The Unstarving Musician

At age six, my guest Wowashwow was writing her first original songs which led to an early career as the lead guitarist and singer of a punk rock band.  This led to a tour where she opened for The Ramones' drummer, Marky Ramone, and recorded her first album under the direction of punk rock icon, Steve Albini.  At age 18, Wowashwow moved to NYC and discovered the underground hip-hop and ballroom sce...

This episode featuring Tom Meny originally aired in June 2019. This is a rewind edition, in which I've edited the conversation to be more succinct and somewhat more relevant. Tom has appeared in two episodes of this podcast. In his first appearance, Tom and I spoke about house concerts. This was the beginning of my interest in house concerts and as fate would have it, I was able to do my first in...

My guests for this episode are the film-scoring duo Ryan Miller and Jay Lifton . Ryan is a founding member and the lead singer of Guster, who recently celebrated their 31st consecutive year of touring and recording. He has scored over 15 feature films and has worked with directors Colin Trevorrow, Jordan Vogt-Roberts, Lake Bell, and Zoe Lister-Jones.  Jay Lifton is a Brooklyn-based composer who ha...

My guest for this episode is a country singer-songwriter, Drew Ryder Smith. He just released three new singles, which were delayed because of a dilemma caused by the many other Drew Smiths on streaming platforms and elsewhere. But the songs are out now and they sound great! The recording quality of this episode is quite good. Drew clearly had a nice home setup and his speaking voice is as good as...

Stacey Bedford , CEO of Bandzoogle is my guest for this special episode number 250. She didn't know  this would be our 250th episode when we spoke, but we had a great conversation. Stacey shares the news of Bandzoogle's recent milestone of surpassing $100 million in commission-free sales of music, merch, and tickets through their websites. We also talk about bees, skeleton humor and how we came to...

My guest for this episode is Dariann Leigh. She is described as red carpet glam and camo in a tree stand, big city beauty with small town humility. "As a kid," Leigh says, "I remember closing my eyes, plugging my headphones in and listening to tracks that ended up being the theme songs to my daydreams. I want to be that artist for someone else." Here's what people are saying about Dariann's voice...

This is the final installment of the Unstarving Musician websites for musician series. I decided to call this one "Everything Else." You can find links to the first four episodes in the series in the show notes for this episode at UnstaringMusician.com, episode 248. Choosing A Theme We'll begin with choosing a theme. Look for a theme with a design layout that supports your brand and vibe. The them...

Nashville-based country artist Charlie Berry launched his solo career with the release of his first single at the beginning of 2021. Berry produces his own recordings, highlighting his combined talents as a vocalist, songwriter, and instrumentalist. I agree wholeheartedly with this from his bio. Berry is carried by his strong grounding voice, smart songwriting and skill as a producer. Charlie's co...

My guest for this episode, Dean Johanesen, first appeared on the podcast in July of 2018. This is his third feature on the Unstarving Musician. He has a new album called Cautionary Tales , which is out Feb 3, 2023. This date is also the anniversary of the release of King King (1933). Dean says that this release seems to fit his style perfectly with its influence of swing music ala Django Reinhardt...

My guest for this episode is Marlee XX , the multi-hyphenate musical artist (vocalist - songwriter - DJ - producer) hailing from Washington, DC. She's  a powerhouse entertainer who has honed a distinctive style, sonically versatile and fluid in genre.  Marlee is busy creating crossover-ready pop songs having just released the singles Frequency and Only One , at the time of our conversation. Her re...

My guest Fia Nyxx is considered stylistically as somewhere in between Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey and Toni Braxton. She embraces a theatrical approach to her music and experimental clash of genres.   Fia is also seen as a Hollywood glam-star, garnished with a rockstar twist. On her latest release Red Umbrella, she unleashes a masterful vision for storytelling. The album attempts to connect the d...

This episode features singer songwriter and queen of house concerts Shannon Curtis. It's another installment of the Unstarving Musician rewind series where I showcase a past interview. And I've re-edited and remastered the episode for your listening pleasure. :)  This conversation is so good! We talk about Shannon's journey into house concert tours, plus: How house concerts upped her game in terms...

