The Art of Music Promotion: From Street Teams to Event Curation W/ Will Gibbons

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Behind every great musical event and artist success story stands someone who's mastered the delicate balance between passion and practicality. In this revealing conversation, Baltimore-based event curator and artist manager Will Gibbons opens up about his journey from construction worker to music industry maven.

Will's brainchild, "Party for a Purpose," emerged during the pandemic as a way to blend art, music, and charitable causes in non-traditional spaces. With refreshing honesty, he shares both his triumphs and stumbles—from successful fundraisers that found a community member a kidney donor to financial challenges that taught hard lessons about event economics. "People always love to have a good time for a good cause," Will explains, capturing the essence of his mission.

The discussion ventures into the nuts and bolts of music promotion, from street teams and grassroots marketing to the never-ending quest for sponsors. Will offers rare insight into what he calls the industry's "labor of love" dynamic: "You're spending twice as much time than somebody else on that same amount of money, but that time slips away because you're doing something you love."

As Uncle Kunkel's One Gram Band's manager, Will reveals what makes the artist-manager relationship work: matching energy and staying realistic while dreaming big. His advice for maintaining balance resonates whether you're an artist, promoter, or fan: "Just because your calendar says you're open doesn't mean you're open."

From geodesic domes at festivals to recording sessions at the Watermelon Room, Will's stories illuminate the creativity, community, and calculated risks that make Baltimore's music scene thrive. For anyone passionate about creating meaningful experiences through art and music, this conversation offers both practical wisdom and inspiring possibilities.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops.
Oh, what a rain.
That would be Nice.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Oh, what a rain that would be.
I want to introduce my guest.
Here I have Mr Will Gibbonsfrom the Respecting Perspectives

(00:31):
podcast at the Watermelon Room.
Here we have man.
He is a jack of all trades whenit comes to management,
marketing, communications.
He is an event curator.
If you are in the Baltimorearea, you know who this guy is.

(00:54):
I'd like to introduce him.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
And here we are, man, Tell me a little bit about
yourself, Give me a littlehistory, kind of maybe like
where you grew up, and just kindof a baseline for everybody um,
I guess I've been in abaltimore maryland resident my
whole life, like born incatonsville, moved to harford
county when I was three and I'vebeen pretty much here my whole

(01:18):
life.
Always like to travel and getaround, but I've always had home
base here in baltimore.
I uh, spent a lot of my likepretty much from 18, so once I
could go to ram said I've beenseeing live music and even
before then I had gone to acouple like day things for like,
uh like a sprite liquid mix ormerryweather.

(01:39):
So live, music's been a part ofmy life, my whole life.
But I've always been uh donetrade work.
I did flooring.
For years I've done it, been ina different bunch of different
aspects of construction.
Never was really a master atanything, mainly was like on a
helper level.
But I did flooring and uh,let's see, just like regular
home remodel stuff.
I was uh spent I don't knowprobably eight years total doing

(02:02):
stream and wetland restoration,so it's kind of of like a lot
of dirt moving and realigningstreams so that they're the
banks didn't provide erosionthat put sediment to the bay.
So it was kind of like thehippie construction that that
felt good, like I felt like Iwas, you know, given something
back, but it was like it'sreally hard work.
It ended up, you know it wasvery fulfilling.

(02:25):
I got to be in a leadershiprole the last couple of years
there, um and leading right intothe pandemic.
I went out on a disability formy back.
I had a chip in my one of oneof my I think my L seven is
pushing on a sciatic nerve,essentially like put me in
debilitating pain for a prettylong stretch of time and it was

(02:47):
simultaneous, as the world waskind of uh shutting down and
going into into lockdown forcovid.
Um, you know, during that timeI ended up getting better, uh,
but I was also partying a lot.
I wasn't working but I was, youknow as we all do, yeah and I, I

(03:08):
don't know it kind of uhspiraled from there and you know
we could, I don't know, I guessfrom there kind of does uh my
entry?
I guess no, I guess, going back, I had been a part of a lot of
not so while I was doing allthose trades over the years.
I was going to shows and seeinga lot of music and in turn

(03:33):
started wanting to volunteer,get involved, to get either free
tickets.
So I street teamed for Ram'sHead when I was younger.

Speaker 2 (03:39):
And tell people what is Ram's Head.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Oh Ram's Head is Just in case.
Yeah, no, fair enough.
What is Ram's Head?
Oh, ram's Head is a venue herein Baltimore that just recently
closed, but it was kind of themain venue that those I don't
know.
It's a 2,000-person room, so itwas like a lot of the main acts
that people were generally into.
They just kind of had a goodrevolving door of artists over

(04:03):
the years.
They've since fallen off alittle bit, but at the time they
would give you free ticket.
They'd buy your tickets to goto a show at the nine 30 club so
you could promote a show upthere.
Oh, that's smart and so theywould do.
They just had a lot of greatincentives for somebody that
didn't have a lot of money to gobe able to.
You know, all you had to do islike leave before the last song,

(04:26):
so you were out there right aseveryone was coming out.
So for years, you know, andI'll still do it today for
events that I'm putting on orI'm a part of, like ramble, like
I'm not opposed to stillhanding out flyers after shows,
um, but that was a great way tokind of like, uh, yeah, get them
for free, uh, and then I alwayslike connecting and meeting
people and that was a good wayto do that too, and kind of just

(04:48):
like I don't know, help get theword out about stuff that has
been so important to me.
So it was like, yeah, givingback, and like a good way to to
get them to shows for free.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
Nice, nice.
Yeah, you know, let's lead up alittle bit into you know some
of the street team stuff.
You know what?
What is involved with thestreet?

Speaker 1 (05:12):
team finding the right people that know either
whether they either have apresence at a venue that they
can uh hand either flyers up orhang posters up for you, and
you're essentially creating ateam that's going to help be the

(05:34):
promotion force outside of yourdigital ads so when you're when
you're talking about, like youknow, throwing a major festival
or even just like a big show,that's, you know, coming up for
your band.
You know you want to have likethree people.
That you know that's not like abroad, you know number, that's
for for for every project, butyou want to have a couple people

(05:56):
that are out there helping gethard copy stuff out, or even
just being social media, uh,sharing on their stories and
stuff like that.
So your street team can look acouple different ways uh, you
know whether it's digital orjust physically, hanging up
posters on port-a-pots atfestival ground.
You know that gorilla marketingthat gorilla marketing for

(06:17):
ramble fest.
I uh got us to get these likeuh posters that are like
stickers, like stickers but,they're, you know, they're big
enough where you can stick themall over the place.
Yeah, I know, and it's greatthey weren't like too intrusive.
We never got any calls aboutthem being like, oh, stop
sticking these up, um, but itwas a great way.
It's cause, you know, you hangup a cardboard poster outside

(06:38):
somewhere, you get one rainstormunless you're like taping that
thing storm, unless you're liketaping that thing, like what?

Speaker 2 (06:49):
yeah, so there's um, yeah, pretty cool, uh, I think
it's interesting.
The reason why I asked that isbecause, um, as an artist myself
, you know, I'm trying to buildthat street team, you know, as
we speak, and um just reallytrying to understand the facets
of it and how to find the rightpeople for the street team and

(07:10):
how to find the right people, Ithink, to get the word out.
I think it takes a lot of youhave to be passionate, though,
right, about the project itself,the project itself.
I feel like the street teamshould really be people who um
really back either the music orthe event, or or whatnot,

(07:32):
correct?

Speaker 1 (07:32):
Yeah, you have to.
It doesn't feel authentic LikeI don't know, like I've had
people offer, and not that Idon't support their project or
or whatever it is, but there'salso I've had a hard time um
project or whatever it is, butthere's also I've had a hard
time um wanting to really likepush events hard that I'm not
fully and either involved withor aligned with.
Uh, and when you're talkingabout street scene, there isn't

(07:56):
like a whole lot of money that'slike usually able to be good
point.
So it is.
It is a labor of love, a lotlike a lot of the industry,
which I'm sure we'll go laborlove will come up a couple times
in this conversation.
But yeah, what does?

