Speaker 1: 0:00

If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops. Oh, what a rain. That would be Nice.

Speaker 2: 0:07

Oh, what a rain that would be. I want to introduce my guest. Here I have Mr Will Gibbons from the Respecting Perspectives podcast at the Watermelon Room. Here we have man. He is a jack of all trades when it comes to management, marketing, communications. He is an event curator. If you are in the Baltimore area, you know who this guy is. I'd like to introduce him.

Speaker 1: 0:56

And here we are, man, Tell me a little bit about yourself, Give me a little history, kind of maybe like where you grew up, and just kind of a baseline for everybody um, I guess I've been in a baltimore maryland resident my whole life, like born in catonsville, moved to harford county when I was three and I've been pretty much here my whole life. Always like to travel and get around, but I've always had home base here in baltimore. I uh, spent a lot of my like pretty much from 18, so once I could go to ram said I've been seeing live music and even before then I had gone to a couple like day things for like, uh like a sprite liquid mix or merryweather.

Speaker 1: 1:39

So live, music's been a part of my life, my whole life. But I've always been uh done trade work. I did flooring. For years I've done it, been in a different bunch of different aspects of construction. Never was really a master at anything, mainly was like on a helper level. But I did flooring and uh, let's see, just like regular home remodel stuff.

Speaker 1: 1:58

I was uh spent I don't know probably eight years total doing stream and wetland restoration, so it's kind of of like a lot of dirt moving and realigning streams so that they're the banks didn't provide erosion that put sediment to the bay. So it was kind of like the hippie construction that that felt good, like I felt like I was, you know, given something back, but it was like it's really hard work. It ended up, you know it was very fulfilling. I got to be in a leadership role the last couple of years there, um and leading right into the pandemic. I went out on a disability for my back. I had a chip in my one of one of my I think my L seven is pushing on a sciatic nerve, essentially like put me in debilitating pain for a pretty long stretch of time and it was simultaneous, as the world was kind of uh shutting down and going into into lockdown for covid. Um, you know, during that time I ended up getting better, uh, but I was also partying a lot.

Speaker 1: 3:04

I wasn't working but I was, you know as we all do, yeah and I, I don't know it kind of uh spiraled from there and you know we could, I don't know, I guess from 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 all those trades over the years. I was going to shows and seeing a lot of music and in turn started wanting to volunteer, get involved, to get either free tickets. So I street teamed for Ram's Head when I was younger.

Speaker 2: 3:39

And tell people what is Ram's Head.

Speaker 1: 3:41

Oh Ram's Head is Just in case. Yeah, no, fair enough. What is Ram's Head? Oh, ram's Head is a venue here in Baltimore that just recently closed, but it was kind of the main venue that those I don't know. It's a 2,000-person room, so it was like a lot of the main acts that people were generally into. They just kind of had a good revolving door of artists over the years. They've since fallen off a little bit, but at the time they would give you free ticket. They'd buy your tickets to go to a show at the nine 30 club so you could promote a show up there.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Oh, that's smart and so they would do. They just had a lot of great incentives for somebody that didn't have a lot of money to go be able to. You know, all you had to do is like leave before the last song, so you were out there right as everyone was coming out. So for years, you know, and I'll still do it today for events that I'm putting on or I'm a part of, like ramble, like I'm not opposed to still handing out flyers after shows, um, but that was a great way to kind of like, uh, yeah, get them for free, uh, and then I always like connecting and meeting people and that was a good way to do that too, and kind of just like I don't know, help get the word out about stuff that has been so important to me. So it was like, yeah, giving back, and like a good way to to get them to shows for free.

Speaker 2: 5:00

Nice, nice. Yeah, you know, let's lead up a little bit into you know some of the street team stuff. You know what? What is involved with the street?

Speaker 1: 5:12

team finding the right people that know either whether they either have a presence at a venue that they can uh hand either flyers up or hang posters up for you, and you're essentially creating a team that's going to help be the promotion force outside of your digital ads so when you're when you're talking about, like you know, throwing a major festival or even just like a big show, that's, you know, coming up for your band.

Speaker 1: 5:47

You know you want to have like three people. That you know that's not like a broad, you know number, that's for for for every project, but you want to have a couple people that are out there helping get hard copy stuff out, or even just being social media, uh, sharing on their stories and stuff like that. So your street team can look a couple different ways uh, you know whether it's digital or just physically, hanging up posters on port-a-pots at festival ground.

Speaker 1: 6:14

You know that gorilla marketing that gorilla marketing for ramble fest. I uh got us to get these like uh posters that are like stickers, like stickers but, they're, you know, they're big enough where you can stick them all over the place.

Speaker 1: 6:27

Yeah, I know, and it's great they weren't like too intrusive. We never got any calls about them being like, oh, stop sticking these up, um, but it was a great way. It's cause, you know, you hang up a cardboard poster outside somewhere, you get one rainstorm unless you're like taping that thing storm, unless you're like taping that thing, like what?

Speaker 2: 6:49

yeah, so there's um, yeah, pretty cool, uh, I think it's interesting. The reason why I asked that is because, um, as an artist myself, you know, I'm trying to build that street team, you know, as we speak, and um just really trying to understand the facets of it and how to find the right people for the street team and how to find the right people, I think, to get the word out. I think it takes a lot of you have to be passionate, though, right, about the project itself, the project itself. I feel like the street team should really be people who um really back either the music or the event, or or whatnot, correct?

Speaker 1: 7:32

Yeah, you have to. It doesn't feel authentic Like I don't know, like I've had people offer, and not that I don't support their project or or whatever it is, but there's also I've had a hard time um project or whatever it is, but there's also I've had a hard time um wanting to really like push events hard that I'm not fully and either involved with or aligned with. Uh, and when you're talking about street scene, there isn't like a whole lot of money that's like usually able to be good point. So it is. It is a labor of love, a lot like a lot of the industry, which I'm sure we'll go labor love will come up a couple times in this conversation. But yeah, what does?

Speaker 2: 8:07

that mean Labor, get into it. Actually, I think that's important to kind of get into. Yeah is it's not necessarily a transactional business.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Even though there are guarantees that bands or artists will get or whatever, that usually isn't covering the overhead that's accruing and you're usually spending twice as much time than somebody else is on that same amount of money. But that time slips away and feels you feel better about it because you're doing something you love. So there's that. There's that balance too. But you know it's not to be a good sorry, to be a good street 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 good one. There's a lot of people that say they want to be involved and they want to help, and and I've been that guy that let teams down that they gave a big thing of fires to and I didn't do my my heart, you know.

