Latest / Corpus Christi Originals Podcast / EP133: 20+ Years of Live Music, Touring Routing & Venue Ownership: Casey of House of Rock

Transcript

EP133: 20+ Years of Live Music, Touring Routing & Venue Ownership: Casey of House of Rock · Corpus Christi Originals Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Some of his events from time to time.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_01: So and um we're doing another big Latin show with um on the Dia de los Muertos Festival.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um but yeah, I really kind of all over.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I always say the best kind of music is live, you know, whatever whatever people want to see.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, bro, for sure.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's funny, some of the heavy shows we do them, but I don't get it, man.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not my not necessarily my thing, you know.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: Like the style of music that they do.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like I'll to see something live is always great, you know.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes, you know, uh, you know, there's a room full of 500 people back there banging their head, and yeah, it's not necessarily my thing.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: Right, right.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: Watch it live and to feel that energy, man.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's always exciting.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, bro.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's that's what's up.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on, y'all?
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: Corpus Christi Originals back at it again.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Today today we got Casey of House of Rock.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: Say what's up, bro.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_01: How's it going?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: For having me.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is the man around town, bro.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody's been talking, saying a lot of good stuff about you, man.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: I talked to uh uh Joaquin Rangel, who does the Joaquin 2 inclusion.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Joe Hiller.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm part I'm in the comedy scene a little bit, so he talks he talked about you a couple times.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know he has his show out here, that's that's pretty wild.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: The roast battle or whatever.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So that's so I'm just talking to you off air.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're you've been around for a while in the in the the music scene, the live music scene, which is kind of what I want to get into.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and one of the things that comes to mind is that a lot of people are saying, hey, uh uh, since uh Concrete Street is not having a lot of a lot of shows like they used to, you know what I mean?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I figure maybe maybe you have some insight into that.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess there are like a lot of shows, meaning like like the heavier stuff, the heavier style stuff, you know what I mean?
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that you know the dynamics have changed a little bit, just the landscape over the years.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: When Concrete Street first opened, yeah, House of Rock wasn't around, uh Brewster Street wasn't around.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the Executive Surf Club was doing touring shows.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: You can catch some good shows at Rockets, Dr.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Rockets from time to time.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um and the Memorial Coliseum was a thing for a while, and then you know the American Bank Center, now Hilliard Center opened up.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but since they've they've uh uh Concrete's been there as long as they have, you know, there's a lot of shows that now that fit into Brewster Street, which maybe at one point would have been like a pavilion stage show at Concrete Street.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so they've kind of picked up a lot of the touring shows that might have at one point been through Concrete Street.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so that's I think that's that's probably part of it, you know, and just the touring itself, um, there's a lot of venues in Texas, you know, and one of the things that we struggle with as a promoter and as a city is Corpus Cruise doesn't route too well, you know, we're not on the way to anywhere, like I always joke, but you know, 37 literally ends in the bay, you know.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, for sure.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: We're at the end of the road, you know.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: How would you and so how do we get them to come over here?
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Is that is that in your mind often?
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's always a thing, you know.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, and one of the things I like about being in a small club or like a house rock size environment, yeah, is uh, you know, we just try to treat people well, you know, and give them South Texas hospitality.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're a support band one day, then you might be a headliner the next day.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so a lot of bands that we do here that are doing well start off as support bands, you know, helping kind of grow them.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: And if somebody comes to Corpus and they have a good time at House of Rock or any of these venues, and they have a good time, you know, and they go back to their agent management and say, hey, we gotta go back to Corpus Christi.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, don't when that happens, it becomes a little easier to get them back the second time around.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Right, right.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: But to get a band to play here who's never been here, doesn't have history in Corpus, yeah, you know, you don't have to spend a week in Texas.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_01: You could, but you know, Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Dallas are all routable cities that are crossroads, you know.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And pretty big fan base, maybe for them too.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, also a markets, yeah, yeah, market size staff, definitely.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, um, makes me think about uh like you as a business owner, like uh because you were mentioning that the heavy music market is kind of this it's kind of what you wanted to do, right?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Is that what you're mentioning?
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because you worked at the surf club knowing like was it country acts and a lot of Texas country, but Texas country, bro Texas Country, some folk songwriters, also some rock and roll we could squeeze in every once in a while.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, you know, some some some rock shows, but primarily it was a lot of Texas country country.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: So when you left from there, you went to concrete and then over here you came over here and so when you got here, that's when you decided to okay, maybe I should get some heavier, heavier music in here.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, okay.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Do you like it?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I do, I I do.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean I listen to all kinds of music, and you know, I was mentioned earlier, but you know, live music is the best kind of music.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's something about the energy of you know, humans on stage doing human things in a room full of people.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and I really love this size venue because yeah, I get to know my customers, I get who's gonna come to the shows, and you know, I can sit up there and and uh man, you just feel the energy, you know what I mean?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: So some of those heavy shows, um, and the energy is just unmatched, you know, from what you see in some of those.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: It makes you want to buy their stuff too, like and just follow them and listen to them because you've seen them live.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Definitely.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're talking about size of venue.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: Is it, I guess, is there any other venues in town that are kind of this size or kind of, you know what I mean?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Do you look at how do you look at that?
