Welcome to episode 87 of the Bandhive Podcast.

It is time for another episode of the Bandhive podcast. My name is James Cross and I'm not here with matt hose up alive in Barcelona. He's still up in Spokane Washington recording with his band.

But we again have a very special guest this week, Ryan Stevenson, the drummer who has played with anyone who's everyone. I'm being a little baggy there, but you have played with some awesome people And you have over a decade experience in music and you just always are open to pivoting with things like the pandemic. So I think it would be really interesting to hear from you about what your business entails and what you've been doing the last 10 years, man, thanks for having me. I'm butchering this intro so badly.

But yeah, thank you so much for joining us and I think it's going to be really useful episode for artists who are listening to hear how they can make some money from musical endeavors that aren't necessarily their own band, so it's really great to have you here and just jumping right into it. Ryan, how did you get started as a musician? You know, now you're doing touring in session work, but originally that's not the path that you were on. Can you just tell us a little bit about your background?

I don't know if my path has any sense to it, but I think as a kid, we're going way back as a kid, I wanted to be like Elvis, I don't know why, I don't even know if my parents listen to Elvis, He was just like, this guy, this performer, this entertainer. I'm like, wow, I'm going to do this later on, you know, and then just like, weird, like as a guitar guitarist and singer, he was turned into a drummer. Then, like, the whole got into bands playing, like, starting in death metal bands, pop punk bands, hardcore bands hustling, I mean, like a big part of that, I'm sure I'll repeat many times throughout this is like, you know, like giving your all and going full force ahead and then I don't know what happened.

I was always open to different styles of music, started getting interested in hip hop music and like DJ stuff and they kind of evolved into starting like a DJ drummer project left, the band's doing a solo drum show, opened doors for opening for artists, the artists saw that wanted me to join into their show, started touring with the artists and today it's kind of like a balancing all of that. Like all of the above, like one tour can be a DJ drummer tour, The next one is playing for an artist.

The next one's my solo stuff. Again, I'm just happy to do what I love. I mean, I'm not, I'm not complaining, I love the variety because it keeps things fresh all the time. Yeah, well, so on that note, when you started doing Ryan Stevenson shows as yourself, you know, you were playing drums with tracks, there's not a lot of drummers who do that, you know, one notable person who does is frank sumo from sum 41 but aside from frank and you, I'm sure there are others, but I can't think of any off the top of my head, how did that become a thing?

How did you realize, Hey, this is something I can do to be honest. Like I'll never hide a lot of people that see me playing kind of a right away, see the influence, but one of the reasons I got into drumming and continue drumming, Travis barker, he's a huge influence. He's been doing stuff forever and still to this day, he's like one of the most active dudes out there. He was going to think way back with DJ Am and I think like liking the hip hop scene, like, you know, like the different styles, but thinking like I'm in a rock band, how can I ever touch on this stuff?

Like, it doesn't make sense. And then he was doing a lot of like hip hop stuff and I was like, wow, like it is possible. He opened like, I like that creative side of you can be in a rock band. Like if you have the passion for this music, nothing stopping you from finding a way to do it. I mean everything is possible. So he played a huge role in opening that little door in my head. I would kind of go the same route of doing the same style of music and that whole concept of show, but he definitely planted that seed and I'm thankful for it.

Yeah, that's awesome. And I feel like for every child of the eighties and nineties, the first drummer you learned about was Travis barker because he was one of the first drummers to be what you would go watch on Youtube, you'd be like, well there's like this Travis barker clip on Youtube, whether it was just from a live show or like a studio clip or whatever, he was the drummer to watch. So that's really awesome that his being willing and open to work with other genres was something that influenced you that something actually our guest last week, Andy Wilson Taylor from Medgar was talking about, he's not a drummer, but he was, or still is a composer for film and tv and he basically said, if this is what you want to do, you have to be open to everything.

Don't say this is what I do and I'm not doing anything else. So for you, Ryan, like saying, yeah, cool, I can be open to other genres. That's amazing like, and I'm sure that led to many or even most of the opportunities you've been presented with over the years. So I have a curiosity whether you're touring, work out of all the acts you've toured with, have any of them been rock act or have they all been more in the direction of pop and hip hop? There's been a couple rock just like, kind of backtracking what you just said.

Like, I still, I was always keeping the open mindset to doing different styles are different things, but I always, kind of paid an important focus on being true to me, even being a drummer, trying to be an artist. So it's like having a vision of your branding, having a vision of what are you putting out there, and respecting that, Not being like, oh, someone wants me to do a jazz gig tomorrow, I could do it, but I would have nothing to do with my path. So, it's like, I don't want to take on work as a job, I want to take it on as like, I like this, I'm going to give my 100% I'm going to do it well, and kind of helped the artist out, help me out as well along my journey, you know, it's not just doing everything and anything, some people like that, and that's cool, but it's also like, it'll be harder to brand yourself and have, like, someone thinks of I need this for a project, they might not think of you, you know, because you're just doing everything.

