Amanda Alvarez | Creating Unique Wedding Experiences

The conversation explores the challenges and expectations in wedding planning, focusing on the desire for unique and innovative experiences that stand out from traditional offerings. Amanda Alvarez discusses how clients are increasingly looking for ways to impress their guests and create memorable events that are different from what their friends have experienced.

• It's hard to come up with new ways to make these weddings exciting.
• Clients want to do something none of their friends have done.
• There is a desire among clients to wow their neighbors.
• Clients are tired of seeing the same bands at weddings.
• The challenge is to provide something different and unique.
• Amanda's brain is always active thinking about innovative ideas.
• Clients are willing to bring entertainment from afar for uniqueness.
• The goal is to create memorable experiences for guests.
• Understanding client expectations is key to successful wedding planning.
• Creativity in wedding planning is essential to meet client desires.

Creators and Guests

Guest

Amanda Alvarez

Amanda Alvarez works as a Owner at Twice On Sunday, which is a Hospitality company with an estimated 12 employees; and founded in 2014. They are part of the Executive team within the C-Suite Department and their management level is C-Level. Amanda graduated from Turner and is currently based in Kansas City, United States. They used to work at Amac Entertainment and Moshiri Jewelry.

What is Gig Soap?

Gig Soap Podcast is where real musicians talk about real life. Hosted by country-rock artist Chad Bourquin, each episode explores the stories behind the songs — the struggles, the pivots, the victories, and the values that keep creators moving forward. Hear from artists, songwriters, and dreamers as they talk music, mindset, and the road less traveled. Honest. Gritty. Faith-filled. Subscribe and get inspired.

Chad Bourquin (00:22)
Hello, welcome to the Gigsow Podcast. My name is Chad Borkwin and we are starting season two, first episode here with Amanda Alvarez from Twice on Sunday. Thanks for joining us, Amanda.

Amanda Alvarez (00:36)
Yeah, thanks for having me. Glad to be here in your next season.

Chad Bourquin (00:40)
Yes, for sure. I've gotten to know Amanda over the last, I guess, probably a year maybe or so. Just we've been working together on her project with Twice on Sunday and just everything she's got, which is an incredible organization she's developed from scratch. That's turned into something that's just really become something special and really focusing a lot on the wedding market as well as the corporate market.

Amanda Alvarez (00:59)
you

Chad Bourquin (01:10)
special event type things as well. And it's just an incredible job. She's got a great organization with her musicians and just people that just all, I mean, they're teared up. get nothing but amazing reviews back about anything you guys ever do. So I'm excited to have you here. So.

Amanda Alvarez (01:27)
Aww, that's such a nice intro. Thank you.

Chad Bourquin (01:30)
Well, I mean, I didn't write it down. was just, that was it. Yeah. ⁓ that, so there is, look, look, before we get into just kind of some things that I think would be really helpful for musicians and, and, and those leaders are out there running their own groups. Let's talk a little bit about where you've come from and what got you started and some of that. What, what got you in the music first of all, to begin with.

Amanda Alvarez (01:34)
You're just written? All right. I love that.

Oh wow, I have such a wild journey getting here. I mean, we go all the way back to like 2001. I'm like fresh out of high school, kind of first major job. I'm working at the Home Depot as a manager. I started managing really young in the retail environment and somebody found out, I can't remember how, that I could sing and said, hey, there's this entity that...

does DJ and karaoke and maybe you could do some moonlighting doing that and So I did and I did that really strong for like 11 years ⁓ So I was you know six nights a week ⁓ many many years doing karaoke on top of Working various day jobs that changed over those 11 years, but the entertaining stayed there and during that

Same course, ⁓ working five nights a weekend or whatever in clubs. There were some weddings in there too. And so I cut my teeth really young doing weddings. And then I worked in the luxury jewelry business where I sold engagement rings and found myself even more embroiled in the wedding market and started going to wedding.

shows, know, trade shows, conferences and things because of the wedding business. And I saw ⁓ other musical organizations there peddling their, you know, DJ services and band services. And so I ⁓ branched out of working for another DJ organization at that time, the one I'd been working with for for years and started my own business, started DJing really heavily weddings on my own.

⁓ And word of mouth spread pretty well in that time, just me by myself DJing. And then I was also in a classic rock band. ⁓ And at some point I decided I wanted to do live music in the wedding space. And I was introduced to Chris Davis who owns Lost Wax. And we made a relationship. began working for him and he really helped me develop. ⁓

twice on Sunday in the beginning and taught me the ropes, live music and weddings together. I had a lot of wedding experience, but he kind of taught me how to develop a product that made sense for weddings in live music and kind of how to organize the events. then...

Now, 10 year 11 years later, twice on Sunday is really we're doing really well. We're going to do in this year with about 160 events and I expect next year that that's going to be like 200. So it's really, really grown. I hired a bunch of really very, very talented people. A lot of them have been referred to me, so I can't even take credit for for them being here.

⁓ necessarily and I'm very fortunate that this has grown into the thing that it has.

Chad Bourquin (05:14)
You know, there's a number of cool things in that story that are popping out to me. One of them is that the journey has helped define really where your niche is at. You know, I mean, the fact that you went in from, you know, actually working for a jewelry store, you know, I mean, you had all these things line up that really, you know, we say all the time, you don't know what you don't.

but also you probably know more than you think you know in some areas. We forget stuff that we know that other people don't know. So like, for example, what's with some of the things can you say like, okay, this jewelry experience really carried over to what you're doing.

