You Can't Stop The Beat

[Music] Welcome to Making a Scene.org presents, where independent artists, bands, and music professionals come to learn how to build a real career on their own terms. This is more than music news, interviews, and podcasts. This is a community built on the belief that artists do not need to wait for permission from labels, gatekeepers, or platforms to create a living with their music. Making a Scene.org, we believe in building a music industry middle class by helping indie artists take control of their music, their data, their fans, and their future. Through education, insight, and real conversations with the people shaping the new music business, we give artists the tools to turn passion into independence and creativity into income. If you believe in ownership, direct fan connection, and building something that lasts, you are in the right place. Through honest conversations, expert insight, and stories from the front lines of independent music, making a Scene.org is here to help artists build sustainable careers on their own terms. [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] That was the all night boogie band from their brand new release, and we've got Jess and Brendan on the line right now. Hey guys, how you doing? Good, how are you? We're doing good. Now, this is the first time you've been on our show, and we always start by giving the fans the opportunity to get to know you, get to know you not only as artists, but also as people. And the best way I found to do that is to look at the journey that you've taken up to this point. So, give us the story of Jess and the story of Brendan, and of course, how the all night boogie band got together. [Music] Yeah, so let's start with how the band got together first, I think. So, Brendan and I met in our senior year of high school, and we even went to senior prom together. And then we got, we ended up living together during COVID in 2020, and we had a piano in our house, and our keyboardist, Van Garrison, his girlfriend lived with us in this huge house of eight or nine people at that time. And he would come over and just like noodle on the piano every once in a while, and then him and Brett and would start playing together. And then I would start singing with them, and then we were like, what if we just start a band? And it was during COVID, so we had to wait a little, and then in June 2021, June 26, which is actually Van's birthday. So, our band's anniversary lines up with his birthday, which is funny, but we ended up having our first show in June 2021. And yeah, that's, I guess that's the origin, and then we found our band members through EVM, because we're from Burlington, Vermont. And yeah, do you have anything? No, you want to give your origin story of music? Sure. I grew up in Connecticut. My dad's a pretty big music nerd, and I just remember music always being a thing. And I think being in a music history, like he was growing up, I had an iPod, and iTunes, just so much blues music and early rock and roll and soul music. And it was really an education more than anything, and I kind of fell in love with that process from an early age. And I had guitar lessons when I was nine for a bit, and then I stopped doing lessons, and I think sports probably took over more of my life at a certain point. But it wasn't until around late high school, when I started getting serious about guitar again. And yeah, then I ended up. moving to Vermont and that's where we met or where we formed the band and yeah now we're here. Okay now Jess tell me a little bit about your story where did you get what was your progression into music? Yeah I mean I always say that like singers are always singers like everyone's a singer from birth but when I really started performing was when I was about 11 years old in middle school I joined my school's rock ensemble and the jazz ensemble and then I ended up having a band with a bunch of my friends in like middle and high school and we just played like rock like classic rock covers and that was fun and then I also was a part of school of rock a like outside of school music school and then I went to college for music education and special education and I focused my concentration was in jazz boys so I have sort of a jazz studied background but I think once Brendan and I met and started playing together that's when I really got into the blues and into soul music and he taught me a lot about that and then the band got together and we really delved into those genres and that's kind of where my my voice that I have today now comes out which is cool. Okay now let's talk a little bit about the release that you guys have coming out. When you were putting this together you know every release has a story to it has a reason for its existence. What was the driving factor for this particular release? I think outside of the fact that as a songwriter I had a batch of songs that I felt comfortable recording in a weird way I think a lot of the tunes thematically speaking are sort of a reflection of the times that we're living in now and I don't know it just felt it felt like good timing to put something out like that with the kind of message and and voice that I guess we had as a band. They felt very ready which feels good. Okay now is there a particular song on this release that that you feel is the song that would connect most with with your fan base? I think it would probably in my opinion be if you're blue and lonesome which is I don't know kind of like a New Orleans sort of R&B tune. Something about the message of community and the fact that people always be there for you if you need them and when you need them I think resonates with a lot of people. Mm-hmm. Okay. I would also say blue and lonesome but for those reasons as well but I also think I