We were lucky to catch up with Justin De Graaf recently and have shared our conversation below.

Justin, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I’ve been a touring musician for 20 years and have seen a lot of things. Absorbed so much without even realizing I was absorbing anything. Through the many artists I decided to create a company filled with touring musicians and I pay everybody more than what they’re typically used to. Our industry tends to take advantage of musicians because to be honest, our job isnt really a job at all. Until you start treating it like one (eventually you have to as you get older of course). But I created Party Down as a job that I wish I had coming up in the music industry. Its not all about the singer, everybody is important. And everybody is treated important. Because of this I believe I tend to get some great players/singers and I greatly get a lot of happiness paying my kinds of people a very good pay. I only hope to keep that up all while being the touring player that I am.

Justin, 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?

So my name is Justin de Graaf. I’m from a suburb out of Toronto Canada called Burlington Ontario. Played music all through high school and went for it the second I was out. Been touring with many artists for the last 20 years now and currently got moved to Nashville where I play for a country duo here on Sony called “Seaforth”. While living here the last four years I’ve been touring all around again and loving every second of it. I got married to a beautiful southern girl and realized I needed that little bit more to help maybe pay for a family one day haha. Anyway, her being a booking agent and myself just being in this industry for 2 decades and learning things daily, we created Party Down Live Entertainment. A group of pro, touring musicians who know how to put on an incredible show. We book and do everything on our own from weddings, to corporate functions to basically anytime you need an upbeat party with great musicians and a whole lot of energy! We believe in booking ourselves and eliminating the headaches an agent would give a client. I got married and was looking for a wedding band and all had agents and it took me 4 days to beat around multiple emails just to get a price. Thats when I made Party Down. Excellent customer service directly with the clients and I go above and beyond for every single one of them. I pay my musicians much more than any of us have ever been used to so I love being able to take less and give more.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

As a freeland touring musician, all our lives got shut down during covid. That really separated the herd I feel. Some hung out on a couch and played video games every day just waiting for it to be over, and others had to pivot. That really shot me into the whole e-commerce world. Whether it was giving guitar lessons or bass lessons on fiverr and zoom, to building out 3 e-comm stores and selling every one of them. It perfectly led me to where I am now after building Party Down on that same outlet. You can directly book us and pay right on our website if you wanted to.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I am a firm believer in having to spend some money upfront to gain later. However its not always easy, especially when you’re in the music industry haha we tend to live on a pretty tight budget. But I was able to fund all my ventures from my own money and thankfully since I started Party Down it was in the green since after the first few bookings. Which I know isn’t very common and for that, I am very thankful.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.partydownlive.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/partydownlive
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/partydownlive
• Youtube: www.youtube.com/partydownlive
• Other: Venmo : PartyDownLLC 😜

Image Credits
no photo credits. Musicians in the band are Jenane Dahl, Alex Johnson, Jeff Coggins, Rob Bodley and Justin de Graaf.