow book a Night out.
Go check them out, goto Pete's and uh, keep.
Yeah, keep up with the shows.
So for everyone listening, if this gotyou thinking about the money behind
the music, grab my free ebook, AMusician's Guide to Infinite Banking.
(49:14):
It's at 1024wealth.com/music.
It shows how to keep money accessible,keep growth compounding smooth.
The feast or famine times,potentially self-fund tours,
releases, gear on your own timeline.
When you're ready to talkabout it, book a call with me.
Let's talk through it.
No strings attached.
I want to tell you more.
I love, I love sharing thiswith musicians, so reach out.
(49:37):
Meanwhile, subscribe onyour favorite podcast app.
Share this with one musicianwho needs to hear it, and I
will see you guys next time.
Lexxi, thank you again.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: For having me, Jason. (49:46):
undefined
I appreciate it.
Jason K Powers (49:48):
All right.
Until then, keep your moneyworking and your music moving.
Welcome to Backstage Money, real World Finance for Musicians.
I'm your host, Jason K. Powers, andthis is where music and Money collide.
Today I am joined by Lexxi Garza,Hartless powerhouse, vocalist and pianist,
originally from San Antonio, Texas.
Now in Nashville.
She has toured nationally andinternationally, lights up dueling piano
stages, and is a multi-instrumentalistwho will jump from bass to drums,
(00:38):
to keys in a single night even.
She's the entertainment directorwith Pete's Dueling Piano bar and
co-owner of Sound City Entertainmentwith her husband Jason Hartless.
In recent years, Lexxi has also joinedlegendary rocker Ted Nugent on tour,
appearing on stage during various showsin his US tours, becoming the only female
(00:58):
to perform live with Nugent himself.
Lexxi, welcome to the show.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (01:03):
Hi.
Thank you
Jason K Powers (01:03):
Yeah.
I appreciate you coming on.
This is, uh, this is an exciting time.
We've been doing lots of recordings and,and I've, I've really enjoyed meeting
everybody and, and I've heard some ofyour story and I'm, I'm really excited
to, to share that with everybody.
So let's jump right in.
Let's, let's hear about, I alwayslike to start with origin stories.
(01:24):
We call it, you know, how didyou, how did you get into music?
You started at a pretty young age.
And kind of found your giftpretty early on, I think.
Right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (01:37):
Yeah.
Yeah, I was five and it's kindof a, a really dorky story.
So when I was a kid, I was obsessedwith Little House on the Prairie.
Like that was my favorite show.
I watched it all day every day.
and I don't really remember doing this.
This is just a story that my parentstold me, um, later, but I had like
a little Fisher-Price piano andthey heard me, um, figure out the
(02:01):
theme song with no reference in theexact key in on the piano at five.
And they were like, notnormal child behavior.
Yeah.
And so they, they put me in piano lessonsand I, I studied classical music for.
Probably 10, 15 years after that.
I didn't start singing until, uh, college.
(02:21):
So that was kind of a labor bloomerfor me as far as singing goes.
But, um, yeah, so been in it
Jason K Powers (02:27):
Yeah, so, where did you kind of excel and, and did you think
growing up in, in junior high and highschool, you were gonna be a performer?
Or were you, did you just loveit or what were you, what were
you thinking at that time?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (02:42):
Yeah, so you know, I always kind of
knew that being a performer is.
Is in my blood.
It's kind of where I belong.
You know, I, I have a, a pretty bigpersonality that was allowed to shine in
that sort of an environment, you know?
My parents were, were really supportive.
I was homeschooled
Jason K Powers (02:58):
Okay.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (02:59):
17, so I was kind of able to have the fLexxibility
to do the tours and, and do all thedifferent kinds of bands and all
the different projects and stuff.
And so, I, I always knew thatthat's what I was supposed to do.
I just, at the time, you know, I knewhow fickle the industry was and I wasn't
sure if it would ever happen, you know?
'cause there's a lot of timesthe people out there that.
(03:19):
know, it never really happensfor, it's just, it's very common.
So I didn't know what thefuture had in store, but yeah.
I'm glad I stuck with
Jason K Powers (03:28):
Yeah.
And, and here you are.
Right.
Right.
See, as, as we say, myhaven't we come a long way,
you know?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (03:35):
Yes,
Jason K Powers (03:35):
right.
Well, so, so when didyou start going on stage?
When did you start performing infront of crowds and, and how did
you get sort of from, I'm gonnasay a prodigy musician child right,
to performing where you're at now?
I mean, what, what was kind of that?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (04:00):
Yeah.
Yeah, it was, you know, I, it's so,it's so funny looking back on it
to say, because be 28 on Friday andit's crazy to, to say, you know,
I've been here doing this thing for.
Jason K Powers (04:11):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (04:11):
years, you know, that it's just, it's,
it's crazy and I'm really lucky.
my first recital when my first timeplaying in front of people was a piano
recital because I studied classical.
Um, we had like a, a sort of, youknow, all the students for this
teacher would perform for this recital.
And I was so nervous.
I remember sitting down.
(04:32):
And I played my pieces like 10 timesfaster than they were supposed to go.
I just was like, my brainjust like completely quit.
And I was like, let me just get throughthis as fast as possible, you know?
and then as you know, I started to performmore, you know, every, anywhere I could.
My dad, you know, he.
(04:53):
Kind of helped me get exposurewith a bunch of different bands.
And he was always like,don't worry about the money.
Like getting your name outthere, getting your face out
there, your talents out there.
That's what's important.
And everything else is gonna comealong naturally, you know, and
that's exactly what happened.
You know, by the time my, uh, Iwas in college, I had been a part
of, know, leading worship teams andclassical recitals and jazz bands
(05:15):
and rock bands, and I'd kind of done.
All of this stuff, which was was awesome,moving into a more professional stage
of my life that I had all these sortof tools under my belt, as it were so.
