Look for new episodes of Making the Move every first and third Thursdays of the month, streaming on Spotify, iTunes and right here on Vortex!There’s a new podcast in town! And it’s digging deep and getting real about the lives of full-time musicians. I’m Tara Velarde, a Portland singer-songwriter, and my new podcast Making the Move—recorded in partnership with The Rye Room—aims to crack open many of the questions that musicians have about the reality of the full-time lifestyle.
Being a full-time musician myself, I know what it’s like to wonder what it would take to leave a day job behind. The modern music business is an ever-expanding landscape of DIY skills, and as I searched for answers and how-tos, it soon became apparent there was no more valuable career guide than the experiences of myself and my peers. Through conversations, I was able to grow my skills as an independent musician, and also learn that many other musicians had the same questions.
That’s when I decided to broadcast these conversations for everyone to hear. I want to share the accumulated knowledge from musicians from all different backgrounds and experiences: touring artists, session players, cruise musicians, sound engineers, backing singers, people in musical theater and more. The endless creative ways that musicians piece together their careers makes for an incredible wealth of information, and many full-time musicians are eager to share their hard-earned lessons.
Sarah Vitort and Scott Gilmore are Fox and BonesIn our first episode of Making the Move, I interview Portland folk pop duo Fox and Bones’ Scott Gilmore and Sarah Vitort. They waste no time diving deep into the realities of their career, sharing the experience of transitioning out of their day jobs, balancing their relationship with each other, and what it means to treat their project as a business. Clips from their latest releases are sprinkled throughout, and they sign off with their biggest tips for artists who are looking to go full-time.
It’s informative and honest, and you may even want to break out the pen and paper to take down some gems. We hear about professional development plans, strategies for maintaining one's personal life, creative ways to support income, and so much more. If it’s any indication of what’s to come, Making the Move promises to be the full-time musician’s new best friend.