Amanda Alvarez (06:02)
You know, I learned how to do sales there, ⁓ face to face and working with couples and in the very first part of their journey, which is what I'm doing now. And, you of course that's before the wedding is set, but, you know, you kind of learn ⁓ what that looks like, what their hopes and dreams are. They do talk about their weddings, even in the engagement shopping process. you?

⁓ So I learned sales and how to work with couples really, really early. ⁓ And then going to those wedding shows and being exposed, because we would take the men's jewelry to the wedding shows and sell men's wedding rings there. just, you know, that introduced me to the wedding market ⁓ and how to network. And that started really early on there. I mean, was in my...

early 20s when this was when I was working for the jewelry store and I worked for them for a good eight years too and on top you know while moonlighting as a wedding DJ so was just weddings all the time so

Chad Bourquin (07:14)
Yeah, you know, and one of the other things you mentioned, which I think is so key was how much Chris, you know, having any mentor, but in your case, you had a mentor that was doing and showing you how to do where you were headed. You know, what do you think about that? What's some of the things you got from that?

Amanda Alvarez (07:34)
Yeah, I mean, feel like I can say now, looking back, that at some point ⁓ I would have gotten somewhere with a live music operation ⁓ in the wedding industry, because that was the goal. I would have found my way, but I can absolutely say that it would have taken far longer, and I would have stumbled a lot more times ⁓ if not for his mentorship.

⁓ and introducing me to the players in this industry, like the people that you need to know. ⁓ and, you know, just getting to know some of the things that he stumbled on, you know, it was very gracious. I mean, I will forever be indebted to him for, ⁓ you know, kind of passing a torch to me of sorts. Like his torch is still lit, but you know, ⁓ passing this to me. So.

He's a great human. Yeah.

Chad Bourquin (08:34)
Yeah, I'm sorry, go ahead.

Well, how powerful is that? I mean, to be able to just not have to make all the mistakes yourself, right?

Amanda Alvarez (08:43)
Yeah, mean, making mistakes is very costly financially ⁓ and it's hard to, know, we still stumble. I mean, we're still, there's always gonna be things that you go, I could have never imagined that I could have never foresee. There are unforeseeable things that are just gonna happen forever, you know? ⁓ And that could really be enough to discourage a person

Chad Bourquin (08:49)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (09:13)
coming in with very little revenue coming in in the beginning, right? These kinds of stumbles could absolutely take you out before you can even get going, whether financially or just mentally, emotionally, physically, what, know, any of those things. ⁓ So yeah, his mentorship eliminated, and at least enough of that, that, you know, we could make our way to where...

we are now. invaluable. I mean, could not put a price tag on what that has meant to us.

Chad Bourquin (09:52)
Yeah, for sure. Let's shift a little bit to the actual job, the wedding. When you get there, you're dealing with one of, if not the biggest moments in most people's lives. There's a lot of pressure, right? And we all know that there's...

Amanda Alvarez (10:11)
It is a lot better.

Chad Bourquin (10:19)
everybody, every bride and every groom handles this very, very differently. And so sometimes there's challenges with personalities there and perception of what's possible versus what they want. How have you navigated just those relationships?

Amanda Alvarez (10:24)
Yes.

Yeah, I mean, to your point, yeah, the pressure is immense. mean, when you're in, this is not like making widgets, right? Where if you make a widget and it breaks, that you could just simply give someone a refund and apologize and, or give them a new widget, right? We are doing something that cannot be recreated or replaced. And it's, in a very high pressure situation ⁓ on wedding day, ⁓ trying to make.

these, all the magic happen, all the electronics have to work in our favor. You have to have backups for your backups. There's a lot of technology. So yeah, the pressure is immense. In the planning process, people are usually pretty gracious in understanding that we are musicians and humans and it takes a lot of time.

to learn the material or to make things happen. We've got a really robust playlist at this point. mean, after 11 years of doing this, you collect a lot of material and you have some things in your back pocket, but there's a lot of work involved. sometimes it is, I will say it is hard to say no or create boundaries in this environment because you are... ⁓

providing a service one time and on a day that is so important ⁓ that you know things kind of do you get project creep a little bit because it's hard to say that it's hard to tell a bride and groom or a couple that this is ⁓ you know this is gonna be hard this is gonna be a lot of work for the musicians it's you know it's hard to communicate that so you just really try to do it delicately ⁓

if something truly is gonna be hard and maintain some boundaries so that you, I wanna feel like we're putting out the best product for their purposes, obviously, and then for our own, for the people that are seeing us in the audience and for our own reputation. So those boundaries are not only important for ⁓ them getting a good end product, but us putting out the best representation for ourselves for the future.

So it's a real delicate balance trying to navigate, you know, when to like, okay, I don't know that we can do that or even though we desperately want to do that for you, I think it would be best if we, you know, do what we know how to do best so that the musicians are the most engaged with your audience, et cetera.

So just trying to explain those things in real simple terms and then ⁓ finding like balance, compromise ⁓ between making their day extra, extra special, ⁓ but not pushing ourselves to the point that we may drop the ball or make a mistake ⁓ just by having the workload being too heavy. ⁓ So that's definitely a challenge that we face in the planning process.

