Speaking of the Arts

Welcome back to Speaking of the Arts! Today's guest is Chris Mees, founder and director of the B Natural booking agency. I've known Chris for several years now and was really looking forward to our chat. Chris is a driven, smart, successful entrepreneur who has built a respectable agency from the ground up. We were able to cover a wide range of topics in our conversation including the importance of mentors, taking risks, the challenges and opportunities associated with being an entrepreneur, and specific topics related to the agency-artist-management relationship. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Thanks for listening.

Episode 80: Cyrille Aimee by Mike Epstein

Hello Everyone! And thank you for tuning in on this new episode of Speaking of the Arts. My name is Mackenzie and I am the Operations Manager at Epstein Fox Performances and I will be your host for today’s podcast. I am so excited to bring you guys a really special guest, critically acclaimed composer, bandleader, and most importantly Tenor Saxophonist, James Brandon Lewis. We are going to invite him into the conversation on everything music. Today’s episode we are touching on topics regarding his musical history, inspirations, Molecular Systematic Music, and of course his lovely new album, For Mahalia, With Love.

Hello everyone and welcome to Speaking of the Arts! My name is Marie Le Claire. I’m the east coast agent at Epstein Fox Performances and your host for today! Today, I’m excited to bring you a conversation with famed singer and one of the newest artists on the EFP roster, Magos Herrera! We discuss Magos joining the roster, her journey as a Mexican artist starting over in the US, some of her various projects and of course, her beautiful new album. You will also hear clips of the songs, "Gracias A La Vida" and “Aire" from her new album also called Aire. I hope you’ll enjoy our conversation!

Hello and welcome to Speaking of the Arts https://www.speakingofthearts.com/ . Today we feature Epstein Fox Performances https://www.efperformances.com/ , the new booking agency I have co-founded with my partner, Michael Fox. (For more information on Michael, you can listen to Speaking of the Arts Episode 68 https://www.speakingofthearts.com/episodes/68 where I featured Michael and what was then his new agency, Fox Performances). There’s a great saying in the world of entrepreneurship: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” From July 2013 to August 2022, I was in the fast but alone category, running my previous agency. (OK, I wasn’t entirely alone and I need to give a shout out to Marie Le Claire who helped keep things running smoothly from the moment she signed on and whom I’ve had the pleasure of seeing evolve into one of the best agents I know). Along the way, one of my primary goals was always to build a bigger team. When I first met Michael Fox several years ago, I was impressed with both his knowledge of the industry and his passion and drive for helping artists succeed. To my credit, I actually tried to hire him a few times over the years. To his credit, he kindly passed each time! When I found out Michael started his own agency in 2020 my first thought was “Yes! This just might lead to a bigger opportunity for us to finally work together.” Fast forward to June of this past year when I called Michael and asked if he would consider becoming a partner with me so we could build a brand new agency and company together. Spoiler alert, he said yes and here we are. This episode features our new team and you will hear from Michael, myself, Marie Le Claire and Mackenzie Whitman. We talk about the mission of Epstein Fox Performances, some of the new artist projects we are excited about, how we try to offer a unique experience to the artists we work with, general advice for new and established artists, and much more. I truly believe that my career in the music industry, which celebrates 15 years this October, has been leading to this moment. Everything I’ve tried to do before now has all been R&D and I am really proud of our team and what we are building here. You can check out all of the great artists we are working with at https://www.efperformances.com. I hope you enjoy listening to our conversation.

Hello everyone and welcome to Speaking of the Arts. Our guest today is Katherine McVicker. In 2014, Katherine founded the boutique agency, Music Works International https://www.musicworksinternational.com/ , after three decades as an agent developing the touring careers of dozens of artists such as Brad Mehldau, Michael Brecker, Wayne Shorter, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and many others. In 2000, she launched the European touring career of Norah Jones and spent seven years developing Jones’ profile internationally. Most recently, Katherine published the online course “Anyone can book a gig,”https://musicworksintl.thinkific.com/courses/anyone-can-book-a-gig which breaks down the core components of what goes into booking shows for independent artists. I recently spoke to Katherine about the course and wanted to share our conversation with everyone so they can learn more about this and where to find it. Independent musicians will find this episode particularly useful.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Speaking of the Arts. Today we are speaking with members of the vocal group Kings Return https://www.kingsreturnmusic.com/ . We just signed these guys to our booking agency https://www.epsteinco.com and I am so excited for everyone to check them out. Recently, Kings Return posted a video on YouTube of their version of Ave Maria https://youtu.be/dRzI8y-EJJ0 , sung in an acoustically gorgeous sounding stairwell, and it has gone viral with almost one million views. Watch that video and you’ll see why. The band consists of Vaugn Faison, Gabe Kunda, JE Mckissic, and Jamall Williams. In December, they released a new holiday album https://open.spotify.com/album/3koALGOJF8Cz4jCUKUeirm?si=D7r2fqg2ScGdcA1W7fk53Q and the band is currently hard at work on their next major recording. You can check out their new single Beauty https://open.spotify.com/track/09weoaL9omm3CsgY472tjx?si=fde2caafb71e40bb which will also be on the album and you will hear it on this episode as well. This band is doing something special and I am grateful for the opportunity to be working with them. Please enjoy my conversation with Kings Return.