But a lot of the journey after the club stuff was with pop, pop Dance, you know how to rap artist, There's a huge phase where there's a lot of rap and then after that, it kind of opened up to some rock stuff. There's one tour with, I don't know, zombie boy who's tattooed head to toe, he had this like, band project with riggs who used to be in rob zombie. So that was a very, like, metal ish electronic vibe. So that kind of got me back into some rock stuff and these days working in the studio, there's a lot of rock projects that are coming back, so it's it's fun.

Yeah, I think that really illustrates that by being open, you are able to go in one direction and then pull back and go in the other direction, and I think that's so important for artists to really just be willing to say yes to pretty much everything that is thrown their way. Obviously you don't want to say yes to everything because sometimes there's just a bad fit, but I'm sure there's a time that you could look at where if there was one gig, you'd said no to like 3 to 5 other gigs would not have happened if you had said no to that one gig, is that correct?

100%. I think my whole, if I break down so many things I've done in my career, that sounds weird saying career, like I still look at it as like that same hobby and passion as a kid, you know, I've always been strong about, like I said before giving your 100% you don't want to take on a gig as work and not be totally involved and not give you 100%. It's not good for anything, You're not helping out the artist that you're playing for, not helping out yourself because now, like no one's going to refer you to other people, but because that's literally it, that like anything I'm doing today or many things I've done was because I took on that one gig, did a great job, they loved it and either called me back or refer me to someone else.

And much of the opportunities I had was that there's different rappers I played for and then like someone's from the States and their drummer can't come to Canada and they're like, hey call this guy's drummer, he's in, he's in Montreal and or the mouth. And then that led like this one first gig led to about three other well named like artists that I got to play for. You never know. Yeah, that's amazing. And that shows how important, in a way saying yes and playing gigs being available is networking because even people you don't know now we'll call you up just because you've proven to be reliable and good at what you do.

So when you first started out touring and this is just an assumption. But I have the feeling that probably as much as you loved it, you viewed it as like, Hey, this is my job. I'm going to go do it, I'm going to do a killer job. I'm in a 100%. But at some point and I know this because you run a business now, I know you run your brand as a business at some point. I think there was probably a time when you switched from thinking, hey, this is a job too, Hey, this is a business, is that correct?

And if so, can you talk about that a little bit? I would say you're right, But at the same time, like, I don't think there was a clear moment where I told myself that I think I've always, without knowing approached it that way. I can't tell you what it is that brought my vision to that direction and what opened it up. But I just, maybe it's like watching other artists out there or kind of even being the drummer, trying to be in that artist Xu. So it's like, you have to approach things kind of differently, It's not just okay, I'm coming to play drums.

I've always been kind of like, maybe that Elvis influence comes into play, of wanting to entertain, wanting to make it a performance, making it fun for people likely when I started mainly doing the Ryan Stevenson show, like the DJ drummer tour now is a guitar and I'm in the artist position where you're on the posters on the flyers, you're the, I hate to say it, but the artist people are coming to see at the events. We've got to approach it a totally different way where now it is kind of a business, kind of a proper tour, you're not just showing up and playing for a musician, you're not just arriving at rehearsals, doing your thing, packing up your leaving, you kind of got to give that full picture.

You're involved in every aspect of it, then, totally, there's nothing you can leave out, right, exactly. When you're doing the Ryan Stevenson show, you are the show, like you said. And so that means you're involved in every single aspect of what goes into that show. So you're not just collecting a paycheck for showing up, You have to be actively involved in everything. So, I think that you touched on that point is really key, because that's something that a lot of artists, in my opinion, don't pick up on, like, they'll book a show and say, okay, cool, the show's promoter is going to get people to come to the show.

It's like, no, no, no, yes, they are going to try their best to get people to come to the show. But the artist is also responsible for getting people into that venue because ultimately it's the artist's fans who were there. So I think that you picked up on that, but you mentioned a second ago is so important, and that's a point I want to highlight for anybody who's listening is you need to be invested in your show, and you're not just showing up to work for somebody else, you are there to play your own show and bring people in totally.

I mean, I feel as good and bad as it can sound, I mean, like, no one's going to look out for you more than yourself, sort of. I mean, like, ideally as you advance, you want to sort of delegate or get other people involved to take on certain tasks and help out. I mean, that's the ideal situation, is having a team around you, building a team. Maybe that's a good part of being in the band, just having other members that can, can help you. I think I always felt which was maybe a good thing, I got to just start to adapt differently, but at the time it's coming out of a band now alone, I still need to cover all the grounds.

So, like, if at first you're not really doing things that are gonna be paying the bills, you don't have the money to go higher. It's like, okay, well, you have to be doing some promo videos, you have to be doing your social media, you have to be bringing people out to the gigs. I mean, I think at first I was one Reaching Out would do like tours around here in Quebec and reaching out to local radio is doing like, booking interviews promoting the things. So you kind of wearing all the hats as if you had a book or a manager PR agent, all of that, which at the time, it can be a lot at the same time, it's good like for anyone to touch on that, because now, even if you tomorrow, you go and you hire someone to do it, they can't screw you over because you still know a bit about it.

People can easily be like, well, I'm going to charge you this to do all this for you, and if you don't know anything about it, you're like, okay, that's what it consists of. Cool. You know, a bit about, You might be like, this makes no sense. So just like a good way to look out for yourself and make sure you're doing things as you want because, like you said, the promoter at the venue, who knows what the deal is like if they're making a certain cut or percentage on the ticket sales, he'll likely do his job well to attract people.

