[00:00:00] James: Welcome to episode 204 of the Bandhive Podcast

[00:00:04] James: it is time for another episode of The Bandhive Podcast. My name is James Cross, and I help independent artists tour smart. This week, I am thrilled to have one of my oldest friends on the show, Brian LaClair, of the band Better Things.

[00:00:16] James: How's it going today, Brian?

[00:00:17] Brian: Heyo, it's going well, James. How are you?

[00:00:19] James: Stoked to hear that I'm doing fantastic, especially because… Not as the time of recording this, but when people hear this, when it drops, we're going to be three days out from Better Things big reunion show at Higher Ground in South Burlington, Vermont. Hint, if you're not doing anything on Friday, and you live in Vermont, go see Brian's band play at Higher Ground.

[00:00:38] Brian: I like to think it'll be pretty good. So,

[00:00:41] James: Well, I mean, we know the sound is going to be fantastic.

[00:00:43] Brian: yes. sound will probably be good.

[00:00:46] Brian: see how James is feeling that day.

[00:00:47] James: Ha ha ha ha. Quentin me off, and there's just no bass. It's like a Metallica show.

[00:00:52] Brian: Perfect.

[00:00:54] James: Ha

[00:00:54] Brian: No notes.

[00:00:55] James: No notes. No mix notes. You guys, can you put more something? No. [00:01:00] Opposite.

[00:01:00] Brian: that would be the kind of thing that you would do to us, I feel like.

[00:01:02] Brian: if I posted one too many, memes about James in the days leading up to the show, we would just, like, have our entire set replaced by some sort of Wiggles compilation album.

[00:01:12] James: I mean, it's the memes that actually inspired this episode. I'm embracing the memes with arms wide open. It's a low hanging fruit reference, but it's there. It's there.

[00:01:21] James: Anyway, so Brian, Better Things took a six year break. Now you're back. You're doing a big show. And Higher Ground, even the smaller room, the Showcase Lounge, It is a venue that a lot of local acts dream of headlining.

[00:01:34] James: And you're doing it. And you haven't played a show. Officially in six years.

[00:01:38] James: So before we get into all of that and talk about how you're promoting this show, because it's really creative and funny and I love it. Not just because it's making fun of me, it's literally roasting me at points. But, can you share some background on Better Things as well as your personal musical journey?

[00:01:52] Brian: Yeah, absolutely. So, I had a band in high school managed by a horrible manager named James Cross.

[00:01:58] James: That is why I stopped [00:02:00] managing bands,

[00:02:00] Brian: Yeah, it was, you know, my first experience or into the musical world as far as like doing things a bit more professionally than just singing in, a choir And it was also James's, you know, one of your first big, big,

[00:02:15] James: ha!

[00:02:15] Brian: one of your first more substantial musical gigs, or like trying to do something a little bit more. Than like at a very tiny level.

[00:02:22] James: It was still a very tiny

[00:02:24] Brian: it was still a very tiny level. I mean, don't tell that to us at the time.

[00:02:27] Brian: Cause I think, you know, we always, we always tried to take ourselves seriously, even though we were very much not a serious band.

[00:02:33] James: I wondered was for you to buy some merch so we could sell it and make money. Couldn't even do that.

[00:02:38] Brian: nope. Um, It's true, James has been shilling for merch since 2012, 2011. so Better Things was this band that grew out of my high school band. We had, three members who stayed pretty consistent throughout the time that we were in this high school band.

[00:02:53] Brian: And as we, were growing up and, and getting out of high school and starting to do different things with college or, or [00:03:00] jobs or whatever, we decided at a certain point that the band name that we had didn't suit us and we were changing some members up. And really we had this hard stop point in, in 2014 where we were like, Okay, we are going to release a new EP, we're going to release it under a new name, we looked at it more as like a complete refresh point rather than just, rebranding or whatever.

[00:03:21] Brian: It was like, okay. this is the date that we were switching over to the new name. I think at that point it was designated by Facebook what day that would be, because they had a 30 day lead up time, and they might still,

[00:03:32] Brian: when you your name, so you know, we were informed what day that was going to be on, Yeah, so that was the birth of better things was that it was like rising from guess the ashes of what we had previously been and releasing a whole bunch of new music under that name Things really started escalating from there. We got a bunch of really fantastic Opportunities even at that point.

[00:03:52] Brian: I think it was the height of kind of our writing brain power We were writing a ton of music having a little bit more funds available to [00:04:00] us just from our own pockets because we were, we were no longer in high school, like we could have jobs that paid pretty well, and that, we're a little bit more consistent, so we started really taking what we were doing seriously and started touring, just kind of figuring it out.

