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

David, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

My business Curbside Serenade was started during the height of the pandemic when Portland OR performer Johnny Franco started offering Serenades to people from their curbsides. This is when people needed live music delivered most! People started messaging him on instagram requesting him to perform in front of their houses, businesses and in parks. It is from this that Curbside Serenade was born! Our mission has always been to keep musicians working and thriving during these uncertain times. As time went on the business grew. We offered more performers that could be booked for Serenades and also put on many concerts in the Portland City Parks. As things go back to normal we still want to offer performers alternative ways of connecting to the community in both a financially and fulfilling way! We also strive to make the delivery of live music easy and accessible to the public!

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

My background is in music but more importantly I love bringing people together. That is in large part how I live my life! After years of performing the pandemic served as an important time for me to sit down and figure out what I truly love about music. I realized as much as I loved performing and writing music it was the people I met and the organization of events that really did it for me. So when Johnny Franco the founder of Curbside Serenade started the bare bones of the idea during 2020 I knew this is a platform that could really benefit both the performer and the audience! It organizes music right down to a grassroots community level where we get to deliver live music into peoples homes and businesses! Curbside Serenade was started during the height of the pandemic when Johnny started offering Serenades to people from their curbsides. This is when people needed live music delivered most! People started messaging him on instagram requesting him to perform in front of their houses, businesses and in parks. It is from this that Curbside Serenade was born! Our mission has always been to keep musicians working and thriving during these uncertain times. As time went on the business grew. We offered more performers that could be booked for Serenades and also put on many concerts in the Portland City Parks. As things go back to normal we still want to offer performers alternative ways of connecting to the community in both a financially and fulfilling way! Our goal is to have Serenades be delivered in a similar way as food is delivered via Uber Eats creating a gig economy for musicians while making the delivery of live music easy and accessible to the public! Right now I am focused on building the business in Portland but another one of our goals is to expand to other cities/markets nationally.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

I met Johnny Franco through some other musicians in the Portland Music Scene. Johnny is absolutely magnetic! He is a heck of a performer. He also has this way of bringing people together that I admire. I think with Johnny’s irresistible energy and charisma and with my business sense we make a great team. He grew up busking in the streets of São Paulo similar to the way I was brought up busking in the streets of New York City. We both have a lot of experience improvising on the fly and turning lemons into lemonade. I love him like a brother.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

We have built our presence and following in Portland OR largely thanks to our weekly shows in the Portland City Parks. We get so much exposure from people seeing our Serenaders perform that our business grows exponentially from these donation based shows alone. A lot of our bookings come from word of mouth though, we have recently hired on a social media person and will be starting a Patreon in the fall.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.curbsideserenade.org/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/curbsideserenade/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/curbsideserenade
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aN1Kh-wPU-A
• Other: To book a serenade: 👇Book Now!👇 squ.re/38mwcaL

Image Credits
Logo designed by Monica Shehata