Jason K Powers (05:26):
Then what's your involvement with, so take me
now, you start doing the dueling,the dueling piano thing, right?
You have the, uh, what,how did you get from.
That, uh, Pete's dueling piano war,
right?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (05:45):
Yeah, so long story short, so I went to college for classical
music when I was 13, and it was fun.
It was great.
That's kind of where I realizedthough, that I am a rocker
at heart and I would like, it would bea chore for me to learn these Beethoven
sonatas, and I really just wanted tobe listening to Iron Maiden, you know?
(06:07):
Um, and it, it sort of developed,you know, down the road that
I wanted to be a front person.
I wanted to be
as big of a personality asI could be on the stage.
And I, my first job comingout of college was actually on
(06:28):
carnival, uh, cruise ships, and I
Jason K Powers (06:30):
Okay.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (06:31):
piano
bar entertainer
Jason K Powers (06:32):
Um.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (06:33):
and right out the
gate.
Um, and it was awesome.
It was fun.
It was a lot of work.
It was, you know, six nights aweek, four hour show solo, um,
which is a long time to be on
Jason K Powers (06:45):
Yeah, sure.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and entertaining singing. (06:46):
undefined
And, um, when I got off the ship, Idon't know how this happened to this
day, somebody, um, from a, a companycalled Howl at the Moon found me.
Me and I sort of fellbackwards into dueling pianos.
I had no idea
Jason K Powers (07:04):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (07:04):
it was, and spent about five years really honing that craft,
and that's how I ended up at Pete's.
Now Pete's is a very prestigious,um, dueling piano brand.
Like it's very hard to getyour foot in the door there.
And I was working for them inTexas just as a sub, and that's
how I ended up landing the E.D.
Jason K Powers (07:25):
Yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (07:26):
here in Nashville.
Jason K Powers (07:27):
yeah, yeah.
So for the listener who isn't privvy tothis, explain the dueling piano thing.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (07:38):
Yeah, doing pianos is a very interesting concept
and I think everyone would have adifferent answer for this for sure.
but to me, you know, wehave, we have two pianists.
They face each other, um, and wedon't have a set list up there.
We take song requests.
the audience, so the audience can writedown their favorite songs, they can
(07:59):
write down what they're celebrating.
If it's a birthday, they writedown, you know, what, whatever they
would like to pay attention to usto pay attention to on the stage.
They bring it up to us andwe play it, it's very chaotic
Jason K Powers (08:12):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (08:13):
Um, there's definitely a comedic element as well.
We bring people up on the stageand we make 'em feel special.
We play games with the audience.
We give away jello shots.
I mean, it's, it's a whole.
a whole night of shenanigans.
It's not just like, I'm gonna play asong and then my partner is gonna play
a song, and then I'm gonna play a song.
It's very cohesive, it's very fun.
(08:34):
Um, I mean, we'll, we'll gofrom Janice Joplin to Cardi
Jason K Powers (08:38):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (08:40):
you know?
Um, so it's awesome.
It's, it's really, really fun.
I'm, I'm so
Jason K Powers (08:45):
yeah.
We, we had a really great one in Denver.
We go do for a long time and, and.
You can't walk out of there.
Not smiling.
I mean, it was, it's alwaysjust a lot of fun, I think.
I think
everybody
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (08:58):
Yeah.
And I
Jason K Powers (08:59):
before you knock it right, everybody needs
to go check it out and uh, I.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:04):
yeah,
and it's, you know, every club thatyou walk into does it differently.
Like, Howell is different than Pete,which is different than sluggers
in Chicago, which is different thanNew York and New York and Vegas.
You know, it, it's such a, it's such abroad concept and it really allows the
entertainer to shine because the waythat I do the show is different than.
You know, somebody else on my team.
(09:24):
And it, it's so awesome to have allthese personalities and all this talent
to create this one big cohesive ball of
Jason K Powers (09:31):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:31):
energy,
Jason K Powers (09:32):
Right, right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:33):
you know?
And it's it's so much fun.
It's, it really feels like I get paid to,
Jason K Powers (09:38):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:40):
a week, and then I walk, I walk home and
Jason K Powers (09:43):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:44):
it's
Jason K Powers (09:44):
But there's some, there's some entertainment aspect to this where.
It's really on you guysin a way to kind of lead
the entertainment, you know,and keep the momentum going and
keep the fun going and right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (09:59):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I always tell people, you know, totreat the show with brand new doers
when they come in, they have no idea.
You know, they're like,how do I do this gig?
I'm like, treat the show like thisis a house party and the audience,
or your guests, you know, and atthe end of the night, you know,
you want this table from New Yorkto be best friends with this table
Jason K Powers (10:17):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Oh, I'll cross the bar. (10:19):
undefined
You know, it's, and that's really,it's so true, is what we're trying
to do is through music and we'retrying to help people forget
Jason K Powers (10:30):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (10:31):
for a
night, you know, and just come in andhave fun and celebrate their birthdays,
and celebrate their bacheloretteparties and just come in and have
Jason K Powers (10:38):
Yeah, that's great.
That's great.
And we've talked about thatbefore on other shows about.
Just for the music entertainer you are.
That is an importantthing to keep in mind.
I think people are going to these thingsto kind of get away from it, so to speak.
You know,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (10:57):
Yeah,
Jason K Powers (10:57):
and,
just disconnect and have a grand time.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:04):
Even we, as the entertainers show
Jason K Powers (11:05):
Yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: to forget about stuff (11:06):
undefined
in our life, you know, it's like,
Jason K Powers (11:08):
that's great.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:09):
it's
just as much benefit for
Jason K Powers (11:10):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:11):
for them.
So
it's definitely a privilege to be in that
Jason K Powers (11:14):
That's fun.
That's fun.
Well, and so you're married
and you do you get to performwith your husband much?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:25):
I
Jason K Powers (11:25):
You do.
