We recently connected with Everett Andrew and have shared our conversation below.

Everett, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

I’ll be honest, I can’t remember the exact time that the band made its very first money, but I can clearly recall the first time we made a semi-serious amount. It was at our first show of last year, a little over a year ago today, at a venue here in Provo called The Rise. Just for context, my band used to be called Last Chance when I first joined up, and a big purpose of this show was to announce a rebrand and name change. We pushed hard with the marketing and promotion, and we played alongside local bands Recently Decent (the headliner) and Internet Lover Boys, who were also promoting the show a ton. I remember when we got on stage thinking that the crowd was absolutely massive, bigger than any other show we’ve played. Turns out, the venue actually sold out of tickets that night, and more than 160 people were there! We 3 bands collectively earned $1200 just for that show. We only pocketed $200 due to how Recently Decent split up the funds, but even then we had never seen that much money for our music before. It was an incredible feeling, not only seeing that huge crowd grooving with our music, but seeing a tangible result from our efforts as a band. Of course in the grand scheme of things, $200 still isn’t that much, but to be paid for doing something that I love and dedicate my free time to as a hobby (albeit a very passionate and time consuming hobby) is absolutely amazing.

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.

I’m originally from Sacramento, CA, and I’m currently a student in my last semester at BYU, studying Statistics. I’ve always been interested in and had a passion for music, and I’ve been a part of a few school choirs and taken some piano lessons growing up. I picked up guitar during a mission trip for my church, and I’ve loved it ever since.

The opportunity to be in the band came quite out of the blue. I got a message from a close friend I had made during my mission. He let me know that he and a friend were putting a band together and was wondering if I wanted to join. I had never been part of a band up until this point, but I had always wanted to be part of one, especially since learning the guitar, so I immediately said yes! That was in mid-July of 2023.

Since then we’ve undergone quite a few changes. We switched our name from Last Chance to Always Her about 6 months later, and we’ve had a handful of drummers and bassists. But the core of the band has remained the same, with me on lead guitar and occasional vocals, and Brian Cabello on rhythm guitar and main vocals. And we’ve accomplished so much! In our time as a band, we’ve released 6 professionally recorded/mixed songs (with, at the time of this interview, a 7th coming out tomorrow!), played dozens of shows in pretty much every venue in the Provo/Salt Lake area, created a line of merchandise, performed on small tours to Idaho and Texas, and amassed a notable following in the local music scene. I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved so far, and very grateful for the opportunity I’ve had to create a sound that people enjoy.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

It’s easily and without a doubt seeing the influence our music has on our fans. We’ve always striven to be original in our sound and presentation, and seeing people enjoy that and want more from us is hugely validating. It gives me the courage and drive to continue creating and showing our sound to the world. And I love being able to make people groove!

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The biggest problem we’ve run up against in our time as a band is funding our music projects. It’s extremely difficult to pay for professional recording/mixing/mastering/promotion as a small band, and our show and merch sales just don’t pull in enough revenue to cover those costs yet. We’ve had to pay the majority of these fees out of pocket.

I’m not sure if there’s a simple solution to this problem, however I do believe that streaming services like Spotify and Apple music should pay artists more per stream. As it is right now, we don’t get nearly enough streams to see any return, but even if we got a million streams tomorrow, we likely wouldn’t see more than a few hundred dollars from it. I’d love to see a policy change from streaming services that favors small artists.

Another thing that anyone can do is get more involved with your local music scene! There are small bands everywhere, and if you put in the effort to look, there will always be one with music you can enjoy. Your support makes a huge difference for your local artists!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @alwaysherofficial
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@alwaysherofficial?si=oY7yw7UbW6-m-AcR
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3FzQ91wB5P2OEjQlXMYaaf?si=sMBPySzDTpCiu0fgQmyZSA

  Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@alwaysherofficial?_t=ZT-8tVI7126lzS&_r=1

  Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/always-her/1739868930?ls

Image Credits

Madiegan Tuckett
Caelan Thomas
Ashley Jackson
Sydney White
Cameron Gray