Chad Bourquin (13:38)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (13:56)
But we always listen, ⁓ we invite ⁓ ideas. In fact, with our wedding planner relationships, planners are who designs the event, who ⁓ is going to come to the client or to us oftentimes and say, have this idea, or the client has this idea. And we want to try to make that magic happen. In fact, that's one of the things that we try to do to set ourselves.

apart is to say, here's some magical things you haven't seen before. Try to reinvent the wheel a little bit. ⁓ So, but you have to find balance between doing those things like what you're capable of and the volume at which you're capable of it. ⁓ And then make sure you set clear expectations with the planners clients about what can be done and what cannot. So.

Chad Bourquin (14:53)
Yeah.

Well, I sometimes they sometimes they just come with bad ideas, right? I mean, in other words, it's not going to have the result they wanted, but they don't know any better. Right. Isn't that the case?

Amanda Alvarez (15:06)
Yeah, well, sometimes I think there's a ⁓ notion or it, you know, after doing this a long time, you kind of start to figure out that there is, I think, an idea that musicians just kind of know songs or could like already know all the songs, right? If you're a professional musician, you must know these or it won't take long to do these, to work these up when in fact, the musicians are working so hard. mean, singers listening to songs.

on repeat while they're brushing their teeth and brushing their hair and driving in their car ⁓ every week to make these song requests happen. ⁓ this is one of the things where you have to educate people in the sales process and in the planning process. hey, this does take a lot of time. And at a certain point, we should probably think about ⁓ compensating.

these musicians or if you want to still earn 10 songs for your wedding, you know, we're talking about probably eight hours of work per musician. you have, you know, charts have to be written, ⁓ tracks have to be made, ⁓ all these things have to be in place. And by the time you add up all the labor hours across the entire group of people, ⁓ you know, you're talking about...

Chad Bourquin (16:05)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (16:33)
30, 40 hours of working on something. But it seems innocuous, right, to say, hey, just learn, don't you already know these five, six, seven songs? And it's like, no, we're gonna have to sit down and get in the workshop and figure those out. So, but what happens is, even if the band learns 10 songs for that weekend,

they're still not gonna be the most engaging human beings on the stage, right? They're not gonna be as ⁓ exciting as they would be doing the material that we have choreographed, let's say. mean, dance moves. ⁓ We have rehearsed to their death here in the office together ⁓ where they can get in the crowd, throw microphones in faces. Now you're having a real experience versus them kind of

I'm not saying they're going to do a bad job on the song that they just learned, but if you have 10 of those in an hour timeframe or two hour timeframe, that's significant, a significant amount of time that they're not able to be engaging or entertaining. And that's not because they're not talented enough to do so. It's just the workload is just too much. It's just too heavy. So yeah, so the bad ideas...

I would say it's really just one and that is asking the musicians ⁓ to do something that really just, know, feasible is not feasible ⁓ or, you know, something we would recommend despite how innocuous it sounds to just go, hey, play these 10 songs that you don't know. So yeah, that's the, but bad ideas also come in the form of like audio challenges, you know, like ⁓ where

mom's doing the speeches over here, can we hear it in the other room? That's not really a bad idea. You know, that's part of the logistics of the venue, but we have to tackle some of those production challenges and their costs associated with that that people weren't expecting. ⁓ So yeah, that's one of the things we have to navigate on an almost daily basis is having that conversation with clients. But most people...

Most people understand that this does take work and that these musicians, their hours are valuable.

Chad Bourquin (19:08)
Yeah. Well, and I mean, a lot of people, musicians, I could see would look at this market and see the kind of dollars that are possible to generate and think, I want to get into that for the money, you know, and having no idea what they're getting into. Because, I mean, you and I have had enough conversations to know that like this is a, it's a beast of its own.

Amanda Alvarez (19:25)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Chad Bourquin (19:38)
And

you know, I mean, you're not just you're not just working with the wedding couple. mean, there is event planners, there is the caterers, there's the florist, there's all these people involved in this that are all trying to coexist and probably different as a different combination of them every time. Right? How has it been learning how to work within something like that? Where? I mean, you probably have multiple at least one

people that think they're bosses at one specific event, you know what I mean? You know, from.

Amanda Alvarez (20:10)
Ugh.

Yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, well, you do. ⁓ For us, there is a hierarchy and that is client and wedding planner almost even, even the wedding planner acts as somebody to just execute the vision, right?

And well also to contribute to the vision or you know, wedding plans are insanely talented in what they do. But their biggest role as far as we're concerned in terms of being a vendor ⁓ is them providing us with a timeline, them giving us cues. And so we actually really lean on them when they are there to just make sure we aren't doing something out of turn. We haven't... ⁓

Like a good example would be making an announcement to start speeches and the photographers are not where they need to be or they're not ready. So communicating with ⁓ all of the vendors ⁓ is important, but the planners really, they have the full vision and they can look out and go, hey, don't start toast yet. Photographers aren't ready.