Speaker 1: 9:14

I think, yeah, I think we all have, and that's part of you know, there's a the level of, like, uh, trust that you have to have, but also no one likes to be micromanaged. So you have to like figure out ways to make, to make it easy for people to help you and I and that I think that that's how one of the things that we're all striving for after every experience, whether it's street team or just even hosting an event and hiring someone to come do production for you, If you don't have all your pre-work done and you end up causing them more work, right yeah, you don't want to.

Speaker 2: 9:48

You don't want to put too much um responsibility. I guess you could say um on someone, especially if they're not getting paid um, but let's talk 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 inform everyone about party for a purpose. I think we should get right into that. It's, it's will, has started. Actually, I'm gonna let you kind of talk about it. Tell us what Party for a Purpose is, how it started, and let's see here what vision you have for it.

Speaker 1: 10:32

Well, currently, right now, it's an LLC. It's a four-business company that specializes in throwing fundraising events through, curating with all different levels of art, music, and ideally, doing them in places that aren't generally venues so if we can, you know, create something out of a non-traditional space.

Speaker 1: 10:55

That that's where it's exciting for 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 and people always love to, you know, have a good time for a good cause. It's just like what has been traditionally a thing that fundraisers do really well and people love to go out, and you know, and do that and I but I've seen so many of them that are just like man, this could be so much cooler a little more fun.

Speaker 1: 11:23

And so I, just from all the different experiences I've had in events throughout the years, there's so many levels of inspiration from so many different camps that kind of came together to have this idea. That was kind of birthed out of the pandemic.

Speaker 1: 11:40

Uh-huh, the pandemic and kind of the need to like pretty much everybody that had been doing events was we're all or everybody that was doing I was more on a volunteer or getting paid like that weekend of the event wasn't really in the back end planning of a whole lot and so I was pretty well connected with everybody and everyone was kind of like starving for you know stuff to be open or shows to be happening again, and I felt like everybody that had established reputations was kind of weary to want to do anything because there were so many people that wanted this but then the people that wanted everyone to stay locked in and stop getting together and spreading it there was that kind of. I definitely received a little backlash from people online when I was promoting this event, but everyone was kind of starved for it.

Speaker 1: 12:34

I had thrown like a little backyard surprise party for my partner at the time during pandemic, and we had everybody chip in and we ended up breaking even on hiring a buddy to come out and do sound and have two bands come out that we were all friends with and it was great. Everybody got paid and we kind of got together and socially distanced and it went well. Nobody got sick. So it was like about 50 of us for this party and it went well. 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, this idea of party for a purpose and doing this had already kind of been being put into the the ether, so to speak. And when we had this opportunity to put this event on, I was like all right. Well, you know, at that point I had been pretty good friends, or at least friendly, with a lot of people in the baltimore scene and I was able to get together a really cool lineup, pulling together a bunch of, uh, different circles of friends and, um, I wanted to throw to try 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 able to sell the right amount of tickets, uh, and like every a lot of, you know, a lot of events. You know you don't factor everything in.

Speaker 1: 14:00

My main thing was the when, right two weeks beforehand, there was like a travel ban in place and like there was a spike. So, like I was in this mode of like, you know it was a great, you know it seemed like a great idea and I was in the full mode of like, build it and they will come 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.

Speaker 1: 14:28

And you know, uh, from you know, outsiders perspectives uh, everything was great and this was such a great positive experience for so many people.

Speaker 1: 14:36

It was a positive experience for me.

Speaker 1: 14:37

It came with a heavy, hefty bill and a lot of, like, mental trauma that was mainly self-induced, gotcha, um, but you know, I uh definitely soured some relationships on that for a while, just on the financial end, but it took, you know, within a year I had everybody involved paid back and uh, you know, but even after I did that, it still took another year for me to want to try and do something again.

Speaker 1: 15:04

Uh, that first event was supposed to be for rage against addiction, uh, a uh, mental health and a like, basically sober housing living for for women in Bel Air, and it was, if we made any money, it was going to be towards that. So it was, basically, we had a lot of, we had someone from their camp come up and uh, so we had this event that was supposed to be, uh, bringing all of our worlds together and, while you're there, kind of like see into the mission, the purpose of the parties, like what they're trying to accomplish, and by and kind of giving them space to just kind of get word out about yeah, about their organization, while having a great event that has an impact on people that you know love to come out and have a good time and in turn, you know, learn how they can help people to love that man.

Speaker 2: 15:55

That's amazing, dude. Let's see here. Was there anything else that you 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, how can they?

Speaker 1: 16:12

follow you. Um, we're on Instagram party for a purpose presents. Uh have website party for a purpose presentscom too. It's uh, we kind of uh just we started out kind of slow and it felt, uh, that's normal, yeah, but we we actually, looking back at it, we had a really great year for our first year. We did what year was?

Speaker 1: 16:35

this Well, I guess it was in the February of 23. So this will be coming into two years, I guess in February, officially Like LLC and the Facebook page and all that started Okay and yeah. So we had about five different events. All kind of there were after parties that we did for already bigger shows that were happening in town and we had a different nonprofit that we worked for on each of them and had different campaigns, whether it was an instrument drive or trying to just raise funds to be able to send kids on these nature retreats through this nonprofit NatureWorks, nonprofit nature works. We helped launch jam for Jody, which was a a nonprofit launch for one of our friends to help find 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 in recovery now. Yeah, and the the beautiful thing that that went through, um, and we're still kind of, uh, pushing the message and letting people know, because just because she found the kidney doesn't necessarily mean that the journey's over with her medical bills, like um, you know. So there there's that whole road, but we've helped get the word out and we uh continually will be doing what we can to kind of help make sure that she's not, you know, hard up. She's done so much for our, our community. Uh, like, I met her through charm city bluegrass years ago, um, so I've been working with her forever and she's came on to the the ramble team and, uh, the ramble team is really kind of what put jam for jody together and it kind of made sense to uh, for us to kind of work together to launch it and we were able to get natalie brook 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 behind it? Is there anybody else who's involved, you know, with the creation itself? Are you doing all this by yourself, or what?

