Minor Productions Weblog 2008

3-1-08

Minor Productions no longer provides exclusive booking services for the Hole in the Wall, now under new ownership. You'll need to send the new booker Singer Mayberry a message to book dates at: www.myspace.com/holeinthewallaustin. Long Live the Hole!

1-28-08

Alright people. The 2008 Minor Productions Blog officially begins with this hilarious item in the Austin American Statesman. Corcoran is the master of the backhanded compliment, but I'm taking this one at face value.

By Michael Corcoran
Monday, January 28, 2008

"At the end of the year, I decided to not rank the nationally acclaimed "Shepherd's Dog" by Iron and Wine as an Austin album. I&W's Sam Beam might live in the area, but he's not truly an Austin musician. Neither is Kina Grannis, the "Crash the Super Bowl" finalist, who moved here after graduating from USC in May. Bill Callahan, who used to call himself Smog, is no more an Austin musician than Bob Mould was in the '90s. It takes more than a ZIP code that starts with 787 to truly be considered a hometown musician. Use this guideline to tell the difference between a musician who lives in Austin and an Austin musician:

Sorry, but you're not an Austin musician until ... paul wedding

... you've played at either Emo's, the Hole in the Wall or the Continental Club.

... you've been rejected by SXSW.

... you've opened for Guy Forsyth.

... you've been ticketed for double-parking on Sixth Street while unloading your gear.

... you know your order without looking at the menu of the Tamale House No. 3.

... you know who Paul Minor is. (Bonus points if you know exactly what it is that he does.)

... David Cotton won't return your calls.

... you've looked forward to playing out at the airport because at least that gig pays.

... you are a 94-year-old blues legend. (Pinetop Perkins exemption.)

... you've snuck a case of beer out the back door after a gig.

... you've had your name misspelled on the Red Eyed Fly marquee.

... you've worked double shifts at Thundercloud to save money for studio time, put your heart and soul into every track, proudly mailed your first CD, your baby, to critics, then watched Jim Caligiuri give it half a star in the Chronicle."

LATEST FROM THE OUTBOX:

Dear S,

A dear friend and former employer suggested I contact you about possible career opportunities at the club. I am not sure what you might be looking for currently, but my chosen profession is live music production manager.

You may be familiar with my experience as a local performer and promoter, but you might not know that I have operated a production company for several years now, specializing in coordinating the sound and talent for public and private events. My website has an extensive list of satisfied customers, and I have worked for ACL, SIMS Foundation, SXSW, Hard Rock Cafe, and many more illustrious clients.   My references include Margaret Moser, Charles Attal, Wayne Nagel, Andy Langer, David Cotton, Darin Murphy, and many other local music professionals.

I have also been the production manager and talent buyer for the Hole in the Wall since it reopened in 2001. I recently invested in a new venue in Marfa, so I am also proud to finally be a clubowner for the first time.

I am not actively pursuing a change of employment currently, but since I have always held your venue in very high esteem and your founder is one of my heroes, the possibility of working with you in any capacity is worth discussing. Like him, I am "all about the music."

I am available any afternoon that you would like to meet and chat about music and the club. I look forward to seeing you.

thanks,
Paul Minor

Austin Academy of Music Lecture
UT Music School
10-23-07

Hey everybody, thanks for coming to class today. I've always maintained that attendance is the number one most effective technique to learning, more so than note taking, homework, group study or anything else. In the music business, just showing up is often the most important part.

My name is Paul Minor. I'm a local musician. I'm 41, and I'm told I am a typical Virgo. I have a small production company that provides the sound systems for local events, and I currently book a couple of small but esteemed local clubs - the Hole in the Wall and Flipnotics. This weekend my PA systems were working for Willie Nelson, the Gourds, Skyrocket and the legendary soul singer Barbara Lynn. I was in San Antonio Saturday night DJing for the Class of 1966 Laredo High School reunion. This is what I do.

I want to talk to you today about being OPEN. Those of you brave or foolish enough to stick with a career in music very long, are going to learn sooner or later that you need to make yourself, your heart and your mind, wide open to all of the unpredictable twists and turns that a career in music will bring you.   Every bump in the road is a learning experience, and every setback is an opportunity. And drastic changes come with the territory.

I also want to talk about COMMUNITY. The relationships you build and the friends you make in this business are more valuable than any stock options or insurance benefits you will ever earn. Friends are life's greatest reward.

I'm just curious, how many of you, by a show of hands are interested in a career as a performing and recording artist?