If you already paid to rent the venue and now you're doing your show, you might not even care if no one shows up so we might not do his job and promote. So you better be sure that you're on top of that, trying to promote it for yourself. Yeah, exactly. That's another great point you made about when you know how your business works. Nobody can screw you over when you hire people because you know, if they're doing a good job or not, whether they're intentionally screwing you over or not, you can still say, hey, like this isn't working whatever you're doing, like why don't you try it this way?

Obviously, if you're hiring them, hopefully they know what they're doing. But having that ability to go back and double check and I think what you're alluding to, there is something that's very important is when an artist hires a manager, it's not like you are working for that manager, that manager is working for you. So imagine like to put this in a retail context, let's say you're working at a grocery store, you are not the clerk checking people out who reports to the manager, you are the GM who is in charge of the store manager.

So like the G. M. Of the whole company and the store manager is there to help you. Not the other way around what you just said makes so much sense because I was talking to someone literally last week about that and it was someone I toured with last year that said it to me and made total sense. We're talking about his manager and he pointed that out and he was like, I don't know how he set up a kind of how you just said it, there was like, the manager is, they're working for you.

Many people have the idea. I'm just gonna find a manager and he's going to take over and now I'm going to make it that might be along the lines of how you used to see things where, like, some big label would come around pick you up and now they're managing you and they have all this knowledge and all this, they're gonna take you in a different direction. But most times it's like these days you have to know what you want, you have to have a clear path of what your vision is.

And now you get a manager who's now like, your sidekick making that possible, making that a reality, like I want to do this, he's going to take that, this is how we're going to do it. Not like okay, manager. So what's next, you know, like take my hand and guide me. Yeah, exactly. I mean, the manager is basically there to make your life easier, They're not there to make it so you don't have to do any work, they're there to support you and let you focus on what actually matters.

So like for you, right in your case, that would be playing more shows and doing press appearances or booking more clients for a remote session work, that kind of stuff. And then the manager would handle the back end and help you with social media, help checking emails and coordinating things like logistics, that kind of stuff. And so for an artist, it's the same exact thing. And I say artist in the context of a band whose playing shows, but since I just mentioned session work, do you want to go into that a little bit?

Because when the pandemic hit, obviously no more shows for now, it's been almost a year and a half, but you very quickly pivoted into remote session work. How did you get started in that? And what made you think, hey, this is something that I want to do right now. Once again, I think there was no, it's funny. It sounds horrible. It's like no direction and thought put into it. I think I've just always been a go getter in my head. Like nothing's going to stop me from doing music, nothing's gonna stop me from drumming.

It's just what I want to do. So like no matter what I'm going to find a way to do it. So it's like, even before, while touring, there's been occasions where artists were like, hey, like without promoting recording services, like, hey, I want you on this track. I've always liked studio work. I just never really had the people surrounding me like offering those types of gigs. I was just kind of always like, show show show is always that performing side. So then shows couldn't happen and there's a bunch of awesome tours lined up for 2020 and then that's a pandemic hits.

It's like too bad for you was like, how can I continue doing what I love, I'm going to be stuck at home now, I won't be able to. And it all started by wanting to just learn audio better for myself to do better Youtube covers remixes, just my own content. Just do better content. So I started doing some online courses, getting better knowledge and mixing and recording, getting some gear and now, no, I was just randomly one day I was like, I can actually do this for other people to like, not just myself.

So I think that's one of a lot of musicians artists, not that they forget about, but it's, that's like the whole back thought of how to make it a living, how to make it a job is everyone is talented in something different. What I might be good at the next drummer down the street can be even better at something else that I don't do or vice versa. So it's like, it's always finding like, what can you offer someone that someone needs, You're solving a problem that someone can't do themselves and you can actually make a few bucks from it.

I'm doing like now, like the recording editing, mixing all that, but someone might just be good at one of those three things are something totally different that it can now become a job for them. They can start doing less hours at a part time job to do more of what they love making this story longer than needs to be. But just kind of transitioned into like wanting to do better content to myself, to not even almost doing any more content for myself because I've just been on that train of other bands approaching me to work on their ep or started doing some original music to, which is really fun collaborating with other artists.

It's been working a lot in the studio. I'm sure you're also very familiar with the six figure home Studio. That was a big help along my path as well throughout this. I mean having all that time at home, you want to put it to good use too. So it's not just yes, you want to plan for the future when the pandemic is not around anymore, but you also, I don't want to sit around and do nothing. So I just took that time to like bombard myself with online courses, knowledge, talking to other people that are doing it, just being surrounded by people with that knowledge, with that mindset, those same goals, it helps more than words can express really.

Yeah, absolutely. For those who are unfamiliar. Six figure Home Studio is an amazing podcasting community. If you are in any creative field, running a business, whether it's a studio, graphic design, remote session, work, anything like that. I definitely recommend checking it out. By the time this episode comes out, it'll be six figure Creative and you can search for that in any podcast app or go to six figure Creative dot com. Like I said, I highly recommend it. And Ryan, there's two things that you said that I also want to touch on.