Speaker 1: 18:35

No, there's quite an extensive team that, could, you know, branches out to a bunch of people for a bunch of different reasons. But my main partner is Ryan Dalcher, who has pretty much been there since the beginning. We even had conversations before this. All we together sat down, put it into the LLC and kind of created it as a business. But before then we're talking about different dreams and that we envisions we have for the music scene. And he even had a graphic made for an event, party with a purpose, or maybe it even was party for a purpose, but like that wasn't like the main thing for it.

Speaker 1: 19:14

But you know, we've kind of been on the same wavelength and when we reconnected we had been friends, we used to party and get wild together and then we didn't see each other for a while. But then I saw he was putting on this Emily Evans concert for Hope with his family and I had just done some serious taking time off from everything and was trying to lean into that service aspect of giving back to the community. And I knew Ryan and that he'd come along laying off his stuff. So I wanted to go get back. So I went up and started, you know, initially signed up saying, hey, you know, I'd love to be there for this date, and then that ended up turning into him getting me a job at classic sound and stage with him.

Speaker 1: 19:53

So we were sharing an office for a year. So we were. You know, he was teaching me the production side of the world, so I'd come from construction. Okay, I go, I hurt my back and I needed an office job and these guys, mike and Joe, shout out to them for giving me a shot to to come in and basically, from nothing, 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'm accepting that. But within that we shared an office for a while so we got to kind of dream how we wanted things to go and it just kind of made sense with kind of how we our flow with working together. 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 also goes by Caterpillar. He's a DJ, he's also produced some of the stuff that I have and he is influential in a whole bunch of different worlds in Baltimore. So you know, you should be proud of yourself. You both should be really proud of yourself with what you've done. What about the future of Party for 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 might want to uh, you know, collab or 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 day where, um, you know the, that I have the model perfected enough where I can help almost everybody in a way. Right now there's uh just a lot of uh like, depending on what people want. I think that and it kind of I learned this at um, at classic what people think the expectation on what it goes into, like uh, bringing out a stage and sound and all that, and people are like oh.

Speaker 1: 21:59

I had $300. And you're like you know, you hit them with a four or $5,000 bill.

Speaker 1: 22:04

That sticker shock is rough and I think figuring out the way to make it, uh, to for it to work for everyone, like with Northwoods, I had a model where it was like, all right, we're, it's an expensive ticket, but since this is a private event during a time when there isn't a lot as long as you know, like if, say, um, you know, an ideal client 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 our network that have good, you know a good chunk of money and they would pay, you know, a little extra if we were able to provide an intimate experience with them. That is quality production. And we're like, okay, well, to do something like this, to book, you know you, let us know who you want us to book, what kind of genre you, we, you either give us full control to just curate something for you with some slight parameters, or you have a little more intensive input on what you're really looking for and we can work out with what you know, your, but what your budget, or either what you're able to pay out of pocket just for the good cause, or do you want us to work with you on helping facilitate something really great happening and budgeting out how much is it going to cost to bring in, so essentially we can go from full curation for somebody and do this whole lift for you?

Speaker 1: 23:24

Or do you want us to consult on just, you know, figuring out how many porter potties do you need? What's a good, trusted caterer that's gonna have a good vegan option for?

Speaker 1: 23:34

half of your friend, you know just like how, like some people for me, I've been around a bunch of great event planners, from my sister being a badass wedding planner 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 on multiple events, when she was with Believe in Music and now she works with Bopa. So they do Artscape, what is Bopa.

Speaker 1: 23:58

The Baltimore Office of Permission and Arts. Oh, cool, yeah, they've just kind of been. You know, I think a few people have given them a bad rap with some people, but for the most part they've done a lot of really good work over the years, just keeping arts and music alive and providing free events for people to attend to kind of just, you know, keep the dream alive. Yeah, but no, I've just always had a lot of really great inspiring people around me. So when I started to want to do this for, you know, on my own, but you know, for everybody I'm taking, you know I had a lot of great people to give me advice and even you know some people I knew when to, you know, take what they said and kind of you know, figure out for myself, and I don't know, I just had a lot of really great different networks to tap into to kind of gauge what was the best, best path for me at not overextending myself too much. I definitely have pushed myself and 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 I keep getting really good at is finding that balance, and it's an 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 do with the shows or whatnot. We'll pivot a little bit.

Speaker 2: 25:27

As far as balance goes, whether it's like your personal life or a curating event, how important do you feel like balance is and what do you think if you could kind of maybe teach some people about maybe some of the struggles that you've either been through or I don't know. We try and educate here as much as we can with something like that. Do you have any advice for maybe some of the younger or even actually older? Anyway, I mean, when you think about balance, like that's something that we do talk about a lot on the podcast, because it really is something that no matter how old you are, no matter where you are in your life, balance is always going to be literally. I mean like think, when you're just like when you're walking, you literally have to have balance, even with the smallest little things. Do you have any advice for people on, like maybe how to do that or maybe some things not to do that? Maybe you did.

Speaker 1: 26:35

Well, I'd say the biggest thing is like just because your calendar says you'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 help curate this part of the festival and then leave and go right to work and do it, I don't know. Yeah, so it's just basically trying to not don't overextend yourself and if you do like, just like accept where your shortcomings are, like don't blame, there's no blame. You know you can't, you know not come with all the energy and you got to be flexible and ready to. You know go, go with, roll with the punches and keep a level head, and I think that's you know, that's part, you know part of that balance is finding making sure you're giving yourself space to go in with enough sleep. Like you know I I did a good, I did a good job this year at. You know I worked a couple events and then had to do to do. You know it was working late but then had to be back at it on, you know, on duty early and you know just making sure you're setting yourself time to come rested 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 bit back to the party for a purpose, though. Do you have any events, um, either coming up in the the future that you want to shout out, um, anything that that kind of stands out, or, um, is there an event from the past that maybe you'd like to highlight a little bit, that you could foresee maybe either doing again, it's really hard to say for Party, for a Purpose specifically.

Speaker 1: 28:31

I feel like we, going forward this year, I am going to be kind of focusing more on community driven events as far more more so than just trying to re-event the wheel and be another production company that is throwing shows all the time. I wanted to be a little, to be a little more intentional with, yeah, the community aspect of it and, more so, team up with more people than trying to to take all of it on myself, cause, circling back to it's all on the team. I am not, I don't have a like a corporate sponsor or something that's like helping drive, being able to to produce events and 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 or sponsors that believe in the mission, whether it's an artist, an event, whatever. Those are the ones that are sustainable and make it.