[00:04:14] Brian: That's kind of been the, the general play of Better Things is, is that we, we roll with what we've got. And we figure it out as we go. lot of like flying by the seat of our pants, which I know is something that, you allude to a lot for about bands.

[00:04:26] James: feel that now that you're here, know I've told this story about a hundred times on the podcast, about the band who uh, did a quick tour management stint on a weekend or four. And I was like, hey, here's our profit for the weekend. And you were all so amazed Cause you'd never calculated your expenses and profit before.

[00:04:43] James: That was better things. Now that you're here, I don't feel bad naming and shaming.

[00:04:47] Brian: This is very true and I love hearing you tell that story, especially when I'm not named in it.

[00:04:52] James: You weren't the one who was like, Oh my god, what? So,

[00:04:54] Brian: know, at that point in time I wasn't terribly surprised that we were making money. But Actually[00:05:00] having the time or the energy to manage our books in some sort of way was so, like, back of mind for me, because it was, yeah, I very much lived the band dad life, and it was just constant work with plenty of folks, that, money was not the most important thing to me, and in hindsight, I wish that it had been.

[00:05:19] Brian: I wish it had been like a much, more important thing to me in terms of the band.

[00:05:23] James: Yeah, so, you know, You've done a lot musically over the last, 10 years in Dender Personality and Better Things, before that with other projects like Choir. What got you personally into music? Like, there a certain artist that just inspired you and you said, I want to do this, or was it a friend asked you to play music, or how did that happen?

[00:05:40] Brian: Man For me, this is a little known fact about me. But I, I love sharing this fact. the first time that I spoke, I actually sang. so I didn't just speak my first words, I sang my first words. It was the Barney theme song, if you really want some deep lore.

[00:05:52] James: That's fantastic.

[00:05:53] Brian: music has always been a part of my life.

[00:05:55] Brian: I, grew up in a really musical family, a musically focused family. To this day, one of [00:06:00] my favorite memories, and still one of my favorite songs, is 30, 000 Pounds of Bananas by Harry Chapin. Because that was a song that my dad would let me listen to all the time. And, as far as like getting into music myself funny enough Mark, the drummer in our band, and I met when I was I think we were in fifth grade. I was playing percussion in the school band at the time, and he was playing trombone. we started hanging out at that point and talking more.

[00:06:25] Brian: We were putting more and more classes together and that sort of stuff. And he actually went off and started his own band when we were in middle school, I think about eighth grade. And, they had this singer at the time who they really liked working with.

[00:06:39] Brian: but he was just a bit flaky. Which, I mean, I don't know exactly what you need to do to be flaky in eighth grade. day they just… I think, yeah, I think he got grounded a lot. They decided they wanted to switch it up, and I think he was actually a grade behind us. So when we moved into high school, Mark and Jordan, who were two members of that band time, and Megan actually, came to me, and they were like, Brian, do you want to sing in our band?[00:07:00] [00:07:00] Brian: high school band that I was referring to earlier. We formed that at that point. There were several different lineups throughout the band's iteration. Mark left for a point in time during high school, then came back. Yeah, yeah, he came back and he was very happy.

[00:07:13] Brian: And so, and I have been with it since the beginning. And then, funny enough uh, Brad, who's the other vocalist and guitar player, had, like, rivaling bands in high school he had this fantastic band, and actually the reason that Mark left our band in high school for a period of time was to join Brad's band, called One Man

[00:07:32] Brian: Empire. so the thing about One Man Empire is that they were a fantastic band.

[00:07:36] Brian: And even going back, some of those songs that they wrote really hold up and we, we talk about them and, and play some of them a little bit in practice. But Brad and I never really, got the chance to really talk to each other or interact in, in a meaningful way other than being at like the same, like, battle of the bands competitions or whatever.

[00:07:53] Brian: And, we were at a point where we were a trio, after high school, and we had been like a [00:08:00] four piece, became a trio, and we knew we wanted to add somebody back into the band, and we kind of were like, okay, you know, we'll, we'll wait and see. when the right time is, when the right opportunity presents itself to us.

[00:08:11] Brian: And at some point we just asked Brad. And we were like, okay, we're going to try this out for at least one show. Like come to some practices. Let's see what happens. And I think originally he was supposed to just be guitar player Brad. But very quickly it became apparent that we wanted to give him more and more vocal parts.

[00:08:27] Brian: And, and he was writing songs left and right. And very quickly, like I think, you know, even him and I rode together on that, that first show that we played where we were just like trying him out. we like, took the same car and we talked for a really long time and really just. Even before the show, I was Brad is like the perfect fit for our band.

