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There are those in the spotlight, and then there is Everybody Else.
Hosted by Wes Luttrell (Indiana-based artist manager, development coach, and founder of Wally Opus Records), Everybody Else is a podcast dedicated to the invisible people who make music happen. Featuring solo commentary and insightful interviews with artist managers, record label execs, booking agents, tour managers, lawyers, music tech founders, music producers, venue managers, and a slew of others whom we'd consider to have the most interesting jobs in the world.
Speaker 1 (00:00)
This is the Everybody Else Podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:03)
who are the invisible people of music today and what do they do to make music happen? Because behind every great artist, song, venue, festival and music service, there's a tribe of people who will dedicate their lives to work that if done right will never appear to have happened. There are those in the spotlight and then there's everybody else.
Actually, that's why I met you two years ago, two and a half years ago maybe. Atlas of the Dogs was opening up for, one of the bands I used work with was opening up for, oh shit, I don't know, one of the Victory cover bands. 80's Night, or Hairball? Hairball, that's what it is, Hairball.
Speaker 1 (00:44)
Was it, ⁓ was probably hairball.
Yeah, Hairball's an interesting one. It always amazes me that you can have Hairball, a band that just does all covers, they'll sell out. I'm sure tickets are probably cheaper. I don't know, that'd be good question for Laura. But that always amazed me. You could have that, and it'd sell out. And it's a fun time. It is a good show. But then you get some...
Speaker 2 (01:03)
Yes.
Speaker 1 (01:20)
The one that stands out for me is like Tyler Farr probably. Oh gosh, it's probably 12 years ago. he had just had a number one hit song come out and they had him come play on a Tuesday. They probably sold 50 tickets. And I don't know if they just didn't advertise. But that was also back around 2010, 2012 range.
Speaker 2 (01:37)
⁓ my god.
Speaker 1 (01:50)
I think we've kind of, I think they've kind of decided that was an economic depression back then. yes. So I don't know, but it's always blown me away that they've had such good turnout for ⁓ Hairball. And it's a really fun show.
Speaker 2 (02:05)
Well, I think that's what's nice about it. It's like a variety show. It's like you got the Kiss and they're like when they're backstage, mean, you saw them backstage, they're like six, five, or you know, what, six, 10. I don't even know. They're huge platform shoes. And then they got Brian Johnson. They got like the ACDC guy. They do a good, it's sellable. They sell it, or you know what I mean? Like sell the performance.
Speaker 1 (02:31)
And it's a good, good experience for everybody. Everybody enjoys it, and it's fun, and yeah, it's a good time.
Speaker 2 (02:38)
It is interesting though to think like you could have a number one record and come to the victory not and sell 50 tickets. Maybe not so much today, Tyler Farre, but it is interesting because like it just indicates that like those aren't enough. Those, I mean, cause like we talk about this all the time and like the recorded music side of things, an artist will be killing it on streaming and they can't sell tickets to a show. It's just that those two things, although
streaming is an indicator of an artist's popularity, so it's kind of useful data.
Speaker 1 (03:11)
Well, and it's kind of a, you know, going to see a show, ⁓ the whole show experience, it's kind of like one big machine. And if one certain part of it fails, you know, and that's everything from like marketing to which the Tyler Farr Show, they might not have sold any or bought any ads for it. ⁓
You know, so there's a lot that goes into a show. You know, it's a big, it's just a big machine and you you miss one part and you might still have a show, but it's not gonna be, might not be what you want out of
Speaker 2 (03:55)
Might not be in my there.
Yes, so speaking of shows, tell me about concept, sound, and light. Just tell me about it from your perspective. What do you guys do? What is the company?
Speaker 1 (04:12)
Concept sound and light now granted. I'm just chief floor sweeper. So this is my my you know overview of ⁓ You know what the company is You know we do live shows concerts corporate events ⁓ And some oddball ⁓
you know, that doesn't kind of fit the cookie cutter mold for an event company. ⁓ Like one event we've got coming up is called Illuminate in Owensboro. And it's an art and light festival. So there's probably 20 city blocks of exhibits. And we're just providing support. like I think when they have released as a gigantic inflatable structure.
that's ⁓ got translucent panels. So as you're walking through it, like the sunlight lights up different parts of it, different colors. And then they've got the drone show and the blue bridge is lit. so we're providing support for that. And that doesn't fit in kind of the, you you go to like some of these event companies and Indy and they just do concerts and corporate events. And if somebody would call for something like this, they'd say, no, we don't want to mess with it. And ⁓ I'm just dumb enough to go for it.
Speaker 2 (05:29)
Is that is that is part of that being where we are geographically located that you guys have not have to but in taking on that work It makes the business business more viable
Speaker 1 (05:39)
Yeah, and we're not in Nashville, we're not in India, we're not in even Louisville, even though we traveled to Louisville because I think there's a market gap there for some of what we do. ⁓ So our life hasn't been, we haven't been able to just do concerts, we haven't been able to just do corporate events. And then there's a whole other side of the company that does installs.
⁓ So there's a lot of churches. ⁓ And Victory Theater, for example, Ford Center, they're an install client as well as a live event client. so we install systems and maintain them, ⁓ audio, video, and lighting, ⁓ and also networking. ⁓ So we do access points, ⁓ special event Wi-Fi, ⁓ stuff like that, live streaming.
You know, there's all kinds of different kind of markets that we were in.
Speaker 2 (06:45)
fit into.
You guys sell stuff as well? You're like a vendor or a middleman or what? How would you explain the sale? I was just doing some research on the website and stuff. I'm thinking where do you guys fit in in the supply chain of me buying some equipment?
Speaker 1 (06:59)
So ⁓ we don't have a store where you can walk in and pick up a guitar and play. And we don't really do music instruments either. We'd send you to more music or someplace that's way better at that than we are. ⁓ But we do a lot of sales. People will call us for everything from a DI box to might need a new sound system in the church.
new PA, new speakers, new lighting system. ⁓ So we do small sales that are just like drop ship stuff to ⁓ turn key, install finished things.
Speaker 2 (07:44)
Which makes sense, like if you're getting hired, if a church hires you, you're like a full stop, you do the full stop. If I built a new church and I wanted the whole new sound system lighting all this stuff, I could just call you guys, would do the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (07:58)
Yeah, so we actually work with a lot of architects. We'll design AV systems and actually have full blueprints, line drawings, things like that to turn over to the other trades and make sure everything's going to fit where it's supposed to and make sure the client's happy with the end result. Yeah. ⁓
Speaker 2 (08:27)
That makes sense, if I'm running wires I gotta know where the hell the disc goes to that and...
Speaker 1 (08:32)
We want to make sure we're not like blocking a fire alarm or ⁓ you know or hanging a video wall over it or ⁓ that kind of thing and then ⁓ One of my guys has a lot of friends that are like touring ⁓ touring Sound ⁓ touring ⁓ techs. Yeah. Yep. So he's been getting a few sales for tours to go out and ⁓ you know dropship
Speaker 2 (08:55)
text.