Speaker 1: 29:38

So, basically, I still have a lot of learning to do, like, I think, um, I think that that's one of the another big takeaway I had is, like, as much as I thought I knew and thought that I had prepared for done better. There's always gonna always be something. There'll be that yin and yang of like you know. You have a win, but then you get 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 sponsorship um you know. And then I think let's see here, yeah, sponsorships, you know, how does someone find a sponsor for either an event or, um the company itself? How do you get somebody to back you 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 in september for for this band, seven Teller. We did it in Patterson Park and this was kind of my first attempt at really trying to piece together almost like a non-profit model of of an event, of trying to get the balance of what we had to pay the bands paid for by local businesses, whether that was pieced together through in-kind donations or or whatever. But you know, the goal was to just like break even on it and you know we did a great job, like I think, yeah, ryan delcher put our, uh, our deck together and I was, like man, as long as I have like this, this great looking, you know, telling them our mission and the analytics of the demographics of the people in the neighborhood of like you know what neighborhood, of how many people are going to be there, if I have this, people will be lining up to write us checks, passionate about it.

Speaker 1: 31:29

And it just didn't happen that way because it's a small grassroots event. Like Celsius was a sponsor, but they sponsored by giving us a bunch of cases that everybody loves walking away with some energy drinks or having free drinks.

Speaker 2: 31:45

And how did you find them? That was just me scrubbing online.

Speaker 1: 31:51

So, really I'm kind of being pessimistic on like I had a lot of wins but at the end of the day there's still a balance left over. But you look on celsius's website. They, you know, try and find out who you contact to for sponsorships. A lot of those big companies will have that direct there. But even if you're uh trying to get a local brewery, you know, you just look up, you know the contact and write a nice little pitch email. Try and get them interested to hear more.

Speaker 2: 32:19

And uh, you know there's so you're, you're the one creating those emails and putting all that stuff together. Huh, so lots of, would you say lots 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 I need to get better on this year, but it's just. There was a lot of things that I talked to people in April and they're, like you know, follow up and we I wasn't able to follow up in the right amount of time and just like that whole organization of like staying on top of things, there's a it's a lot, especially when you're you know, yeah, when you're trying to balance a bunch of other things, and it's a it's a delicate balance of like when do you? You don't come off the the jump asking for a bunch of money, but you also want to be transparent.

Speaker 1: 33:09

But yeah, but you also want to be transparent. It's delicate, but transparent on. You know we're trying to. You know we're trying to look for funding for this. Um, you know, I had had a vision to have. I thought that somebody would see the value in sponsoring some art installs that could potentially be permanent in Patterson Park. Oh, that's cool, that could be cool, but that didn't end up happening. But at the end of the day, we had a great gathering in the park with a bunch of awesome music. There was a bunch of great artists 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 had even 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 a Purpose out of here and have it be a local business that saw the value.

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 the side, like so when people are uh at the event or reading about it, they're seeing the lineup for the main stage presented by you know. Fill in the blank on the business whether whether that is Celsius.

Speaker 1: 34:32

And the guy, even at Celsius, was like hey man, love your mission, um, but you know, at the end of the of the end of the day, we can only cut checks like that for events that are pulling numbers of like 20 000 people or like you know. Maybe he could spin it if it was a little less, but you know, when you're thinking we might have a thousand people, they're like yeah, we'll give you a bunch of cases and you know, hand our stuff out for sure, and that helps us and helps them too.

Speaker 1: 34:59

But to really get to, you know you 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 running joke that it was like well, well, as soon as you start realizing that celsius is money and it 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 teller fest uh 2025?

Speaker 2: 35:23

yeah, no let me tell you, dude, I would love to, um, be involved, uh, somehow, and help you in a way, because let me tell you, uh, everything from, like, the artwork, um, that you should be really proud of that, like the, the little flyers that you had, um, I saw them everywhere, dude like so, you, dude, you did a great job with that man, you did a great job with that. And, uh, I know, the weather, too, was a little um, was a little was a, was a little bit um 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 you foresee doing teller fest again, uh, this coming year? Or, and even if not that, is there any other events that you kind of want to put some, some attention towards that you've kind of you know, or have already thought about?

Speaker 1: 36:16

um, well, we uh it's not so much a party for a purpose thing, but the team that I put my first event on with northwoods aether immersive. I've come on with them as a an official partner. So after being in debt to them for the production they brought to my first event, after paying them back and then uh, kind of like reinvesting with buying a dome from them, I've come on, uh what's it done?

Speaker 1: 36:37

13. Oh sorry, it's a geodesic dome, uh, that you can break down and set up wherever and a screen comes over it and you can rig projectors up and turn it into either a stage, a space for guided meditation, sound bowl programming, any kind of like wellness workshop stuff, or just a lounge space. Um, but it's been a, a great uh, I don't know. I'll call it a tool for a better lack of a better word for just kind of like helping facilitate community at events. For a lack of a better term because it can be used for a stage, it can be used as a. You can enclose it and turn it into a immersive experience and like a planetarium kind of thing, or it can just be a space where people can come and hang out during the day and and let 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 ranging in sizes and there's a diagram to put it together and uh, it's nuts and bolts and and steel and uh, it takes a couple of people to 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 in there, uh, 50 to 75. I've seen it very packed out and I've been um, but you know that's for my 20 foot one. Derrick has also, the aether team has a 40 foot one, which is pretty comparable to a lot of what you would see at places like electric forest. Okay, um, elements, uh, you know different events yeah mainly EDM events and when I first worked with Derek at Northwoods and he brought it to our event and I really loved what it brought to the atmosphere.

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 acquire sponsorship to start touring those domes at different events and curating different experiences. Like I said, we can host wellness workshops during the day and at night, host a lounge space with all different kinds of visuals. You can run through this program, resolume. You can run through this program Resolume. You can be running art through. You can kind of recreate it and remix it into different visuals and it's a great way to kind of showcase local festival artists and just have a great kind of like living art installation at the festival. Oh, that's awesome dude Love.