So I, I wanna, let's pause that thoughtfor a second and back up a little bit.
You have a, a pretty interesting howI met my husband story, I think, and,
and why don't you tell us who yourhusband is and then how you guys met.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:41):
Yeah, so my husband is Jason Hartless, show appear on well.
Jason K Powers (11:45):
Yes.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (11:47):
Um, he and I'll, I'll let him, I'll leave most of his
intro for him when he comes on here,but, um, he drums full-time for Ted
Nugent has for the last, uh, 10 years.
And I met Jason when I showed up onthe Ted Nugent 22 Detroit Muscle Tour.
Um, and when I showed up, youknow, everybody was running around.
(12:08):
They're getting ready for theshow, they're still setting up.
And I, I showed up and I askedour tour manager, who at the time
was Ted Emporellis, he, he's, he'stour managed for huge acts like
John Bon Jovi's with for years.
And I was like, Hey, Ted, like,where can I stand where I'm not
in the way of all this stuff?
'cause everyone's like going crazy.
(12:29):
like, oh, you can wait in there.
And he points off to this littleroom on the side in the back.
And I'm like, all right.
And I walk in there and there's Jason onhis little drum pad and he is warming up.
He looks up and he's like,what is this girl doing in
Jason K Powers (12:43):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (12:46):
And come to find out later, that was Jason's dressing room
and no one was supposed to be in there.
And the tour manager had sentme in there trying to set us.
Which
Jason K Powers (12:57):
it's worked.
That's funny.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (12:58):
which worked.
Um, and he, Jason, like,did not want to talk to me.
He was so shy, like hehad no idea what to do.
He was just like not making eye contact.
I was like, this is not gonna be awkward.
Like, this man is gonna talk to me
Jason K Powers (13:13):
Oh funny.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:14):
or not.
And so that's kind of how all thatstarted and that's how we met.
And then I went out on stagewith him later, and then
we became best friends and.
Jason K Powers (13:23):
Then there you,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:24):
We just celebrated our one year wedding anniversary
Jason K Powers (13:26):
that's great.
That's great.
That's great.
Well, so you guys now, how didyou get hooked up with, with.
Ted's tour and in the first place.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:40):
Yeah, so I got called to open for him last minute,
like five days before the show.
He was performing in Waco,Texas, and they're opening band
had lost their lead singer.
And I got called in.
It was just, it was aset of like, Zeppelin and
Jason K Powers (13:56):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (13:57):
stuff.
uh, it was one of thoselike domino effect things.
It just, it was crazy that Ted andShemane just happened to be there
early and they heard the whole setand, uh, get a call from an unknown
number on my phone the next day.
I almost didn't answer it.
And it was Ted and he was like,would you wanna come out and sing
(14:19):
some songs on my tour this year?
And I was like,
Jason K Powers (14:23):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:23):
we
Jason K Powers (14:23):
Gimme,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:24):
you know?
Jason K Powers (14:24):
gimme one second.
Okay.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:27):
Yeah.
And so that's kind of how that happened.
It started out with just the,the Texas chapter of the tour.
'cause that's where I lived.
So I was able to, tomake it out to all those.
And then it kind of becamemore, more than that.
Um, and then this year I finally gotto do the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in
Michigan, which was a bucket list for me.
'cause that's where bothTed and Jason are from.
Um, so that
(14:48):
was
Jason K Powers (14:48):
Very nice.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (14:50):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (14:50):
And so, okay, let's.
Talk a little bit about thetouring session work and
then also your work at Pete's
and
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (15:01):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (15:02):
with Sound City Entertainment, which we'll talk about.
Like how are you one, howare you juggling all of this?
Or are you, I guess I we were under theassumption you're juggling it right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (15:15):
Yeah.
Well Jason, Jason and I, I'm really luckyto have him because everything that I'm
not good at, he's good at and everythingthat he's not good at, I'm good at.
so we kind of all of these things,you know, like I just, I just finished
four nights back to back at Pete's andI had no energy to do anything else.
(15:35):
And so he was the one that was handlinglike the accounting for our company.
handling all the stuffthat I couldn't get to.
And then there's some weeks when he's onthe road where I'm the one that does that.
know?
So it is really, I don't knowif I could do it without him.
Um, I don't think there's any way couldpull off that kind of responsibility
(15:55):
and schedule without cloning myself at
Jason K Powers (15:57):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (15:58):
um, yeah, I really, I really make my
mental health a priority and.
I've got severe A DHD,so making lists is like
Jason K Powers (16:07):
Yeah, yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (16:09):
to make sure I get to everything, you know?
Um, yeah, I, I like being busy.
I like having all these things going
Jason K Powers (16:15):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (16:15):
once, and so
it's good.
It's really great.
Jason K Powers (16:19):
What, uh, what's your favorite part of the dueling
piano format and in that area ofentertainment, what's something
musicians can maybe learn from that togrow and build from, or get exposure
or, you know, what's that look like?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (16:39):
Yeah, I think, you know, to, to do doing pianos,
it's way harder than it looks.
And I say that because youhave to be pretty fluid on.
All of the instruments and be able tochange around at a moment's notice.
And I think, you know, at the end ofthe day we, we play other people's
(16:59):
music for a living, you know?
I think as long as we don't losesight of what we're trying to do,
which is make the audience thestar, like it's about the audience.
It's about them coming in and givingus their business and giving us
their time, and being respectful ofthat, and us being grateful for that.
And I think.
(17:20):
You know, staying humble isreally, really important.
And reminding yourself like, Hey, there'sa lot of talented people out there, and
I'm the one that's getting to do this.
I'm the one that
Jason K Powers (17:32):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (17:32):
the stage.
I'm the
one that has This privilege tobe a facilitator of this night
and this person's life right now.
know?
And I think as long as italways is centered that.
It is not always about you, you andyour abilities and you know, it's,
(17:53):
you wanna create a party and create anenvironment and I think as long as you
don't lose sight of that, everythingelse just kind of comes along.