Speaker 2 (08:07):
that mean Labor, get into it.
Actually, I think that'simportant to kind of get into.
Yeah is it's not necessarily atransactional business.

Speaker 1 (08:31):
Even though there are guarantees that bands or
artists will get or whatever,that usually isn't covering the
overhead that's accruing andyou're usually spending twice as
much time than somebody else ison that same amount of money.
But that time slips away andfeels you feel better about it
because you're doing somethingyou love.
So there's that.
There's that balance too.
But you know it's not to be agood sorry, to be a good street

(08:56):
team member.
It's not something you are like, oh, I'm gonna, you know, do
it's.
It's not something to be a goodone.
There's a lot of people thatsay they want to be involved and
they want to help, and and I'vebeen that guy that let teams
down that they gave a big thingof fires to and I didn't do my
my heart, you know.
I think, yeah, I think we allhave, and that's part of you

(09:17):
know, there's a the level of,like, uh, trust that you have to
have, but also no one likes tobe micromanaged.
So you have to like figure outways to make, to make it easy
for people to help you and I andthat I think that that's how
one of the things that we're allstriving for after every
experience, whether it's streetteam or just even hosting an

(09:40):
event and hiring someone to comedo production for you, If you
don't have all your pre-workdone and you end up causing them
more work, right yeah, youdon't want to.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
You don't want to put too much um responsibility.
I guess you could say um onsomeone, especially if they're
not getting paid um, but let'stalk a little bit about um
curating events, let's, let's,let's, let's shift focus a
little bit.
I would love for you to informeveryone about party for a

(10:13):
purpose.
I think we should get rightinto that.
It's, it's will, has started.
Actually, I'm gonna let youkind of talk about it.
Tell us what Party for aPurpose is, how it started, and
let's see here what vision youhave for it.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
Well, currently, right now, it's an LLC.
It's a four-business companythat specializes in throwing
fundraising events through,curating with all different
levels of art, music, andideally, doing them in places
that aren't generally venues soif we can, you know, create

(10:52):
something out of anon-traditional space.
That that's where it's excitingfor us and if we can figure out
a way to do that, all you know,to create a special experience
for people to come out andpeople always love to, you know,
have a good time for a goodcause.
It's just like what has beentraditionally a thing that
fundraisers do really well andpeople love to go out, and you

(11:15):
know, and do that and I but I'veseen so many of them that are
just like man, this could be somuch cooler a little more fun.
And so I, just from all thedifferent experiences I've had
in events throughout the years,there's so many levels of
inspiration from so manydifferent camps that kind of
came together to have this idea.

(11:37):
That was kind of birthed out ofthe pandemic.
Uh-huh, the pandemic and kind ofthe need to like pretty much
everybody that had been doingevents was we're all or
everybody that was doing I wasmore on a volunteer or getting
paid like that weekend of theevent wasn't really in the back
end planning of a whole lot andso I was pretty well connected

(12:01):
with everybody and everyone waskind of like starving for you
know stuff to be open or showsto be happening again, and I
felt like everybody that hadestablished reputations was kind
of weary to want to do anythingbecause there were so many
people that wanted this but thenthe people that wanted everyone
to stay locked in and stopgetting together and spreading

(12:22):
it there was that kind of.
I definitely received a littlebacklash from people online when
I was promoting this event, buteveryone was kind of starved
for it.
I had thrown like a littlebackyard surprise party for my
partner at the time duringpandemic, and we had everybody

(12:43):
chip in and we ended up breakingeven on hiring a buddy to come
out and do sound and have twobands come out that we were all
friends with and it was great.
Everybody got paid and we kindof got together and socially
distanced and it went well.
Nobody got sick.
So it was like about 50 of usfor this party and it went well.

(13:03):
So the homeowners were like,hey, would you want to do
something?

Speaker 2 (13:07):
else.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
And at this time I had already been wanting to kind
of we, I don't know this, thisidea of party for a purpose and
doing this had already kind ofbeen being put into the the
ether, so to speak.
And when we had thisopportunity to put this event on
, I was like all right.
Well, you know, at that point Ihad been pretty good friends,

(13:29):
or at least friendly, with a lotof people in the baltimore
scene and I was able to gettogether a really cool lineup,
pulling together a bunch of, uh,different circles of friends
and, um, I wanted to throw totry this model out.
Where I got at an event, I'd,you know, ran the numbers and I,
um was like certain I'd be ableto sell the right amount of

(13:51):
tickets, uh, and like every alot of, you know, a lot of
events.
You know you don't factoreverything in.
My main thing was the when,right two weeks beforehand,
there was like a travel ban inplace and like there was a spike
.
So, like I was in this mode oflike, you know it was a great,
you know it seemed like a greatidea and I was in the full mode

(14:14):
of like, build it and they willcome you know like you know, but
also at the time, like you said, partying a lot, my brain was I
wasn't thinking for clear,clear, I wasn't thinking clearly
uh, the whole time.
And you know, uh, from you know,outsiders perspectives uh,
everything was great and thiswas such a great positive

(14:35):
experience for so many people.
It was a positive experience forme.
It came with a heavy, hefty billand a lot of, like, mental
trauma that was mainlyself-induced, gotcha, um, but
you know, I uh definitely souredsome relationships on that for
a while, just on the financialend, but it took, you know,
within a year I had everybodyinvolved paid back and uh, you

(14:58):
know, but even after I did that,it still took another year for
me to want to try and dosomething again.
Uh, that first event wassupposed to be for rage against
addiction, uh, a uh, mentalhealth and a like, basically
sober housing living for forwomen in Bel Air, and it was, if
we made any money, it was goingto be towards that.

(15:26):
So it was, basically, we had alot of, we had someone from
their camp come up and uh, so wehad this event that was
supposed to be, uh, bringing allof our worlds together and,
while you're there, kind of likesee into the mission, the
purpose of the parties, likewhat they're trying to
accomplish, and by and kind ofgiving them space to just kind
of get word out about yeah,about their organization, while
having a great event that has animpact on people that you know

(15:49):
love to come out and have a goodtime and in turn, you know,
learn how they can help peopleto love that man.

Speaker 2 (15:55):
That's amazing, dude.
Let's see here.
Was there anything else thatyou wanted to to um branch off
with that?
I mean what?
Uh?
How can people find either uh,information about party for a
purpose or, um, you know, howcan they?

Speaker 1 (16:12):
follow you.
Um, we're on Instagram partyfor a purpose presents.
Uh have website party for apurpose presentscom too.
It's uh, we kind of uh just westarted out kind of slow and it
felt, uh, that's normal, yeah,but we we actually, looking back
at it, we had a really greatyear for our first year.

(16:34):
We did what year was?
this Well, I guess it was in theFebruary of 23.
So this will be coming into twoyears, I guess in February,
officially Like LLC and theFacebook page and all that
started Okay and yeah.
So we had about five differentevents.
All kind of there were afterparties that we did for already

(16:58):
bigger shows that were happeningin town and we had a different
nonprofit that we worked for oneach of them and had different
campaigns, whether it was aninstrument drive or trying to
just raise funds to be able tosend kids on these nature
retreats through this nonprofitNatureWorks, nonprofit nature
works.
We helped launch jam for Jody,which was a a nonprofit launch

(17:22):
for one of our friends to helpfind a kidney for her.
And did you, did you get the?

Speaker 2 (17:27):
kidney.

Speaker 1 (17:27):
We actually we found the kidney way faster than than
uh we thought, yeah, she's uh inrecovery now.
Yeah, and the the beautifulthing that that went through, um
, and we're still kind of, uh,pushing the message and letting
people know, because justbecause she found the kidney
doesn't necessarily mean thatthe journey's over with her
medical bills, like um, you know.
So there there's that wholeroad, but we've helped get the

(17:49):
word out and we uh continuallywill be doing what we can to
kind of help make sure thatshe's not, you know, hard up.
She's done so much for our, ourcommunity.
Uh, like, I met her throughcharm city bluegrass years ago,
um, so I've been working withher forever and she's came on to
the the ramble team and, uh,the ramble team is really kind

(18:10):
of what put jam for jodytogether and it kind of made
sense to uh, for us to kind ofwork together to launch it and
we were able to get nataliebrook to play it, which was was
which was a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (18:20):
Shouts out Natalie, yeah, awesome.
What so?
Are you the, the brains behindit?
Is there anybody else who'sinvolved, you know, with the
creation itself?
Are you doing all this byyourself, or what?