The first thing is you just said, you want to make music like that's it, that's the drive. You're not going to let a pandemic stop you. And unfortunately, so many artists didn't do that when the pandemic hit, they said, oh, okay, we're not going to do anything. And they literally went silent on social media for the entire year instead of saying, how are we going to create content for our audience so that they know we're still there. First of all, I just wanted to say that you have that drive is really excellent and that's what Every artist who wants to make a career in music needs to have that drive because it's so difficult to make a living with music.

You really need to be in it 100%. And if an artist takes the first chance, they can get to take a year off because they don't want to figure out a new way to pivot and stay active. That's the artist who's not going to make it. The artists like you who said, hey, we're going to do something else. Those are the artists who are going to have a chance at making it. And the second thing is your solo project, So we're recording this on June 23 and the episode comes out on July 27.

I don't know if you already will have those new songs that you're working on out by then, but if you want to talk about that project, let's go down that path. Sure, quickly backtrack something you just mentioned for, like the artist, like you said, it kind of disappeared, sort of didn't know what to do to keep things active during the pandemic. I mean like it was a challenge. I mean, at first I was like, I can't let like social media's die. I was still posting like every day I was going back to like old tour footage, old videos.

Like it made me realize to what extent it's important for any band out there and the artists out there, like there's so many times in the past where I've gone on the road for a show, it's normal that we all kind of wanna save some money or cheap out and someone's like, hey and I'll come and do some pictures or some videos for whatever amount of money and you're like, I don't want this extra expense, but whether you're bringing someone, whether you're just investing in, like, I know some GoPro's some little cameras that you're just clipping somewhere, like now, I just always clip GoPro's on the drums, like no matter the show and just gather content because like, for reasons like that, if you're not actively creating content to go back to old footage, to go back to this stuff, to create some kind of vlogs, to create some kind of behind the scenes videos.

I mean that becomes almost priceless at that point. If I didn't have any of those past tour pictures videos that I would have almost nothing to post for months when the pandemic hit before I got active again with studio stuff. So I just think a suggestion I have for anyone out there is like, don't sleep on that, whether someone's out there taking pictures, whether it's you're bringing your own cameras and put on the stand, that goes a long way, having the backlog of content to pull from.

It's huge. I think it's super important. There's tons of times I was, I had this crazy idea, I'm gonna do this promo video and go to all these different shows and I had nothing. So now you're starting from scratch, thinking I got to start filming the next dozen shows that come up, but that might not be for another long time. You know, especially now with the way that the scene is so like just having that content, even if you do nothing with it, having it on a hard drive, I'm sure one day you're going to be happy you filmed it.

Yeah, definitely. And even if just to pivot a little bit on that point, artists can watch their stage performance and learn how to do better, to have better energy or better performance or whatever it is that needs improvement. Artists should always check in every once in a while and look at footage from their shows and see like, hey, you know, if I do this, I can engage the audience better and that's totally off topic. But it's related that I think another good reason to record every single show.

So you have that footage, it's the same in sports. You know, they record every single game and then after the game they will watch like a picture will go in and watch every single pitch he threw and say like, oh, this is what I messed up. This is what I did. Well, that's incredible. But to pivot the conversation again, if you're down to talk about your solo project, we can go down that road, totally. I mean, there's no secret or anything, I just haven't posted much about it because I'm still trying to find the proper direction to go about releasing it.

For me it's funny, it's like a mash up of everything I've done almost into one project where I grew up playing pop punk punk rock, that type of vibe. And then things kind of changed and did a bunch of things throughout my career playing with different artists. I just wanted to do something that was more me. I think over time like many people we tried to adapt okay what's happening now? E. D. M. Clubs were a big thing. I was doing the DJ stuff in the clubs but nothing really relates me to E. D. M. And I'm not gonna start doing E. D. M. Music or sometimes it's like work with pop artists.

Like have fun producing some pop tracks but still it's not me. And I think the whole thing is like today I want to do what I like, what I want to do, what matches with my natural vibe that I find I'm not going to force myself to do with style just because that's what people want to hear. So I think what's cool is I just decided again, in the same mindset of wanting to bring the drummer to the artist chair, it's really just putting out a project where it's me as the artists producing most of the tracks, to bringing in a different vocalists on, let's say, every track.

So, I'll be like, myself, featuring one of the first tracks is actually the singer of one of my first and old bands, like featuring him, the second ones featuring this local female vocalist, which is amazing, and I just want to kind of go from there is just bringing in different vocalists on every song, so I'm not kind of in that forefront, there's always a new guest involved, bringing different flavor, different sounds, sometimes different styles to. So as you can adapt the singers in a different vibe that can relate with the song, can have a different twist to adapt to their style, bringing it into what I'm doing to, but kind of keeping along that modern twist of the pop punk scene.

Yeah, that's really cool. Well, so on that note then, since you're bringing in different vocalists for each track, which is really awesome, are you writing the lyrics for them or are you having them bring in their own lyrics and do a co write? I strongly believe in wanting to give them their space. Like if it's a vocalist that likes to write or you know, if they want to get involved the music stuff too, like I'm open for whatever, I don't want to be like, hey, I want you to sing about this and do it this way.

