What makes for a great live performance is when you walk away and that air hits you in the parking lot and you're kind of wondering what just happened.
Hey, you.
Yes, you.
Is there music inside of you?
We've recruited working musicians from throughout the industry to help you hear it, hold it and share it with this wild and wonderful world.
A great live performer is someone who is at one with their sound and there's no separation between themselves and the sound they're making.
I like to just feel really present, really in my body, in this state of bliss that lifts up people around me and makes them want to tune in.
For me, what makes for a compelling performance is when you are comfortable.
If people are coming to see me perform, in essence they're coming to see me do something they could never imagine doing.
They want to watch me be comfortable because the thought makes them uncomfortable.
Part of my exercise is being myself and being comfortable, because that's the beginning of performing in a genuine way.
Me having a great show is not always going to be me having my best vocal night, but it's going to be whether or not I was able to move the people in the crowd.
The stage is a magnifying glass.
We can tell if you're not telling the truth.
The audience's experience watching you is going to be a reflection of your experience on stage.
If you're having a good time on stage, they're going to have a good time watching you.
I like to treat the audience as a couple of my friends in my living room.
My friend off to the right, my friend down the middle, and my friend on the left.
I always try to make sure everybody is engaged on every side.
And, more importantly, it's like, don't do anything except the way you would do it for your best friends in your living room.
One of the things about being a professional musician is you have to play well, no matter if the audience is, you know, giving you a bunch of energy or not sometimes.
Sometimes you have a great audience.
Sometimes you know like maybe it's a sunday night and people are a little sleepy and you don't have a great audience, but that shouldn't matter to the professional musician.
You have to play.
We're in an era of like kind of like rampant price gouging, like people are really spending a lot of money on tickets to go and see people play, so you want to make sure they get their money's worth, because it's not really, it's not really fair to go out there and phone it in.
I really think music is where you really connect to people, but it's okay that it's also show business and you are going to be performing, you're going to be on stage and you want to create something visual that people want to look at while they're listening to you.
Like they will listen better if there's something in your energy that feels good.
You have to have a visual component and a musical component to make a good show, I feel like.
Sometimes it's an exploration in identity that is just as important as exploration of technique.
When you look at performers, like Billie Eilish's colored hair and her baggy clothes makes people feel an identity.
How I connect with fans in a live setting is the music first.
The trust that the music is going to be where it's supposed to be on a nightly basis second, and the rest is left to beautiful chance.
So let's get really clear.
Six grown men aren't meant to be traveling on a bus together for a month.
For it to work, that in and of itself is going to be a bond.
Chemistry on stage is incredibly important.
The audience feels it if you guys are all on the same page.
And I think that also extends to the front of house engineer and the person who's mixing your ears.
That person is incredibly important.
If I can't hear myself and if I can't hear my band, that has everything to do with the chemistry and the level of show that I'm going to be able to put on.
Trusting each other on stage runs across many different kinds of ways of performing.
You have to trust whatever else is doing it.
Have the utmost confidence that they're doing their utmost to perform their role to a high standard.
The people that I've surrounded myself with who are in my band, we're also connected musically.
And everyone kind of comes from a different musical background, which is cool because all these different ideas can come together in like such a perfect way.
So if you have like a great sense of rhythm and a strong pocket, like I love you.
That makes all the difference to me.
How do you get to the pocket?
How do you be in the pocket?
Wow, that's a great question.
Essentially, pocket is groove or feel.
If someone says like oh, they're in the pocket, like it means that they're in time with each other, like they're in sync with one.
Another pocket is between a bass player and a drummer.
When the groove feels very effortless and there is, it's breathing.
In a way you can say about a musician they have great pocket right.
People that just naturally lay down, you know they like they play and you're like oh, i have to move.
When they play, you can't get there without listening to what other people are doing.
Like you need to be listening to the drums, the bass, every anyone else who is on stage with you.
Like you need to be listening to them and like figuring out how you can make your sound fit in with their sound.
We're not robots, right?
And that's where the pocket comes in because it's not about perfect time.
It's about the feel, right?
And so that comes with time.
It comes with time and just experience and playing with the right guys that have the pocket.
And then, at one particular moment, like I remember when it happened to me, like I finally fell in the pocket and I was like thank the Lord.
Like I've been looking for this moment all of my life.
You need to be willing to make mistakes.
A lot of people say you need to dare to suck.
You have to find your way through the clunkiness to get to a point of where like oh, this feels right.
Each person has to find their own survival system.
What works for you?
What works for you?
What works for your voice?
What works for your family?
What works for your heart?
What do you need?
Because I think that life also is important.
It's important to live life, to be able to have something to sing about.
For more insights from beloved working artists on what it means to think like a musician, check out another episode in this series.