Speaker 1 (18:35):
No, there's quite an extensive team that, could, you
know, branches out to a bunch ofpeople for a bunch of different
reasons.
But my main partner is RyanDalcher, who has pretty much
been there since the beginning.
We even had conversationsbefore this.
All we together sat down, putit into the LLC and kind of

(18:55):
created it as a business.
But before then we're talkingabout different dreams and that
we envisions we have for themusic scene.
And he even had a graphic madefor an event, party with a
purpose, or maybe it even wasparty for a purpose, but like
that wasn't like the main thingfor it.
But you know, we've kind of beenon the same wavelength and when

(19:17):
we reconnected we had beenfriends, we used to party and
get wild together and then wedidn't see each other for a
while.
But then I saw he was puttingon this Emily Evans concert for
Hope with his family and I hadjust done some serious taking
time off from everything and wastrying to lean into that
service aspect of giving back tothe community.

(19:37):
And I knew Ryan and that he'dcome along laying off his stuff.
So I wanted to go get back.
So I went up and started, youknow, initially signed up saying
, hey, you know, I'd love to bethere for this date, and then
that ended up turning into himgetting me a job at classic
sound and stage with him.
So we were sharing an office fora year.
So we were.
You know, he was teaching methe production side of the world

(19:59):
, so I'd come from construction.
Okay, I go, I hurt my back andI needed an office job and these
guys, mike and Joe, shout outto them for giving me a shot to
to come in and basically, fromnothing, let's have Ryan teach
me the world of production.
Wow, most of it didn't stick.
Yeah, we found out this year,you know.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I can all going to yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:20):
I'm going to be.
I can be a good hand and help,but as far as being the head on
that it's not my thing but I'maccepting that.
But within that we shared anoffice for a while so we got to
kind of dream how we wantedthings to go and it just kind of
made sense with kind of how weour flow with working together.

(20:42):
It just seemed to make sense.

Speaker 2 (20:43):
So we've been going for it, I think we should shout
Ryan out, ryan Delcher, who alsogoes by Caterpillar.
He's a DJ, he's also producedsome of the stuff that I have
and he is influential in a wholebunch of different worlds in

(21:04):
Baltimore.
So you know, you should beproud of yourself.
You both should be really proudof yourself with what you've
done.
What about the future of Partyfor a Purpose?
Can you foresee a purpose?
Do you, um, can you foresee,like, if someone out there has a
good cause that, um, they mightwant to uh, you know, collab or

(21:28):
combine forces with um?
How would somebody be?

Speaker 1 (21:29):
able to to to make that happen.
I that that's like the goal.
Like I I want it to be one daywhere, um, you know the, that I
have the model perfected enoughwhere I can help almost
everybody in a way.
Right now there's uh just a lotof uh like, depending on what
people want.
I think that and it kind of Ilearned this at um, at classic

(21:52):
what people think theexpectation on what it goes into
, like uh, bringing out a stageand sound and all that, and
people are like oh.
I had $300.
And you're like you know, youhit them with a four or $5,000
bill.
That sticker shock is rough andI think figuring out the way to
make it, uh, to for it to workfor everyone, like with
Northwoods, I had a model whereit was like, all right, we're,

(22:19):
it's an expensive ticket, butsince this is a private event
during a time when there isn't alot as long as you know, like
if, say, um, you know, an idealclient would be somebody that
has a great piece of property,and they're like, hey, we have a
friend that's in a really hard,hard spot.
We have a lot of friends in ournetwork that have good, you
know a good chunk of money andthey would pay, you know, a
little extra if we were able toprovide an intimate experience

(22:43):
with them.
That is quality production.
And we're like, okay, well, todo something like this, to book,
you know you, let us know whoyou want us to book, what kind
of genre you, we, you eithergive us full control to just
curate something for you withsome slight parameters, or you
have a little more intensiveinput on what you're really
looking for and we can work outwith what you know, your, but

(23:06):
what your budget, or either whatyou're able to pay out of
pocket just for the good cause,or do you want us to work with
you on helping facilitatesomething really great happening
and budgeting out how much isit going to cost to bring in, so
essentially we can go from fullcuration for somebody and do
this whole lift for you?
Or do you want us to consult onjust, you know, figuring out how

(23:28):
many porter potties do you need?
What's a good, trusted catererthat's gonna have a good vegan
option for?
half of your friend, you knowjust like how, like some people
for me, I've been around a bunchof great event planners, from
my sister being a badass weddingplanner for years.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
Oh cool, Shout out to sis.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
Yeah and no.
And then my sister has put onmultiple events, when she was
with Believe in Music and nowshe works with Bopa.
So they do Artscape, what isBopa.
The Baltimore Office ofPermission and Arts.
Oh, cool, yeah, they've justkind of been.
You know, I think a few peoplehave given them a bad rap with

(24:07):
some people, but for the mostpart they've done a lot of
really good work over the years,just keeping arts and music
alive and providing free eventsfor people to attend to kind of
just, you know, keep the dreamalive.
Yeah, but no, I've just alwayshad a lot of really great
inspiring people around me.
So when I started to want to dothis for, you know, on my own,

(24:30):
but you know, for everybody I'mtaking, you know I had a lot of
great people to give me adviceand even you know some people I
knew when to, you know, takewhat they said and kind of you
know, figure out for myself, andI don't know, I just had a lot
of really great differentnetworks to tap into to kind of
gauge what was the best, bestpath for me at not overextending

(24:57):
myself too much.
I definitely have pushed myselfand maybe burnt myself out a
couple times.

Speaker 2 (25:05):
We all do dude.

Speaker 1 (25:06):
I think we all do, but I haven't.
That's the one thing that Ikeep getting really good at is
finding that balance, and it'san ever-changing thing.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Let's talk about that balance.
I mean, what do you feel like?
And it doesn't even have to dowith the shows or whatnot.
We'll pivot a little bit.
As far as balance goes, whetherit's like your personal life or
a curating event, how importantdo you feel like balance is and
what do you think if you couldkind of maybe teach some people

(25:41):
about maybe some of thestruggles that you've either
been through or I don't know.
We try and educate here as muchas we can with something like
that.
Do you have any advice formaybe some of the younger or
even actually older?
Anyway, I mean, when you thinkabout balance, like that's

(26:02):
something that we do talk abouta lot on the podcast, because it
really is something that nomatter how old you are, no
matter where you are in yourlife, balance is always going to
be literally.
I mean like think, when you'rejust like when you're walking,
you literally have to havebalance, even with the smallest

(26:25):
little things.
Do you have any advice forpeople on, like maybe how to do
that or maybe some things not todo that?
Maybe you did.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Well, I'd say the biggest thing is like just
because your calendar saysyou're open does not mean you're
open.

Speaker 2 (26:42):
I think, if I could, you dropped a hot on that one.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
Yeah, I think that was one of the biggest things I
learned Like no, you can't helpcurate this part of the festival
and then leave and go right towork and do it, I don't know.
Yeah, so it's just basicallytrying to not don't overextend
yourself and if you do like,just like accept where your

(27:08):
shortcomings are, like don'tblame, there's no blame.
You know you can't, you knownot come with all the energy and
you got to be flexible andready to.
You know go, go with, roll withthe punches and keep a level
head, and I think that's youknow, that's part, you know part
of that balance is findingmaking sure you're giving
yourself space to go in withenough sleep.

(27:32):
Like you know I I did a good, Idid a good job this year at.
You know I worked a coupleevents and then had to do to do.
You know it was working latebut then had to be back at it on
, you know, on duty early andyou know just making sure you're
setting yourself time to comerested to the next thing.

Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yeah, very important.
Rest, get your sleep out there,okay, because you need to have
a productive day.
Let's see here Go.
I would like to go a little bitback to the party for a purpose
, though.
Do you have any events, um,either coming up in the the
future that you want to shoutout, um, anything that that kind

(28:13):
of stands out, or, um, is therean event from the past that
maybe you'd like to highlight alittle bit, that you could
foresee maybe either doing again, it's really hard to say for
Party, for a Purposespecifically.

Speaker 1 (28:31):
I feel like we, going forward this year, I am going
to be kind of focusing more oncommunity driven events as far
more more so than just trying tore-event the wheel and be
another production company thatis throwing shows all the time.
I wanted to be a little, to bea little more intentional with,

(28:52):
yeah, the community aspect of itand, more so, team up with more
people than trying to to takeall of it on myself, cause,
circling back to it's all on theteam.
I am not, I don't have a like acorporate sponsor or something
that's like helping drive, beingable to to produce events and

(29:14):
tickets.
You know, everybody knows,ticket sales just aren't, aren't
where they should be.
They haven't been for a while,and one thing I've noticed is
that you need good partners orsponsors that believe in the
mission, whether it's an artist,an event, whatever.
Those are the ones that aresustainable and make it.

(29:38):
So, basically, I still have alot of learning to do, like, I
think, um, I think that that'sone of the another big takeaway
I had is, like, as much as Ithought I knew and thought that
I had prepared for done better.
There's always gonna always besomething.
There'll be that yin and yangof like you know.
You have a win, but then youget humbled a little bit.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Oh for sure so, um, if you could, could you uh dig a
little bit into the sponsorshipum you know.
And then I think let's see here, yeah, sponsorships, you know,
how does someone find a sponsorfor either an event or, um the
company itself?

(30:21):
How do you get somebody to backyou like?

Speaker 1 (30:23):
that I uh, you know I've had a little bit of success
and uh, like with teller fest,I'd say, was the first event.
This was, uh, an event I did inseptember for for this band,
seven Teller.
We did it in Patterson Park andthis was kind of my first

(30:43):
attempt at really trying topiece together almost like a
non-profit model of of an event,of trying to get the balance of
what we had to pay the bandspaid for by local businesses,
whether that was pieced togetherthrough in-kind donations or or
whatever.
But you know, the goal was tojust like break even on it and

(31:05):
you know we did a great job,like I think, yeah, ryan delcher
put our, uh, our deck togetherand I was, like man, as long as
I have like this, this greatlooking, you know, telling them
our mission and the analytics ofthe demographics of the people
in the neighborhood of like youknow what neighborhood, of how
many people are going to bethere, if I have this, people
will be lining up to write uschecks, passionate about it.

(31:29):
And it just didn't happen thatway because it's a small
grassroots event.
Like Celsius was a sponsor, butthey sponsored by giving us a
bunch of cases that everybodyloves walking away with some
energy drinks or having freedrinks.

Speaker 2 (31:45):
And how did you find them?
That was just me scrubbingonline.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
So, really I'm kind of being pessimistic on like I
had a lot of wins but at the endof the day there's still a
balance left over.
But you look on celsius'swebsite.
They, you know, try and findout who you contact to for
sponsorships.
A lot of those big companieswill have that direct there.
But even if you're uh trying toget a local brewery, you know,

(32:13):
you just look up, you know thecontact and write a nice little
pitch email.
Try and get them interested tohear more.

Speaker 2 (32:19):
And uh, you know there's so you're, you're the
one creating those emails andputting all that stuff together.
Huh, so lots of, would you saylots of cold, cold calling.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
Yeah, lots of nose lots of cold calling and, um,
one of the things I you know Ineed to get better on this year,
but it's just.
There was a lot of things thatI talked to people in April and
they're, like you know, followup and we I wasn't able to
follow up in the right amount oftime and just like that whole
organization of like staying ontop of things, there's a it's a

(32:53):
lot, especially when you're youknow, yeah, when you're trying
to balance a bunch of otherthings, and it's a it's a
delicate balance of like when doyou?
You don't come off the the jumpasking for a bunch of money,
but you also want to betransparent.
But yeah, but you also want tobe transparent.
It's delicate, but transparenton.
You know we're trying to.

(33:14):
You know we're trying to lookfor funding for this.
Um, you know, I had had avision to have.
I thought that somebody wouldsee the value in sponsoring some
art installs that couldpotentially be permanent in
Patterson Park.
Oh, that's cool, that could becool, but that didn't end up
happening.
But at the end of the day, wehad a great gathering in the

(33:36):
park with a bunch of awesomemusic.
There was a bunch of greatartists involved.

Speaker 2 (33:42):
How long have you been doing Teller Fest?

Speaker 1 (33:46):
Well, this was the first year that I officially
like Party for a Purpose.
It was presented by and I hadeven said I want to say Teller
Fest, presented by whoever has$10,000 to buy the main stage
rights.
I'd love to take Party for aPurpose out of here and have it
be a local business that saw thevalue.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Now, when you say main stage rights, what does
that mean?

Speaker 1 (34:11):
That means that we would have our main stage set up
and then all of the programming, whether it's digital or
printed, and even banners on theside, like so when people are
uh at the event or reading aboutit, they're seeing the lineup
for the main stage presented byyou know.
Fill in the blank on thebusiness whether whether that is

(34:31):
Celsius.
And the guy, even at Celsius,was like hey man, love your
mission, um, but you know, atthe end of the of the end of the
day, we can only cut checkslike that for events that are
pulling numbers of like 20 000people or like you know.
Maybe he could spin it if itwas a little less, but you know,
when you're thinking we mighthave a thousand people, they're

(34:53):
like yeah, we'll give you abunch of cases and you know,
hand our stuff out for sure, andthat helps us and helps them
too.
But to really get to, you knowyou can't pay this hound guy in
celsius, so right right, I don't, I mean, maybe you never know.
No, we had we had a runningjoke that it was like well, well
, as soon as you start realizingthat celsius is money and it

(35:14):
kind of is like I don't know,like yeah, now I hear where
you're coming from um.

Speaker 2 (35:19):
What about do you?
Do you have plans for tellerfest uh 2025?
yeah, no let me tell you, dude,I would love to, um, be involved
, uh, somehow, and help you in away, because let me tell you,
uh, everything from, like, theartwork, um, that you should be
really proud of that, like the,the little flyers that you had,

(35:39):
um, I saw them everywhere, dudelike so, you, dude, you did a
great job with that man, you dida great job with that.
And, uh, I know, the weather,too, was a little um, was a
little was a, was a little bitum gotten away as well.
But, either way, you know what,man, that's stuff that you, you
know you have to plan for right, um, you know, yeah, do you, do

(36:03):
you foresee doing teller festagain, uh, this coming year?
Or, and even if not that, isthere any other events that you
kind of want to put some, someattention towards that you've
kind of you know, or havealready thought about?

Speaker 1 (36:16):
um, well, we uh it's not so much a party for a
purpose thing, but the team thatI put my first event on with
northwoods aether immersive.
I've come on with them as a anofficial partner.
So after being in debt to themfor the production they brought
to my first event, after payingthem back and then uh, kind of
like reinvesting with buying adome from them, I've come on, uh

(36:36):
what's it done?
13.
Oh sorry, it's a geodesic dome,uh, that you can break down and
set up wherever and a screencomes over it and you can rig
projectors up and turn it intoeither a stage, a space for
guided meditation, sound bowlprogramming, any kind of like
wellness workshop stuff, or justa lounge space.
Um, but it's been a, a great uh, I don't know.

(37:02):
I'll call it a tool for abetter lack of a better word for
just kind of like helpingfacilitate community at events.
For a lack of a better termbecause it can be used for a
stage, it can be used as a.
You can enclose it and turn itinto a immersive experience and
like a planetarium kind of thing, or it can just be a space
where people can come and hangout during the day and and let

(37:25):
me ask you this so what you?

Speaker 2 (37:26):
you just show up and and build it, uh or does?

Speaker 1 (37:30):
it come like already built no, it breaks down into a
bunch of poles that are rangingin sizes and there's a diagram
to put it together and uh, it'snuts and bolts and and steel and
uh, it takes a couple of peopleto build in a couple of hours
and break it down just as fast.