To help you choose a platform for your musician website, I offer this shortlist of my preferred platforms. This list includes WordPress (.org and .com), Bandzoogle, Wix and Squarespace. Each of these platforms features a content management system (CMS) that makes building a musician website easier than ever. There are a few other popular options, so you're by no means limited to my shortlist. Choo...

The task of choosing a domain for your musician website is an important one. Shout out to Dreamhost for this great blog post , which was used as the information primary source for this episode.  See the latest deals from Dreamhost to save now and support the Unstarving Musician in the process. Choosing a Top Level Domain Extension Choose top level domain (TLD) extension carefully. Among all the TL...

Jann Klose says that performing is the best music career momentum builder. He also says performing at this level is the hardest thing to do. Jann is an award-winning singer-songwriter, who has released six albums and two EPs. He was raised in Kenya, South Africa, Germany and the United States. His newest singles, Sugar My , Love You the Most and Pilot Light , have accumulated over five million str...

Should you go with free vs. paid hosting for your musician website, and what's the difference? The second in a multi-part series on musician websites.  Hear the first in the series here: Why Do I Need A Musician Website? (Ep 237)   There's not much upside in free website hosting for your musician website. As the saying goes, nothing in life is free, you always pay in the end. This is certainly tru...

My guest for this episode is Ryan Dusick. Ryan is the founding drummer of Maroon 5, an Associate Marriage & Family Therapist, and author of Harder to Breathe: A Memoir of Making Maroon 5, Losing It All, and Finding Recovery (out November 2022). In 1994, Ryan Dusick joined friends Adam Levine, Jesse Carmichael, and Mickey Madden to form the band Kara's Flowers. They released the album The Fourth Wo...

The title of this episode is Why do I need a musician website? This is a question I hear in my head anytime I encounter musicians who don't have a website. These same musicians and bands typically use social media as their only means of online presence and marketing. Sometimes they have an email list, other times not. The topics covering the reasons you need a website, actually applies to any busi...

In this episode Lara Price and I discuss the hosting jams, why jams make you a better musician and why they help you get gigs. We also talk about how acoustic performances are great for otherwise electric only bands and artists, how music education helped her develop a common language among musicians, and what it means to work with the right label. Lara also shares networking advice for the shy mu...

This episode features musician and recording engineer Chris Raspante. It's a second look at our conversation recorded in May of 2017. It's a rewind episode, in which I dig deeper into past conversations. It's also an attempt to uncover insights that were perhaps lost in our collective note taking. This is intended to better serve you and the rest of the professional music community. Hear the very...

This episode features Mike Dawson on dynamics, creative recording, getting gigs and more. It's the first ever rewind episode of the Unstarving Musician, based on episode one of the podcast. In rewind episodes I'm digging deep into past conversations to further mine insights. The hope is that I'll uncover insights that were perhaps lost in our collective note taking. This is of course intended to s...

Fabiana Claure is a concert pianist and educator who has created a business around her music and artistic sides. Teaching others how to do the same is her passion. Fabiana resides in the U.S., but has also lived in Bolivia and Cuba. She says that living abroad has given her a helpful global perspective toward music, entrepreneurship and education. She founded The Musician's Profit Umbrella® busine...

Kevin Breuner of CD Baby joins me in this episode to discuss music distribution, education for the DIY musician, his journey with CD Baby, his band Small Town Poets , and the DIY Musician podcast. CD Baby started out as a place where musicians could circumvent the middleman by selling music CDs direct to fans. It has since evolved into an artist-services platform that helps independent musicians t...

My conversations with Cozi and Ezra Vancil did not reveal the mystery of the flounder that is Cozi Anda Flounder . I assume that Ezra is the flounder, but they weren't exactly forthcoming about the meaning of the flounder. Ezra implied that the band has vowed never to speak of the flounder.  The duo are the founding members of Cozi Anda Flounder. In this episode, I speak with Cozi and Ezra in two...

Stick to your guns and your vision is what Harrison Marcello of the rock band TEMPT recommends to young bands. This, he says, helps bands stay ready for whatever projects may come their way. He's a founding member, guitarist and one of the songwriters in TEMPT. The New York City based band has a love for the old school 80s rock sound, which I believe gives them a melodic and pop sensibility. TEMPT...