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that was one of the reasons that House of Rock was attractive for us to open was was there was no we're 500 capacity venue standing room.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_01: So there was no other 500 cap room this size.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: At the time we opened Zeros was a place that was for a lot of shows, and they had a lot of great tours that went through zeros to it.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: Super small, very small, you know, and then it went from zeros the next big size up to do really rock shows was the pavilion stage at Concrete Street, you know.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a void.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I feel like when House of Rock, you know, corpus just needed a place that was our size that we're we're big enough to big get some tours that come through, and well, you'll see tour buses parked out here sometimes, but we're small enough we can still support the local scene.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: So for open mics and local showcases, I mean that's just part of our business model, too.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, oh that was gonna say so.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: That's the kind of the reason why you still do that for different like local acts and stuff like that.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's pretty cool.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah, it makes me think.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: So there's so the big next biggest venue up is uh so you have this is 500, and the next one would be like what Brewster's Brewster Street because it's outdoors, okay, okay.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: It's about 1100 capacity, so they all to Brewster Street, and then the pavilion at Concrete Street's 3,000.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And then the main stage is 10,000, which is comparable to the Hilliard Center indoor arena, it's about 10,000.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_01: Um and then of course they've got Selena Auditorium.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not sure exactly how many are in there, but it's a couple thousand inside Selena for sure.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: Do you so do bands ever ever like look for a certain like a certain amount of like capacity in split in places, you know what I mean?
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they do.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's part of it.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of bands that we get that that if you're selling somewhere between you know a hundred to five hundred tickets and house of rocks your spot, you know, if you went to Brewster Street or those larger venues and you're only bringing in a couple hundred people, it just doesn't make sense.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: It makes sense business wise, you know.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: Then the same token, if you're bringing in a thousand people, well then you know you kind of walk in Bruce Street.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: As much as I love to get some of those bigger bands in here, but you know, you can't fit all the fans in, so you gotta kind of grow.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's cool, man.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: And that's one of the things I think corporates we've got that really we try to play into here is you know, I play friendly with Brewster Street and Concrete Street as well.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: So if something outgrows House of Rock, you know, there's certain bands.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, for example, Hinder back back in the day.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: We booked Tinder and you know, we had maybe 50 people show up.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: We booked them again, and then we sold out, and the next thing you know, they played the pavilion stage and they played the main stage at Concrete Street.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: So they kind of can graduate from one venue to the next.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, is that some is that something you look forward to for like acts to come through?
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: Or yeah, I mean it's really it's a sales point for me personally when I'm talking to an agent or or band on the phone and trying to develop a relationship with somebody, letting them understand that hey, if you know things work out at House of Rock, and as this band starts to grow, you know, once you outgrow House of Rock, um, you know, there's another option that would be Brewster Street.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you outgrow Brewster Street, we can get you in a concrete street or amphitheater.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really been kind of a unique situation, which which uh one of the reasons I love Corpus and have stuck around this town so long is there's this opportunity to kind of create the scene.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, like I said, we all work well together.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's a it's a fun, fun time.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you are you're from Corpus originally or born and raised.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: No way, dude.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's amazing, bro.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: I grew up on a dairy farm about an hour away in Sandia.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Sandia, okay, yeah.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, but born here on Shoreline, you know, and uh I went to high school in Corpus and uh never left.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, man, that's awesome.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so I'll that's why I have sticking to something there.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so you're born and raised in Corpus?
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: What's some of the things you didn't expect when you jumped into this business?
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: To be here this long.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I always joke, you know, and say, you know, this is the longest summer job I've ever had.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean I literally I went into the surf club uh and and got hired there, and I thought, man, I'll work here a year or two, make some money behind the bar.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I always wanted to move to Austin.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Austin had at the time the Zavino Calaisona Rosa, um, emos, of course, has been there forever, and Liberty Lunch and you know, all the bands I grew up seeing, and I was a really big punk rock fan, you know.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I would travel to Austin, you know, one to three times a month to go watch music.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: And as a young person, I felt like that's where I had to be to see music.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sticking around Corpus is been wonderful because you know, we've been able to create that scene and be a part of this local scene.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many good musicians in town, and there's such a good scene, and man, saving people that drive time to Austin to have something here in Corpus has been that one of the things that kind of kept me here.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: But oh yeah, that was a surprise, man.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't expect to stick around this long.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm glad I did.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_01: Hindsight 2020, and I'm I'm glad I worked out that way.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's it's sometimes too like because like I know when I got married, started a family, like I had to grow up really fast.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so I'm just like, oh, she may maybe that's like just a part of yeah, people, people getting being better as people, you know, progressing as people, you know.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: And that's part of the story, too.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I became a young father at 21 and and uh you know, been and raising my daughter who's now 29.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and uh she actually made it to Austin, she lives up in Austin, and uh uh you know, so so that's been fun.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, but you know, raising a family in Corpus uh was good to me.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Corpus was really treated me well, and then that's a really, really good place to be.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's pretty cool.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so how did do you have to work with the city at all for like for permits or anything?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: Like what's your relationship like there?
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, a little bit, you know, we we uh you know when you first open a business, there's a lot of stuff to go through, you know.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: So you gotta get your CO and you gotta get your inspectors out and all that stuff.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_01: But once you're kind of up and running, you you're kind of on cruise control, you know, and and there's annual permits and things we have to do.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: But generally speaking, whenever I work inside House of Rock, it's just you know, um, it's just um really working with House of Rock, and there's not a whole lot of of outside influence from the city.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, we we do also House of Rock, we support a lot of things like uh we help book uh music walk for the past four years, and so uh we work well with the downtown management district for uh Art Walk and help support that.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: We've done some programming for them, and um, as I mentioned earlier, uh I was fortunate to kind of help with the Fiesta de la Flor.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_01: So when we're working on those types of events and putting a stage in a field out at the Hilliard Center, well then that involves you know a traffic control plan from the city and and different permits, and at that point, yeah, we do have to work a lot.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: Man, that's big, bro.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Wow, that seems like there's a lot of moving parts uh involved in that.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there are, there are, it's exhausting sometimes, but you know, it's like anything else, once you get in the in the groove and that becomes your your day-to-day business, then you know which buttons to push and which people to call, you know the process.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_01: But uh the first time, you know, I did a festival outside House of Rock, uh it was called the Zig Fest.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say it was 2007 or 2008.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_01: We did it on North Beach.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and man, it was a lot, it was a big learning curve, you know.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: But once you get through it, yeah, you know, a lot of it's the same as putting a show on a small club, it's just the numbers are bigger, more stage hands, more dollars going back and forth, more bars, more bathrooms, and you know, there's all of that.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: And once you kind of get through it, um it's really kind of the same business no matter what size you you do it on.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's that was surprising to me.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's it's intimidating to jump off and do something bigger than you've ever done.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but once you do it, you learn.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: You want to do it again?
