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

Alright, James thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with 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?

For me, the journey to achieve being full-time creative musician didn’t happen over night.

Currently I’m an international commercial-freelance studio & professional musician. I mainly contracted for Norwegian Cruise Lines performing, acting, and touring the world. For over a decade, I’ve been primarily a working up-right and electric bassist. Essentially, a day in a life for me has varied over the years.

In the very beginning, I lived with my mom. I had various odd jobs before transitioning into my music career. From 2007 through 2012, I’ve been a dog walker, buser, server, dishwasher, catering crew member, and prep-cook. When I wasn’t part-time at my day jobs or going to high school and Cuesta College full-time, I spent three to ten hours almost every day practicing, listening, researching, transcribing, jamming, or rehearsing various music (sometimes with others).

As a young child, I was slightly smaller in physical size than most boys my age. I received my first pair of corrective vision glasses due to my genetically poor eyesight when I was in second-grade elementary school. I received mild bullying from other students in elementary and middle school. Thankfully, baseball and music gave me focus, athleticism, and a sense of self-esteem. Baseball and music gave me confidence in navigating through the trials and tribulations of my early school years. I found that baseball and sometimes music, allowed me to fit in with American popular culture. After graduating from Morro Bay High School at 18, I decided to attend Cuesta Community College and I began paying my mom rent to live at her place. Although my family always supported me playing music, they did not right away support the idea of me as a professional musician. I was 21 years old when I worked my last day job. I was a busser/server for Vieni Vai Trattoria, an old Italian cuisine restaurant (now The Flour House) in downtown San Luis Obispo. I told my mom I quit the job to pursue a performance career. She was livid, but it didn’t stop me from pursuing a career and doing what made me happy. At the time, I began to regularly pick up gigs and host open jam sessions. However, I also played many free gigs for only tips and food. Simultaneously, the amount of free gigging allowed me to gain experience practicing my craft in front of a live audience.

When I entered California Polytechnic University, I added playing upright with the bow and sight-reading to my routine. As a result of attending Cal Poly for 3 years, my weekday work schedule increased to sixteen or sometimes eighteen hours a day. After some of my late-night gigs in downtown San Luis Obispo, I would pose as a SLO Safe Ride van driving drunk college and middle-aged couples home safely for extra money. When I moved into a home called “Groove St.” until the Covid-19 pandemic, I directly helped promote or host live concerts on location for 5 years. The “Groove St.” house with landlord Richard Brown, has hosted numerous local jam sessions and concerts. The house has hosted various ensembles of different musical stylings along with acclaimed local and national artists.

As a full-time musician, I spend a lot of time driving to and from a particular gig, concert, event, show, casual, recital, or performance. On average, I drive back and forth an hour or more for each show I perform. In extreme instances, a particular show will require me to drive the distance of up to twelve hours in a single day. I also set up and tear down my own gear for all of my own shows. I spend roughly an hour or two setting up and tearing down my own gear and sometimes my bandmates equipment. The number of shows I’ve played varies each year. For the past 5 years (with the exception of 2020), I played over 250 shows each year. In 2019, I played nearly one show a day. It’s quite often that I’ll take on three shows locally in one day alone, and in rare circumstances sometimes four. With each show comes variations within the style or genre of music plus the personnel within the ensemble I play for. For example, in a single day, I’ll play a casual brunch show at Sidecar Cocktail Company with jazz trio Five minus Two. Then, I’ll drive to Santa Maria to play a Latin trio show at Costa de Oro, an exclusive winery with the Black Market Trio. Finally, I’ll drive back to San Luis Obispo and play up-right bass for The Gipsy Allstars at Barrelhouse Brewing Company. I’m currently a part of twelve different local performing ensembles as either a permanent member or a fill-in performer. For all of these groups, I spend ten or more hours each week rehearsing for upcoming shows or performances. My current practice routine now varies each day. When I’m not performing, practicing, arranging, writing, or rehearsing music, I will also teach privately. My teachings are individually catered for each student of all ages, ethnicities, and orientations. Along with electric and up-right bass instruction, I also teach music theory, drums, guitar, piano, and some composition. I currently teach in-person at my home studio in Los Osos California and online through program platforms such as Zoom and Takelessons. I’ve also been helping lead and teach a children’s youth choir for over five years as co-music director for St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic Church in Morro Bay California. When I’m not conducting music related work, I spend roughly ten to twenty hours every week engaging in various business phone calls, emails, and organizing my personal and work calendar. Managing my own music scheduling all alone is a complicated task. In general, musicians will use a management company, a team, or a single professional event coordinator who takes care of their bookings and schedules. A musician’s calendar may often contain outside variables such as, cancellations (due to unforeseen circumstances), frequent double bookings, and specific or mandatory requests from clientele or bandmates. I continuously maintain tabs with sometimes up to fifty colleagues and businesses in a single week. I also work part-time as an Artistic Director for SLOTalk plus, help facilitate part-time event coordination and booking when asked by an outside party, company, or non-profit organization.