[00:08:46] James: Yeah, very cool. And then you had a a spinal tap number of bassists.

[00:08:50] James: you've had a consistent drummer, but bassists, you've gone through them.

[00:08:53] Brian: Yeah, we had a whole swath bass players circling the band for a while. Many of whom only [00:09:00] played one show, or in some cases only appeared in one music video. And…

[00:09:04] James: I forgot about that.

[00:09:06] Brian: Yeah. really, like, that was just a series of, not necessarily people who didn't fit you know, we had one that was, had to commute from across Lake Champlain.

[00:09:14] Brian: So that was, you know, 45 minutes of commitment each way to get to band practice. We played a few shows with him. And then we had yeah, a fill in bass player who, like I was saying, literally just filled in for a music video. were hoping to have him for more shows but he was also, even though he's a musical protege, quite honestly, he was in high school and couldn't, deal with touring schedule.

[00:09:37] Brian: He also got grounded. And then our current bass player, Quintin, who's been with us since the end of 2014. So 2014 was the year of the like, know, plenty of,

[00:09:46] James: him,

[00:09:46] James: I mean it was really like a six month span that you just went through bassists,

[00:09:50] Brian: yeah. Yep. So yeah, we invited him over. We were like, hey, do you want to fill in There was a show at the end of the year. Um, With some of our good friends in bands like Get a Grip and [00:10:00] Morning Comes Early down in Rutland. And we were like, we just need a bass player for the show. we were very nice about it.

[00:10:06] Brian: We were like, trying to make it seem like we weren't looking for anything permanent. More for feeling bad for anyone that would have to learn all of our songs. and Quentin just showed up for practice and absolutely killed it, first try. Like, he had really done his own work. He really meshed with us very well, and so he's still in the band.

[00:10:24] Brian: He's still having a good time. I think,

[00:10:26] James: I would imagine so.

[00:10:28] Brian: he just, he shows up for the good time. I think,

[00:10:30] James: Well that's perfect. let's move on into the core of this episode. You chose Higher Ground for your comeback, which, if you're outside of Vermont, that might not mean much, but in Vermont, that's like the holy grail of venues that you want to play. Not just Headline, but play. A lot of local acts would probably balk at choosing a venue like that. They would go to Monkey House or Radio Bean or some kind of smaller venue. Why did you set your sights on Higher Ground?

[00:10:56] Brian: higher ground is sort of like the, the dream venue for [00:11:00] Vermont bands, I grew up going to shows there. I remember my first show there.

[00:11:03] Brian: I remember the last show that I went to there, and we've played it plenty of times in supporting roles but we had never headlined a show there, in the last few years, our friends, people that we had been around while we were an active band, have started taking more front seat roles in music promotion around the area.

[00:11:21] Brian: Yeah. there are a few reasons we chose it. One, we didn't know if it was possible. We were like, okay, you know, we haven't played a show in six years. let's see if, this is a potential option for us. and the reason that Higher Ground was one of the venues on the shortlist for where we wanted to do our, like, reunion slash comeback show, was We really didn't want to play at a venue that was a bar first, venue second.

[00:11:44] Brian: That was the terminology that we used in the band. We were like, okay, we really want a space that is all ages, comfortable for everyone to attend, and is, somewhat reputable. Like, people know what it is. We played plenty of basements where we couldn't give the address, [00:12:00] including our own.

[00:12:00] Brian: as like nostalgic as that might be, really wanted do something a little bit more than we had ever done before.

[00:12:06] James: Legitimatize it.

[00:12:07] Brian: well yeah, and I mean that kind of goes into another point of it, which is like, Even when we were headlining, back when we were in active band we always kept our sets really, really short.

[00:12:16] Brian: we did that to inspire more hype or more demand. We always wanted people leaving like they wanted more from better things.

[00:12:24] James: They wanted better things.

[00:12:26] Brian: I guess just a higher volume of better things. Yeah and then We never really had a formal production like we were always very much a DIY We looked at it from the aspect of like how can we make sure?

[00:12:39] Brian: That this show is the best it is going to get right now we do not want to skimp on anything We want to make sure that it is like the best experience that somebody can have if they like our music. We also wanted it to be just like a big messaging thing. Like, oh my god, they are back.

[00:12:56] Brian: And they are playing like the premier venue, even if it [00:13:00] is in the small room. we knew for sure we didn't want to play in the big room of Higher Ground. when you come back from something like this, The question is, how many people are going to be engaged?

