68. Stolie: Your Niche is in Your Path
season 3, episode 8
Episode: 68
Welcome to musicians tip channel where we talk about musicians and money. What if you aren't supposed to know what you're supposed to do next in your career until your path shows it to you? I'm Chris Webb joined by my co host and the guy who I never know what he will do next, Dave Tamkin.
Quote of the week
“So much of my music career has been influenced by just what life has happened along the way” - Stolie
Stolie is a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and loop-pedal artist based out of Chicago, Illinois, USA. With over 25 years of experience in the music industry and performing on stages internationally, she's a seasoned pro. A constant road-warrior and absolutely fearless, Stolie immediately turns strangers into friends through her captivating, humorous and versatile live performances.
Non-profit of the week
Governor John Hickenlooper accumulated local musicians, community leaders and financial backers to give life to his music initiative, in the form of Take Note Colorado. The aim of the initiative is to make music education and musical instruments more accessible to K-12 schools in the state. Back in May, the 1st Bank Center hosted Take Note the Concert, a fundraiser for Take Note Colorado. The star-studded evening included performances from an entirely local lineup — Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, Isaac Slade of The Fray, Todd Park Mohr of Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Bill Nershi of the String Cheese Incident, Tracksuit Wedding and comedian Josh Blue. https://takenotecolorado.org/
Chris Webb Welcome to musicians tip jar, we have Stoli here to interview today, you know slowly I'd like to just start out by maybe could you introduce you know your background as a musician? And where you started out and how it's kind of brought you to this conversation today? Oh,
STOLIE: Weighted question. Well, a long time ago, someone called me a musical Renaissance woman and that still resonates with me. I started my career like many songwriters playing guitar and writing songs like I started in the mid 90s. Little baby songwriter. And for me, it was always like, if I'm making art, I want to share it. That's always been my motivation. So I recorded songs, I went on tour, I worked at a record label so I could learn the business side of things so that I could run this like a legit business. Well, record label was that bloodshot records in Chicago, they actually just shut down a year or two ago, after 25 years in the biz. But lots of great records out of that label. I worked in publicity, I worked for a company called Call Girl PR. One of our clients was Nico case. She was also on bloodshot learning the back end of things, it's always super important for me to be able to know what I was doing to be able to make a living doing this and keep it rolling as long as I could. I've taught private music lessons. I've taught kids music lessons. 17 years ago, I started playing music for kids and I have six albums out for kids as well as over a dozen other releases that are solo or collab projects. Yeah, it's always just like, what's working? Let me do more of that. What's not working? Let me shift that over to the side. What's something else I could do? Okay, let's bring that in the mix. And I feel like that has been my rhythm, especially for the past 10 years, just leaning into what's making money and what's fun. And then kind of reworking the piddly the what do you say? The dregs. The bottom feeders
Dave Tamkin
When you were working at bloodshot and then also with PR you were touring quite a bit If at that time, so was that important to you to find something that allowed you to do both?
STOLIE:
Yeah, absolutely. I feel like those kinds of jobs because they were in the music industry, they understood my passion and motivation. And so we would have a conversation and work out how I could prep all my work at the record label or the PR company. And then I would go off and play for a week or two, usually, yeah. And they let me do that several times. Let me we we figured it out. That was super helpful. And eventually, I got to a point where I was doing enough of my own work I, I, at one point was running for open mics a week in Chicago, in different bars. And we had this whole community, it was like this big, everybody knew everybody. And that combined with playing every weekend, and then starting to do the kids music, I didn't need to have an employer. And so I think it was 2007 that I went freelance, basically. And I launched my own business and filed for my LLC and just started paying myself.
Dave Tamkin
Those early tours we went on were unbelievable as far as keeping all those musicians paid. And, you know, being able to do that for a living.
STOLIE
Yeah, I don't know that we even like budgeted or planned to make money from the tour. It was just like, we can cover our guests find somewhere to sleep and eat. And we're playing music. That sounds like a lot of fun for a week or two or whatever it is. And you're with friends and you have a Frisbee. How can you go wrong?
Dave Tamkin
That frisbee was very important.
STOLIE
I still have it. Emma Gibbs band from Florida. That was their merch. And it's the best frisbee I ever had. And I bring it with me always back and forth from the US to Mexico.
Dave Tamkin
Now you said in I was there with you not planning and budgeting in when we were doing those tours. But when 2007 came along, and you started having this idea that I'm going to pay myself, I'm taking control of my financial career as a musician, in addition to starting your LLC, that that budgeting change for you to the way you looked at what came in and what left. As far as money is concerned.