Like I see this more as like collaborations then so much like this is my project or my song. Like if I'm bringing them in, unless you just want to be like a sort of a ghost feature in the back where it's going to be a track and it was fun to work on it. They don't want to be a part of it, which is totally cool to like, I'd rather give them the first choice of, do you want me to send you music and you write on it or you want to write together so far has kind of been that the first one with the singer, my old band, because that's just what he does.

Like, he pretty much took care of writing the song and I was just like, cool, I mean that's what you wanna do, you're good at it, I trust you then. Now it's like it just makes the club more genuine because now I'm bringing my touch, he's bringing his touch, it's making what it is. The second song with female vocalists. We worked on it together. I mean I might as well take the occasion. The first song is with Nick Gagnon, who was my first man called Kamikaze. Kamikaze is still around.

It's a french punk rock ish band, but we're doing in english, just also like have a little variant. So we don't think it's actually still kamikaze and his band, this thing we're doing on the side. And the second songs with me, jean who's a great singer as well, so we kind of wrote this song together so it's going to make a case by case whoever I'm going to work with and wants to jump in, That's awesome. So whatever feels right for the artistic flow. Yeah, I hate those projects where people get involved and just feel like they have to do it a certain way for someone else and they like kind of going back to my story before, is wanting to do me wanting to respect my path and not just take a gig because it's a gig, like wanting to bring my Touch two things.

So if people jump on board this, I want them to do it because they like it, they believe in it, it's fun, they're having a good time to, they're gonna be proud to show it to people and not just be like, oh yeah, I worked on this this track with someone Yeah, you want them to be a stakeholder in the project rather than just somebody who going back to the difference between being part of something or working on something for somebody else. If somebody's a stakeholder, they're going to be interested in promoting that piece of work no matter what it is, whether it's a show, a song and album, but if they feel like an employee, what reason do they have to actually push that piece of work?

That piece of content, whatever it is. So, as we go down this path further though, I want to pivot and talk about your social media and your brand because it's really well done. But before we get there, I have one last question on the touring and session works out of things, which is for an artist who hasn't done that type of work before, but they want to get their feet wet in that area. What would you recommend they do? That's a great question. Like, I think we're always looking for those answers, but there's never there's never a secret, there's never a secret answer.

Everyone I'm sure has different stories and paths, but I think a huge part of it that people just underestimate is being active, we're going to get to in a second that you just talked about it like social media, so whether you're active on the scene out plain, like we talked about before and it kind of becomes pr you're meeting people, you're proving what you can do in front of people and planting those seeds for future possible gigs. I had things like four years later, someone calls me and offers me this amazing gig I never would have expected, but it's like from something I did like four years ago and you just like, makes you realize like you never know what one thing can lead to and it might not be tomorrow, but before years later, but whether it's like social media, like when the pandemic hit and people stop doing shows are going out, meeting people at venues.

If you're still creating content or just showing people, hey, I'm here. This is what I do. Power of the Internet is huge. The algorithms like to slap us in the face and not make it as easy as it could be and how it used to be sometimes, but it's just about doing it. There might be up, there might be downs, but you can't stop when you get to those down moments because a lot of the times you're doing something, planting the seed for later. So if you're doing it now and nothing's happening, it doesn't mean you should stop doing the people that go somewhere usually because they're consistent and they've been doing it for so long.

So like they're the go to I'm sure right now, I'll tell you hardcore band, pop punk band, I'm just shooting that out. I'm sure there's band that are popping into your head. It's likely not a band that started last year, it's likely the bands that have been doing it for a long time that you see, they do this album, they did that album, this tour, they did that tour. I think consistency is a huge thing. Yeah, and that's just doing the thing. My friend Todd, who was on episode 81 was talking about that, just whatever it is, if you have to do it for your art, for your career, just do it, figure out what needs to be done the exact steps and then do it.

Rather than saying, I can't I don't have this, I don't have that, you know what you're talking about two is with that consistency, whatever it takes to get there, just figure it out and do it. And I think that's so key. And like you said, that ties into social media, so if you want to dive right into how you crafted your brand on social media, I'm sure that a lot of it is just your personality, but at the same time figuring out what works and what doesn't, there's gotta be some trial and error involved there.

I think you have consciously move towards the brand you have now, is that correct? That's a good question. I'm not sure if it's consciously and I've honestly never which is a good thing. I've never overthought things. I will, I'll overthink things trying to plan for a better way to approach it, but not necessarily take action. I'm just like, I'm sure there's a better strategy, a better way to plan. Some people have, like, the mentality of I'll post a picture today, a video tomorrow than a quote. They'll have a sort of like a special rotation, there's times I'm trying to put so much thought into it, of having a more presentable platform, kind of what you just said, it's just about doing it and it was a huge point that and I'm just going off track back to that where that was a golden piece of advice there, where it's just like, get back on track in the second year, but everyone has that like, oh, I'm missing just one mike to have enough microphones to start doing recording for this, or once I have this set in place, I'll do that and I'm sometimes I get sucked into that myself.

It's weird how I'm still always one of the first people to tell others. Like when they're talking about wanting to do something, I'm like, well just do it. Like the day you take that first action is the day you'll realize, oh, I am missing this piece to make it happen. But sitting back thinking of, I want to make things perfect and have all this in place. You're never going to start. Most people will never actually start or do it next year in two years because they're always waiting.