Speaker 2 (37:49):
How many people can fit in Uh?

Speaker 1 (37:52):
standing.
You can get like 50 people inthere, uh, 50 to 75.
I've seen it very packed outand I've been um, but you know
that's for my 20 foot one.
Derrick has also, the aetherteam has a 40 foot one, which is
pretty comparable to a lot ofwhat you would see at places

(38:13):
like electric forest.
Okay, um, elements, uh, youknow different events yeah
mainly EDM events and when Ifirst worked with Derek at
Northwoods and he brought it toour event and I really loved
what it brought to theatmosphere.

Speaker 2 (38:30):
Saw the value in it.

Speaker 1 (38:31):
I really saw the value in it and so I've been
working with them to acquiresponsorship to start touring
those domes at different eventsand curating different
experiences.
Like I said, we can hostwellness workshops during the
day and at night, host a loungespace with all different kinds

(38:54):
of visuals.
You can run through thisprogram, resolume.
You can run through thisprogram Resolume.
You can be running art through.
You can kind of recreate it andremix it into different visuals
and it's a great way to kind ofshowcase local festival artists
and just have a great kind oflike living art installation at

(39:16):
the festival.
Oh, that's awesome dude Love.

Speaker 2 (39:19):
That let's see here.
Well, let's pivot a little bitbecause you, like I said before
and kind of introduced you, youare really a jack of all trades
when it comes to thecommunication and management
fields.
Tell us a little bit about themanager role that you have and

(39:42):
some of the bands and some ofthe facets of that that people
can take away from thisconversation.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Well, I have been working with Uncle Kunkel's One
Grand Band for a little over twoyears now band for a little
over two years now.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
Um, groovy, who is our uh production uh main man
here uh does?
He's basically the other.
The other half of this, uh, therespecting perspectives podcast
uh is a part of uh the band.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
Uh just wanted to shout that out, yeah no, they um
, I've known groovy and jeff uh,in the band for many years now,
and when they joined forceswith the One Gram guys after
they had graduated Salisbury andcame back, I got involved with
them.
Shortly after I saw them forthe first time I was talking to

(40:33):
Jeff and I was like, hey, do youguys have anybody helping you
book?
I was really impressed by theshow.
When was this?
This was, I guess, right aroundSeptember of 22,.
I guess was the first time Isaw them.
So then by Halloween I had hada meeting with them to talk
about goals.

(40:54):
I had never done anything likethis before.
I had been side stage to abunch of projects and friends
with.
You know, people who had beenmanagers for bands or run, you
know, been doing it for a while.
And when I first saw them I wasso impressed and I kind of saw
like a whole you know themhaving this whole room in the

(41:16):
palm of their hands and I hadn'tseen like energy in a room like
that since covid.
Okay, like you know, there wasa lot of bands that weren't
really playing anymore, thatused to, um, and I just saw, you
know, like jeff being part ofthis.
This uh, kind of like new waveof people that hadn't really
been out.
Uh like, like I said, the onegram guys.
They just graduated college andmost of their time in college

(41:38):
was while the world was shutdown.

Speaker 2 (41:40):
So, like you know, but as but with how I guess
little.

Speaker 1 (41:45):
They had seen shows that during that time they
educated themselves on music.
So they almost kind of came outwith like way more music
knowledge than I did when, Iwhen when I was their age, so
that that maturity level andkind of what they wanted out of
music and what they were exposedto by the time they came into
our circles I thought I waspretty impressed by.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
But yeah, tell us a little bit more about what it
takes to be a manager and someof the let's see here Some of
the things that the reason why Iask as well, not only for the
listeners, but I'm at a placeright now where I do feel like I

(42:30):
need a manager and when do youfeel like an artist is ready for
a manager?

Speaker 1 (42:37):
I think that's a an important question um, I mean,
I'll admit one grant, one grandband was not ready for me, it's.
I think I saw that there was alot of work to be done but I had
the drive and it goes back tolabor of love.
Like you are going to put waymore into this than what you're

(42:59):
financially going to get out ofit.
But the other stuff that comeswith it is beautiful and you
can't even put a price tag on it.
I love that.
But that isn't always theeasiest when you're trying to

(43:19):
make decisions and make sureyou're eating and you're taking
care of yourself and paying yourbills and you know all that.
But that's for another, that'sfor another day.
But, um, but no, like I saw inthem.
I had the.
You know the time to, I had the, the, the want to, and they
matched my energy at that'simportant, exactly's important.
Exactly At at all, at all turnsthey were.
You know I would be going outof my way to get them an
opportunity, but they wereworking hard and showing up and

(43:41):
over delivering on their end ofit.
So it made my job easy and Ihad I wouldn't say easy Well,
yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, andit's.
You know well, we both say thaton both ends about each other.
But I had somebody recentlythat I don't know all that well
but you know have met recentlyand she was asking kind of the

(44:03):
same thing and I said you got tofind somebody that's ready to
not like I didn't take a dimefrom the OneGram guys for a
while until I wanted them to.
I didn't take a dime from the 1gram guys for a while until I
wanted them to.
I didn't come in and say I needthis down payment, which is how
you should operate if you'regoing to do something like that.
But I didn't ever want them tofeel like it was something that

(44:25):
it was.
It was something that I saw.
I saw the value and I saw theyweren't the greatest and the
tightest.
Then They've come leaps andbounds, but I saw what could be
and I knew that they were allhardworking and hungry enough
and wanting it.
So there's been plenty of timeswhere on both ends I'm sure

(44:46):
everybody, because you know whenyou grow as fast as um and all
the ways there comes stress withthat, so it's like it's really
hard to always stay, you know,on, on, on task if you're the
only one that's pulling all ofthe weight, but it's constantly

(45:07):
everybody just kind of steppingin and pulling.
You know pulling in at thetimes that they need to and
that's what's been keeping thiswhole thing going.
Is everybody stepping up whenthey need to, putting dumb shit
to the side, whether it'sthey're arguing with each other
or they have life stuff that'sbleeding in.
We all have that and we all tryand leave it out of work, but

(45:28):
we're all human too.

Speaker 2 (45:31):
Gosh, that's extremely important.
All human too.
So, gosh, that's, uh, that'sthat's extremely important.
That's actually something that,um, brian Potts and I are going
to be speaking about a littlebit later today.
Um, but let's see here, um, asfar as that, um, you know, is
there anything that maybe youwould have, um, maybe done
differently, um, in the past?
Is there anything, um somethingthat, uh, I wanted to highlight

(45:54):
as well, like for othermanagers, um, any, maybe like
red flags for, like an artist tolook out for, um in, in, in
that that that management, uhrole, um, if your manager is
ever trying to make you to makea decision like right, then,
without having given you time toprocess, ask people you trust.

Speaker 1 (46:19):
I'd say that's really the only thing I can really
think of, cause like there's allkinds of like little
situational things that you canbe like, but that's all
perspective and perception andeverybody's got a different one
of what's happening in a room,so that's all.
Whatever, I'm sure people havelooked at things that I've done
as and thinking that it's beenmalicious and it's not.
I know, that's just you knowthat's something that happens,

(46:41):
but if like somebody a well isis pressuring you into make a
decision without giving youproper time to process that um.
And but then there's anotherside to that.
I, I don't know, but also youknow the their job.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Uh, you know our job is to keep people on track for
their goals yeah, what dig intothat a little bit like what is
the role of a manager?