Hi! I’m your host this week, Marie Le Claire. I’m so excited about our guest this week, Nate Query, long time bass player for the Grammy nominated, Portland, OR based rock band, The Decemberists http://www.decemberists.com The Decemberists have toured all over the world, performing for an extremely dedicated fanbase for over 20 years and have an impressive body of work that continues to evolve with each project. In our conversation, we talked about how the Decemberists got together and what it’s like to keep a band together for such a long time and celebrating the band’s 20th anniversary during the pandemic. We also talked about Nate’s volunteer work with the organization, Open Hearts Open Minds https://www.ohomoregon.org OHOM is an Oregon-based non-profit organization that supports individuals serving prison sentences through arts and dialogue—facilitating personal and institutional transformation and growth. I hope you enjoy my conversation with Nate Query! Please check out these these helpful, informative and entertaining links from Nate. Nate's link tree https://linktr.ee/N8Q 9 solidarity commitments suggestions from Mariame Kaba https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ByMHRNbsntdyziubfPJq7vDzxiBFEqroxzCUgKsxp9E/edit?usp=sharing Black prairie on the streets of New York, 2010 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STxtk09-2kw

Hello and everyone and welcome to Speaking of the Arts! We are changing up our content today to deliver what I hope will be a very informative and practical episode: Financial advice for artists. My guest today is Charlie Epstein. Charlie has always been a part of two different worlds - financial advising and the theatre. As a professional actor, Charlie has performed in roles from Shakespeare to Neil Simon, as well as stand-up comedy in NYC and improv with Chicago City Limits. Charlie’s financial advising experience is nationally recognized, as you will soon hear in his bio, so I figured, who better to have on this podcast to advise artists on their finances during a global pandemic, than someone who truly understands what it takes to be a performer? Charlie has over 40 years of professional experience in the financial services industry where he has worked with individual clients and companies of all sizes. His companies currently oversee more than 1B in assets under advisement. Charlie is known nationally as the 401kCoach (although he points out at the beginning of our conversation he is no longer going by this title..more on that later) Charlie has trained more than 10,000 financial professionals how to best serve the needs of their clients. He is the bestselling author of Paychecks for Life: How to Turn Your 401k Into a Paycheck Manufacturing Company https://www.epsteinfinancial.com/free-book-offer.html and Save America, Save! The Secrets of A Successful Retirement Plan. https://www.epsteinfinancial.com/free-book-offer.html Most recently, Charlie has combined his acting and financial talents in the creation of a new one man show called Yield of Dreams-Paychecks for Life. https://yieldofdreams.live/ Working with a team of professional comedians, Charlie has created a “Financial Theatre” experience designed to “make money funny” while illuminating the 15 Myths of Money that inhibit people’s ability to achieve financial independence and live the life they’ve always dreamed of. You will hear us refer to his show Yield of Dreams, throughout our conversation and I had the pleasure of seeing it premier this past August. I am confident our listeners will get a lot out of this episode. Charlie offers sound advice for musicians, presenters, agents, etc. or anyone who wants to gain a better understanding of how to save and invest. We talk about his 10-1-NOW Formula, the Desirement Calculator https://www.epsteinfinancial.com/desirement-mortgage-calculator.html he created to help people determine what their number is to be able to fund all of the things they desire in life, and his Myths of Money https://www.epsteinfinancial.com/myths-of-money-workbook.html deck of cards. If you would like to set up a free consultation with Charlie and his company feel free to call his office at 413-224-3606 or click this link here to submit an email https://www.epsteinfinancial.com/contact.html

Speaking of the Arts is pleased to feature Gordon Hanks and JazzSLC. Gordon co-founded the concert series in Salt Lake City over 27 years ago and I wanted to have him on the show to talk about his own unique background and what he has learned from producing the series for so long. Gordon is extremely passionate about the music and that clearly comes through in our interview. A little more on his operation: "JazzSLC is a non-profit, concert series funded and produced by the GAM Foundation. What began as a “let’s try producing one concert and see what happens,” has developed into a unique, nationally recognized not-for-profit jazz concert series. In the 27 years since the series’ inception, JazzSLC has featured world-class jazz musicians and proven the popularity of jazz in Salt Lake City." I loved speaking with Gordon and I hope you enjoy our conversation.