Well so was I. If I have learned anything at all, I have learned you have to roll with the changes and be flexible in this business. How many of you are wanting to be in some area of the music business as a career?   Now is the time to take whatever job or internship you can to get in the door. I am a poster boy for the part time job, and I can tell you about dozens of ways to make money on the side as you pursue your dreams. Austin has as many types of job opportunities as it has types of music.

If you will indulge me, let me just tell you how I ended up here today. It has been quite an adventure, and I might drop a few names so look out below.

If you have a question at any point, I would love to answer it during the speech while you're thinking of it and maybe let this be more of an interactive dialogue, otherwise I might just ramble for awhile.

Also, at the end there will be a quiz. Not really, but I have an unusual exercise for you.   I'm going to ask people randomly to ask me a question, whether your hand is up or not. So everyone needs to have a question ready for me later.   I'm also going to ask you to not use the following words in your question: Who, what, when, where, why, or how.   What other words are there? Compare, Contrast, Consider, Recommend, Predict, Suggest.

My e-mail address is superego@io.com if we don't get to your question or you think of something later you would like to ask me.

I grew up in Houston, in the 4th ward inner city, off of Telephone Rd. We got H-town in the house? My family was part of a big born again religious community there doing an inner city ministry. We had artists, musicians, poets and all kinds of wandering souls living under one roof.   The first live music I ever saw was the church coffee house folk music group called The Way In.

We took a three year detour to the Louisiana Delta, where I first picked up guitar and played my first gig for a junior high pep rally. My family moved to Austin in 1980. I started out playing my first gigs in Austin clubs in 1982 at the age of 16. My band was called The Urge, and one of our first shows was in a big lecture hall here at UT for the History of Rock and Roll class. We also played 6th street, the Continental Club, Hole in the Wall and tons of west campus fraternity parties. They really liked our selections from the 60s like Louie, Louie and Shout because it was like Animal House.

Still in high school, I released my first 45 single on vinyl, and I also became the very first intern that the Austin Chronicle ever took on. My band started opening for bigger acts like the Skunks and Joe King Carrasco, and doing some regional touring. When I entered St. Edward's University I had already played CBGB's in New York City.

Playing music was hurting my grades at college, so I took some time off from serious academia. I switched to UT for one semester.
I told my advising professor at St. Edward's if I was not going to excel as a student I wanted to be more anonymous about it.

In my late teens and 20s I toured the country as a player and road manager with several more bands including Roman Candles, The Neptunes, the Wagoneers, and Big Car. I also worked as a doorman, soundman, manager, and bartender at several local clubs including Steamboat, Continental Club, Electric Lounge, and Hole in the Wall. I held down many diverse day jobs including real estate research associate, state school security guard, legislative proofreader, print shop clerk, guitar salesman, and delivery driver.
I worked briefly for Texas Monthly, interested in pursuing journalism, but I overslept once to get the mail for the publisher and got to ride the corporate elevator down and out the door.

paul & willie

After graduating from St. Edward’s University In 1994, I co-wrote and recorded an album with Beaver Nelson at Ardent Studios in Memphis and Sony Studios in Santa Monica. Recording where so many of my heroes had made their names was a big career highlight, but the record was eventually shelved by Lightstorm Records. The owner was a famous film director who had started the company as a tax write-off for his soundtrack albums. He directed the Terminator movies and was working on a new one called Titanic.   Our project sank like a ship. After the band broke up, two members of this band formed a new band called Fastball. I was not one of them.

Every SETBACK = OPPORTUNITY.

In late 1994 I was playing solo gigs and spending a lot of time at the Greenbelt and Barton Springs. A UT friend of mine knew the Beastie Boys and we went to Lollapalooza in Dallas. We spent the whole show in their dressing room jamming, and I was swapping songs with a green haired kid named Billie Joe, months before Green Day went platinum.   The next night I asked some friends to join me at the Hole in the Wall for a Sunday night jam session. The owners dug it and asked me to play every week.

I had a brainstorm for a free weekly variety show and new band showcase. The Rock and Roll Free For All at the Hole in the Wall became a focal point of the local music community.   Bands that played some of their very first shows there are Fastball, Spoon, the Scabs, Trail of Dead, and Rilo Kiley.   During this time, the local media, especially the Chronicle and Statesman, made the Hole in the Wall into a local phenomenon, and I became a spokesman for the scene.

The management of ZZ Top recruited me to assemble bands for an indie rock compilation. Free For All Vol. 1 was co-produced by Mike McCarthy, who moved here from Nashville, met me working the door at the Electric Lounge and asked me what bands to check out. Today he is still working with Trail of Dead and Spoon after first recording them at those sessions.

