Christmas Day at Sonder Music Management: So Many Unexpected Blessings
On this Christmas Day 2020, I find myself once again feeling emotional over how lucky I have been over the year. I know it isn’t the year we all asked for or wanted - and I definitely had down moments, where the loss seemed overwhelming - but there were so many surprises and things to wonder at this year. Here are 7 things that I’m insanely thankful for, and that give me so much joy to look back on.
1) Getting to Know Musicians Through Interviews
I love taking to people - picking people’s brains and seeing what makes them tick. This is even more true with musicians. I am completely mesmerized by what artists are able to do with music. Being of the non-musically talented in the world, I’m completely fascinated and amazed by how musicians do what they do - hear a melody in their head that turns into a full song, or start with lyrics that become a meaningful piece. It honestly blows my mind. I’ve been so lucky this year to get to talk to musicians for a living - to ask them what their music means and how they came to make it. I’ve gotten to interview musicians I’m close with and some of my musician idols; It all seems unreal. We all see the finished product up there on stage or when we stream or buy the music, but the true magic lies in all of the other things: the behind-the-scenes, the day-to-day grind, the sometimes tortured process, which resolves into something truly beautiful.
2) Growing My Business, Completely Unexpectedly
It’s been 16 months since I left corporate America and struck out on my own with Sonder Music Management. Every damn day is a dream come true. I get to do what I truly love for a living, and yes, sometimes I work 16 hour days, and I most definitely work 7 days a week, but it does not matter - the world of music, especially Colorado music, is my greatest passion and my life, and it gives me a spark to continue on no matter what; to get up every day and do what needs to be done. That being said, as you may have read in a previous article, I was just focused on staying the course this year. With all of the roadblocks thrown up by 2020 (to put it mildly), I just wanted us all to hold on and survive… but little did I know, we’d thrive. The time happened to be right, and as a complete shock to myself, I expanded Sonder Music Management, bringing on an intern - Joey Prather - and asking my friends, like Alyssa Montaño, to become contributors to the Sonder Blog. I’ve never seen myself as a “leader” or a successful business woman, but day in and day out, I continue to make the lists, check the items off the lists, and before my eyes, it grows. This business is my entire self - and the fact that I’ve been able to bring others on to share in my mission is mind-blowing. I am filled with hope for continuing this into the future.
Photo by Joel Rekiel
3) Bringing on Two New Clients
Speaking of unexpectedly growing the business, I brought on two new bands this year: Powerhouse grit-rock CITRA and hip-hop-fusion duo Grim & Darling. For the first year of owning my own business, I was extremely hesistant to bring on any bands besides Float Like a Buffalo. Float Like a Buffalo was my first, and they are my family and best friends. My relationships with the members of Float is so special that I couldn’t imagine it being the same with other bands, or being able to find a measure of success with other bands. I was burned a few times from unrealistic expectations and a lack of commitment, and at the end of the day, so many weren’t a good fit for me, nor I for them. But then… Within two months I was approached by both CITRA and Grim & Darling, and I feel that essential chemistry with them in a way I feared I never would. The three projects under Sonder are so vastly different, but maintain the same core values - humility, hard work, and committment to music as a way of life. I am certain we will do great things together in 2021.
4) Float Like a Buffalo at Red Rocks
This was perhaps the most unexpected thing that happened post-Covid-outbreak in 2021. Originally, this was a stacked year for FLAB. This was the year. This was our year. We just knew it. We had sold out The Bluebird for our first show of 2021 - a single release party forSo Damn Cold. We had won Summer Camp Battle of the Bands in January and were on our way to Summer Camp Music Festival in May. We opened for The Magic Beans in February. We were fresh off of 2019, a year that contained our first main stage appearance at Red Rocks, our first time playing at Jazz Aspen Snowmass, and a win as both Denver Westword’s Best Funk Band and ranking in the Top 30 Multi-Genre Bands in Denver in 303 Magazine. We had a 25-stop national tour beautifully planned and were finally going to get to play across the nation, and at SXSW Unofficial. We couldn’t wait to meet the crowds in these new cities. Then… nothing. Cancelled. Done. There were some dark days when we came back from the start of being back on the road. We did our best, playing when and where we could for limited audiences. AND THEN. I emailed Red Rocks and they responded. Tad, Jeannette, Jamie, and the entire RR and AXS teams responded and gave us the incredible opportunity to play 2 nights at Red Rocks with guests Graham Good & The Painters. AND THEN. Both nights at Red Rocks sold out. They built us a special stage midway up the stands. The people came and we danced and we played in the most magical place on earth. I will never stop being grateful for Red Rocks and the team behind it.
