22. From Piano Lessons to Music Tours w/Philip Adair

In this episode of The Music Executive, host Cinnamon Denise sits down with incredible pianist Phil Adair. 

Phil shares his musical journey, starting with early piano lessons, his love for classical and jazz, and his professional growth through jam sessions and music education. 

The conversation covers Phil's experiences touring and working on various music projects, his approach to selecting the right opportunities, and the importance of business acumen in the music industry. 

Phil also discusses building a profile on gig platforms like Gig Masters (now The Bash), and offers valuable advice for aspiring musicians on investing in themselves and diversifying their skills. 

Transcript

Jam sessions I think are really important in meeting people who can give you the connections to go on tours or work on recording projects and the like. And that's what happened to me.

This is the music executive. A show where we talk about gig tips, music, business strategies, songwriting, experiences, collapse, and even more with industry professionals. Let's get into it. Hello, my name is Cinnamon Denise. I am a singer songwriter, producer of bassist and host of the Music executive.

Welcome to the Music Executive. Today we have Aire who is. An incredible pianist and has traveled literally all over the country and the world, um, performing for various artists and performing his own music. Definitely a professional in every sense of the word, and I'm happy to have him as our guest on the music executive.

Phil, how you doing? I'm doing good. I'm happy to be here, Stan. Thanks for inviting me. Yes, for sure, for sure. So Phil, if you could just talk to us about a little bit. For the audience about your musical background and really where music has started for you. Oh wow. Well, music started for me when I was pretty young.

Actually. I can't remember music not being a part of my life. Actually. I started playing the piano when I was five or six. Parents got me piano lessons. I had a little electric keyboard I guess, that I would've bang on and play with. So they figured, you know, let's get 'em lessons. And I stuck with that ever since I fell in love with different genres of music, first classical, because you know, that's all I was allowed to listen to at certain point, right?

I used to ride my bike to my first piano teacher's house. He was in my neighborhood. Guy from Ghana by the name of Victor Man, and he really like, got me up to speed on some classical stuff, you know, with, uh, technique and all of this. And I was so passionate about it. They, they couldn't keep me away from the piano.

So that was it. And also my dad, my dad played trumpet, uh, in high school. I guess he gave it up. When he got to college, but he was a big jazz fan. So my love affair with jazz music, I think started when I was, uh, began listening to some of his records that he would have flying around the house, little tapes and stuff.

I had a tape player, like those mini little tapes. Mm-hmm. Obsolete now, but I used to listen to those. So right now you are. Uh, what's the main project that you're working on, or where are you, where's your focus right now? Well, my focus right now is on a project that I'm working with, an original song that I'm working with, a singer from overseas, an artist from overseas, uh, from Lithuania.

We co-wrote a song together. Met her when I went. To Lithuania a couple years ago on tour, we're working on making a video, so I'm shooting video and I'm also recording the other parts and mixing the stuff down and, and reason and logic going back and forth with that. So, yeah. Nice. So when can we expect to hear something from that?

Oh God. Um, no pressure. No pressure. I, yeah, like I, uh, I hesitate to nail down. Gotcha. Exact timeframe, but Gotcha. Sooner the sooner the better. Fair enough. Fair enough. So you said something that young musicians are like, their ears may light up, and you said when I was on tour. So tell us about how you've gone.

From playing piano at your house from a 5-year-old to however X years old you are now, I don't even know how old you are. 33. 33, okay. To how old you are to 33 years old now. Gone on multiple tours. And literally a full-time musician. So what's been that transition? Well, it's been like a growing process.

Mostly. I kind of just, I, I went to school for music, so I guess that's really where I entered into the professional realm because all of. The people I was around were going on tour and stuff. I went to University of Memphis first at the direction of my jazz band director at the time who recommended that school, among others like Berkeley and stuff.

But I settled on University of Memphis 'cause it was cheaper. Yeah, I was just surrounded by people who were like big time musicians and stuff, and playing for Stevie Wonder and all of this I learned from certain people, took lessons from a guy named Chris Parker on the, as far as my jazz education was concerned.

But, you know, people, I, I used to go to gym sessions a lot. I still do. Well, I still have up until COVID season has hit us Jam sessions I think are really important in meeting people who can give you the connections to go on tours or work on recording projects and the like. And that's what happened to me.

I joined my first band in Memphis with a couple of. Guys from my school, the Noel Twins, they had a band called Six when they moved to Texas and transferred to go to a school. They invited me to come with them to, for all of us to get full scholarships at this. School called Houston Tillson University. So I went out there and I ended up entering a competition out there that got me some national notoriety, I guess, uh, the HBCU All-Star Jazz Band in New York City.

