We were lucky to catch up with Johnny Mastro recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Johnny, thanks for joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I have been playing music and leading a band full time for 28 years. There was no plan and it happened naturally when I met a lady named Laura Mae “Mama” Gross in 1993. She encouraged me to keep practicing and gave me the confidence I needed. It was easier at first than it is today. There were so many gigs around Southern California but I also worked myself into a near breakdown between the business and performing. We developed an excellent following by playing hard and kept people coming back again and again. Around 2003 we hit a milestone and started touring Europe. I have gone just about every year since racking up 40+ European tours. I don’t think I could have sped up the process and everything was moving ahead just based on our recordings.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My story is unique in music. I grew up loving music and playing a little but never planned on it being a full time job. I graduated with a Mechanical Engineering degree from Clarkson University and had a job right away. They sent me to graduate school and I moved to the parent company in Los Angeles after an MBA from Simon School University of Rochester. I started hanging at a small blues club “Mama” owned in South Central and playing 5 times a week. When there was a buyout with my company they wanted me to move and I just stayed put and kept playing ending up in New Orleans 11 years ago. I approached music as art and still do, perhaps too much. My vision was an honest kind of rough around the edges band that made our own style of music and I feel like I reached that goal. Our style leans mostly to blues but indie rock is not that far away. This confuses some industry types and honestly it has hurt my career a bit because they can’t classify us and put us in a box. I am most proud that we have our own sound, recorded for the BBC in London a few years back, toured 22 countries and have been full time with music for almost 30 years. My biggest challenge is growing our social media. I was so burnt on doing all the business myself and it has moved so fast I got behind the eight ball. Today it’s all about social media for music and I have had so many sleepless nights trying to figure out how to get it straight.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Anyone who plays music for a living has to be resilient! A few years back we had agents, a manager, a road manager, a PR person and a record company. After 2 or 3 records, the label dropped us for the reason they drop all bands, we didn’t sell enough records. It morphed into being just me doing all the tasks and I have to perform and lead the band several times a week as well. There are a few times I just felt like quitting because the load is too much; but I love the music so much I just keep going. Furthermore my wife has been in my corner for 20 years and that has helped tremendously.
Physical resilience is also important as there are no sick days when gigs are scheduled. I hope my wife doesn’t read this but I will say there have been several times I thought I was gonna die on stage I was so exhausted. One time in Amsterdam after a 15 hour van ride at an end of a tour my left side kept going completely numb, my vision blurred and my legs literally felt like jello. I thought it was it but I made it through and slept for 2 days afterwards!
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
Making music in the studio and performing for people is most rewarding for me. I’m shy but being able to make people feel good with our performances is really a rush. Producing records is also a favorite. I have produced 12 records for my band and probably 6 for other artists. I am producing a record right now here in New Orleans for a European anrtist and the whole process is so rewarding I want to scream!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.johnnymastro.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnnymastroblueswarrior?igsh=MWV1cmM0ZGpiMGNtYQ%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php/?id=1547088752
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/D_6hN5sPrbw?si=m3ijM_iOngdawz9t
- Other: Latest record: https://crescentcitysounds.org/albums/johnny-mastro-and-mbs-elmore-james-for-president
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/7MnZnVAopdFKx6D4JOjLfE?si=6MpOLJ-oSoOdzijS7amSCA