[00:13:09] Brian: How many people are actually going to be excited? Because we certainly, you know, over the years, we all heard from plenty of people being like, Oh, I listen to Better Things all the time still, or I, like, miss you playing music together, blah, blah, blah. But at the end of the day, how many of those people are going to, going to show up?

[00:13:25] Brian: So, showcase lounge at Higher Ground was sort of like our, our number one choice, We sent some emails, and sent some Facebook messages, just trying to tentatively figure out if it was even possible, and then we were able to, we were able to land a date, and get some really solid support on it that we felt confident in.

[00:13:42] James: Including I should shout out former Band Half co host Aaron Gingras and his band Suburban Samurai. So another reason to go check out this show if you're in the area.

[00:13:51] Brian: absolutely. A lot of people would say we play very similar music. I don't know if I'd go that far. I think Suburban Samurai is very much on the pop punk end of the spectrum. And we're [00:14:00] a little bit more on the emo end of the spectrum.

[00:14:02] James: I would say

[00:14:03] James: the music is not similar at all. The fan base is similar.

[00:14:07] Brian: that's fair. I mean, because of that, there's some of our oldest friends. We've been playing shows with them for years. Speaking of support, in general, when I asked the band, what local bands do we want on the show with us, everybody was unanimous and independent in saying Suburban Samurai.

[00:14:22] Brian: We were like, this is non negotiable, like, Suburban Samurai has to be there.

[00:14:26] James: good choice. Good choice. Looking at the promotional aspect of this show because that's really what we're here to talk about because I have been so amused By the effort going into the promotion and I mean that in the best of ways like it's I think it's really effective It's getting a lot of attention you know, obviously you've done the hey Here's the show and you announce the show like everybody does that you've posted the poster that kind of stuff But, you have included a clip of Brad confused in the woods, where he looks like a confused puppy who's like, Wait, what? Which, that'll be linked in the show notes at bandhive. rock slash [00:15:00] 204, that's 204. You've also written short songs for anybody who comments on your Facebook post. Which, those songs were quite entertaining to watch. I watched… At least five of them, aside from the

[00:15:12] Brian: I still, I still have more, more to work on today, actually, so.

[00:15:16] James: that's fantastic, I can't wait to see them all.

[00:15:18] James: I hope they get compiled into like a YouTube playlist of some sort at some point.

[00:15:22] James: that's just such a cool idea. And it gives people that personal attention. And gets engagement for the post, so more people see it and can comment on it. And it's not going viral, but it is spreading.

[00:15:33] James: Because people want to see this kind of content.

[00:15:35] James: Then you ask for bad marketing ideas. On, uh, Instagram. So of course I said, Compile a bunch of clips of me saying merch. And you did it and it was hilarious. I was just eating breakfast and I scrolled through Instagram. I was like, what's this and I cracked up it made my day and that was actually today and then I was like Brian We're having you on the show.

[00:15:51] James: What what are you doing today?

[00:15:53] Brian: One of my favorite things about that compilation, first of all, I was, I saw that message and I was just like, you know, this is something [00:16:00] that even before the Bandai I would have been able to do. That, like, I am, like, absolutely destined to make this video. And now it's just a lot easier.

[00:16:09] Brian: Um, because we

[00:16:10] James: 200 episodes of content where I

[00:16:11] Brian: Exactly.

[00:16:12] James: all the time.

[00:16:13] Brian: Yeah, and my favorite part whole thing was I included the word also. So it's just you going, murch, murch, murch, murch, murch. Also! Murch, murch, murch, murch, murch. And wasn't sure how that was going to land with people. So like, I like to think of myself as not really funny of a person.

[00:16:30] Brian: I don't like to think of myself that way, but I do think of myself as not that funny of a person. I'm not quite as quick as I'd like to be. so, when I got that opportunity to throw that also in there, I was like, I think this is going to be really funny. And by the time I was done editing the video, I wasn't sure anymore.

[00:16:44] Brian: And so seeing people comment on it, on like the Band Hype Discord, or even just like in replies to our story, that just being like, oh my god, that also killed me. I'm like, that's perfect.

[00:16:55] James: now I'm curious all replied because I can't see that but yeah. Discord for anybody who's [00:17:00] not in it yet, you can find it at bandhive. rocks slash discord. That'll send you directly to the invite link for our Discord server. also, merch,

[00:17:08] Brian: Merch.

[00:17:08] James: merch, merch,

[00:17:10] Brian: Merch.

[00:17:11] James: merch,

[00:17:12] Brian: Merch.

[00:17:13] James: merch, merch, merch. I feel like this is, you know how the, like the stereotypical movie scene where they're like, doctor, doctor, doctor, it's like, merch, merch, merch.