Speaker 1 (09:02)
console, in-ears, mics, stuff like that. ⁓
Speaker 2 (09:07)
You guys do rentals too. like if I, for example, cause I was talking to my old roommate, I was telling you about who he talked about the benefit of working for a big company like VER is that like when they're a VER specifically, he's like, we could show up. Like if the console broke in St. Louis, by the time we showed up in Kansas city, there would be a new console waiting on us or like a, you know, like a working console waiting on us. But if we got here, like if somebody was touring, they got to the Ford Center and like, shit, our
Left stack of line raises and working we call you guys and get a stack out there
Speaker 1 (09:43)
Sure. Yeah, a lot of times it's small items like, ⁓ there was a tour that came through and ⁓ their keyboard player had COVID. ⁓ So instead of canceling the show, they put him in an office backstage at the Ford Center. ⁓ And put a camera back there and put him up on the video wall, but he needed a set of in-ears. ⁓ like, you know.
had to run a, I mean it's minor, but had to run a set of in-ears over to him so he could hear and...
Speaker 2 (10:18)
That
that's amazing I've never heard that that I like how does that's I'm sure that's happened more than once not maybe the fourth center, but just as like a
Speaker 1 (10:28)
Yeah, I think it worked out well for them. mean, they kept the show together. ⁓ And then we do a lot of small rentals. There's a lot of ⁓ different groups that ⁓ need a couple of wireless mics and powered speakers or need some extra light fixtures or things like that. ⁓ We don't do a whole lot of tour rentals or things like that, though. ⁓
Like I said, we're in Evansville. A lot of times you go to Nashville and get stuff like that. But it's not to say we couldn't. We've had a few people ask here and there.
Speaker 2 (11:15)
Oh, you're good. It's funny to me too because I think like the company was built in Evansville, right? Over last like 30 years or.
Speaker 1 (11:26)
It started in 1989. and Jeannie started the company.
Speaker 2 (11:31)
Do they still work at the company? still like part of it?
Speaker 1 (11:34)
Mark's president and Jeannie's the CFO. So there are some, like Kyle goes out and does tours with a company. He's got video walls on a stage. So I mean, there's a few odds and ends we do. He's actually leaving tomorrow to go to Rock, Oklahoma with LED screens.
Speaker 2 (11:58)
But it makes me think that you know the company is equipped to serve This in the regional area based on the demands of the area because it was built here and has evolved to fit the needs of the Are you solve the problems here or you know what mean? It makes sense that like
Speaker 1 (12:14)
Yeah, we're a regional AV company. so like I said, Mark and Jeannie started the company in 1989. It's been around, so that makes it 36 years. And it's evolved and grown.
Speaker 2 (12:27)
What was it, how did it start, do you know?
Speaker 1 (12:34)
Mark was in a band and ⁓ wanted to, was a pipefitter and wanted to do something different and so he started part-time and as it got busier went full-time with it.
Speaker 2 (12:50)
Was he just running out the band's equipment?
Speaker 1 (12:52)
I think he played in a lot of the bands, ran sound for a lot of bands, and it just kind of grew and evolved. ⁓ So funny, we actually had a, we interviewed a guy a couple weeks ago and he had a bunch of questions. ⁓ one for Mark was why he started the company. And it was, you know, to build a better life and to have, ⁓ you know, to
⁓ do something different than the standard kind of ⁓
nine to five thing. So I enjoyed doing it. ⁓ that's, you know, if you can enjoy work, it helps a ton. And it's, you know, not every day is fun. There's a lot of tough days and a lot of work. so, you know, I started with the company. Next year will be 15 years. So I've been chief floor sweeper for quite a while. ⁓
Speaker 2 (13:47)
share.
pretty good at it.
Speaker 1 (14:02)
Yep, those floors are almost spotless. So ⁓ I started in grade school. I thought it'd be fun to buy a pair of speakers and a mixer and DJ. And as I got older, I kind of realized I didn't want to do that. I wanted to wire the stuff. I've always enjoyed wiring it and figuring out how to make things work and or taking things apart. Most...
sometimes get it put back together, but taking it apart. ⁓ So, you know, as I got older, I kind of realized I didn't want to, I don't have the DJ persona, that's not me. But I liked wiring the stuff, like putting it together. So I kind of shifted to doing sound for bands and learned how to play guitar and terrible at it. stuck around to be the sound guy more than actually play. ⁓
Speaker 2 (14:59)
the
Speaker 1 (15:01)
⁓ And I was kind of, so I was going to school for electrical engineering. USI. And I kind of got to the point that I wasn't really gonna do it anymore. I was gonna pursue the electrical side of things and just continue with that. now like designing electronics. ⁓
Speaker 2 (15:07)
Okay, where'd you go?
Like being an electrician or something?
Speaker 1 (15:29)
And so with being an electrical engineer, you can either do like power and controls or circuits like small electronics or power distribution for the power company. And I don't know, looking back at that, I'm not really good at any of those either. So I actually went to a
guy's name. He's a big country artist. He played at USI for Springfest one year in maybe 2008. ⁓ Luke Bryan.
Speaker 2 (16:05)
yeah, nice. Yeah, they used to have big... Well, he probably wasn't as big. Obviously, he wasn't as big then.
Speaker 1 (16:09)
But he was up and coming and it sounded awful. ⁓ And the opener ended up kind of crying and walking off stage and ⁓ thought, wow, I'm just kind of like a small time DJ kind of nobody. And I think I could do better. And it's been all downhill since.
Speaker 2 (16:13)
It was terrible.
That's so funny. I'm imagining you in that crowd just came focus on what the hell's going on You know you're just thinking about the sound and like what you would be doing right now to fix the
Speaker 1 (16:45)
Yeah, and looking back at it, I didn't really have a clue, but it seemed like I probably could have done better. ⁓ And then come to find out, it's actually a friend of mine, his sound company from up in Indianapolis was doing the show. I don't think he had any recollection of actually doing the show, but he's out on tour with another country artist now at the moment. He's super nice guy, and it was just a bad day.
Speaker 2 (17:14)
Does happen?
Speaker 1 (17:16)
Yeah, we have a few here and there.
Speaker 2 (17:19)
Yeah, I remember, this is, I don't even know if I'm proud or not proud to say this, I'm not sure. I went to a Justin Bieber concert when I was like, I think I was senior in high school and went with some girls and me and my buddy. And the sound, we were the second upper deck, I think this was in St. Louis maybe, but the sound was so harsh. It was brutal. But I didn't know much. I was a DJ too in middle school and high school.