STOLIE
I feel like I've never been very good at budgeting, like I said, shifting around the different kinds of jobs I'm doing, I would look at usually after I do my taxes, I would like to print out a pie chart of like, How much am I making from bar gigs or playing it schools and park districts or teaching lessons? And then I would be like, Okay, let's see if I can, like I said, get more of that work. Maybe I don't need to do as much of that. Because time is money, you know. So that's kind of always how I'm thinking about it. I feel like I probably really want to scroll back through some of your other podcasts so I can get advice on how to better manage the financial end of it. But the fact that I've been a full time musician, whether it's teaching or playing for like 20 years, I feel like it's working. work better with a budget.
Dave Tamkin
If I have more access to resources, if I have more access to whatever as I'm getting to those label, right? I You know, last time you came out to Colorado, which now I know was three years ago. You know, you were doing 60 shows in 100 days around that time. Yeah. So that was 10 years after we were doing maybe 12 years after we were doing all those shows down through Florida. What changed in those 60 shows in 100 days the way you approached managing that tour, or putting that together.
STOLIE
Okay, so when we went to Florida, we were just like, let's go to Florida. Like, that'd be fun. I don't think we really knew anybody except Joe's grandma, who we stayed with and somewhere in the Appalachians now, when I go on tour…
Chris Webb:
the name of my new band by the way, Joe's grandma.
STOLIE
Grandma from the Appalachian to bluegrass band. Well, now I haven't been on tour now for a couple years because of the baby and pandemic and everything but 2019 is when I did 60 shows in 100 days. The point was that I was going places where I knew people. And so usually lodging was free because I could stay with somebody. Usually those people would help promote. So that really helped get people out to the show which meant more tickets or more tips or For whatever, however you're making money from the show, I wouldn't say that my city choices were like close together. So I was not saving on travel like on gas because I was covering a lot of ground. I went from Chicago, up to Winnipeg all the way to Vancouver, down the West Coast, Denver, and then south of Puerto Vallarta, it was like 10,000 miles, like a whole oil change. And nine weeks though, it was a long, long time to be alone, and I loved it. That is one thing. It's like going where I know people and so you're not like, why would you go play somewhere where you don't know anybody who are you promoting to no one's going to come? See someone they've never heard of. So you have to have like some connections like that to draw any people. And then another thing that I like to do now when I'm on tour is fill up the off days with experiences that are going to create not just like, a tour where I'm working because the tours work. I was driving down whatever, highway, Arizona, and I'm like, oh, Winslow, should I go take my picture and the corner of Winslow from the eagle song. But then I saw Meteor crater. And I was like, why? Let's go check that out. I saw the Meteor Crater in Arizona. And I'll never forget that. And like, that was an experience. So my whole tour is now are peppered with. If I'm in a city, I'm gonna go learn about that city on an off day. That's another huge thing is having life experience built in. So I like to say my, my music career fuels my entertainment and wonderment. But then the other way traveling, also allows me to be a musician playing a lot of gig.
Dave Tamkin
When we were hanging out. You lived in Chicago. And where are you right now?
STOLIE
Right now I'm in Vedanta, Mexico,
Dave Tamkin
How often do you live there?
STOLIE
This is now my eighth winter coming down here. I had a resurgence of my Spanish learning when I was 36. I just got back into it after leaving it from like high school for 20 years. And it came back really quick. I wanted to go somewhere for an immersion program. So I went to Guadalajara, to study. Then I came to visit porta Viar toe, which is on the Pacific Ocean. And I was like, this is the lifestyle I want. There's so much mix English Spanish that like I wasn't nervous or scared about being in a foreign country. There's entertainment everywhere, and there's the beach, and there's no winter. And so I was like, I'm just gonna come back next winter for the whole winter. I sold a bunch of stuff and I started doing Airbnb at my house in Chicago. And then I came the first full season I came down here for five months, and I just had saved up enough money to pay the rent, and like have a food stipend and I was like anything else from there? Is this fun? And it worked. This is my new home.
Dave Tamkin
And now you have a beautiful new travel companion.
STOLIE
Yeah, she's a I have my little Mexican American baby. And, um, Elaine. Yep, she's almost two and a half now. She's she's gonna She's grown up in this town. And everybody knows her because I'm not shy about putting her on Facebook. And she's part of my promotional efforts now. It's just, you know, it just says, yeah, she's just so musical. She's gonna grow up in this town and she's going to be on stage like next year, probably.
Dave Tamkin
You have a sidekick for your other. I guess I wouldn't say your other career. But something else you do to diversify your creative output into this world. Still, would you mind if we do an interview with super Stoli? Is she is she or she's just a little more?