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, wow.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you want to do it again.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes sometimes not so much, you know.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for the most part, man, it's been good.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: How do you find yourself like do you find yourself like learning, wanting to learn more?
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, do you stay on the learning curve?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Do you read books?
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do you how do you keep up?
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: It's a constant thing, you know.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_01: My best advice, and and you know, we get a lot of people that come through House of Rock that want to be in the music business, and my best advice is man, don't ever think like you know everything.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you're always learning, you're constantly learning.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, there's a lot of stuff that that you know, I'm I'm very self-taught, and so I do things the way that I know how to do things because I've always done it that way.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you know, I I try to travel about once a year.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_01: Um I try to get out of corpus and go to a convention.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, I just got back from Nashville to this Aiba convention, which is just uh a talent buyers association type of a thing.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_01: And um it was really kind of cool because you know, we're sitting in a room with thousands of other people just like me.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and then we kind of compare notes and you know, how do you structure deals and what do your your conversations look like with agents and and uh what is the industry looking like for you in these other markets?
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of similarities to what we've got in the battles we fight.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when you're down in corporates, we kind of feel like we're stuck on an island, you know, in the world, but uh there's definitely um always learning, constantly learning.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, I I talk to a lot of people um when when bands come in off the road, these these bands have been in more venues than I've been in.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm really kind of a homegrown guy.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so these bands that have been in and and tour managers and personnel that have been in, you know, that have toured coast to coast, oh yeah, they've seen a lot of venues, and so I'm constantly asking them, and and I encourage our audio engineers to ask, hey man, ask them what their tricks are at the console and learn from these people because um you know the technology changes and the systems change, and um you know you think you know it all and somebody throws you a good idea and you're like, oh shoot, didn't even think of that.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so it's it's a constant learning, learning situation.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously, sound the sound that's a huge, that's a huge like you need to focus on that because since it's a music venue, yeah, you would think, right?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: And that technology's changed, you know.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: When we first opened, you know, I sound like the old guy with stories now, you know.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_01: When we first opened, we had the analog consoles, and so you had this old analog console and they called it the outboard gear, which was all your gates and compressions and your effects, and that lived in a big tower next to the console.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, well, now everything is built in to a console.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: So we've got a 32-channel console right now that's digital, and you can save settings and memories and your gates, your compressions, and everything that's in there, and since it's so compact, a lot of bands actually tour with consoles now to where they used to have it on the rider.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: We have to provide a certain console, um, which sometimes was difficult to find in corporates, you know.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: And and now at this day and age, you know, the the technology is there.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of bands tour with a console and they can pack it up and set it up right next to ours, and so they get exactly what they want.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's awesome.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's pretty cool.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: They have they have the settings that they wanted, so it sounds the way they want it to sound.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and it's like an ever-changing technology like anything else.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the digital world is upon us, you know, and now especially AI at a certain way.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: I was just gonna ask you that, right.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, what are your thoughts on that?
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: What are your thoughts on AI?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: I bring that up topic up a lot.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting, you know.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: In some ways, I look at AI, it's a tool in the toolbox.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's just like spell check or just like Photoshop.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's something that you can use to your advantage.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, uh the debate comes in, you know, when it comes into creating music and creating art.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I'm always like the kind of person I want to support human beings doing human being things, you know, so a live band on stage, and nothing's ever going to replace that on my life.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think so either.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it is what it is.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: And AI is never gonna be able to load in your gear.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's never gonna be able to set up stage, you know what I mean?
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it may help you mix, it may help you take some of the frequencies out.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, my younger brother tours with big country artists, and he's an audio engineer, and and he said there's some AI tools out there that are kind of scary because it's it's it's job threatening in some ways, you know.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_01: So uh it's a tool, but it's also so in some ways a dangerous tool, you know.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I have mixed feelings on it, you know.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was also a holdout when the MP3 came out.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: I just opened a music store called Surf Club Records by a surf club and convinced my boss at the time to hey this would be a great idea.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: We bought all these CDs and built it out, and within about three months, the MP3 came out, and file sharing was happening, and you know, Metallica was fighting Napster and all these things happening, and I was on the side, like, yeah, man, we don't need that.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, you can't you can't stop it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the technology's here, it's there.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are gonna use it, some people aren't gonna use it.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um and so my philosophy has always been, you know, at least learn it, be aware of it, know when it's out there, and you know, it's a tool in the toolbox.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, it seems like they're starting to buy like uh like uh like CDs and stuff.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've heard, yeah.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: I was talking with uh Carlos from uh record store around the corner.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I read he was telling me that you know there's some people getting into some CDs and things, and so um, you know, I'm I'm I'm curious what the future looks like.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, nobody knows, but I feel like you know we've become such a digital world and everything we do is in our hip pocket, and you know, and at some point I feel like man, you start to miss that human connection.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm hoping people come out of the that era a little bit, kind of go back to old school ways of doing business and talking face to face.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: I hope they pick up instruments more often than I mean well I don't know if they do now, but like just picking up guitar or drums or whatever.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know what I'm saying?