You know, I think stayinghumble is so, so important.
And I know I live in likeone of the big three cities.
There's LA, Nashville, andthere's New York and there's,
you know, there's some ego's out
Jason K Powers (18:12):
sure.
Sure, But it seems to bea recurring theme though.
It, you know, and other peoplewe've talked to there, there is
that recurring theme of humility
and
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (18:23):
yeah,
Jason K Powers (18:24):
your fans are the reason you're up there still.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (18:27):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (18:29):
And even for the guys that have been at the longer you're
at it, I, it seems like the moreyou appreciate that, I think, but.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (18:36):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I, I think the industry, like,it's, it's so tough and it always has
been, and it's always been competitiveand it's always been, you know, dog
eat dog and sometimes, and I stayingabove that and staying above, you know.
Getting into the fray and getting intothe mix and just staying grateful.
You know, I'm, I'm really, reallylucky to be where I'm at right now.
(19:00):
You know, where people are, are reallyhurting for work and, and there's
the whole component of ai, which, you
Jason K Powers (19:05):
Yeah,
there's a whole nother show on that.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (19:08):
later.
Yeah.
Like, it, it's, it's, so gratefulto be one of the few people that
has this work and this consistentopportunity and that will
Jason K Powers (19:19):
Mm-hmm.
There's this humility aspect, and thenthere's the entertainment aspect, right?
I've gotta be, you gotta have a certainpersonality to, to draw the crowd
and to, to, to draw them outand, and entertain, whether it's
dueling pianos or whether it'son stage in front of thousands.
(19:43):
You know, there's that aspectof you've gotta be on your
game when you're on stage,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (19:50):
Yep.
Jason K Powers (19:51):
you know?
And, and some of that attributes tokeeping up on your mental health.
We've, we've had these conversations withpeople, making sure your mental health is
in check when you can, and, and so you canget up there and be on top of your game.
And, and you also have a perspective,which is also a common theme on
kind of physical health, right, too.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, a hundred percent. (20:12):
undefined
Yeah.
And you really, you reallyhave to take it seriously.
This is something that Jason andI, my husband, were, we're just
talking about the other day.
It's like, you know, he justturned 30 last year and I'll
be 30 coming up here soon.
And it's like, we really wanna giveourselves the best chance at being in this
industry for as long as we possibly can.
(20:34):
And that really means that youhave to live like an athlete.
You know, and there'sno other way around it.
'cause it just starts
Jason K Powers (20:41):
Yeah.
Yes, for now.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (20:44):
you know?
It just gets harder and harder.
Um, so I think I'm a big believerin implementing those healthy
habits early on creating alifestyle out of it, um, is really
Jason K Powers (20:54):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So what are your maybe non-negotiablesduring heavy week shows or,
or what's maybe overrated?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (21:03):
Yeah, I, uh, I drink a gallon of water
Jason K Powers (21:06):
Okay.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (21:07):
no
matter what.
Um, I'm a big hot yoga fan.
Um, I deal with a lot of anxiety in mylife, and so I kind of carry my tension.
my body, you know, and when I'm likereally anxious, I'll literally just
kind of sit like this, which createsall these issues like in my neck
and, which is horrible for singingAnd, uh, you know, yoga, I'll go
(21:28):
probably four or five times a week.
And it really helps just to keep melike limber and stretched out, which
is really important for, you know, notjust singing, but piano playing too.
And, um, eating healthy.
I've, uh, I've got celiac disease, soI. Can't eat bread or pasta or anything.
So that's kind of helpful thatI'm forced to be But um, eating
(21:52):
healthy is really, really
Jason K Powers (21:53):
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
Sound City Entertainment.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (22:00):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (22:01):
How did this get started?
What is, what is Sound City Entertainment?
How'd you guys get it started?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (22:07):
Yeah, sound City Entertainment is the company
that Jason and I co-own, and weprovide various entertainment to
clients, um, all across the world.
that could be doing panels orit could be an acoustic guitar
player, it could be a juggler, it
could be whatever The client needs.
Um, and we, we provide thoseservices to different clients.
(22:28):
So.
Um, and it got started becausewe had this opportunity with,
um, Park West Art Galleries.
They were looking for entertainmentand they, um, they'll have, you know,
70 events across the US throughout theyear, and they wanted Dualing Pianos
and as well as some other things.
We just brought EricMartin in a couple of weeks
Jason K Powers (22:49):
Mm-hmm.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:08):
but I just didn't wanna deal with
like, the business side of it.
I didn't feel equipped, I didn'tfeel I could handle that well.
Um, which is where Jason comes in.
'cause Jason graduated fromBerkeley in with a music
Jason K Powers (23:19):
Okay, good.
There you go.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:22):
Two, our two forces kind of collided and we were
like, Hey, let's, let's do thiscompany and see what we can, what
Jason K Powers (23:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:29):
So
Jason K Powers (23:30):
that's been, uh, for how long now?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:34):
we started that, say in the beginning of
Jason K Powers (23:38):
Okay.
Okay.
And so far, so good.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:40):
So brand new?
Jason K Powers (23:41):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:42):
Yeah.
So far So
great.
Jason K Powers (23:44):
Good.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:45):
We're, um, we're really grateful to, um.
Be able to
Jason K Powers (23:48):
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (23:49):
people.
Um, and we, we often go out onour own gigs, which is where, you
know, we get to play together and
Jason K Powers (23:56):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So from the artists, from the musicianstandpoint, how can they get connected
with, you know, companies likeyourself and, and, and what's one way.
Maybe some advice you would give toartists who are trying to get themselves
(24:16):
out there, get connected in everyway possible, you know, and, and get
that exposure, get things booked.
You know, what, what, whatadvice can you give on that side?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (24:27):
Yeah, I think know your brand.
