The Unstarving Musician

Brian Wolff returns to the Unstarving Musician to participate in the Unstarving Musician survey, in which I ask some of the best independent musicians I know questions about creativity, social media, live streaming, community building and more. This is Brian's third appearance on the podcast, and I have a fourth interview with him in the can, so to speak. That interview will drop in late April or early May. Brian is a founding member of the Austin based rock band Fair City Fire, turned solo...

Alyssa Trahan recently participated in a survey for the forthcoming second edition of The Unstarving Musician’s Guide to Getting Paid Gigs. I decided to conduct the surveys by phone and to make an episode of this particular conversation, because Alyssa’s responses are so insightful and inspiring. As a side note, Alyssa is is now an official two-timer, this being her second conversation with me for the podcast. The format is a little different, because I was conducting the interview based on...

Steven Keene says his songwriting routine has never resembled work. To the contrary, he’s always written in the moment and as inspiration strikes. Yet he’s had a consistent and prolific songwriting career. Steven grew up in Brooklyn New York, and honed his skills in the Greenwich Village scene of the late 80s, early 90s alongside Beck and other noteworthies. The day we spoke, he had a new single out. That single was called “Cause I Can’t Have You.” Since then, the full album “Them & Us”...

Johnnie Gilmore is a songwriter and bass player of virtuoso caliber. He honed his chops and stage craft in part as a street performer in his hometown of Boston. L.A. is now home for Johnnie. He has a great EP out called When You Come Home. In this episode we talk about how the EP came together amidst the pandemic. Johnnie was brought to my attention by Zoe Sonnenberg (featured in episode 180). At the time of our conversation, Oct 2020, the pandemic was nearing its peak crisis status in the...

This episode features a conversation with singer-songwriter Lara Price. In this experimental episode, Lara interviews me about the release of On Top Of The World (out today, Friday January 8, 2021). Lara is an amazing singer, performer and songwriter, making this conversation a big honor for me. We met in San Jose, California some 18 years ago. Lara is currently based in Austin, Texas. Our conversation includes some dissection of my new song plus: publishing, marketing, sync placement,...

In this episode, Ezra Vancil interviews me about my forthcoming debut single On Top Of The World. We cover the history and process of my songwriting, using public proclamation as a source of accountability, various technical challenges I faced in writing and recording the song, the players involved, and the forthcoming video. On Top Of The World drops January 8th, 2021. Download it for free at Robonzo.com. Our discussion covers themes common among creative individuals. Taking the leap from...

My guest for this episode is multi-instrumentalist and studio engineer Chris Raspante. Prolific and in-demand as both performer and sound engineer, Chris is regularly solicited for hire on various music projects. In this conversation we discuss his return to performing live, the logistics of recording remotely, our work together on my song On Top Of The World, and why he thinks his phone is always ringing. We recorded this conversation in October of 2020, during one of the peaks of the...

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. Dave is VP of Business Development at Bandzoogle. In this follow-up conversation we discuss a wide range of topics, including: Full disclosure: I'm a humble and honored affiliate of Bandzoogle, which means I make a wee bit of money if you purchase a plan using my promo code ROBONZO, which you can...

My guest for this episode is Garret Laver of the trio Lucid Phase. The band's music style falls somewhere between roots, reggae, dub, jam, blues and world. He and his bandmates met at the Savannah College of Art & Design, Georgia, where they collectively studied film and sound design. They've put their studies to work for producing & marketing their music. Garret and I spoke on the heels of their then new single release, Roots Enterprise. We talk about that, his bandmates, collaborators,...

Blues guitarist, singer-songwriter Brian Young is a member of the Unstarving Musician community–the list. A while back, he reached out to check in with me. I’m always asking the community and you listeners how you’re doing. Like Ezra said last episode, music is a collaborative experience between community and musician and I feel that extends into what I'm doing here. Brian took time out to thank me and to share his own personal update. He shared with me that he’d lost his wife Becky of 43...

Ezra Vancil joins me for his second feature on the podcast. I first spoke with him back in March of 2018 for episode 42 of the Unstarving Musician. Listen to Ezra’s first appearance on the podcast This conversation was sparked by 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 that email, he also said he’d decided to throw in the towel on his music career. Thankfully, he changed his mind on and...

Singer, songwriter and producer Otto just released the new single Tell Me Something, produced by Dave Stewart. If that last name sounds familiar it might be because you know Stewart’s work with the Eurythmics or another of his high profile projects. Otto is based in Wales, but English by birth. I learned about him while researching the collaboration app Trackd. This was for an article I published on Forbes.com. In this episode Otto shares his experience as a Trackd user, how he came to be...

Zoë Sonnenberg is a lifelong singer, frequent baker and a writer with a passion for supporting the performing arts. Relevant to this episode, she is also a PR professional with the agency Sacks & Co. Zoë represents musicians and other types of artists. 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). With offices in LA, Nashville and New York, Sacks & Co has an international reputation for...

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. Michael was recently quoted in Rolling Stone discussing competition for ear-time on Spotify. In our conversation, Michael explains why streaming promotion is important and explains the related ecosystem of Spotify...

Rex Brown and I go all the way back to high school, when he was an upgrade to the bass player in my very first band. We reconnect now and again, jam together once in a blue moon–always fun. Rex just finished recording his forthcoming second solo album in Aug 2019. In this conversation we talk about the passing of his bandmate Dime and the more recent passing of bandmate Vinnie Paul, or Vince and Darrel as I knew them both. May they RIP. Rex also talks about how much he misses live music,...

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 the "best of" episode 100. He is Managing Editor of Modern Drummer Magazine, a pro drummer, co-host of The Modern Drummer Podcast, and a music educator. This remains one of my favorite Unstarving Musician and is among the most popular episodes of the podcast. Our conversation covers Mike's prolific hustle...

Peter Rand is a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter who I met on the collaboration platform Kompoz. You may have noticed my recent obsession with collaboration apps as of late, in which case you'll know about this article that I contributed to Forbes.com. These Three Collaboration Apps Are Changing The Way Music Is Created Peter and I have collaborated on some of the over 800 projects he has posted on Kompoz. 800! That's amazing. Ten of his Kompoz collaborations were recently published in...

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. This is another in a series of episodes covering the online music collaboration space. Read my article about music collaboration apps on Forbes.com These Three Collaboration Apps Are Changing The Way Music Is Created Markus has worked in a wide range of studios and claims he...

This week Rachel Hearnden joins me for a conversation to talk about the collaboration app Trackd, of which she is a user and avid fan. A drummer at heart, Rachel is also a multi-instrumentalist and songwriter. It may sound corny, Rachel says, but Trackd has changed her life. We talk about the many reasons she loves Trackd, how she uses the app, why she thinks other musicians should try it and much more. Our conversation is related to an article I recently wrote for Forbes.com, covering the...

This is the third in a multi-part series related to the world of online music collaboration, which has turned out to be much more than I expected. There are a number of truly innovative and interesting approaches happening. In this episode, I speak with Grant Tilbury of Trackd, the mobile app that allows musicians to capture and share ideas. Trackd is a collaboration platform and 8-track studio on your phone. Grant and the team at Trackd believe a new set of tools emerging in the...