Committed To Recording And Performing – Abe Partridge (Ep 193)

Robonzo 0:02
This is the Unstarving Musician podcast. I’m your host Robonzo. The podcast features conversations with me, indie music artists and industry professionals. And it’s all intended to help other indie music artists be better at marketing business, the creative process and all the other things that empower us to do more of what we love. Make music

Robonzo 0:30
Welcome to another episode, little darlings. I appreciate you being here and I’m honored to be in your ears today. Abe Partridge returns in this episode for a second appearance on the podcast. We discuss changes imposed by the pandemic. We recorded this back in November 2020 for a little perspective if you’re listening to this in the future future. I am recording this intro the day before its release on March 18 of 2021. And, yes, so Abe and I talk about those changes, his painting, his art, the release of his latest single and he had me giggling like a little girl. I literally had to edit some of my laughter out. It’s not that he’s comedic. I mean, he is kind of funny, but I think I was just so happy to be spending time with him. He’s, yeah, I really like him.

Robonzo 1:27
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Robonzo 1:49
Abe is so committed to recording records, making records and playing live shows he loves to travel and connect with real people live in person. real live people. So the conversation is a little somber at times because he’s not been able to do that. But it’s good. You can hear a by the way in Episode 67. His first appearance on the Unstarving Musician that’s Episode 67, link in the show notes. We also talked about the details of what a good gig looks like to Abe, why performing live is so important to him, his subscription based art club that’s getting him by these days, why he and I are pandemic pessimists. Yeah, he he really loves engaged fans, engaging with the fans and getting he’s getting his music out in the world by playing shows. As I said, I love him. He inspires me. I got to find a way to hang with him this year. In the the IRL, whatever in real life. Alright, here is me and Abe partridge.

Robonzo 3:00
All right, here we go. Nice. I’m checking out the background here. You got an Amp an energizer bunny.

Abe Partridge 3:07
Yeah.

Robonzo 3:10
Are those both your paintings back there?

Abe Partridge 3:13
No these are, you know Chris Taylor, he painted that of me.

Robonzo 3:20
Oh, wow.

Abe Partridge 3:21
And during his performance, he plays, he sings. He just, he puts he puts his guitar on a loop pedal. And he comes down and he paints this canvas. It was it was crazy.

Robonzo 3:33
Does he always do that when he performs or frequently?

Abe Partridge 3:36
I think pretty frequently.

Robonzo 3:38
I had no idea. I got to go see him, and I love San Antonio. So one of these days. I want to get down there.

Abe Partridge 3:42
Yeah, you should.

Robonzo 3:44
You know, I was looking over my notes from our last conversation and I think you had been in Austin. You’d recently done a podcast there with those Say it loud guys, say it loud podcast. No?

Abe Partridge 3:58
I can’t remember. Did I?

Robonzo 4:00
I think so. It was like a group of guys that did one in Austin. But you you did play there like in 2018 or something right? Yeah, yeah.

Abe Partridge 4:06
Yeah, I used to play there like once a year at this thing called the Dripping Springs songwriter festival. But then last year, I was in Europe during when it was when it was happening. And then of course this year, they didn’t have it. So

Robonzo 4:20
Yeah, so I was looking we last spoke in like 2018 I think we recorded on like an August and then your episode published in early September on 2018. These days I’m a little blessed with the I’ve had a lot of interviews and now and actually have cued up some ideas one of which you’re part of one of I’ll tell you in a second but some key tips some ideas for some episodes. So I remember when when we did the last one though I was probably like feeling week to week like oh my god I got to get an interview done and you know get an episode out I was pretty self trying to be nice. So yeah. Hey, I saw that you recorded Dumb sometime this year.

Abe Partridge 5:04
Yeah. I, yeah, put it out as a single.

Robonzo 5:09
It sounds nice. I really like it. It’s so funny. I didn’t. I didn’t recognize the title. And as soon as I Well, I was probably like, a couple lines into and I’m like, Oh, that’s a Nirvana song. Yeah. And then I was remembering I was looking at my notes again. I was like, Oh, yeah, he kind of got you know, Nirvana sorta was a life changer for you. Yeah. Was your inspiration? Yeah, it’s a really nice cover. I like it, man. What inspired you to do it other than your your fandom of Nirvana?

Abe Partridge 5:33
I mean, really, it was something that I had actually recorded that in 2000 early 19. And it’s just kind of sitting around, and 2020 came and it just, I don’t know, it felt like something to do for the people that are into what I do you know, just. Yeah, give give them something. But uh, yeah, I mean, I just love the song.