Ultimately, I am my own business. Inconsequentially, if I had lived in a bigger city with a bigger music I believe my journey would be slightly different. I believe attitude, good habits, determination and focus is what determines overall outcome.

James, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I became more curious with music when I was age 10. I found myself after school digging through my mom and grandparents’ collections of CDs. Aerosmith’s Toys in the Attic, and Led Zeppelins’ Untitled Fourth album, both records my mom had owned, become some of the first records I bought. The first two records I bought were Backstreet Boys, Backstreetsback (Compilation), and New York Yankees Greatest Hits: The Dream Season, by Various Artists. The Dream Season album featured artists from Ohio Players, Parliament, Nicole Renée Harris, Lipps, Inc., Steppenwolf, Ace Frehley, and The Village People. My grandparent’s collection held a plethora of country music artists. They had artists such as Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Hank Williams, plus my two favorite CD’s at the time, Elvis Presley’s ELV1S: 30 No. 1 Hits, and Hotel California, by the Eagles. From there, I started learning chords, baselines, and melodies by ear using the keyboards first then eventually the bass guitar. My main influence to pick up the bass was through my brother Daniel. He had already established himself on guitar a year before I decided to pursue bass. This would be the beginning of my budding professional bass career.

I gravitated towards my two younger brothers as we started playing together first in middle and early high school. We began trying to establish some form of creativity and expression through basic original chord progressions. Later on, the three of us together developed full original songs and played rock covers. We would jam together quite often in our mom’s garage. A bit later on, I started my emerging love for thrash/death metal, and progressive/classic rock sounds by learning the music by ear & tablature through the way of the bass or keyboards. Bands such as Opeth, Wintersun, Meshuggah, Between the Buried and Me, Dream Theater, Queensrÿche, Fates Warning, Tool, August Burns Red, Mastodon, Black Sabbath, Yes, King Crimson, Rush, Kansas, Iron Maiden, Megadeath, Coheed and Cambria, Symphony X, The Allman Brothers Band, Free, and Bad Company, were just some of the many groups I gravitated towards. Eventually, starting in 2005, my mom Annette purchased my first “formal” bass lessons with Jim “Master Guitar” Murphy in Morro Bay, California. For over three years, he had a tremendously positive influence in my personal & my future professional life. During the same time between 2005-2008, I spent many hours after school practicing with a local metal band I helped form with my brother Daniel, along with Garrett Craig, & Kenneth Davis. I also joined the Morro Bay High School Jazz Band playing electric bass. Seemingly, I also had a love and appreciation for the game of baseball. I would play every summer through elementary, middle & high school years both in Suffern New York, and in Los Osos California. Gradually, music took to the forefront, and I found myself scoring my first few gigs with that same metal ensemble entitled MaelstroM. MaelstroM eventually split up during the Fall of 2008. In the aftermath of the breakup, I graduated from Morro Bay High School & enrolled in Cuesta College full-time to complete my general education requirements. Coincidentally, I became drawn towards the Cuesta College jazz program and the Cuesta College radio station. It was during the 2008-2014 timeline where I met a ton of influential colleagues, musicians, engineers & broadcasting developers. This led me to complete my AA in Music Performance and my AA in Jazz Studies in 2014. My first introduction to jazz music was through these three albums: We Get Request, by Oscar Peterson Trio w/ Ray Brown & Ed Thigpen, She Was Too Good To Me, by Chet Baker & Heavy Weather, by Weather Report.

