May 5, 2025 • 31 mins
Ever wonder what happens when theatrical magic collides with punk rock energy? Sasha Mereu embodies this fascinating intersection as the self-styled "punk rock Willy Wonka" - and he's on a mission to transform how musicians earn a living.
Sasha takes us on a captivating journey through his remarkable career spanning over 1,000 stages worldwide, including a Broadway run in 2016 with "The Illusionists: Turn of the Century" - which became Broadway's highest-grossing magic show. His performances blend theatrical elements with musical prowess, creating an electric, unpredictable energy that keeps audiences on the edge of their seats. Rather than avoiding eye contact like many musicians, Sasha dives into crowds, creating personal connections and sometimes conjuring balloon animals out of thin air.
Beyond his performances, Sasha delivers a compelling analysis of how the music industry fundamentally changed with Napster and subsequent streaming platforms. The traditional model of recording albums, touring, and selling physical copies has collapsed, leaving most musicians struggling to earn living wages. His response? Co-founding Fairvu, a benefit corporation building a digital platform that enables musicians to livestream concerts with virtual ticket sales, store media on-demand, and sell merchandise - all while keeping 90% of their earnings.
What makes Fairview unique isn't just its artist-friendly economics but its structure as a benefit corporation balancing profit with community benefits and complete transparency. Rather than seeking large investors, they're taking a grassroots approach by asking musicians to contribute just $5 each to build the platform together.
Whether you're a musician feeling the squeeze of streaming economics, a fan wanting to better support artists you love, or simply fascinated by creative entrepreneurs tackling industry-wide challenges - Sasha's insights offer a refreshing perspective on creating sustainable artistic careers in the digital age. Check out fairvu.net to support their mission and help reshape the music industry's future.
Want to be a guest on Living the Dream with Curveball? Send Curtis Jackson a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/1628631536976x919760049303001600
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
(00:24):
I interview guests that teach,motivate and inspire.
Today, I am joined by author,artist, writer and musician,
sasha Merrow.
Sasha has performed around theworld in over 1,000 stages,
(00:50):
including a run on Broadway in2016,.
Sasha labels his self theself-style punk rock Willy Wonka
.
So we're going to be talking tohim about his amazing
performances and everything thathe's up to and what he means by
being that self-style punk rockWilly Wonka.
So, sasha, thank you so muchfor joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Absolutely my pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Certainly Well.
I am currently located inPortland, oregon, in the Pacific
Northwest, and you gave anamazing introduction in terms of
the sorts of things that I'vedone.
I've lived a lot of life andI'm excited to live a bunch more
(01:33):
.
My current project deals withmusic, although I'm an open book
and able to talk to you aboutanything and everything you'd
like to know about creativityand incorporating that into your
life and what the variouscareers in the arts have been
and the state of the musicindustry currently and what's
happening with musicians.
And my current project, whichis called Fair View.
(01:55):
That is, fair VU, where we arelooking at building a digital
platform which will enablemusicians to be able to create
new revenue streams and survivea little bit better than they
are now in the digital streamingworld that we have created.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Well, being an artist myself, that would be great.
One thing I did forget tomention in the intro is that you
talk about how you are thechaos between the intersection
of music and theater.
Tell us what you mean by that.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Absolutely so.
You know, theater is a hugepart of who I am and my
background.
One of my bachelor's degrees isin theater performance and I
have been a musician for 25years and professionally in the
industry for about 20.
And, interestingly enough, veryrarely have those two interests
(02:54):
intersected together.
I ended up doing a musical lastOctober.
I played Judge Turpin inSweeney Todd here in Portland
and that was the first musicalthat I've done since Greece,
when I was 18 years old in highschool as a senior.
Except that the theater part ofmy life and specifically I've
(03:16):
spent the last two decades doingmagic and stage illusion as
part of the theater thing aswell.
I've been a magician.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
The theater aspect of my life has informed my
performance and the way that Ilook at doing music actually,
and so creating chaos at theintersection of theater and
music together is pretty muchevery time I step on stage, it's
not one or the other, it'salways there with me, and that
creates for a unique and funexperience, not just for me, but
hopefully for the audiencesthat I get to perform for.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Okay, well, enlighten the listeners on what you mean
by the self-style punk rock.
Willy Wonka, certainly so.
I currently play guitar for apunk rock band called United
Defiance and we are based out ofthe San Francisco California
Bay area, the East Bay, likearound Oakland, walnut Creek,
places like that.
Obviously, I don't live there,so I don't rehearse with that
band.
When it comes time for me toplay, I show up ready to go
(04:37):
rehearsed, with all of my partsand all of my vocal harmonies
good to go and my solos and allof that.
And when we hit stage it's thefirst time that we've all played
together since the last gigthat we had, and sometimes
that's weeks, sometimes that'smonths.
So it's interesting.
But I've been with this bandfor the last seven years and
playing in and out of punk rockbands really since I was about
(05:00):
14.
And Willy Wonka is such animage for me in terms of a
character because he so RoaldDahl wrote the original book
Charlie and the ChocolateFactory, and the character of
Willy Wonka is this kind ofcrazy inventor who quite
obviously plays, you know,marches to the rhythm of his own
(05:21):
drum.
And I was deeply touched by theoriginal movie Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory.
That had Gene Wilder and Iloved it as a kid and there was
a scene in it the first timethat Willy Wonka is actually
seen by the camera.
He's coming out of the candyfactory and he's limping and he
(05:42):
has a cane and looks very oldand feeble and infirm.
And then he falls forward andends up into a roll and jumps
out of it and everyone burstsinto applause.
And in an interview Gene Wilderwas talking about how that
particular instance that wassomething he came up with and
added to the film.
That was not in the originalscript.
(06:04):
In fact that was the conditionfor him to do the movie.
And the director said let me,let me get this straight like,
if we don't let you do thisscene, you're not going to do
the film.
And he said that's exactlycorrect, because everything that
that character does now, afterthat initial introduction, the
audience doesn't know whether ornot to trust him and there's a
(06:24):
very electric, interesting,curious energy that goes along
with that and that is sort ofthe summit, the apex, that I
aspire to when I perform.