think they called it peace that song. I think that that one is a very powerful song and has a powerful message that I think a lot of people can connect with and I don't know I think you got to listen to it to understand. Okay well that's not a problem. Now let's talk about that process of songwriting because you had mentioned that earlier that you had a bunch of songs that you felt were ready to go. When you sit down in front of that blank paper what is that mechanism that you like to employ that taps you into your muse? Mm-hmm. I think for me as a songwriter it's memory and I think a lot of my ideas that I have I'll think it up and it'll bounce around in my head for a while and it's sort of like my own old gray whistle test where you know if the song idea or the riff sticks in my head for days on end or even weeks I'll be like okay this is probably worthy of a writing down maybe it's catchy enough. So I think also as a listener I'm kind of an obsessed music listener like I'm constantly listening to new stuff and trying to dive deeper and I think just like being a sponge and having music itself as my muse and like all the people I listen to and all the writers that I read I think helps a lot as well. Okay now what what writers that you've listened to what you know songwriters that you find are your biggest influence who who influence influence you the most. God that's a good question because there's so many. I love William Bell. Okay. I think he's one of my favorite songwriters ever and boy who else. Yeah I've done sound for William Bell. Oh man I'm jealous. I mean obviously Otis Redding I feel like just the energy and feel that he had his music and I also I love Slim Harpo. I could listen to Slim Harpo every day the week if I needed to. Something about the music just like never gets old to me and I think that's really special. Oh without a doubt. Now you know I noticed in a lot of your music videos you have this New York connection where's that come from. We actually just three of us just moved down to New York City in November last year. Okay. In 2025 so we're two of the guys in our band Van and Evans to live in Burlington Vermont but now me and Brendan and Zach live in New York City so we're kind of split in half right now and figuring out that dynamic but it's going well so far. Okay we're about to New York. We're in Queens and then Zach in Brooklyn. So now you're Long Island girl huh? Yeah. There you go. Well Brendan and I both grew up in the Tri State area so it's kind of it feels like home. Well I'm originally from Long Island New York. I'm you know I'm a Long Island guy you know. Oh cool. In fact I'm the guy who started the Long Island music whole of fame which is out in Stony Brook. Yeah I'm the founder and the founding chair of that. I got to pay that a visit. Yeah definitely check it out. It's a it's a cool exhibit that they have there but yeah yeah so you know you're in the right place. Now let's talk a little bit more about this songwriting. You know a lot of young artists they find that that moment where you have to stop the writing process is one of the most difficult ones to call. You know when is the song finished? You know I often look at songs like raising teenagers. Eventually you gotta throw them the keys. You know what I mean and let you know the producer and the band kind of put their fingerprints on it. What is the quantifier that you like to use to determine that moment in a song's life where it's time to let it go time to let it move on and evolve beyond what you can do with that pen and paper. Yeah that's a good question too. God I think I have a I have a creative writing background. I studied that in college and in a funny way there's two sides to me where I think there's like the James Joyce side which is you know creative flow of consciousness and first time I write it it's done it's ready it's good to go and you know stubborn about it and I feel good about it or I'm obsessive about it which is the flip side of that and I think just sort of drawing things to the wall and see if they stay. When we when we write lyrics we write them together because I don't sing well I do sing when I have to but it's coming out of Jess's mouth so I have to make sure that it works with her and then with the songs themselves what I like to do is honestly we perform a lot of our you know studio tracks for a long amount of time in live shows before we ever hit the studio to record them because I think organically songs grow and change over time and I like seeing how a crowd reacts with certain parts of a song to see what sticks and what doesn't and eventually that all kind of follows into like the final product. Yeah yeah. Now let's talk about that process of going into the studio you know a lot of musicians today because the economics of you know the music industry have opted to kind of create their own studio environment and work in a home studio and then there's others who still want to go to that commercial studio space with rooms that would design specifically for that process. When you get you know we're putting this project together which one did you choose which way did you go? So for our first record we had recorded it in the UVM music school studio which was free. The second record we recorded in a friends basement and so this time around we were like all right these songs are ready and I think it's about time to record in in that and the legitimate actual studio. Obviously we know that. that commercial studios and recording music like that cost money. So we actually started to go fund me and our fans pretty much helped us fund this album and the recording process, which is incredible and super humbling. But we recorded the Vermont Music Lab in Essex Vermont and it was co-produced by our friend Ezra Oakland who's