Speaker 2: 39:19

That let's see here. Well, let's pivot a little bit because you, like I said before and kind of introduced you, you are really a jack of all trades when it comes to the communication and management fields. Tell us a little bit about the manager role that you have and some of the bands and some of the facets of that that people can take away from this conversation.

Speaker 1: 39:51

Well, I have been working with Uncle Kunkel's One Grand Band for a little over two years 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, the respecting 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 forces with the One Gram guys after they had graduated Salisbury and came back, I got involved with them. Shortly after I saw them for the first time I was talking to Jeff and I was like, hey, do you guys have anybody helping you book? I was really impressed by the show. When was this? This was, I guess, right around September of 22,. I guess was the first time I saw them. So then by Halloween I had had a meeting with them to talk about goals.

Speaker 1: 40:54

I had never done anything like this before. I had been side stage to a bunch of projects and friends with. You know, people who had been managers for bands or run, you know, been doing it for a while. And when I first saw them I was so impressed and I kind of saw like a whole you know them having this whole room in the palm of their hands and I hadn't seen like energy in a room like that since covid. Okay, like you know, there was a lot of bands that weren't really playing anymore, that used to, um, and I just saw, you know, like jeff being part of this. This uh, kind of like new wave of people that hadn't really been out. Uh like, like I said, the one gram guys. They just graduated college and most of their time in college was while the world was shut down.

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 out with like way more music knowledge than I did when, I when when I was their age, so that that maturity level and kind of what they wanted out of music and what they were exposed to by the time they came into our circles I thought I was pretty impressed by.

Speaker 2: 42:07

But yeah, tell us a little bit more about what it takes to be a manager and some of the let's see here Some of the things that the reason why I ask as well, not only for the listeners, but I'm at a place right now where I do feel like I need a manager and when do you feel 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 grand band was not ready for me, it's. I think I saw that there was a lot of work to be done but I had the drive and it goes back to labor of love. Like you are going to put way more into this than what you're financially going to get out of it.

Speaker 1: 43:01

But the other stuff that comes with it is beautiful and you can't even put a price tag on it. I love that. But that isn't always the easiest when you're trying to make decisions and make sure you're eating and you're taking care of yourself and paying your bills and you know all that. But that's for another, that's for another day. But, um, but no, like I saw in them. I had the. You know the time to, I had the, the, the want to, and they matched my energy at that's important, exactly's important.

Speaker 1: 43:32

Exactly At at all, at all turns they were. You know I would be going out of my way to get them an opportunity, but they were working hard and showing up and over delivering on their end of it. So it made my job easy and I had I wouldn't say easy Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, no, and it's. You know well, we both say that on both ends about each other. But I had somebody recently that I don't know all that well but you know have met recently and she was asking kind of the same thing and I said you got to find somebody that's ready to not like I didn't take a dime from the OneGram guys for a while until I wanted them to. I didn't take a dime from the 1 gram guys for a while until I wanted them to. I didn't come in and say I need this down payment, which is how you should operate if you're going to do something like that. But I didn't ever want them to feel like it was something that it was. It was something that I saw. I saw the value and I saw they weren't the greatest and the tightest. Then They've come leaps and bounds, but I saw what could be and I knew that they were all hardworking and hungry enough and wanting it.

Speaker 1: 44:43

So there's been plenty of times where on both ends I'm sure everybody, because you know when you grow as fast as um and all the ways there comes stress with that, 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 of the weight, but it's constantly everybody just kind of stepping in and pulling. You know pulling in at the times that they need to and that's what's been keeping this whole thing going. Is everybody stepping up when they need to, putting dumb shit to the side, whether it's they're arguing with each other or they have life stuff that's bleeding in. We all have that and we all try and leave it out of work, but we're all human too.

Speaker 2: 45:31

Gosh, that's extremely important. All human too. So, gosh, that's, uh, that's that's extremely important. That's actually something that, um, brian Potts and I are going to be speaking about a little bit later today. Um, but let's see here, um, as far as that, um, you know, is there anything that maybe you would have, um, maybe done differently, um, in the past? Is there anything, um something that, uh, I wanted to highlight as well, like for other managers, um, any, maybe like red flags for, like an artist to look out for, um in, in, in that that that management, uh role, um, if your manager is ever trying to make you to make a decision like right, then, without having given you time to process, 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 all kinds of like little situational things that you can be like, but that's all perspective and perception and everybody's got a different one of what's happening in a room, so that's all. Whatever, I'm sure people have looked at things that I've done as and thinking that it's been malicious and it's not.

Speaker 1: 46:38

I know, that's just you know that's something that happens, but if like somebody a well is is pressuring you into make a decision without giving you proper time to process that um. And but then there's another side to that. I, I don't know, but also you know the their job.

Speaker 2: 46:57

Uh, you know our job is to keep people on track for their goals yeah, what dig into that a little bit like what is the role of a manager?

Speaker 1: 47:07

it all depends. It's all different for different people. I've been, um, you know, luckily, like I, uh, luckily, like I said, luke, luke is, and I 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 in a brand and we argue a lot and I'm sure you know, I know, that we don't always see eye to eye on stuff, but we I don't know, we've always trusted in each other to go which way.

Speaker 1: 47:40

And I feel like, when you ask about regrets, I don't really have any because right now, the fact that we're where we're at, I can't really say that I could never argue to anybody and anytime I try and, you know, think like, oh, we should have been done this and this would have happened. Right, that could have, that could have been really bad, it could have ended up being a failure for whatever reason. So a lot of um, it's all about setting goals and working towards that like one of the things to be at this time last year we heard that fish was doing that festival and we were like, all right, we're buying gear and we're setting up so we can do renegade sets in the, in the, in the fest grounds, and that'll be like our how we'll get in front of a bunch of people and then we ended up getting some good gigs and playing with a bunch of piecing together a bunch of shows and by the time it came around to that nobody had energy to want to go do this and spend the money and lift.

Speaker 1: 48:39

But because we were working so hard to be ready to be this unit, things were clicking in for us.

Speaker 1: 48:46

But now we're at the point now where we just got this offer to go do this Papadusio Festival that our friends are throwing but the lineup's not very big.

Speaker 1: 48:56

But because they work, uh, the kunkle guys and myself have worked with the uh, you know, doing uh stuff with aether immersive in the domes and doing the visuals.