Robonzo 6:00
How have you been? You know, given that we’re in this weird pandemic, you’re How have you been serving your fans and, you know, doing the things for them that they want you to do?

Abe Partridge 6:10
I ended up starting to art club subscription service.

Robonzo 6:14
That’s right. Yeah.

Abe Partridge 6:17
So that’s, that is what I’ve done to kind of get that work. I think we get a little, just a little, just a few shy of a hundred members? Yeah. So I was really surprised, honestly, I didn’t think we’d be able to get as much support as we have. But I send out a print, I make a make up painting expressly for the art club every month. And then I send out like numbered signed prints of those pieces of art to my subscribers every month. And so that’s, that’s really like, what’s kept us afloat, you know,

Robonzo 6:55
Last. You know, I’m remembering now, we talked about this a little bit, because you were kind enough to do spend some time with me to do a search survey for the second edition of my book. And you brought this up and afterward, maybe during the conversation, I was thinking, Man, how’s he making money on that? You know, how’s it doing? Because I thought the margins looked to me like they were tight. You put in all this work? You’re sending these things out? Have you? It’s only been weeks since we talked but have you had to make any adjustments since you started to sort of make it a venture that sustains or profits or whatever?

Abe Partridge 7:30
Well, I mean I, we estimate on the high end, it’s like a nine dollar is our expense per package, and we charge people $29. So I’m making $20 per customer, which isn’t bad right?

Robonzo 7:47
No. I mean, I’m just saying as you started the numbers there, I was like, okay, but what’s your, you know, talent time worth, but because you have a subscription thing going, it’s kind of probably feels totally, you know, feels totally worth it. Especially with a hundred members.

Abe Partridge 8:01
Yeah, yeah, yeah, it may Yeah, if I was, I don’t, I don’t usually sell prints for that cheap. But usually, I’ve been like the 40 40 or $45 range for a print of my art, but because they are on a monthly subscription, I kind of lower the price. And, you know, and it’s for it’s for the people that are hard core, right? It’s not just your it’s not your guy thinks, Oh, yeah, he was pretty cool. It’s the it’s the people that are really into what I’m doing. Those are the people that are signing up for this.

Robonzo 8:40
How for people who are going to listen to this and maybe get exposed to you for the first time? How would you categorize your art or describe it or whatever you would do to genre phi it,

Abe Partridge 8:53
Man, you know, I don’t really have any knowledge of, of that kind of stuff. I paint on tar, and roof and tar and I’ve been told that what I do is unique, but

Robonzo 9:08
You really paint on roofing tar?

Abe Partridge 9:10
Yeah.

Robonzo 9:11
How did I not know that?

Abe Partridge 9:13
I don’t know. Maybe I didn’t tell you. Yeah, yeah. So, um, people some people call it folk art. And some people call it outsider art. I don’t know. I didn’t you know, I’m just on the I never was like formally trained or anything, but I just paint what uh, I started painting stuff about 10 years ago, and this style and and now just lately, people have gotten interested in it.

Robonzo 9:43
So if I, but if I came up to you, and we connected somewhere like I happen to know you’re a musician or you happen to see me let’s say you’ve walked into one of my gigs and saw me playing and came up to say hi, and you’re a musician. I’m like, Oh, that’s so cool. And happen to mention you’re an artist and i and i say what kind of what kind of stuff do you do? What would you say?

Abe Partridge 10:02
I would like pull out my Instagram and show Yeah. Yeah, it’s easier. I guess it’s easier shown than told you know.

Robonzo 10:13
And I know and I know if your battery was dead, you’d say pull up, pull up my Instagram on your phone, or your phone.

Abe Partridge 10:19
Yeah,

Robonzo 10:20
Oh man. So while I’m thinking about it, I want to pull up some notes I have from a conversation that that we had for this survey. And I don’t know if I really mentioned this on the podcast before but for people who are listening and wondering what survey so I wrote a very small book a few years ago called the Unstarving Musician’s Guide to getting paid gigs, which was just really a glimpse into my microcosm, or whatever world of the gigging musician. And so I’m working on a second edition I’ve learned, as you can imagine, I’ve learned so much from talking to people like you and a lot of others, who, you know, at first, I was like, Wow, you guys are all outside of my world. And it’s, it’s a lot of fun to learn about this. Now, I’m tippy toeing into your world, you know, about to publish my, my first original piece ever, but so the survey is to kind of get what I hope will be some good stuff for the book and just sort of expand the lens a lot for people who who might pick it up. But so let me just read some stuff. I wish I’d done this before we got on our call. But I yeah, my morning didn’t work out that way. But

Abe Partridge 11:31
Go ahead, buddy.