played with Nora Jones and Nicole Atkins and a bunch of other people. And it was a really great experience to record in a legit studio with people who understand your vision but also know so much more than you do. And we felt like we were in good hands there. It was a really good experience. Okay. Now, you know, I always find that in a studio there's always that one moment, that one song, that one take where you know you just court lightning in the bottle. You know, you go back into the control room, you hit playback and you say, damn, what was that? What was that moment for you on this? Did you have that one? I got one. Okay. I think we each have one breath. Alright. I mean, I feel honestly this album, I feel like there's like a million of those moments. Like I just feel so proud of this album and like from top to bottom, I want everyone to listen to it and I'm proud of it in every way. But the one that stuck out to me right now was Brendan Solo in the outro of I think they called it piece. There was just like a moment where he hit this like beautiful run that was like screaming in your face that everyone, it was, I think it was just me as a producer in Calvin, the engineer and mixer of our album in the control room listening. But right when he hit that, we were all like, oh my god, that was so good. We could like feel that like lightning like he said. I was actually going to say that as mine as well. Awesome. It was funny. I don't know. I don't usually overdub things. That Solo was overdubbed and I think just like having the ability to sit with it and play those pills over it. We also took an old Princeton reverb and put it on 10, which was really exciting for me. Yeah. Crank an amp up like that. And I think it came out really good. It was something about it. It was just really exciting. I think also that day I was overdubbing the outro. My vocals on it and I just wasn't feeling great about my voice that day. And I did like maybe three takes and every time I was like, oh, I don't really like it. And then as I was like, okay, trade, Brendan's going now. And he said, there's something about like the competition in me that if you went and like ripped it in there, then I get back in. And then right after he finished his take, I got back in and like did my take perfectly and felt great about it. So I guess I do have a little competition there, but it sounded that moment of his solo isn't saying. Nice. Okay. Now tell me a little bit about the lineup. Tell him kind of name out the members of the band. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So obviously Jessica Leonian vocals. My name is Brendan Casey. I play guitar. Our keyboard player's name is Van Garrison. Our drummer's name is Zach Santos and our bass player's name is Evan Barker. And then we had three horns record on the tracks. And the three that we used in the studio are usual guys that like when we played gigs with a horn section, there are A1s, that's John McBride on tenor, Avery Cooper on Baratone and Samatalla on trumpet. And he also wrote the horn arrangements for the songs. Okay. And also on this track, I mean on the album we had a live track where Connor Young was playing trumpet on it because Sam couldn't make it. And then we have a featured artist, Alie McGurk, on Spirit High on one of the songs. And that's everybody. Oh and then also as we're played tambourine on a few songs. Yeah, you can't forget the tambourine player. Can't forget it. I mean honestly. When you listen it's good. He's a drummer. Did he play Calvale and he asked for more? No, granted. I did. I did. Alright. And Ben. Now of course once you get something recorded, you need to get it out there. You need to create the buzz. And you're working with Larry Kay from Night Train Promotions. Tell me about that relationship and how is it working? Honestly, so he reached out to us. I think it was literally the week of our release, like maybe like three or four days before. And we got his email and we've been getting so, so many AI emails are like bought emails are like fake account emails. And people just trying to make money off of poor little independent artists. So when we finally got a real email, we were like, oh, okay, this is cool. Like, let's see what's going on. We called Larry and talked with him and sounded like the real deal and now he's like, he's doing a great job for us. Yeah, this is the first time we've ever used PR to promote anything. That's why it was so last minute because we weren't planning on doing it. Right. But it's been great so far. Okay. Now speaking of getting all those AI bought emails and everyone looking to make money off an independent artist, one of the biggest issues that I find right now with the music industry is that it's probably the only industry where it is designed to stifle independent artists to the point that they are not allowed to make a living. Other than doing live shows recorded music, essentially has lost its status of being a product. It's become extremely difficult for independent artists to work music as a profession and not have a day job and use music as a way to pay the bills. How are you guys navigating this industry the way it is situated now? That's a great question. I think as musicians, independent artists, it's definitely a tough climb to get to a point where you can feel anywhere near comfortable with what you're getting paid. We're mostly, we tour a lot. We play probably God. I don't know how many things a year. We've been doing that for now. This is our officially our fifth year as a band and we're still not there. You grow over time, which is, we're seeing growth, which is good. In terms of ticket sales and audience members, we're playing out a lot to different states. We made it as far as the North Carolina this year, which is the