I just remember thinking like, man, is this how, it was kind of my first bigger really like arena concert. I thought maybe this is just must be how these things sound. I don't really know. It screeching because we were facing the stage, you know? And there's a lot to account for when you're setting up a big sound system, I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (18:03)
Sure, ⁓ if you're going out on tour, try to, ⁓ you you take PA along with you and you might not always have necessarily enough to do the venue you're in. You try to have what you need to cover everything, but I'm sure those guys get thrown some curve balls. And ⁓ I've seen some tours come through that hang way too much PA just because it's on the truck and they paid for it.
gonna hang a ton of it. It's not really necessary for some of the venues. ⁓ So I'm sure a lot of them get thrown some curve balls and have to just figure it out and make the best of it.
Speaker 2 (18:49)
So what is your technical role today outside of Floor Sweeper?
Speaker 1 (18:53)
So I'm actually vice president of the company. I bought into the company, I think two weeks into COVID. wow. They said it was going to last a month and ⁓ the bank said, yeah, sure. ⁓ God. Here you go. And so during COVID, well, so ⁓ when I bought into the company, Dominic bought in at the same time.
Speaker 2 (19:05)
You, I know you didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (19:22)
kind of a path for Mark and Jeannie to look at retirement.
And to kind of keep the company going, keep what they started rolling. And it's got a lot of momentum. So during COVID, we actually expanded. We actually hired people. We built a studio, like a video, kind of a broadcast studio in one of the bays of the warehouse. a lot of the events. Is it a idea? Yeah, a lot of the events we did, people would come to us and say, hey, it's COVID, we're going to cancel.
It's like, well, we have this other option. So instead of doing like we used to do the really big show ⁓ with Jeff Lyons at the old National Events Plaza, we ended up doing that in our ⁓ warehouse one year. ⁓ So we built a big video wall at the back of the stage, ⁓ used our conference room as kind of a control area with ⁓ audio and lighting and video consoles. ⁓
set it up, recorded it, and they still broadcast it and still had an event. ⁓ so it still worked. ⁓ you know, we didn't, it wasn't, it wasn't the same as before COVID, but ⁓ we, ⁓ we didn't, ⁓ it wasn't as profitable, but we stayed in business. We expanded. ⁓ One part of the company is we actually have a live stream platform. ⁓
Speaker 2 (20:37)
That's a great idea.
that came about during, or like a byproduct of COVID as well. Happening.
Speaker 1 (21:04)
So
Kyle and I actually started it in my parents basement and I was still living at home my early 20s and we had worked on a church, Catholic church out on Highway 65 and Father Phil said, you know the cameras and everything look great but where's the, you know, how do we stream it? Where's the video signal going? We don't know.
there wasn't, ⁓ I don't know that you could live stream with YouTube.
Speaker 2 (21:37)
Yeah, I say, at this time, I don't know what's going on. I mean, what's...
Speaker 1 (21:41)
Couldn't stream with Facebook at the time. ⁓ So Kyle and I researched it for a while, and we came up with a plan. ⁓ We bought a couple of used servers, and we ran the software on them. And we had them as a client for a year or so, and then added on two or three more. And then we realized that the DSL internet service was nowhere near fast enough. ⁓
What did we do? I think we migrated to ⁓ Amazon AWS at that time. ⁓ so we pay for hosting and internet. And ⁓ I think we had maybe 10 or 15 clients that were like install clients that, you know, we built it to be super simple. There's four buttons. It's start and stop stream, start and stop record. I mean, it can't get any simpler for volunteers and it just works. And then all the backside of it, ⁓
with all the settings and stuff we maintain and take care of. But when COVID hit, everybody went to live streaming. It's like, hey, we've got this cool platform that's super simple for people that have never done it before. so that part of the company expanded, and we put in more video streaming systems. And a lot of those are still going strong, and still a lot of people doing that.
Speaker 2 (23:08)
How insane is that that you guys had already been working on that, not knowing that there was an impending years later, an impending epidemic that was going to, or pandemic, that was going to just blow up what live streaming is to where now, like literally every church was live streaming. Some still do, I guess, but.
Speaker 1 (23:27)
Yeah, and I think we went from like 10 clients to 50 or 60 or something.
Speaker 2 (23:35)
And you're these events back at the...
Speaker 1 (23:38)
Yep, and we were live streaming those and and then so today we've maintained all but you know a couple of those original clients and ⁓ But we also use the platform for special events so corporate corporate accounts and some other other things that we make use of it for ⁓ it works really well, it's easy for Like if I go out on site to do the event Kyle's usually got it set up and ready ready to go for me ⁓
I just hit the button and it works.
Speaker 2 (24:10)
going.
So what is your day to day look like in 2025?
Speaker 1 (24:16)
Well, that's a good question. You know, 10 years ago or so, I thought maybe I go find a desk job and find something that's not 80 hours a week.
Speaker 2 (24:20)
do a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1 (24:37)
you know, change things up a bit. And I thought really hard about that. And I really like the ⁓ with what we do, you might have a couple days in the office where you can do paperwork. And then you might have a couple days out. So like we just did RWB Fest in Huntingberg, and we were out for ⁓ four days straight working on that.
And then, so like today, coming back from that, there's a lot of stuff in the shop to get organized and emails to return.
meetings and things like that. So it varies a lot. ⁓ It's kind of, I think I probably have ADHD and ⁓ it scratches that ADHD itch of never having to do the same thing too often. Lots of change in variety and it's kind of cool.
Speaker 2 (25:38)
Yeah, you actually run the sound, actually man the gear at certain events. I you did a Laura's wedding, the-
Speaker 1 (25:43)
Some of them. So RWB, I ran lighting for that one. ⁓ I usually end up running lighting anymore. ⁓ There's quite a few years I ran monitors on stage for bands and things like that. ⁓ it's been easier for me to do lighting. ⁓
kind of be free to troubleshoot and fix issues if they come up and things like that. So, and I think lighting's fun. That's kind of
Speaker 2 (26:14)
Do
you do the designs too? Like you do all this?
Speaker 1 (26:18)
Yeah, so we've got software that we can, so like RWB for example. ⁓ take a satellite image of League Stadium where the event is and we can place an object in there that's the stage, the hydraulic stage, and we can build the lighting truss and everything and lay it all out, lay out all the barricade, the speakers, where the tour buses are gonna go, where the trailers are gonna go.
And that's all in 3D. So you grab a tool and you can spin around and look at everything and you'll see what kind of sight lines you're going to block, see what it's going to look like.
and make sure your audio's gonna cover. And it looks cool too. It's something cool you can take the client. This is what your event is going to look like. And a lot of people have trouble envisioning what it's actually, you can talk about it, but if they can see it, that's a big deal.
Speaker 2 (27:25)
Especially for non-musical, non-technical folks, I'm sure having that blueprint is a big deal.
Speaker 1 (27:33)
Yeah, and then it gives us something that we can hand to our crew and say, this is what we're building today. Let's make it happen. And everybody can be mostly on the same page and see what we're going to do.
Speaker 2 (27:46)
So how often does someone call you, they don't even know what they want, they're like, hey, we're putting on this event, we need lights and music, what is it like? So let's do a hypothetical, I'm gonna start a small music festival in Evansville, it's gonna go at this park, wherever, and I call you, I'm like, we got a budget, it's gonna be a couple thousand people we're expecting, we need a stage and lights and sound.