Robonzo 11:32
Yeah, so so one of the things I the very first thing I asked you is what do you think the number one reason you think the other musicians struggle to get good gigs. other musicians I said, I didn’t want to put put anyone on the spot or make any assumptions. But you said, it’s all in the way you approach your career. These are my notes. So paraphrasing, we all have different ways of finding a good gig, I would define a good gig differently than the four hour set at the beach bar, I’m remembering this this is good, depends on how you define a good gig, one must figure out what your definition of a good, you know, your own definition of a good gig and organize your pitch in accordance with your idea of a good gig. I can this was my favorite part, I consider 30 minutes to one hour with the listening audience to be a good gig. That really meant a lot to me. And I know a lot of people who sit in the same camp with you. But you know, I when I wrote the book, I was. So you know, in the latter years, I was doing maybe 90 minute gigs in like a trio and acoustic trio to almost a listening audience like you would experience like what you would call a listening audience. They were in like a winery tasting room and the general like people, you have a captive audience. Not with everyone that’s there, but with a number of them that are there and they’re enjoying it, which is cool if you’re if you’re playing well, right. But prior to that, I spent most of my years schlepping, you know, a drum set around and going to play anywhere from two to three and sometimes four hours or more in some, in some cases, like at a festival, and sometimes a lot of fun. Always a lot of work. Sometimes, you know, pretty good pay a lot of times decent, you know, pay so I it did mean a lot to me to, it sort of reframed and I hope it does for other people, you know what they consider a good gig. Can you talk? I know maybe it’s been a while since you’ve done one of these live gigs. I’m not I don’t remember. But can you talk a little bit about what one of those 30 minute one hour performances look like? And what kind of place it’s at and I guess just how they come about?

Abe Partridge 13:37
Yes, so I primarily play like listening rooms or do like music venues sometimes I’ll be on the bill with other bands. That’s primarily that’s what I play when I’m in the United States and in Europe really and then some you know, and occasion I’ll do like the occasional house show and stuff like that. coffee shops bars where they sell tickets or something. And yeah, to me Yeah, is really all goes back to you know, I don’t I don’t I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with play in the four hour set at the beach bar. If that’s your idea, have a good time. You know,

Robonzo 14:27
Those can be very fun.

Abe Partridge 14:29
Yeah. And and I got and I have a lot of friends that do that. You know, they live they live to play. You know, three or four nights a week down at the bar play in the you know, they know about 200 songs and they take their pick of and, and, you know, there’s nothing wrong with that. That’s just not my idea. Have a good time. I I enjoy to play songs that are original music that are I’ve written and songs that are meaningful to me. And the and I don’t, I don’t really consider myself an entertainer as much as a communicator. And so I, when I, when I go to do a show is my What, what, what fills me with joy is if I have the opportunity to deliver this piece of art that I’ve created into the ears of someone else, and then they can either like it or not like it or appreciated or not appreciated, or cry or, or get mad, or walk out or come up and tell me I’m the best thing they ever heard, you know, but just the opportunity to be able to present it. And, you know, it’s just like the musicians, Canvas is silence, you know, where the artists paints on canvas, the musician paints on silence, silence and or the songwriter paints in silence. And so the my, you know, my favorite kind of venues are silent ones that I’m able to deliver the song that I created, and I would much rather play to 15 to 20 people in the room like that, then then 500 people that are boisterous and noisy and don’t care, you know?

Robonzo 16:20
Yeah. Yeah. That’s, it’s a really nice description of, you know, the experience do you? Do you use? Or do you find one of the other elements of that is a super close connection with the audience that you otherwise can’t get it? Like, yeah, I know. And this is, I think it’s one thing that 2020 has taught me is I have this inherent sort of, it’s magnified, it didn’t teach me it’s magnifying it, I have a bit of anxiety around, it can be half a dozen people, but you know, I can even be outdoors that a there. In fact, you know, I did a really lovely gig, like almost next door to an outdoor beach stage venue. And there’s a good number of people there, and I can get kind of overwhelmed with trying to, you know, connect with them between, you know, between sets to go out and say hi. And my, my, my way of managing that is to be you know, like, Hey, how you doing? You know, these really brief things? Are you enjoying the music? Awesome, you know, and just maybe not spend too much time with them? I don’t know, you know what that’s all about one friend said maybe you’re like anybody who has a woowoo allergies, gonna sneeze. But, you know, she says maybe you’re more empathic than the average bear, and you’re taking in too much from what other people are feeling kind of overwhelmed, or something. But do you find at these type of venues that you do that it’s a highly unique way to connect with people or, or something that you just really, really enjoy outside of the actual performance itself?