Uh, so I represented the our school in 2009. And we did a performance at the Schomburg Center in New York City. So that got me some notoriety, you know? So it's just stage by stage meeting more people, just learning from people and going head first, diving head first into the next opportunity presented to me.

It's interesting that you say that because. Before we, before we got on the this call, right, we talked about different things that musicians are doing that they should be doing, and they should, they should stop doing. And one thing that you said is spreading yourself too thin. Oh yeah. So I'm guilty of that more than anything.

Yeah. So tell me, you know, how do you pick which projects to be a part of and which ones not to be a part of? Which ones are, quote unquote, worth the time and energy and not, you know, not the best fit for you. Well, I, well, for the most part, I would say, I mean, I think that the client involved is more of a limiting factor than the project per se, at least for me, because I like to challenge myself a lot.

Uh, you know, I'll, I'll even do. Genres that I've never done before, but as long as I believe that I can get the work done within a certain amount of time, and as long as the client is a reasonable person and price is reasonable, you know, that's really the main I. Deciding factor, you know, the timeframe, the, the money, and, you know, if I'm excited about it, that's like an extra, extra deciding factor.

You know, I like to do music that I'm passionate about, like, uh, jazz Fusion is my favorite music to do, but that doesn't mean that I don't do r and b projects and classical music. I've accompanied violinists and things like this. You know, whatever I feel is going to be a rewarding experience. I just try to dive head first into that as long as the terms are agreeable, you know?

So I take it you've had times where the terms weren't agreeable and you already agreed to do it. Oh, yes. And that's, yeah. So talk to us about that, because I think a lot of musicians are like getting places where they're like. I really wish I wouldn't have said yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah. See that's where the client is the main factor here.

Like you gotta make sure that you're dealing with people who are being, uh, first of all, that are being upfront about how much work is getting ready to be done, uh, what they're expecting from you. And of, of course upfront about the money. Right? You don't want to get fast talked. I've been fast talked into some situations, boy.

But yeah, like, um, I would say limit yourself to projects. That, uh, first of all, that pay the bills, the, you know, the most amount of money that you can get for a project where you can be creative, where you can't be, uh, too limited, you know, where the client is not changing everything at every step of the way, coming with new stuff for you to do for the same amount of money.

Make sure you have an understanding with the client that I've agreed to do this amount of work. I'm not doing more. If you want me to do more than that, you're gonna have to pay me more than that. So it's really just a basic business acumen thing. And you know, talking about money. There's been so many gigs that I hear and horror stories that I hear musicians going on where they're like, man, I still haven't been paid from that gig.

Oh, yeah. And they're like, it's been five years. Yeah. Or like, I'll do, um, that's, that's me do a gig with a bass player or a drummer. And, you know, they'll be like, oh, you know, so and so's gonna be there too. They're, they're performing before us and be like, oh no, they still haven't paid. Yeah. Know. Yeah. Yeah.

Oh yeah. So how do you deal with those, those, you know, basically burning bridges, you know, how do you deal with not burning bridges, but still getting your money? How do you approach that? I. Well, I mean, as far as getting money is concerned, you know, let it be known, but let it be communicated, you know, every time that, uh, first of all, try to get paid upfront as often as possible, right?

That's number one. But if the agreement is to be paid afterwards, make sure you have. A contract, make sure you have something in writing, even if it's a text message, that can effectively be a contract. Mm-hmm. 'cause some, some people will just be like, Hey, you wanna do this gig? Call you on the phone and say all of this stuff.

And then. When it's all said and done, you know, they'll say something else, you know, or they'll be like, oh, well, I said I might be able to pay you that much. But, um, you know, we didn't really make that much. So, you know, we, I might have to just pay you just for your gas or, you know what I'm saying? We'll do better next time down.

Never, never accept gigs on word of mouth. Have something written. Yeah. And then if you, you, if someone says, I'll pay you, you know, I'm, I'm getting paid on Monday. I'll hit you up then, uh, so on and so forth. Bother them to no end. And if they, if you lose contact with them, to me, it's worth it to have that person in there just outta my life.

Just to, just to know that, you know what I'm saying? Okay. I'm never messing with them again and I know what to say to anybody else who asked me about working with them. You know what I'm saying? So, but yeah, I got people who still owe me money and stuff. I. So transitioning. Let's talk a little bit about something that I really admired you for.

Talk about building something from the ground up. Was you transitioning and building your profile on the bash.com? Also known, formerly known as. Gig Masters. Gig Masters. So talk about that First, tell the audience what the Bash, formerly known as Gig Masters is, and then tell us how you've kind of built your business around that model.