first we've been I think. We do bank on our live shows for whatever income we are getting from music, which is a big thing. I think that like you said, there's definitely an over abundance and almost like demonetization of music through streaming services and all that. A huge thing for us and for any independent artist is merch sales. I heard somebody tell a good joke on stage that they're glorified. They're glorified T-shirt salesmen and play music on the side, which I thought was funny, but also in a satellite kind of true. Yeah, I'm so selling records and CDs and T-shirts go a long way. And we also, I mean, we rely on our friends and fans a lot. Like Brennan said before, we used to go find me to fund this album and our friend Coleman, Colin, and he's our main photographer. And he comes along with us to a lot of gigs and give us friend deals. And we've worked with friends to mix our past albums and Van Mixed our pianist Mixed our first album and all that kind of stuff. And then we do all the booking and managing and all that ourselves. So we rely on our community. And when we tour, we're staying at a friend's house or family members house. That's it. Now, you know, one of the things I found interesting about the new industry today is that a lot of independent artists, they kind of have it backwards. They look at social media. They look at streaming as destinations. But they're not. Those are doorways. What I find is a lot of times, you know, if you go to Instagram or if you go to Spotify and you look at the artist profile, you'll get a link to the either the artist website or you'll get a link to a link tree. And really, when you think about it, what's happening is that when someone shows interest, the first thing an artist is doing is they're throwing them back into the machine. And to me, that's just as backwards. To me, when someone shows interest, the first thing you need to do, the first experience that person should have is a trait. You give me your data, your email and the city and state you live in and I'll give you an exclusive recording that you can't get on Spotify. exclusive something that they can't get any anywhere else. And to me the new currency of the music industry is fan data. Because social media, no matter how many likes you get, no matter how many hearts you get, no matter how many streams you get on Spotify, not a single one of them are paying your bills. But fan data, that's something that the algorithm cannot take away from you. It cannot change. Even if they change their policy, even if they delete your account, you own that data. What do you think of that concept? Yeah, I think there's a lot of truth to that. I mean, speaking in terms of social media and monthly listeners on Spotify, there are a lot of artists that might have 100,000, 200,000 followers and X amount of monthly listeners. But they have a hard time selling tickets that shows because they don't have that direct connection to the artist. The algorithm is kind of like a revolving door. And I think just recently I kind of understood the importance of email lists and getting people's information to be able to even contact them directly. I mean, that's how all of the big ticketing and promotion companies do it. So I think independent artists should do the same. Well, it's not even that. I mean, hell, if you go to Keynes or Starbucks, they're going to want, you know, to get their little app, you know, they're going to give you, they want your phone number so they can send you text, they want your email, you know, they're collecting data. And if you look at, you know, the social media platforms, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, even Spotify, they're not in the business of creating careers for musicians. They're in the business of collecting data. That's their business model. Even Spotify, Spotify started out as an advertising network, which used music as a way to get people to come to the platform. They're not in the business of selling music. You know what I mean? They're in the business collecting data. We as independent artists have to start looking at the reality of this industry that we're in. And we have to say, okay, if this is the way you want to play the game, no problem. I'm going to use you as a discovery advertising network. And every platform, every time you put something up on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook or even Spotify needs to have a path that takes them to your own ecosystem where you have your own web store, you have your own community center, you have your own streaming on your website that's not connected to Spotify, that you can stay constrained your music there. And what you need to do is you need to now have a memory system for your fans. Now, imagine this. Let's say, you know, I've created this concept called the Fan Passport. Okay? Someone comes in, they download a little app on their phone. Every time they come to the show, they scan the QR code at the merch table and they get a passport stamp. The stamp is worth X amount of points. They collect a certain amount of points. They move up in fandom. And you're on your website. And you can call the tears anything you want. You get to a certain tear, you get 10% off a merch. You get, you know, higher on the tear, you get to come to a VIP, the VIP section of the show. You get VIP seating, you know, or exclusive access to VIP seating. Things like that. But now, think of this. Most sound guys today are using digital mixers. To create a live recording is just matter of just pushing a button today. And, you know, having a laptop there to kind of record it, right? Let's say after the gig, about day to after the gig, you send everybody who went to that show and scanned their app, you know, their passport stamp because now you own that