I'm not one of those shoegazingmusicians who sort of does not
acknowledge the audience orlooks above their heads.
I love to make eye contact witheach and every one.
(06:46):
I sing to people within thefirst two songs.
Usually I am down in theaudience, high-fiving everyone
and welcoming them and singingto them, and they never exactly
know what to expect.
Sometimes there's props andballoon animals appear out of
nowhere.
Sometimes the costumes are allover the place and so it's very
(07:08):
chaotic.
But it's a high level of artthat I like to put into the
performance that we're puttingtogether.
It reminds me of Willy Wonka,and that is a fun image for me
to sort of embody on stage.
That would be my onstagecharacter to sort of embody on
stage.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That would be my onstage character, okay, well,
speaking of onstage, youperformed in over 1,000 stages
across the world, including thatrun on Broadway in 2016.
So kind of tell us about thatand how that felt.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Absolutely so.
You know, broadway is the.
That's the height of every.
Every actor's dream, of everyactor's career is is doing a run
there.
Um, I was incredibly fortunatewhen I was, when I was quite a
bit younger, my dad, uh, showedup one afternoon, you know from
work, and I was playingbasketball in the driveway and
he said hey, do you want to goand see a magic show?
And I have loved magic since Iwas a kid and I was like,
absolutely, let's go check itout.
And the show that we went andsaw, it was down in Reno, nevada
(08:10):
.
I grew up around Lake Tahoe,way up in the mountains there,
near the ski resorts, and so wewent down to Reno and the show
was called Carnival of Wondersand it featured three magicians
Mark Kalin, ginger Kalin, so amarried team and a guy named
Jeff Hobson, and they hadcreated a carnival with all of
(08:32):
the different sections of thecarnival the Tunnel of Love, the
House of Horrors, theIllusionarium, all of that stuff
, but with magic and stageillusion.
And it absolutely blew my mind,illusion, and it absolutely
blew my mind.
And I remember turning to mymom at the end of the show and
one telling her like I had noidea humans were capable of
doing something like that.
Uh and two I said one day I'mgonna work with them, and uh,
(08:57):
sure enough, I've been workingwith uh mark and ginger kalen
for the last 20 years.
We've toured the world togetherand it was under that
partnership that I was able togo and do the run on Broadway.
So the show that we did wascalled the Illusionists Turn of
the Century, and it wasessentially a recreation of the
(09:18):
kind of magic show that youcould have seen around about
1903, during what is called thegolden age of magic, have seen
around about 1903, during whatis called the golden age of
magic, which is when all of thebig, famous performers obviously
harry houdini, but alsothurston and keller and chung
ling su, alexander herman thatall of those very famous
(09:39):
performers were were active, andso the show itself and so the
(10:06):
show itself it was done in twoacts and it featured performers,
all of which who had between itwent on to be the highest
grossing magic show in Broadwayhistory.
Actually, it was an amazing time, and for the 2016 holiday
season, in between Thanksgivingand New Year's Day, I got to
live and work in New York City.
I lived just next to Hell'sKitchen on 43rd and 8th and you
(10:27):
know, times Square wasessentially my office.
We were at the Palace Theaterand it was an absolutely insane
and wonderful time in my lifebeing able to engage in magic.
Houdini had performed in thattheater himself, you know, 90
years prior to that, hadperformed in that theater
himself, you know, 90 yearsprior to that.
(10:48):
It was really surreal andwonderful and I'm deeply
grateful for having had theexperience and you know,
everything that got me there isattention to detail and being
passionate about what I did.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Well, congratulations on that.
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I've come to a point in my life so I'm 43 now and so
I'm old enough to have seen themusic industry change a couple
of different times butfundamentally it was Napster
that changed everything, when westarted to go peer-to-peer and
doing file sharing and you couldlisten to music for free
(11:45):
without purchasing it for free,without purchasing it.
And it was even before thatwhere you couldn't purchase
songs just by themselves unlessit was a single that had been
officially released Back in theday.
You had to buy the record, youhad to buy the CD, you had to
buy the cassette and you wouldlisten for the song that you
liked, but you had access to theentire concept of what that
(12:08):
artist had put out as a completepiece of art.
And Napster changed everything.
And as soon as that got takendown, it was immediately
replaced by Kazaa and byLimeWire, and it's like we had
let the genie out of the bottleand now people were able to
listen to just the songs thatthey liked and ignore the rest
(12:28):
of everything, and then theydidn't have to pay for it.
And this was really a turningpoint for the music industry,
because where we are now is thatrecord sales, essentially, are
a thing of the past.
People do still buy records, butit is not something that a
professional musician can relyon to be able to pay the bills.
(12:49):
Professional musician can relyon to be able to pay the bills
it used to be.
You would write the record, youwould record it and then you
would go out on tour and youwould sell copies of it and you
would tour and play live insupport of that particular
record and you'd sell merch andwhile you were out on tour you
would write some more songs andwrite down sort of the
experiences of what's happeningand process that and by the time
you came back in off the roadyou had some ideas at least of
(13:14):
what the next record was goingto look like and you would put
those songs together and thecycle continued.
And now, because people are notbuying records in the numbers
anywhere even close to what theyused to, because they're
getting everything for free onSpotify or Apple Music or Google
used to, because they'regetting everything for free on
Spotify or Apple Music or Googleany of those particular
platforms you can only makemoney really by touring and
(13:36):
post-COVID the cost of touringhas absolutely skyrocketed and
is preventing a lot of musicalacts from even engaging in that.
Certainly, when it comes todoing international contracts,
lots of American artists simplycan't afford the visas and
everything that it takes now togo over to Europe, and same with
European artists trying to comeover here.
(13:59):
So, with that sort of being thebackstory, my partner, my co
founder his name is Telson.
He's a middle school friend ofmine.
We met in middle school band ofall places, and have stayed in
touch this whole time.
He came to me about a year agoand he was like hey, dude, I've
got this idea.
We both have been in theindustry for about 20 years.
(14:21):
He is an audio engineer and atechnician and amazing at what
he does.