It's like by getting that ball of rolling no matter what it is that ball has to start rolling. That's pretty much the end of that. I think that social media is that too. It was like now getting back to the actual subject was wanting to stay fresh in people's mind. At first I had zero strategy of what I was putting out. But it was the mentality of people are always scrolling so there's always so much in front of their face in front of their eyes. I want people to as much as possible be annoyed by seeing my name, remember I exist to remember I play drums, remember I'm out there.

So like the day they're like, hey no, I'm looking for a drummer. Ah they're thinking of that annoying guy that they see every day on social media in their feed. You know I was posting once every two weeks and the algorithm isn't showing them anything like it might even forget I exist until we crossed paths one day in the street, you know? Yeah. And they're like why don't we hire him for our project? He's so much better than that other guy. But that other guy posted on social media all the time to a certain extent, I'm sure that's true.

A lot of people, that's it. There's just so much going on in everybody's lives every day and on social media, the 10 times more because half the people are inventing almost, they're fun lives on social media for what people see, whether it's reality or not. If you're not regularly seeing people, that's the only way sometimes to stay on top of the mine. If you're not constantly putting out content, sometimes, if it's just a picture video or this little story of what you've been up to, you're staying fresh in people's minds, like there's times I'll post up, I think no one cares, no one's watching it.

And then months from now I cross paths and old friends like, hey man, I saw you do this, that's crazy in my head, like no one even knew about it, but more people than you think are usually watching those things. So it's important to be active. You want to post garbage, you want to pick what you are showing to the public. I mean, some people just figure it's social media, it's my personal page and you're having a bad day and you're posting about your bad day, but that's why there's a fine line to cross and you don't want to cross and pay attention to, like you say, branding is what are you about?

Like for bands? I say you as if it's an artist, but it's something for bands. Like, what's the band about? What are you trying to put out there? What do you want people to think about you? Like, when someone thinks about your band, what is it that comes to mind? Is it gonna be like, they're positive, they're go getters, they're doing what they love, they're having a good time doing it. Is it going to be like talking about the bad day you had doing this or that you want to start writing that there's enough negativity online that you want to stay away from that and pay attention to like what's important to move you forward or get your music out there and share your passion with the world. Yeah.

You know, I think a great example of what you're saying there would be looking at, for example, anti flag and trapped, I mentioned trapped way too often on the podcast, but their social media is just, it gets attention, but it's abysmal because it's divisive and essentially just online bullying. And then you look at anti flag there. Obviously a very political band down to the name, but they talk about politics in the way of bringing people together and in a positive light, saying, hey, there's this thing happening that we don't support, we need to band together and be people who want to help one another and just looking at the differences even though they both make political posts, one is extremely positive while the other one is just like unhinged rants on facebook.

I would advocate for no artist too post political statements on their social media unless they have a thorough understanding of what they're doing and very carefully worded and obviously know that their audience has similar views, but that can go to so many other things like social justice things like when you're talking about social justice as a brand, make sure that it's positive and uplifting if it's just like this rant, even if it's a well intentioned rant, that's not what people want to see for sure. Like I think there's like a fine line there, like you said, like if the band is all about that and they're ready to take on people that are going to bash their opinions cool, I guess because I'm still a strong believer that more and more with social media, you still have obviously fans of the music and people are going to be fans because they like what you do.

But if you want stronger fans, it's because they're connecting to you. They're connecting to the members of the band, they're connecting to more than just the music. So like if the artist or the band is all about these political views or you're all about something that might not be the best thing to promote. But if that's who you are and cool, I mean talk about it because you're going to attract the people that have those same views and you're gonna have those die hard fans because they're your people.

It's just like being careful of knowing that like it's so easy. There's so many people out there behind their screens just bashing on everything and anything just like on Youtube read any comments are always gonna be those haters that just for some reason I wanted to go and just talk shit. Unfortunately, always those people have time to waste but like you have to be open to knowing those people are there and they're gonna be even more there if you have those very specific views. But I'm still a strong believer in being true to who you are, who the band is because that will get you long term fans that like you for you.

Not that they won't care about the music, like you still want them to care about the music, but they can also not care about the music, but really like you and be at every show by your merge, be behind you comment every post you have. So that's an important thing to think too, is not just being like every day is like here's a new song, here's a new song, here's a new song. Here's a new song. You need that human connection to behind the social media. Yeah.

That is such a great point because I can almost see like a clear line in the sand that divides the artists who build relationships with their fans and the artists who don't. I mean there are major label acts who just don't talk to fans and their successful nonetheless. But when it comes to up and coming D. I. Y. Artists it is so clear to see which bands care about their fans and make that a priority. And you can see them just growing and growing and growing and the bands that don't care about their fans and don't grow relationships with them Are the artists who are saying two years down the road, Our music is way better than that other band, but they're so successful.

Like why aren't we? It's because they care about your fans. You don't even reply to Facebook comments. Doeses't matter if your music is better. They are treating their fans better and that is what people are following them for 100% constantly post on social media and have stories and everything. But like I still have that moment that I hate seeing myself on camera and talking like even here, I'm like we're on this, I'm just like talking to you. Like I hate seeing me on the other side of the screen.

