00:00:00so just wanted to know kind of how you got into the business?
good question. so went to vcu studied jazz and jazz performance and minored in
business and so just through playing and bands and that sort of thing. I had an
internship at camel my junior year and then i started working there and running
sound and barbacking and booking shows and i kind of just grew off of that.
what did you grow up listening to a lot of music and what type
my parents are not super musically inclined but yeah i guess when i was in sixth
or seventh grade i found a guitar in my grandpas basement and so i started
playing guitar but was also playing trumpet in school band which i studied all
throughout college so just kind of got really into music learning a ton of
00:01:00classic rock songs. when i was in high school i had a job and every friday i
would just got to the goodwill because when youre in high school and you have a
job you have money and you dont have to pay for anything so i would go to good
will and would buy like 10 to 30 dollar records so i have hundreds of records
now of classic rock and classical and jazz, all kinds of stuff. would just
listen to things and find out new music and thats really great
do you have a favorite record
well shit. well no that's kind of a loaded question like ya know i really like
please please me by the beatles. I think thats pretty pretty solid record but
can you compare the beatles to radio head. like okay computers a fucking awesome
album but ya know so is kinda blue its hard to say what my favorite album is
is there anything that you remember about music that relates to your childhood
so when i was in seventh grade i dislocated my hip playing football and i
00:02:00couldnt go to school for two and a half months cause i had to have my foot
propped up so what i learned was if you do a lot of time wasting in school but
if youre at home by yourself and you have to do all the assignments you can do
them in like an hour and a half so i would do all my school work for the day
then play guitar for the rest of the day
did you teach yourself how to play guitar
yeah probably just playing guitar until my fingers bled which is like kinda
true. theyre just so sore you cant play anymore so like cool i guess ill watch
more price is right now
what was the first song you learned
oh man i don't probably like smoke on the water or something because it is super easy
00:03:00
what would you say is the most difficult part and most rewarding part of this job.
the most difficult is probably the hours so ya know todays a little different
cause im not working the late shift but yesterday ya know i wake up in the
morning, i run or go to the gym then i'm doing office hours work from 8 or 9 am
until 5 or 6 or 7 pm then theres a whole other shift of working the show after
that. so yesterday i was basically working from 8 or 9 in the morning until 1:30
the next morning and that's a long day and there are some breaks in between it
but it just gets tiring and exhausting and mentally exhausting so thats probably
the hardest part. just the long hours. and having to do all this stuff during
the day and when most people say oh cool i worked all day and now i'm done i say
oh cool i worked all day now i can do the second shift of running the show. the
most rewarding is probably just seeing the shows come together cause im involved
in the whole process from the first time an agent reaches out to me till paying
the band and watching them drive away at the end of the night so kind of seeing
it really coming to fruition especially really popular shows. its pretty cool.
00:04:00
what is the office part of this job
a lot of emails. a lot of emails. and thats really it. they email like cool like
theyre A lot of e-mails a lot of cloud of emails and that's really it. You know
each email is like oh cool. Somebody is asking for holds for a date OK and i to
go to the calendar see what we got. Or you know somebody needs to send up a
marketing plan like a goal I mean like make work that up real quick. So it's
really just a long lengthy to do list that other people are asking me to do.
Aside from that you know bookkeeping paying the bills doing payroll doing the
schedule fixing stuff around here you know there's a hole in the wall that
somebody's got to fix that. That's me. So it's kind of a little bit of everything.
How many people work here.
You say probably about 50 maybe a little bit less than that. Somewhere between
30 and 50. It varies. Most people are part time but there's a handful of full
time folks. Some people you know work here and at the camel part of our
00:05:00production staff has other side gigs you know they also work for a touring band
so they'll go on the road for a couple of weeks and we'll be back in then be
working and that sort of thing.
So kind of how did you or did you decide you wanted to do this through your
internship at the camel and kind of seeing how that went. Or was this something
that you kind of fell into through what you were doing
both and i'll explain. So when I graduated from VCU I was working at a church
full time as a music director or assistant music director and also playing in a
couple of bands and like up and down the East Coast kind of thing. Still while
doing the booking at the camel and some other stuff like that. I had always kind
of dreamed of like oh man I want to open up this like breakfast restaurant place
that plays jazz all the time and then when I was like nobody's going to go to
that. So the camel was running into some zoning issues. And so the previous
00:06:00owner had found this location and was like hey this location I it's pretty
great, Do you want to come in with me and you know run it or whatever and I was
like oh my god. So I ended up quitting my job at church which was like you know
fulltime with benefits and vacation days and all that stuff to do this. So yes I
wanted to do it. Yes it kind of just fell into my lap. It was kind of a
culmination of all of the contacts that I had made over the course of college
and three years out of college and then it just kind of happened. So in that sense.
