The Unstarving Musician

Dave Cool of Bandzoogle returns for a second time on the Unstarving Musician. The last time he was on was episode 142, recorded on March 20th of this year at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now he's back to talk about how artists can adapt to the current changes.

This week I sit down with Garret Laver of the trio Lucid Phase, a band whose style is something between roots, reggae, dub, jam, blues and world. Garret and I spoke on the heels of their then new single release, Roots Enterprise. We talk about that, his bandmates, collaborators, recording, his writing process, and more.

This week I talk with Blues guitarist, singer-songwriter Brian Young, a member of the Unstarving Musician community, about the recent loss of his wife, the music their marriage inspired, and the songwriting advice that comes out of both.

In this episode I welcome back Ezra Vancil to the podcast. This all started through an email exchange we had where Ezra mentioned an arduous trip to Florida for a festival he was performing during the onset of the pandemic. In this conversation, we also discuss: his new album, The Family Songbook, his experience living with depression, his sentiments about live streaming and much more.

Singer, songwriter and producer Otto just released the new single Tell Me Something, produced by Dave Stewart. Otto is based in Wales, but English by birth. I learned about him while researching the collaboration app Trackd. In this episode Otto shares his experience as a Trackd user, how he came to be involved with Dave Stewart, a big songwriting tip, and how he got one of his songs a-listed with BBC Radio in Wales.

Zoë Sonnenberg is a lifelong singer, frequent baker and a writer with a passion for supporting the performing arts. She is also a PR professional with the agency Sacks & Co. She and I have worked together to book some of her clients on this podcast, including Danielle Eva Schwob (Ep 147) and Evangeline Gentle (Ep 171). In this conversation, Zoë and I talk about how she got into the public relations business, what PR firms do for clients and what she looks for in a prospective client.

Michael Sloan is the CEO of Streaming Promotions, a strategic streaming platform promotion company. Founded in 2015, Streaming Promotions works to increase their clients footprint on streaming services with music adoption and traction on streaming platforms, specifically Spotify. In our conversation, Michael explains why streaming promotion is important and explains the related ecosystem of Spotify playlists, artists, consumers and labels.

This "rewind" episode features Mike Dawson from his first appearance on the the Unstarving Musician, which was episode 1 of the podcast. Mike has also been featured in episodes 25, 50 and 100.  He is Managing Editor of Modern Drummer Magazine, a pro drummer, co-host of The Modern Drummer Podcast, and a music educator. Our conversation covers Mike's prolific hustle as a gigging and studio musician, family life, music education, his early music influences, business, marketing, YouTube and more.

Peter Rand is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who I met on the collaboration platform Kompoz. He and I collaborated on one of the 800-plus projects he has posted on the platform. 800-plus! That's amazing. Ten of Peter's Kompoz collaborations were recently published on iTunes, Spotify and elsewhere. In this conversation, Peter provides a little insight into Kompoz, why he recommends it to other musicians, his diverse musicality, and much more.

Markus K is a blues fusion player and master looper who performs street concerts around the world. He’s also a user of the collaboration app Trackd, which he says allows him to record anywhere with great results. Markus has worked in a wide range of studios and claims he can’t say enough nice things about Trackd. In this conversation, we talk extensively about Trackd, street performing, Markus’ travels and more.