Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alex Kasznel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Alex, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Since March 2023, I’ve been playing guitar and singing in a pop punk band called the Board of Directors out of Cincinnati, OH. Along with my bandmates Heather Sampanis and Andrew Gable, we’ve pursued every opportunity to play both locally and on the road. When you’re first starting out and have no name recognition, getting booked at clubs can be an uphill struggle, so we made our own shows. We’d rent out the American Legion Hall in Mt. Washington, book the bands, put flyers all over town, load in all of the gear, sell tickets at the door – we did everything ourselves. To our surprise, people came out. It was empowering to realize that you didn’t really need much to put on a show, just good bands and initiative. It didn’t take long for us to hatch the idea of producing our own music festival. It felt like the culmination of everything we’d learned in our first year as a band, but also a big step forward in terms of logistics.

We called it “The Company Picnic,” and we booked 16 acts to play over the course of a full day at Oddfellow’s in OTR, a venue that has become home to us in many ways. The logistics were noticeably more complex than booking a four-band night at the Legion Hall, and we expected nothing less. Money had to be raised, which meant seeking out sponsors, invoicing, contracts – things you don’t necessarily have in mind when you pick up a guitar and start a band. There was a lot of learning that needed to happen, but the reward was immense. In the six months between inception and completion, we made a music festival appear out of thin air. We got to hear some of our favorite bands from all over the Midwest on the same stage. We got to see those bands make connections, both with one another as well as the audience. It was a risk but a labor of love, and easily one of my fondest memories of our first year as a band. Plans are already in the works for Company Picnic 2025, and we’re looking forward to coming back even stronger next year.

Alex, 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?

The Company Picnic is a music festival produced by my band, the Board of Directors. We go out of our way to feature bands and solo artists that we love, and that we think more people should know about. The genres typically center around punk rock, but there’s intentionally a lot of variation from one act to the next. It’s our way of fostering connections between adjacent scenes, helping regional bands get a foothold in Cincinnati, as well as helping local Cincy bands break into other cities.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

For me, I just know the intense personal relationship I have to certain songs and certain bands. It’s like they’re friends of mine, in a sense. It’s sobering to think that I have the opportunity to make something like that for someone else. I remember the first time my band played Indianapolis. Heather pointed out to me that someone in the audience was singing along to our songs. I was thinking “We’ve never even been here before – how do you know our stuff?” It turned out that they’d seen us at a fest in Missouri months prior and had driven all the way to Indy just to see us open the show that night. I live for moments like that. I mean, you always put on a show no matter what, but that moment when strangers start caring about a song that came from somewhere deep inside you is a very special and unique type of connection.

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

It’s not an individual book or video, but in general the story behind the founding of Epitaph Records has always been significant to me. The way that Brett Gurewitz blazed his own trail in the record business is remarkable. Independent labels didn’t really make massive records before Epitaph. I think he put a lot of faith in the power of great songs and was willing to back it up with hard work. In the process, he broke some of the most important bands in punk rock. I know some people take exception to the idea of business savvy in the content of a genre that’s ostensibly built on a disregard for rules, but I think Epitaph is a good example of how those two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/companypicnicfest
• Facebook: facebook.com/companypicnicfest

Image Credits
Photos by Jacob Klein & Matt Klose