He's worked with a lot ofdifferent people.
He does a lot of live eventsand production and he was
noticing the same tendencies andthe same struggles that
musicians have been goingthrough in trying to make a
living doing music in somethingthat has the audacity now to
(14:45):
call itself the music industry,when music is almost like a
secondary, takes a backseat towhat's actually happening,
because all of the money iscertainly not going to the
artists.
So we founded a company, abenefit corporation, in
California called Fairview.
That is Fairview and we areproposing our solution to the
(15:07):
situation currently, and so weare trying to build a digital
platform that is going toessentially offer three services
, and we are not reinventing thewheel.
This is nothing new and crazyrevolutionary, except for the
fact that we are combining themall together into one united
platform.
So the idea is that you, as aband or an artist, you are going
(15:33):
to go and play a show somewhere, and let's say that you're
playing in Los Angeles andyou've got a bunch of fans who
are in Chicago and you know theChicago fans are not going to
travel to Los Angeles to be ableto see you, even though they
love and adore your music.
Well, using our platform, youwill be able to throw a video
camera on your live performanceand then, through our platform,
(15:55):
live stream that concert back toany of your fans anywhere in
the world, essentially andcharge digital tickets to see
that particular stream, and weare not going to set prices as
to what we think your music isworth.
This is just going to be betweenyou and your fans and, you know
(16:15):
, even it doesn't have to be ahuge, crazy price.
It could be something fairly low, even if it's just a dollar, if
you have an extra 50 people whoare able to virtually attend
that show in Los Angeles fromChicago or elsewhere, that's 50
bucks.
That would be going directly tothe band instead of to a
middleman, a distributor, arecord label, something like
(16:37):
that who is going to be taking85 to 90% of what you're doing.
We are going to be letting youkeep 90% or thereabouts of
what's going on and take a smallfee for that to be able to run
the company thereabouts ofwhat's going on and, you know,
take a small, a small fee forthat to be able to run the
company.
But essentially, we want tocreate connections that are deep
and meaningful in between bandsand their fans and allow
musicians to monetize what theyare already doing directly to
(17:01):
their fan base for support.
We're also going to offer mediaon demand for storage for
previous shows and there's goingto be an e-commerce storefront
which will allow you to sellmerchandise as well.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Okay, well, I heard you mention Benefit Corporation.
Explain to the listeners what aBenefit Corporation is.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's interesting hearing thatword corporation.
A lot of people, myselfincluded, have almost a
knee-jerk reaction to that, andthat's part of the problem is
corporate greed in the musicindustry, with Ticketmaster,
with Live Nation, with Spotify,with all of these big names that
are huge corporations thatthey're taking the profits away
from artists.
Corporation is a little bitdifferent and this is something
(17:52):
that is fairly new in terms ofthe business scene.
My business partner, Telson, ismuch more well-versed in the
business side of this, but I'vegot this and I'll take you
through.
So a benefit corporation isrequired by law to announce
their what are called benefitpurposes and they have to
balance profit, whichessentially a corporation is
(18:14):
designed just to create profit.
They have a board and the board, you know, answers to the
shareholders and theshareholders just get more and
more money.
It is required to balanceprofit with being a direct
benefit and support to itscommunity through these
particular benefit purposes.
So in our case, we identifiedsix things that we want to do
(18:37):
and at the end of every year, weneed to come together and have
a meeting and we need to proveon paper that we are fulfilling
these benefit purposes, whichare to uh, to aid, um and
benefit society as a whole andour, our particular communities,
and so it's a.
It's a decent balance to dothat.
Uh, Patagonia is a is anotherexample of um, a benefit
(19:00):
corporation.
They, uh, they are helping outthe environment and their
community while they are alsodoing doing business and making
a profit, and so it's adifferent kind of a way.
Corporations don't need to bethese sort of evil, faceless
things.
We are all about transparencyand integrity in doing so.
(19:21):
All of our meetings are livestreamed, publicly available, so
that you can see exactly wheremoney is going and what's
happening, and it's not justsort of disappearing up, you
know, up someone's sleeve intopockets or offshore funds or
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So for people wanting to support Fairview and
everything that you and yourcompany are up to, how can they
do that?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Amazing question.
Thank you for the setup on that.
So we are currently in ourfundraising stage.
We've got the company up andrunning.
We have a team of full stackdevelopers and software people
who are standing by.
We just need to find thefunding to be able to build the
software to make this thinghappen.
It's going to take us around amillion dollars to get to beta,
(20:12):
maybe slightly more.
And so how we are doing thisinitially we had put together a
whole pitch deck and we weregoing to go to a couple of
investors and say, hey, if fourof you can give us half a
million dollars, that would behelpful and we can get this
thing put together.
And we realized that becauseboth Telson and I are musicians,
we've put in our time in themusic industry, in the trenches
(20:33):
with everyone else touring andplaying to half empty bars, and
you know you know paying yourdues that we have decided that
this is really more of agrassroots movement.
So we are trying to get infront of as many musicians and
independent artists as we can,and if we can get half a million
musicians to give us five bucksa piece, this thing would be
(20:55):
built and ready to rock withinthe space of three months.
So we have a website, and thatis fairviewnet, and it outlines
everything that you need to knowabout who we are.
There's a call to action video.
We state what the problem is, westate what the solution is, and
we are currently running anonline store.
(21:17):
We've got three virtualproducts that you can purchase
to help us physically build this, and every purchase goes right
to helping us build thisparticular platform and keep the
company running.
We are on all of the socialsFacebook, instagram, tiktok, all
of that stuff and we're doinginterviews.
I'm traveling around thecountry doing stuff both in
(21:39):
person and virtually.
I'm interviewing bands andmusicians about what their life
is like doing thisprofessionally and what would
make their lives better and whattheir experiences have been in
the music industry, becausereally, we are all of us
stronger together and we areexcited to build something that
is going to be amazing and we'regoing to need our community to
(22:01):
be able to do that.