Abe Partridge 17:57
Yeah, no, no, the audience is essential. That it’s, like I said, I feel like it’s a communication which a communication involves more than one party, you know, I don’t. It’s like, even though I say I like to have a listening room, you know, where silence is the, the mic, kind of like the canvas, it’s, there’s still the reaction of the audience’s faces, you know, as you’re play in and feeling the emotion, more response from the audience. Yes. I mean, that’s, that’s what I love out of it. You know, that’s why I drive six to eight hours and fill up my van was shit and, you know, go to the next venue, and and you sleep on people’s couches and stay up way too late. You know, that’s what I’m doing. It’s all for that moment. Yeah. Yeah. I’m, like, addicted to it. You know, it’s like, I mean, I do it. I do it. You know, it costs a lot to do that, you know, it would be so much easier. Where I live and down here in Mobile, Alabama. I have friends that never leave the Gulf Coast. I have friends that play between like Pensacola and New Orleans, which is all within like a three hour drive. I have friends that play four or five, six nights a week and make way more money than I do. Play in different places along the Gulf Coast. And that would be me as far as financially it would be much easier to do that. Yeah. But, uh, I would that that would kill me. I mean, I Honest to God, I’d rather just go back to working on airplanes, you know, I would rather work on airplanes then then play those kind of shows. But that’s not throwing any please, You know, I don’t want anybody think that I’m saying that that’s bad. It’s just not for me.

Robonzo 20:04
I understand, you know, it’s just kind of where you find your, how we say, I used to say, I say it a little less now I think it was, maybe a part of me thinks it’s not very respectful. But I used to say, you know, performing live is my Zen. But that’s perhaps where you find your zen in, in those specific Yeah, types of venues and situations.

Abe Partridge 20:21
Yeah, for sure. That’s what I get out of that. Yeah, you can, that’s like what I was saying. And the whole questionnaire thing is just, you have to find out what it is that you want out of music, and then go for that, you know, if you like what I do, if you’re into the, if you’re in to have a, if you’re end up putting your original music out into a listening audience, and having people giving people opportunity to respond, then you would be going about it wrong, if you think that you need to, you know, go down here and try to get these for our gigs and these loud, noisy bars. And so yeah, and if you want if you want to be the entertainer, and watch, you know, people dance, and and, and you really just have this drive to play music to people that are like stuffing their mouths full of catfish and barbecue. Don’t do what I’m doing, you know, don’t go down there, those bars and play for $250 for four hours and learn 200 cover songs and you’ll, you’ll be you know, you’ll be happy.

Robonzo 21:36
I believe, you know, I’ve played with I’m thinking of this one guy in particular in the Bay Area. And one of the things that gave him the I mean, you know, any any drummer, like myself was playing in a band and cover band or otherwise and sees people dancing to the music. You know, that’s pretty fun. But he just love that. I mean, if if he couldn’t get people dancing, and this was not a good gig for me. Yeah, to me that I enjoy people seeing people dance, in fact, and I love I love dancing, actually. But our you know what I call dancing, but I actually just as much enjoy watching people who are sitting there listening to you, as you say, yeah, so… To each there own

Abe Partridge 22:19
Yeah, to each their own. Absolutely.

Robonzo 22:22
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Robonzo 23:21
Let’s talk about your marketing strategy for new releases. Now you said you said your last honest released release you call it was it was in 2018. It was Cotto n Fields And Blood For Days.

Abe Partridge 23:32
Yes sir.

Robonzo 23:33
And by the way, I am waiting for your next one. And you put out a couple of singles since then. You told me you hire a publicist when you when you tour that one at least. And that’s kind of sounded like it was kind of an ingrained. Not ingrained, but something that you were thinking you might do a repeat again, I’m given the opportunity to do another full release. And you had you had a I don’t know if you had it set it was telling you how to single for release at the beginning of this year or an album. Were you actually about to put out an album.

Abe Partridge 24:05
Yeah, I was I was gonna have a I had an album full of songs that I was going to release. At the beginning of probably it’d probably been like, we were planning on it at the beginning of the year probably would have been toward the middle of the year. But um, yeah, it just didn’t make sense for me to release an album right now that I can’t tour because that’s the only way that’s really the only way that that’s the only opportunity that I really have to like, promote my record, you know, outside of having a publicist and like a radio promoter or something. There’s just no way for me to get my record out there in front of people.

Robonzo 24:50
And does that. Does that facet of your marketing or promotion for an album? Like when you’re out there, putting it in front of people, like you said, Through touring, does it have a pretty significant impact like on? Well on whatever we can call it sales growth, you know, unit sales or, or fan base growth, email list growth, whatever, is it a pretty significant chunk? given you know, that you have a publicist also working with you in?

