Paul Rogers,
founder and manager of Natural Change discusses the following:
- · success of his band
- · his perspective on the future of R&B bands
- · the pros and cons of technology in the music industry
- · the impact society has on the influence of music
- · the role of record companies
Paul, as the
manager, wears many hats. He runs the mechanics of the band (i.e., booking,
negotiations), he is responsible for the allocations of duties amongst band
members, and he owns all the sound equipment.
Paul admits that there is a lot to booking gigs, “it is not that easy,
especially when doing private stuff, it gets so intricate; dealing with all of
the personalities, and justifying the cost, it’s a lot to it”.
Paul reminisces
on how he got started, by marketing himself; as a teenager it was difficult to earn the
respect of the older musicians, and club owners in the Metroplex. Meanwhile, his band practiced to perfect their craft. His first negotiation with a club owner was,
“If you don’t like us, you don’s have to pay us. We went in and we killed”. The rest was history.
Tony
Blaine / Keyboardist and Lead Vocalist
Byron
Fuller / Drums
Paul
Rogers / Saxophone
Rob
Abbs / Guitar
Julie: How long has your band been in existence?
Paul:
21 years
Julie: Tell
us a little about your band members?
Paul: All
of them are strong musicians, individually.
Byron is probably the most unique one.
Byron is the drummer and he does not read music at all. He and I went to high school together. I did not know Byron played, until after high
school. Tony and I met in college and
later found out that we were distant cousins.
Rob came later, he has only been playing with us for 6 years. He is not
the original guitarist, but he is a perfect fit.
Julie:
How did you get started?
Paul: I had the advantage. My older sisters use
to sing with local bands around the scene and they would let me sit in. The other advantage was at the age of sixteen
my voice dropped and I had a mustache, so I looked older than what I was. So I use to hang with my sisters playing with
their bands. Back then music was
honorable and most people who were playing music were older people. They were older to me because they were in their
late thirties or forties. As a young cat,
I would get my horn every night. I did this for about 3-4 years consistently. I
would go to each club and sit in with "the baddest” band, but I was so
young, everyone knew I was so young. I
did not have the respect of the older cats. So after a couple years, then
people started recognizing me,” that’s that young dude, who plays the saxophone, and
he can play, blah, blah, blah”. The
whole time I was marketing myself, and I had the band rehearsing. When I came to the club owner, it would not
be such a hard sell. They knew I was
proof, so my band had to be proof. That is how we got started.
Julie:
What made you choose
jazz over the other genres?
Paul:
When I was 12 my
grandmother, rest her soul, she gave me a radio when I was little, it could only
get the AM stations. On the AM station,
there was nothing but Oldies and a jazz station, those were the only two stations
that I could relate to. I started
gravitating to that music. I told my
parents that I wanted to play the saxophone because it looked the best.
Julie:
What would you say were the
secret ingredients in keeping you guys together?
Paul:
I run my band as a
democracy, not a dictatorship. All four
of us have input on the business, as well as the performances. You’ve heard the band, there is not a weak link
in the band. There is no one person that stands out. Because all four at some point of
the night have an opportunity to do our thing, individually, as well as
collectively. So when you have that, everybody is getting that opportunity to shine; on stage as well as on the
business side, we come together and collaborate on what direction to go.
Julie:
Do you consider your
band successful?
Paul:
In my eyes, I will never
be satisfied, but I will say this, I am proud that we have lasted this long. And I am proud that people have come to love us for who we are musically. That in
itself to me is a form of success. I
will never be satisfied with just that.
It’s so much more that I want for us.
Julie:
What is the ultimate
goal for your band?
Paul:
The ultimate goal is to
produce the best music possible, under our abilities. That’s really what its about, its not about
money; and like I said earlier, the hype of who knows you. Music is such a “heart medicine”. When
you get it out to the world, and people can relate to that, and it touches them
in a way. Then that’s when I deem us successful. That’s the next level that we want to go. We got a touch of that with the
last CD, that we released back in
February (2013). The CD is
playing on a different platforms, where it is getting heard all across the U.S.
and other countries. So when you get responses from people in Berlin, Germany, and London; they heard your music and are saying positive things about it. Ah
man, I can’t explain the feeling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSzJVqN_FfM&list=PLT94QyEMtEgHiObvenN1N5eXjoBPeOoIy
Natural
Change is :
For
Bookings Contact:
Tony Blaine @ 469-628-4341
Paul Rogers @ 214-629-3588
Email:
naturalchangeband@naturalchangeband.com
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