Well, sounds like you're up to alot, but tell us about any
other upcoming things thatyou're up to that the listeners
need to be aware of and dosomething good for my health,
whether it's exercises, a plankor squats, or I run or do a cold
plunge or whatever it is and Ido that while listening to music
(22:36):
and sort of reviewing what Ihear and giving bands that are
underexposed some exposure andsome love and try to drive some
traffic over to their site, andwe're just trying to make sure
that people love the artiststhat they that they support and
they support the artists thatthey love.
So that's, uh, that's, that'swhat's going on in terms of
(22:58):
Fairview, and I don't know ifyou're talking about uh in in
addition to that, with me as a,as a creative outside of the
context of that, or not.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Um, but that's what you know, what you're up to as
well.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Well, okay, I'll, uh, uh, I'll tell you what there's.
There's lots of stuff going on.
Actually, I'm in the process ofwriting a Ted talk and, uh,
trying to get that shopped out.
This is, um, essentially, uh,this is the art of how not to be
bored and, uh, looking forwardtowards embracing a life
starting at 40 is the uh, uh thesubject of my talk, so that
(23:30):
will be something forthcoming.
I also do a podcast myself, butit's not this sort of a format,
it's more like a radio drama.
So I'm a writer, a writer ofshort stories and of plays, and
I have started a podcast calledMagoosh Medrick, vampire Hunter,
and this is a.
(23:51):
It's like an old fashionedradio drama where you have the
story and it's narrated, but allof the voices and dialogue are
done through voice acting A lotof them with me.
Sometimes I hire actors to dothat.
All of the sound effects arethere.
There's music.
Danny, the drummer for UnitedDefiance, actually is an
(24:12):
incredible musician in his ownright outside of the context of
that band, and he has composedthe theme and I work with him
whenever I need music done forthat.
And this particular show,magoosh Medrek it's a dark
comedy about a vampire hunterwho is essentially horrible at
his job but incredibly lucky,almost like an Inspector
(24:35):
Clouseau type person.
So he will walk into a town andit's filled with vampires or
werewolves or ghosts or demonsor imps.
You know, it's kind of a gothytype thing with like Monster of
the Week vibes and he'll sort ofmouth off to everybody and he
has this outrageous Germanaccent and is just sort of over
(24:58):
the.
He essentially closes his eyesand then everything goes wrong.
But it goes wrong in exactlythe proper sequence, so that
when he opens his eyes everybodyelse is dead except for him.
(25:20):
And, um, he's good to do that.
It's a.
Um, I will say it's a.
It's a fairly violent show butdone very tongue-in-cheek, uh,
sort of like Monty Python andthe Black Knight, that kind of
over the top sort of violence,and it's a lot of fun.
It's a lot of quirky, strangewriting.
So he's on YouTube and Spotifyas well and I am always doing
(25:47):
magic and out and about doingthat.
I've got a couple projectscoming up.
I will be appearing in a coupleof public shows down at the
United Theater on Broadway indowntown Los Angeles and that's
going to be the weekend of May2nd, 3rd and 4th.
I'm headed down there to do theMagic Castle Awards, and then
(26:09):
we're going to do a couple showsfor the public, and then I will
be at Six Flags in St Louis,and then that'll be in May, and
then New Jersey come July andessentially I'm going to be
installing an illusion show foran illusionist named Brad Ross
(26:29):
Young, young, young, he's my age, but he looks way better than I
do.
He's an amazing magician in hisown right.
He's got his show that is goingto do a month residency at two
different Six Flags parks StLouis and New Jersey, the Grand
Adventure there and so I'll betaking care of doing that
installing the show and teachingthe crew.
And so I'll be taking care ofdoing that installing the show
and teaching the crew how tobuild illusions, how to maintain
(26:52):
them, how to how to do pyrosafely and, you know, set spikes
on fire and not burn the housedown, and all of that.
And so that's that.
And then I'm also gettingmarried in October, so that's
going to be amazing and I'm veryexcited for that well,
congratulations on that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Thank you, sir.
Throw out your website andclose us out with some final
thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to talk about that you
would like to touch on, or anyfinal thoughts you have for the
listeners.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Absolutely no.
Thank you very much.
This has been an amazingconversation.
Thank you for letting me justtalk and go for it and guiding
us along the way.
If you for letting me just talkand go for it and guiding us
along the way.
If you are interested insupporting Fairview and what we
are up to the website isfairviewnet Go and check it out.
(27:47):
We have our online store.
There are three digitalproducts that you can purchase.
We have what's called a virtualengraving.
So when we launch our platform,the name of the platform is not
Fairview.
That's the company.
We're keeping it under wraps forthe time being, but if you buy
a virtual engraving, we aregoing to add your name to the
logo of what this platform isgoing to be and the logo, the
art, is literally going to beall of the names of everyone who
(28:09):
has supported us.
Through that, you will help usphysically to build this
platform.
We are also selling digitalbadges that you can throw onto
your profile and sort of like adigital battle vest, if you know
what that is that kind of vestin denim or leather with the
sleeves cut off that's coveredin patches.
When you go to rock and metalshows of all the bands that
people like.
(28:30):
So you'll be starting yourvirtual battle vest with
Fairview and then we are doingpre-sale ticket bundles for once
the platform has launched.
These virtual tickets are goodfor any artist who is going to
be on there for a full two yearsuntil after we've launched.
There's a bunch of differenttiers, depending upon how much
you feel that you can support.
The lowest is $5.
(28:50):
We would love to be able tohelp build this thing and even
if you can't swing five bucks,we totally get it, because
things are very expensive thesedays.
You can sign up for our mailinglist and we'll give you five
virtual tickets for free, justfor supporting that and becoming
part of our community.
So have a look at that.
Please check out our videos onYouTube, and I know that you
(29:12):
hear this all the time.
You can like, subscribe, followus on the various socials and
we will see you out there.
And if you're a band or amusician, I would love to
interview you.
So hit us up, get in touch withus sashaatfairviewnet.
That's my email and I'd love tochat with you and spread the
(29:34):
word and go from there and hearabout what you guys are up to.
And, curtis, thank you so muchfor your work.
You run a great show here.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well, I appreciate it and I definitely need to hit
you up for one of thoseinterviews and listeners.