Speaker 1: 49:06

They were like wanting to have them as a combo and have them come out and curate this late night area for the festival. So because they're ready to go out with their own gear and provide their own sound, we just need the the chance to play like and we're willing to put in that extra work and help bring something to an event and help create that experience for people and put in that extra sweat, that extra lift like, yeah, everybody wants to show up and 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 shows anymore, like so many people also, you know you have to, you have to. Uh, if you're expecting to get a good guarantee and get paid like work on the promotion, get out there. Like so many people are entitled to just getting gigs and playing without adequately promoting their shows, and we're even guilty of it at times too, we're not even maliciously, but like we should just be better at our jobs.

Speaker 2: 50:05

Going back to the balance. You know thing. You know what. I have enough energy and and stamina to be able to. Uh, would I have enough energy and stamina to be able to do that Now? Could you mention one more time what'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 St Mary's, Papadosio. Active Cat, Chalk, Dinosaur Ensemble Electric Love Machines doing two sets You've got Eos.

Speaker 1: 50:34

Suhan oh, suhan ensemble electric love machines doing two sets got eos suhan oh, and so it's really cool. There's all these people on here that we've all been looking up to for years that are going to be at this little homie fest and like we're going to have an opportunity to get in front of all those people and kind of give them that late night experience every night when they come over from seeing their favorite bands that they've known. These are the new guys on the scene that have been working hard. It's not just, it's not just uh gas, like they're really like they're putting it out there and putting it down. They have a full sonic sound that they've been working really hard to to hone in and they're their worst known critics. They'll talk shit on we all, you know, on it um, all day, but you know they're crushing and I I'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 process on how cool that really was. But so in the middle of summer it was I guess the end of june, um, we did three nights here and kind of made it donation based. Uh, you know, pay what you want to get in um, and we wanted to just run all the songs that they felt good about. You know, not do it in a show setting where they felt like they had to orchestrate the set. They wanted to just play the songs they knew how to play, focus on the music, but lit the lit, our fans and friends being here to help provide that energy that 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 in the direction of uh, doing some and this is. You know that what we did here wasn't anything groundbreaking. Like people have had live recordings in a small, but this was kind of uh, something in a unique space that people aren't familiar and not everyone's familiar with this space in Baltimore and some people that had been to like raves here and different parts of it over the years when they came they're like, oh, I didn't even know they had this side and we were able to kind of have a different experience and allow the because, like over the short amount of time that they've blown up, there's been a lot, a very committed fan base that has been coming out and came out all three of those nights I was here.

Speaker 2: 53:17

Yeah, I was here for most of it. And, dude, let me tell you something, man, it was really cool to be able to, I mean especially like knowing that like there's so much stuff that happens here and this is just one small place, you know, compared to all all in. Just think I mean, we're talking about Baltimore, that's where we're at right now, but whatever city you're in, like there are things like that that are going around, going on around you, that, if you really want to, you know, support a local band. You know all you have to do is dig a little bit, walk a few blocks down the street in any city and I guarantee you can find things like that going on. And it was just really cool to see how we can go from a podcast setting one night to the next night you can have a band live recording an album. It's music, man, it's a beautiful thing, and it's really cool to be able to see the support. And, man, it really does give me hope for myself as an artist to be able to create that community.

Speaker 2: 54:27

I was able to meet so many different people within those two or three days, and not just that, but like I was able to give the band like instant feedback of how I felt and how it made me feel, and it was so cool to be able to kind of like be a part of the process. I feel like that's that's huge these days is artists allowing listeners and their fans to be a part of the process and luckily, with you know, social media and whatnot, I think we're able to. You know, do that more so now than ever. Do you feel like you know? Do you feel like the, the traction? Do you feel like you got any like traction from that itself, or like that doesn't even really matter too much?

Speaker 1: 55:16

right, it doesn't matter, because I think if you looked at like the numbers on it like there wasn't, this place wasn't sold out, you know, but there was a good amount of people here I'd say yes, because we've done a great job at it's like this. Well, this was also something for our fans to do. We didn't like market it.

Speaker 1: 55:36

We didn't do this as like trying to make a live album, you know, we just wanted to record but realized that we were spinning wheels, doing segments, not together, not locked in, not with everyone, cause that's when the magic has been happening with these guys is, you know, on stage. So we're like, hey, do it three, you know, three nights in a row, we're gonna get, we're gonna get something we're happy with, because there's great parts of shows and some not. So not, you're not gonna be able to. It's a lot to put all your eggs in that basket of, like, you know, doing a live concert for dvd, like when bands do that, you're putting a lot of.

Speaker 1: 56:11

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 all wanted to do. We knew Because, like I said before, doing shows is not a moneymaker.

Speaker 1: 56:35

Like, you're not like, unless I, I don't know hopefully down the line, yeah, but but it's like you'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 that you're not like that, that aren't necessarily your favorite but I guess, that's part of it like it's all perspective too.

Speaker 1: 56:56

You know like there's some people who totally depend on um show sales some people have it locked in, like there's people and that, and that's the thing it's like there's people that have it locked in and it's like they got it locked in like don't fuck with, stop trying to reinvent the wheel, these people, they got it if they want your help, they'll ask for it how many years do you think it takes an artist or a band before those shows really start to show?

Speaker 2: 57:23

um, you know the results, that that the band you know, because, like, as an artist, let me be real with you. I mean, mean, like as an artist, my dream is always like that Woodstock crowd, you know, like that, that you know, seeing all those people in front of you. Now, you know, there have been shows for me where I've had 10 people, you know, and then there's been shows for me where I've had 2,000 people. How long do you think and I know this is all respectively to the artists themselves but how long do you think how many years do you think it takes in order to kind of really develop that fan base to where they're going to be at your shows? And it's going to be I wouldn't even say like sold out, but like to the point where, like you know, like the band is really like you know, they're amped 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 different genres depends on what you're trying to do. I mean, there's, you know, and I don't want to uh like me, yeah, I don't know. It really all depends what you're trying to get out of the project. Like, are you trying to be like the band that makes you know really good money regionally but doesn't travel? Are you trying to be a traveling act? Um, you know, and there's all kinds of things that go like the more you grow, the more crew and team you need to be a part of it.