Abe Partridge 25:21
Yeah, um, so I mean, I, you know, I’m probably doing this all wrong. So it’s probably, you know, I’m like the wrong guy to talk about this, but I don’t, I do not care. Anything about where my record is on some kind of playlist, or like how many spins it got on Spotify, that doesn’t make me money, and I don’t care about it. And not in it ain’t just because it’s not making me money. I mean, that’s one of the reasons but it’s also just so impersonal. You know, I like to sell CDs and vinyl records, you know, I’m just old, like, Oh, I mean, you know, I turned 40 this year. So I really, I guess I’m officially like, pretty old at this point. Yeah. But, uh,

Robonzo 26:11
You’re still less gray than me, buddy.

Abe Partridge 26:13
Yeah, But I just, I like to go out, and I like to sing. And that’s how I’ve built my career, I’ve built my career the same way I guess somebody probably would have before streaming and all that, you know, I get, I get solicited from time to time to get, you know, try to hire some of these streaming strategist or whatever, and I just don’t care nothing about it, I just don’t like it. So the way that I have built my fan base, and I don’t have a huge fan base, you know, but they’re engaged, they’re engaged. And, you know, they used to be in the 10s. And they were in the hundreds and now they’re in the 1000s. And it’s primarily from may play and shows all across the United States and Europe, you know, most of the people that have become a fan of what I do have either like directly interacted with me at a show somewhere, or they’ve been like turned on by somebody who directed in or interacted with me at a show and so yeah, playing shows is the that’s the way I’m getting my stuff out there you know, I don’t really have any hope of becoming a viral sensation or anything like that, you know, I know that my music the type of music that I play the way that are saying my songs don’t have really the potential to be mass commercial successes. But you know, with the internet and through you know, tour and you can just go you can still find your crowd and find the people that are into what you do. And you know, I have I found enough to like sustain me so I’ve making a career out of out of something that’s really you know, doesn’t have a huge commercial upside. But if you get out on the road and tour it and find your people you know, you can make it and so that’s that’s the way I’ve gone about it is is yeah publicist or radio promoter and and just tour and tour and the hell out of it. You know?

Robonzo 28:28
Yeah, more than one way to skin a cat or whatever you that’s the kind of

Robonzo 28:31
Yeah, yeah,

Robonzo 28:33
Probably nobody likes to say that anymore. I have a cat everyone.

Abe Partridge 28:37
Yeah, yeah, be careful now.

Robonzo 28:40
I know

Abe Partridge 28:41
There’s there’s people ready to jump at any any little statement.

Robonzo 28:45
I’m laughing at myself for even even reacting to my own thought of saying it because I have a little bit of political correctness fatigue and pandemic fatigue and

Abe Partridge 28:54
Me too buddy, you know, I’m so I’m just so tired of the, I really get exhausted with the, with the mindset that, you know, you always need to jump on somebody every time they say something that’s maybe a little, you know, old fashioned or something. I’ve heard that statement all my life too. And just the fact that you even think, oh, man, I shouldn’t say that. It’s like

Robonzo 29:28
It’s a messed up world. Yeah. Yeah, I crazy. Well, I don’t know Abe you were saying that there’s no chance that you’ll ever be a viral sensation. I’ve listened to your work and and I’ve listened as you have to a lot of different recording artists. And I was thinking this is a perhaps a terrible comparison. But I was listening to the story that I was only vaguely familiar with. But after Eddie Van Halen died that and I actually heard I browse the demo the other day, so Gene Simmons. Pay I guess he put them under contract, paid to have a demo done took it to his management’s office to see if they would do something and and took the guys there I think and everything to meet meet his management office, I heard the demo which had some songs from the first album, and it was kind of interesting. It made me really appreciate what Ted Templeman did for those guys. But anyway, they were told that the executive who everyone says, You guys are never going to amount to anything in this business, something to that effect. So Gene Simmons apologized and released him from the contract. And that was that, you know, but there’s like a zillion stories like that. Right? The the people that got passed over by one publisher, one label or another, and then yeah,

Abe Partridge 30:41
Brother, if I yeah, if I tell I could we could sit here and have a whole conversation on how many times I’ve been told no.

Robonzo 30:48
Well being being a musician. These days is an exercise in rejection, right?

Abe Partridge 30:55
Absolutely, yeah, that’s really is. It’s like being a baseball player, you know, your your, your, your hall of fame, if you bet 300. You know, it’s three out of 10. So it’s kind of like it’s kind of like the same. Same kind of mindset as a baseball player. You just gotta if you can hit three out of 10 in this business, man, you’re, you’re killing it.