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like just get back to that because I play guitar and just I don't know, just getting back to that, you know.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: It's interesting.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the music I've heard created the AI is is uh some of it's a little bit catchy and and fun, but um, you know, it's really I think the pride of creating something yourself is is nothing can take that part.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure, man.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: Real quick, shout out to uh Premier Here Instolutions of South Texas uh for sponsoring the video.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks a lot.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and thanks to Casey for letting us use this spot, man.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you, bro.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: Appreciate you.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, so it was there ever was there ever okay, so you're right, it's a heavy music mostly, predominantly.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: I know you had some reggae bands, but did you ever feel you had to change to like a different style at any point?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, we probably changed a few times over the years.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: When we first opened, we were very heavy, very hardcore, very punk rock, um, which was great.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Corpus is a small community, and what we found out within a few months of being open was that crowd can't afford to come out seven nights a week.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: We have to pay bills seven nights a week.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: And so we started to diversify a little bit, and uh we got into doing some songwriter shows, uh, we got into doing reggae shows, uh, we started doing art shows, uh, we did burlesque shows back in the day.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and really we kind of have this philosophy right now that has really worked for us since the beginning is you know, we live in a community full of creatives, yes, um, and we've got a stage and mics, and I need creatives on my stage to entertain, and these creatives need a stage.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: And so together as a as a community, yeah, um, we've been able to open our doors and just really kind of let the the Corpus Christi creative juices flow, and whether that's a play or whether it's a live music or whether it's punk rock and heavy metal or folk and songwriter, um, we like to have it on our stage and really just try to support you know live scene and and and and art, you know, and just in general.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we definitely have changed from being a place that was strictly heavy.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, you know, the one of the battles we we fight a lot, we talk about the management level is is uh you know, we struggle sometimes to get people to come down here because I you know I run into people and they say, Man, you know, I'm glad you're doing well down there, but I don't listen to that kind of music, so I really don't go.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Oh and I think the perception is we're heavy metal all the time.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: And and we are sometimes, but you know, we're a restaurant, we're open seven days a week, we've got a jukebox, play what you want to play.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: You can come on open mic, you can hear comedy, you know, you can see magic, you know, you can also see all kinds of music, you know.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_01: So so we've definitely changed our format.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, music sometimes is is is cyclical.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's certain genres that are popular at one point and then they kind of fade away.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and sometimes they come back, you know.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: So it's just a matter of trying to keep with the trends and and find out what's popular out there and and and what works in corpus.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, sometimes what works in Austin doesn't really necessarily work in corpus, you know.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: But our market feels to me a lot like San Antonio and the valley things that are working in San Antonio tend to work well in corpus.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Oh nice.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: So we try to look at our neighbors and see what they're doing and help route bands to those cities, you know.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, that's pretty awesome.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that you what like that's what I that's the perception that I came in with just the heavy venue.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: But talking to you now, it's like seems like well you gotta keep the doors open, right?
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at it like that too, like you're a business owner, yeah.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you're trying, you're working, working to figuring it out, you know what I mean.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing I've learned too is the you know, you have a dream and a thought of what the business is gonna be.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: And once you open your doors, your customers are gonna dictate the path you take.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and so if people are are you know showing up to certain types of shows, well then those are the types of shows we're gonna lean into, you know, and and uh if those things start to kind of fade a little bit, well then we gotta lean into something else and it's always trying to find out what is what are people looking for, you know?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I feel like we haven't figured out, and then sometimes not so much.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's it's it's ever changing, you know, and and uh yeah, it's been been fun.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: So what is it, what is the I guess your I guess like the the thought of like people, your customers, has you have you seen it change over time?
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: Like do you you know what I mean?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: The uh yeah, yeah, you know what I'm saying?