You're going to hear this fromme again.
Like subscribe.
Share this episode to as manypeople as possible, especially
anybody who can support Fairviewor any other musicians out
there.
Check us out on your favoritepodcast platform.
Visit wwwcurveball337.com formore information on the Living
(30:07):
the Dream with Curveball podcast.
Thank you for supporting theshow and, sasha, thank you for
all that you're doing formusicians and thank you for
joining me.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Absolutely my pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Have a good one.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.
Welcome to the Living the Dream Podcast with
Curveball, if you believe youcan achieve.
Welcome to the Living the Dreamwith Curveball Podcast, a show
where I interview guests thatteach, motivate and inspire.
(00:24):
I interview guests that teach,motivate and inspire.
Today, I am joined by author,artist, writer and musician,
sasha Merrow.
Sasha has performed around theworld in over 1,000 stages,
(00:50):
including a run on Broadway in2016,.
Sasha labels his self theself-style punk rock Willy Wonka
.
So we're going to be talking tohim about his amazing
performances and everything thathe's up to and what he means by
being that self-style punk rockWilly Wonka.
So, sasha, thank you so muchfor joining me.
Speaker 2 (01:06):
Absolutely my pleasure.
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Why don't you start off by telling everybody a
little bit about yourself?
Speaker 2 (01:13):
Certainly Well.
I am currently located inPortland, oregon, in the Pacific
Northwest, and you gave anamazing introduction in terms of
the sorts of things that I'vedone.
I've lived a lot of life andI'm excited to live a bunch more
(01:33):
.
My current project deals withmusic, although I'm an open book
and able to talk to you aboutanything and everything you'd
like to know about creativityand incorporating that into your
life and what the variouscareers in the arts have been
and the state of the musicindustry currently and what's
happening with musicians.
And my current project, whichis called Fair View.
(01:55):
That is, fair VU, where we arelooking at building a digital
platform which will enablemusicians to be able to create
new revenue streams and survivea little bit better than they
are now in the digital streamingworld that we have created.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
Well, being an artist myself, that would be great.
One thing I did forget tomention in the intro is that you
talk about how you are thechaos between the intersection
of music and theater.
Tell us what you mean by that.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Absolutely so.
You know, theater is a hugepart of who I am and my
background.
One of my bachelor's degrees isin theater performance and I
have been a musician for 25years and professionally in the
industry for about 20.
And, interestingly enough, veryrarely have those two interests
(02:54):
intersected together.
I ended up doing a musical lastOctober.
I played Judge Turpin inSweeney Todd here in Portland
and that was the first musicalthat I've done since Greece,
when I was 18 years old in highschool as a senior.
Except that the theater part ofmy life and specifically I've
(03:16):
spent the last two decades doingmagic and stage illusion as
part of the theater thing aswell.
I've been a magician.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
The theater aspect of my life has informed my
performance and the way that Ilook at doing music actually,
and so creating chaos at theintersection of theater and
music together is pretty muchevery time I step on stage, it's
not one or the other, it'salways there with me, and that
creates for a unique and funexperience, not just for me, but
hopefully for the audiencesthat I get to perform for.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Okay, well, enlighten the listeners on what you mean
by the self-style punk rock.
Willy Wonka, certainly so.
I currently play guitar for apunk rock band called United
Defiance and we are based out ofthe San Francisco California
Bay area, the East Bay, likearound Oakland, walnut Creek,
places like that.
Obviously, I don't live there,so I don't rehearse with that
band.
When it comes time for me toplay, I show up ready to go
(04:37):
rehearsed, with all of my partsand all of my vocal harmonies
good to go and my solos and allof that.
And when we hit stage it's thefirst time that we've all played
together since the last gigthat we had, and sometimes
that's weeks, sometimes that'smonths.
So it's interesting.
But I've been with this bandfor the last seven years and
playing in and out of punk rockbands really since I was about
(05:00):
14.
And Willy Wonka is such animage for me in terms of a
character because he so RoaldDahl wrote the original book
Charlie and the ChocolateFactory, and the character of
Willy Wonka is this kind ofcrazy inventor who quite
obviously plays, you know,marches to the rhythm of his own
(05:21):
drum.
And I was deeply touched by theoriginal movie Willy Wonka and
the Chocolate Factory.
That had Gene Wilder and Iloved it as a kid and there was
a scene in it the first timethat Willy Wonka is actually
seen by the camera.
He's coming out of the candyfactory and he's limping and he
(05:42):
has a cane and looks very oldand feeble and infirm.
And then he falls forward andends up into a roll and jumps
out of it and everyone burstsinto applause.
And in an interview Gene Wilderwas talking about how that
particular instance that wassomething he came up with and
added to the film.
That was not in the originalscript.
(06:04):
In fact that was the conditionfor him to do the movie.
And the director said let me,let me get this straight like,
if we don't let you do thisscene, you're not going to do
the film.
And he said that's exactlycorrect, because everything that
that character does now, afterthat initial introduction, the
audience doesn't know whether ornot to trust him and there's a
(06:24):
very electric, interesting,curious energy that goes along
with that and that is sort ofthe summit, the apex, that I
aspire to when I perform.
I'm not one of those shoegazingmusicians who sort of does not
acknowledge the audience orlooks above their heads.
I love to make eye contact witheach and every one.
(06:46):
I sing to people within thefirst two songs.
Usually I am down in theaudience, high-fiving everyone
and welcoming them and singingto them, and they never exactly
know what to expect.
Sometimes there's props andballoon animals appear out of
nowhere.
Sometimes the costumes are allover the place and so it's very
(07:08):
chaotic.
But it's a high level of artthat I like to put into the
performance that we're puttingtogether.
It reminds me of Willy Wonka,and that is a fun image for me
to sort of embody on stage.
That would be my onstagecharacter to sort of embody on
stage.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
That would be my onstage character, okay, well,
speaking of onstage, youperformed in over 1,000 stages
across the world, including thatrun on Broadway in 2016.
So kind of tell us about thatand how that felt.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Absolutely so.