I think if you come in with a, a verydeveloped, solid um and product, then
that's really important so that you canbe like, Hey, this is what I can offer.
You know?
Um, I think really workinghard on your skills.
And not money or not worrying aboutmaking it to the big stage, not worrying
(24:52):
about fame, just sticking with yourcourse and sticking with your guns.
And don't ever
Jason K Powers (24:57):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (24:58):
Don't ever let anybody take your dream away, you
know, because these things take time.
Jason K Powers (25:02):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (25:03):
These things take
time.
you know, even Jason and I, we'vebeen at this for years and years and
years and, you know, I, I only wentout with Nugent in 22 and I'd been
in the industry for like 20 yearsat that point, you know, so things.
You know, they take time.
And I would say just try notto, to, to be discouraged.
You know, when
things don't as fast as youthink they should or as well
(25:25):
as you think they should.
Just, you know, remember your passion or
Jason K Powers (25:28):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (25:30):
Um, and I think everything else will happen along the way.
Jason K Powers (25:33):
I love the don't ever quit, you know,
that's the, that's the thing.
That's hard, I think forartists is like the long road
to, you know, for, for most, forthe average person at least, you
know, it's, it's that long roadand you've gotta really, as, as
I would say, think long range.
(25:54):
You know, you have to
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (25:55):
yeah.
Jason K Powers (25:56):
looking down the road, what are you working towards, you know?
And keep work in that directionand, and don't give up.
I love it.
And.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (26:07):
And a
lot of people, a lot of peopledo, which is unfortunate.
You know, it's, sorry,I'm gonna cut you off.
Um, know, and I, know, I'd belying to you if I said that I never
thought about quitting before.
I mean, that's definitely crossedmind in my husband's minds many times.
Many times.
But there's this, like, there'sthis thing inside both of us that
(26:30):
like every time we've tried to quit.
We end up coming right back to itbecause it's not an option for us.
There's something in us thatprevents us from leaving what we
Jason K Powers (26:41):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (26:42):
and yeah.
We'll go on a sabbatical.
Yeah, we'll take a hiatus.
Yeah.
We'll, you know, we'll take a break orwhatever, it's just not possible for us to
Jason K Powers (26:50):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (26:51):
We're just, we're
Jason K Powers (26:53):
It's, well, it's part of you.
It's like, you know, the music sidethrough and through, you know, in,
in your life.
And, and that's like, I guess like losingan appendage, you know, to, to quit.
That kind of thing.
You're like, I'm, I'm, I'm notquite ready to lose my arm.
So, you know, you get right back into it.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (27:12):
exactly.
Jason K Powers (27:13):
not quite ready for that.
Yeah.
Uh, well, let's talk, let'stalk money for a minute now.
What is in from your vantage point,what's, say what's a reliable way
you've earned income through musicacross seasons, and maybe one lever
you're leaning into this year even?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (27:36):
Yeah.
Well, I'm, I'm, really, reallylucky dueling pianos, has
always been there for me.
It's, I, I tell peopleit's my nine to five.
And it's so, it's so awesome because Ican go out with Ted or I can go out with
whoever and I come back and dueling pianos
Jason K Powers (27:56):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (27:57):
for me.
and I know many, many musicians arenot in that, um, in that situation.
And so, you know, I'm, I'm really gratefulto to have that always there for me.
Um, I know that a lot of musicianswhen they're off the road.
(28:17):
They'll, you know, session workis big here and in Broadway, like,
they'll pick up shifts on Broadway.
Um, which is really unfortunate becauseof how little Broadway pays these days.
You know, it's, it's reallyterrible to have all these
people getting paid, you know,
Jason K Powers (28:32):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (28:32):
for a four
hour show.
It was really insane.
Um, I, Jason is always like, man, you'rein the, the 1% that has consistent work.
He's like, nobody hasconsistent work and I'm just.
I am so grateful to, to be there, butat the same time, like my heart goes
out to all of my friends that are not
Jason K Powers (28:51):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (28:52):
boat, you
know?
And that it's really heartbreaking tosee these people with all of this talent
that are struggling, you know, and, andwith this technology now, and the way
you know the world is it's just getting
Jason K Powers (29:06):
Right,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:06):
day.
You know?
Hopefully it'll balance out andturn itself back around, but right
Jason K Powers (29:11):
right, right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:12):
you know?
Jason K Powers (29:13):
So what's some of the best advice, best financial
advice or career advice anothermusician or mentor has given you?
I.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:22):
Um, always
have a contingency plan.
Jason K Powers (29:24):
Yeah.
Love it.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, have a backup plan. (29:26):
undefined
I don't mean that like, you know,make sure you have a degree in
Jason K Powers (29:31):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:33):
What you wanna do,
Jason K Powers (29:34):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:34):
for it.
Like, by all
means, mean, you know, have a plan for the
dry season, you know, and have aplan for when things aren't going
exactly how you expected them to go.
You know, I, um, I injured myvoice in 2023 and I was touring
and I got COVID that turned into
Jason K Powers (29:54):
Oh man.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (29:56):
I coughed so hard.
Um, my right vocal cord started bleeding.
Jason K Powers (30:00):
Gosh.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Which sucked, sucked. (30:02):
undefined
And I had to take eight weeks off.
So that was two months of no income.
And I didn't really safetynet or a contingency plan, so
I just kind of sucked it up,
Jason K Powers (30:14):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:16):
really, like got my butt kicked on bills because I
didn't have, know, any sort of plans.
I just didn't think that wasgonna happen to me, you know?
But it really opened my eyes.
And I think the most important thing Icould say on, on that is make sure you
Jason K Powers (30:31):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:31):
net.
Um, whether it's financially orotherwise, you know, because I mean,
I could fall down my stairs out, outof the studio coming down from this
Jason K Powers (30:41):
Right,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:42):
and break
Jason K Powers (30:42):
Right,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:43):
You know,
Jason K Powers (30:43):
right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:44):
it's such a
fickle, um, thing that we do.