And so when they are there, we're really thankful because we don't have to make ⁓ decisions on top of trying to execute all the things that we're doing and be successful in just making the music ⁓ be magical. ⁓ They take some of that burden off of having to make decisions. ⁓ But sometimes just because of the chaos of the day, you may have a mom who comes over and...

you know, she may not have the full scope or, know, and is inserting, you know, some directions that, you know, we've got, hey, we got to, so we try to lean on the planner and go, let's get that, let's, let's, you know, cross those values here with what the planner has and just make sure that we're not doing something where, you know, it's not supposed to happen. So we, it's couple.

which we rarely even talk to the couple on wedding day. That's the hope actually. The wedding planner makes it so that the vendors aren't coming up and asking questions to the couple. So other than saying hello, we're so happy for you and hugs and high fives at the end of the night, we usually don't interact with a couple. So at least there is when a planner's involved and we're working in a space at a level where

there's almost always a planner involved. some of the, where previously when we first started doing this, it was a lot of weddings that did not have a planner, but planners cost money. So the budget wasn't there for a planner for whatever reason. And then we were kind of acting as the coordinator for the event. And that's when the vendors are kind of stepping on each other a little bit.

not in a cruel way or that we're squabbling, it's just that we're going, what should we do? Should we, you know, and then you do have moms and couples approaching you with a lot of information and trying to sort that out. But now that there's a planner involved, you can almost always just count on that being your point of reference. You just go straight to them and get the answers that you need. And if you don't, if they don't know, they're going to find out for you. So.

⁓ We're fortunate that now we're ⁓ at a level where we're working with planners.

Chad Bourquin (24:09)
Yeah. Well, I mean, it's obvious you're, you can hear the passion from you in this, especially this market, you know, ⁓ and it's, this is not, like I mentioned, you know, some people might get into this just because of the money. This is, you obviously have a passion for this industry because you, you pay so much attention to the details in it and just to make sure everything's over the top, right? You know, what, first of all, let me ask you, where, where's that passion come from you on?

do this.

Amanda Alvarez (24:41)
⁓ you know, I think I can, I can empathize with a couple. I mean, I planned a big wedding once upon a time in my own life and it's challenging. ⁓ and I understand, ⁓ what it means to want to give your guests an amazing experience. If you're going to do this, like you want to do it right. You don't, you want everything to be, ⁓

to feel good to your guests, everything to feel ⁓ beautiful and easy to understand and ⁓ exciting. You wanna make memory. You wanna use this opportunity to make memories. One thing that stood out to me, I think one of the earliest weddings that I did, I heard, and you hear this all the time in speeches, but that this group of people,

that come together for a wedding, the aunts, uncles, neighbors, coworkers, college friends, ⁓ somebody said in their speech, ⁓ this group of people will never all be together in this space like this. And that really stood, that really struck me. Like, yes, this is really important. On the surface, it seems like a vanity or like something you do out of some sort of vanity, Like a show and tell.

But it actually isn't you're creating this experience, these memories that are gonna live with you and live with your family forever. And stories will be told about this day, about how the best man said this and that was hilarious. this is part of everyone's legacy, truly, in their lives. And I think ⁓ I have a very specific ⁓

with that notion. ⁓ I do care deeply that this all goes really well ⁓ for them. But I also am very passionate about ⁓ us growing as a result of every one of these events being as close to flawless as it can be. ⁓ One of the pressures of being in the wedding industry is that a single bad review

or a single very bad experience, that word travels among communities of people. Kansas City is a big little city where at a certain level, everybody kind of knows everybody and tales of wedding lore live on for a long time. So there's also a really deep motivation.

to never cause harm to our reputation. ⁓ So there are two sides to this, one that's very personal to me and making sure my team is gonna be successful, right? Cause I have now 25 ⁓ core members of the team that are counting on me, ⁓ counting on this being their income for...

Some of them maybe forever, some of them for a short period of time, but some of them for a long time. And it would be devastating, ⁓ truly. Making one big enough error at someone's wedding could really be damaging for careers. And ⁓ again, like we said before, obviously hurting the couple or ⁓ something terrible happening at a wedding, terrible enough.

Chad Bourquin (28:25)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (28:31)
⁓ can overshadow the whole day and that you don't want to be the memory that memory that they take with them for years and years. And that goes back to the pressure we talked about in the beginning. ⁓

Chad Bourquin (28:47)
Mm-hmm.

You know, the one of the things that you said to me that I had actually never thought about till you said it, I don't know why I never thought about it. It's so obvious, but it's like one of the small details that you had said was, ⁓ you know, when you get there and you're setting up, don't go throwing your stuff on the tables that somebody has spent a lot of time.

getting all ordered because it just it's going to hack off whoever was part of place setting that thing. Number one, because then they've got to come back in afterwards and do it. You know, that seems like a small thing for a band. Don't just set your stuff. But it's a big thing in the picture. You know, what are some of the other things that the small details that are important? Pay attention.

Amanda Alvarez (29:13)
Yeah.

Yeah,

like it's hard when you aren't in the wedding industry or the big event industry and or you yourself do not attend a lot of, you know, let's say fancy events. ⁓ You may not have any idea of what the etiquette in that space is. ⁓ I certainly didn't when I got into this. I was a kid when I entered this industry.

And I had to learn one mistake at a time, how you should or shouldn't, things you cannot, can or can't say on the microphone that maybe seem like no big deal, but it is to someone, right? We have to be considering those politics. But as far as like the musicians are concerned coming in and we talk about what you look like when you load in.

⁓ You should be wearing your stage blacks, ⁓ know, kind of looking like ⁓ back a house, like stage crew, right? ⁓ Closed-toed shoes to avoid any injury, but also to look more polished. Everything should be clean, no logos. And so we talk about, you know, we have a dress code for just loading in before we even get to the dress code of what you look like on stage. But also, you know,

not having loud obnoxious conversation on the stage while you're pushing in, that becomes a distraction to, there's a vendor team out there ⁓ that are thinking very hard and trying to communicate across this room, right? About, hey, I need seven more place settings over here. need, hey, this, whatever it is. ⁓ And they're trying to also do a good job. And so we don't wanna come in and just be a big distraction.