Robonzo 31:17
That’s a good way to look at it. Yeah, I don’t have any baseball analogies, because I’m not like a true fan of any sort. But it’s a good one. I like it. I think a lot will appreciate.

Abe Partridge 31:26
Yeah, what’s the true.

Robonzo 31:29
What are you? Or are you thinking about what might happen in terms of getting your album out? Like in maybe in the new year? Or just what are you feeling like is likely to come come about?

Abe Partridge 31:39
Well, um, man, I, you know, I don’t I try. I try not to be but some I’m kind of pessimistic about it all. My man. I talked to my manager about it last week, and he he seems to think that things are going to start, this is like 2021 is going to start transitioning back to where we can return to the way that we once did business that he thinks there’s going to be a lot of opportunities through the spring and summer. And so I’m going to try to remain optimistic but uh, I don’t know man. I’ve played I’ve just played a few shows this, this these past couple of weeks and, and people are not following any type of the precautions that are recommended to keep this pandemic in check. And so I just really don’t have faith in a lot of in, in the general populace to do the things that are that that that we should do probably that would speed along the process. And I think it’s just going to be dragged out for quite a while. Yeah, but I mean, I hope I’m wrong. You know, I do sincerely hope I’m wrong. But

Robonzo 33:04
You know, I’m with you though. I have maybe I’ll call I’ll call it pandemic pessimism. And I do went out and played a gig at that same place where I mentioned that beach venue was but this was was an indoor thing you know, they have it’s you know, one of these venues where they have they’re on a marina so they had some doors open in the area that we were at so you have some airflow but yeah, there were a lot of people and the guys I I kind of decided I sort of lost my funny where I used to find my Zen all the time since I started down this quest to write some more music I’ve lost my interest for the moment and you know in hauling drum set around to go play cover songs for the time being, at least and yeah, but these guys are they were playing acoustic and I know they do pretty well when they do it and I knew it was just two of the three that they normally have and that they just having someone there playing cajon would mean a lot and and it paid nice so I went but you know afterwards you know just had kind of had the same sentiment and and yeah, I just kind of walked out thinking that was kind of risky. And yeah, when I watched the behaviors, I think like you said a lot of faith in the general populace at large and and I do think the area that we’re in is going to follow suit in the upswing. For now though, our areas doing pretty good. I know it probably doesn’t, from afar doesn’t feel the same, you know about where you are in in the entire country where you are at the moment but yeah, I think it’ll You know, there’s just some lag time but they do have a you know, there has been a mask mandate of sorts here and there were some curfews and and they shut some stuff down for a good while trying to figure out how to manage it and I think they’ve done okay, but we’ll see what happens hopefully, like, like you were saying and your manager says hopefully, sometime next year will start to have some return to normalcy or what we would consider normal.

Abe Partridge 35:04
Yeah, I hope so too man, maybe the vaccine is the answer, you know, or who knows?

Robonzo 35:11
Yeah, I think a lot of it is, is, you know, kind of acceptance of what we’re dealing with and just, you know, the behaviors that will help to control them. But anyway, we’ll see. Yeah, we’ll see. So, are you planning to write any more music between now and you know, I don’t know, next…

Abe Partridge 35:31
You know, I’m always I’m always writing. I’m not always finishing but I’m always writing stuff. So yeah, I’m all that’s just, I don’t really write for records. I just count I write. And then whenever I make a record some, some land and some of them don’t, but I’m always trying to put stuff together.

Robonzo 35:55
How, how do you do your demos? Or do you do go to a studio? Do you have a studio? I don’t remember.

Abe Partridge 36:03
I have been working with a studio in Nashville with a guy named Sean Byrne. And I’d go up there and he and he puts together all my he’s put together everything thus far in my career

Robonzo 36:13
And are you just recording demos at home, like easy to put together something and get the ideas down?

Abe Partridge 36:19
Typically, I just go in the studio and and lay them lay em down in the moment. Yeah. But I do have a recorder here at the house is not I don’t have a studio by any means. I just have a little handheld. Sony field recorder that I can go in my bathroom. And you know, there’s like a real little reverb. And I’ll play a song. Yeah.

Robonzo 36:46
That’s nice.

Abe Partridge 36:46
Yeah, to remember it.

Robonzo 36:48
Did I don’t know, if I told you, it might be fun for you to check out. But I’m sure I know. I brought it up at in a the questionnaire I was going through with you about some of the collaboration apps, but there is this one, do you have an iPhone or Android?

Abe Partridge 37:01
Android?