So how do you deal kind of like with the zoning issues
Yes. You know very delicately as far as like zoning and legal issues. You never
want to ask too many questions because then you're on people's radar and you
never want to just do the wrong thing. So it's a lot of researching kind of you
00:07:00know asking other venue owners or people that operate similar type businesses
you know kind of guessing and asking for forgiveness if you need to.
Are you in contact with a lot of the different owners of the different venues
Yes I'd say everyone except the National is kind of really works pretty closely
together. You know I get together with the guy that cooks music at strange
matter and Cary Street cafe. You know probably once a month the three of us sit
down as you know the guys that book for the venues in town and it's like hey
what's up what are you working on who's coming up what sort of challenges you
have what's going on. And just you know we're all richmond everybody's trying to
do the same thing. So
What could the city do to make to like make the music scene cooler.
Ah wow what a question. It's tough because you know that whenever the city is
00:08:00actively trying to do things to make something cooler it's going to
automatically not be as cool. So I don't really know. I think the best thing
they could do is just embrace the fact that there is this really awesome
thriving music scene happening in Richmond and stuff coming out of Richmond and
also coming to Richmond and just kind of like champion that. And you know make
sure people know like you guys come here for music. You know we've got great
stuff happening at the Broadberry and the national and the ultra theater and
down at center stage and they all over the place you know Browns Island just so
they're kind of helping to put out the word that it's happening as opposed to
like actively doing things to make it better because it's organically pretty awesome
And how long have you been here.
So I was born in Texas and moved here when I was like nine months old. So I grew
up in Chesterfield went to see you still in it
How has it changed since you've been growing up. How has the music scene changed
00:09:00. Kind of Richmond is so much safer. As far as the music scene. I mean I can
really only speak to like the last 10 or 15 years.
How was it changed.
I mean obviously the venues have kind of grown up. It's really a lot of it is
you know bands have kind of blown up and gone outside of Richmond and then come
back in like you know this is where I came from like this place is really cool.
You know we got we've got people like the head the heart going out. You know
Tyler lives in Richmond and it's like he's playing amphitheaters all over the
world. But then he's coming home and like being in Richmond talking about how
cool it is or when he's out talking about how cool it is and you know Jay Roddy
is from Richmond and he's out doing the thing and you know when people see you
like oh look at all these folks that are from Richmond but out doing stuff I
mean that's great. And it's I think that's kind of what's that's always been
00:10:00happening I guess but I don't know that doesn't really answer your question. I
don't know, it's changed.
So what do you think just what's the best concert you've ever been to.
The best concert I've ever been to. I did see Bon Iver and his golden messenger
and Merriweather Post civilian. That was pretty cool. It's so to say something
is going to make me sound really snobby but like they i've been to a lot of
concerts and so like they all kind of run together. And so I don't know that I
could pick one that's like my favorite but like I have some semi memorable like
bad concert experiences where i was like oh man it sounds like crap. Or like
just. Yeah. You can tell it's off and it's like now I want to go home now kind
00:11:00of thing. As far as best I don't know Bon Iver definitely sticks out in my mind
as one of the most memorable.
How do you keep a concert good like do you think it's more of who's playing or
kind of what's the scene that's in the venue
I think it depends on what a person wants. You know like are you an introverted
person who loves music then it's obviously more about the music. Are you like
that a very personal love to party like me like yeah it's about the music but
it's also about like you know would go to my friends and have a good time and
that sort of thing. So you know you can also look at it as well what type of
concert you going to are you're going to like to see the symphony like you're
obviously going to sit down. Like for Bon Iver we just stood there and like
focused you know for a lot of it. You know you go to an EDM concert it's like OK
it's about the music is about like the lights and like hanging out partying with
your friends. So I think it really varies and depends on what a person wants to
get out of it and also like what sort of experience the artist is putting forth.
00:12:00
And actually I'm from Norfolk and so I you know I'm always at the farm bureau
live of the Norva and things like that and it's always just kind of more about
like oh we'll go sit on the lawn and everybody hang out
we were at Merriweather we were like dip down and like the front little like you
go down. It's like right. Yeah. It was like that icicle that is first time I've
been there. Yeah it's awesome. I really enjoyed it.
