Musician Mindset

Dylan Caligiuri talks about discipline, music education, emotional intelligence, human motivational systems, and many more essential concepts for musicians at every stage of their career.

Michael Seaman is an LA-based pianist, composer, and music director attracting the attention of audiences and musicians alike for his passionate and fresh take on the jazz and pop traditions. His work has been featured in Netflix’s new animated movie The Monkey King, The South Dakota Symphony’s 2023 concert series, HBO’s Perry Mason, Engelbert Humperdinck’s 2021 Reflections international tour, and in his own 12-piece jazz big band The Fresh Rhythm with Luke Carlsen.

Jason and Dave discuss principles for achieving longevity in your career.

Dave and Jason are back after a hiatus to discuss the qualities of professionalism, attitude, and mindset.

Adam Gust was raised in the cold of Minnesota, studied music in the heat of the University of North Texas, and has served a diverse full-time freelance music career of world touring and session work in just right Los Angeles since 2000. After a humbling decade of recovery from a career-threatening injury, Adam acquired a unique expertise, empathy, and voice toward evolving learning environments in drum education and in life.   Adam's journey of re-learning how to practice has helped him to stumble upon effective student based progressing learning strategies. Adam is excited to share his story of trauma from 'black to beyond' as he explains how he implements new academic ideas and technologies while re-assessing traditional forms of drum instruction.    Therapy and education are blood relatives, and the global pandemic is fertile ground to promote meaningful conversations about the application of mental health treatments to education and all disciplines of development.  Awareness of Trauma-Informed modalities will be a key component in our healing from this crisis, both for ourselves and for those we love.

In this 6 feet apart episode, Dave and Jason discuss their handling of the Covid-19 lifestyle adjustments, and ways musicians can ensure they are setting themselves up for the career recovery period coming up soon.

Our guest today is Vanessa Bryan, a singer, songwriter, producer and entrepreneur.   Vanessa has been a featured BG singer for acts such as Idina Menzel, Gwen Stefani and most recently The Killers.   She is the office gal vocal coach and arranger for Kidz Bop and owns Music Lessons LA, a music school, recording studio and vocal lessons.

Originating from Los Angeles, Casey Baer is a nineteen-year-old pop recording artist charting her own course with honest lyrics and powerful vocals. A year in the making, Casey’s first single, “Greatest Mistake,” was a first look of what’s to come in the young artist’s career. Produced and co-written by Grammy-nominated producer, Dru Decaro, ‘Greatest Mistake’ serves as her first in many unapologetic takes on her formative years. Her latest single, “Hold On,” brings a summertime feel to her growing portfolio of teenage pop anthems. The song caught the music industry’s attention and earned her an official remix by the EDM producer duo, twoDB. Through her music and engaging content, Casey has reached 250,000 music streams and grown her audience to over 50,000 across platforms in just under one year. She has worked with brands such as Daniel Wellington, Skullcandy, Blue Microphone, Crocs, and Revolve. She has also received media coverage from KTLA, Tiger Beat, Trending All Day, Music Insider, Action Magazine, Pop Culturalist, Famous Birthdays, and several others. Casey is often found performing her music at venues across Los Angeles and at conventions such as NY Music Expo and Playlist Live.

Our guest today is Michael Ward. Michale is an accomplished  recording artist, guitarist and professional musician who has toured the world with groups such as Ben Harper and the innocent criminals, The Wall Flowers and was co-founder of the group,  School of Fish. Michael’s guitar work can be heard on records by John Hiatt and the Grammy award winning single, One Headlight by the Wallflowers.   In this episode you will learn:   How to overcome not getting a great gig How to be social with your band and why it's important  How great opportunities come from finding common interests with musicians besides music 

We can rent a car!   Our 25th show, thanks so much for the support! In this episode Jason and Dave discuss the common lessons the guests have shared over the course of 25 episodes. Some really great content here, enjoy!   www.musicianmindsetpodcast.com  https://possiblechops.com/davejohnstone  