And so I think being prepared.
if God forbid, something wereto happen and you couldn't
Jason K Powers (30:53):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:53):
while or, you know, you ran into some,
some financial issues to have
Jason K Powers (30:58):
Yep.
Yep.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (30:58):
for you.
Jason K Powers (31:00):
Yeah, there's a pretty common theme throughout
in, in the music industry where
the planning ahead thing is trouble,let's call it, you know, it's, it
spells trouble for people 'cause.
I, the industry is built on almost astruggle till you make it struggle,
(31:22):
struggle, struggle, struggle.
You know?
And you're that literal starvingartist at times trying to make it.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (31:29):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (31:29):
And you want to, you want to build.
And so you go, okay, well we're gonna,we're gonna penny pinch, we're gonna
penny pinch until we have enough.
You know?
And, and I get that mindset andthat, and that's a very common theme.
But every single musician Italk to, this is a conversation.
How can we, how can we buffer thatsomehow, or I wish I would've focused
(31:53):
more on buffering that ahead of timerather than waiting until the, the
time is now when I really need themoney and I don't have it, you know?
And, and yeah.
And we see it all the time.
You see it, you know?
And, and, and God bless 'em all.
I mean, when there's.
The GoFundMe pops up, incident happensand the GoFundMe pops up and, and the fans
(32:14):
wanna jump in and help and that's great,but it's really a conversation, you know,
and that's one of the reasons I do whatI do in helping musicians is like, let,
let's try to get away from that scramblemode, you know, and try to get away from
the, I am in so much trouble tomorrow.
If I get injured, you know,really, it's a scary place to be.
(32:38):
It is.
It really is.
Uh, and, and that's why I thinkit's, I think it's important
and, and every musician agreesthat that's out there making it,
you know, like it's so important
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (32:49):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (32:49):
to be finding that buffer for you to finding that safety net.
Finding a way to, I'll say, warehouseyour money a little bit along the way,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (32:59):
yeah.
Oh
Jason K Powers (33:00):
you know?
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:02):
Yeah.
I think it's, won't find asingle successful musician who.
Didn't struggle
Jason K Powers (33:09):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:11):
You know, even, even the people that, that had the
funding to start and, and had all theright stuff, you know, it takes, it's
Jason K Powers (33:17):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:18):
It's hard work.
for everybody and I think that I, if youare out there and you are getting paid in
any it's 40 bucks it at Tootsies downtownor wherever it's $400,000 because you're
touring with Post Malone or whatever.
You know, if, if you're doingthat, if you're getting paid to
play music, you've already made
Jason K Powers (33:39):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:40):
And I think people should stop being so
Jason K Powers (33:44):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (33:45):
you know, and give themselves.
And I, I'm like the biggest personthat, that is really hard on myself.
And it, it's never enough.
It's never enough thatsometimes to look back and see.
What I've come from and how much, youknow, I've accomplished in my life and
how much I hope to continue to accomplish.
And I think there's a beautyin, in giving yourself
Jason K Powers (34:05):
Yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (34:05):
you know, and not comparing yourself to other people.
You know, it's just because,you know, your, your friend
over here is touring with Steely
Jason K Powers (34:13):
yeah,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (34:14):
You know,
it doesn't make what you're doing any
Jason K Powers (34:16):
yeah.
sure,
sure, sure.
Well, it's for everybody, I thinkwe are our own worst critic.
In many ways.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (34:24):
yeah.
Jason K Powers (34:25):
And, and that's it.
That's it.
That's it.
so you and I met through this sameidea of how do, how do you build a
system, uh, in a place that buildsa buffer for you that you can access
along the way and is your safety net?
That is something you could fall back on.
(34:46):
It's also something youcan use along the way too.
And, and that's, you know, you metsomeone a while back that taught
you about this and, and theyintroduced us and, and here we are,
you know, having this conversation.
And, and I think that's great and I, Iwas gonna have you talk about that for a
second about, you know, one of the mainthings I teach musicians is this vehicle,
(35:07):
what we call the Infinite Banking Concept.
And it is this.
The concept is about how do we putour money into places that we control,
into something that we have controlover, versus constantly putting
our money into something, somethingelse that we have no control over.
Like, for example, putting our moneyin the stock market, for example.
(35:28):
We don't have any control.
The market's control,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (35:31):
Right.
Jason K Powers (35:31):
uh, being controlled by debt.
The, the bank, the debt instrumentis what controls us once we've
gotten out of control with that debt.
Or we're constantly leveraging, you know,in the music space, maybe it's labels.
I'm not gonna camp there.
Maybe it's getting over leveragedon, you know, with labels.
(35:53):
And now you, you don't have any control.
And so how can you build up a system?
What vehicles allow you to buildsomething up that you have control over?
Over That money and, and enterthe Infinite Banking Concept.
And that's what it's about.
And of course, the vehicle that weshow people how to do this is properly
(36:13):
structured dividend paying, wholelife insurance from a mutual carrier.
I see that 10 times fast.
But, but
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (36:20):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (36:20):
it's a mouthful.
But I, I'm not gonna get into itfor this show, but it's a mouthful
because it's very particular
for the listener.
You heard a few words there and you'relike, oh gosh, that sounds boring.
I'm curious, when you first heard aboutthis, what was your first impressions
and then your understanding of it now,how do you see that being impactful
(36:42):
in your own life, in your own career?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (36:46):
Yeah.
Well, so when I first heard about it, um,I was a part of like a, a video class.
And if I'm being honest withyou, I was like so confused on
how it worked.
I was
like, what do you mean?
I like, I put money in and then it growsby itself and there's no tax, but how
do I, you know, like it was very, um, itwas not clear to me at first, and so I
(37:10):
really spent time trying to understandit and I decided to open my own policy.
because I got tired of trying to gospend money that is mine and being
told, oh, you can only, you know,spend $3,000 as your daily limit.
