We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Josiah Gonzalez . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Josiah below.

Josiah , appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

In April of 2022 our band, Avenida, took the plunge and signed a lease agreement for a 6000 sqft abandoned building in Indio, CA. Our goal was to create a music venue for musicians and creatives in downtown Indio. We sank all of our savings into the building and quit our jobs to pursue music full time. After 18 months of buildout, setbacks, sweat, and frustration we finally opened the doors in October of 2023. We are now operating a coffee shop in the morning and turning it over as a music and performance venue at night. We are in the middle of scrapping to make things work but we believe that if we succeed it could be a place that changes our community for the better.

Josiah , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Avenida Music started as a garage band. Brothers Josiah, Vince, and Sam eventually teamed up with drummer Sean Poe in 2017 and decided to create a business plan for making a living off of music. The band eventually started playing corporate events, weddings, and parties and made a name for themselves as a function band in Southern California. In 2019 the band added music lessons, booking services, and studio rentals out of their practice facility.

When the pandemic started the band decided to pivot yet again. This time, the goal was to develop a venue where local musicians could perform and hone their craft. The idea for Little Street Music Hall began taking form and by April of 2022 the band had signed a lease on an abandoned building in the old downtown district of their hometown in Indio, CA.

Today the band operates a coffee shop housed inside the music venue; runs a music hall; plays live for corporate events and weddings; teaches music for local after school programs; and books talent for corporate events and weekly music programs at country clubs and restaurants. The ultimate goal of the band is to help create the necessary infrastructure to make the Coachella Valley a destination for both music creators and music enjoyers alike.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

There are a few major influences that have really helped us craft our identity as business owners, artists, and music ambassadors. The first spark was a TED talk by Elizabeth Cawein of Music Export Memphis. Her talk “How to build a thriving music scene in your city” really opened our eye to how we could have meaningful impact on the development of a the scene in our town. Following this we started studying books like “Music Marketing for the DIY Musician” by Bobby Borg; “The New Music Business” by Ari Herstand; and “How Music Works” by David Byrne.

Podcasts such as “How I Built This”, “Masters of Scale”, and “Ari’s Take” are regular listens and we have modeled huge parts of our philosophy based on how indie artists such as Vulfpeck, Jack Conte (Scary Pockets + Pomplamousse) , Lawrence, and many other truly independent artists approach the industry.

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

Society is a big word to take on. To have a thriving art scene you need two basic ingredients in your community. First you need people who create good stuff. Passionate, hard working, inspired people who love what they do. The second is an audience of people willing to pay for the work of those people either directly (buy art, see shows, stream music) or indirectly (drink beer at the venue).

What we have found really gets things moving is when institutions such as local government, non-profits, religious institutions, school boards, and community organizing groups actively create space for this exchange to happen. If you don’t have art skills or money to support you can also vote for local government officials who value art; volunteer time with organizations that benefit the arts, watch shows and stream local artists, share posts and events on social media, and offer your services to artists who might need help (social media, website building, organizing, accounting, etc…)

When people individually start taking responsibility to vote with their feet, wallets, and ballot there can be a collective movement toward making our communities places we want our children to live.

Contact Info:

• Website: littlestreetmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avenida_music/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/littlestreetmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkbMlKJXCWMfmqW2vDZ4_4g

Image Credits
@kuwentoimages