We recently connected with Christopher Diorio and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Christopher thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

Our band Shower Beers is a decently popular local band in a large metro market (New York City). We’re positioned as a fine opener pick for national touring bands within our genre, and have enough of a draw to fill 100-200+ capacity rooms on our own. Our streaming numbers are respectable and our music generally gets good reviews.
A major reason we were able to achieve this level of success (which we feel when compared to the beginning stages of an artist are pretty good, but overall nothing crazy) is because the band started AFTER our members solidified revenue streams elsewhere.
The biggest issue for new artists is that for the most part, art does not pay. Unless you are a master of your craft, you typically will need a ton of capital for gear, practice spaces, marketing, advertising, recording, merch upfronts, etc. If you’re a touring band, those costs balloon with gas, hotels, insurance, crew, meals, repairs, etc. You’re not breaking even on those expenses unless you’re very popular (100k monthly listeners, sustained merch sales, and 200+ guaranteed draws for weekly shows). Moving from hobby artist to public artist WHO SEES SOME SUCCESS typically means your expenses jump significantly.
We began Shower Beers a bit later than your typical artist (in our late 20s vs teens-early 20s). Because of this, we’ve had to catch up on building an engaged fanbase and ensuring our messaging is relevant for a younger generation. But the positive is we inherently had the capital to support our vision for this band (which to this point has operated as an overall net lose financially). However, outside of revenue, we consider being an artist that people are excited to see, having the opportunity to create music we love, owning a platform where we can collaborate with similarly-minded people, and writing mind-melting guitar riffs a net gain. The money we’ve had to spend to get our band to this level is absolutely money well spent, and had Shower Beers started earlier we may not have had the same opportunities due to the individual members being less secure financially. End of the day, a starving artist has more to worry about.

Christopher, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Our band Shower Beers began as a Covid band. I had a lot more time to focus on what my passions were while being stuck inside, which included songwriting. I had the chance to learn about recording software, song structures, music marketing, and more. I finished writing Shower Beers first EP and felt the songs were strong enough to release publicly.
Our music is very focused on accessible positive vibes – we typically aren’t writing songs that are too deep, complicated, or tough to digest. That makes it easier to market to a wider group of potential fans. Even if you may not know our music, you may be more likely to enjoy experiencing a Shower Beers show than some more technical or niche styles of music. My favorite way to explain our band to a stranger is, “if you like blink-182, you’re probably going to like us.”
What makes Shower Beers a bit different than our peers is our branding and moat around our local market. One of our catch phrases is touting that Shower Beers is “the greatest punk rock band from Murray Hill” (a small neighborhood in Manhattan). This joke actually underlines our ethos as a band. We’re based in a highly sought after area that is inherently difficult for artists to thrive in due to various factors like high COL and less space (which impacts gear storage, personal creative spaces, etc). We highlight the fact that our band thrived in an environment many others can’t through a combination of strong work ethic, group cohesion, and a premium product (our music). This social proof helps reinforce the assumption that Shower Beers is worth listening to, which we hope continues to resonate with potential new fans.

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

I believe that it’s not healthy for a person to not have something they can call their own. I think people inherently feel fulfilled when they create – this matters even more now in an increasingly consumer-centric society. If someone’s existence is filled with consuming instead of creating, I feel their quality of life eventually suffers. Being in Shower Beers has turned into an incredibly rewarding outlet for creating, and therefore made my life more exciting and fun. I love being able to bring people together through our music and cultivate a positive and exciting environment. We get a ton of satisfaction hearing about people who enjoy our music or coming offstage and feeling the love from a bunch of strangers. Our goal is to make your night better, and succeeding there is an awesome experience.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The more I work in music, the more I realize that organic success as an artist is VERY rare. Even the most DIY-presenting popular artists most likely are being supported behind the scenes by large teams of financiers, marketers, managers, and industry professionals. I personally think it is a bit disingenuous when successful artists try to hide the privilege that offered them the opportunity to become popular, because it warps future artists’ perception on how they should plan their roadmap and what “success” looks like. It happens often – a local indie artist will start blowing up, seemingly organically. Eventually it comes out that this artist is related to a famous actor, comes from generational wealth, spent formative years traveling/networking on their family’s dime, or is financed by a large label. And personally, I don’t think that’s an issue! It’s very hard to put money behind an untalented artist and buy them success. You inherently have to be a great performer/songwriter/creative to succeed in today’s scene. Some people are blessed with privilege, and using that privilege to create art others enjoy is one of the best things a person in that position can do. But to mask that support feels wrong. It has taught me to not compare our success to others because everybody is in a different situation, regardless of talent. The only benchmarks we should acknowledge are the ones we specifically created, and remembering that those benchmarks were non-existent prior to starting this band is paramount.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beacons.ai/showerbeersmusic
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/showerbeersmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@showerbeersmusic
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/showerbeers

Image Credits

Kate McMahon
Ned Jacobs
Dannie Marsella