And then I'm so kind of what would you say have you all catered to the scene here.
So because I do the Broadberry and the camel it's cool because camels half the
size of the Broadberry and it's open seven days a week with about nine shows
every week. So with that much music all the time we're really able to kind of
bring in a wide variety of up and coming smaller local acts we can foster and
build them up. You know whenever they're selling out and they can move out of
the Bradbury. So it's cool to kind of see people grow from playing house shows
00:13:00to selling out the Broadberry. Then we kind of you know go back to that kind of
a three person group with the guys that book all over town. You know we're
always talking about who's new that's playing. That sounds great or you know was
really good at promoting or whatever and just trying to kind of see who's coming
up. So we can keep bringing new stuff out
So how do you go about about finding them is more of them coming to you or going around
I'd say it's a lot of people reaching out and then kind of doing some research
on them where you play and listen to they record. What does it sound like that
sort of thing. I mean it would be impossible for me to go to every show
especially working like 14 hour days and I'm like Great now I'm going to go to
like four shows tonight nah I think im going to go to bed.
So what's the whole process like through kind of you e-mailing or a band manager
emailing you to play.
Sure. So. Usually what happens is someone will either let's say someone contacts
00:14:00me which happens the majority of time they'll contact me and be like hey we're
touring through town. Do you have. Send me your holds for April 1st through
April 5th and so I'll look at my calendar and see what we have on those dates.
There's one person that's already holding the date which means like OK I think
we want to do that day but we're still getting all of our ducks in a row. Then I
give it to them. If there's somebody in front of them to give you a second old
school like you're second in line to do the date. So I sent him all those holds.
Give it back to him be like great cool. Let's work out our tour. Cool. They come
back. Anywhere from that day to a month later you're like hey ok cool we're
ready to lock in April 4th. So then I go if they're first in line cool confirmed
if they're not first in line then you have to go kind of like hey are you ready
to confirm nope. OK. You don't have the date have you confirmed you know on the
date and then you get it and then it's just you know how theyre going to get
here what time you need to load in with how are you going to play how many
openers that sort of thing.
00:15:00
And do they decide on those things.
Kind of depends. Sometimes I'll get a package or it's like hey here's these
three bands and they're touring together or it's hey here's this band and
they're touring with the support and then we want one local band. or it's like
hey here is this band we need you to add two bands to the bill. It really varies
depending on what what people are doing.
What is do you think the best and worst thing about the music scene in Richmond.
The best thing is that every the majority of people are like champions of each
other. So you know you know you look at people like Lucy degasse for example.
She kind of blew up all of a sudden and everybody's like super stoked for it's
like Lucy thats awesome. Angelica Garcia is on that path and it's really cool
and people really support and embrace and like champion the folks that are like
00:16:00really doing it. And I think that's great. The other great thing is there's a
lot of people working together like cross-genre which is great. I think that is
something really special that Richard has where there is such a wide variety of
like punk hardcore indie rock hip hop jazz regular rock and roll and like people
working together to make these interesting sounded interesting influence bands.
That's pretty cool. Worst thing anybody worst thing is like I think some people
feel entitled and like they don't they feel like they don't think that they have
to put in the work to get to where they need to be. And so you know they have a
show it's not that many people there and they want to blame all these other out
all these other factors aside except for like themselves. Like Well I don't
know. Yeah that would have been a thousand people there if a thousand people
wanted to come see you play. So be better or promote better or whatever. As
00:17:00opposed to just being like Man Well like we're definitely worth that. But I
don't know why they didnt come.
Definitely. So how many people fit in here.
About 500.
And how do you all advertise.
All kinds of ways and we're constantly looking for new creative ways to
advertise you know Facebook Ads Twitter Instagram we put flyers up around town.
We're on you know XL102, big 1985 w r i r or w r n r out in Charlottesville,
e-mail newsletters all in the venue we've got posters hanging in the bathroom
like everywhere.
Have things changed now but not as many people listen to the radio.
I don't know. We've only been doing it for two years. I'm not entirely convinced
that it's working. I'm also not convinced it's not working but people still do
it still does have a reach and it has a reach for people that I think are
00:18:00different than our typical audience. And so that's we're just trying to get our
name out there. It's not necessarily if someone is going to hear Bradbury and be
like oh I'll go in tonight. But if you know someone always listens to X L 102 to
they're going to hear it over and over and over again and maybe its the 50th
time they hear it that it kind of sets in.
So would you say your typical person who comes here.