Dan Gillogy is a musician who’s made up to $100k a year playing gigs. If the first thing you’re thinking is how many gigs did he have to play to get to that amount, it’s not hundreds. Here’s an interview I did with him a while ago. It’s a little long but very very informative so get yourself a drink and sit down to read it.

Kavit: Hi Dan, thanks for the interview here. Please share a little about you so my readers are aware of your background, and then about what got you to where you are today.

I’ve been playing music professionally since I left high school in 1977. My first pro gigs were with brothers Wayne and Bobby Lee Keeling. We played a lot of 50s and 60’s and a whole bunch of Country & Western. We played VFW Halls and Bingo parlors. I was in college in southern Illinois just north of Kentucky.

This was the land of Bee Hive Hairdos and checkered table clothes. Wayne would dress in black and play lefty guitar upside down. And Bobby Lee wouldn’t play unless he was drinking and wouldn’t drink unless he was playing.

We were really into jazz fusion at the time and fancy chord changes and all that. So playing I, IV, V changes was good training for me. I’d go set up my Wurlitzer EP and crank it through my Fender Twin Reverb and just let her rip.

We got paid $50 a night. My rent was $25 a month. I was in heaven! I couldn’t believe I could actually get paid to do this. Plus, getting paid to make music allowed me to quit work, play music and work on the stuff I wanted to during the week.

I haven’t looked back since.

I wound up living in New Orleans for awhile there. Or as we like to say I stayed there 3 years one night. Played with some great cats down there. Did a lot of touring from there. Lots of BBQ joints and gin mills.

Then I wound up moving back to Chicago, my hometown, when my Dad got sick. My brother had a real good band back then. We played the Tri-State area here. The drinking age limit was still about 18 then so we fit right in. Started our first recordings with that band. Started selling a lot of self produced tapes. Even had an EP for awhile there.

We really learned a lot about the business side in that band. We had this big house in the middle of nowhere. All of our friends would come over and hang out. One night the cops came and we got pinched for disturbing the peace or some crap. Well we took up a collection to post our bond. We raised like $1000 in an hour.

Afterwards we were like, “We should start charging at the door.” You know have a little discretionary fund available in case of emergencies like this.

So we bought a Coke machine, filled it with Budweiser, charged $4 at the door and started raking it in. Then we started renting our own halls, promoting our own shows. Other bands found out about us and wanted to be included. So we’ let them in and take a cut of that.

We started printing T-shirts and hats and stickers. I mean this was all back in the 80s. So we were really tapped into something here. That was just the beginning.

Since then I had a gig at The Second City 1986-1996 as the piano player, then eventually started writing bits for them. Learned a ton about writing with some really talented writers.

I was always doing commercials and jingles sessions back then. Universal had a big studio here in Chicago. They cranked Muzak tracks all day long. My teacher and mentor, Gene Esposito, got me into those sessions. First as a copyist, then as a synthesist and then eventually I got some piano sessions. Having a mentor like Gene was essential to my success.

But Second City really opened some doors for me. Even though it was a “theater gig”, I still got good training playing 6 nights a week, improvising and writing music, lyrics, comedy, advertising, whatever. I got into writing industrial films, corporate shows, training seminars. I got to work with some directors on films; I did about 20 short films. Most of these guys were just students in film school back then. Now they are all over Hollywood.

I did get to go to Hollywood for a couple of years. I landed a gig doing bumpers in and out of commercials breaks for a sit com on FOX-TV called “My Talk Show”. It ran for 54 episodes. I did a good size portion of those.

Then the jingle market started changing back in the mid-90s’ so I wound up taking a teaching job which was fantastic. I started writing songs and shows for children. I found out I was a really good teacher and it kept me off the road while we raised our family. From there I started a teaching studio, built that up and sold it. Left teaching because it was too much like work.

Went back into performing. Corporate gigs and private parties. Sometimes fronting a band but mostly singing and playing piano.

The convention market is alive and well. We travel all over the country doing corporate shows. Right now the big thing is Dueling Pianos Shows. Lots of interaction and comedy and it pays really well.

Kavit: Your website boldly states that you can show musicians how to make $28,742.76 part time this year? First impressions it looks like just by playing gigs you can get that money. Could you share the basic framework as to how one can get to that point? What are the key points your advising?

Knowing your target market. Once you know that, you deliver the message that tells them what they will get by hiring your band or act. Tell them what benefits they will receive, you’ll always be working.

I made over a $100K (US) last year. The year before I made around $96K. That number is almost inconceivable to most musicians. But the basic laws of supply and demand kick in here. Once you’re working a lot at $300 a night, then you can start charging $500 a night when someone really wants you. Right now I get $1700 - $3500 per night working as a solo act. Used to be I was happy getting $200.

Kavit: You’ve written a bit on music marketing. Could you share what you feel are three really important ways for musicians to get some traction in today’s internet world?

Tell ‘em, tell ‘em and tell ‘em again. Seriously, that’s all there is to marketing our bands and ourselves as artists and musicians. And of course, when you’r done telling ‘em, you know what you do next right? Tell ‘em again.

