We were lucky to catch up with Gabriel Feldman-Franden recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Gabriel thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
So I’ve been making music full time since 2017. The thing that I’ve learned is that in order to make this dream happen one must do many jobs within the music realm. lets use my life as an example. I have a total of 4 jobs. I work for a non-profit (grand vision foundation) and they have me teaching in school classrooms during the day. Then afterschool I work for the Boys and Girls Club teaching after school activities. After that I’ll usually play gigs or have studio sessions at my studio. These gigs and studio sessions go late into the night and then I wake up early to do it all over again. So is it an easy life? no, but do i wake up everyday motived to do the things i love ‘hell yes’. Los Angeles is expensive so in order to live here and survive as a musician you must be prepared to work all day everyday no days off. and even then you’ll still be barely making ends meet. but if you do what you love you never work a day in your life.
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 am 26 years old and have been a musician for the last 22 years. My first instrument was drum set which I began playing at the age of 4. I took lessons from several private teachers in elementary school and junior high school culminating with private lessons from Pete Parada, drummer of The Offspring. I had the magical experience of attending a performing arts high school, the Ramon C. Cortines School of the Visual and Performing Arts (known as VAPA) in downtown Los Angeles. I then continued my music education at CSU Long Beach and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Jazz Studies in 2019. I have continued to advance my music career by playing multiple instruments in several bands. I have played guitar, bass and drum set in Jazz, Modern Gospel, Rock and Punk bands. During college I learned to play jazz guitar and performed in jazz ensembles on guitar as well as drums. In addition to teaching and performing, I work as a studio engineer and music producer. I record, mix and master multi-track recordings and have worked with pop, folk, soul, rock, jazz, metal and punk artists. During the pandemic I started my own YouTube channel (@Gabriel Feldman) where I present teaching as well as performance videos. In 2021, I opened my own production company, Riel Music L.L.C. where I offer all of my services at a very affordable price. Through this company I help artists write music, produce music, as well as mix and master recordings. Additionally, I offer video recording and edit basic music videos for several artists.
I started teaching music in 2017 while I was a sophomore year college student. I currently teach recorder, piano and percussion in four public elementary school classrooms as a Teaching Artist with the Grand Vision Foundation Meet the Music program. I have a passion for inspiring students to improve their music skills. I offer lessons on Guitar, Bass, Drum set, Percussion, Ukulele, Voice, Piano, Music Recording and Music Production. I include music theory as part of all lessons. My favorite way to teach is to allow my students to choose their own music and then tailor the lessons to suit each individual student. I have experience teaching young students as well as adults and have also worked with special needs students. No matter what level you are at, I can help you improve in all aspects of your musicianship.
I am fully fluent in both English and Spanish and have been speaking and learning in both languages since kindergarten. I have had the opportunity to study abroad in both the United Kingdom and in Spain.
I am excited to meet you and to start helping you to fulfill your goals as a musician!
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
A lot of people dont understand the prices we charge for our services. “how can 3 hours of music cost $1500?”. what people fail to account for is the hours of practice and work we put in just to be at a place were we can provide that music. every musician in my band is professionally trained and has at least a dozen years of experience. on top of all the personal work that goes into their craft for each gig we have to prepare for several hours by having at least one rehearsal and moving all of our gear to the venue. so if there was one thing society could do to help musicians more it would be to play us more for the hours of work that goes un seen so you can sip cocktails and hear jazz music in the background.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?
why do we do it? if we put the same amount of effort into any other carrier we would be milionares. but instead we spend countless hours working for free and then live meager lives. we do it becouse we literaly cant not do it. when you are a musician music is all you think about and the high you get from making music is worth chaseing over and over again. we are basically drug addicts. and thats why musicians will take low paying or even free gigs. because we are gonna be playing anyways might as well make $50 while we do it. most people i talk to who have regular carrers work their 40 years and once they retire they never work that job again for the rest of their lives. but musicians never retire we cant stop playing becouse our life stops if we stop. music is our life support and without it we cant go on.
Contact Info:
- Website: rielmusicinc.com
- Instagram: @gabriel_pi_feldman
- Youtube: @Gabriel Feldman
