ALTERNATIVE, Interview, New Artists, New Fire Music, West Coast
Water Tower Band Talks Performing On The Highway, Dream Collaborations, & More
Jul
Gabby Niarhos of BSquaredMgmt spoke with the Water Tower Band about their roadside shows across California, most memorable touring experiences, the band’s dream collaboration and more! Check out the short interview below.
“We are SO glad to be chatting with you today! Our roadside shows in LA started in 2015. We had been busking in Portland OR since 2003 (as a band), and we finally realized that roadside playing was the best way to make money as a musician, since streaming was still new and record sales were taking. In Portland it rained all the time, so I had a vision of being in the land of sunshine- that way we could play everyday! So we ended up moving to Long Beach as a band in 2015, and moved right into Sublime’s old pad. We started performing on off ramps in Compton, Long Beach, and Garden Grove until we decided to move closer to LA. Then we spent two years at the pacific avenue exit off highway 134 in Glendale.
During these two years we met many people who were to become part of our team today. For example, the person who filmed the last 13 music videos of ours, Robert Zimiga, is someone who used to drive by and tip us. The person who comes over once a week to film our Instagram shows was someone who also used to tip us on the road. In fact, the last artist I worked for as a sideman, Coffey Anderson, we met in the middle of four lanes of traffic while I was crip-walking and fiddling at the same time. He pulled up in a big white F-250, rolled the window down, big cowboy hat on, and said ‘what are you DOING here?!’ To which i replied with the exact same sentence, although the emphasis was on: ‘What are YOU doing HERE?!’
He then offered me $100 bucks to be in his new video “Ready Aim Fire” and we played together for two years straight after that day, getting to open for Florida Georgia Line, George Strait and other big heroes of mine.
Basically what I am saying to you is that most of the success that we have experienced has come directly from standing on the side of the road, day after day, year after year, and meeting people in a musical space, one by one.”
“One of our most memorable moments as a band was having one cop tip us.a $20, and then ten minutes later have a different cop come and write us a ticket.
This memory always serves to remind us that we can affect people in the exact opposite way depending on who they are, so we are always trying to improve our music to appeal to every personality type : )”
“‘Redemption Song’ just happens to be one of our all-time favorite songs, and we wanted to raise money for the NAACP to help spread awareness about systemic racism. We had just released a new single and a new artist with that same idea behind it, 182 Water, our rapping family member. His new song came out July 4th and was produced by our banjo player (Tommy Drinkard aka Dre Drinkard). This song has already raised 130K streams worth of money for the NAACP (about 100 bucks). Part of the reason we are getting so many streams already, as an unknown artist, is because we challenged our fans to a contest to see who could raise the most money for the NAACP during the first week of the songs’ release.
If you want to see the music video it’s right here : ) “
“If we could collaborate with ANY artist this year, it would be Dr. Dre/Rick Rubin.”
“The inspiration for our music is life. Breathing. When we play music, we consider it similar to sneezing. It is something we need to do. Something that is coming out of us no matter what. It’s a bit of a relief when we finish, and we are covered in saliva (lol).”
“As far as Instagram, YES we do make a lot of sales that way! We never expected that to happen so it is such a nice surprise to just post what our fans are wearing, and then all of a sudden make mad sales!
We just got a re-issue of our classic vintage captain hats, and it was crazy because on the first day we sold half of our stock that was supposed to last the whole year!
This whole pandemic experience has really helped us figure out a new way to connect with our fans. The virus is the first thing that finally forced us off the road and online.
We are so grateful for being shut in right now because it is causing us to learn more and more about our friends and fans- so that we can connect more, deeply and faster with them.”
Shoutout to Gabby for the interview and be sure to follow the Water Tower Band below!