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because you're saying that they dictate your man a hundred percent.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I mean it you know, so we opened in 2005, and we first opened, we were only open Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_01: And we only opened at night, and we only opened for concerts, and then we started opening during the week.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: If we had a show booked, and then at some point we started opening seven days a week, but we were still a bar, we didn't have any food, yeah.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, and and uh yeah, we let minors in unless it was for a concert and then they could come for the show and then they would have to scram after that.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, and then in 2014, uh we had a kitchen, and that's when we started serving pizza and salads and sandwiches, and soon after that we'd be we have high chairs now, and we had uh kids' coloring books and kids' menus, you know what I mean, and grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese, and like the whole thing has changed, you know.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: And so and and also when we first opened, a lot of our our fans and and customers um they're the local hardcore and punk rock scene, and they were in that age group of you know, maybe you know, 21 to 28, you know, a man fast forward 20 years.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_01: Now these people are in their 40s and 50s and they have kids of their own.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we're starting to see second generation customers coming through, you know.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And in fact, a lot of our employees that work here are children of the people who used to hang out here, and so it's completely changed, you know.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And we still have our old school regulars that come in, but you know, once you start having the babies and once you start having a job, once you get a mortgage, then you know your fund money to go out changes, and so a lot of the shows and bands that were really working back in the day maybe don't always work as well because the people that were into that style of music are now older and have different responsibilities, and so uh we definitely have seen a change in in our customer and in our fan base yeah yeah yeah and I think that's gonna be ever changing as long as we're around you know man did you did you ever find like when did you okay so talking about your customers and gen being generational when did you find out that having a return customer is important oh man that's you know what I'm saying like pretty much out of gate I mean we we were born and raised on regulars man and and I think the first probably two or three years we were here we had a very loyal group of of folks and uh that would come here almost every day you know and and keep us going and and over time you know when their personal lives changed they would start coming in a little bit less and so you always got to replace those with new regulars you know and and uh at one point we also realized about the time we put the kitchen in you know we have all these hotels here downtown and all these tourists that come in and we were never necessarily a a venue that tourists were coming to we were really more of a local spot for the longest time yeah and once we put the kitchen in what we realized too is now there's this whole untapped market of customers that are tourists and so we've really tapped into the conventions that come to town and people are bringing their families downtown who normally wouldn't have brought their kids to a a uh a punk rock show yeah but they'll bring them to a pizza place.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yes and so now we've got this fan base of that and so it's it's it's it's constantly changing and same with with uh with caterings and and uh we cater we do off-premise caterings and and when we don't have shows in the back we rent the space and we've done everything from quintanietas we've had weddings back there children's birthday parties it's really become kind of an event space and we're always going to be rock and roll and music that's what we always set out to be and we're gonna stay true to that but you know once again we're seven days a week and and uh you know someone's having a birthday party or a graduation party or an anniversary I mean we're we're kind of tapped into all that and and those were things that kind of came later you know we first opened like I said it was just a few nights a week and as we went down that path and realized that you know people need a space for a lot of things we've got a space and so we try to open our doors to to that so cool let me see how far how long have we been going so far 23 yeah uh do you so obviously adding adding different things do you feel like it's like you stretch too far and to where you're like well maybe we should only just do so many things you know I mean sometimes we do you know we we have a hard time saying no to business and you know when you get to a point when you're gonna say no to money bro when you're when you're when you're growing your business and and and things are hurting I mean you say yes to everything and you know you get to a point to where you know I won't say we get picky choosy but definitely we're more selective on the the bands and things we bring through and and uh um you know we have uh we've changed our betting process a little bit but it it is easy um you know to to spread yourself too thin and and I I will say you know um you know I've been fortunate that I've got good people working here you know our general manager Stephanie has been with us now for 15 years uh this December amazing uh Scotty Moore who you see walking around the background started off when he was in high school putting flyers on a windshield sport and now he's one of our managers and the production manager and you know COVID made us kind of hit the reset button you know we lost a lot of employees during COVID but since then we've got employees and now been with us since 2020 so we've got a lot of six year you know veteran employees and I think that's a key having you know being able to hold your staff and you know everybody knows where the light switches are everybody knows how we do things and so being able to pick up a catering or an off-premise event or to go help with music walk downtown um house of rock it kind of helps having people who know how to work it which allows me to kind of step away yeah and and to do some of the things that I really enjoy doing in the Q yeah when did you find out that that your the people around you are as important to your business like you're mentioning these guys that are veterans and stuff like that.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: No man honestly before I opened House of Rock you know working at Executive Surf Club um you know Brad Lomax gave me a an opportunity as a very young person uh to have keys to his establishment and help manage it and one of the things that I always uh admired about him is that he he he trusted me um with his checkbook to book bands and to make decisions for the executive surf club uh and trusted me to run his business for him you know and uh there was some some uh learning curves I felled up several times on did you feel like you weren't ready or oh man I honestly I probably felt like I was better than I was and that that that fearlessness I had back in the day was probably part of the success.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: If I really thought too deep into it I probably would have panicked and maybe not pushed you know but I was more I was I was a little ignorant a little naive you know so I just kind of kind of did it but you know with it looking back you know we had some really good teams at the executive surf club and some of my lifelong friends I've seen at the executive surf club you know and and uh um and so I wanted to kind of make sure we opened House of Rock you know that that's the kind of employer I wanted to be you know somebody who who trusted the staff and hired the right people and um you know it's important not just to find someone who can do the job but someone who can do the job and get along with the person they're working next to and also understand the mission and take a pride in it and and uh that was something kind of out of the gate that we always knew we needed to have here was that that type of place to where I don't necessarily need to be here for someone to feel welcome at House Rock because I know the bar staff and the management staff are going to treat people the way I treat people you know and um it's hard sometimes to find those people but man there's some good people in this town yeah dude that's that's great to hear dude that's really great to hear uh about about people in the town because there's a lot of negative negativity and stuff like that around that but yeah it's whatever I've always thought you know corpus is uh I've said this before but I feel like you know growing up in corpus corpus had like a self-esteem issue you know and my my theory it's just a theory yeah but you know we we look at our neighbors which are Houston San Antonio Austin and Dallas right and out of those cities you've got some of the most money in the nation some of the most culturally rich cities I mean you can go out of state anywhere everybody knows about the Alamo and everyone knows the history of San Antonio everybody knows about Austin having music and you know Houston and Dallas and you know so we look at those cities like like we need to be those cities.