So it's like I don't talk that much in my stories but constantly bashing myself saying I should because you see the artists out there that they're just constantly in communication with their public, their fans. I had some people tell me at one point, like the dems some known artists and then answer back with a video instead of typing it out and like those things are huge. Like I really think that that goes a long way for a while. There are still bands and artists out there, like the whole mysterious side is what gets them going.

Like there's certain artists that come to my mind that just like there are certain mystery, not often in interviews, not often talking and cool, everyone likes the mysterious side of things, but it's not always that that's going to work. I think that friendly human connection goes further the long term. Absolutely. And there's definitely two different approaches to that. I don't want to say either one of them is wrong, but I think I do want to say that your approach of being relatable is easier for most artists because having that mystique takes even more careful branding and a lot more thought put into it to release just the right amount of content.

You have to have some content, but not too much if you want that level of Mystique and mystery and all that, whereas just being somebody who talks to fans makes them feel appreciated. Anybody can do that. It might be draining if somebody's an introvert, but it's still technically possible and I think that's much easier to execute on for sure. I mean, nothing's saying nothing's easy for some people, it's really easy. I see some people out there, it's just like second nature to open their camera and start talking to it and, and I'm jealous.

I admire that because that's like not me. I like they do three videos to pick the best one before like sending it off or something. But some people are just like, they're just filming there every day whenever and it's, it's amazing. I so many bands out there and have been in that position all the time. It's like you have those press picks and the like serious mug shots and the attitude. Perfect example, I'm in the middle of moving so I'm finding all these old show posters, it's like super serious sometimes it's like suited up this attitude and a cool, like if people see nothing but those shots, they're kind of getting an image in their head of who is this band?

Who is this artist. But if they don't know through the social media because that's what they're relating to. Social media before. Social media is maybe like Youtube videos of old interviews until they know the actual person. They might see you and right away like they won't be fans anymore because they're like, wow, like I thought this was this person and that's not who it is. But like if you have that human connection and you're just always kind of relating to the public, to your fans, like I said, it's a stronger bond for them to be connected to you, less of just the music or that picture.

I think I can go a long way. I mean take that tough guy mug shot and who knows if he's a fanatic, perfect example of talk about fanatics. I mean, you know, we're instagram friends where I live right now. I have all these squirrels in my backyard and I feed peanuts every day and they come hang out and stuff. Like it's silly to say like that just makes me happy. Like I'll spend like an hour of the day watching them and shooting peanuts and getting them to catch them.

Like I post videos all the time and from that without it being I didn't think of anything I just posted cause I find it funny and it's cute. I love people write to me like, oh my God, I love how you love animals. I love how you take care of those squirrels or how you feed them. Or like it's just thinking of like these couple of dozens of people that have this certain connection now because they're like, I didn't know you were an animal lover. They likely feel closer to me and what I'm doing even in the music side, because of that detail, which makes no sense whatsoever.

But it's still a huge detail in my books. Like whether they're going to support my next single, that I'm going to release because they like the song or because they like the person behind the song. It's amazing. Yeah, absolutely. And that's the kind of thing that people want to connect on. They see that you're a human being, you're not just a robot who plays drums, You are a person and you have interests outside of music. That's really what it comes down to true. Even in music, I think a lot of people focus on, I'm guilty too on the superficial wanting to make things look perfect.

You're always watching these crazy bands online. These huge like rock and Rio festivals and everything is like perfect. Everything sounds great. Everything is like machine. I don't know why I used that festival as a reference. Like, they saw something recently and just like, now I'm working on like the music video for that first single of my own project and like the friend nick that's singing on it was really good video stuff. He's helping doing like editing and he sends me a first draft and it starts off with a scene where like I was getting ready and I dropped a steak and like, oh wait, hold on.

And I feel like that's just hilarious. Like showing people we're human, we all mess up. It's not like we're taking the perfect scene to make people think like you're a robot. You've been practicing for 25 hours before filming this music video. It was like super like spontaneous. I think like more and more that human connection. It's always been important. Like, I think more and more it's becoming it it's like people are stepping away from that big perfect picture and relating to like, you're like me were normal, were human just doing what we love.

That goes a long way. Absolutely. And I think at a certain point in people's lives, most people realized that they aren't perfect and that that is okay. And obviously you've already realized that and the people who realize that about themselves appreciate seeing that in other people, because like you say, that's a humanizing element, and I think that goes a long way to, like you say, grow those relationships and that's really what it comes down to is just showing that you are a decent human being and not some cold robot who just does one thing and that's all you do, and that's the mistake that so many bands do.

I was speaking to someone recently and that was the story was like an artist that usually just hires different session players for their gigs and that was like a huge part of it where it's like, person down the street could be a better player. But if the person is an ass, so they're a dick and they're like, you don't want to spend time with them, No one wants to be driving five hours to a gig and having to spend time with these people that are just annoying.

I mean, the list goes on and arrogant. They likely prefer going for someone that has less skill and less talent, but it's fun to be around or just a good person. I mean, it becomes a relationship, it becomes a family. Any band knows that. I mean, I haven't really been in bands for a long time, but even more so in your band because we're just always together, always traveling together. I mean, now I'm still living that with the session work just as well be on a tour bus traveling 12 hours to the next city, luckily on the tour bus, you have like your own little rooms, you can kind of separate off too if you need to.

