We were lucky to catch up with Elijah Thompson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elijah, appreciate you joining us today. Often outsiders look at a successful business and think it became a success overnight. Even media and especially movies love to gloss over nitty, gritty details that went into that middle phase of your business – after you started but before you got to where you are today. In our experience, overnight success is usually the result of years of hard work laying the foundation for success, but unfortunately, it’s exactly this part of the story that most of the media ignores. Can you talk to us about your scaling up story – what are some of the nitty, gritty details folks should know about?

Collaborating with my brothers and executing. We just work really hard and follow through on ideas and hold each other accountable. Lots of phone calls, paperwork and networking. We were able to obtain sponsors, venues, donations and make something out of nothing. In the industry where we’re doing community service and interacting with people trust is our top priority. We ensure we keep our people safe every season and keep our dues at an affordable level. And we deliver a really good product every summer. This has also helped us boost our social media marketing and branding, as well as our YouTube channel. All of these factors and the wonderful musicians in the state of Georgia have truly gotten us to this position.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m Elijah Thompson and I serve as a Co-Founder/Director of the Georgia Mass Band. I was born in Savannah, GA and later moved to DeKalb County where I graduated from Southwest DeKalb High School in 2012; playing trumpet in their band. I later went on to Jackson State University where I also marched in the band for 5 years and served as a Trumpet Section Leader.

All the years I spent in band really shaped my love and passion for music. Around my senior year in college, Matthew Buggs, Antonio Alexander, Marcus Cummings and I, got together and decided to create a group that would play and participate in various events during the summer. We all shared the same love for the craft and decided we were all in on this venture. In 2016 we held the first ever Georgia Mass Band with about 30 members to start. Now in 2022 we average between 160-250 members annually. I’ve included a more detailed bio below.

The Georgia Mass Band is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded in 2016 by four young men brought together through their experiences at Jackson State University (Jackson, MS). Antonio Alexander, Elijah Thompson, Matthew Buggs, and Marcus Cummings all decided they wanted to start a band where musicians could come together in a judgement free-zone and play together in an ensemble; thus, creating the entity that is the Georgia Mass Band.

Originally, the Mass Band was catered to musicians in Atlanta and its surrounding areas; but shortly after being created, members begin pouring in from all over the state and eventually the country! Consisting of a “melting pot” of members, the band consists of high schoolers and collegiate members from universities such as Jackson State, Miles College, Talladega College, Southern University, Alabama State, UAPB, Albany State, and many more.

The Georgia Mass Band has traveled across the country to participate in many Battle of the Bands as well as hosting their own battles here in Georgia. They have performed with artists such as French Montana and done many videos shoots and studio recordings with up and coming artists such as Josh Waters. The Georgia Mass Band has also donated to high schools in the Metro-Atlanta area and brought in many directors from various HBCUs to provide students with scholarship opportunities.

The Georgia Mass Band continues to strive to be the standard of excellence for the Summer Mass Band Circuit and continue to be a haven for the musicians in the state of Georgia and more!

Our Mission:
To bring musicians in the state of Georgia together to showcase our musical prowess as a cohesive unit.

What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?

Being genuine, consistent, responsible and gaining the trust of our members and supporters. Every year we strive to do something bigger or better, and make each year better than the last. This includes securing more funding, improving practice/travel conditions, providing more attire options, and doing more performances. It’s hard work but our people are worth it and we strive to give them the best.

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

Build it and they will come. We started off by just posting whatever content we could acquire of our band. We posted a lot of practice clips and videos and even collaborated with a few musicians that already had a presence. This coupled with growing our program yearly and improving the quality of our content has taken us from 0 to over 6k followers. We’ve now been reposted by multiple artists including Josh Waters, Fredo Bang, and Mario Winans.

Contact Info:

• Website: Gamassband.org
• Instagram: Instagram.com/GAMassBand
• Facebook: Georgia Mass Band
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/GeorgiaMassBandMedia