In between going to Cuesta College for my studies, I had the great opportunity to perform with and/or study with many talented local & international artists such as, Louie & Talia Ortega, Bruce Forman, Charlie Shoemake, Mic Gillette, The Kandinsky Effect, Daniel Formica, James “Jimi” Macon, Terry Lawless, and Callie Twisselman. Along with local and national musicians: Adam Benjamin, Charlie Morillas, Jon Rapson, Tom Kubis, Ricky Montijo, Jasmin Columbus (Poncelet), and Jason Farrar. My teachers and colleagues as well included: Ron McCarley, Ken Hustad, George Stone, Aaron Wolf, John Flitcraft, John Knutson, Dr. Michael Walker, Brynn Belyea, Josh & Sean Collins, Dave Becker, Tyler Tedeschi, Micah Jazz Link, Trevor Johnson, Jade Autrand-White, Cottrell Freeman, Wesley Price, Paul Rigby, José (Pepé) Eduardo, Gabriela Marguerite Welch. These are just some of the many musicians and people who graciously helped me as an artist and as a professional musician. As I grew into the local and national music scene in California, I also started getting calls to help host local open jams sessions. For over 4 years I became the house bassist for “Toan Chau’s Monday Night Open Jam” with drummer Brian Monzel located at the Frog and Peach Pub in Downtown San Luis Obispo. I also played bass for over a year at The Fuel Dock Saloon with drummer Graham Yates located in Morro Bay, California. I then later performed as the house bassist of The San Luis Obispo Jazz Federation Jam located and sponsored at Linneas’ Cafe in Downtown SLO for 4 years. I worked directly with presidents Dr. Paul Rinzler and Craig Uptegrove to coordinate the Jazz Federation Jams. Seemingly, I began to work and gig with a few different local music projects over the course of my time at Cuesta College. The Hot Club of SLO, The Gipsy Allstars, Trippin’ & G, The Sunny Knights, RUMBLE, & Five minus Two, were a few of the earlier projects–some of these groups are still current. My biggest and most successful local project was an acoustic Americana Cali-Roots fusion trio entitled Green to White. Eric Hunter, Jason Clark, and I went on to be a professional working California-based group for over 5 years. Green to White, would go on to produce two full-length professional albums: Green to White (2014), and Technologically Sound (2018). Both albums are available for purchasing or streaming on Spotify, iTunes, and CD-Baby. As a group, we had many essential patrons who helped support us financially and also with our living arraignments. Some of them include: The Browns, “Aunt” Stella T. Kozel, Judy & Bob Salamacha, Tom Weiss, Brad Nack, James Davis (Festival After Dark), Luna Red, and The Alcove. While together, we played at over 30 different wineries mostly in Paso Robles California. During our peak years, Green to White would gig on average up to 150 various shows or events per year. On top of all that, I helped co-host a radio show with Robert Van at the Cuesta College Radio Station called the “Prog-Show.” We would play and discuss historical and lyrical components of all the deep cuts from generational progressive rock artists. Artist such as Genesis, Caravan, Camel, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Van Der Graf Generator, Frank Zappa, Gentle Giant, Supertramp, Supersister, Harmonium, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Hatfield and the North, Mike Oldfield, Pain of Salvation, Riverside, Steve Wilson, Porcupine Tree, Marillion, The Mars Volta, Gong, Ayreon, National Health, and Emerson Lake & Palmer, were always featured on our radio playlists.