You know, broadway is the.
That's the height of every.
Every actor's dream, of everyactor's career is is doing a run
there.
Um, I was incredibly fortunatewhen I was, when I was quite a
bit younger, my dad, uh, showedup one afternoon, you know from
work, and I was playingbasketball in the driveway and
he said hey, do you want to goand see a magic show?
And I have loved magic since Iwas a kid and I was like,
absolutely, let's go check itout.
And the show that we went andsaw, it was down in Reno, nevada
(08:10):
.
I grew up around Lake Tahoe,way up in the mountains there,
near the ski resorts, and so wewent down to Reno and the show
was called Carnival of Wondersand it featured three magicians
Mark Kalin, ginger Kalin, so amarried team and a guy named
Jeff Hobson, and they hadcreated a carnival with all of
(08:32):
the different sections of thecarnival the Tunnel of Love, the
House of Horrors, theIllusionarium, all of that stuff
, but with magic and stageillusion.
And it absolutely blew my mind,illusion, and it absolutely
blew my mind.
And I remember turning to mymom at the end of the show and
one telling her like I had noidea humans were capable of
doing something like that.
Uh and two I said one day I'mgonna work with them, and uh,
(08:57):
sure enough, I've been workingwith uh mark and ginger kalen
for the last 20 years.
We've toured the world togetherand it was under that
partnership that I was able togo and do the run on Broadway.
So the show that we did wascalled the Illusionists Turn of
the Century, and it wasessentially a recreation of the
(09:18):
kind of magic show that youcould have seen around about
1903, during what is called thegolden age of magic, have seen
around about 1903, during whatis called the golden age of
magic, which is when all of thebig, famous performers obviously
harry houdini, but alsothurston and keller and chung
ling su, alexander herman thatall of those very famous
(09:39):
performers were were active, andso the show itself and so the
(10:06):
show itself it was done in twoacts and it featured performers,
all of which who had between itwent on to be the highest
grossing magic show in Broadwayhistory.
Actually, it was an amazing time, and for the 2016 holiday
season, in between Thanksgivingand New Year's Day, I got to
live and work in New York City.
I lived just next to Hell'sKitchen on 43rd and 8th and you
(10:27):
know, times Square wasessentially my office.
We were at the Palace Theaterand it was an absolutely insane
and wonderful time in my lifebeing able to engage in magic.
Houdini had performed in thattheater himself, you know, 90
years prior to that, hadperformed in that theater
himself, you know, 90 yearsprior to that.
(10:48):
It was really surreal andwonderful and I'm deeply
grateful for having had theexperience and you know,
everything that got me there isattention to detail and being
passionate about what I did.
Speaker 1 (10:58):
Well, congratulations on that.
Thank you, sir.
Speaker 2 (11:25):
I've come to a point in my life so I'm 43 now and so
I'm old enough to have seen themusic industry change a couple
of different times butfundamentally it was Napster
that changed everything, when westarted to go peer-to-peer and
doing file sharing and you couldlisten to music for free
(11:45):
without purchasing it for free,without purchasing it.
And it was even before thatwhere you couldn't purchase
songs just by themselves unlessit was a single that had been
officially released Back in theday.
You had to buy the record, youhad to buy the CD, you had to
buy the cassette and you wouldlisten for the song that you
liked, but you had access to theentire concept of what that
(12:08):
artist had put out as a completepiece of art.
And Napster changed everything.
And as soon as that got takendown, it was immediately
replaced by Kazaa and byLimeWire, and it's like we had
let the genie out of the bottleand now people were able to
listen to just the songs thatthey liked and ignore the rest
(12:28):
of everything, and then theydidn't have to pay for it.
And this was really a turningpoint for the music industry,
because where we are now is thatrecord sales, essentially, are
a thing of the past.
People do still buy records, butit is not something that a
professional musician can relyon to be able to pay the bills.
(12:49):
Professional musician can relyon to be able to pay the bills
it used to be.
You would write the record, youwould record it and then you
would go out on tour and youwould sell copies of it and you
would tour and play live insupport of that particular
record and you'd sell merch andwhile you were out on tour you
would write some more songs andwrite down sort of the
experiences of what's happeningand process that and by the time
you came back in off the roadyou had some ideas at least of
(13:14):
what the next record was goingto look like and you would put
those songs together and thecycle continued.
And now, because people are notbuying records in the numbers
anywhere even close to what theyused to, because they're
getting everything for free onSpotify or Apple Music or Google
used to, because they'regetting everything for free on
Spotify or Apple Music or Googleany of those particular
platforms you can only makemoney really by touring and
(13:36):
post-COVID the cost of touringhas absolutely skyrocketed and
is preventing a lot of musicalacts from even engaging in that.
Certainly, when it comes todoing international contracts,
lots of American artists simplycan't afford the visas and
everything that it takes now togo over to Europe, and same with
European artists trying to comeover here.
(13:59):
So, with that sort of being thebackstory, my partner, my co
founder his name is Telson.
He's a middle school friend ofmine.
We met in middle school band ofall places, and have stayed in
touch this whole time.
He came to me about a year agoand he was like hey, dude, I've
got this idea.
We both have been in theindustry for about 20 years.
(14:21):
He is an audio engineer and atechnician and amazing at what
he does.
He's worked with a lot ofdifferent people.
He does a lot of live eventsand production and he was
noticing the same tendencies andthe same struggles that
musicians have been goingthrough in trying to make a
living doing music in somethingthat has the audacity now to
(14:45):
call itself the music industry,when music is almost like a
secondary, takes a backseat towhat's actually happening,
because all of the money iscertainly not going to the
artists.
So we founded a company, abenefit corporation, in
California called Fairview.
That is Fairview and we areproposing our solution to the
(15:07):
situation currently, and so weare trying to build a digital
platform that is going toessentially offer three services
, and we are not reinventing thewheel.
This is nothing new and crazyrevolutionary, except for the
fact that we are combining themall together into one united
platform.