Where do you even begin? What's the first part of the conversation? If I'm a client, where would you go with this just vague?
Speaker 1 (28:23)
So there's a lot of, there'll probably be multiple conversations. ⁓ To kind of get a good start, we'd see who's gonna play, ⁓ ask for writers. ⁓ So the writers will list tech stuff that they need ⁓ and usually have their production contacts if there's anybody. And we'd call them and say, just make sure we've got accurate information.
RWB for example, they had five bands and we had to make sure we could fit everything on that stage because it wasn't a festival setup. Every band had a trailer or a box truck, had their own audio crew, had their own backline people.
Speaker 2 (29:10)
Who played there? What size? Like who?
Speaker 1 (29:13)
So they had John Michael Montgomery, Randy Hauser, and Tyler Farr. We've kind of come full circle from that original ⁓ thing.
Speaker 2 (29:21)
More
than five people there, or fifty people there today.
Speaker 1 (29:24)
Mm-hmm, yep, they had a few thousand people. ⁓ They had Little Texas and then a local, semi-local guy from Bedford, his name's Cody Eichard. Okay. And they're all sweet. Yeah, all great ⁓ artists and it a really good show, but ⁓ you you've got five drum kits, multiple guitar amps, risers. ⁓
You know, there's all kinds of tech up there too, in addition to the band stuff. you ⁓ know, there's multiple guitar worlds, multiple monitor consoles, crew, and then, you know, once you get everything, ⁓ like, unboxed out of the road cases, you got to figure out a place to put all the empty road cases. Yeah. So, ⁓ you know, it takes a lot ⁓ of space to do all of that.
And kind of just have to talk to everybody and in that aspect, talk to everybody, see what we think we can make happen, what kind of space everybody needs, and ⁓ then pull it all together and make it happen. ⁓
Speaker 2 (30:36)
Do you guys do like the stage on that show too?
Speaker 1 (30:38)
So ⁓ we partner with a company. So the company that Kyle's going to do those LED walls with, we actually get a stage from them. so we work together with them a lot, of ⁓ trade, not trade back and forth, but ⁓ they're good at staging. We're good at LED walls. Gotcha. ⁓ There's a lot of. ⁓
a lot of in our industry, know, renting back and forth and helping out. You know, a lot of companies, so like from our perspective, we don't have the capital necessarily to go buy a big hydraulic stage. They don't want to go buy a big video wall. They don't have the people to support it and the money to do it. ⁓
Speaker 2 (31:10)
collaborating.
Speaker 1 (31:33)
So we've got staging, stuff like that, but not like a million dollar hydraulic stage. Gotcha. And then once you buy that, you've got to have a semi to pull it. You have to pay a tech to at least one tech to take care of it. And it's an investment. Yeah. we just haven't made that jump.
Speaker 2 (32:00)
Yeah, you guys have invested in other things.
Speaker 1 (32:02)
Mostly the electronics side of it.
Speaker 2 (32:05)
It's interesting. It's interesting to find the niche within the niche.
Speaker 1 (32:09)
Yeah, and they're really good at the staging part of it. And I think we're probably pretty good at the ⁓ AV and electronics side of it. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:20)
So from this first conversation, you're already starting to, you're just getting a lay of the land, what do need, what's gonna look like, and then you start pitching them like packages, or you guys go back and draw up something and then.
Speaker 1 (32:32)
Yeah, if it's somebody that's called and like that scenario, we'd kind of get a game plan together in our heads of what we want to do, what we think it's going to take. ⁓ And if there's anything that we think would be cool to add to it, like LED walls or extra lighting or anything like that, we might write that down and send them a proposal with what we think it's going to need.
either say, sounds great, I want to save money, or ⁓ it's way more than I had figured it was going to be to have a music festival. Which it's not cheap.
Speaker 2 (33:11)
Yeah.
Yeah,
I mean so so are other people bidding on this job, too
Speaker 1 (33:20)
Sometimes. again, the fun part about being in Evansville is ⁓ there's a few other companies out there. ⁓ We're probably the biggest AV company in Evansville. ⁓ But then you get other people in other markets.
Speaker 2 (33:44)
Owensboro's
got several. Or maybe only a couple big players.
Speaker 1 (33:49)
Yeah. And there's others from, like you might end up with somebody from Nashville or ⁓ sometimes you get a promoter that's got a friend from like, ⁓ somewhere in Ohio that wants to, you know, do a show for a discounted rate. Yeah. Go for it. ⁓ But, and you know, some of it, a lot of it is, you know, having a good relationship with who you're working for and ⁓ like that promoter.
from Ohio might just, they've got somebody they like to use, that's cool. There's promoters that like to use us and would prefer to have us over ⁓ other people. It's just kind of way it works. ⁓
Speaker 2 (34:36)
You guys
have, when you're piecing together a, I know you have like some basic pricing for your rentals, your gear, like your smallest PA systems and stuff, but when you guys get to the scale, like these larger scale events, and you're thinking about pricing, do the people who approach you generally have an idea of like the ballpark? Cause like, I wouldn't even know, if I'm getting a stage from your help, this guy's helping you and you're bringing the LED wall.
We've got the lights, we're gonna have the PA. I can't even imagine what the price actually is. And then I gotta pay you guys, like we got a fee for that. Like do you already, like you're already, you guys have like base prices and then you add like travel or how does sort of like a structure, a pricing structure work once you're kind of like, okay, we get an idea of what you're going for.
Speaker 1 (35:28)
so
Speaker 2 (35:29)
I'm getting
into the details here, I know, I'm curious.
Speaker 1 (35:32)
We've kind of got package pricing for kind of a rough idea of what we think it's going to take to make it happen. we usually start there. And different things kind of get quoted different ways sometimes too.
Audio, I like to do package pricing with stuff. Lighting, I like to itemize. ⁓ And I like to, you know, down to every single light fixture. ⁓
because it helps me later like loading the trucks and I can hand a sheet to somebody and say hey we need 16 Vipers, 16 wash movers and you know a grand MA3 lighting console and it's already written out just print it off and give it to them. ⁓ And so I like to do spreadsheets and itemize as much as possible and it works out well for me because if somebody wants to add or take something off that's pretty easy to
sees ⁓ how much they're going to save. And a lot of times, a quote will come back and be like, great, how do we save $1,000? And ⁓ you just change the numbers a little bit. a few things here and there and send it back. And say, is the updated one. And they'll either approve it or not.
Speaker 2 (36:54)
better.
Gotcha. So how many events per week or per month would you say you got? Is there just always stuff going on? Somebody's out here doing this and you're over here doing that? It's gotta be pretty active.
