We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Amitav Oehlberg. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Amitav below.

Hi Amitav, thanks for joining us today. Quality control is a challenge almost every entrepreneur has had to focus on when growing – any advice, stories or insight around how to best ensure quality is maintained as your business scales?

Our style as a band is largely based off not being overly professional and staying connected and involved with our own community. Recently, as we started taking on more shows, we noticed that our posts were consistently only show posters or photos from a show. This may be a personal taste, but I am not a fan of opening a band page and only seeing professional grade photos. Someone recently put a good word on it, the photos are “sterile”. It got to the point where I asked my photographer to use their phone for pictures if we aren’t on stage, and we started to post sillier content to put our personality and character back into our page. The biggest appeal of DIY is the personal touch and losing that can distance a group from their fans very quickly.

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.

We are a three-piece band made up of Freddy Vasquez on guitar and vocals, Vincent Hansell on Drums, and Amitav Oehlberg on bass. We play in the realm of garage/rock music, but it varies depending on the song. We met in highschool, and in a couple of months will have been together as a band for four years. We have spent enough time with each other to call ourselves family, which has extended out towards other local bands we are good friends with. My biggest pride is the community we are fostering. The people that frequent our shows are always fun and pleasant to be around, and the bands we meet and spend time with our really good to us. At the end of the day, our job is to etertain people, but getting to build our own community where people can come and feel comfortable and safe is an incredible perk of the job.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

One of our biggest advantags with music is that we went in knowing absolutely nothing about the music industry. Going in knowing nothing meant that we had to learn, and that we are always forced ask questions, ask for help, and humble ourselves around those around us. There are a few bands who have taken us under their wing and helped us, and when we meet newer bands we attempt to do the same. Helping those less experienced and asking for help from those who are more experienced leads to the natural formation of a community. Ask anyone in our industry, and they will say they owe a million favors and are owed just as much.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

This may vary depending on your goals, but for us it has been one at a time. Anyone who has been to more than one of our shows has had direct conversations with us and has to some extent befriended us. While sometimes there are reasons we can’t all be there, at least two of us are always present for the entire show in the crowd, and can be talked to at any point in the night. Being present and being within your community is best. Even in full businesses, some of the best venues the owners will be around just hanging out during shows.     

Contact Info:

• Website: linktr.ee/TheDartmoors
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedartmoors/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheDartmoors
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TDartmoors
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thedartmoors6884

Image Credits
Angeline Hanser