In this episode, return guest Nick Petrillo takes us through his approach to music directing.      Nick Petrillo is a keyboardist, music director, arranger, and orchestrator based in Los Angeles.  Originally from Bound Brook, New Jersey, Nick is a 2010 graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston, with a dual Bachelor's Degree in Film Scoring and Contemporary Writing/Production.     As a music director and keyboardist, Nick has performed, recorded, and toured internationally with Frenchie Davis (from "The Voice”) and David Hernandez (from "American Idol”) and has worked with the likes of Michael McDonald, Katharine McPhee, David Foster and Simon Fuller’s Now United.  He is the resident music director for McPhee International Vocal Studios, arranging and producing for artists in development, as well as the event entertainment contractor for Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank and Bright Horizons Family Solutions in Boston.  Nick also records and tours extensively with Aubrey Logan of Post-Modern Jukebox.   Since moving to Los Angeles in 2011, Nick has worked as an orchestrator on TV (ABC’s Revenge, Nashville, Modern Family, and Ten Days In The Valley, Showtime’s Shameless, CBS's Seal Team and Under The Dome, and NBC's Aquarius and Reverie), feature films ("Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters" and Mattel's BARBIE animated features), video games ("Halo 4"), and music albums (Seal's "Soul II" and Rod Stewart's "Merry Christmas, Baby," both under acclaimed producer, David Foster).

https://possiblechops.com/musicianmindset/   In 1999 Josh was asked by Paul Shaffer (Band leader of SNL and David Letterman Show CBS Orchestra) to join the Nickelodeon House Band which was his first professional gig.  Shortly thereafter, Sheila-E (producer, solo artist, Prince, Ringo Starr) hired him to perform with Nelly Furtado and Juanes.  He has played with Tony Royster Jr. (Jay-Z, Joe Jonas, T.I.) for numerous clinics including a guest performance at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Curt Bisquera (Elton John, Beach Boys, Mick Jagger, Bonny Raitt, Josh Groban, John Legend) session work and as a guest clinician and performer at the Musician's Institute.  He’s also worked with Rob Hoffman (producer for Christina Aguilera),  Kevin Max (D.C. Talk), Something Like Silas, Under the Influence of Giants (Awolnation),  Hoobastank, Tim Myers (One Republic, solo artist) all by the time he was 24.  He’s been busy non-stop touring ever since.  During his down time he’s done sessions for and/or performed live with the Knux, the Symetrics, Timmy Curran, 3OH!3, Debbie Lurie (composer for Danny Elfman, and Katy's film), recently played on Hailee Steinfeld's upcoming single (academy award nominated actress from True Grit), Lissie, Adam Lambert, Aaron Embry, Patagonia films, and on the new unreleased Puscifer single "Dear Brother" (Maynard Keenan singer/band leader of A Perfect Circle, Tool) which was on the front page of Spin.com last week and still on the website to listen to now.

https://possiblechops.com/musicianmindset/   Raised by a family of magicians, Eric already had stage, TV, and radio experience by age 5. At age 11, the discovery of The Beatles and the movie "That Thing You Do" inspired him to become a drummer. Eric wears multiple hats in the industry. He's the music supervisor at Activision Blizzard, working on games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Guitar Hero. He was previously an Associate Producer at Music and Strategy where he music supervised for brands such as Netflix, Coach, Miller Lite, Ford, and Nest. He is a published arranger through Alfred Music Publishing, having done percussion ensemble arrangements of Star Wars medleys. He has written music for CBS’s The Talk and the podcast “Daddy Issues” as well as orchestrated on movies such as Fast Five with Brian Tyler and Skyline with Matthew Margeson. The movie he recently scored (“The Ballad of Whistler’s Creek”) for the 2019 48 Hour Film Project is currently nominated in the “Best Of” Los Angeles screenings which will be screened at the TCL Chinese Theater. He is a regularly gigging drummer playing for multiple groups, shows, and artists that perform all around the Los Angeles area such as Todd Glass, Wayne Brady, Roger Bart, Barrett Foa, Carlie Craig, Lea Thompson, and many more. You can regularly see Eric playing drums for Baby Wants Candy at Upright Citizens Brigade, weddings and corporate events with Business Time Entertainment, live band karaoke with The Moon Units, indie rock with the artist Speelburg, and on the Netflix comedy special, Todd Glass: Act Happy.