Speaker 1 (37:21)
Yeah, we've probably got They vary a lot in size you know, we might have somebody that's got two speakers and a Podium mic out or we might have like RWB fest with I think that was three box trucks of equipment ⁓ But usually any particular week we've probably got four or five events at least I think a couple weeks ago we had
There's 11, like 11 pretty decent events in a week. ⁓
Speaker 2 (37:58)
Do have enough equipment to supply all this?
Speaker 1 (38:00)
Yeah, sometimes we have to rent stuff. That goes back to having good, you know, making friends and having resources to...
pull off what you need to make happen.
Speaker 2 (38:12)
Is somebody in the office doing sales? Or is just inbound?
Speaker 1 (38:17)
So, ⁓ Mark, Dominic and I do a lot of the sales and just talking with people. And we've got some other crew that help out here and there with some of that stuff. And ⁓ no just single one salesperson.
Speaker 2 (38:37)
Okay, so what's the what's the so for example I go to a yoga studio the bread and butter their business is the monthly subscription sure what's the bread and butter business of concept if there is one
Speaker 1 (38:49)
That's a good question.
Speaker 2 (38:57)
This episode of the podcast is brought to you by the Victory Theater. You know what? I'm just gonna say it, it's time. It is absolutely time for a night on the town centered around a show at the Victory. If you are in the geographical location of Evansville, Indiana, we're talking in the direct city in the region.
Let's do it. Let's have a date night. Let's have a night with the boys, a night with the girls, a night with whoever's coming out with you. And let's go to the Victory, a beautiful historic venue in downtown Evansville, Indiana. You know, what's funny is if you're there, you might see Flint running around, Flint and his crew running around with the sound and the lighting. But anyway, on September 12th, we've got the Four Horsemen, a Metallica tribute band. On September 13th, we've got the Victory Film Festival.
which Wally Opus, my record label, entered a music video called Indiana for our band Spellway out of New York into the Film Festival's newly formed music video category. Anyway, moving on, got September 18th, Water for People presents Monsters of Yacht. On September 20th, we've got the opening night of the Evansville Philharmonic. September 26th, we've got A Tribute Night to the Eagles by Out of Eden. Danny Hayes, the comedian, is stopping in on September the 27th. And we've got Deanna Carter.
Strawberry wine. On October the 9th, October 11th, we've got the crew from Napoleon Dynamite, including John Heder, Efron Ramirez, and John Grease stopping in on October 11th. And the best of Bon Jovi and Journey Attribute is coming on October the 18th. Check out all the tickets, all the additional events coming later in the year at victorytheatre.com. Thank you to the Victory Theatre for sponsoring this podcast.
putting our sweet logo all around their flashy screens inside the van.
Speaker 1 (40:55)
We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (40:57)
back
to the show.
Speaker 1 (41:01)
That is a really good question.
Speaker 2 (41:02)
Yeah,
I'm interested. Well, because you have so many like, I don't know how often you have to go visit the live stream people, the churches or like how if there's like a reoccurring or.
Speaker 1 (41:13)
That's kind of a side project. I mean we try to be very active and support it really well, it also, if everything's working fine, it shouldn't require any attention. So I would say the majority of it, the majority of what we do, the bread and butter would probably be a lot of the local shows like
Speaker 2 (41:15)
Okay.
Speaker 1 (41:43)
Victory Theater, Old National Events Plaza. We don't do...
Majority of the concerts that come through the Ford Center are self-contained. It's like you work John party. Yes, they tour with that and that goes back to the PA for ⁓ they've got what they've got on the truck and That's what they've got. Yep. Whereas there's a few here and there that will not tour with you know PA Where it's a you know, you're the local audio vendor, you know what the room needs. Yeah, so you provide it
There's some that don't tour with audio, lighting, or video and need all three. Some don't even bring backline. ⁓ We just did a show and the band flew in. I'm not even sure they brought instruments. Wow. They might have brought a few, but I think we provided like a Fender P-Bass and ⁓ maybe a Strat or something. Wow. In addition to drum kit, guitar amp, stuff like that. ⁓
Speaker 2 (42:48)
Damn, that's interesting that someone, I mean that makes sense, that'd be like a really lean way to go around touring, but I'm thinking like, that's probably gonna be expensive. Or maybe not. Well, there's an expense to having trucks and all this other stuff too though, so.
Speaker 1 (43:02)
Yeah, you know, I'm not a promoter, so I don't know the ins and outs of that. I'm sure there's, just from what I've seen, it seems like there's acts that are probably really good to book because they're self-contained, they're gonna bring everything they need, there's not gonna be any extra cost or hidden cost. But you know, if you know that cost going into it, then it might not be that big of a deal.
kind of out of the realm of, you know, my, ⁓ don't really know, of my realm of my day-to-day kind of life.
Speaker 2 (43:41)
Are those Victory Theater, Old National Events Plaza, like those like, they're not really big around here, but they're like mid-size theater venues. Are there more of those around the area that you guys are like constantly going to?
Speaker 1 (43:55)
Yeah, so we take care of Beaver Dam. Okay. And we do some of the shows at Castle Knoll up in French Lick. There's a lot of college theaters too that ⁓ we work at. ⁓ Yeah, or maybe the house system's 30 years old and gets them by for majority of it and it makes more sense to rent than spend a bunch of money replacing.
Speaker 2 (44:13)
They don't have house systems.
Speaker 1 (44:25)
Yeah. you know, lot of what we do is kind of, ⁓ it's kind of a balancing game. And from the install standpoint too, we wouldn't necessarily go to that customer and say, hey, you need to spend half a million dollars on a new sound system when they're going to use it for the three shows that, you know, they rent from us anyway. doesn't make sense to go out and spend a bunch of money and just ⁓ to save $9,000.
Speaker 2 (44:53)
Yes.
Speaker 1 (44:55)
⁓ But yeah, there's a lot of venues within 100 miles of here that we try to, and there's a few outliers like ⁓ Lexington's got a new amphitheater that's opening. Where at? Right beside Rep Arena.
Speaker 2 (45:14)
cool.
Speaker 1 (45:15)
Their first shows in about a month and I think we're doing that one. Okay I don't think we'll there's another show after that and I don't think we'll do end up doing that one But we've got the first one I believe
Speaker 2 (45:29)
Do you catch wind of these things and then go out and see what's up? did that come to you? How does that? Didn't even know there was an arena going I mean, but you're in live sound, so of course this is where you're like in the world.
Speaker 1 (45:40)
⁓ Well, that's a promoter that ⁓ knew us from something in Evansville and ⁓ she said, hey, you guys want to do this one? Yeah, love to, it'd be awesome. Yeah. And again, that goes back to the, ⁓ you know, sometimes we get a promoter that'll have somebody come in from eight hours away and beat our price and, ⁓ you know, helping a promoter out. But same, same... ⁓
You know, just choose on the different, choose on the other foot for some of that.
Speaker 2 (46:15)
So how do you go from listening to this god-awful experience at USI with the Luke Bryant Show to then what's the next steps? Where do we go take us from there to?
