"The Brass Junkies" by Andrew Hitz and Lance LaDuke

[shider]

I did a quick search on the forum and found barely any pointers to this..

So, here it goes:

"The Brass Junkies" is a podcast, recorded by Andrew Hitz and Lance LaDuke, where they record interviews with world class brass players, "done by two thoroughly average ones" (as they put it themselves and which is a huge understatement!).

It's an incredible wealth of knowledge about basically everything involving music:
- advice on how to prepare for auditions
- perspectives on playing brass instruments
- building a career around music (Andrew also has a podcast called "The Entrepreneurial Musician" where he talks especially about that!)
- crazy stories like how Joe Alessi got hit in the lip by a golf ball once

They already have over a 100 episodes out, each one around 1h of talking with the respective guest and the release new ones every two weeks if i recall their schedule right.
If you dig their humor the episodes fly by fast and are excellent for the daily commute to pick up some useful things along the way.

If you have the time to kill i can only recommend this amazing ressource to everyone, even if you only want to be entertained by their humor

Greetings,
shider

[TriJim]

I'll second the recommendation.

I met Andrew Hitz at a DC-area low brass symposium this past Fall; very approachable and genuinely interested in feedback on the Brass Junkies (and his Enterpreneurial Musician) podcasts.

The most recent interview is over an hour with Christopher Bill - I have it cued-up for my drive to trombone choir practice this evening.

[shider]

The most recent interview is over an hour with Christopher Bill - I have it cued-up for my drive to trombone choir practice this evening.

I have gone through that episode three times already

I have been a subscriber to Christopher Bill's YouTube channel for a few years now and was really excited when the announcement for him on the show popped up Since he is roughly my age it was great to hear him talk about how he got where he is today

[harrisonreed]

They are great, and so is Sarah Willis' video interview series. I get a kick out of the college kid wannabes who somehow secure interviews with big name people and produce one-off, terrible interviews. One guy interviews a big name musician in front of an ATM in a hotel lobby surrounded by loud people.

Leave it to the pros.

[Mikebmiller]

Some of the TBJ episodes are great. Other times they get so deep into war stories and jokes that the guest barely even mentions anything to do with brass playing. Lance usually tries to keeps things on track while Andrew lets them wander a bit. Still a good way to spend an hour. I am a Patron patron for that podcast.

[aasavickas]

This podcast is great. I support them thru Patreon.

It is probably the only source of good info on how to make a living playing a brass instrument. Good ideas on playing, auditions, and the business of brass playing. They get some of the best guests and manage to be pretty funny as well. Worth checking out.

[Johnstad]

Fantastic Podcast. I recently became a Patreon for the bonus content. Well worth it.

[Mikebmiller]

I think the biggest takeaway from that show is that if you want to make a living as a musician these days, you have to go out and create your own opportunities. While they interview a lot of symphony players, they also talk to a ton of free lancers and folks that have created their own niche. Chris Bill is a perfect example. Who would have ever thought a few years ago that anyone could make a living playing trombone quartets on Youtube? But this guy has become a star in the trombone community. He is a great player, but there are tons of great players out there. He had the skills and initiative to create a genre that didn't even used to exist. I loved the part where he said that his criteria for a place to live was "being able to play trombone at 4 am." So he rented a small place on the edge of a farmer's field somewhere outside of NYC.

[Mikebmiller]

They just released a 2nd interview with Jim "don't call me Bubblebutt" Nova today. It's more Car Talk than Brass Junkies, but good fun to listen to.