We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ant Boogie a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ant, appreciate you joining us today. Crazy stuff happening is almost as certain as death and taxes – it’s technically “unexpected” but something unexpected happening is to be expected and so can you share a crazy story with our readers

My venue, High Volume Music Live, had been open at the time for about two years. It has always been open to bands and groups for rehearsals but no one was wanting to use the venue to rehearse. Then one night the group H-Town rented it out for a rehearsal. I posted on Facebook that H-Town was at the venue rehearsing and then all of a sudden the phone wouldn’t stop ringing as everyone wanted to rent HVML out for their rehearsals. It literally took H-Town for people to realize if it was good enough for them to rent out then it was good enough for anyone..

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve had an undying love for music since childhood. My past as a teenager into my twenties lead me down this path. I worked at a few music retail chains back in the day; Sound Warehouse and then Soundwaves. It was at those two places my love for the business started to nurture. When I left those two places I opened up my own music retail store High Volume Music in 1995. From there I met everyone that was anyone at the time from Eric Benet to Will Downing and more. As my business grew, so did my reputation as a creative and innovative retailer.
I went on to build a stage at my store and I started having block parties in the parking lot and concerts on the inside. The block parties became legendary as we had ONYX, a very young Destiny’s Child and an up and coming rapper named South Park Mexican perform there.
When I closed down in 2005 I went into the health industry which I had studied in High School and College.
I opened Jacob’s Home for Men a few years after my father passed, (it’s named after him).
Then in 2015 an opportunity arose for me to get back into the music industry full blast. I had already formed a band, Collective Hallucination in 1999 and rented out many spaces to hold concerts through the years…
However, in 2015 once I opened High Volume Music Live I had become an official game changer…
Then 5 years later, in 2020 I launched High Volume Music Radio (The Pride of Sunnyside) and I have been going full blast!

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

Initially I mowed lawns for 30 years. Honestly, I saved up a lot of money during those years and my dad loaned me a small amount to get started. I knew when I was mowing lawns that I wanted something different. I didn’t know when I started mowing lawns at 15 years of age that it would be what I ended up doing I just knew I was reaching for more..

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I used to think if you were nice, had a reputable business and knew a lot of people they would support you. I had to change my way of thinking as I quickly learned and still to this day, that people don’t give a f**k. If someone is going to support you, they are going to support you. I also learned support will come from a stranger quicker than it would come from a “friend”.
There are people I have been “close” to all my life who have yet to download my radio station app or visit my venue.
It used to sting, but the older I get, the more resilient I become.
People are people and they are going to support who they want to support. They are NOT going to support you just because they know you.
I have seen moments when people have found all kind of reasons to not go to my venue for a show, and then post about some other show they went to on social media.
My favorite though is when people say my venue is too far to drive to and then all of a sudden they are posting on social media how they flew out of town, (in many instances out of state), to go see someone perform.
That’s really an ouch moment..
But I keep going…

Contact Info:

• Website: hvmpire.com
• Instagram: hvm_pire
• Facebook: facebook.com/HVMpireHTX
• Twitter: @h_v_m_r

Image Credits
Mouton Bazille