Juggling between two active acts, two home bases, and a full gigging calendar, our Artist Feature of the Month has a lot to share about managing a full-time independent artist career.
I’d like to introduce you to Stolie, a pop-rock singer-songwriter catering to adults who also happens to be a bilingual genius showcasing a combo of music and learning for kids. This fascinating interview will inspire you to think outside the box and figure out creative ways to monetize your talents and passion.
Thank you for joining us for this month’s Artist Feature Interview! Tell us about your music?
I have two active acts, actually. I go by Stolie when I sing for a grown-up audience and Super Stolie for children. I started performing in college in downstate Illinois and shortly after moved to the big city of Chicago in 2000. I wrote (and still write) music and toured the country with like-acts and also performed at colleges. In 2007, I started making kids music and threw “Super” in front of my name to carry my growing audience (I’m talking baby-making) with me to this alternate genre.
The past few years, I have found balance between my two acts by focusing on playing for kids in the summer in the US (when they are out of school and there are more performance opportunities), and singing for tourists and ex-pats in the winter months in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (where I have lived the past 4 winters). Essentially, I have two high seasons, and no snow!
In my more than 20 years of performing live, my specialty is improvising with each unique audience and molding my presentation to their liking, whether it be grown-ups on vacation in Mexico or jumping 4-year-olds in suburbia. I have written and built a repertoire of hundreds of songs and am a near-flawless loop pedal performer. Each show is its own experience, and I love having control over conducting a great one!
How did you get into music and how long have you been a working musician?
What’s your job situation like? Full time musician? Work part-time? Do music on the side?
Full time! Although, sadly, that doesn’t mean I’m writing songs on the couch all day. I spend more hours on my computer making the wheels turn — booking gigs, updating the website, social media, designing promo, researching new opportunities, educating myself on new trends in the music business. Gig days (a 45-min children’s show) is usually a 6-8 hour day, from getting ready, loading up, driving, setting up my sound equipment, doing the show, and then the reverse of it all. Sometimes it does feel like music on the side when I’m only actually playing for 45 minutes!!! This is something I’ve been struggling with in recent years as the artist in me wants to focus solely on creativity. But my right brain knows there’s other work to do!
What types of shows do you play?
I have not played an arena or for the President, but almost everything else… For kids, I mostly play at libraries and park districts, but I also do birthday parties, have taught music classes, presented at preschool or daycare events, fundraisers, churches, for specific holidays, 5K runs. For adults, I spent years playing wedding cocktail hours, corporate events, bar and restaurant gigs, cafes, birthday parties, colleges, but these days mostly play during the winter months down in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico at a music venue and a theater. I mostly perform solo, but sometimes I bring in a band to back me up.
How do you make your money as a musician?
Gigging! It’s what I do best, and I’m the only one who can DO that part of my business. CD sales, downloads and streams trickle in, but they definitely don’t support me. I know some artists who are rocking those worlds, and I’d love to find a million new listeners to listen on repeat (because artists do get $0.03-$0.09 per play on streaming platforms, and we do see that money!)
I am able to make more money performing as a children’s artist, perhaps because it’s a smaller market? Locking in a guarantee is always better than banking on ticket sales. Find the venues that do their own promo and have a built-in audience and you save yourself the headache of losing friends by begging them to come to your gigs every week. Hahah! Bar gigs are still paying me what they did 15 years ago, and I think that’s unfortunate for us acoustic musicians.
How long did it take you to become a full time musician?
I did an urban studies program my last year of college which allowed me to live in the big city and start getting out to open mics and checking out the scene. During this semester, I interned at a record label because I wanted to learn the business and behind-the-scenes. I was inspired by an artist named Ani DiFranco who had her own record label. I wanted to be my own boss, even though I didn’t really know what that meant. I was hired on to the job at the record label, and they permitted me to take time off to tour, a week or two at a time. I was learning how to be the front end (musician) and back end (label) for myself.
