Our Budget Gear Picks

This week, Christine and Rick talk about something that challenges all small-business owners (and honestly, most people) at one time or another: maintaining a healthy gigging schedule with a healthy lifestyle. Music-making for a living is hard work! The duo discuss how they try to keep it all in balance.

This week, Christine and Rick go a bit deep with their looping experience and talk about what makes a great loop-friendly song, and a great arrangement. They talk about what they look for in their own arrangements, and what makes a performance memorable and impactful for an audience.

This week, Christine and Rick talk to a veteran of the looping and YouTube space: New Zealand musician David Shanhun. David is near and dear to each of us as someone who has inspired and at times taught us the craft that we lean into for all our solo gigging endeavors: looping! We hope you enjoy our absolutely delightful chat with him this week.Follow David online!Website: www.davidshanhun.comhttps://www.instagram.com/davidshanhun/https://www.youtube.com/@davidshanhun(also, Rick's secret Alpaca-based gig: https://www.instagram.com/alpacasbytheseafallfestival/)

In this Episode of Gigging Solo, Christine and Rick talk about how to be successful when working with a sound person. Ways to prep, how to communicate, and how to make their and your life as easy as you can.

In this Episode of Gigging Solo, Christine and Rick try to answer the question of why they choose to make their living playing music. There are easier ways to make a living, but it will become apparent in this conversation that "easy" was never really the aim.

In this episode of Gigging Solo, Rick is joined in-studio by the LA musician, singer and booking agent Olivia Pucci! Christine and Rick talk to Olivia about turning a performance into an experience, navigating the music industry, crafting an image and personal brand, and much, much more. Definitely check out this great conversation.

In this episode of Gigging Solo. Christine and Rick talk about the gear they would recommend for someone getting started doing loop shows of their own. With a focus on gear that they’ve used themselves that delivers good value for the money, how affordably can you start your own loop show? Tune in and find out!

In this episode of Gigging Solo first, the streamer and live-looper Rob Gregerson stopped by to have a chat with Christine and Rick! They talk about making music, live-streaming, and the way music brings people together in many different settings.Note: this was recorded right before the unfortunate and sudden death of Glen HansardR.I.P. to a true talent (1970-2026)

Rather than describe this in vague terms in this description, here’s the “this-could-have-been-an-email” version:We’re moving to every-other-week! This will give us the time to better promote the podcast, do higher-quality episodes and (hopefully) more interviews. We talk about the rationale of the choice and what you can expect from us in the future.We appreciate all the support and we’re looking forward to leveling up Gigging Solo, but at a pace that won’t burn us out. See you next week!

In this episode, Christine and Rick take a little detour from music-making to talk about the specter of generative AI (or LLMs) in our world. The duo focus on the safest ways to engage with this technology, as musicians, humans, and small business owners. Though notably, this topic is relevant to musicians and non-musicians alike