It's like, that's my
Jason K Powers (37:28):
Yeah.
Right.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (37:30):
Um, and it was very appealing to me to have a,
a, a concept that would work thatway, um, that would be there for me
if I were to injure myself again.
Or if, you know, maybe not even like worstcase scenario, if I wanted to buy a house.
Or buy a car, you know, andhave it controlled by me 110%.
(37:51):
That was really, really appealing, um,to me to be able to have the control
my own money, since that's not reallysomething that I had experienced before.
Um, and so now I, I wanna sayI'm a year in and I'm funding
it still, and it's, it's great.
It's growing, it's doing exactly what
Jason K Powers (38:09):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (38:10):
do, and I think I have that condition.
I'm more in control ofthe choices that I make.
I don't have to take out loansanymore if I don't want to.
I don't have to rely on, oninstitutions or other people for money.
I have my own
Jason K Powers (38:28):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think that's what's important formusicians is understanding, you know, like
in this example, this vehicle would begreat to buffer when you have this vocal
injury and you're out for eight weeks.
Yeah, you have this nowemergency fund that's, it's
(38:50):
different than a savings account
because
you can, you can access this quote,emergency fund, but that emergency
fund is actually still growing
as if the money never left.
And then you could backfill thatemergency fund at your own pace down
the road once you've gotten pastit and while you're not using it.
(39:13):
It's there to be used on other thingsif you need some money for Right.
Touring, for equipment, for
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (39:21):
Mm-hmm.
Jason K Powers (39:22):
these kinds of things.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (39:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I think, you know, I'm about tohave to make a really big purchase
'cause my keyboard is super old.
I've been playing on it sincehigh school and I like straight
up, doesn't work anymore.
And I really want to get aYamaha Montage and they cost
Jason K Powers (39:40):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (39:41):
and I, there's no way I would be able
to, do that in my normal life.
You know, there.
I couldn't just go and buy this keyboardnow if I didn't have this banking policy.
But now that I have this banking policy,I don't have to take things out on a loan.
I don't have to doanything I don't wanna do.
(40:02):
I can pull from my own bank, myown banking concept, which is me.
I'm in control, I can go buy thisYamaha tomorrow with no strings
attached and pay myself back on
Jason K Powers (40:11):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (40:12):
you
Jason K Powers (40:12):
Yeah.
But it's that idea of investingin yourself along the way.
It's, it's that idea of just, Hey,every penny I earn, commit to pushing
some of it, a small percentage of it
through this kind of vehiclebecause of all the advantages.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (40:35):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (40:35):
know, it, it is a, I would call it a Both/And Strategy.
We're not, you know, a lot ofpeople want to see this as just
a, a glorified savings account.
You know, okay, well, Iwanna put money into this.
I need to save money.
Because we have this perception,we, we think linearly.
and we, we want to put moneyinto a savings account.
(40:58):
And then when we are ready to buywhatever, we then spend that money
and that savings account goes tozero, and then we start saving again.
And I, I, I'm obviously biased, but Ilove this type of vehicle because even
though we're gonna access that money.
We, we were putting the money intosome small growth vehicle, not an
(41:19):
investment product, but it's growingalong the way, and then we're
accessing it, and then it can stillgrow even though we've accessed it.
And then we can put themoney back at our own pace.
Because what was your alternative?
You were gonna go finance it.
You're gonna finance a $5,000 keyboard,and then you have another payment,
or you're gonna save up for it, andso that money's still coming outta
(41:40):
your pocket until you have enough.
So either way, that money'scoming outta your pocket.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (41:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think, you know, to be able tohave the control is everything.
And there's so many, so many avenues andso many situations where musicians can get
Jason K Powers (41:59):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (41:59):
of when it comes
to this.
You know, tours are expensive.
Albums are expensive.
Um, and you know, and my husband and Ihave very different opinions on this,
a hundred percent in favor of the DIYmusician, you know, because I've seen a
lot of, of really talented artists who alot of really, really good people taken
(42:22):
advantage of by these record labels.
Um, 'cause they don'tknow what they're signing.
And
a lot of times,
you know, like the examplein your book is perfect.
So one about, you know, we'llgive you the $60,000 loan, but
you have to, you know, recoup,
Jason K Powers (42:38):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (42:38):
amount of dollars and it's, that's half a million dollars
worth of music that you gotta sell.
You know, and that's just not, youknow, unless you're one of the.
Billion people, that is anovernight sensation, which is
Jason K Powers (42:49):
Yeah.
Right?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (42:51):
Not that it can't
happen, but it just,it's, it's rare, you know?
Then you're, you're stuck and notonly do you not have rights to
your stuff, you know, now you're,you've got this big IOU as well, you
Jason K Powers (43:03):
Mm-hmm.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:03):
it's just, it's
complicated and it can getreally tricky, especially for
Jason K Powers (43:08):
Yep.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:09):
for sure.
Jason K Powers (43:10):
Yeah.
Well, and I think sometimes losingsight of, as we talked about
earlier, the thinking long range.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:19):
Mm-hmm.
Jason K Powers (43:20):
You kind of lose sight of that.
And, and same with this type of vehicle.
You really need to think long range.
What's it gonna do for you over time?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:27):
Right.
Jason K Powers (43:28):
tomorrow,
but over time,
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:31):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (43:32):
you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:36):
yeah.
Jason K Powers (43:36):
That's.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (43:37):
definitely grateful
for it.
I now feel.
I know how I, I, I don'twant to feel ever again.
And that's how I felt when I injuredmyself, where I had no control and even
know if I was gonna get to sing again.
I didn't know what wasgonna be returned to me.
And I was like, crap.
Like I have nothing.
Like I have, have no playing,being, um, and I know that I don't
(43:58):
want to feel like that again.