[00:17:22] Brian: Yeah.

[00:17:23] James: we could go on Merch Rabbit Hole for days, but this is not an episode about merch.

[00:17:27] James: It is an episode about promotion. And I also really liked the video response. We're both fans of the IT crowd. And somebody said commit crimes. So you did a video about how uh, It was inspired by like the spoof piracy ad in the IT crowd, I'm pretty sure. it ended with something like, You would not go to the Better Things show on October 27th, 2023.

[00:17:49] James: And I

[00:17:49] Brian: Yeah,

[00:17:50] James: was too good.

[00:17:51] Brian: yeah, I mean, even before the IT crowd, spoof of that, there's been an image that's been floating around the internet forever that just says, you wouldn't [00:18:00] download a car, and my favorite response to it is always, fuck you, I would if I could. so like, immediately when I saw the commit crimes, I was like, ah, there's going to be something about my dogs.

[00:18:10] Brian: Or, I need to make one of these spoofs, and Certainly making videos like that isn't easy, can be very time consuming, especially for somebody that has ADHD. but, yeah, the crime video was great, I was very excited to make that as soon as I, like, I was like, okay, what can I do with this prompt? And I was like, yes, the crime meme. you wouldn't download a car.

[00:18:30] James: But, you know, people might download a live performance.

[00:18:32] Brian: that's a big,

[00:18:33] James: were there in the first place.

[00:18:34] Brian: it is better if you were there in the first place. so some of the creative promotion that we're doing is really inspired by the fact that we don't have content from the last five years. we can make content right now, but people only want to see so much of me and Brad sitting in the woods playing guitar or like re releasing very old things that people probably don't remember, slash things that we never released.

[00:18:56] Brian: everything about promotion is kind of just this funnel there are [00:19:00] different levels of that sales funnel and different, I mean, of course, you know, if you're familiar with marketing at all, there are sort of different levels. This is not a multi level marketing scheme.

[00:19:08] Brian: are different,

[00:19:10] James: Refer all your friends to the better things show October 27th at higher ground.

[00:19:14] Brian: yeah, exactly, go sell it at your local farmer's market. There are different levels to the funnel, and really lucky to be in this position where we just have this show is our only focus at the moment.

[00:19:25] Brian: This is like an opportunity that most bands don't have to just focus on one specific show. Usually you have maybe a show every month. And so in the months leading up to it, you are focusing on multiple different shows, trying to promote all of them. for us, it's like, okay, this show at Higher Ground on October 27th, 2023.

[00:19:44] Brian: This is it. And we have, you know, no concrete plans beyond that, which is it kind of in itself a beautiful thing for, for promotional aspects, because we can change the target of, what we want our promotion to do. But still, it's all kind of leading down this slope [00:20:00] into this show at higher ground.

[00:20:01] Brian: Like, if we have more active viewership on our, Facebook page or on our Instagram page, even if that content that we're posting is unrelated. To the show specifically, like, so if we are just like going through, you know, old videos that we never published, or new, content that we've created, to promote whatever thing it may be, it's still more eyes on the show or on the links to the tickets for the show overall, it helps build that consistent audience.

[00:20:27] James: Yeah I think that's so cool. And I've never seen an artist do a campaign quite like this So I'm curious where you got the ideas like what made you say? We're just gonna make this as weird as possible and it's gonna work

[00:20:39] Brian: I guess that's just how I think now. comes back to, I think I started touching on this a moment ago. nobody wants to see the same show flyer over and over and over again. and not just people, like the algorithms that run all these platforms don't want to see the same show flyer over and over and over again.

[00:20:56] Brian: Instagram and Facebook, I think both, did something really smart [00:21:00] that could be considered frustrating for musicians, many years ago. they still do this. if you have a lot of text in your post, especially if you're posting an image that has text in it.

[00:21:09] Brian: It is not going to be shown to as many people as if you have video with text in it. should keep it to a minimum regardless. Or if you have other content that's sort of leading people in to your like sphere of influence. so like posting a show flyer just isn't, productive for anyone.

[00:21:25] Brian: we did an announcement video instead of just posting the flyer, because there's a hierarchy both for Instagram and sometimes for Twitter you have all of these different types of posts.

[00:21:34] Brian: You have the text post, the image post, the video post, the live post. this hierarchy has stayed pretty consistent across the years where text posts are going to be the lowest engagement, image posts are going to be second highest, video posts, and then live interactive video is going to be top.

[00:21:51] Brian: Facebook have pulled back and forth a little bit on the live video, so sometimes it's just right on one on one with the, with video posts. they decide what's popular at the [00:22:00] time. I think during the pandemic. People did really, really well with live video posts, but it all really depends on what type of content people are most engaged with at the time.

