This week we have the wonderful Amanda Phelan on the bus! Amanda comes to us from Danny Wimmer Presents - where she is the Director of Talent. Lately I have been noticing a lot of misinformation out there on what actually goes into making a festival happen. Now I do not know what it takes to put on a festival - because I have never done it. Danny Wimmer Presents puts on eight different festivals all over the USA every year. Aftershock, Louder Than Life & Hometown Rising to name a few. I have had the pleasure of attending some of them when I was on tour with A Day To Remember - and damnit, they were a blast. I hope you enjoy this week’s episode with Amanda - it was an absolute pleasure to get to speak with her and learn from her for an hour.  

This week we welcome Lucas Keller - the CEO & Founder of Milk & Honey. Milk & Honey is a 21st-century hybrid entertainment company that represents some of the biggest songwriters & producers in the music industry today. David Hodges, Oak Felder, Sir Nolan, and Jenna Andrews to name a few. Lucas played a big role in my career when I was just starting out - and I am thankful for what I was able to learn from him. It is nice to reconnect, and start learning from him again. The music industry is like that sometimes - sometimes you don’t hear from people for 10+ years, and then the next thing you know you are working with them.

This week we have the legend Eric Gardner on the podcast. Eric has been working in the industry for over 50 years now. He is the CEO & Founder at Panacea Entertainment and currently manages Paul Shaffer & Todd Rundgren. His career and life are full of amazing stories and I am so happy to have him on to share a few with us today. In the future hopefully we can get him back to tell us more stories.  

This week we have Chris Gaylord, the bassist for Wage War on the podcast. I haven’t seen Chris in almost three years now but damn was it good to catch up with him. Chris’ band has been touring their asses off for almost ten years now. This most recent tour was their first in a tour bus and I know that feeling all too well. Congrats guys, what a time to be alive.  If you haven’t had a chance to check out Wage War - put on their Spotify, clear all the breakable objects from your vicinity, and just mosh. That is what I do.  

This week we have Kelen Capener of The Story So Far on the podcast. Kelen is a kind human I respect and admire. He makes jokes that are so believable they often go over my head and you will witness this multiple times throughout the podcast. I was happy to catch up with him because well, we haven't spoken in a long time. It was nice to catch up on what he has been up to in life as well as revisit some memories we have together. This was a great chat, thank you Kelen

This week we have my good friend Daniel Nickleski on the podcast. Daniel owns and operates Sound Works out of Illinois and currently tours with Kygo. Daniel and I set off with the intention to talk about how COVID has affected the music industry - and we did do that, a little bit. But to be honest we mostly got lost in the sauce and just started talking about touring in general and tossed in some COVID here and there - and eventually dug up some embarrassing tour stories. All in all I think it’s a very well-balanced and fun episode. As always - I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.  

This week we have the wonderful Lindsey McLemore on the podcast to talk about street teams. Street teams were much more popular back in the early 2000’s - however, they do still exist today in a more refined form. Lindsey is a marketing manager at The Syndicate and works with them closely to help bring labels, bands, managers’ marketing dreams to life. They have done some remarkable projects with artists such as Panic! At The Disco and LCD Soundsystem. We think street teams are a great way for anyone to get started in the music industry - so we figured we would break it down for you and teach you what exactly it is they do. I hope you enjoy this week's episode!

Starting 2022 off with a banger! So happy to have the legend that is Johnny Minardi on the podcast. Johnny is the VP of A&R at Elektra records and one of the most inspiring people I have had the pleasure of speaking with. Through consistently finding the right path Johnny has created a well-rounded and balanced life with a great support network. This setup allows him to crush goals, inspire his peers, and teach the next generation on the way. I think we can all agree this is definitely something we are all working towards in our own lives and careers. Thank you for your knowledge Johnny, we collectively appreciate you!

This week we are trying something new - and if you like it, let us know and we will do more of it! I invited a few of my friends to the show to tell some of their favorite tour stories. Thank you so much to you all for joining me. If you are an experienced touring person - hit me up and we will get you on the next episode of Tour Tales, or whatever we end up calling this series. Happy holidays to everyone! See you next year!  

This week we welcome Katie Robinson the VP of Marketing at Electra Music Group to the podcast! Katie started her journey in the industry over 15 years ago. She has slowly climbed her way to the top and is very knowledgeable on how labels of all levels operate. In this episode she breakdowns everything we need to understand before we can go any deeper on learning about labels. I’m excited to continue our journey into understanding the different areas of the music industry and Think this episode will be a great primer for future deep dives. Thank you Katie for joining us.