We caught up with the brilliant and insightful EV0 from MMBD (Makes My Blood Dance) a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
EV0, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Idea to execution does not only exist when you’re starting your company or artistic endeavor. It’s a constant and relevant part of being an active owner. Jon Kristian (co-founder and lead guitar) and I are doing a million things daily, walking into that fire and discussing how to optimize all of it. We are off tour for a month before heading out with Powerman 5000 and 12 Stones on a full US tour (28 dates) and using that time to write new songs, rehearse and upgrade the live performance, roll out singles & prepare for our album release with Metropolis Records and on and on. There is so much but we love it and we also have to communicate frequently to stay aligned.
Jon sent me a bed of music for a new song idea and my first reaction was that I did not love it. It wasn’t matching my internal expectations for what I had in mind. I send him influences frequently and more often than not he’ll send me back something that is nothing like what I was conditioning. We have actually used that dynamic as part of our skillset. So the philosophy of writing has become “Yes, and…” instead of “No,” So I look at each songwriting sessions as a challenge to my skillset. I stay with the song all day and in the end I sent him back a full blown melody with lyrics and produced vocals from my home studio setup. We do that all the time, ping pong the songs back and forth from our home setups until we’ve gotten to a really high level. We were both laughing and smiling last night after listening to it and he said: “This song really makes me feel good, I think it’s some of the best work we’ve done”. I’m smiling thinking, that’s exactly what I wanted to say. That’s a really good feeling and I feel so grateful to have a process and a partner that facilitates that. This is not the first time, that’s kind of our pattern that doesn’t seem to get old for either of us.
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.
Makes My Blood Dance is a disco metal electronic industrial hybrid band out of Brooklyn, NY. We tour nationally (approx 90 shows across the US in the past year). Heading out on multiple national tours in 2026, signed to Metropolis Records, getting some major traction on self produced/directed music videos on Youtube and cranking 30K monthly and climbing on Spotify. All that aside, the band thrives on the road, building community and fans nightly, with a killer live spectacle. EV0 (frontman) and Jon Kristian (lead guitar) are the main songwriters; SpaceyBaby rocks the bass and G Rex is the man behind the beats.
I would say I’m most proud of our tenacity. Not only to tour but the work it has taken to get those tours, to develop our own headline model and to find our bandmates and team to make it all cohesive. It’s taken a lot and I constantly hear about bands and companies wanting to “scale”. They forget that before you scale, you have to build something, that scaling comes organically by becoming a master of your craft on multiple levels. The industry quickly found out that viral acts don’t always sell tickets for shows. We are hitting in a bunch of areas, both on the road and online and that takes a lot of attention to quality, rollout and budget. You are always working to scale and grow, that is human nature, but remember where you came from, you’re always bigger than someone else and rather than compete and compare, just work on you.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
We are pivoting all the time. Everyone is smiling at you and sending good intentions and then it doesn’t always work out like that. People don’t keep their word – lots of overpromising and underdelivering – money changes hands and people are not always honest, managers and lawyers get involved and complicate (and kill) a lot of creativity. I do want to say that a lot of young bands have heard this stuff and operate in a mode of fear. You can’t do that either or no one will work with you. You’ve got to take those risks and account for those losses in your business plan. Don’t demonize money, it’s energy that should pass through you, not be hoarded. If you’re an artist please get out of the mindset that someone will save you, take care of you, pay for everything. That is never our experience and a losing mindset. You must own your own destiny – not ask permission, do the work, find the right partners and be willing to grind. If not, you won’t be working with us or many people that I’ve encountered. I am very proud of what we have built and it’s always getting better.
Can you open up about how you funded your business?
In music it’s an endless investment. Even labels work like that, it’s all recoupable which means you have to pay it back. Therefore, you’re always looking for capital. We have circumvented that stress by having remote jobs that allow us to tour for long periods while still making enough to cover our lives and self fund the project. I will say that our merch sales are steadily spiking and our fanbase is rapidly growing so that is helping the tour financials. If you’re serious about touring, then you need to take the stress of money off the table by having remote work and keeping articulate records to monitor flow. If not, the project keeps coming back to money and it ruins the whole experience.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://makesmyblooddance.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/makesmyblooddance
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/makesmyblooddance
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/makesmyblooddance/?sub_confirmation=1
- Other: goto makesmyblooddance.com and sign up for the text app, that’s how we truly stay in touch with you. much luv, EV0
Image Credits
Morgan Conklin, BlackRosa, 217GoatDrums