We recently connected with Tanner Collins and have shared our conversation below.
Tanner, appreciate you joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
I’ve always known I wanted to have a career in music since I was a young kid. All throughout my teenage and early adult years I’ve played in many bands and met plenty of musicians. During all these years I was able to assemble a team of musicians who share the same goal and mindset as me. I’d say thats the hardest part about being in a band too, just finding the right people. Now Im in a band with three other incredibly talented and driven musicians who will be my best friends for life. The band name is AWALL and we’re a fast, funky, and ridiculous band. We have a single coming out very soon called “spoink” and I’ll walk you through the typical process of releasing a single. We are always creating demos on our own and constantly send them back and forth to each other. So I had sent spoink out to the boys after creating the demo. When we decided it was time to release a single, spoink was chosen to be it. Next we had to take the demo and turn it into a song. One of our goals as a band is to as independent as possible, especially with the recording process. We have the gear and knowledge to make it happen we just had to take that leap. It can be a little intimidating at first, so we reached out to a good friend of ours, Mason Pace, to help us produce it. We spent three days recording the song and sent it to Lee Dyess to get it mixed and mastered. We’re just about ready to upload it and start the promotion for it. There’s alot of moving parts in the process and it’s easy to get lost in the process. What’s important is to always keep pushing forward with your vision and never be afraid to ask for help..
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Our band AWALL is a four piece high energy rock group from South FL. The members consist of Pablo Falcon (vocals/bass) Tanner Collins (vocals/guitar) Christian Ballon (guitar) and Steven Salguero (drums). We strive to create an atmosphere where people can be themselves, party hard, and have a good time. We believe community is the most important part of being in a band. We want every person to feel like they are apart of us. As a band we have gone through many ups and downs, member changes, and hiatuses. If it wasn’t for all of our friends and fans that stuck with us through it all, then we wouldn’t be here right now gearing up to release our single “Spoink” we owe everything to everyone who has supported us throughout these years.
We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?
Understanding social media and the algorithms is very tricky, and I’d be lying if I said we have it figured out. Creating and pushing content out is important, you always need to have your presence online consistent so people remember your name. Having interactive content is also good, such as a poll or question, to make your audience feel connected to you. We always try to experiment with new ideas when creating content and then learn from what seems to connect with people and what doesn’t. Another way to grow your social media presence as a band is too meet and connect with people at your live shows. Always have business cards or a little flyer of some sort you can easily hand out. Having a QR code on it that has a link to all of your social medias is essential! The easier it is for the audience to follow you and share, the more likely they will. One last thing about social media is don’t compare yourself to others. Its all too easy to fall down that mental rabbit hole, be appreciative of the small victories you achieve. Even if we only gain one new fan and follower from a show, then it’s a win. Slow and steady is key!
Do you have any insights you can share related to maintaining high team morale?
Managing and keeping a group of four musicians happy can be very challenging. Luckily, the four of us work extremely well together and the few issues or disagreements we have are solved maturely and quickly. What I’ve learned to keep everyone happy is communication and compromise. I’d say most problems are a caused by a lack of communication, it never feels good to be left in the dark. Anything we discuss is always in the band group chat and we want to get everyone’s opinion and input on any topic. Of course, not everyone is going to be happy with every decision, so you have to learn how to compromise with people and listen to their perspectives. It’s never going to be easy to manage everyone and keep them happy, but with the right team it can be way easier.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.awallband.com
- Instagram: @awall.fl