But like anyone's, I think I saw it was like hired gun. I know it's like the netflix hired gun and people talking about that whole concept of some bands are traveling separately because they can't get along anymore. But I think like most people these days, like if you're not a cool person, you're not a good human being, there is going to go to the next person, even if you're the best, it's not going to get you anywhere. Yeah man, I have not seen that documentary. I'm definitely gonna have to go check that out now because I googled it and it sounds really cool.

It's worth watching. Yeah. On a similar note, I think we'll wrap it up after this, but there is a great documentary on the Band Rush and it's not about the band at all. It is 100% behind the scenes on what goes into their production. So for anybody who is interested in how arena level shows get built from the stage up to the sound and lights definitely check that out. Let me see if I can find the name of the documentary, making a whole documentary on how to set up his drums.

Yeah, Neil Peart man, I'm sure documentaries like that are good to watch. Like we keep talking about different bands or artists or whatever, but like that's a huge thing. A lot of people don't put enough thought into where it's like the songs and the performance is one thing, but sometimes just some detail and production or something that you can add. Like the whole thing is always like building an experience you want to bring people on. So it's like, it doesn't just stop at, we wrote this killer song, but how is it going to be performed?

Is there a certain lighting to match the mood of the song? Is there a segue into the intro? It's like, it's like the whole, like you mentioned production on the tour, I'm discussing that now with this project, I'm a part of they're supposed to be another short tour coming up in september and we're already discussing how the stage will be set up for what kind of production we can add to the show. And I feel like sometimes that's even more important than the show itself. Like you can go play your same set straight on lighting and people will dig it but kind of boring and do that same thing with proper lighting that changes between one song to the next, setting a mood and you're bringing this person into like this storyboard that you created.

I feel like that's what gets me. That's what gets me all the time. And shows is like how they brought me into their mood into like what they were thinking or feeling when that was created. Yeah, absolutely. That's so important. And I think the point there that I want to highlight is that a stage show is not just a musician. On stage, A stage show is a theatrical production, even though it's not technically a theatrical work. It's not a play or musical. It's still a theatrical production and that's how you should look at it.

Everything works together, the sound, the lights, all of that video. If you're at a level where you have video, it all fits together to become a show. It's not just somebody playing music. It is a show. Now. Unfortunately, I couldn't find the name of the DVD. It's been like seven years since I watched it. If I remember it, it'll be in the show notes at Bandhive dot rocks slash 87. There's like 20 documentaries about Rush, so it's difficult to find which one is the right one, but I will do my best to put it in there in the meantime, Ryan thank you so much for coming on the show and hanging out.

This has been a blast. I think it's going to be super useful to the listeners. Where can people go to learn more about you pretty much everywhere you can be found online. It would be a good or a bad thing. Mainly the name to remember is Ryan Stevenson drums, I think that's pretty much like Ryan Stevenson drums dot com on instagram. It's Ryan Stevenson drums on facebook. Yeah, I'm sure if they just go to the website, the dot com, there's links to everything, but I love and people want to reach out, ask more questions is chat, I'm all about it and way too often on my social media is and platforms that I should be likely.

I feel your pain on that. Hey man, again, thank you so much for hanging out. This has been great and best of luck with the move. I hope that all goes well and I hope you have a great rest of your day as well, We'll have a great day. Thank you. I forgot I had this move to take care of until you mentioned it, but awesome. Sorry, thanks man, thank you. Mhm, mhm mm Yeah, that does it for this episode of the Bandhive podcast. Thanks so much for tuning in and listening and of course, big thanks to Ryan Stevenson of Ryan Stevenson drums for joining us on the episode this week.

So many great takeaways, whether it's branding or running your business as a session drummer, touring drummer or in general, just a session or touring musician doesn't necessarily have to be a drummer. Lots of great knowledge bombs from Ryan here. So I really hope that you've listened carefully to this episode and have some good takeaways for your band or yourself from this episode. So many great things, like I said, it's really amazing to speak with an artist who's doing the thing at Ryan's level and just to see how their advice lines up with what past guests on the show have said.

And I think that really speaks for itself to see that people who are playing with major, major acts are saying the same things that artists who are doing quite well for themselves, but not yet at that level. And when they say things that line up, that means, hey, this is definitely what you have got to be doing. So thanks again to Ryan Stevenson for coming on the show, really appreciate him taking the time to join us and for those of you who want to take your careers to the next level, whether you are in a solo project or in a band, please go ahead and join the Bandhive facebook community.

It's totally free. All you have to do is search for banned Hive B A N D H I V E on facebook or go to Bandhive dot rocks slash group to be given a link to the group automatically. Either way, we would love to have you there, whether you are actively sharing your knowledge or asking questions or just watching and learning from what other people are discussing, you're absolutely welcome to join us. So again, that's banned Hive dot Rocks slash group or you can search for banned Hive on facebook.

We'll be back with another new episode next Tuesday at six a.m. Eastern time. Until then, I hope you have an awesome week. Stay safe. And of course, as always, keep rockin.