Speaker 1: 58:59

So it's like, at what point it's really all about keeping everybody happy, because it's not you're. There's going to be times where you're, it's the money's not really there to do it, but you have to be, at the end of the day, labor of love, like it has to be. You have to be ready to make those commitments and not really seeing the payoff right now. Everything that we've uh worked for, we've, like you know, and one of the things I've tried to be with the one gram guys is we dream big but also keep it real, and I and I think I I do take notes notes I will pride myself on.

Speaker 1: 59:34

I don't think I've really bullshitted or dangled a carrot for them on, like you know. Hey guys, this is a great opportunity but not been like until unless I was sure, and I'd even say I feel good about this, but it's not until it's confirmed in the emails, like 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: 1:00:04

that hello yes, hello, who is this? Oh, this is the younger Will Gibbons. Like we're talking old school, oh gee, will, oh shoot, okay, yeah, you know what? Actually, I have somebody here right next to me who would love to have a conversation with you, do you mind?

Speaker 1: 1:00:31

Yeah, here you go, man, man, here he is, good luck oh, wow, hello, younger, younger will gibbons, wow, um, you know, I guess you always wish you could have. I guess you could always wish that you had your older self to help reflect. I I will say you know, just, cigarettes are not cool, and they're definitely did not get cooler the older you got. Um, yeah, no, cigarettes not cool. Um, you don't need to go to every night of a three-night run. Um, cocaine is no longer good. And and, yeah, just don't do it. Probably the yeah, let's see what else. Yeah, just don't be a liar. You know, when you think you can get away with something, it always comes back. So, just like you know, don't be a liar. Yeah, I'd say, yeah, call your mom more. Yeah, trying to think, what else should I be telling the young Will?

Speaker 2: 1:01:46

You got any advice for him? You got any advice, or maybe something that you would either change or what do?

Speaker 1: 1:01:52

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 good from every situation but realize once it's beginning toxic and no longer good for you, separate. Don't keep trying to lie to yourself, thinking that you're gonna uh, you know, getting taken care of the end. Always make sure you're advocating for yourself, um, yeah, and being uh, accounts, holding yourself accountable and not blaming. You know, when you're trying to make excuses, trying to blame on other people, uh, people generally see the people that matter, see through the bullshit, uh, so yeah, you're really only you know ever hurting yourself doing that and yeah, I don't know, I think that's you know. Just, uh, continue to go for the everyday with good intention and trust that as long as you are consistent, stay consistent, all will work out. As you want to Tell him you love him and I love you. Despite all things, love you love you.

Speaker 2: 1:03:20

Hey, man, he loves you and uh you, you end up being a, uh, a pretty awesome human being. So, uh, take all the advice that uh, he gave you and, um, just just keep, keep, keep doing the right thing, because, because you are, you make it in a great place. All right, peace out. Love you, dog. There it is, man talking to the past.

Speaker 1: 1:03:39

That's wild, isn't it to think about that you know, yeah, no, but I mean but I've said this before to people like I really like, and I've had some dark years like I wouldn't. I still don't think I could trade any of it because it's all brought me to here and you know, if you're you can't look outward of like where people are at, because I work with a lot of people that are 10, 15 years younger than me or older than me, but we're all in different spaces for you know, at different times for different reasons. Um, but I am, I am so dead set that I had to go through all of the the years of either spinning wheels or darkness to kind of learn all you know and all of our brains. It took me a little bit longer to kind of come around, do it all and learn. You know I had to learn the same lessons and fall.

Speaker 1: 1:04:28

You know I've had, uh you know, addiction issues and substance issues. It's all a learning experience, but it helps me, especially with all of the mental health and 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 help be that sounding board or kind of, uh, help guide people. As you know, I'm not some, I don't work a program or anything, but I fully, uh, you know, subscribe to taking good advice from good people, surrounding yourself with good people, and uh, none of it would all. All what I'm trying to say is everything has led me to be able to hold space for people.

Speaker 2: 1:05:15

Love that man. That was excellent. I love how you kind of rounded things out with that. That was excellent, excellent, I got some. Can we do some rapid fire?

Speaker 1: 1:05:25

I have some questions for you here that you don't even know about that.

Speaker 2: 1:05:30

I like to kind of just pull up on people, okay, all right. Don't even know about, uh, that I like to kind of just pull up on people, okay, all right, and I, we want to try and make this rapid fire, so you want to try, and you?

Speaker 1: 1:05:40

know off the cuff you know we can't, even if it's like, not the truth, like just whatever my brain comes up with. Okay, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:05:47

Yeah, okay, here we go 10 seconds or four minutes on the clock here.

Speaker 1: 1:05:52

Okay, tell us your ideal packed lunch. Ooh, ideal packed lunch, I think would be an egg salad and bacon sandwich, two snack packs and a string cheese.

Speaker 2: 1:06:05

Man, that was too easy. All right, in your little bag there, all right, describe what you think your life will look like when you're 85, when I'm 85.

Speaker 1: 1:06:16

I really hope to be just like uh I, I think, like whatever it looks like, just really enjoying myself, whether that's you know.

Speaker 2: 1:06:26

Uh, really yeah no, that could look like we'll keep it pretty pg, but just really enjoying, enjoy. Enjoy it, baby boy. Yeah, all right. Describe the person to your left in one word A community connector. There we go. Okay, would you ever want someone to throw you a surprise party?

Speaker 1: 1:06:48

Depends. I'm going to say yes to keep it easy. Yes.

Speaker 2: 1:06:53

All right, somebody out there better throw this noFella surprise party at some point. All right. Can you do an impression of someone in your family? Let's see it?

Speaker 1: 1:07:03

Who is it? Come on, oh, I guess let's see Rapid fire.

Speaker 2: 1:07:10

Rapid fire.

Speaker 1: 1:07:11

Oh no, someone in my family. Go away, go away. I'm blanking. I want to do my grandma but she has so many good one-liners but some of them are like not, yeah, I don't know, what's a one-liner?

Speaker 2: 1:07:29

from your grandmother, god, no, yeah, next next. All right, next question.

Speaker 1: 1:07:32

Because she grew up in the in the early years, so it's not all PC stuff you know there's so much. And I'm like, nah, we're not going there.

Speaker 2: 1:07:39

You can't rapid fire, grandma, I'm sorry, you're right. Okay, name another country you want to visit. Um, south America. Done, all right. What question do you wish people would ask you more often?

Speaker 1: 1:07:56

I would wish that they would ask what my five-year plan is.