Be loud. I mean you create a reputation for being that also among the vendors We had a wedding planner friend of ours come and speak to us on an event where you also spoke to the group And you know, she said something that would have never occurred to me again. These are things you go I had no idea could have never known They had this velvety, you know furniture, you know how when you touch something velvety if you

brush it one way, you know, it looks kind of shimmery and the other way it looks kind of flat. Well, imagine this, they had gone through and like literally combed the couches at the event. is a, you know, soft seating, they're combing them. And then our band members show up, get all set up. And then someone goes and puts their backside in it and makes a behind print right on the thing. And she came over and was like, Hey,

get out of the soft seating that's for the guests. And in the moment that seems really like unnecessary or over the top, we didn't know that her and her team had spent all that time doing that. So the furniture looked nice. So there's all these things all the way down to, that's pretty minute, right? You're into the minutia at this point. ⁓ We have to be careful. We're not being disruptive of the space that these people have spent.

Chad Bourquin (32:43)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Amanda Alvarez (32:52)
many thousands of dollars and lots of energy and thought to create for them. So yeah, I mean, we have to start almost from zero with folks that come in to work here, you know, who just have never even attended an event ⁓ of the caliber that we're playing in. So I certainly have never in my personal life been invited to such.

an event and would not know these things if I wasn't so deeply entrenched where I am.

Chad Bourquin (33:23)
Yeah. Well,

and as musicians until we, until we grow up, we tend to think it's all about us and our own, our own creative outlet and, and all that. And this is, this is the opposite of that. This is about the audience on an extreme level. I mean, it should always be about the audience, no matter where you play. But this is a great, mean, I would think any musician that goes through your

Amanda Alvarez (33:36)
Yeah.

Chad Bourquin (33:54)
your organization, if they have an original project, they're going to be so much better for it because they're not think they're thinking about the audience. They're thinking about, you know, what's going on with them and the crowd, which is just so key. ⁓ what that like, I'd love to shift to, ⁓ his, is some of the conversations, you know, I've had about the shift in music interests with the new generation coming. This is fascinating to me. I've retold this so many times because it's,

Amanda Alvarez (34:23)
Have you really?

Chad Bourquin (34:24)
I

have yeah because that's just like it's like wow this is that's actually giving me hope honestly.

Amanda Alvarez (34:29)
He do.

Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah. So we are definitely in a shift. I think ⁓ I'm going to I feel so old when I say things like this, but the younger generation are Gen Zers and ⁓ some are even younger millennials are I think truly this all stems from craving something that is feels a little more organic than the ⁓

product, you know, heavily produced, ⁓ manufactured, you know, in a, with 808s and things that we've been exposed to for so long, the formula pop, if you will. ⁓ And what that looks like at, well, the drum machines, drum, you know, Florida, you know, those are not probably in most cases, not a real acoustic drum kit playing or even a drummer. says, you know, being made.

Chad Bourquin (35:11)
Real quick, 808, define that. for people that don't know. Okay, good. Thank you.

Amanda Alvarez (35:27)
on a computer or a device, drum pad kind of thing. And all the music's quantized, meaning it all lines up on a grid. ⁓ I think there's two parts to this, and ⁓ I spend a lot of time ⁓ researching what ⁓ the next generations coming in of couples are gonna want. This is obviously extremely important. The music that we're putting out is everything. That is the product. ⁓

So ⁓ it seems like their parents now are no longer like Earth, Wind & Fire, 70s disco funk. That's a little old for their parents who are more like ⁓ 80s kids. ⁓ But it's hard to define. There's a lot of music in the 80s.

they will say to me on the calls, we want classic rock. And I have to really drill down on what they think that that means, because that like classic rock, as far as I'm concerned, when I was growing up, was, know, ⁓ Led Zeppelin and, you know, and all the way up to like Foreigner and Boston and Steve Miller Band, it's all over the place, right? ⁓ But they may also mean like 90s rock, Pearl Jam. ⁓

Chad Bourquin (36:34)
Right.

Right, right.

Amanda Alvarez (36:56)
Those are being played on the Classic Rock station now. Nirvana, ⁓ those, Green Day, you go, so I have to really define what they mean when they say that. Sometimes they do mean the Classic Rock, but I define as Classic Rock, like I had a groom the other day said Led Zeppelin, I like Led Zeppelin. ⁓ And then the craziest thing to me is, and it took like, I don't know, four or five times of hearing this that I believed it.

that they wanna hear Creed and Nickelback. And this was stuff that my generation, I mean, if I DJ'd that, they would have thrown tomatoes at me. They would have booed me out of the building. You would not dare play Creed or Nickelback. And because it got overplayed and shoved down our throats on the radio ⁓ when we were coming up. But these guys are listening to it for like,

the first time over the, you know, and they're like, what's, I don't understand what's over. This is what we like. And it, know, so the wild, did not believe them the first time that they, I thought I was, they were trolling me. I thought they were goofing with me at Play Creed. I was like, is he serious? So they like that. ⁓ Not everybody, this doesn't speak for this whole generation, but we're hearing that often. ⁓ And then their parents' music. So.

again, which can be anything from the Steve Miller band, the Eagles, those kinds of things, all the way into 90s rock, 90s alt rock.