Speaker 1 (47:07):
it all depends.
It's all different fordifferent people.
I've been, um, you know,luckily, like I, uh, luckily,
like I said, luke, luke is, andI work, I've worked intensely on
this with input from everyone,but you know he, you know, went
to college for communications.
He's a good graphic designer,um, and he knows what he wants

(47:29):
in a brand and we argue a lotand I'm sure you know, I know,
that we don't always see eye toeye on stuff, but we I don't
know, we've always trusted ineach other to go which way.
And I feel like, when you askabout regrets, I don't really
have any because right now, thefact that we're where we're at,
I can't really say that I couldnever argue to anybody and

(47:54):
anytime I try and, you know,think like, oh, we should have
been done this and this wouldhave happened.
Right, that could have, thatcould have been really bad, it
could have ended up being afailure for whatever reason.
So a lot of um, it's all aboutsetting goals and working
towards that like one of thethings to be at this time last
year we heard that fish wasdoing that festival and we were
like, all right, we're buyinggear and we're setting up so we

(48:17):
can do renegade sets in the, inthe, in the fest grounds, and
that'll be like our how we'llget in front of a bunch of
people and then we ended upgetting some good gigs and
playing with a bunch of piecingtogether a bunch of shows and by
the time it came around to thatnobody had energy to want to go

(48:38):
do this and spend the money andlift.
But because we were working sohard to be ready to be this unit
, things were clicking in for us.
But now we're at the point nowwhere we just got this offer to
go do this Papadusio Festivalthat our friends are throwing
but the lineup's not very big.
But because they work, uh, thekunkle guys and myself have

(49:00):
worked with the uh, you know,doing uh stuff with aether
immersive in the domes and doingthe visuals.
They were like wanting to havethem as a combo and have them
come out and curate this latenight area for the festival.
So because they're ready to goout with their own gear and
provide their own sound, we justneed the the chance to play
like and we're willing to put inthat extra work and help bring

(49:23):
something to an event and helpcreate that experience for
people and put in that extrasweat, that extra lift like,
yeah, everybody wants to show upand plug in and have their,
their gigs, uh, their gigs,white gloved for them and have
some ego about it, but nobody,nobody really wants to go and
actually work for the showsanymore, like so many people

(49:44):
also, you know you have to, youhave to.
Uh, if you're expecting to geta good guarantee and get paid
like work on the promotion, getout there.
Like so many people areentitled to just getting gigs
and playing without adequatelypromoting their shows, and we're
even guilty of it at times too,we're not even maliciously, but
like we should just be betterat our jobs.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Going back to the balance.
You know thing.
You know what.
I have enough energy and andstamina to be able to.
Uh, would I have enough energyand stamina to be able to do
that Now?
Could you mention one more timewhat's the name of that
festival that we can see them at?

Speaker 1 (50:19):
The.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
Papadosio, oh, kicksville it's.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
May 9th and 10th.
It's right on the water in StMary's, Papadosio.
Active Cat, Chalk, DinosaurEnsemble Electric Love Machines
doing two sets You've got Eos.
Suhan oh, suhan ensembleelectric love machines doing two
sets got eos suhan oh, and soit's really cool.
There's all these people onhere that we've all been looking
up to for years that are goingto be at this little homie fest

(50:41):
and like we're going to have anopportunity to get in front of
all those people and kind ofgive them that late night
experience every night when theycome over from seeing their
favorite bands that they'veknown.
These are the new guys on thescene that have been working
hard.
It's not just, it's not just uhgas, like they're really like
they're putting it out there andputting it down.
They have a full sonic soundthat they've been working really

(51:02):
hard to to hone in and they'retheir worst known critics.
They'll talk shit on we all,you know, on it um, all day, but
you know they're crushing and II'm just very excited to see
where that goes.

Speaker 2 (51:16):
Hey, tell us a little bit about what they did here at
the watermelon room.
I think that's really cool.

Speaker 1 (51:24):
It was really cool and I think this summer was so
busy for everyone.
I still come back and processon how cool that really was.
But so in the middle of summerit was I guess the end of june,
um, we did three nights here andkind of made it donation based.
Uh, you know, pay what you wantto get in um, and we wanted to

(51:46):
just run all the songs that theyfelt good about.
You know, not do it in a showsetting where they felt like
they had to orchestrate the set.
They wanted to just play thesongs they knew how to play,
focus on the music, but lit thelit, our fans and friends being
here to help provide that energythat they thrive.

Speaker 2 (52:06):
So so good dude, that is so awesome.
So it was what?
Like a live recording of yep,an album, yeah?

Speaker 1 (52:14):
so, and we didn't, we just uh released it november um
yeah, where can?

Speaker 2 (52:19):
where can people find ?

Speaker 1 (52:21):
stream it on spotify itunes apple music um.
What's the name of the?
It's called uh punk jams oh,shoot punk jams, baby.

Speaker 2 (52:30):
Yeah, love that love.

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Yeah, no, um, but it was uh just what did you get
from that?

Speaker 2 (52:35):
if you what, I what?

Speaker 1 (52:37):
I got from.
That is kind of like a step inthe direction of uh, doing some
and this is.
You know that what we did herewasn't anything groundbreaking.
Like people have had liverecordings in a small, but this
was kind of uh, something in aunique space that people aren't
familiar and not everyone'sfamiliar with this space in
Baltimore and some people thathad been to like raves here and

(52:57):
different parts of it over theyears when they came they're
like, oh, I didn't even knowthey had this side and we were
able to kind of have a differentexperience and allow the
because, like over the shortamount of time that they've
blown up, there's been a lot, avery committed fan base that has
been coming out and came outall three of those nights I was

(53:17):
here.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
Yeah, I was here for most of it.
And, dude, let me tell yousomething, man, it was really
cool to be able to, I meanespecially like knowing that
like there's so much stuff thathappens here and this is just
one small place, you know,compared to all all in.
Just think I mean, we'retalking about Baltimore, that's
where we're at right now, butwhatever city you're in, like

(53:39):
there are things like that thatare going around, going on
around you, that, if you reallywant to, you know, support a
local band.
You know all you have to do isdig a little bit, walk a few
blocks down the street in anycity and I guarantee you can
find things like that going on.
And it was just really cool tosee how we can go from a podcast

(54:03):
setting one night to the nextnight you can have a band live
recording an album.
It's music, man, it's abeautiful thing, and it's really
cool to be able to see thesupport.
And, man, it really does giveme hope for myself as an artist
to be able to create thatcommunity.

(54:27):
I was able to meet so manydifferent people within those
two or three days, and not justthat, but like I was able to
give the band like instantfeedback of how I felt and how
it made me feel, and it was socool to be able to kind of like
be a part of the process.
I feel like that's that's hugethese days is artists allowing

(54:53):
listeners and their fans to be apart of the process and luckily
, with you know, social mediaand whatnot, I think we're able
to.
You know, do that more so nowthan ever.
Do you feel like you know?
Do you feel like the, thetraction?
Do you feel like you got anylike traction from that itself,

(55:13):
or like that doesn't even reallymatter too much?

Speaker 1 (55:16):
right, it doesn't matter, because I think if you
looked at like the numbers on itlike there wasn't, this place
wasn't sold out, you know, butthere was a good amount of
people here I'd say yes, becausewe've done a great job at it's
like this.
Well, this was also somethingfor our fans to do.
We didn't like market it.
We didn't do this as like tryingto make a live album, you know,

(55:40):
we just wanted to record butrealized that we were spinning
wheels, doing segments, nottogether, not locked in, not
with everyone, cause that's whenthe magic has been happening
with these guys is, you know, onstage.
So we're like, hey, do it three, you know, three nights in a
row, we're gonna get, we'regonna get something we're happy
with, because there's greatparts of shows and some not.

(56:01):
So not, you're not gonna beable to.
It's a lot to put all your eggsin that basket of, like, you
know, doing a live concert fordvd, like when bands do that,
you're putting a lot of.
Oh DVD.
Did you just drop that?
Like the live concert DVD.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
What is that?

Speaker 1 (56:15):
Well, hold on, we're going to do another episode.
You're right DVDs, dvds, no,but like there's a, I think that
this was something that we allwanted to do.
We knew Because, like I saidbefore, doing shows is not a
moneymaker.
Like, you're not like, unless I,I don't know hopefully down the

(56:36):
line, yeah, but but it's likeyou're not if you're doing it
for the right reasons yes, yeah,you can make money, but if
you're gonna depend on that,you're eventually gonna find
yourself working in spaces thatyou're not like that, that
aren't necessarily your favoritebut I guess, that's part of it
like it's all perspective too.