data. You send them an email, say, Hey, thank you for coming to the show. We really appreciate seeing you there. And as a thank you gift, here is a recording of a song from the show you were at. And you give them a download, a single download of that song. A week later, you send them another email. I hope you liked that live recording. We sent you. Did you know that if you joined our VIP club for finalism month, $10 a month, whatever it may be, you can have access to all of our live recordings. Now you're creating revenue stacks of exclusive content that they can't get any place else. So what do you think of that idea? I think that's a great idea. And I'm trying to think, but I believe there are a couple bands now who have great live following that are trying to get to that point. I know I think Tadeski Trucks has an app now where you can join their fan club and get access to exclusive stuff. And I know that's making the jam band community as well. I think has an app. And now I think the great for that are trying to do it as well. Because fans love those live recordings. Oh, of course. I mean, but even just not even the live recording. If you had a system, let's say, you know, every time they buy a t-shirt, they get a merch app saying they bought a t-shirt. Okay, they get a merch stamp on their passport. Again, it gets points. More points. You know, they love getting these points. But now you can now look in your database and you say, oh, this person went to the show, but didn't buy a t-shirt. Well, that's the person that you can send. Hey, do you know that you can still buy the t-shirt from that show at a 10% discount from our website and draw and again send them right into your ecosystem? You don't send it to the person who bought the t-shirt. You send it to the person who didn't buy the t-shirt. That's where the memory system becomes really important because now you can segment. Now, let's say you're touring. You look at a venue, let's say, in Atlanta and you realize, hey, the last time we were here, we had a lot of people that showed up at the show, but we didn't sell a lot of merch. Well, you know, you don't have to take out the big Ben a t-shirt. You take a few t-shirts, a few hats because you know it's not a big merch venue. You know, maybe it's something like in little five points and people like strolling around. They don't like carrying stuff with them. But those are the people now that you can now send an email saying, hey, you know, if you really would like that merch, I know you missed that opportunity. You can get it from our website. So you can really segment your audience and really, how can I say, tour with intention? Of course, now if you go to a venue owner or a booker and if you told them, you know, I got 5,000 streams on Spotify, they look at you like you got two heads and says, that doesn't mean shit to me. You know, but if you told them, yeah, I have 50 emails of people that live within 15 miles a year venue and they show up at my shows and they buy merch every time. That is leverage. What do you think? Yeah, I totally agree. And I think I totally agree with the whole, you know, how valuable data is. I listened to a podcast and he kind of coined data as the new oil because of its value to people trying to market things. And I totally think that, yeah, there's definitely a lot of truth in numbers, but you know, direct contact like you're saying about emailing and being able to say to a venue, listen, like we've got 150 people who, you know, came to the show last time here. We have all of their contact info and, you know, we're going to make a push to directly, you know, get them to the show. I think that's a very effective way of marketing. Right. Right. And you know, if you really think about it, what does it take to make a middle class income as a musician? Okay. And I've kind of broken it down into a simple formula. If you can find 1000 fans that are willing to spend $10 a month, that's less than Starbucks money. On you as an artist, That's 120 grand a year. Think about that a second. - Jeez. - With the ability to reach people on social media, a thousand fans is not outside of the realm of possibility. $10 a month creating a VIP membership at $5 a month, having different revenue stacks, because you don't just, I mean, your song isn't just one product anymore. It's actually a series of products that you can now monetize, from sync licensing to the stems. Even the stems themselves, you can license out to the instrumental versions of the product of the songs. You can have mixing contests with your fans through garage band or whatever free mixing software that's out there, and given the stems, say, hey, mix this and tell it, give us, we'll choose the best mix. I mean, all of this can be done to create engagement and revenue stacks, stacks of ways of making money towards it, and creating that $10 a month now becomes doable. What do you think? - Yeah. - It sounds, yeah. - I like the sound of that. - Well, you know, and I think a lot of musicians are missing that point, that we can do this. If we as independent artists started to think smart, collect our fan data, that's the new currency. And if we started to take that data and use it effectively, not irresponsibly, but effectively to kind of say, you're part of the tribe here. You're part of this group, you're part of this community, and treat them as that. They're gonna then reciprocate by creating a revenue stream towards you. Rather than throwing shit up on social media and hope something sticks and goes viral, that's just a pie in the eye dream. Maybe when it first started, it was possible, but not anymore, because the social media platforms, they throttle everything. You're getting a little too popular, so let's throttle you down a little. We don't want