STOLIE
Yeah, it's funny. Like the way you're asking these questions like so many of the decisions I've made in my musical career have been influenced by just what life has happened along the way. So the kids music I started doing, I started 717 18 years ago. So I was at a point where I was playing bar gig five, six nights a week, getting home at two, three in the morning, sleeping until 10. And I'm like, I feel like my body's saying this isn't quite my rhythm anymore. And I want to like shift how can I play music during the day, to be able to get some nights back to not be out all the time, the same day that I was thinking about this? And thought maybe if I played music for children, I went into work the next day at bloodshot and my boss there said, I had a dream that you were playing music for kids. I'm like, yeah, so she booked me on this like fundraiser they were doing and I met a woman in Chicago named Janie b Who the kids musician. She's been doing it for 20 years longer than me and she became my mentor and one of my really good friends. She actually is my realtor who sold my condo last year. Everything plays together. So I started doing kids music and promoting birthday parties and the money in that market is good. It ended up being a good car. counterbalance to getting me out of doing the bar scene so much. And then it was a whole new songwriting track where I was allowed to be like silly and goofy. And yeah, now it's it's been like 18 years doing that.
A few years ago, I started writing songs in English and Spanish. So now I have super silly bilingual music on the rise. And of my top five kids songs on Spotify, three of them are in Spanish. So for me, I just know, like, obviously, that there's a big market for that. I mean, how much of the world is Spanish speaking, that aren't necessarily in the United States, which is great. I read those stats, and I realized that that's the direction I need to go next with my kids music. Now my latest project, which I'm really excited about, because I play a lot of kids music, in libraries in the summertime, I'm very connected to that world and had this dream this summer to launch a bilingual children's library here and biota. And I've had people fly and drive over 500 books down here. And I just confirmed a location at a language school that is offering me a room to start the library. I just picked the name for it yesterday. So it's like a passion project for kids. For bilingualism, you know, that's just what spawned out of my love for everything I'm doing, and something for her to grow into.
CHRIS WEBB
It sounds like a lot of your career has followed the artistic instinct more than anything, it's really nice to hear that that you've kind of allowed yourself to do what you've just your inner voices may be telling you, right? Go on a tour, all right, why not? You know, go here, go there, try this. Try that. And that's, I feel like so many people, we fight that we think, oh, we need to have we need to stick to what's worked for others. And you know, that's not that that's a bad idea, either. But it's but it really sometimes is important to listen to that inner voice. So it sounds like you're pretty well connected with your inner voice.
STOLIE
Yeah, I would say so. I, several years ago, actually, probably for a long time, I've been very much a manifester, a diary writer. And so in the diary outcomes, everything I'm working on, and the things that I would like to see happen. And that's just a way of like, you know, putting it out there. And manifestation is all about putting it out there. And just letting your dreams be loud, so that somebody else can figure it out, you know, once the speak it into existence. And you know, Thoughts become things, these are all different phrases that kind of fuel that energy into whatever you want. I was just telling my friend about the library, it's happening. Finally, I have a space and now I have to get the books, I'm scanning, ISBN numbers and, and I'm scared. I told her I'm nervous. She's, she's like, Yep, I'm like, I know. That's how you're supposed to feel when it's something exciting and new, and you're supposed to be scared. And that's how I know it's like a really good thing. I just get shivers thinking about it. Because it's not a money project. For me, that thing is a passion project that's going to help the entire community I'm trying to promote bilingualism in this community, which is so based around that, and it's for the future of my child, and it's for the future of this place, which has accepted me as a resident, you know, I don't see how you can be a lifetime musician. And without having a passion for the art of it all.
LISTEN TO THE WHOLE PODCAST ON ALL YOUR STREAMING SERVICES!
Action:
Take 5 minutes to ask yourself this question. What has happened recently that is a new opportunity that you feel reluctant or nervous to take? Consider why it makes you feel the way it does and identify if the reason is because you're scared. It might very well be the exact thing you need to say YES to inorder to open that next door.
Ways to connect with us:
STOLIE: https://stolie.com/ and https://www.superstolie.com/
Email is at: Musicians Tip Jar@gmail.com
**If you find this information useful or you just want to make us feel good please rate and subscribe to this podcast. the finance side of your music business.**
As always, Thanks for joining us and remember there is already enough for everyone, you just need to know how to get it. Until next time, on behalf of Dave Tamkin and myself, Chris Webb. Stay happy, healthy and wealthy. Remember, life is happening for you, not to you. Don’t miss those opportunities when life hands them over.
This is Musicians Tip Jar
*Nothing on this show should be considered specific personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax legal business or financial professional for individualized advice. Individual results are not guaranteed and all discussed strategies have the potential for profit and loss. Those are operating on behalf of musicians Tip Jar LLC exclusively.