Speaker 1 (46:29)
So I had a friend ⁓ that kind of did some small AV stuff and helped ⁓ actually DJ some events and things like that. And he said, hey, you need to call Mark and talk to him because that's the big AV company in Evansville. He's the guy. Yeah. And so I called him and was like, hey, want to buy some speakers. And so he showed me. And I bought. ⁓
bunch of, it was actually the old PA that he was selling off so he could buy more new speakers and I bought it and I did a couple shows and I actually ended up doing USI Spring Fest. was probably two or three years after the Luke Bryan show and
Speaker 2 (47:19)
big was the setup that you bought from him.
Speaker 1 (47:21)
it wasn't wasn't very big ⁓ It was to me at the time, but it wasn't ⁓ Wasn't all that big and and springfest wasn't I did the show outside and ⁓ mark actually did the show inside And I'm trying to think it was an art not an R &B But like a hip-hop artist inside and I had a handful of local bands and stuff like that outside ⁓ That was inside, okay
Speaker 2 (47:44)
Jason Derulo?
I went to that, I was in high school. ⁓ I thought it was amazing. Looking back now, I don't know how amazing it was, but at the time, I'm like, whoa.
Speaker 1 (47:54)
⁓
yeah, I walked in and looked at Checked all that out. It was awesome. And so I didn't like yeah, I've got my little stage outside
Speaker 2 (48:03)
So
there's two stages going on simultaneously. I didn't even know that. I didn't go to USI. I just popped in as a high schooler, I think, or something.
Speaker 1 (48:09)
Yep. so I was going to USI and my advisor was actually the one that called the guy that puts on Springfest and said, one of my students, he probably said, hey, one of my students is going to fail and flunk out. We need to get him to do something different. And it's actually, ⁓ I think Sam Cuban was in your band, right?
Speaker 2 (48:33)
So Sam works with us and he's in like two bands that we represent.
Speaker 1 (48:37)
So it
was his dad. Okay, Paul, yeah. ⁓
Speaker 2 (48:42)
forgot you guys know each other. Paul's the one who told me to get you on the podcast. know, Laura had already said something. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (48:44)
Yeah.
Nice.
⁓ So, and then the guy he called that was in charge of Springfest, ⁓ Lance, or no, it's not Lance. Lance is his son. Beaker, Tim Beaker. His wife was my kindergarten teacher. ⁓ And so,
Speaker 2 (49:11)
It helps to know people.
Speaker 1 (49:12)
Yeah,
it's a small, small, small world. ⁓
Speaker 2 (49:17)
I actually had to move that acoustic guitar because Laura hit her head on it three times laughing. Boom.
Speaker 1 (49:22)
Nice. but yeah, it a small world. so I did Spring Fest for a few, I don't know, probably four years, I guess outside, maybe three years. don't remember.
Speaker 2 (49:35)
So you're freelancing though at this time, you're not.
Speaker 1 (49:37)
Yeah, just bought the speakers. I had an old ⁓ Mackie 8 bus mixer back in the analog days. Because this is...
Gosh, that's 16, probably 16, 17 years ago. And ⁓ I bought a ⁓ Mackie 8 bus for the basement studio because I thought it looked cool. It had a bunch of knobs. And so I rented a stage and a roof from Mark, actually, with the speakers I bought from him.
had a, did Spring Fest and he had the stage inside so, you know, stuff we had outside was just kind of small, small potatoes for him. But yeah. So, and then, you know, we're still doing Spring Fest. They still have it. It's not, they don't have Jason Derulo anymore.
Speaker 2 (50:33)
I don't even know who they have anymore actually. I don't have a clue.
Speaker 1 (50:37)
⁓ They've got some, ⁓ I don't know, it's not quite as big as it used to be. They've got a variety of bands and they're all good bands but it definitely isn't the same as back in the day with...
Jason Derulo and Brian.
Speaker 2 (50:59)
Brian.
I know like IU, this girl was kind of interning, it wasn't really that official, but she was part of the student entertainment group at IU. Like two years ago, wait was it two years ago? They had Noah Cahan, I know if you're familiar with Noah Cahan. Big ass folk guy, folk artist, folk pop. But I'm like damn, you guys are dropping some cash on this show. And maybe that's probably, there probably is a budget restraint.
Because tour, I mean acts are much more expensive now than they were 15, 20 years ago.
Speaker 1 (51:36)
And I assume there's probably, ⁓ I would assume the budget for that, again, that's in like promoter ⁓ territory, but I assume budget for that's probably like ⁓ an outreach or marketing or, because you're trying to draw in ⁓ high school students, because obviously you want them to be college students and ⁓ also give the college students something to do that are on campus. so I assume it's some.
comes out of some budget like that.
Speaker 2 (52:07)
That's an interesting idea. probably understand something there. I haven't thought about that. That's an interesting.
Speaker 1 (52:13)
Yep, from a marketing standpoint, drawing people in. Yeah, I'm sure there's grants.
Speaker 2 (52:20)
Yeah, you know, a couple of sponsors. So, so how do you go from DJing this little event to then, is this how you and Mark begin?
Speaker 1 (52:29)
Well, ⁓ so Mark's right hand guy ⁓ was an electrical engineer and he took a job ⁓ doing RFID tags for like marathon race timing equipment. Yeah. And so Mark called and said, Hey,
Speaker 2 (52:45)
I think I know who that guy is. he, where's he, is he a-
Speaker 1 (52:47)
Elliot?
stagehand
every once in a
Speaker 2 (52:52)
and i don't
Speaker 1 (52:54)
He's
still around. You might meet him if you work some more of the 102 gigs. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (53:03)
I think I'm working, or not WrestleMania, shit. Whatever's coming up, Raw I think is coming up in September. I think I'm working Raw.
Speaker 1 (53:09)
How many, ⁓ how many crew did you have on party?
Speaker 2 (53:13)
Shit, I don't even know.
Speaker 1 (53:15)
WWE, ⁓ they're typically by far the biggest crew. They'll end up with, ⁓ I can't remember if it was 125 or 175 people.
Speaker 2 (53:25)
I think that's what I just talked to Scott so Scott van Meters He lives like right behind me like we just found this out last week, but ⁓ He just was on the phone with him the other day and he was saying that he's I think I thought he's like 150 or something so it'd be like in the middle of what you just said, but He's like, it's a massive massive. He's like you should just come just to see how massive it is You should work all day. I'm like, okay
Speaker 1 (53:46)
Yeah, and you know it's kind of fun to go do those and see all of them.
Speaker 2 (53:53)
John Partey was my first one. But they had been asking me to do it and I thought, you know what? I'm doing this show interviewing tour managers and people who work behind the scenes in other ways. It'd be really cool to just go see what it's actually like. And then to be, to kind of pop the hood open of a bigger show like that and to see, I don't know what I thought that the guitar rig was. I didn't know what I thought it was. But then I get up there and I'm like, wait.
It's just one amplifier tucked behind the stage with two mic, like a 57 and a something else, and I'm like, that is producing all of this?
