​"It was such a struggle when I was first putting this band together, because right away it was chart readers. And God bless chart readers. I will never bemoan their playing. I've played with some of the most talented cats in the business. But I never wanted a chart reader. I wanted a Joe Perry. I wanted a Malcolm Young. I wanted somebody who was going to be onstage just rockin' balls as well as being a brilliant musician. And somebody who was willing to contribute. Sure the band bears my name, but I in no way ever wanted to be the band leader. I want guys that want to be a part of something, who want to create, and who want to work harder than the next guy for the crowd because I think entertainment is a lost art." - Louis Prima Jr. of clients Louis Prima Jr and the Witnesses

Cris: How have you changed as a singer over the years?

Laura Tate: I think that I am more confident as a person, as a woman. I'm comfortable with choosing this road.

Cris: In addition to keyboards, you also play the organ, which has become more of a rarity in the world of rock. Is it an artform that is going away?

Jeremy Lawton of Big Head Todd and the Monsters: I think it’s still a pretty big deal. When I was in college in the early 90s, there were still a lot of bands that had organ players. And back then the keyboards were not so much better and so much smaller, like they are now. The sound of a Hammond organ is very specific. There are so many nuances that it is really hard to recreate. And I was always mesmerized by the mechanics. It weighs 400 pounds. It’s as complicated as a car in a way. There are gears and motors and wires everywhere. And I was always that kid who took everything apart and put it back together. So I was mesmerized by its sound and the mechanics of it at the same time. And I think that is the allure of it, that it is so strange. To think that a guy built that in the 1930s. Or the Hammond organ that I use is probably late 60s maybe. Even that one is one of the newest ones and it’s 50 years old. 

​Admittedly I don't understand the appeal of live video on social media. And it is not just because most live videos are really boring. 

I love DVRs and the ability to watch shows when it is convenient for me. I don't want to go backward. I don't want to schedule my day around when someone else is broadcasting. And live video on social media is kind of a step backward. 

Right now live videos are being made not because people have something interesting to say or to show but because the various social media algorithms show favoritism to live videos. And people like to see those reach numbers increase.

Thus ever more content is being released that is not intended to engage people but to engage lines of code within a computer somewhere. 

​Before the Internet, I would dig for interesting reading about musicians in newspapers, magazines, and books. I was curious about the stories behind their songs, what their writing process was like, what they did differently from other musicians, etc. Sometimes it was in a cover story and sometimes you really had to search for cool material.

Now we have the Internet and social media. Each band has its own online magazine. 

And I have to work even harder to find interesting reading about musicians.

Because most musicians don't post about their music or what they have learned. Instead they just post about what they are wearing, what they are eating, and photos of highway exit signs.

I'm offering a new Essentials Package of custom social media content for your band or business for just $150 a month. Contact me at cris@bandstofans.com for more information.

​"My philosophy has always been that if no one is offering me what I am after, then I need to go get it myself." - client Daniel Glass

​There are number of clever memes out there. However, I don't know that I have followed or done business with any business or band because of one. They say that any attention is good attention, but I am not sure that is true. 

It is like back in the days when we would watch TV commercials because… well… we had to. There were plain, straightforward commercials, but if the product was something I liked or could use, I followed up. There were also clever, exciting commercials for things I had no interest in. I would think, "That was a really entertaining commercial. But that beverage still just looks like carbonated urine."

It is the same with social media. There have been simple posts of just text that really resonated with me. And there have been posts that were movie-quality video extravaganzas that I left after 3 seconds.