So the idea is that you, as aband or an artist, you are going
(15:33):
to go and play a show somewhere, and let's say that you're
playing in Los Angeles andyou've got a bunch of fans who
are in Chicago and you know theChicago fans are not going to
travel to Los Angeles to be ableto see you, even though they
love and adore your music.
Well, using our platform, youwill be able to throw a video
camera on your live performanceand then, through our platform,
(15:55):
live stream that concert back toany of your fans anywhere in
the world, essentially andcharge digital tickets to see
that particular stream, and weare not going to set prices as
to what we think your music isworth.
This is just going to be betweenyou and your fans and, you know
(16:15):
, even it doesn't have to be ahuge, crazy price.
It could be something fairly low, even if it's just a dollar, if
you have an extra 50 people whoare able to virtually attend
that show in Los Angeles fromChicago or elsewhere, that's 50
bucks.
That would be going directly tothe band instead of to a
middleman, a distributor, arecord label, something like
(16:37):
that who is going to be taking85 to 90% of what you're doing.
We are going to be letting youkeep 90% or thereabouts of
what's going on and take a smallfee for that to be able to run
the company thereabouts ofwhat's going on and, you know,
take a small, a small fee forthat to be able to run the
company.
But essentially, we want tocreate connections that are deep
and meaningful in between bandsand their fans and allow
musicians to monetize what theyare already doing directly to
(17:01):
their fan base for support.
We're also going to offer mediaon demand for storage for
previous shows and there's goingto be an e-commerce storefront
which will allow you to sellmerchandise as well.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Okay, well, I heard you mention Benefit Corporation.
Explain to the listeners what aBenefit Corporation is.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Yeah, absolutely.
It's interesting hearing thatword corporation.
A lot of people, myselfincluded, have almost a
knee-jerk reaction to that, andthat's part of the problem is
corporate greed in the musicindustry, with Ticketmaster,
with Live Nation, with Spotify,with all of these big names that
are huge corporations thatthey're taking the profits away
from artists.
Corporation is a little bitdifferent and this is something
(17:52):
that is fairly new in terms ofthe business scene.
My business partner, Telson, ismuch more well-versed in the
business side of this, but I'vegot this and I'll take you
through.
So a benefit corporation isrequired by law to announce
their what are called benefitpurposes and they have to
balance profit, whichessentially a corporation is
(18:14):
designed just to create profit.
They have a board and the board, you know, answers to the
shareholders and theshareholders just get more and
more money.
It is required to balanceprofit with being a direct
benefit and support to itscommunity through these
particular benefit purposes.
So in our case, we identifiedsix things that we want to do
(18:37):
and at the end of every year, weneed to come together and have
a meeting and we need to proveon paper that we are fulfilling
these benefit purposes, whichare to uh, to aid, um and
benefit society as a whole andour, our particular communities,
and so it's a.
It's a decent balance to dothat.
Uh, Patagonia is a is anotherexample of um, a benefit
(19:00):
corporation.
They, uh, they are helping outthe environment and their
community while they are alsodoing doing business and making
a profit, and so it's adifferent kind of a way.
Corporations don't need to bethese sort of evil, faceless
things.
We are all about transparencyand integrity in doing so.
(19:21):
All of our meetings are livestreamed, publicly available, so
that you can see exactly wheremoney is going and what's
happening, and it's not justsort of disappearing up, you
know, up someone's sleeve intopockets or offshore funds or
whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
So for people wanting to support Fairview and
everything that you and yourcompany are up to, how can they
do that?
Speaker 2 (19:49):
Amazing question.
Thank you for the setup on that.
So we are currently in ourfundraising stage.
We've got the company up andrunning.
We have a team of full stackdevelopers and software people
who are standing by.
We just need to find thefunding to be able to build the
software to make this thinghappen.
It's going to take us around amillion dollars to get to beta,
(20:12):
maybe slightly more.
And so how we are doing thisinitially we had put together a
whole pitch deck and we weregoing to go to a couple of
investors and say, hey, if fourof you can give us half a
million dollars, that would behelpful and we can get this
thing put together.
And we realized that becauseboth Telson and I are musicians,
we've put in our time in themusic industry, in the trenches
(20:33):
with everyone else touring andplaying to half empty bars, and
you know you know paying yourdues that we have decided that
this is really more of agrassroots movement.
So we are trying to get infront of as many musicians and
independent artists as we can,and if we can get half a million
musicians to give us five bucksa piece, this thing would be
(20:55):
built and ready to rock withinthe space of three months.
So we have a website, and thatis fairviewnet, and it outlines
everything that you need to knowabout who we are.
There's a call to action video.
We state what the problem is, westate what the solution is, and
we are currently running anonline store.
(21:17):
We've got three virtualproducts that you can purchase
to help us physically build this, and every purchase goes right
to helping us build thisparticular platform and keep the
company running.
We are on all of the socialsFacebook, instagram, tiktok, all
of that stuff and we're doinginterviews.
I'm traveling around thecountry doing stuff both in
(21:39):
person and virtually.
I'm interviewing bands andmusicians about what their life
is like doing thisprofessionally and what would
make their lives better and whattheir experiences have been in
the music industry, becausereally, we are all of us
stronger together and we areexcited to build something that
is going to be amazing and we'regoing to need our community to
(22:01):
be able to do that.
Well, sounds like you're up to alot, but tell us about any
other upcoming things thatyou're up to that the listeners
need to be aware of and dosomething good for my health,
whether it's exercises, a plankor squats, or I run or do a cold
plunge or whatever it is and Ido that while listening to music
(22:36):
and sort of reviewing what Ihear and giving bands that are
underexposed some exposure andsome love and try to drive some
traffic over to their site, andwe're just trying to make sure
that people love the artiststhat they that they support and
they support the artists thatthey love.
So that's, uh, that's, that'swhat's going on in terms of
(22:58):
Fairview, and I don't know ifyou're talking about uh in in
addition to that, with me as a,as a creative outside of the
context of that, or not.
Speaker 1 (23:04):
Um, but that's what you know, what you're up to as
well.
Speaker 2 (23:06):
Well, okay, I'll, uh, uh, I'll tell you what there's.
There's lots of stuff going on.