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think that as growing up in this town I always wanted to leave to get to one of those cities because I felt like that's where I needed to be right you know instead of realizing that man we've got the bay nobody nobody has the bay we've got that you know and and uh we've got it's almost a blank canvas you know my my ego tells me that if I would have put house of rock in those cities I would have made it but truth be told I don't know that but I know corpus had a void and there was there was a home for me here and and man corpus has been so supportive so I mean we've got our challenges and and and you know the political climate corpus has been rocky for quite a while now and uh you know leadership is is is is you know there's some questionable things happening in corpus but uh um removing the politics and and and some of that and getting down to the the people that live here and work here we give it's a beautiful city a lot of good people man that's a cool aspect instead of looking at them trying to be like them like just be us.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah get influences of course but still no it's out there be inspired you know it's it's fun and it's fun to go out of town and to see things and get inspired and you know bring back some of that inspiration you know kind of come up for air every once in a while you know for real dude but it's uh corpus is and it's such a good place you know like I said there's so many good people in this community and and and uh man uh house of rock isn't about me and what I've done you know there's there's a team of people that not only work here but the customers and the fans and the and the the the people that encourage us man it's sometimes it's a it's a lot of hours and it's it's uh it's a lot of work and you sometimes wonder like man am I doing the right thing and is this is where I need to be and and uh shoot man stand by the side of the stage and watch those people perform magic on stage and look at the the vibe of the crowd and man it's easy to get re-energized it's awesome man so how does it feel so how long is it house of rock 21 years past your life how does how does it feel to have man it flew by dude it flew by I tell you there are certain certain points when you know when the rough times hit you start to question things like oh man did I make the right choice are we doing the right thing and oh and then you know you start talking and man like I said we are our old customers that are coming in here with their kids there's been people that have met each other here at House of Rock that have become married and have families and it it's really kind of a special thing.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: So man time time really did fly by and uh and of course it's it's been a fun ride man I really enjoy it but it's uh you know like I said some days it feels like it's been a long time that's all I've ever known and sometimes it just feels like it went by so fast it's because it you know it's it moves quickly.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Wow man but I mean it's pretty cool that you have like those stages and you're still here you're still going you know what I mean it's pretty cool.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a glutton for punishment you know what I mean it's like I was listening to I don't know what it was a podcast or something but the guy was saying he's like retire for what like I'm I'm gonna die like being that interviewer it was uh uh Larry King was being interviewed by uh one of the comedy guys but he was like somebody was telling him like they would ask him if he was gonna like when he was gonna retire and he's like retire from what like he's like I'm gonna retire I'm gonna die doing this.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah yeah so just having that kind of kind of perspective was interesting to me like really you know yeah I enjoy it man you know I I I couldn't picture myself doing anything else you know in fact I was talking earlier with one of the bartenders it's uh you know I I've everybody has those days where you're like man I don't I don't want to be at work I don't but I've never thought of it as I don't want to be here I'd rather be somewhere else.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know there's always those days where you know I'd rather not be working you know or maybe there's something else going on but um but there's definitely I I can't picture myself you know at this point doing anything else.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that's cool I've thought about it you know what about what what I do after this is is a good question you know that there's uh there's still I think a lot of life to live a lot of things I like to see and do you know but uh this has been my avenue this has been the you know my vehicle to to get to do what I've got to do so far.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah yeah it's amazing man so so like what's what's what's what's some of the I guess highlights or like some of the favorite things that you do like to do because I imagine maybe you you work I don't know did you work the bar did you work made did you make food like what what's like you know I mean what's what's some of the highlights of the things that you like to do it all you know it's it's it's the the you know you it's funny I find myself doing a lot of paperwork a lot of emails you know what I mean you know paying bills and and you know all that stuff and you know nobody opens a business to do those things so I really enjoy talking to my customers I really enjoy listening to music uh finding new music and man it's fun to put that puzzle together and it takes us you know months to put a show on to from the time we reach out to an agent or they hit us up and we negotiate the deal and then we market it and we make the flyers and the posters and then you know we bring the staff in and get the hotel rooms and get the catering done and all of this stuff you do for three hours of entertainment.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: You know and then it's done and then the next day it's the next one and the next one.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: So it's definitely definitely you know busy you know busy work you know but man I really enjoy it you know if I could change anything you know the hours are long you know what I mean hours are long and it's seven days a week and and uh you know if I can get rid of the paperwork and the email and everything man this would be the dream job forever.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah no I was you're talking about like booking bands we talked about it earlier but what what's that process like in booking bands do you usually get do you usually get them like to come whenever you and it works you know different different ways you know it's it's a it's a good question you know and and uh the longer we've been here the easier it's become for us to get certain acts just because we have history okay oh yeah yeah yeah and it's a very ancestral world it's a lot of these agents that I I work with that are on East Coast or West Coast or Nashville or where they're located uh you know they've got a roster right so if if one band comes through um and maybe it's a supporting act for a bigger show and they come through as a support band and the band has a good report says hey man came down to corpus was a great thing we want to go back well then that that agent will then hit us up a lot of times and and offer us shows that are coming through Texas.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh cool um and so we're our our phone rings a lot we get a lot of emails of with inquiries of bands that want to play here and then the other side of it is there's certain bands that we want to see and things that I want to bring to corpus and those are the agents that we have to reach out to and and and kind of sell corpus and sell the idea that they need to be here.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: And that once again the longer we're here you know the the the conversation changed from when we first opened it was hey hey I got this venue and here's what we're trying to do.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Now we can call an agent up and say hey I've got this venue here's what we do do here's what we have been doing and hey we pay our bills bands get taken care of wow and here's here's photos and pictures and here's a list of bands that's and so we kind of can provide a list of references.