The Unstarving Musicia‪n‬ Roberto R Hernandez

Alyssa Trahan recently participated in a survey for the forthcoming second edition of The Unstarving Musician’s Guide to Getting Paid Gigs. This episode is based on the conversation we had for the survey. Alyssa is firing on all cylinders, in my humble opinion. She discusses some of the pandemic driven struggles she’s experienced over the past year and shares several openly vulnerable moments. Possibly my favorite part of our chat is what Alyssa had to say about new music release strategy. Please enjoy.

Steven Keene says his songwriting routine has never resembled work. To the contrary, he’s always written in the moment and as inspiration strikes. Yet he’s had a consistent and prolific songwriting career. We talk about his songwriting methods and routines, as well as his sentiments on the state of music amidst the pandemic. Yet Steven is thrilled to be recording and like all of us, he looks forward to a time when the music business has reshaped itself.

Johnnie Gilmore is a songwriter and bass player of virtuoso caliber. He honed his chops and stage craft in part as a street performer in his hometown of Boston. L.A. is now home for Johnnie. He has a great EP out called When You Come Home. In this episode we talk about how the EP came together amidst the pandemic. Johnnie also shares his recent experience going from performing live to taking requests on Instagram.

This week I'm talking with singer-songwriter Lara Price. In this experimental episode, Lara interviews me about the release of On Top Of The World (out today, Friday January 8, 2021). Lara is an amazing singer, performer and songwriter, making this conversation a big honor for me. This episode includes some dissection of my new song plus: publishing, marketing, sync placement, collaboration, collaborating, the art of storytelling and creating a bridge.

In this episode, Ezra Vancil interviews me about my forthcoming debut single On Top Of The World. We cover the history and process of my songwriting, using public proclamation as a source of accountability, various technical challenges I faced in writing and recording the song, the players involved, and the forthcoming video.

In this episode, I talk to multi-instrumentalist and studio engineer Chris Raspante. Prolific and in-demand as both performer and sound engineer, Chris is regularly solicited for hire on various music projects. In this conversation we discuss his return to performing live, the logistics of recording remotely, our work together on my song On Top Of The World, and why he thinks his phone is always ringing.