Actually, I'm in the process ofwriting a Ted talk and, uh,
trying to get that shopped out.
This is, um, essentially, uh,this is the art of how not to be
bored and, uh, looking forwardtowards embracing a life
starting at 40 is the uh, uh thesubject of my talk, so that
(23:30):
will be something forthcoming.
I also do a podcast myself, butit's not this sort of a format,
it's more like a radio drama.
So I'm a writer, a writer ofshort stories and of plays, and
I have started a podcast calledMagoosh Medrick, vampire Hunter,
and this is a.
(23:51):
It's like an old fashionedradio drama where you have the
story and it's narrated, but allof the voices and dialogue are
done through voice acting A lotof them with me.
Sometimes I hire actors to dothat.
All of the sound effects arethere.
There's music.
Danny, the drummer for UnitedDefiance, actually is an
(24:12):
incredible musician in his ownright outside of the context of
that band, and he has composedthe theme and I work with him
whenever I need music done forthat.
And this particular show,magoosh Medrek it's a dark
comedy about a vampire hunterwho is essentially horrible at
his job but incredibly lucky,almost like an Inspector
(24:35):
Clouseau type person.
So he will walk into a town andit's filled with vampires or
werewolves or ghosts or demonsor imps.
You know, it's kind of a gothytype thing with like Monster of
the Week vibes and he'll sort ofmouth off to everybody and he
has this outrageous Germanaccent and is just sort of over
(24:58):
the.
He essentially closes his eyesand then everything goes wrong.
But it goes wrong in exactlythe proper sequence, so that
when he opens his eyes everybodyelse is dead except for him.
(25:20):
And, um, he's good to do that.
It's a.
Um, I will say it's a.
It's a fairly violent show butdone very tongue-in-cheek, uh,
sort of like Monty Python andthe Black Knight, that kind of
over the top sort of violence,and it's a lot of fun.
It's a lot of quirky, strangewriting.
So he's on YouTube and Spotifyas well and I am always doing
(25:47):
magic and out and about doingthat.
I've got a couple projectscoming up.
I will be appearing in a coupleof public shows down at the
United Theater on Broadway indowntown Los Angeles and that's
going to be the weekend of May2nd, 3rd and 4th.
I'm headed down there to do theMagic Castle Awards, and then
(26:09):
we're going to do a couple showsfor the public, and then I will
be at Six Flags in St Louis,and then that'll be in May, and
then New Jersey come July andessentially I'm going to be
installing an illusion show foran illusionist named Brad Ross
(26:29):
Young, young, young, he's my age, but he looks way better than I
do.
He's an amazing magician in hisown right.
He's got his show that is goingto do a month residency at two
different Six Flags parks StLouis and New Jersey, the Grand
Adventure there and so I'll betaking care of doing that
installing the show and teachingthe crew.
And so I'll be taking care ofdoing that installing the show
and teaching the crew how tobuild illusions, how to maintain
(26:52):
them, how to how to do pyrosafely and, you know, set spikes
on fire and not burn the housedown, and all of that.
And so that's that.
And then I'm also gettingmarried in October, so that's
going to be amazing and I'm veryexcited for that well,
congratulations on that.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Thank you, sir.
Throw out your website andclose us out with some final
thoughts.
Maybe, if that was something Iforgot to talk about that you
would like to touch on, or anyfinal thoughts you have for the
listeners.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Absolutely no.
Thank you very much.
This has been an amazingconversation.
Thank you for letting me justtalk and go for it and guiding
us along the way.
If you for letting me just talkand go for it and guiding us
along the way.
If you are interested insupporting Fairview and what we
are up to the website isfairviewnet Go and check it out.
(27:47):
We have our online store.
There are three digitalproducts that you can purchase.
We have what's called a virtualengraving.
So when we launch our platform,the name of the platform is not
Fairview.
That's the company.
We're keeping it under wraps forthe time being, but if you buy
a virtual engraving, we aregoing to add your name to the
logo of what this platform isgoing to be and the logo, the
art, is literally going to beall of the names of everyone who
(28:09):
has supported us.
Through that, you will help usphysically to build this
platform.
We are also selling digitalbadges that you can throw onto
your profile and sort of like adigital battle vest, if you know
what that is that kind of vestin denim or leather with the
sleeves cut off that's coveredin patches.
When you go to rock and metalshows of all the bands that
people like.
(28:30):
So you'll be starting yourvirtual battle vest with
Fairview and then we are doingpre-sale ticket bundles for once
the platform has launched.
These virtual tickets are goodfor any artist who is going to
be on there for a full two yearsuntil after we've launched.
There's a bunch of differenttiers, depending upon how much
you feel that you can support.
The lowest is $5.
(28:50):
We would love to be able tohelp build this thing and even
if you can't swing five bucks,we totally get it, because
things are very expensive thesedays.
You can sign up for our mailinglist and we'll give you five
virtual tickets for free, justfor supporting that and becoming
part of our community.
So have a look at that.
Please check out our videos onYouTube, and I know that you
(29:12):
hear this all the time.
You can like, subscribe, followus on the various socials and
we will see you out there.
And if you're a band or amusician, I would love to
interview you.
So hit us up, get in touch withus sashaatfairviewnet.
That's my email and I'd love tochat with you and spread the
(29:34):
word and go from there and hearabout what you guys are up to.
And, curtis, thank you so muchfor your work.
You run a great show here.
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Well, I appreciate it and I definitely need to hit
you up for one of thoseinterviews and listeners.
You're going to hear this fromme again.
Like subscribe.
Share this episode to as manypeople as possible, especially
anybody who can support Fairviewor any other musicians out
there.
Check us out on your favoritepodcast platform.
Visit wwwcurveball337.com formore information on the Living
(30:07):
the Dream with Curveball podcast.
Thank you for supporting theshow and, sasha, thank you for
all that you're doing formusicians and thank you for
joining me.
Speaker 2 (30:16):
Absolutely my pleasure.
Thanks so much.
Have a good one.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
For more information on the Living the Dream with
Curveball podcast, visitwwwcurveball337.com.
Until next time, keep livingthe dream.
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