(56:56):
You know like there's somepeople who totally depend on um
show sales some people have itlocked in, like there's people
and that, and that's the thingit's like there's people that
have it locked in and it's likethey got it locked in like don't
fuck with, stop trying toreinvent the wheel, these people
, they got it if they want yourhelp, they'll ask for it how
many years do you think it takesan artist or a band before

(57:19):
those shows really start to show?

Speaker 2 (57:23):
um, you know the results, that that the band you
know, because, like, as anartist, let me be real with you.
I mean, mean, like as an artist, my dream is always like that
Woodstock crowd, you know, likethat, that you know, seeing all
those people in front of you.
Now, you know, there have beenshows for me where I've had 10

(57:47):
people, you know, and thenthere's been shows for me where
I've had 2,000 people.
How long do you think and Iknow this is all respectively to
the artists themselves but howlong do you think how many years
do you think it takes in orderto kind of really develop that

(58:10):
fan base to where they're goingto be at your shows?
And it's going to be I wouldn'teven say like sold out, but
like to the point where, likeyou know, like the band is
really like you know, they'reamped to be up there and doing
what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
That's hard to say because different people's
levels of success in differentgenres depends on what you're
trying to do.
I mean, there's, you know, andI don't want to uh like me, yeah
, I don't know.
It really all depends whatyou're trying to get out of the
project.
Like, are you trying to be likethe band that makes you know

(58:45):
really good money regionally butdoesn't travel?
Are you trying to be atraveling act?
Um, you know, and there's allkinds of things that go like the
more you grow, the more crewand team you need to be a part
of it.
So it's like, at what point it'sreally all about keeping
everybody happy, because it'snot you're.

(59:06):
There's going to be times whereyou're, it's the money's not
really there to do it, but youhave to be, at the end of the
day, labor of love, like it hasto be.
You have to be ready to makethose commitments and not really
seeing the payoff right now.
Everything that we've uh workedfor, we've, like you know, and
one of the things I've tried tobe with the one gram guys is we

(59:27):
dream big but also keep it real,and I and I think I I do take
notes notes I will pride myselfon.
I don't think I've reallybullshitted or dangled a carrot
for them on, like you know.
Hey guys, this is a greatopportunity but not been like
until unless I was sure, and I'deven say I feel good about this
, but it's not until it'sconfirmed in the emails, like

(59:49):
it's not for sure, it's not real.

Speaker 2 (59:51):
So like, yeah, nice I gotta pee go for it.
Yeah, let's take a break.
Okay, wait a second.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
You hear that do you hear that, oh yeah what is?

Speaker 2 (01:00:04):
that hello yes, hello , who is this?
Oh, this is the younger WillGibbons.
Like we're talking old school,oh gee, will, oh shoot, okay,
yeah, you know what?
Actually, I have somebody hereright next to me who would love

(01:00:26):
to have a conversation with you,do you mind?

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
Yeah, here you go, man, man, here he is, good luck
oh, wow, hello, younger, youngerwill gibbons, wow, um, you know
, I guess you always wish youcould have.
I guess you could always wishthat you had your older self to
help reflect.
I I will say you know, just,cigarettes are not cool, and

(01:00:54):
they're definitely did not getcooler the older you got.
Um, yeah, no, cigarettes notcool.
Um, you don't need to go toevery night of a three-night run
.
Um, cocaine is no longer good.
And and, yeah, just don't do it.

(01:01:15):
Probably the yeah, let's seewhat else.
Yeah, just don't be a liar.
You know, when you think youcan get away with something, it
always comes back.
So, just like you know, don'tbe a liar.
Yeah, I'd say, yeah, call yourmom more.

(01:01:37):
Yeah, trying to think, whatelse should I be telling the
young Will?

Speaker 2 (01:01:46):
You got any advice for him?
You got any advice, or maybesomething that you would either
change or what do?

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
you got, I'd say you know, don't stay at a job any
longer than two to three years.
Switch it up as much as you can.
You know, try and take the goodfrom every situation but
realize once it's beginningtoxic and no longer good for you
, separate.
Don't keep trying to lie toyourself, thinking that you're

(01:02:15):
gonna uh, you know, gettingtaken care of the end.
Always make sure you'readvocating for yourself, um,
yeah, and being uh, accounts,holding yourself accountable and
not blaming.
You know, when you're trying tomake excuses, trying to blame
on other people, uh, peoplegenerally see the people that
matter, see through the bullshit, uh, so yeah, you're really

(01:02:39):
only you know ever hurtingyourself doing that and yeah, I
don't know, I think that's youknow.
Just, uh, continue to go forthe everyday with good intention
and trust that as long as youare consistent, stay consistent,
all will work out.

(01:03:00):
As you want to Tell him youlove him and I love you.
Despite all things, love youlove you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:20):
Hey, man, he loves you and uh you, you end up being
a, uh, a pretty awesome humanbeing.
So, uh, take all the advicethat uh, he gave you and, um,
just just keep, keep, keep doingthe right thing, because,
because you are, you make it ina great place.
All right, peace out.
Love you, dog.
There it is, man talking to thepast.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
That's wild, isn't it to think about that you know,
yeah, no, but I mean but I'vesaid this before to people like
I really like, and I've had somedark years like I wouldn't.
I still don't think I couldtrade any of it because it's all
brought me to here and you know, if you're you can't look

(01:03:59):
outward of like where people areat, because I work with a lot
of people that are 10, 15 yearsyounger than me or older than me
, but we're all in differentspaces for you know, at
different times for differentreasons.
Um, but I am, I am so dead setthat I had to go through all of
the the years of either spinningwheels or darkness to kind of
learn all you know and all ofour brains.

(01:04:21):
It took me a little bit longerto kind of come around, do it
all and learn.
You know I had to learn thesame lessons and fall.
You know I've had, uh you know,addiction issues and substance
issues.
It's all a learning experience,but it helps me, especially

(01:04:41):
with all of the mental healthand substance use stuff.
It helps give me perspective,to give people grace that I know
and help other people.
So now I'm able to kind of helpbe that sounding board or kind
of, uh, help guide people.
As you know, I'm not some, Idon't work a program or anything
, but I fully, uh, you know,subscribe to taking good advice

(01:05:06):
from good people, surroundingyourself with good people, and
uh, none of it would all.
All what I'm trying to say iseverything has led me to be able
to hold space for people.

Speaker 2 (01:05:15):
Love that man.
That was excellent.
I love how you kind of roundedthings out with that.
That was excellent, excellent,I got some.
Can we do some rapid fire?

Speaker 1 (01:05:25):
I have some questions for you here that you don't
even know about that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:30):
I like to kind of just pull up on people, okay,
all right.
Don't even know about, uh, thatI like to kind of just pull up
on people, okay, all right, andI, we want to try and make this
rapid fire, so you want to try,and you?

Speaker 1 (01:05:40):
know off the cuff you know we can't, even if it's
like, not the truth, like justwhatever my brain comes up with.
Okay, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:05:47):
Yeah, okay, here we go 10 seconds or four minutes on
the clock here.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
Okay, tell us your ideal packed lunch.
Ooh, ideal packed lunch, Ithink would be an egg salad and
bacon sandwich, two snack packsand a string cheese.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
Man, that was too easy.
All right, in your little bagthere, all right, describe what
you think your life will looklike when you're 85, when I'm 85
.

Speaker 1 (01:06:16):
I really hope to be just like uh I, I think, like
whatever it looks like, justreally enjoying myself, whether
that's you know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:26):
Uh, really yeah no, that could look like we'll keep
it pretty pg, but just reallyenjoying, enjoy.
Enjoy it, baby boy.
Yeah, all right.
Describe the person to yourleft in one word A community
connector.
There we go.
Okay, would you ever wantsomeone to throw you a surprise

(01:06:47):
party?

Speaker 1 (01:06:48):
Depends.
I'm going to say yes to keep iteasy.
Yes.

Speaker 2 (01:06:53):
All right, somebody out there better throw this
noFella surprise party at somepoint.
All right.
Can you do an impression ofsomeone in your family?
Let's see it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
Who is it?
Come on, oh, I guess let's seeRapid fire.