Robonzo 37:02
Okay, I don’t know if they have it for Android yet. I know they really want to but it’s called Trackd T R A C K T I think, anyway, they’ve got this amazing. So first of all, they have a little kind of virtual mixing, you know, console, I guess, or DAW, you know, virtual DAW, yeah, in the unit. But they have this amazing ability to figure out the sound that you’re delivering in the room and let you you know, in in enhancing to the best of the app’s ability, what you’re working with in your bathroom or wherever. And, and then letting you tweak it a bit. There’s a lot to send you this guy, his Spotify page, but he has He’s, uh, I probably mentioned him when we spoke. But he’s a busker. You know, he plays stuff outdoors, all you know, like in cities all over the world. He’s always traveling. Yeah, but he was releasing a lot of music on it, because he can’t, he can’t let the studio around. He doesn’t really know where he’s going to be. And he’s just kind of fallen in love with it. I actually met talk to a couple of our three different user users of that platform. And anyway, I might be kind of fun for you when you’re putting your your ideas together. I I’d be interested to know if they if they have an Android app yet and be you know, did you try what do you think of it? But anyway, I thought I’d put it out there for you.

Abe Partridge 38:23
Yeah, I’ve got I’ve got this apple laptop with a logic on it. You know, that’s a lot.

Robonzo 38:32
That’s a lot of software.

Abe Partridge 38:33
Yeah, I fooled around with it. And I’ve made some stuff but nothing that I’m like, boy, I’m gonna release this. It’s just like me fooling around.

Robonzo 38:45
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think I’ve told you when I was recording drums for my song and my goal was okay, it’s a challenging room. I’m just going to do the best with the live room that I can and give my my engineer friend the best that I can give him with the drums and I for me, I kind of thought you know, the vocals forgetting about you know, my vocal talent but like, the vocals to me is like okay, this is easy. I’m just gonna make sure the rooms not too boomy. I’m gonna set the mic up watch my distance not overdrive it but the drums you know as you can imagine acoustic drums kind of a different animal. And yeah, it worked out. So what I learned what I assumed to be the case because I’ve heard too many stories and I see to me things on YouTube you know, these guys recording drums for like great releases that they basically have set up in their home studio so well those guys can I can certainly figure

Abe Partridge 39:36
Yeah, no, there’s a lot of guys is doing that.

Robonzo 39:40
Yeah, but that’s nice that you work with the guys in Nashville. Do you anticipate you’ll do that again? with that guy?

Abe Partridge 39:47
I’m not anticipating anything right now, man. I’m just like, I I’m just thankful that I paint. You know, I mean, the music. It really is. It’s not less than that it’s just not very looking very good right now, as far as something that’s financially viable in order to sustain. I mean, I’ve got a family of five, you know, that my wife doesn’t work, you know, I’ve got to, I’ve got to pay the rent on this house, and, you know, got to put gas in those cars and pay the insurance and everything with with what I create. And so, you know, music, just, it just, it’s, it’s hard, you can’t make anything off your recordings. And now in 2020, you can’t make anything because you can’t play it live. So, you know, and I just don’t see any benefit, right? I don’t see any way forward for me in the music business, until I’m able to get back on the road. Yeah, sure.

Robonzo 40:57
And I, you know, for people who are listening, who are going to listen to this, you know, obviously, there, there are exceptions to this, but I think that what we’re talking to you and I are talking about is, you know, it’s what you really want to do with your work. And it just, it doesn’t work for you, if it’s not in the you know, this live setting where you can go out and yeah, people to your, to your music and your, your products to

Abe Partridge 41:19
Yeah, absolutely. Like, I know that, you know, what, what I do is, is different. And, and, and the, the way that I’ve gone, that I’ve pursued my career is different than most, and I understand that. But my, my musical career is based around the fact that I really, I put out records, because I like to play live shows, and listening rooms. That’s why I put out records. I put out records because I like to travel around, and I like to connect with people and communicate with real life, people that are sitting in front of me, and play in music, just like people did. 1000s of years ago, you know, just just some this one guy making music and painting a picture with the sounds and that’s what I like about music now. That’s me, other people, there’s, there’s 100 different things to do in music, you know? Yeah. And they’re still people are always going to listen to it, you know, he will always gonna listen to music. I mean, there’s always going to be a market for, for for it, because that’s just something that’s, like, ingrained in us as humans, but right now and the, in this in the climate and the or the environment that we find ourselves in for a guy like me, there’s just, it would, it would just the, if I put out a record right now my fans would would listen to it. And, and it would get a little bit of social media attention, and people would share it around and I could get my publicist to have some books write about it. But it wouldn’t do for me what like my first record, was my first record that I put out in 2018 acted as kind of like an evangelist for me, you know, it went out. And it not only it helped me get better shows, but it bought more people to my shows. It went out and like made converts, for me, you know it my fan base grew because of my record. And right now, if I put out a record, I don’t think that it would have that same effect. Because I wouldn’t be able to go to all these new Mark markets and play shows and, you know, get press in these new places to be able to, you know, go out and push it into new to new into new ears.