[00:22:08] Brian: I think everyone has that friend that they see posting Every single day on their personal Facebook page being like my show is two days away. My shows one day away here's the poster.

[00:22:18] Brian: Here's the

[00:22:18] James: who cares?

[00:22:19] Brian: Nobody.

[00:22:20] James: That person's mom.

[00:22:21] Brian: Oh yeah, and good for that person's mom.

[00:22:23] Brian: That's a great relationship right there. But as far as like my promotional tactics, I kind of sit and I think about what type of content I would want to see. so I have this ongoing post right now on my personal Facebook page that says I don't know how to market, which is, it's a lie.

[00:22:41] Brian: I'm not going to try to pretend that I, that I don't know anything about marketing, but I, you know, there's a certain level at which my, you know, I have proficiency in, and then beyond that, I don't know anything. So comment below and I will write you a song about, why you should come to the show.

[00:22:58] Brian: you know, funny enough, this kind of goes [00:23:00] to the like, there's a certain level that I think until, and then I don't think anything beyond that when it comes to marketing. I did not calculate how strong the engagement would be because of the fact people are commenting back and forth.

[00:23:12] Brian: So, Joe Schmo will comment saying they want a song. I write the song. I get to decide when that gets posted. So there's an automatic boost to my post, at the time of my choosing when I post their video response. And then they comment again, and people are liking and inside of for this really strong

[00:23:32] Brian: engagement,

[00:23:33] Brian: and a lot of work for me.

[00:23:35] James: definitely not scalable.

[00:23:36] Brian: no, it's not, it's not scalable but, it is getting people to buy tickets, and that's what really matters. and it's fun, like, people are really enjoying it,

[00:23:44] James: Oh yeah.

[00:23:45] Brian: enjoying

[00:23:45] James: are hilarious. Like I said earlier, I watched about five of them. I love them.

[00:23:48] James: if every band did campaigns as creative as this… Which, you,

[00:23:52] James: know, it takes a lot of time, but that's what you have to do if you want to get these gigs. Because honestly, I think that Higher Ground didn't just book you[00:24:00] they like your music.

[00:24:01] James: mean, I know that. But they booked you because they knew you were going to take this seriously. And if they

[00:24:06] James: see somebody who doesn't take it seriously, that person is not going to get booked. If it's that band who just posts the flyer once and that's it. Or posts the same flyer ten times and gets like three likes. A

[00:24:17] Brian: yeah,

[00:24:17] James: is going to say, you're not even trying, why would we book you?

[00:24:20] Brian: absolutely,

[00:24:21] James: and I can already see the TikTok comments of, Oh my god, the venue exists. They need to bring the people in. That's not how it works! That is

[00:24:29] Brian: it's not

[00:24:29] James: how it works, unless you're a cover band playing bars or something. But that's not how it actually works. The people are there to see you. They're not there to see the venue.

[00:24:37] Brian: it's

[00:24:37] James: if,

[00:24:37] James: you're expecting the venue to get everyone to show up, that venue doesn't know who your fans are. You do that's on you. So that's why I'm so stoked that you're doing this Brian cuz like you get it You're going out there.

[00:24:47] James: You are being creative. You're being outside the box, which makes people notice it Anybody can post a flyer and it just gets scrolled past but something like hey, I don't know how to mark it I'll write you a song though that gets attention

[00:24:58] James: how many songs have you done for [00:25:00] that so far and how many more do you need to do as of Now cuz I'm sure

[00:25:03] Brian: um.

[00:25:03] James: will grow

[00:25:03] Brian: I think I've done seven so far,

[00:25:06] Brian: and as of writing, I have at least ten more that I need to do.

[00:25:10] Brian: So, so, this is like an, you know, exponential thing where

[00:25:14] Brian: it's going to keep growing, but, I'm starting to learn some tricks

[00:25:17] Brian: to getting the creative

[00:25:18] Brian: juices flowing. sometimes the same progression or generally around the same chord structure but try to keep it interesting.

[00:25:24] Brian: yesterday there was a song I wrote, and I was just this is very similar to the, to the last song. I need to like, throw this out and rewrite. But you know, it's like a, it's a one minute writing process, and then maybe a three minute recording process. I just pull my phone out.

[00:25:37] Brian: And then, like, set it up on my laptop, have my guitar, and then once it's done, I generally have not even been reviewing the videos, like, I just go on Facebook, comment, attach the video, be on with my day. the thing we're doing today on Instagram with tell us how we should promote our show, I was essentially like, what if I just pretended that I was out of ideas?

