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

CJ, appreciate you joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

The story of how I came up with the name stems from a late friend Emil Ebrahimi, known professionally as SCARR. Emil was infatuated with the number 47 and what it meant spiritually. He believed the number 47 was the “perfect expression of balance in the world”, representing the tension between the heart and the brain (the fourth and seventh chakra, respectively.) Emil taught me a lot about artistry, passion, and authenticity; which are all things I want to honor and bring into our venue. Emil was one of the hardest deaths in my life, and it reignited the fire that was dwindling in regards to opening a music venue. So I wanted to give the venue a name that honored my friend and his music, thus, The 47 Club was born!

CJ, 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’ve always kind of been in the music industry in some capacity; I started singing when I was three, started doing musical theatre in grade school, and even pursued my own solo acoustic pop-punk career in high school, before switching to hip hop after I graduated in 2013. I realized early on that I was eventually going to run out of material to write about, and I didn’t want to keep pumping out the same songs over and over again; so I had to come up with a fallback plan. I asked myself, “How can I make money in an industry I love, but not have to do a job I hate?” and I thought, open your own concert venue! Just because I’d stopped performing, it sort of set the stage (no pun intended) for me to give other artists a place to perform and showcase their talents. So I moved to Minnesota from Ohio in the spring of 2016 to pursue an education in Music Business. I graduated with my Associate’s degree shortly before my now-closed school, The Institute of Production & Recording, had cut the Music Business program entirely. I was upset that I couldn’t stay to get my Bachelor’s, but decided I was going to do what I could with what I have.

I want this venue to feel like you’re a kid meeting up with a bunch of your friends to have a movie night, I want it to feel like a home away from home. The thing I’m most proud of is honestly that I haven’t given up. The state of the world and economy have made it hard to stay focused and positive, but I have to remind myself that community is, at the end of the day, all we have. I want to give the current and upcoming generations something that MEANS something, something that inspires them and uplifts them.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Honestly, the best source of new clients for me is going to shows. Find a flyer with some acts you’ve never heard of, go check ’em out. I also love to ask my friends and coworkers who they’re listening to and who they’d want to see perform in the cities. It seems simple but you really do learn a lot, and maybe even discover your next new favorite band!

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

So we’re actually just starting our funding process – we’re going to host a series of pop-up events at different venues in Minneapolis and St. Paul, with a portion of ticket sales paying the artists, and a portion to build our capital. It gives us an opportunity to play with location, demographic, acts to book, etc. We hope this gets people out and about and is a fun way to build excitement about a permanent venue location.

Image Credits
Gabriella Jacobs