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah like a portfolio yeah you know and it becomes easier so um I'd say probably at this point it's about a 70 30 70% of the bands that come through here are hitting us up and 30% of bands we're chasing down and now sometimes it takes years you know there's a band I just booked uh about that called Lucero um and in a great kind of an Americanic kind of country outlaw country rock type band you know if you want to put so many genres but man it probably for four years I was chasing the agent you know and we had some dates on the books and then they fell off and routings change and opportunity happens and they get picked up on a festival or this or that and finally I get the call that says hey we're ready to make it work you know boom we got it done so wow it's amazing and that's just sometimes it takes months sometimes it takes years you know to get a band to come through and and uh and sometimes this magic happens you know we just we work with a promoter um Anthony Stevenson he's got uh come and take it um out of Boston uh man phenomenal guy you know but uh we just had under oath come through here and it was a man that band should have been playing a thousand maybe a 1500 cap venue um but they decided to do a date of underplay as well house of rock was on the radar they called Anthony and said hey we want to get into House of Rock Anthony hit me up and and that show sold out within a few hours of it going on sale you know and that's something that wouldn't have happened 20 years ago we were brand new.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: Wow but now that we've been here long enough we get those opportunities so cool man it's almost like you got to put in the work to get to that point.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it's a lot of history it's the same in larger venues you know with with no matter you know you got to have that history and and agents and promoters want to see that you know things work proper and that when the bands get here they've got parking and the doors are unlocked on the right time and the production is what it needs to be and so you know the the the better business you can do the longer the easier it becomes so doing good doing good business oh yeah to keep your name keep keep your reputation and it's a small world you know like I said from all the years I've been doing this I'm still working with agents and managers that I met when I was at the surf club and they're still in the business and you know it just it's it becomes easier to pick up the phone because at some point it it turns into less of a cold call and more of a homie call you know would you say it's a small like a like tight knit maybe small community as amongst promoters yes it is promoters and agents and bands and you know you got to think too these these artists man they they tour and and uh a lot of the road crews that tour with them you know they go on that tour but when that tour is over that crew sometimes hops to a new tour and so sometimes we'll see the same merch guy or the same tour manager or the same guitar tech that we've seen two or three or four times come through here just with different bands because these guys live on the road you know so it it's very easy for somebody to come in here and and uh have a good day and then tell people about it.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Nice.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Just like it's bad it's easier for someone to have a bad day somewhere and talk about it.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we we try to maintain our A game and make sure that people leave corpus criticity or any venue that we're working with you know in this town that they leave with the smile on their face and and and feeling like it was an easy day.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know if somebody so say say you had of course you have good rapport right say something negative comes back how do you handle that type of uh you're gonna have those you know from time to time you know and it and it and it's uh it's funny because people remember the really good shows and the really bad ones you know so they're gonna have those in the middle that are just gonna be all right you know if something's really bad you know then I just try to address it and if you're what was the situation you know and there's there's been the times over the years that that we've goofed up or made a bad call or a decision didn't sit well with the tour.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times for me it's you know when Monday morning rolls around and call the agent up and say man this is what happened.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you know here's here's why we made the call that we made I think these guys might have left a little bit unhappy with this and here's why hey thanks for the show you know and we're we're a work in progress like anything we'd love to do another show again and most of the time you know that just goes under that umbrella of doing good business you know and hit something head on you know yeah right on man yeah last last uh we're about to wrap it up uh I was thinking about social media uh since the rise of social media how important is that to your business and that's the bane of my existence man like you know you you have to jump in on it and and uh and and learn it and man you know meta is an ever changing algorithm I mean it's not the same as it was six months ago it's not the same as it was two years ago so you know we're constantly constantly having to keep up with that and that used to be a job you know back in the MySpace days that right you know I had one employee that would help me out with MySpace and the two of us would kind of tackle things and and at this point there's about three of us that kind of all lean in.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_01: I've got my main social media person Britney who's phenomenal and she makes the reels and kind of has some of the idea and then Stephanie our GM who used to be in that role before she was GM you know kind of critiques it a little bit but uh you know it's it's it used to be you can put a flyer up and get a lot of interaction.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're gonna have to have people you're gonna have to have conversations video it's gonna need to be engagement engagement engagement has to happen and you gotta stay on it and so that's a part of your business your I guess your business model now yeah as opposed to like back then it wasn't.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: I mean when we opened uh back in the day it was Scotty Moore putting flyers on the windshield so many we used to get in trouble by the the malls would call me and go hey man stop littering our parking lots you know I mean so what would happen to so what would happen in that's funny get this these guys over here even the city would call yeah so you caught us a few times like man you're putting stuff up on they're gonna start finding us for our flyers on poles as a promoter so you know how hard it is to get somebody to hang up flyers and once you get somebody good at it well now they're so good at it you know that's it we're getting backlash from the city so we've had the so social media doesn't leave a a paper trail as much no so that that's that's a that's a bluff doesn't say nothing you're probably not doing around yeah you gotta you gotta you gotta get somebody upset in the city every once in a while yeah yeah I was gonna say yeah so like if you didn't have social media like if you if that wasn't if that if social media is not a part of your business model right now would that affect your business?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think so yeah yeah yeah yeah I think so I think that absolutely I mean it just just it's man it's it's it's a blessing and a curse I mean that social media is is very helpful but you got to really learn it you got to know how to work it man not everybody's on social media but you know as you know just from podcasts I mean a lot of people watch podcasts now and listen to podcasts which is great um less people are listening to traditional radio a lot of people are listening to Spotify or our iTunes and and uh you know there's so many ways to get your music so many ways to get your information it's making it kind of harder to stay in front of people because we know certain demographics live on social media and certain don't and so we still use email we still send out our email blast we still put up posters and flyers not as aggressively as we used to yeah but we lease a printer from Xerox and man we print 30 40 flyers for every show and posters and any of the bands that are ever playing here if they ever want to get posters to go hang them up in their practice spots or where they go to school or wherever they're hanging out.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah we we kind of have a little street team to help us push things out so we still do a lot of gorilla marketing um but it has become harder to get in front of people um just because radios become more difficult to advertise and and it used to be the newspaper back in the surf club days even when House Rock first opened they had a thing called the weekender I don't know if you remember the weekender but it was an insert it came out every Friday in the newspaper and it had everything that was going on in every bar every club every venue in corpus every play all the movies were listed in there and it was delivered to your front doorstep yeah now there is no one source for everything.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you know it's kind of spread thin do you feel like people don't get out as much as we used to 100% 100% and that's a lot of social media too before COVID or after COVID or did that matter?