After graduating from Cuesta College, I decided to better my musicianship by attending California Polytechnic University in the Fall of 2014 to study classical upright bass in San Luis Obispo. I went on to meet and work with even more incredible musicians, artists, and big band orchestras. I also started work as a studio musician for local theatre companies on the central coast of California while attending Cal Poly. Some of the musicians and artists I started working with were also on the local and national levels. Artist and musicians such as Erin English, Ray Chang Group (with Allison King, Joe Duran, Jacob Odell & Theodore Ramirez), Madison Lea Scott (Cool Notes), Black Market Trio, Matt Suarez, Dallon Weeks, Patrick Contreras, Omar Naré, Steve McCann w/ Paul McDonald, The Tipsy Gypsies, Natural Incense, & “Professor” Adrian Cunningham w/ Rob Gracia, Joe Boga, & Oscar Perez, were all projects or groups I sub in for during my time at Cal Poly. I also started to fill in for current local jazz orchestras such as Swing for Joy, Jazz on the Vine, San Luis Obispo County Trumpet Alliance, and The Royal Garden Swing Orchestra. As a beginning studio musician, I had already been a part of a soundtrack for a SYFY movie entitled Piranhaconda. Moreover, I just achieved my first musical theater gig at the Cambria Center for the Arts playing bass in Company, which was directed by Jill Turnbow along with musicians Mark Pietri, Jeff Mar, and Thomas Brown. For 3 years at Cal Poly, I spent my time juggling full-time quarter system music and general education core classes. I played in the Cal Poly symphony orchestra, the jazz band orchestra, and small jazz ensemble. I spent time writing original jazz tunes, and practicing incessantly with the upright bass using both pizzicato, and acro techniques for many hours every day. In addition, I gigged locally four to five nights on average each week after school at many various venues. Later on in 2015, along with my colleagues Keegan Harshman, Josh and Sean Collins, won “Best Community College Jazz Combo,” by Downbeat Jazz Magazine. In 2016 during my junior year at Cal Poly, I won a one-year scholarship through ArtistWorks to study online with grammy-nominated jazz bassist John Patitucci. In the summer of that same year, I went on a week-long tour in London performing with the Cal Poly University 1 Jazz Band directed by Dr. Paul Rinzler. All my Cal Poly instructors, private teachers and colleagues during this immense time helped me gain foundations for professional work as a freelance musician. My professors, private teachers, and friends included, Dr. Terry Spiller, Dr. Alyson McLamore, Dr. David Arrivée, Dr. Meredith Brammeier, Dr. Craig Russell, Jennifer Martin, Inga Sweringin, Jeff Miley, Inda D’Avignon, Warren Balfour, Corey Hable, Troy Hanson, Elaine Fisher, Addison Rifkind, Kelly O’Shea, Tom Brown, Sören Richenberg, Talia Ortega, Trent Braswell, Mario Ojeda, Rowan McGuire, Matt Seno, Elisabeth West, and many others who helped guide my continual musical journey.