In this episode of MM both Dave and Jason discuss what their currently working on to improve their playing, musicianship and mindset. A really great convo here!   Enjoy!   https://possiblechops.com/musicianmindset/

Elliott launched his recording career following his appearance on American Idol Season 5 as the top 3 finalist with his highly anticipated debut album Elliott Yamin, which debuted at Number Three on the Billboard album chart and was the highest-debuting album by an independent artist in SoundScan history.  The self-titled disc achieved gold status in the U.S. and Japan (where he continues to maintain a large audience), and yielded the platinum hit ‘Wait for You.’  In the wake of the first album's release, Yamin received considerable media exposure on countless television shows, while gaining extensive performing experience by touring around the world with his live band.  He released the Christmas-themed “Sounds of the Season: The Elliott Yamin Holiday Collection’, later that same year which would be reissued in expanded form the following year as ‘My Kind of Holiday’.  Yamin's second official album, Fight for Love, followed, spawning the successful singles ‘Fight for Love’ and ‘Can't Keep on Loving You (From a Distance)’. His third album, ‘Let’s Get to What’s Real’, found Yamin stretching as an artist as a writer and co-producer.   Yamin continues to tour domestically and internationally which have also included three trips to Africa as a spokesman to the ‘Malaria no More Foundation’ as well as a variety of charities, relief groups and peace organizations. 

Fun format here! Dave and Jason discuss the songs and albums that laid the foundation for their musical journeys.      Dave Led Zeppelin  Rush Herbie Hancock: Thrust Wayne Krantz: 2 Drink Minimum Miles Davis: Four & More Miles Davis: Nefertiti Jonatha Brooke: 10 Cent Wings Michael Landau: Live 2000 James Taylor Live Esperanza Spalding: Emily's D+ Evolution      Jason   No Quarter from The Song Remains The Same: Led Zeppelin Money For Nothing: Dire Straights In The Air Tonight: Phil Collins Beast of Burden: The Rolling Stones Even Better Than The Real Thing: U2 Lemon Parade: Tonic  Gin And Juice: Snoop Dog Crosstown Traffic: Jimi Hendrix 

Last seen on Broadway in the Tony award winning special event "Liza's at the Palace", Cortés Alexander's critically acclaimed debut CD "Swell", is available on itunes & all online retail outlets. His club act, "The Swell Show" continues to sell out & was recently voted "Best Night Out" by LA Nightlife magazine. A veteran of over 100 TV commercials, this award -winning singer/songwriter is also a 5-time men's 4.0 singles champion at The Toluca Lake Tennis Club.

Jordan Michael:   Jordan Michael is a Dallas, TX native that has quickly made a name for himself in the vocal community in Los Angeles.    Jordan Attended AMDA (American Musical & Dramatic Academy) while simultaneously serving in the US army reserves; earning a Bachelors of Fine Arts in Musical Theater, with an emphasis on vocal performance    He’s supported musical acts such as Dancing with the Stars champion, Jordan Fisher; Jazz-Pop prodigy, Aubrey Logan, as well as several contestants on American Idol. He has also contributed supporting vocals on songs for artists including Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler, Yolanda Adams, Childish Gambino, Pentatonix, Andrea Boccelli, Fantasia Barrino, Ariana Grande, and more.

Tom Strahle is a multi-instrumental session musician, composer, songwriter and YouTuber.  His music and playing can be heard in films (Transformers: The Last Knight, Skyscraper), on TV (The Ellen Degeneres Show, The Mentalist), on the Radio (Justin Bieber, Marco Antonio Solis) and in games (Apex Legends, Absolver).   Search for him on Youtube! 

With more than 40 years of professional international performing experience and 25 years as a K-12 certified music specialist, Steve Hollis is delighted to be a full- time elementary music teacher in the Burbank Unified School District and an avid supporter of Burbank Arts For All. From his BA music education degree, through his masters focusing on curriculum and instruction, to his school days teaching in Burbank followed by his private music practice in his home studio, Steve is thrilled to share the gift of music with students of all ages. A 2014 recipient of the ETMLA Shining Star award, Steve takes great pride in providing all of his students with a musical experience that will enhance their lives forever. He can be reached through his website: stevehollismusic.com