Chad Bourquin (38:39)
and eliminating

a lot of the millennial stuff. like talk about some of the do not place like Bruno Mars, right? He's on the new.

Amanda Alvarez (38:48)
Bruno

Mars has been on the no playlist for, I think, four years. Yeah, since, I mean, just right after COVID, and we started hearing, play Bruno Mars. And they were just, everybody was just so overexposed to Bruno Mars, which is a, it's a shame because as a musician, this is really good stuff. mean, horn section, wonderful horn lines, funky grooves, this is perfect dance music, but.

Chad Bourquin (38:53)
Okay.

Amanda Alvarez (39:17)
they played it too much. And then the same thing happened to Lizzo. She also got herself into public drama. But ⁓ the cancel culture is the thing too, where things come in really hard like Sabrina Carpenter and then she goes takes a photo people don't like, or she gets overplayed and we're quickly, ⁓ as quick as we brought it in, we're kicking it back out again. So navigating the new music.

is really a struggle. We almost just kind of avoid it. We're figuring out that the new music is just not it. ⁓ Taylor Swift is always fine. ⁓ If they're a Taylor Swift fan, of course that's divisive too. You have people that are like, I get whiplash every week because I'll have the couple of the week before is going, play every Taylor Swift song you know, and then the very next week in all capital letters, no Taylor Swift. And so every, and

Chad Bourquin (39:54)
you

Amanda Alvarez (40:13)
The same is true for things like Sweet Caroline. ⁓ What they really mean is they don't want to hear cheesy stuff. ⁓ So, you know, which we understand. We don't want to play cheesy stuff either. So we're kind of on board with that. The Bruno Mars was a sad thing, not because we... Because it's so musically good and it was so fun to play and dance to. I hope that that makes a...

come back and there's a point in time where he's not overplayed anymore. But I think it's going to take 10 years. yeah, so, but navigating the music space is really tough now because ⁓ when, you know, when we were coming up, ⁓ there was just radio and Billboard hits and you could really quickly drill down on what would be popular play. It wasn't a mystery. Now with streaming services, ⁓ you really have to dig.

Chad Bourquin (40:54)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (41:11)
in and find out what is trending in their little groups. ⁓ And I'm always surprised. Like, I'll give you an example. That song, like Heaven is a Place on Earth by Belinda Carlisle, ooh baby, you know that song that you would never imagine. Like, that is, has shown up 10 times on the must playlist recently.

And so I'm, and the first, again, the first time you hear it, go, ⁓ random. Okay. The 10th, you know, fourth, fifth time you hear it, I go, I guess we got to put this in the show. ⁓ so I take all that data that I collect from the clients. and I, I make, I keep them on the phone for as long as I can, as long as they'll, ⁓ you know, entertain me. I will ask them how, what, what they like.

What do you and your friends like? What do you like in college? What are some weird songs you like? And I try to find out if these are things we should be putting in the show. But more than ever, and this is gonna keep trending this way, they each have their own little taste of music that you go, okay, are we gonna have to reinvent the wheel every week in order to be, or is there gonna be enough material that is broadly ⁓ acceptable?

There's some of that scares me a little bit and just for, you know, sustainability, like, you know, how much can we conceivably be changing the sets, you know, month to month, every, you know, and rehearse it well and all of that. ⁓ And how often are we throwing out songs because somebody in pop culture got themselves into legal trouble, you know.

those kinds of things that we never we weren't dealing with 10 years ago. Music Space is is is the Wild West for sure.

Chad Bourquin (43:10)
You know, I know you're adamant about musicians not up there staring at a device too, you know, and really knowing the songs. How have you navigated that, especially with such a large list?

Amanda Alvarez (43:24)
Yeah, so this goes back to, you know, like not really, it not being a good idea to always do every single request, you know, that a client has because here you go again, now we've got to pull out the iPads because you couldn't really, you could not truly expect people to memorize the charts and the words to these tunes ⁓ in the short turnaround.

⁓ that we're asked to. ⁓ So keeping those requests down to a manageable number is one way you keep iPads off the stage. ⁓ And just driving that home with the band ⁓ and lots of rehearsal. So what we're doing right now is writing our 2026 show. I'm writing it right now and I'm gonna start.

you know, dishing this material out to them slowly, medley by medley, and have them, you know, begin working on it in their private time. And then we will come into this office, January, February, March is our slow season. And so we'll be using that time to prepare. And we'll just, we're going to run the songs so many times as a group. ⁓ And you just, don't, you take away the iPad, like as soon as you can.

in the rehearsal process and challenge them to do the song. Just try it. Just try it without the lyrics and see what happens. See what's in there. ⁓ Because the iPad becomes a crutch. The more you have it, the more you need it. The more you have it, the more you need it. Like, so the sooner you can start removing that and relying on muscle memory, ⁓ the better off you'll be. But yeah, if there is a time on stage...

and I'm at the wedding and I'm taking video out in the audience and the band members have an iPad in front of them, I will not film them. I will not use that video because nobody wants to see that. I'm on them all the time. Because a lot of times they'll use it for like the first dance song, which we do not require them to memorize somebody's first dance song. They're gonna do one time. think that's pretty, you know, I think the clients understand that too.