Robonzo 43:44
You know, well, God bless you for being so connected to the live performance, because I think he has people like you that will bring it bring it back when we can bring it back.

Abe Partridge 43:58
Yeah, I’m going to Yeah, I mean, that’s that’s what I live to do, man. And yeah, absolutely. I’m gonna do it this as soon as I as soon as we can. But um, you know, I don’t know when that’s going to be.

Robonzo 44:13
Yeah, I know. Well, I think that people who are interested in what you do and what we talked about, should check out your website. Yes. And which is Abe?

Abe Partridge 44:30
Www dot Abe partridge dot com. I’m fortunate enough to have a name that’s weird enough that nobody else had it, you know?

Robonzo 44:39
And what about and they can get connected to both your art and your music there, right?

Abe Partridge 44:45
Oh, yeah, for sure. It’s all I have a gigantic website. And that’s all so everything I do. You can if you dig hard enough, you’ll find it there.

Robonzo 44:54
Cool. I am. I always want to talk to a few people that I know about you like, you know, artists that I know And musicians that I know because your unique take on on your career and your music and, and your fans and stuff. I think it’s pretty inspirational. And I really appreciate you spending time with me today. And by the way, I’ve just said I was going to mention something to you, but I am going to feature you in a series of mini episodes that features memorable stories memorable to me that were recorded and your your first appearance on the podcast is one that I just cannot forget, you know, like,

Abe Partridge 45:36
Yeah

Robonzo 45:37
This sort of pleasant surprise of this wild story that you shared about your life parts of your life. Yeah. So I’ll be sure to let you know when that’s happening. Because I like to revisit.

Abe Partridge 45:48
Yeah, yeah. You know, man, I’ll tell you something. That’s interesting. I did a podcast interview over zoom, like, maybe three weeks ago, four weeks ago. And it was a business podcast. It was the first business podcast I’ve ever done. I never thought anybody in a business podcast would want to talk to me. But they, yeah, well, the the lady whenever she was interviewing me, she she opened it up with Hey, I just listened to your episode on the Unstarving. Musician, podcast.

Robonzo 46:22
No kidding?

Abe Partridge 46:23
Yeah. She was like, I listen to that on the way to our interview today. And so then that was what she used, I guess. I guess she googled my name, and found the podcast. And that was what she based her own interview with me was basically the interview you did with me.

Robonzo 46:41
Amazing. Yeah. That’s amazing. Well, I’ll have to get that podcast episode from you put it in? Oh,

Abe Partridge 46:48
I’ll send it to you.

Robonzo 46:49
Yeah, okay. Listen, man. Have a wonderful weekend. I really look forward to your next release. And maybe one of these days, we can talk about you sending me something that I can play drums to just whether it’s for something that ever seen a day or something that you have fun with it at home.

Abe Partridge 47:05
Yeah, for sure. We’ll do that. That sounds like sounds like a fun thing to do.

Robonzo 47:09
I think it would be great. All right, man. Thank you so much. And yeah, brother, I’ll talk to you soon.

Abe Partridge 47:14
Okay, man, have a good day.

Robonzo 47:19
Hey, please check out my new single On Top Of The World available wherever you get your music, including my website robonzo.com. You can also find a new lyric video on robonzo.com. On Top Of The World was released just this past January 8 2021. And well, I’m excited about it. Again, the song is On Top Of The World find it wherever you get your music or at robonzo.com where you can also see the new lyric video.

Robonzo 47:47
Thanks for your support, and I hope you dig it. Thanks again for listening. If you loved this episode, please subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast slash audio platform. It’ll help us stay on top of the latest episodes and help other indie musicians and indie music fans find the podcast. And if you have feedback, please go to Unstarving musician.com. To get all my contact info. You can text me call me email me leave a voice message right there on that page. Just go down to the bottom of the page and you’ll find everything you need to know I really would love to hear any of your comments, suggestions, questions, whatever you’ve got. And you can find links to just about everything talked about in this episode at Unstarving musician.com forward slash podcast. All right, I’m peacing out. Thank you for listening and sharing with your musician friends and fellow indie music, bands. Peace, gratitude and a whole lot of love.