We recently connected with Glass Bandit and have shared our conversation below.

Glass, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you manage your own social media?

As a band operating on a tight budget, we manage all of our own social media! With seven members to share the responsibilities, the process of producing and managing social media content becomes a bit more sustainable in the long term. We’ve had mixed success. Sometimes things do quite well, and other times they fall flat. Social media in 2023 seems to be all about staying up to date on trends and popular video styling and matching your media to fit that lens. Because of the rapid pace of modern media, it’s sometimes anyones guess if you’ve caught things in time to meet them at their popularity or if that trend is already beginning to wane.

In general, the best advice we could give is to make posts and content that excited you! Trying to conform your band to trends and content that doesn’t feel like you won’t ever come across as genuine to your audience. Find popular media that fits your style and have fun with it. Audiences have a good meter for when you are doing something you enjoy and when you are doing something because it feels like you’re supposed to.

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

We’re Glass Bandit. We’re a 7-piece hard funk band from Austin, Texas. We started out as a group in college-town Lawrence, Kansas hanging out and jamming on some of our favorite funky tunes, and never stopped. We started to write and create our own music and have had that fire in us ever since.

As a group we’ve spent the past few years writing and recording music that feels more and more like a collective representation of the style we all love. Having seven music nerds all jam their creative passion into one group can feel like a large mountain to climb at times, but what comes out is an amalgamation of people who love a good groove and music that makes you want to dance around and enjoy life for a little while.

I think people sometimes forget a band is a business, and you rely on each other to be headstrong, steadfast and committed to the cause. Our cause as it stands today is to consistently deliver high-energy music chock full of the passion and emotion of seven family members who love making art together and sharing that with an audience.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the hardest things about building a music business with seven people is determining the strengths and priorities of seven unique individuals and unifying everyone in a common goal. We spent a few years building songs and an identity that felt segmented at times. This is because we weren’t setting aside time to communicate our wants and needs to the group. Without a method and goal everyone agrees upon, writing and recording music and building a brand on top of that can make it hard to identify who you are.

Having dedicated time to communicate your wants and needs, not only personally, but professionally, makes a world of difference when it comes to making art together. Making time for that has made us so much stronger collectively.

It also helps to give yourself space outside of building towards a goal. Remembering why we started in the first place, and making time to play music together with no pressure to truly “make” something is much needed time. Sometimes when you play music full time, you need to play music with no agenda. That’s when creativity really peaks.

Do you have any stories of times when you almost missed payroll or any other near death experiences for your business?

Last year, we all decided, as a group to move to Austin, TX. Coming to a new city where we knew absolutely nobody was terrifying. We were down a bass player, and had to build a new community from nothing, something none of us had been forced to do since we got to college nearly a decade ago.

We moved because we were ready to grow into a bigger music scene. And for the first month or two it was really hard. Very few gigs, very few people in our corner, and not a lot of musical opportunities to look forward to. Fortunately, Austin has a beautiful and flourishing music community that has lifted us up and given us some of the most amazing opportunities we’ve ever had.

Some music communities are cutthroat, but not here. Everyone is uplifting, willing to help at the drop of a hat, and less than a year in, we’ve got an amazing new bass player, plenty of new tunes, and a great community to support us.     

Contact Info:

• Website: Glassbanditmusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/glassbanditmusic
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/glassbanditmusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/glassbanditband?lang=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6qkqTWXWYdkOo7kaxs-C6Q
• Other: All our links: www.linktr.ee/glassbandit

Image Credits
Photo Studio Shots – Nathan Bennett – www.instagram.com/imnathanbennett