But then the iPad gets left there, even though we're not using it. And I'm like, no, it's an eyesore. Get it out of here. We don't want people to even think that we're using these. So, but yeah, the way you do that is you just, if you're a performer, even if you're a solo performer, just take the iPad away. Just put it away and see how you do without it. Like give it a go on your first 10 songs of the night.

the songs you think you're the most confident on, put that iPad away and get through them. I guarantee you, know more than you think you do. It's in there. So.

Chad Bourquin (46:29)
Yeah, yeah, one thing that really helped me and I've learned later why but is is I would I would write out I use the number system for my own guitar charts, but I would write a hand write it out because it uses a different side of the brain than if I typed it out. I can't nobody else can really read it because it's not very neat, you know, but I'm and I'm not even planning on reading it. I'm just writing it out so that I've engaged that side of the brain to help remember and that's been really helpful for me. ⁓

Amanda Alvarez (46:50)
Yeah.

Chad Bourquin (47:00)
You know, I think, but I think what you're getting at here is anything we do to put a barrier to the connection to the crowd is not good. You know, so the iPad could be a barrier to the connection to the crowd. What are some of other things that you guys do and you teach your crew on how to really just engage and connect with the people out there?

Amanda Alvarez (47:27)
Yeah, I mean, it starts with the right, well, so there is something I think that some folks have already in them, right? Where they are just good at connecting, they feel comfortable connecting. And, you know, of course we're looking for those folks. ⁓ But ⁓ if that doesn't come naturally to you, I mean, the easiest thing to do is to find some,

Chad Bourquin (47:39)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (47:56)
to write down some one-liners, okay? Things that you can say in between your songs, don't be cheesy. And try to do it, try to say these things in a way that it's not like you're reading it off a script. But try to write down some really natural things to say in between your songs until it becomes a habit. ⁓ If it doesn't come naturally to be witty and have quips and things to say, and it doesn't for me.

It does not for me. So I, I definitely ⁓ gave myself a list of things that I could kind of scroll through a Rolodex in my head of like, okay, you haven't said this for a while. And just, and, talk to them because you can be a really incredible performer, a great singer, and unfortunately be a little bit forgettable if you don't, if you are not interacting with that crowd. And you can always, there's

Chad Bourquin (48:50)
Mm.

Amanda Alvarez (48:54)
someone in the room that you can tell is more interested than everyone else in what you're doing and you should use that to your advantage. Go interact with them, talk with them on your break, but also banter with them between songs. ⁓ I see you out there, I always identify them by their clothes. I see you plaid shirt getting down to this and they feel, they're like, ⁓ they noticed and you start to develop that relationship with them. ⁓

Chad Bourquin (49:01)
Mm.

Amanda Alvarez (49:23)
just little things like that. ⁓ And then as you do this from, you know, practice ⁓ and doing it because you wrote down that you should, ⁓ it becomes just ingrained. ⁓ So where now, like, I can get up on a microphone and I can promise you there will not be dead air. I will find something to say. I will find some, and I will find some person to land on to interact with.

because I've just practiced it so much. So we ⁓ instill that. I also, so there are folks that are new to us and folks who just struggle with this. But I've identified a couple of people on our team that are very good at this. And we're gonna host a workshop actually in the next, ⁓ like in January when we're slow, to have them to do a table discussion with the vocalists about

interacting and what are some of everybody's tips? are ever, you know, and just share ⁓ what they use and the thing, the one liners that work for them and kind of come to a consensus on the things that if you're not, this is not your thing, ⁓ here are some things for you that you can use that's working for Ashley and Adam and whoever. So.

Chad Bourquin (50:45)
You it's, again, it's so cool to see, you just light up when you talk about this stuff. So it's obviously you're passionate about it, you know, and you're always thinking of new ideas too. That's the other thing that I've really admired about what you've done with your organization is you're always, your wheels are always turns like, okay, that was cool. What's next? You know, what, and you don't have to,

You don't have to tell us what's next that you haven't done yet. Obviously that's coming up. We'll find that out later. But what you got coming up this next year that you're excited about that's new on the horizon for you guys that you've done? Some things maybe you've already done a little bit of. What's happening for 2026?

Amanda Alvarez (51:18)
Yeah,

Well, so in the last couple of years, mean, anyone who is in this scene now knows that we have this thing called the Sunday Sere Ney, where we put the singers on the individual mini stages and put them throughout the room for a cocktail dinner type experience. ⁓ It make it more immersive, make it more of an experience than just an audio experience. Because if you put musicians in a corner during cocktail hour, people will often just even forget there's live music there.

Chad Bourquin (51:59)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (52:05)
⁓ But ⁓ you can make something really elevated if the musicians are spread around and one is standing right next to you, you know, on this little, you know, two foot tall stage. So that's something that we've done that's worked really well and has created a lot of interest around the band. ⁓ I will say it's hard to come up with new ways to make these weddings exciting.

One of the things customers will say out loud to me is we want to do something none of our friends have done. had a mom tell me that over the weekend. They want to bring us up to New York from Kansas City because they're tired of seeing the same bands and they want to do something different. They were here at a wedding and saw us. So there's this desire among our clients specifically that they really want to wow their neighbors or, ⁓ you know, but do something no one's done before. we were.

My brain is always active thinking about what is that gonna be? What could I give them that they have not seen before? And also, and this goes all the way down to like when we're doing just the party, like the party thing. In our 2026 show, I don't wanna give anything away, but I make sure that there is some kind of moment built in.