Photo by Charla Harvey
5) Creating Rocky Mountain Virtual with My Best Friend
In those same dark days after the return from Float Like a Buffalo’s cancelled tour, I talked with so many musician friends and all of them were saying the same things. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I depend on music for my income. Music is what saves me. I had so many great shows planned. I felt this all very deeply, and I just knew I had to do something about it. On St. Patrick’s Day, I had an idea: Let’s give musicians a stage that doesn’t require a venue. Let’s let musicians play for people and give audiences soemwhere to tune in. I called Alyssa, she said, “Hell yeah,” and Rocky Mountain Virtual was born. In the next three days, Cory had jumped in to help me with the overwhelming email response. Alyssa was hard at work by my side planning the logistics of the event. Aimee and Bryan of Greeblehaus jumped in with graphics, pro-bono. We watched the Facebook Event take off. We started receiving a deluge of emails and phone calls from the media, which resulted in many news stories online and on TV. I became a 9 News commercial. Those few days later, I woke up on the morning of the first-ever Rocky Mountain Virtual (then, Rocky Mountain Virtual Music Festival). I knew it would either crash or fly… and oh my god did it fly. Week after week, we watched hundreds of musicians come onto our online stage to play for a hungry audience - music lovers who were willing to go above and beyond to support the music community during these unprecedented, trying, and devastating times. ARISE Music Festival stepped in, first as our sponsor, then as our partner. It was everything good about the music community. That word - community… RMV made me see how real our musical family is here in Colorado. It gave me the chance to get to know so many musicians. It gave me the chance to work on my passion with my best friend. It is one of the most important things in my life.
6) An Explosion of New Music in the Colorado Scene
When shows and other promotional opportunities were no longer available, musicians did what they do best: they turned to writing and recording, documenting this strange time in our world. I am so thankful for all of the new music that has been released in 2020. Float Like a Buffalo released a new EP, Vertigo, with som3 of the most mature, musically speaking, songs they have ever written (and a new single born of quarantine -Sunday Afternoon). Grim & Darling came back together and released Three, an album that is the best representation of their project to date. CITRA released tons of new music and video content, getting creative with recording from their own homes. The list of new releases is far too long to write here, but Chris K. from The Colorado Playlist does a great job of bringing this new music to the world. Make sure you check out his content on socials, on his website, and on 105.5 The Colorado Sound and a variety of other radio stations.
Listen to Vertigo on Spotify. Float Like a Buffalo · Single · 2020 · 4 songs.
7) Getting to Experience Travel Through the Lens of Music
Yes, music is my biggest passion, but travel is close behind it. I love getting to see new places - no matter if they’re small towns, big cities, foreign lands, or new discoveries in my own backyard. I have always had the travel bug thanks to my parents - who always made sure that we road tripped at least once a year to somewhere new. They taught me to appreciate the essence of the culture of each and every place. Then, in college, I had the chance to live abroad in both Rome and Beijing, with opportunities to travel all over Italy, Greece, Spain, China, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Now, getting to travel for music brings these two loves together. My soul is meant for tour. There’s nothing like the feeling of the open road and the knowledge that you have another show in a new city that night. There is nothing that is more free than that. I’ve visited more cities and towns through music than I ever could have imagined, and I’ve been to places that I never would have chosen to go, but have become some of my favorite little stops along the way. Seeing these audiences in these new towns and feeling their connection to the music you have brought… it’s indescribable, and I can’t wait for more.
So here’s to 2021, to the lessons we learned in 2020, to the gratitude for normalcy that we won’t soon forget, to touring, to the crowds, to dancing, to experiencing the world through music together. I love you all - and I can’t wait for where this journey takes us.