[00:25:58] Brian: again, it comes back to that point of like, I don't want [00:26:00] to just keep posting a bunch of videos of us playing songs, I want to make this funny, I want to make this interactive, so like, I'm just going to pretend that we're out of ideas and see what people say. But I'm going to make it very clear that they're supposed to give bad suggestions.

[00:26:13] Brian: And so like I'll see comments that are like, the commit crime one. do I have any like nylon stockings that I can throw on my head and

[00:26:20] Brian: make a

[00:26:20] Brian: skit?

[00:26:21] James: Walk into higher ground and steal the tickets.

[00:26:23] Brian: yeah. but then it's like, okay like I think within 30 seconds or so.

[00:26:27] Brian: I was literally searching. Through drawers in my house looking for nylon stockings. And I was like, wait a minute, I have a better idea. Sat down on my computer for a few minutes and like, made this video. I think it's all about you know, what can we do to do the unexpected? so in addition to, playing music, I also do photography and videography. many times I'm doing concert photography. there are so many bands that I deliver a significant amount of content for. Like, I will deliver an album full of, like, 30 photos for them. And a lot of bands will just [00:27:00] pick the 10 that they like and post them all together on Instagram in a scrolling thing.

[00:27:05] Brian: And then move on with their lives. And I am definitely guilty of having done that in the past. But now I'm like, man, this is like 10 posts worth of content. there are some bands, even locally to Vermont, that do it really, really well. one in particular, Voices in Vain. I worked with them just a few months ago, and it's been this very, very slow rollout of the photos that I delivered to them.

[00:27:26] Brian: And every time I see them post them, I'm like, Let's go! Like, this is awesome! And I'm at the point where I don't even remember, certain photos. Like, I'll get tagged in something, and I'll be like, Oh, I took this? That looks great!

[00:27:37] Brian: Like, what a great photographer! Um, getting

[00:27:40] Brian: to see the music world from

[00:27:42] Brian: the other

[00:27:42] Brian: side

[00:27:43] Brian: kind of the content creation spectrum has been really,

[00:27:46] Brian: Really interesting and a lot of fun.

[00:27:47] James: I love the creative ideas and outside the box thinking, that's why I wanted to do this episode. Because it's just, sincerity behind it. Because it's not just, hey, come to our show. It's reminding people that you exist, and that you have a show, [00:28:00] without directly selling them.

[00:28:01] Brian: I'll just interject

[00:28:02] Brian: really quickly. I think about this

[00:28:04] Brian: thing that

[00:28:04] Brian: happened all

[00:28:05] Brian: the time

[00:28:06] Brian: back when we were, you know, doing better things consistently,

[00:28:09] Brian: we

[00:28:09] Brian: were

[00:28:09] Brian: doing a

[00:28:10] Brian: bunch of like weekend

[00:28:10] Brian: tours and some longer tours

[00:28:13] Brian: a moment that I, that I

[00:28:14] Brian: just

[00:28:14] Brian: remember so

[00:28:15] Brian: well as

[00:28:15] Brian: far

[00:28:15] Brian: as promotion goes,

[00:28:16] Brian: even in those

[00:28:17] Brian: early

[00:28:17] Brian: days.

[00:28:18] Brian: I

[00:28:18] Brian: started realizing,

[00:28:19] Brian: and I think a lot

[00:28:20] Brian: of

[00:28:20] Brian: bands have realized this,

[00:28:20] Brian: especially

[00:28:21] Brian: with TikTok, because,

[00:28:22] Brian: you

[00:28:22] Brian: know,

[00:28:22] Brian: memes

[00:28:22] Brian: are,

[00:28:22] Brian: memes are so

[00:28:23] Brian: popular to promote your

[00:28:24] Brian: music now.

[00:28:25] Brian: one

[00:28:25] Brian: day I got

[00:28:25] Brian: home from work, and

[00:28:27] Brian: we

[00:28:27] Brian: had a show coming up, and I

[00:28:29] Brian: was just like,

[00:28:29] Brian: man,

[00:28:30] Brian: what if I

[00:28:30] Brian: just

[00:28:30] Brian: don't make a

[00:28:31] Brian: poster

[00:28:32] Brian: for

[00:28:32] Brian: this

[00:28:32] Brian: show? so I just posted an image that just

[00:28:35] Brian: had

[00:28:35] Brian: the,

[00:28:35] Brian: most

[00:28:36] Brian: basic details.

[00:28:37] Brian: And

[00:28:37] Brian: then it

[00:28:38] Brian: just said, please come

[00:28:38] Brian: to

[00:28:38] Brian: our

[00:28:39] Brian: shows.