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_01: A little bit of both you know I I think COVID or not people aren't coming out as much as they used to and I've got a lot of employees that work here that are in their 20s and don't even have driver's license you know and when I was a kid you're dying to get that license but you know back when we were kids uh you know uh I'm 50 you know but I grew up you know we had one phone line in our house and it was shared between my brothers my stepsister and my parents and so there was no hanging out on talking on the phone nobody did that because your phone's always clicking and this and that and so to go see your friends you went somewhere some people hung out at the mall some people hung out at Taco Bell some people went to go see a show like yeah you got out to do things because hanging out at your house meant you're kind of in solitary you know what I mean and it and so you wanted to go do that you wanted to go to a social now it's like a chore.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: Now it's a chore and you can sit there and if a new video game comes out you can put your headset on you can have a social life with people you know in different cities or in the same city you know but you can really have this social interaction with people that that wasn't available when we were so I think because of that people are heading out less you know and and uh uh you know people are drinking less and so you know we definitely have our challenges these days you know we we've expanded our non-alcoholic menu tremendously yeah y'all got some good sodas yeah we we've man all the flavors of Red Bull you know and all and then a bunch of good sodas and if we make some some homemade lemonade and I mean anything we can do to give someone something to do if you're a non-drinker and you want to come see a show we need we need something we don't make money selling tickets you know one of the things people look at when you see a room full of people and do the math and go, oh man,$25 a ticket y'all are killing it well if there's a tour bus parked out in front of House of Rock somebody's getting paid thousands of dollars to be here.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_01: You know another way to pay for that is to sell those tickets you know so if we if we break even at the door yeah that's a huge win for us because that means people are eating and drinking and it's one of the reasons we opened a kitchen was that we had to to start serving something besides you know alcohol um to offset the the the lack of drinkers you know and the lack of people that were coming out on the regular and so it it's just it's kind of an ever changing you know we we do a lot of pivoting you know what I mean and and uh um it's almost like you have to COVID was was uh you you know bringing that up was was a was a rough time but it also taught us a lot we got really good at getting our to-go food down of COVID that's all we had you know so we got good at we got better at cooking food during COVID because that's all we were doing um and I think our recipes got tightened up our kitchen systems got tightened up and we leaned into the to-go thing and and that to this day has been helpful um but definitely the original question uh I I think absolutely less people are coming out than less people coming out we used to yeah man yeah Casey it's been a good interview man thank you brother coming through man is there anything you would like to yeah is there anything you'd like to mention uh anything about your upcoming shows or just what what's what's going to be happening I would just encourage anybody who's a music fan who wants to see places like House of Rock succeed and you'll buy a ticket to a show and and uh you know there's a lot of venues in Corpus Christi but we're very fortunate you know of course house of rock we're the ones that are our size and of course the ones we mentioned earlier but you've got boozers you've got the artist and down the street uh rockets there's a lot of cover bands around town I mean you can see music in this town almost seven days a week and if that's something you want to see man go out and check out a show man okay yeah here's here's a here's here's one maybe some advice for people that are that see you and like hey I want to do that I want to do that try that what's what's some advice you would give to people that are just maybe wanting to start out in this business man I'd say just get involved you know get involved you know and and and there's so many jobs in the music industry um and the best way to do it man hit hit hit me up hit up a venue uh meet a sound guy if you're at a show man meet the staff that are working there talk to them and find out how to get your foot in the door and once you start getting in man learn everything you mentioned earlier you know uh something about uh um you know it's like wearing different hats like cooking working the bar or whatever absolutely you know and and uh one of the biggest I think successes for me and some of the people that are around me is you know I started off as a bartender if I wouldn't hit my 40 hours a week I'd pick up cook shifts just to make sure I got my 40 you know and once I started and on the music side of things man I ran sound that opened mic for about a year and a half and I'm not a sound guy by any means but I forced myself to do it so I would understand how to work these old analog consoles you know and and uh so you know I'm kind of jack of all trades master of none but the more you put your hands on the more you're around it I mean even you know getting on with somebody being a stage hand you know just moving gear and understanding the language of being around it it's funny a lot of people get into it and realize this is not what they want to do there's a lot more work into it you know than you think um but get involved in doing it you know and this and it's just being around the environment um asking questions and never stop learning I think is the best advice amazing man amazing it's almost like you you'll you'll love it if you love it you'll stick with it you'll stick with it you see that vision and you're just like do what it takes you when I left Surf Club I was there about nine years I thought man I'm done with this business I'm done flipping burgers and serving drinks and being out all night and I got a job at concrete which was still in the music business but no more food and I thought I'll never come back to this and here I am man so I've you know I'm just up and I'm the punishment I'm like my dad tells me there's easier ways to make a hard living that's uh it's a true statement right there but you know it's what I know it's what I love you know and like I said my corpus has been great to me so so I'm I'm I'm fortunate to be here and and and thankful that uh you know we've had the opportunity man good for you man for what we're doing so good for you bro coming through all right you guys that's casey at the house from the house of rock hit him up uh share uh share this uh post this video thanks to you thank you to from here in solutions of south texas for sponsoring the video if you're losing your hearing like mevon has got you appreciate you guys y'all have a good one bye