Making moments, we talk about it a ton. We talked about it last year in band camp. We're gonna talk about it again in this year in band camp. ⁓ Making moments. And some of those happen organically. I leave room for those things to happen organically from the musicians, whatever they can think of in that moment. But we write in these moments ⁓ into the show. Something, I'll give away.

one example, because it won't be long before everybody sees this anyway. We've got twice on Sunday sunglasses that are logo branded. you probably know the song, I wear my sunglasses. We've written in just one little snippet of that song into a very popular pop song right now. So there's this breakdown moment where we do the sunglass thing. Before we get to that moment, the

band leader goes out and is throwing these Twice on Sunday branded sunglasses out into the crowd. And so people are putting on these shades and thinking that they just got a cool prop because sunglasses is a thing that brides and grooms give away often as props at weddings anyway. So this isn't unusual. But what is cute is that, you know, there's this sunglass moment and you know, we get maybe we turn around and get a picture of the whole crowd and the band with their sunglasses on and then they take those with them as a moment. right.

Chad Bourquin (54:37)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (55:00)
But that's just one of the moments that we, we have a chief's moment in our show where if we're doing a wedding in Kansas City in football season, weddings often happen on Saturdays the night before a big game. ⁓ So we have a chief's moment in there. So we're trying to insert ⁓ things to break up the monotony of just dance music, which is what every wedding band is doing, just, you know, dance music throughout.

Chad Bourquin (55:23)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (55:30)
So that's part of the philosophy or the culture over here now is making moments.

Chad Bourquin (55:38)
Yeah, I think that's key. mean, that's why you're gonna be around for the long haul. You've already been here a while. I mean, the intent to keep evolving and keep growing is so important no matter what kind of thing you're doing here.

Amanda Alvarez (56:00)
It is because when you're in, and this goes back to what I was saying just now, if the goal for some of these folks is to do something that has not been done, then we have to keep doing things that have not been done. That is the currency. That's how we're gonna stay alive. Even if we invest,

Chad Bourquin (56:20)
Mm-hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (56:29)
make a new show and we change the music over every year, that is not enough ⁓ to maintain a status even. ⁓ think the, if you do 200 weddings a year for 10 years in the same community, eventually people are going to go, yeah, yeah, we've seen that. We've seen it. And now your business is in trouble, right?

or you have to start to look at outside markets where you're a novelty. And then you're traveling, which is, you know, it's hard on everybody to do that traveling. It's very expensive to travel. It's expensive to the client who's buying you out of town. the goal would be to keep up with being the novelty in your own ⁓ marketplace.

Chad Bourquin (57:23)
Yeah. You know, ⁓ we're coming up on an hour here and there's been, there's been so much gold here, no matter, no matter what kind of music. What's that? I know. I mean, it's been rolling, you know, just, it's what I like to have happen on these. ⁓ but I mean, so much, so much gold, no matter whether you're having any intentions of becoming, you know, wedding band or musician, even

Amanda Alvarez (57:30)
God. I can't believe it's been an hour. I can't believe it's been an hour.

Yeah.

Chad Bourquin (57:52)
Original artists, you know, there was so much here that I heard in this everything that you're talking about that's beneficial any last thing you want to add in or thoughts or

Amanda Alvarez (58:04)
⁓ I would say, whatever you are doing in the music ⁓ scene, ⁓ just keep it intentional and connect with them as much as you can. Connect with the audience as much as you can. I want to give this morsel away. So this is something I learned over the weekend.

⁓ how important connection is. And you touched on this. ⁓ Our social media following grows as a result of weddings every weekend, obviously, because the crowd sees us and then connects with us. ⁓ But I noticed something. We have one individual in particular in our organization. We do four bands a weekend. And it occurred to me

that it was always, no matter what group that this person was with, there was always more followers the next day when that person's on the gig. And so I asked, what are you doing? I thought maybe they were going around and like, hey, follow us on Instagram. And the answer is no. ⁓ They're just connecting with the audience on the stage so much. They're.

They're being a fan of the people in the audience versus trying to make them, you know, like a fan girling the bride, ⁓ being the hype person for the people that are in the audience and then talking to them off stage, not just running to the back room, take a break. Obviously take a break. Those are important. But as much as you can after the show, during the show, make those connections because

Chad Bourquin (59:35)
Hmm.

Hmm.

Amanda Alvarez (59:59)
You may be watching the more talented, according to you, the more experienced person that is your. So everybody has a competitor in mind. They could always think of the person or the band that they wish they could just be a little more like them. The fact is, if even if they let's just say that group or that single person is way more talented, let's just say, than you or has more tools in their toolbox or whatever. ⁓

You'll win the day every time by going out there, talking to the crowd, talking to them from the stage and making real connections that I think, ⁓ I mean, I saw, see it firsthand every weekend sending four groups out that there's this one individual that does that so well that I have the data to confirm that this is a

This is how it's happening. So it's pretty invaluable.

Chad Bourquin (1:01:01)
Hmm. That's good.

Yeah. I mean, I thought we had hit everything, but now we have that was, that was fantastic. You know, and, ⁓ what a great way to end it. Hey, thank you so much, Amanda. I really appreciate you being here. So, so you've been listening to gig soap with Amanda Alvarez from twice on Sunday. Thanks for joining us.

Amanda Alvarez (1:01:08)
Yay!

Thank you for having me and happy Thanksgiving.