Speaker 1 (54:34)
Yeah, and a lot of people don't realize that you know probably 80 % of the time Vocal mic is an SM58. Yeah, I mean there's no ⁓
Speaker 2 (54:46)
All reliable, $100 or $90, whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (54:49)
Yep, and there's variations to that. That's not an every time kind of thing. The majority of the time, it's an SM58. No need to over-complicate it. you know Scott's son Tyler? Uh-uh. Okay, he's probably, probably be, I guess he's my age. So I went to high school with his, I went to the tech school with his son. Okay. So again, small world.
Speaker 2 (55:01)
Yeah
Speaker 1 (55:19)
Yeah. Just running to all kinds of people and things like that. yeah.
Speaker 2 (55:25)
⁓ yeah. So at what point do you Mark just links up to you? His guy leaves, Elliot leaves.
Speaker 1 (55:33)
Yep, so ⁓ he called and asked if I wanted a job and back then it was Mark and Jeannie and Mark's brother Matt. ⁓ so there wasn't, ⁓ definitely didn't have the crew we have today. So we've ⁓ got quite a few people running around the warehouse. And we keep growing, we keep looking back and it's like two years ago.
crazy how much it's changed every two years. It seems like a drastic improvement with crew and equipment and gear and the shows we're doing. ⁓ It just keeps growing and growing.
Speaker 2 (56:25)
From your knowledge if I asked Mark the the growth if we were looking at a ⁓ growth chart here would the trajectory be sort of like Incremental incremental and then at some point the the curve starts going up or has he been on like pretty much steady incline? Because if it's growing every two years, you might guys be hitting like some like exponential We're just not maybe they're gonna be I don't know how big it's gonna be but it's interesting to think that it's if it's growing leaps and bounds every
two to five years.
Speaker 1 (56:57)
Well, and some of that is my own personal ⁓ growth. I realized two, like, like, wow, two years ago, I really didn't have a clue what was, what I know now. But, you know, we continually ⁓ hire people and expand and we've got a good crew and I, we hope to keep it up and keep, keep adding more, more people and.
We just bought our first semi. Okay. So we've always contracted with trucking companies and ⁓ one of the guys that came to work for us as a CDL was like, we'll just go buy a truck. Put this to work. We went and bought a truck. ⁓ So hopefully that all works out.
Speaker 2 (57:45)
But it's funny, mean, it's such a natural, it sounds like such a natural growth story. It's almost like you meet a really rich old couple, you're like, how'd you get all this money? They're like, we just worked and saved it, and we were smart, and we just did our thing. And now we have a bunch of money in this bit. You know what I mean? It's almost just like a time and doing good.
Speaker 1 (58:10)
Mm Well, and you know, we continually keep putting in ⁓ steady, you know, lots of work and ⁓ keep knocking out events and installs and ⁓ just keep the ball rolling. And ⁓ I think I think you hit the nail on the head. It's just kind of the natural expansion and progression of just working hard and keeping with it. ⁓ And we've got, you know,
Like I said, the crew's great. They're all motivated and want to keep, keep going. And, so that's what we're going keep doing.
Speaker 2 (58:50)
Did you, I'm curious when you were like getting into all this, whether it was in college or even younger, did you think that you would be able to do this job living in this area? Did you even think about that? Or did people be like, this isn't gonna work out for you, Flint, you need to go get.
Speaker 1 (59:08)
I had a real job. I had a few people, you know, I had a few people say, well, you need to move to Nashville and if you're going to do it, you need to really do it. And ⁓ I've always I've always thought, you know, there's.
Speaker 2 (59:09)
Make a different shot.
Speaker 1 (59:29)
There's not a need for that. We can do, we can have a decent sized AV company in Evansville. Yeah. There's plenty to do.
There's always ⁓ events happening. There's always stuff around here. It might not necessarily be in Evansville, but in the surrounding area, there's plenty going on. And ⁓ so the livestream thing, ⁓ it was slow one winter. And Kyle and I just worked on it for a couple of weeks in ⁓ downtime.
or where we didn't have many events going. And that goes back to the companies changed a lot. And it hasn't been five or 10 events a week always. There were times that I think there was like a month that we went without doing a whole lot. ⁓ just because there was no events, no installs, and ⁓ just
is was what it was. So you know winter had been historically slow for our company just because you lose all the summer festivals and things like that but ⁓ anymore we found plenty to do to keep us busy and a lot of indoor shows and you know there was that economic depression back then so that I'm sure contributed to a lot of it. ⁓
Speaker 2 (1:01:05)
What, in your perspective, so if you get on, if you get on LinkedIn, and I've brought this up on the podcast a couple times, because it's just still rampant, there is a very pessimistic view of live music, of the music industry, of, you know, sustainability, and it's for a good reason. Things are shifting like crazy, AI's in the.
mix now and like you know there's so many yes the conditions the arena of like the stability is like kind of gone in a lot of ways but from your perspective with as busy as you guys are and you know always doing they're not all music events but like from your perspective and these these shows that you're going to what is the state from your viewpoint
of the health or the vitality of live events and live music? Are these events becoming successful that you're, are these events successful out there, smaller or bigger? What is your consensus on your optimistic or pessimistic about where things are headed for live music specifically?
Speaker 1 (1:02:13)
That's a good question too. So, you know, we've got people that come in from every once in while you get a stagehand that moves here from like New York and they'll say, well, you know, this area is 10 years behind everywhere else or behind the big cities. And so I think the nice part about Evansville and our area is we are sheltered a little bit.
So like with COVID, we were small enough that...
We were small enough we didn't have the liabilities where we could just slow down a little bit. granted, it wasn't easy. ⁓ There were still struggles with financials and things like that. But ⁓ it also wasn't like, ⁓ say, Claire Global in Nashville where you have hundreds of tours out and they all start bringing their semi trucks back and saying,
There's no show. We don't have any money. ⁓ So companies like that were having issues where they're not used to having all the gear they own coming back because they're always out on the road. They had to go rent extra space because they had semis and semis of stuff coming back. Yeah. so we're. ⁓
Speaker 2 (1:03:37)
or just burning cash. Making shit when you're them.
Speaker 1 (1:03:46)
⁓ We're a small enough company that's got enough ⁓ weird side projects. Like the live stream thing and ⁓ like the illuminate festival, which I think is going to be super cool. ⁓ We've got all these other things that we're not just in one narrow market. We're in the AV industry, but it's ⁓ a very wide part of the AV industry.
So I think while some of the bigger cities, if there are issues, we're going to see that for sure first. ⁓ But I think Evansville's small enough that it's going to shelter it a little bit. Yeah. But what other issues ⁓ had you seen with the entertainment industry?