Speaker 2: 1:08:04

Okay, we'll talk about that afterwards. All right, what's the biggest mess you've ever made? The biggest mess? I've ever made Without throwing anyone else under the bus other than yourself.

Speaker 1: 1:08:15

Well, I mean the biggest mess we talked about earlier, northwoods. It was a great project, but it was a financial disaster that took me. I'm still like talking about it in fucking therapy. Um just in podcasts yeah, and in podcasts apparently this is therapy, and what?

Speaker 2: 1:08:30

yeah, yeah, oh shit right um okay, yeah, got that one okay. Well, you know what need to work on for the future yeah all right. What do you think your favorite teacher does when they aren't at school?

Speaker 1: 1:08:42

I saw this one. Yeah, no, I. So I don't have a current teacher, but I do. I am friends with a lot of teachers and I know what they be doing now when they're not at school, and a lot of it is fish concerts. There we go, fish concerts, baby. All right concerts there we go, baby. All right, they're all there, all right. What is your?

Speaker 2: 1:09:05

favorite form of potatoes, uh hash brown or a shreddy.

Speaker 1: 1:09:07

Oh, no like or no, sorry, I think a tater tot, because you can put crab on it oh, cheaters, taters, all right.

Speaker 2: 1:09:13

Do you find it easy or difficult to play on a team?

Speaker 1: 1:09:17

and I find it very easy to play on a team and I guess I find it very easy to play 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 all day.

Speaker 2: 1:09:29

Definitely. Have you ever eaten something weird just to see how it tastes? Yes, yeah, what?

Speaker 1: 1:09:36

was that? Um, yes, yeah, what was that? Um, I'm gonna say that I've eaten 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 were not packaged like you know, Like. So it was dog treats that looked like oreos and I'm eating. Like, how did? It taste it didn't taste that bad I thought it was just like health food oreos that were like, made with like vegan or something.

Speaker 1: 1:10:10

Well, oreos are vegan regular oreos, but just like you know made with not sugar or whatever so so I did this, you know, uh, for about a week, as I'm cooking my dinner, I would grab one out of the fucking dog food thing and I was like you know, just had one, while she was like I'll have one shitty cookie while I'm eating, and then, like, at the end of the week, I realized what it was oh, that is, and I was like it, it killed me.

Speaker 1: 1:10:36

So I of course I couldn't just like be the only one who did this. So I took, took them out of the bag, brought them to work and I had like 10 to 12 people eat dog treats.

Speaker 2: 1:10:45

Oh dude, that is so funny. One guy still will not like. Did you tell them that they?

Speaker 1: 1:10:51

were dogs. I did afterwards, and everybody was a pretty good sportsman, except for one guy.

Speaker 2: 1:10:55

One guy Anyway for one guy, Alright. Would you rather have the ability to fly or read minds I? Think, read, minds Okay read minds If you could have any superpower, what would it be Other than those two things?

Speaker 1: 1:11:15

Rapid fire, Lift anything up oh nice, okay, all right what's the best right, what's the best?

Speaker 2: 1:11:24

ice cream topping uh, peanuts in different forms yeah, for sure. Uh, okay, last one here. If you had to move someplace you've been to on vacation, where would it be? Uh, new zealand, oh, new zealand. Actually, I have one more for you, coconut or pineapple.

Speaker 1: 1:11:43

Coconut yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:11:45

Now, yeah, okay, all right, awesome. Well, hey, man, thank you so much for sitting with me and everybody else who's watching here. I think we were able to dig into a lot of interesting topics and I'm excited to see where Party for a Purpose is going to be in the next five years and your management role for One Grand Band. I really appreciate you being as honest as possible with some of these topics. I know some of the stuff we talk about isn't like the easiest stuff to talk about. We could probably sit for a few days, really, and kind of discuss some of this stuff. But I'm really appreciative of you and I would actually love to off record, off camera, kind of speak with you about um. You know me finding the proper manager and how to, uh, you know, make that happen um in the future.

Speaker 1: 1:12:46

So I would love to man, yeah, no, you're yeah, absolutely, and you're like what you'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 this project is, it can't be your everything.

Speaker 1: 1:13:02

It needs to be a very important point and you need to put a lot into it. But when you can't put, it can't be your everything. You need to have something else that is a an outlet for you to be creative and helps you to like Groovy doing this, like he's not just the drummer for Uncle's one grand band and a great AV guy and a great you know, he's helping facilitate something great and he's been doing that and he's been putting. He's been like this whole podcast thing. He's going to have this mobile and be able to do this forever soon and that and that is like what all the good that he gets out of doing this and taking ownership of this. He's able to come in and just have this egoless force with him and I feel like as an artist, you can't just be the singer.

Speaker 1: 1:13:51

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 in the extra work to help either build the community or help build the people up that are above them, knowing that that, hopefully, and not everything that you do is reciprocated in this industry. And I think that leaves a lot of people sour sometimes because they feel it's all you know, the perspective and perception of a situation and how they feel it has shaken out. But I think, if you're getting up every day and doing what you can outside of yourself, that it comes back in ways that can't always be, that aren't always transactional, and I think that as long as you can go forward and knowing that, um, it just kind of makes the, the growing process easier. All of us I've had so many Anyway- yeah, no, I love that man.

Speaker 2: 1:14:42

Yeah, no, it's interesting. You have to diversify your energy, you know, and through this podcast I have been able to have some amazing and extremely interesting conversations, and what that's going to do is that's just going to be fuel for my music. You know, I didn't really think that I would. I didn't know what I was going to be able to get from these podcasts in the very beginning, except for just knowing that, you know, showing up and really giving like a thousand percent into like every single conversation, it's helped me with so many different facets of my life that I'll get into a whole episode with that in the future. But yeah, man, I'm really glad that you said that. Well, dude, thank you so much for being here. And where can people find you?

Speaker 1: 1:15:40

uh, online, and uh, facebook will gibbons instagram funkle willie. Uh and party for a purpose. Presents um one grand band on instagram for uncle kunkle's one grand band. We're hitting the road pretty hard and lots of cool stuff in the works, so come out and check us out. Yeah, if you see us coming to your area if you're not from Baltimore here.

Speaker 2: 1:16:04

Yeah, there we go. Awesome, All right. Well, hey, thanks for joining us in today's episode of the Respecting Perspectives podcast. We will see y'all on the flip side, peace.