In the late 90s, Austin became the live music capital of the world, and new clubs started popping up all over the map. Many new places were interested in my expertise as a local music promoter. I production managed, ran sound, promoted shows and booked bands for Dick Clark’s American Bandstand Grill, the Texas Music Saloon and the Hard Rock Cafe.

I produced several independently released albums, including 5 albums by my own band Superego, 2 Rock and Roll Free For All compilations and a live album by Fastball. I also bought a video camera and directed music videos for Spoon, Deep Sombreros, Fastball and others to be played on the new Austin Music Network. I've got them on my youtube channel now if you're curious.

In 1996, I was working full time as a security guard at the TX School for the Blind. One day, the head of the technology department asked me if I had ever used the internet. He invited me into his office and showed me how it worked. I had a lot of down time at my job, so I bought a laptop and started learning how to make a website with basic HTML code. I started e-mailing, blogging and promoting my events and shows. A year later I was fired for personal use of state computers. I still have the website. How many of you have myspace pages? How many music myspaces are here today? Please let me be your friend. www.myspace.com/paulminorproductions.

Around that time I was asked to join a band that played mostly weddings, and I needed the paycheck. I also took a job at a corporate music store. I became a wedding singer and a salesman. I worked full time at the store, played receptions on Saturdays and I continued to play every Sunday at Hole in the Wall.

When Mars the music store went bankrupt a few years later, I was thinking about what to do next, and I decided to try working as a soundman, which I had been learning to do for years at the club and with my bands. I bought all the PA equipment I could afford while it was marked down for clearance, and immediately began picking up jobs around town.   I started doing sound every Friday across the parking lot from Mars at Jupiter Records. I went from Mars to Jupiter, get it? I'll let you guess what planet we named the liquor store in between after.

In 2002 I received a master’s degree in Human Services Management from St. Edward’s University and a state certification in conflict resolution.   It was also the year the Hole in the Wall shut down. I was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the 2002 Austin Music Awards, and in 2003 I had the honor of organizing and performing in an all-star tribute to the Hole in the Wall at the music awards ceremony. When the Hole in the Wall reopened under new ownership, I consulted with management about booking and promotion and eventually was hired to book it full time.

In graduate school I did several case studies on a local non-profit organization called the SIMS Foundation, which provides low cost mental health services and counseling to Austin musicians and their families. The organization was named for a musician I knew who had committed suicide, and his friends and family started a foundation in his honor. After grad school I worked for SIMS as Public Relations & Event Coordinator, and I saw first hand how difficult it is to keep an organization like this running.   They burned out 5 executive directors in as many years, and although they are a high profile local media presence, they still barely get by with as much fundraising as they can afford to do. Non-profits are a very tough business.

While at SIMS, I learned some very valuable lessons about self-promotion. I had earned a reputation as a tireless self-promoter, winning over the public one fan at a time with my grass roots efforts. Working with SIMS I discovered that my communication skills were increased when I was working for a cause greater than myself, and seeing the big picture instead of just feeding my ego. My fundraising campaign slogan "I'm with the Band" and the newsletter I started are still being used to gain support at SIMS.

I worked for SIMS as a private contractor. I have not been officially employed by anyone but my own company since the music store. Self-employment has many great rewards. No boss, no regular hours, and every day is a new challenge, every gig is different from the last. It helps keep me interested. I'll never work in an office again, but I sure spend a lot of time at my computer. I get around 100 e-mails a day about upcoming gig details and bands that want to play for my clubs and events.

When I started doing sound, I needed a name for my company and a new website domain name. My name and the names of my bands were taken. When I finally tried to register Minor Productions, it was available, and I really liked the ring to it. Finally the name that had been made fun of all my life had a good connotation. FOR A MAJOR SUCCESS, MAKE IT A MINOR PRODUCTION. All of the hats I wear- musician, wedding singer, promoter, producer, soundman - are now under one logo.

Another client of mine is the Austin Chronicle. I deliver their papers once a week to the Lake Travis - Bee Caves area, and I provide production for their office events.   I lead my own wedding band these days, and I just started a new project called Texas Tycoons, an all-Texas music cover band.   As a working musician, in my many years of experience in organizing, leading and motivating musicians and dealing with the special needs and sensitivities of artists, I have become intimately familiar with the challenging emotional complexity of pursuing a music career, and I'm fully committed to the mission of keeping Austin music alive and well.

Looking back, I think I’ve always been trying to re-create that sense of community in my music career that we had in Houston at the born again church. I'm still friends with the journalists I worked with at the Chronicle and Texas Monthly. When I was at UT for one semester, the group of guys I partied with on west campus are still some of my dearest friends and collaborators today. I guess we had our own fraternity in a way.

As the man said, "The life I love is making music with my friends."