After graduating from Cal Poly in 2017 with a BA in Music (Classical Double Bass), I was delighted and overwhelmed by the number of calls for work that still continues. Immediately, I started playing jazz bass for a three-month musical entitled All Night Strut, which was directed and choreographed by Michael Jenkinson with musicians Mark Robertshaw and Evan Goldhahn at the San Luis Obispo Repertory Theater (SLOREP). To my surprise, I subsequently discovered my enjoyment with being on stage while later on gravitating towards acting roles as a musical pit/stage performer. After All Night Strut, I was called to perform on upright bass for Man of La Mancha at Cuesta Community College. Man of La Mancha, directed by bree valle with musicians, Duane English, Ian Skinner, Sean Sullivan, and Lliam Christy El Rasguño, became a huge success. During our show run the entire staff, tech crew, actors, and musicians were all recognized by the Kennedy Center as one of the most outstanding productions in the country. We were then asked to compete in the Kennedy Center’s American College Theater Festival (KCATF) located in Mesa Arizona. The KCATF would go on to present our production of Man of La Mancha with nine different awards more than any other college attending the festival that year, including a distinguished award for musical performance and production ensemble. I also joined a locally famous band led by Dan Curcio with drummers Ryan House & Lance Lunker entitled Moonshiner Collective. During my one year together with Moonshiner Collective, I played many private events, weddings, and a small number of big-name venues all across California. I also had the opportunity to fill in for Cafe’ Musique led by highly renowned violinist Brynn Albanese, as well as an award-winning Americana group called The Cimo Brothers. Daniel & Vince Cimo along with Graham Yates and I, would go on to win “Best Live Performance” during the 10th annual SLO New Times Music Awards hosted at the Fremont Theater in 2018. At this time, another current project led by Scott Andrews and I called the Black Market Trio, became featured musicians, and extras in a romantic comedy-drama film entitled Destination Wedding. The group and I worked briefly for one six hour day set with Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder along with writer/director Victor Levin, and over 150 extras. Levin gave Black Market Trio the opportunity to record our own one minute version of “You Made Me Love You (I Didn’t Want to Do It),” originally written by James V. Monaco with lyricist Joseph McCarthy which was originally performed in 1913 by Al Jolson from the stage musical The Honeymoon Express. Our Latin version of “You Made Me Love You…” featured in the film, includes saxophone as the main melody, along with bongos, congas, bass drum, and upright bass as the core rhythm section. Scott Andrews, Sean Sullivan and I, also made a brief cameo appearance in the film while performing. We all individually received IMDB acting credit as well as soundtrack credit as Black Market Trio for Destination Wedding. I was later called to record electric bass as a studio musician for the Pacific Conservatory of the Performing Arts (PCPA) in Santa Maria California. I recorded bass parts for PCPA’s musical productions Freaky Friday, and Mama Mia. Being directly involved with both SLOREP & PCPA theaters respectively, opened more doors and growing opportunities for myself as an artist, actor, and professional musician.
Within the 2019 year, I started getting asked to sit in or fill in for many local and national artists such as Tracy Morgan, Ynana Rose, Jared Freiburg and the Vagabonds, Goodnight Texas, Holly Ann Lewis, Elizabeth Goodfellow, Andrew Stephens, Judy Philbin, Dawn Lambeth, Twice Cooked Jazz Trio (with Forrestt Williams and Laura Foxx), Justin Pecot (The Vista Point) and Nicole Stromsoe. However, my biggest opportunity during that year was getting called to perform and act as rockabilly bassist Brother Jay in the musical entitled Million Dollar Quartet. Both calls came from SLOREP & PCPA theater companies. Million Dollar Quartet is a play depicting a real impromptu recording jam session made between Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and Jerry Lee Lewis which happened at Sun Records Studios in Memphis Tennessee on December 4th, 1956. This type of reenactment rock-and-roll musical allows me to explore my acting talents as well as provide a stable environment for discovering choreography and rockabilly techniques using the upright bass. I found myself on tour for over six months performing in the role of Brother Jay (brother of Carl Perkins) in San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, and Solvang California. I lived simultaneously in Orcutt and in Los Osos California traveling off and on for six months. Being hired for the Million Dollar Quartet show through both SLOREP & PCPA, I performed roughly 75 showings for roughly 15,000 audience members at the Marian Theatre, the San Luis Obispo Repertory Theatre, and the Solvang Festival Theatre combined. During my off time, I made several trips to Los Angeles to study with private music instructors as well as actively be a part of the jazz community in the downtown LA area. I’d even go and attend jazz master classes as an outside student at California State Northridge and California Institute of the Arts. I also had a chance to study with the band Chord Four (Andrew Conrad, Brandon Sherman, Emilio Terranova, Colin Woodford), as well as professional musicians, Luther Hughes, David Robaire, Dave Tranchina, and Michael Mull.
After all the touring had ended, I was asked by SLOREP again to join another musical production performing bass and backing vocals entitled Always…Patsy Cline. Kevin Harris, along with some help from Susy Newman directed the musical with cast musicians, Wendy Feaver, Greta Kleckner, John Clarke, Paul Lee, Gary Wooten & Evan Goldhahn. Thankfully, we were able to finish our last show before the Covid-19 pandemic took effect on March 15th 2020 in the state of California. As a result of the shutdown, I lost virtually all of my scheduled performances and uncertain future work for the rest of the 2020 year, or so I thought. I immediately began practicing feverishly, and started live streaming my solo performances using Zoom and Facebook as platforms. A typical set of my solo music would consist of traditional tunes plus jazz, pop, and metal arrangements. My live-streamed shows consisted of normally three separate sets of music. I perform using my voice, bass, or drum set, sometimes playing all at the same time. A month later, I encountered living complications due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This led me to pursue outside freelance work related to my career in music. I began interning at SLOTalk Podcasting Studio with James D. Davis, MPA. With the help of SLOTalk, I learned how to record and edit using digital audio workstations plus receive hands-on experience with podcast development and production. This in turn resulted in a position as one of SLOTalk’s Artistic Directors. I now help co-write some of the SLOTalk music for the company itself and for our podcasting clients. Moreover, I was able to find work as a marketing and media manager for QuickTech Computers in Los Osos California. Owner Chad Crawford and I were able to analyze the infrastructure he built around the QuickTech Computers business in order to maximize profit margins, customer service, and schematics for associate training applications. QuickTech also gave me hands-on experience with electronics and how to repair and diagnose some of my own music and recording gear.