Speaker 2 (01:07:10):
Rapid fire.

Speaker 1 (01:07:11):
Oh no, someone in my family.
Go away, go away.
I'm blanking.
I want to do my grandma but shehas so many good one-liners but
some of them are like not, yeah, I don't know, what's a
one-liner?

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
from your grandmother , god, no, yeah, next next.
All right, next question.

Speaker 1 (01:07:32):
Because she grew up in the in the early years, so
it's not all PC stuff you knowthere's so much.
And I'm like, nah, we're notgoing there.

Speaker 2 (01:07:39):
You can't rapid fire, grandma, I'm sorry, you're
right.
Okay, name another country youwant to visit.
Um, south America.
Done, all right.
What question do you wishpeople would ask you more often?

Speaker 1 (01:07:56):
I would wish that they would ask what my five-year
plan is.

Speaker 2 (01:08:04):
Okay, we'll talk about that afterwards.
All right, what's the biggestmess you've ever made?
The biggest mess?
I've ever made Without throwinganyone else under the bus other
than yourself.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
Well, I mean the biggest mess we talked about
earlier, northwoods.
It was a great project, but itwas a financial disaster that
took me.
I'm still like talking about itin fucking therapy.
Um just in podcasts yeah, andin podcasts apparently this is
therapy, and what?

Speaker 2 (01:08:30):
yeah, yeah, oh shit right um okay, yeah, got that
one okay.
Well, you know what need towork on for the future yeah all
right.
What do you think your favoriteteacher does when they aren't
at school?

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
I saw this one.
Yeah, no, I.
So I don't have a currentteacher, but I do.
I am friends with a lot ofteachers and I know what they be
doing now when they're not atschool, and a lot of it is fish
concerts.
There we go, fish concerts,baby.
All right concerts there we go,baby.

(01:09:03):
All right, they're all there,all right.
What is your?

Speaker 2 (01:09:05):
favorite form of potatoes, uh hash brown or a
shreddy.

Speaker 1 (01:09:07):
Oh, no like or no, sorry, I think a tater tot,
because you can put crab on itoh, cheaters, taters, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
Do you find it easy or difficult to play on a team?

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
and I find it very easy to play on a team and I
guess I find it very easy toplay on a team and I guess
that's also.
It depends on who that team is.
I guess is the real question,but that's For sure.
Yeah, but I'll say a team allday.

Speaker 2 (01:09:29):
Definitely.
Have you ever eaten somethingweird just to see how it tastes?
Yes, yeah, what?

Speaker 1 (01:09:36):
was that?
Um, yes, yeah, what was that?
Um, I'm gonna say that I'veeaten octopus and I thought that
was kind of weird.
The weirdest thing I've eaten,unknowingly was dog treats that
looked like Oreos but they werenot packaged like you know, Like

(01:09:58):
.
So it was dog treats thatlooked like oreos and I'm eating
.
Like, how did?
It taste it didn't taste thatbad I thought it was just like
health food oreos that were like, made with like vegan or
something.
Well, oreos are vegan regularoreos, but just like you know
made with not sugar or whateverso so I did this, you know, uh,

(01:10:18):
for about a week, as I'm cookingmy dinner, I would grab one out
of the fucking dog food thingand I was like you know, just
had one, while she was like I'llhave one shitty cookie while
I'm eating, and then, like, atthe end of the week, I realized
what it was oh, that is, and Iwas like it, it killed me.
So I of course I couldn't justlike be the only one who did

(01:10:39):
this.
So I took, took them out of thebag, brought them to work and I
had like 10 to 12 people eatdog treats.

Speaker 2 (01:10:45):
Oh dude, that is so funny.
One guy still will not like.
Did you tell them that they?

Speaker 1 (01:10:51):
were dogs.
I did afterwards, and everybodywas a pretty good sportsman,
except for one guy.

Speaker 2 (01:10:55):
One guy Anyway for one guy, Alright.
Would you rather have theability to fly or read minds I?
Think, read, minds Okay readminds If you could have any
superpower, what would it beOther than those two things?

Speaker 1 (01:11:15):
Rapid fire, Lift anything up oh nice, okay, all
right what's the best right,what's the best?

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
ice cream topping uh, peanuts in different forms yeah
, for sure.
Uh, okay, last one here.
If you had to move someplaceyou've been to on vacation,
where would it be?
Uh, new zealand, oh, newzealand.
Actually, I have one more foryou, coconut or pineapple.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
Coconut yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
Now, yeah, okay, all right, awesome.
Well, hey, man, thank you somuch for sitting with me and
everybody else who's watchinghere.
I think we were able to diginto a lot of interesting topics
and I'm excited to see whereParty for a Purpose is going to

(01:12:06):
be in the next five years andyour management role for One
Grand Band.
I really appreciate you beingas honest as possible with some
of these topics.
I know some of the stuff wetalk about isn't like the
easiest stuff to talk about.
We could probably sit for a fewdays, really, and kind of

(01:12:29):
discuss some of this stuff.
But I'm really appreciative ofyou and I would actually love to
off record, off camera, kind ofspeak with you about um.
You know me finding the propermanager and how to, uh, you know
, make that happen um in thefuture.

Speaker 1 (01:12:46):
So I would love to man, yeah, no, you're yeah,
absolutely, and you're like whatyou're doing now is all part of
kind of what I would suggest,because when what I tell the one
gram guys you know there's thisproject is, it can't be your
everything.
It needs to be a very importantpoint and you need to put a lot
into it.
But when you can't put, itcan't be your everything.

(01:13:08):
You need to have something elsethat is a an outlet for you to
be creative and helps you tolike Groovy doing this, like
he's not just the drummer forUncle's one grand band and a
great AV guy and a great youknow, he's helping facilitate
something great and he's beendoing that and he's been putting
.
He's been like this wholepodcast thing.

(01:13:29):
He's going to have this mobileand be able to do this forever
soon and that and that is likewhat all the good that he gets
out of doing this and takingownership of this.
He's able to come in and justhave this egoless force with him
and I feel like as an artist,you can't just be the singer.

(01:13:51):
There's so many bands out there,there's so many people that are
talented, writing good songs.
It's who's willing to put inthe extra work to help either
build the community or helpbuild the people up that are
above them, knowing that that,hopefully, and not everything
that you do is reciprocated inthis industry.
And I think that leaves a lotof people sour sometimes because

(01:14:12):
they feel it's all you know,the perspective and perception
of a situation and how they feelit has shaken out.
But I think, if you're gettingup every day and doing what you
can outside of yourself, that itcomes back in ways that can't
always be, that aren't alwaystransactional, and I think that
as long as you can go forwardand knowing that, um, it just

(01:14:35):
kind of makes the, the growingprocess easier.
All of us I've had so manyAnyway- yeah, no, I love that
man.

Speaker 2 (01:14:42):
Yeah, no, it's interesting.
You have to diversify yourenergy, you know, and through
this podcast I have been able tohave some amazing and extremely
interesting conversations, andwhat that's going to do is
that's just going to be fuel formy music.
You know, I didn't really thinkthat I would.

(01:15:05):
I didn't know what I was goingto be able to get from these
podcasts in the very beginning,except for just knowing that,
you know, showing up and reallygiving like a thousand percent
into like every singleconversation, it's helped me
with so many different facets ofmy life that I'll get into a

(01:15:25):
whole episode with that in thefuture.
But yeah, man, I'm really gladthat you said that.
Well, dude, thank you so muchfor being here.
And where can people find you?

Speaker 1 (01:15:40):
uh, online, and uh, facebook will gibbons instagram
funkle willie.
Uh and party for a purpose.
Presents um one grand band oninstagram for uncle kunkle's one
grand band.
We're hitting the road prettyhard and lots of cool stuff in
the works, so come out and checkus out.
Yeah, if you see us coming toyour area if you're not from

(01:16:03):
Baltimore here.

Speaker 2 (01:16:04):
Yeah, there we go.
Awesome, All right.
Well, hey, thanks for joiningus in today's episode of the
Respecting Perspectives podcast.
We will see y'all on the flipside, peace.