We recently connected with Sandi King and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Sandi thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Being an independent artist of any kind can be overwhelming. I have been a full time musician for the last 10 years and have tried my best to keep up with the ever changing landscape of self employed independent contractor work needed to be successful as a Musican. Throughout the last 10 years I realized every single musician friend of ours was struggling with balancing managing their career with the creation of their art. All the back end management skill it takes to create and continue a business (the business of being a musician) clash directly with the less clear, and often elusive, creative side of making something out of nothing and sharing it with people you think may be inspired by your art. I have learned things, and become good at things, I never even considered a part of this job just because I HAD to, and when I realize most artists struggle with learning and honing those same skills I realized I could help by offering up the skills I had learned to artists that may not have as much time as I do to really dive in and get good at those things. Skills such as recording music in a home studio, video editing, graphic design, calendar management, organizing and planning events, social media promotion, and other career management tools that have traditionally been done by entire teams of people that manage artists. In this day and age of the self made, self employed artist it has really been made abundantly clear that in order to succeed you have to be competent in so much more than “just” making music.

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 created Backseat Booking in 2019 originally to help indie artists plan DIY tours, since I had been on about 15 I built myself over the last 10 years with various projects. I had built a substantial database with contacts and info for venues of all kinds across the country, in addition to having a large network of fans and music lovers that could offer a place for musicians to stay while touring in a car or van with their band. And then the pandemic hit. This all but made the business I had built obsolete for the foreseeable future so I had to pivot. As many people transitions to working from home WE musicians had to get creative new ways to continue making music and finding new ways to get to the people who wanted it, NOT just touring. As I transitioned for myself and my projects I also started to realize other artists still needed help. I started looking at all the periphery tasks I was getting better at and, one by one, artists started asking if I could help. Could I make a poster for their next event, could I edit a lyric video for their last single, could I help them plan house concerts to raise money for they upcoming album. Things like this just started coming across my table and I realized Backseat Booking did not have to die, I simply needed to expand my definition of what artist assistance looked like!

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

As 2020 changed how a lot of people work I looked at the tour assistance business I’d built Backseat Booking to be and realized I had to pivot. In person shows and travel was impossible, the landscape of being a musician was changing and we all had to figure out how to make a living with a HUGE section of how we did that just vanishing. As I began to pivot with my own projects I realized what I was learning could be a huge help to other indie musicians, so I started offering up things I was learning to some artist friends and -low and behold- it seemed to help them! Over the last 2 years Backseat Booking went from strictly helping artists book DIY tours across the country to helping artists with things like video production and editing, graphic design for posters and websites, event planning, calendar management, web design, and more.

We’d love to hear about you met your business partner.

Backseat Booking is pretty much a one woman show but I do have a very important partner. I am in a band with my husband, Joshua Taylor, called King Taylor Project and we run that band together. He has also been a big part of my expansion for Backseat Booking. He does some web design, some audio engineering, and overall is just a great team mate–in life and professionally. Because I have him by my side I now can offer up web design and audio engineering in my long list of things I can assist artists. Together we can, start to finish in house, offer things to artists that otherwise would take much longer and involve many more outside parties.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/backseatbooking/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/backseatbooking

Image Credits
“I Want To Lift You Up” Photo Credit: Danny Holman Media “Purple Shirt” Photo Credit Martin Mann Photography