We are very creative people. This is easier for us then it is for most other business minded people. We can think of all kinds of fun ways to cover telling ‘em again and again. we go into all of the different ways in our complete marketing system. It is a Step by Step Guide on Marketing for Musicians.

When it all boils down to are these three things:

1. Knowing your target market

2. Knowing what you have to offer; what are your Features and Benefits?

3. How you are different from your competition

After that, you just keep fine tuning your message based on your responses. Which marketing piece brings in the most amount of money?

Becoming a music professional is not like any other profession. When you want to become an attorney, you go to law school, you pass your bar exams, you’re an attorney. Same thing physicians. Go to medical college, do your internships pass your exams – shingudda boom! You’re a Doctor.

Musicians only have to get paid. Hell, we don’t even have to learn how to play our own instruments.

Has anyone bothered to take the time to show you how book music gigs? Or did you just learn from someone else who really wasn’t doing all that great in the first place? You owe it to yourself to check this out.

It bears repeating tho, the most important of the three is the first one: Who is Your Target Market?

Kavit: What do you think of the current state of the industry for independent musicians?

There’s really no better time right now. It appears the economy is down. Fuel prices are high, the credit markets are in disarray and unemployment is on the rise. So I say what better time than right now? Our competition is probably cutting back on their advertising. Now is the perfect time to ramp up our marketing.

Besides, the internet has leveled the playing field for all musicians. It doesn’t matter if you are just starting out or if you are a seasoned pro. No matter what style of music you are into, you can be viewed as a polished act by putting up a polished web site.

If you are looking to sell CDs and other merch this is also a fantastic period in history. The facts are that CD sales are off for the major labels. Combine that with the fact that people are really tired of all the crap that major labels have had to offer them. That translates into golden opportunities right now. People are really starved for good, passionate music that is not computerized and pre-canned for the masses.

You can hear it in some of the bands that are coming out right now. The people really want to hear someone who can entertain, but they love someone who can actually play their instruments live with out the use of massive technological assistance. You don’t even have to play your instrument well. Just play with passion and feeling. The Average Joe can relate to mediocre performances. There are many amateur musicians out there who love to hear us as we are. Not all fancied up behind technology.

Kavit: What do you believe is the number 1 reason why many musicians fail?

Not keeping an open mind. Not challenging themselves to do something outside of their comfort zone. I think one of the two major reasons why I have succeeded are open mindedness and versatility.

I am at the point now where I can pick and choose my gigs. But when I first started out I got lots of experience playing all kinds of music. I loved rock and blues. But when I got a call to play Reggae, jazz, Latin, theater, Recording sessions; I would take it. Everything was fair game in my book. As long as it paid more than $50 bucks, I would take it.

I never thought I liked country music. But then I played with some real cow punchers. If I hadn’t kept an open mind, I would have missed that opportunity. The versatility I gained as a musician and a performer has served me well.

It requires a great deal of open mindedness and creativity to solve problems. Like going into a recording session and finding out there isn’t enough room to bring in all 6 keyboards, yet still getting the job done enough to satisfy the client. Or getting on a gig where the agent says no polkas. But then some old guy tosses a C-Note in your jar to play one.

So grab those chances to stay open minded and get creative. Treating music like a business can be very creative too. A lot of musicians don’t look at it like that. I say it is a very small leap to take. I find marketing my business is almost as much fun as writing a good lyric or recording a solid groove.

When a client calls, I listen closely to what they want and then deliver. That’s pretty important to be able to recognize that. When you remain open minded you can go where the money is. Get in front of the hungry crowd and feed them what they want.

Once you do that and they’re buying what you have to sell, you can then give the audience anything you want. Once you deliver what they want, you can play whatever gigs you want and you’ll always work.

Kavit: You’re offering an awesome 3-month free deal on your Musicians Gold Newsletter. Can you share a bit about that and how my readers can take advantage?

We are offering the most incredible free gift ever! 3 months of the Musicians Gold Newsletter sent to your doorstep every month.

All of your readers will get the opportunity to look over my shoulder as I go through my system of getting music gigs. I talk about the successes and the failures. Yes I do have failures. I love my failures because I learn from them and I will show how you can benefit from them too.

I will show Lead Generation Techniques that consistently bring in as much or as little work as you want. Learn from other professionals in the industry. I sit down once a month and conduct exclusive interviews; not just with successful musicians but music business authors, promoters, producers, club owners and talent agents. Just one of these interviews could hold the key piece of knowledge you will need to get your music career into overdrive. Use these CDs and MP3s to turn commuting hours into your own personal power learning hours.

Kavit: Anything else you want to share with my readers?

Have fun. We are in the business of fun. Nobody ever asks us to come over and ‘work’ music. They only want to us to ‘play’ music. And when we look at marketing and getting gigs as fun, it easily translates to our clients and fans.

Let’s face it. We’re the luckiest people on the planet. Everyone else has to work for living. We get to paid to play.

So go have some fun.

Kavit: Indeed, go have some fun! Thanks for the interview, Dan.

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