Gig Masters, basically some years ago. I was getting all of my gigs from Craigslist or just word of mouth, people calling me for gigs. But if I had to search and find gigs, it would be on Craigslist or you know, some kind of classified thing where people are asking for musicians. And I found a couple of different platforms.

Gig Masters, which turned out to be the best one, where you just sign up and they direct people your way. You have a profile, you upload footage to it. Luckily, I had been taking photos and videos of my previous. Gigs that I could post on there so people can see what I have to offer. And then put, you know, your price range and all of your, kind of all, everything that you would want to know, a client to know about you up there.

The platform is really good because every client will approach you with what they. Need and what they want, how much they're willing to spend. And you can name your own price of course. So they submit what's called a gig request, which is the type of event, the type of all the details besides, uh, the address and other things like that.

But then you submit back to them a quote and you. You can include a message which will further specify what you have to offer, and maybe you can talk yourself up a little bit to them and let them know why they should hire you and not somebody else. And it's perfect because you get to talk to them if you're what they need, they.

Click an orange button and you ha you get hired and contractual stuff. All the legal stuff is handled by the platform insurance and, and things like that handled by the platform. And also you can link the pay to your, directly to your account so you can be paid directly in advance. And so, so how did you get started?

So you researched a couple of them? Yeah. You found. Geek Masters, the Bash. And my thing is usually when you see these types of sites, you're like, like for example, Fiverr, it's so saturated. You're like, there's no way I am ever gonna get hired on this platform. I guess what made it convincing to me was there were other people that I knew that were on there already.

There were already like, uh, certain bands that I played for that I still play for from time to time, had profiles on there. And it shows how many gigs, like you can see 50 confirmed bookings or whatever, and you can see how often they were getting hired and what their profile looks like. So you can use it as a model.

And then also there's videos all over YouTube. I use YouTube to research pretty much. Everything. So I looked on there and I saw that a lot of people had good things to say about the platform. So, you know, it kinda helped me to be more confident in that and spending the money. And I spent that money and I, you know, I took, it was still a risk to spend the money, but it immediately paid for itself in the first.

Mm-hmm. Months or so. Yeah. Nice, nice. And so the moral of the story here is make sure you have content to put up on these profiles, right? Yeah. Content. Make sure you have content and make sure you do your own research, you know? Yeah. The best piece of advice that you could give apart from not spreading yourself too thin, what would you say to the 25 version year old of Phil?

Do not do this. Do this. Oh man. I would say invest in yourself as much as you can right now. You know? And the. Fruits will come from that. Like buy the gear that you need, the speakers, you know, because all of these things that you think you don't need right now, you're gonna need them. Invest in high quality content, invest in high quality, you know, a high quality camera to get very good, uh, professional looking footage to get.

You know, invest in just high quality gear, high quality everything. Don't limit yourself to regional, to, to just taking regional gigs and stuff. Go as far as you push yourself, as far as you can go, um, on your platform. Very nice. I I like that. And invest in yourself. You heard it? Yes. You heard it. Clear. As clear as day.

Invest in yourself. Is there anything else you wanna share with the audience? Just don't, don't limit yourself as if you're a musician out there. And. You just call yourself, you know, A, an r and b, a guitarist or whatever, explore other genres. All every genre helps all the other genres, you know? Mm-hmm.

Really don't, don't spread yourself thin in terms of work, but also don't pigeon yourself in terms of a genre of music or even a role. You know, you can, most musicians have a good ear. You might be able to do other things like live sound, right? You might be able to. Yeah. So branch out as much as possible.

I'll say that. Okay. And the last thing is, where can the audience find you? And what can we expect from Phil there? Hmm. Uh, well, first of all, where you can find me on Instagram at Chill, Phil. 87 at C-H-I-L-L. Two Ls in Chill, one L in Phil, 87. All in Word. On YouTube and Twitter, I'm at Chill Field, jazz, all one word.

Also, if you are interested in, uh, seeing some of my students, I teach piano lessons too and I post, um, videos of them, virtual recitals, if you will, on a channel called Focal Point Piano Lessons on YouTube and number one philip adair.com. Go to philip adair.com. You can see everything about me. Beautiful.

Well, Phil. It's been fun having you. I really admire what you do and I think you bring a lot of value and you've always been super professional in, in every, uh, instance that could have gone wrong or gone well or anything like that. Just know that you, you know, your professionalism is noted and it is appreciated, so.

That's Phil Dare. Thank you so much for listening to the Music Executive and we'll see you on the next episode.

Don't forget to leave a rating of the show. Helps to make us better. Thanks so much, y'all. Take care.