And so I'm really happy that I have this,this avenue behind me, this, this concept
that I can contribute to and that I knowis gonna be there for me when I need it.
You know?
Jason K Powers (44:10):
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's great.
So let's start landing on the planeand I want you to tell the listeners
a little bit about, you know, wetalked about Sound City, sound City
Entertainment a few minutes ago, andjust what you guys do there and how
they can connect to you that way.
And any closing advice, financialadvice for musicians, uh, that you have.
(44:35):
We're all ears right now.
The floor is yours as we.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (44:39):
Yeah.
Well, like I mentioned, you know,Sound City Entertainment is all
about providing the top quality.
Talent and musicians andentertainers to our clients.
Um, and we have various needs at varioustimes for various things coming up all
the time, and we're always looking toexpand our roster of talented people.
(45:00):
And so if people are interested in, inbecoming a part of that, they can reach
out to myself or on business cards andstuff like that, but probably the fastest
is through, um, my Instagram and we're,Jason and I are very, uh, approachable
and reachable, um, through that.
And so we would love to, to connectwith, with musicians and, and
talent and, and stuff like that.
(45:21):
So, um, and what was your other question?
Sorry.
Um, oh, what advicethat was the other part.
Um.
Just keep doing what you'redoing and don't, don't ever give
up and don't get discouraged.
I mean, it is tough out here, but whenyou believe in yourself and you believe
in what you're doing and you're workinghard, the stuff will, it'll find you.
(45:46):
find you in
its own time.
And
something that got said to me when Iwas young is A, what's meant for you?
We'll find you.
You won't be able to get away from it.
And I think that's so.
So powerful and so important.
And I know it's cliche to belike, oh yeah, it's work hard,
but it's, it's so, it's so true.
And I think if you stay humble and takethe time to really, really get good at
(46:11):
what you do, whether it's singing ordrumming or playing bass or painting,
whatever it is, whatever your thingis, do everything in your power to
get as good as you possibly can at it,and everything else is gonna find you.
Jason K Powers (46:27):
That's great.
All right.
Every show we wrap up withwhat we call final riffs.
Basically short questions, quickanswers, snapshots to take us home.
So the first thing that comes to mind, andyou can always say pass if you wanna pass.
All right.
Are you ready?
All right.
Who was your biggest musicalinfluence growing up?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (46:47):
Iron Maiden.
Jason K Powers (46:49):
Iron Maiden.
That's great.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (46:51):
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (46:54):
What band or artist will you never get tired of listening to?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (46:57):
Iron Maiden,
Jason K Powers (47:00):
That's so funny.
Good.
All right.
If you could share the stagewith anyone, who would it be?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:06):
well, iron Maiden, but also Prince.
Jason K Powers (47:08):
Besides Iron Reen.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:09):
I'm a huge, huge Prince fan.
I would've loved toshare the stage with him.
Jason K Powers (47:14):
Yeah.
Most embarrassing gig or performance?
Fail.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:19):
Uh,
Jason K Powers (47:19):
Everybody's got one.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:20):
that I was touring when I was in high school
and I went to go do a solo and mykeyboard stand completely broke and
my whole rig fell onto the ground.
Jason K Powers (47:31):
Oh my goodness.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:32):
was
Jason K Powers (47:32):
Oh my goodness.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:33):
moment.
Jason K Powers (47:37):
One city or rev or one city or venue you
will never forget playing in.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:42):
Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Detroit, Michigan.
Yeah.
Jason K Powers (47:47):
Okay.
If you were not doing music.
Which we can't imagine.
What would you be doing?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:52):
Um, I would probably be a personal trainer or something
Jason K Powers (47:55):
Think so.
Yeah?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (47:56):
Yeah?
Jason K Powers (47:58):
Yeah.
Good.
All right.
What is a non-music hobbyor passion of yours?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:02):
I love hot yoga so much.
I would do it every
Jason K Powers (48:06):
Yeah.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:06):
muscles allowed.
Jason K Powers (48:10):
All right.
Coffee, tea or something stronger.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:11):
Tea and something stronger.
Tea and
Jason K Powers (48:14):
Tea and something stronger.
Yeah.
There you go.
There you go.
Uh, any pets and what are their names?
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:20):
I have a dog.
He's a blue healer.
He's seven years old.
His name is Prince.
Jason K Powers (48:25):
Pr,
the dog.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:26):
prince the dog.
Jason K Powers (48:27):
That's great.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:28):
in the, but.
Jason K Powers (48:28):
Very cool.
All right.
All right.
All right.
Lexxi, that was fun.
I appreciate, uh, how open you wereabout your journey and, and launching
the business with Jason and takingcare of the body and, and what, what
the 2023 injury taught you, you know.
We're gonna be puttinglinks for our listeners.
We'll be putting links to Pete'sand Sound City Entertainment
(48:50):
and the Instagram handles
Lexxi Garza-Hartless (48:52):
Yeah,
Jason K Powers (48:52):
to reach out to Lexxi and Jason.
So go follow book a Night out.
Go check them out, goto Pete's and uh, keep.
Yeah, keep up with the shows.
So for everyone listening, if this gotyou thinking about the money behind
the music, grab my free ebook, AMusician's Guide to Infinite Banking.
(49:14):
It's at 1024wealth.com/music.
It shows how to keep money accessible,keep growth compounding smooth.
The feast or famine times,potentially self-fund tours,
releases, gear on your own timeline.
When you're ready to talkabout it, book a call with me.
Let's talk through it.
No strings attached.
I want to tell you more.
I love, I love sharing thiswith musicians, so reach out.
(49:37):
Meanwhile, subscribe onyour favorite podcast app.
Share this with one musicianwho needs to hear it, and I
will see you guys next time.
Lexxi, thank you again.
Lexxi Garza-Hartless: For having me, Jason. (49:46):
undefined
I appreciate it.
Jason K Powers (49:48):
All right.
Until then, keep your moneyworking and your music moving.
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