you to get out of your place. Well, the best way to do to fight that is to every time you put up any kind of content, it needs to have a purpose. It needs to point directly to your own ecosystem whereby you can capture their data. That's the key. And create a memory system that every time they buy a t-shirt, every time they come to a show, you know who showed up. You know what they bought, and you can use that data using something like AI to analyze it, to give you real actionable marketing information. Where do you sell your most merch? What venues do you sell the most tickets? You know, now when you start to create a tour, and you want to go from point A to point B, you can say to AI, hey, take a look at my data, and tell me what's the best venues from point A to point B for us to sell the most tickets and the most merch. And it will spin out a list. Here's the venues you should book and make life easier for you. - Yeah, totally. I think, yeah, that whole process is pretty much what any company does, except it would be used by an independent artist who, you know, people actually want to engage with instead of getting pesky emails from, like you said, Starbucks or something like that. 'Cause it is something that people would actually, you know, willingly be looking for contacts from. - Right. - Well, you make it like they're part of a community. You know, you can do, I don't know if you guys use WordPress for your website or you're using like, Zugal, Banzugal, Wix, what's kind of-- - We use Squarespace. - Squarespace? I mean, you can create with, you know, some of the stock plug-ins that are out there, your own community forum, where your fans can talk to each other, and they can talk to you, you know, on your website. You know, you create reasons for your fans to come to your website. 'Cause that's the only place where they can find the exclusive stuff. You know, they can go on Spotify and listen to the latest studio recording, but they can't find anywhere on social media or on Spotify that exclusive live recording that you did, such a venue that the crowd went wild on. You know, they can't find that one monologue you did while introducing a song that really dug into its origin. These are things that your fans, the ones who really want to support you, they want that content. And that, I think, is going to be the real driving factor for the independent artists going forward is capturing that fan data and creating that exclusive content, not for social media, but for yourself and your fans. - I think it's a great idea. - Huh, I'm glad you agree. Well, you know, I really appreciate you guys coming on the show and talking with me. It's been a great conversation. And we're gonna give everyone out there a double shot from your new release. You guys are gonna love this. You know, just turn up loud, screw the neighbors. (upbeat music) ♪ You know I heard this word today ♪ ♪ I think they called it peace ♪ ♪ You can find it in a sudden place ♪ ♪ Somewhere out of reach ♪ ♪ Oh, there's so much hate in this world ♪ ♪ It breaks my heart to see ♪ ♪ That some of us we look away ♪ ♪ Trying not to hear their pleas ♪ ♪ That's why I'm asking you ♪ ♪ Can't do too much ♪ ♪ 'Cause I gotta stand there ♪ ♪ And I watch you open your way ♪ ♪ Feeding the fire day by day ♪ ♪ They make us think we have a choice ♪ ♪ In this wicked game they play ♪ ♪ But we won't stop until the day ♪ ♪ That it truly is that way ♪ ♪ That's why I'm asking you ♪ ♪ Can't do too much ♪ ♪ You just gotta stand there ♪ ♪ And I watch you open your way ♪ ♪ Feeding the fire day by day ♪ ♪ They make us think we have a choice ♪ ♪ To walk your own eyes ♪ ♪ There are billions and billions of us ♪ The light's the pattern on your choice How long do you think we'll sit here waiting? (Music) (Music) (Music) We can't stop now I said we can't stop now I said we can't stop now We can't stop now We can't stop now We can't stop now I said we can't stop now (Music) (Music) Stuck in the city, snow's coming down Wind blowing by me, trains leaving town Run to the station, crowds pass me by Tired and broken, a man questions why? Oh, you're me, so empty I can't tell you hear me Headaches and hot drinks will punch through our lives Some get hit harder, unable to fight Well, there ain't much difference between you and that man So when you see someone knocked down, lend them a hand Oh, you're me, so empty I can't tell you hear me You're not alone You're not alone (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) (Music) I hear someone sing it Here's what they say We're all gonna struggle We're all gonna fall But if we stick together We can stand tall No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no, no No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no No, no, no Welcome to making a scene.org presents Where independent artists, bands, and music professionals come to learn how to build a real career on their own terms This is more than music news, interviews, and podcasts This is a community built on the belief that artists do not need to wait for permission from labels, gatekeepers, or platforms to create a living with their music At makingacene.org, we believe in building a music industry middle class by helping indie artists take control of their music, their data, their fans, and their future Through education, insight, and real conversations with the people shaping the new music business, we give artists the tools to turn passion into independence and creativity into income If you believe in ownership, direct fan connection, and building something that lasts, you are in the right place Through honest conversations, expert insight, and stories from the front lines of independent music, makingacene.org, is here to help artists build sustainable careers on their own terms (upbeat music)