Speaker 2 (1:04:41)
And you gotta understand I'm tuned into like small like smaller artists touring No, nobody can make any money. Everybody's complaining about that the vent there a lot of venues closed and I was like small there's like less venues, although I'm like well in our area There's like several that are opening back up or like restaurant bar venues. Sure, but I think that ⁓ mostly I Just think people there's just like it's not everybody
But there's just a lot of people who are pessimistic about the future of music or like, are we gonna do? It's too expensive to tour. we gonna? But what I think, there's several artists who I'm working with or who I know who are just, they're just still doing it. They're just thinking of other creative ways. I got a guy right now, he's got to go on tour in October. He's gonna play 10 shows from New York down to Mississippi and then he's got like two stops on way back. And eight out of the 10 shows, he's negotiated with the venue, a place to stay.
and they didn't really take it out of the fee. Like it's kind of just, okay, yeah, you could crash over here. And they're making it due. It ain't gonna be the most comfortable thing, but there's a chance we come back with some money, you know? So I think it's just finding.
Speaker 1 (1:05:52)
I think if you can be creative and so it's for the smaller groups that want to tour, anything you can do to be creative and not follow the, not necessarily follow like the big music industry cookie cutter plan would be in your benefit. so there's like a country artist, Cody Jinx.
⁓ They take care of a lot of their own, you know, booking and ⁓ management. ⁓ And so, like from their standpoint, ⁓ when they come into Victory Theater, they don't even use a promoter. They rent the building, and they are their own promoter. ⁓ Granted, that takes a whole team of people, again, because it's this machine that you don't want to miss any certain...
part of the machine or it's not gonna operate. So they've still gotta have people doing the roles that have to be done. But there's no, you know, just promoter that's taking a chance and betting on whether their show's gonna sell or not. ⁓ But also as a smaller artist, you've really, you gotta like what you do too. And you gotta realize that it's probably
Some things aren't going to be profitable, some are. ⁓ if you can find a way to go out there and do the tours and keep performing, getting some of that exposure, gaining a following ⁓ is going to be useful. Yes. ⁓ But there's also other ways to get a following. I mean, you could get a following on TikTok. ⁓
There's artists that are famous from that. One of them actually played Spring Fest at USI. ⁓ Can't think of who that was, but his one song was TikTok famous. That's why he was out touring and he was just using the touring thing to go out and make money off of his one song that was TikTok famous.
Speaker 2 (1:08:12)
No, think it's funny, dude. Your viewpoint is very common sense. It's very grounded in just common sense. that's what I use as example. ⁓ But I had a buddy who he's a painter, he's a fine artist, he lives in Evansville now. But he wanted to have a gallery show, large scale gallery. He wanted to be in the big galleries. But to get to the galleries, no one would reply.
So he had a show in Evansville at the Arts Council. He basically did the gallery that he in his mind wanted the world, like that he wanted to do out in the world. I don't think he even sold anything in Evansville, but then he posted that online. It was right around COVID. A New York gallery saw it and they're like, hey, are any of these pieces for sale? He's like, funny enough, they all are, or most of them. They sold out online and through New York. Then a bigger gallery in London saw that.
and hit him up and was like, hey, we have a London gallery. Would you want to host a show here? But the example is, or the thing is, is like he fronted his own money to put up his own show, which then attracted people to come want to jump on the thing. And I think that's what, you know, this artist that I was talking about was gonna go on tour. That's what we discussed. And he's like, you know what? I'm just gonna book my own tour. I'm gonna go out and do it. He's gonna front all of his own money. And it's like, you know, through doing that, you're giving...
if you want, a booking agent, something to look at or a promoter, something to look at and say, okay, this guy can do it. He just did it. Look, you know, versus somebody who wants to do it and is waiting, like you said, on like the traditional music mold or whatever to come save the day. I just don't think that's the...
Speaker 1 (1:09:55)
Proving that you can go do it and having the metrics from it and having proof that it happened and sold this many tickets and ⁓ maybe showing progressively more tickets as you go. Yes. Yeah, you gotta start somewhere.
Speaker 2 (1:10:13)
So I'm curious, we'll wrap it up in a sec, I'm curious, what are your personal future plans as it relates to this job? What do you see for yourself? Where do you wanna go with all this?
Speaker 1 (1:10:25)
Well, there's not much past Chief Floor Sweeper. That's pretty far up there. ⁓ There's all kinds of ⁓ things that just keep grinding and expanding. ⁓ There's always bigger, better, more stuff. I like gear. I like buying stuff. ⁓ Anybody in our office will tell you.
I'm gonna take my credit card away. ⁓ But ⁓ I know, I like being able to have what we need to make it happen too. ⁓ so we'll just keep on going just like we've been doing and expanding equipment, adding more people and the infrastructure to support it. ⁓ And hopefully Evansville keeps up and expands the infrastructure to support us.
Speaker 2 (1:11:24)
Yeah. Can I come see the warehouse sometime? Sure.
Speaker 1 (1:11:30)
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (1:11:37)
Hey, thanks for listening to the show this week. And thank you to Flint for coming on and talking about Concept Sound and Light. You know what I love about the story of Concept Sound and Light, although we didn't hear from the owner who started it, the founder, who still heard a little bit about it, and you can read more of their story on their website. I love that it was just a slow, you know, I keep imagining this.
this line of growth being just a slow growth, gradual growth over time to where the arc or the curve of the growth, the slope really starts increasing and the growth becomes exponential to some extent. Not necessarily doubling in size every year, but growing leaps and bounds every two years like Flynn had mentioned. I think it's such a testament to really the persistence and the commitment of doing something different.
of showing up consistently over three decades and then seeing it pay off as time rolls on. I think it's great. It's so inspiring for me being in the same city as them, building record label, having a small studio, this podcast, and building my artist development and coaching company in ThruLine. Which, if you're an artist, an independent artist, and you want guidance and an experienced expert in your pocket helping you put together your release plans,
your marketing strategy, your social strategy. You're gonna put this stuff together. It can be a lonely, fusing, challenging journey to set out on your own doing. At Throughline Development, we offer this service to show up basically as a partner in your pocket, an invested partnership where I can help you really figure out what matters most, really understand where you're at in your journey.
And then we're going to, through that lens, look up at a North Star and we're going to define the North Star as this is my ultimate goal. This is my ideal destination. This is what I want. And with that understanding of where you're at and that understanding of where you want to go, tied together with a practical strategy that you could take action on ASAP and start working towards that great vision. This is the work that we can do together at Throughline Development Company. Visit artistdev.co to check that out.
Visit Wallyopus.com to check out my record label and see all the great artists that we work with there. And last, thank you again for listening to show. Please support it by sharing it with a friend or sharing it with someone who you think is interested in the behind the scenes of anything, because that's sort of how I am. I like just the behind the scenes of stuff. I just work in music and my highest interest lies in music, music business. But thank you again for listening. Please follow, like, and share on Instagram and on Apple Podcast.
Spotify if you listen there. By the way, we are now on YouTube. If you just listen to this, you want to watch the episode or watch future episodes, visit everybody else on YouTube and we're going to be putting the full episodes up on there with the sick new webcam. So thank you and we'll see you again soon.