Six months into the 2020 pandemic, I was called in to meet owners Corey Jordan and Kate Smith of AMSTRDM Coffee House & Piano Lounge in Paso Robles California. I was then given the title Artist Relations Consultant. In October 2020, I started booking local and national jazz music for the open-air nightclub. AMSTRDM has become such a big success that the owners decided to reinvest and open another much larger venue called LIBRETTO. During my time as the Artist Relations Consultant, I helped initiate the owner’s initial vision by booking top local and national performers. AMSTRDM is now an international music enthusiast community paired with the best hospitality, menu, and atmosphere. While working with SLOTalk, QuickTech, and AMSTRDM during the Covid-19 pandemic, I was still able to perform selective private events and outdoor open-air venues roughly twice or four times a month. I perform regularly three to six days or nights a week and instruct part-time. I’ve also released a hip-hop album with my bandmate T. Collins entitled “Trippin’ & G” through Collins Family Recording, and The Sauce Pot Recording Studio. Plus, I helped released a straight ahead jazz piano-trio record at Painted Sky Studios with bandmates Jim Barnett, and Darrell Voss entitled “Jim Barnett Trio.” I’m pleased to annonce I finally recorded and released my first progressive alternative metal album entitled “jdanger” with my brother Jonathan on drums and percussion. It’s my first time singing and screaming on a record. It’s also an amazing project because Jonathan and I both write the music together organically.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

iReal Pro app, Piano Tuner app, Bebot app, iDouble Bass app, Metronome app, Voice Memo app, Venmo app, Paypal app, Square Cash app, Messenger app, Photo Scan App, Sibelius music notation software, Logic Pro X, SLO Jazz Federation, SLOTalk Podcasting, Central Coast Music, Grand Central Music and Conservatory, Music Motive, Cuesta College Recording Studio, The Sauce Pot, Avalon Recording Studio, Painted Sky Studios, Tom Brown Studios, S. & K. Music Lessons, St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic Church, Bethel Road Live Sessions, Progressive Rock Archives, 273 Festival, Al’s Septic Pumping Service, Charlie Shoemake – Playing Be-bop, Henry David Thoreau – Walden, Walt Whitman – Leave of Grass

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to be my own boss. I can create my own schedule. It’s incredibly amazing having the ability to work for yourself and not for the sake of others. It makes for an enjoyable working environment and helps me connect to my fans and music appreciators. Because of this, I throughly love making a positive impact towards my friends and family who look up to me. Although it’s been a long journey, I’m glad that I can motivate others and express myself whole-heartily through the world of music and creativity.

Contact Info:

• Website: jamesgallardo.com
• Instagram: @jamesgallardomusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/james.gallardo.96/
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/channel/UC2WTbuHeklFFX8kNbIJL-BQ
• Other: https://linktr.ee/jamesgallardo

Image Credits
Juan Sebastian Martinez Zoe Contreras Vicki Heilbron Melissia and Jeremy Taziar