Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Nathaniel Waggoner. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Nathaniel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
As big fans of both Elevator Music and Bathrooms, we realized early on that there was a real gap in marketplace services. Elevator Music generally is a large, well-served, though largely stagnant industry space – however when you examine the marketplace as it exists for Bathroom Music? It’s truly a open opportunity!
How often have you found yourself admiring some bathroom stall poetry and thought “I sure wish the creative, industrious and entertaining folks who I’m reading could be represented in the sounds I’m hearing?”.
That’s how we came up with our mission – To bring the Energy of Bathroom Stall Poetry to your ears and eyes in our live performances. To shock and awe you out of your cell phone stupor. To (as one dear friend so succinctly put it) “really put a stink on it.”
Nathaniel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
We’re a Band of largely useless know nothings who’ve decided to come together and wallow along side one another. Basically Congress but more musical and less capable of controlling your body.
In today’s modern society we’ve discovered that having something useful to say is less important than saying it loudly and with a lot of passion. We use our Music as a means to magnify our uselessness, our Concerts to spread it like some kind of mental virus, and our friendly attitudes to surprise a few folks along the way.
In terms of problems that we solve i like to tell prospective listeners:
“Hey you might not like it, but you won’t be bored!”
Boredom is the ultimate downfall of our modern life. Not so much the simple moment to moment boredom of being alive (that is eternal). Instead, we mean that deep seated realization that our lives have been coopted by a structural hierarchy which consumes us as fuel for the endless production of trivial, useless, meaningless junk and endless wars. The type of ennui that sets in and slowly devours your entire world view, until you find yourself thinking “I wish I could just go to sleep forever while a 3d hologram of a celebrity does that one thing that I find mildly amusing over and over again”
It’s all part of our flywheel of success – which i will get into later.
Any advice for managing a team?
I like to quote the famous band leader Duke Ellington who once said “You need a gimmick, and mine is giving them money”. Not too much of course, most of it needs to stay with me, but enough that they feel like they can’t quit or else they’ll have to work harder somewhere else.
Beyond that I try to be as friendly as I can “Hey there guitarist, very nice job today” – that sort of thing. I’ll admit i usually can’t hear his parts during rehearsals or shows but one of the foundational elements of our bands philosophy of operation is that lying is OK. See our earlier point regarding our relationship to Congress to better understand this approach.
What’s been the most effective strategy for growing your clientele?
Consistency. We’re addicted to the internet, and while it’s admittedly harming our psyches, families, friends, careers, and society – it’s really helped grow our Instagram following.
Similarly we try to keep our tone consistent. These questions for example are being answered on brand for us. I’ll reference the flywheel again (it’s coming, i promise, and you’re going to be amazed).
Finally it’s all about performance. We’re a band. We put on shows. We have to keep putting them on, recording them, sharing the recordings to the internet, begging our friends to come, charging them money for the privilege of coming, and then playing really well at them (except our drummer, keyboardist, bassist, guitarist and singer, they’re all terrible – but again it’s all part of the flywheel).
Contact Info:
- Website: https://bathroompoets.bandcamp.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebathroompoets/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thebathroompoets/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/xHuMochlxlY?feature=share&t=7478
Image Credits
@Katisomphotos