[00:28:41] Brian: and the

[00:28:41] Brian: reaction

[00:28:42] Brian: was so

[00:28:43] Brian: positive like there was so

[00:28:44] Brian: much

[00:28:44] Brian: engagement.

[00:28:45] Brian: and so like now thinking back on that and thinking

[00:28:48] Brian: to the

[00:28:48] Brian: type

[00:28:48] Brian: of stuff we're doing, like

[00:28:49] Brian: it's a huge inspiration

[00:28:51] Brian: for this

[00:28:51] Brian: is like,

[00:28:51] Brian: there are

[00:28:52] Brian: four

[00:28:52] Brian: people in this band

[00:28:53] Brian: we

[00:28:53] Brian: all

[00:28:53] Brian: have.

[00:28:53] Brian: plenty to say

[00:28:54] Brian: and

[00:28:54] Brian: share and experiences

[00:28:56] Brian: that

[00:28:56] Brian: we

[00:28:56] Brian: have.

[00:28:56] Brian: and

[00:28:57] Brian: you shouldn't be a

[00:28:58] Brian: faceless

[00:28:58] Brian: box [00:29:00] that posts

[00:29:00] Brian: concert flyers. There's so much more to any band than that. a lot of personality,

[00:29:05] James: even if it's dented.

[00:29:06] Brian: Even if it's Denton.

[00:29:07] James: Sorry. I just had to drop that in.

[00:29:09] James: There's

[00:29:09] Brian: It's alright.

[00:29:10] James: Yeah, well, so

[00:29:11] James: thank you so much for coming on the show today and long overdue It's been four years almost the bandhub podcast and we're finally getting you on the show the show if you're listening on the day This drops, which is October 24th is this Friday.

[00:29:22] James: So in three days, October 27th if you're Anywhere near Vermont. Go check it out. It's at Higher Ground. I assume tickets might still be available. We don't know. We've recorded this under the assumption that there might still be a few tickets left. It's entirely possible that there will not be tickets left, But if there are tickets left, go buy them, go to the show. If there are not tickets left, beg Brian to help.

[00:29:44] Brian: Or

[00:29:44] Brian: check, like,

[00:29:45] Brian: StubHub or whatever,

[00:29:46] Brian: wherever

[00:29:46] Brian: people

[00:29:47] Brian: go

[00:29:47] Brian: these

[00:29:47] Brian: days.

[00:29:47] James: so all that aside, Brian, I know you said there's no solid plans after this show, but what's next for Better Things after this show at Higher Ground?

[00:29:55] Brian: Better Things

[00:29:55] Brian: has

[00:29:56] Brian: lot of

[00:29:56] Brian: unreleased

[00:29:57] Brian: music. we have a full EP that we [00:30:00] recorded,

[00:30:00] Brian: six years ago. That

[00:30:01] Brian: we've, bounced back and forth

[00:30:02] Brian: about

[00:30:02] Brian: finishing up, we

[00:30:03] Brian: did it

[00:30:03] Brian: in a very

[00:30:04] Brian: interesting way. So there's some touch ups would need to do. but we also have a

[00:30:07] Brian: bunch of

[00:30:07] Brian: brand new music, that we're not going to be playing at the show. so

[00:30:10] Brian: think

[00:30:10] Brian: next up on the

[00:30:11] Brian: agenda

[00:30:12] Brian: is that we're

[00:30:12] Brian: really

[00:30:12] Brian: going to be sitting down and

[00:30:13] Brian: seriously

[00:30:14] Brian: talking about I

[00:30:15] Brian: guess

[00:30:15] Brian: about

[00:30:15] Brian: what

[00:30:15] Brian: we're doing.

[00:30:16] Brian: but

[00:30:16] Brian: also,

[00:30:17] Brian: getting

[00:30:17] Brian: into the studio

[00:30:18] Brian: again. recording again,

[00:30:20] Brian: we have a lot

[00:30:21] Brian: of, better things that

[00:30:22] Brian: have

[00:30:22] Brian: yet to be told.

[00:30:23] James: very nice.

[00:30:24] James: And so if anyone wants to find the band on socials, it's at better things vt That's victor tango or at brian LaClair. That's l a c l a i r On, uh, the socials as well.

[00:30:37] Brian: also, betterthingsband. com.

[00:30:40] Brian: I

[00:30:40] James: well, Brian, thank you so much, man. Have a great day and I'm stoked for the show.

[00:30:44] Brian: You have a good one, too. Thank you so

[00:30:46] Brian: much, James.