Around this time, I started approaching bars to host open mics. I offered to be the weekly host, run the sound, and this would encourage the bar to draw a regular crowd. It would promote itself, they’d pay me the same, but it would offer consistency. It worked, and I introduced the idea to 4 different bars.
But, I continued at the label job until I was gigging too much to do both. I went to parttime, and eventually the shift was definitely leaning toward music. I was doing the open mics, performing on weekends, started DJing weddings, teaching guitar and piano lessons. Whatever I could do to involve music seemed more fitting and directed than sitting at a desk promoting somebody else’s band.
A friend and former bandmate had said, “once you work for yourself, you’ll have even less free time.”
She was right. If you’re going to take that plunge, you have to have full faith that you’ll make it work, no matter what, and that you are accountable to yourself. No one is going to tell you what you need to accomplish from one day to the next. There are no work hours, and no guaranteed pay. But you make your hours, and vacation days, and work as hard as you want to. But guess what, lazy doesn’t win.
[bctt tweet=”If you’re going to take that plunge, you have to have full faith that you’ll make it work, no matter what, and that you are accountable to yourself.” username=”IndieArtistsDIY”]
How do you deal with the financial uncertainty that comes along with being an independent artist?
What advice do you have for artists looking to take the plunge to being a full-time musician?
Ease into it. You don’t have to abandon your current life, your apartment, your job and jump into the unknown. Make small changes to your current situation that will get you closer to doing what you love. But get clear about just what it is that you want to do — go on tour full-time in your Subaru, be a YouTube star, teach private lessons, write songs and get them published. And then see what you’re able to do about it right now, take steps toward it, and then consider eliminating undesirable elements to make room for more.
Thanks so much for sitting down with us! Before we go, tell us what projects you are currently working on.
For Stolie (adults), I have a batch of songs I’d like to tweak and record, but recording a full album (CD) seems antiquated, so I’m thinking about releasing one digital song a month. I’ll be going on tour to Seattle and through Canada in August and will have a chance to play those songs more before I get to recording them. I’ll be driving down to Puerto Vallarta this fall season, and hoping to continue through Central America and find some other places I can land on the winter months and perform. I am fluent in Spanish, so I want to travel to more countries, and my music helps me do that!
For Super Stolie (for kids), I am sold out of one of my CDs, and instead of a CD reprint, I’m going to turn the liner notes into a read-along book for kids, so they can practice reading/singing the lyrics as they listen to the songs. This album, Family in Harmony, I have just had charted into sheet music, so I am designing an educational book with coloring pages and activities for beginner guitar and piano players.
My bilingual children’s show, ¡Super Stolie Guacamole!, is picking up a lot of attention and I am starting to book shows for Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept 15 – Oct 15) in Chicagoland and also in Denver. I plan to start writing and recording songs for a bilingual album in the next year.
For more information or to connect with Stolie you check out her website, on YouTube, or on Bandcamp.
Read More Artist Feature Interviews:
+Behind the Scenes with Audra McLaughlin Top 6 Finalist for NBC’s The Voice
+Artist Feature: Todd & Jingyu – International domination without ever leaving home
+ Artist Feature: Jon Magnusson Swedish Singer/Songwriter
TheCraftyMusician.com is looking for independent artists to feature. If you’re interested in being featured on TheCraftyMusician.com, please fill out this questionnaire.
Great tips for independent artists to think outside the box for monetizing their music and building their brand! Sounds like learning the business side of the music industry is really helpful! Great article!
Thanks Dawn! You are exactly right! 🙂
Anitra, Thanks so much for allowing me to share my story! I hope it can be helpful to an aspiring fulltime musician! We all pave our own way, and getting tips just helps each of us move a little faster! All right!! 🙂 Anybody got questions, reach me at stolie.com!
Stolie, it was a pleasure having you join us! Thanks so much for sharing your story. It’s really inspiring to see how other musicians are kicking butt!