Episode 21- The Underground Music Collective With Gerard Longo

Today, we discuss the journey of Gerard Longo! Thank you for joining our journey through the arts. Like we always say "Pursuing your Passions is a Bitch... But it's worth it!"

Please Check out our friend, Gerard Longo-
His Website- https://undergroundmusiccollective.com/

Also Check us out and our future projects at The Rogue Scientist Productions
Website- https://theroguescientistproductions.com/
Facebook- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100087537946337
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/roguescientistproductions/

Check out "The World Beyond" by Charles Dockham on Kindle Vella- https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BMZPTP6G

Check out "The Beautiful Beast" by Carolyn Clark on Kindle Vella-https://www.amazon.com/kindle-vella/story/B0BVMNPBKZ

Check out Watsynthebox- Guest host William Thornhill- https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094728966282&mibextid=b06tZ0

Transcript

The Rogue Scientist Productions (00:01.603)
Thank you and welcome to Pursuing Your Passions is a Bitch. I am your host Charles Dockham, the owner of the Road Scientist Productions and the author of The World Beyond, an ongoing story on Kinlovela. With me I have my guest host Jared Longo. Jared?

Gerard Longo (00:15.94)
Oh, uh, Gerard.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (00:17.379)
Drard, sorry. Drard, you're part of the Underground Music Collective.

Gerard Longo (00:19.159)
It's okay.

Gerard Longo (00:25.459)
Yes, yes, founder, CEO of Underground Music Collective. We've been here in Nashville since 2018. Our story actually goes further back than that, which I'm sure we'll cover. But yeah, we're a multimedia services company and digital music resource for artists. So a lot going on in our ecosystem. Really excited to share more.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (00:46.359)
Perfect and so just kind of get into it so you you started in the music industry at a pretty young age didn't you?

Gerard Longo (00:54.655)
Well, I've been around music my entire life. As far as my formal introduction to the industry, I mean, it's about 10 years ago when we started the QuinSpin podcast, which is still the official podcast of Underground Music Collective. And so I was actually by industry standards kind of on the older end to be starting. I was 26 at the time and I just needed an outlet. It was post-college, you know, I was kind of searching for purpose, direction, you know, and

Gerard Longo (01:23.447)
Uh, one night I was listening to my old college radio show and remembered what it was like to have an impact on people. And now when I say that it was only like 10, 15 people tops who would listen every week, but they were there every week and they'd always give us stuff for the show, you know, they'd always be participating and they cared about being there every week and you know, Going from that to, you know, going to the real world corporate America spoke in the wheel, you know, I, the job I had at the time was really cool, but it was also kind of like not totally

Gerard Longo (01:51.503)
I knew it wasn't where I was meant to be, you know? And so I pulled out the old episodes of my college radio show one night in 2013 and just got this, the fire, the fuse was lit, you know? And I decided to restart it as a podcast called The QuinSpin because that's what it was called in college. Used a pseudonym back then. And it became about the music industry because back in college, you know, we always...

Gerard Longo (02:17.279)
We always played music, you know, we would have the indie band of the week. You know, there were always these little seeds of, you know, this love of music and this passion for artist discovery. And so I use this as an opportunity to take to Twitter, uh, at the quinspin or our handle still to this day. And go on and find artists, you know, to see if they wanted to be featured on this podcast that had zero episodes and nobody had ever heard. And a surprising number of them said yes. And so.

Gerard Longo (02:45.299)
You know, from there, we just kind of grew and grew and grew. We had a really, you know, the first couple of years, it was just the podcast, me and my friends back home up in Jersey. You know, we, we'd get together every week. We'd record. I mean, we had guests on from five continents. We had relationships where Reverb Nation gave us campaigns to have artists submit to us. And we were able to build a following that way. We were able to put on events. Um, and then from there, I moved from Jersey to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where I went to college, uh, I moved back to Bethlehem.

Gerard Longo (03:15.871)
And decided that this needed more than just a podcast, you know, it needed something around it. And so I had the idea to start a blog and I was, you know, about an hour north of Philly, Bethlehem is there's a, there's a good local music scene there. So I figured, let's start a blog called Lehigh Valley underground, you know, tapping into the region and also tapping into the scene, you know, in the name and have the Queen's been be a part of that. And so 2016 that launches 2016, 17, 18.

Gerard Longo (03:44.627)
We're growing, we're really integrated in the community up there in Eastern Pennsylvania. We have the chance to put on events, partner with local organizations, we won a few local awards. But by mid 2018, it was time to evolve. It was time to level up again. I felt that pull professionally and personally. And I had an idea that summer to go to a music industry market. I wasn't sure which one yet. And then a couple of weeks later, it became clear that Nashville was the place for me to...

Gerard Longo (04:13.087)
really focused my efforts. And so from about Labor Day of 2018 to the Monday after Thanksgiving, I hatched the plan to move to Nashville and ended up here with whatever would fit my car and not a whole lot of money in my bank account. It was a very much a traditional coming to Nashville, going for broke kind of story. But we've been here ever since. And in the process, we rebranded Underground Music Collective a few weeks before I moved. I wasn't quite sure of the moving date when, you know.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (04:28.687)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it off.

Gerard Longo (04:41.895)
When we rebranded, I just knew it was happening and we needed to be ready for it. And so Underground Music Collective, of course, continued as a blog here. The Queen's Spin restarted in Nashville a few months after I got here. And from there, we've just continued to develop and integrate ourselves in the community, not just here in Nashville, but everywhere, and really add a lot of exciting new things to the pot. May in particular was a big month for that. And so I'm really excited for...

Gerard Longo (05:09.707)
how far we've come. It'll be 10 years since that August night where I hatched the idea for the podcast, uh, this August. And, you know, just to see where we've come over the past decade has been, it inspires me every day. So I'm really excited to, of course, dive more into that, but that's the, that's the Cliff's notes.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (05:23.751)
Hmm.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (05:28.943)
Yeah no of course and so you did start with the podcast and you're doing a lot with the music industry so how so. You do the podcast for about ten years now how is that been.

Gerard Longo (05:46.152)
I mean, it's been such a learning experience. The interesting thing about the Quinn Spin itself is it's gone through so many iterations. In the beginning, like I said, it was me and my friends that I did community theater with up in New Jersey. It was really more of a talk radio format. We'd kind of splice some music and some interviews in between.

Gerard Longo (06:06.611)
And that was, I mean, it was so much fun, you know, shout out to the OG quinsp and fam who they still hop on zoom with me now, you know, a couple of them. And, you know, we will record an episode every now and then you can find those in our feet now. Um, but it started in that format. And then when I moved back to Bethlehem, it became a solo thing for a while. So kind of keeping the radio format format. We did internet radio for a little while. It didn't really like we were trying to find, I was trying to find, there was no we really at that point. Like the right.

Gerard Longo (06:34.815)
the right format, the right mix of what it needed to be. And when I moved to Nashville, I kind of re-imagined it again and I'm like, well, what if this becomes a talk series? You know, like this podcast, like a lot of, you know, that long form interview format. And that seems to be the sauce, but it's interesting too, because like all the facets of what this show has been have really come full circle in the past year or two, especially since the pandemic, over the pandemic, you know, in my...

Gerard Longo (07:02.667)
co-hosts from back in the day started getting on Zoom and recording once in a while. And so we do that. We do the OG family episodes where like Scotty Rock and like JD, my co-hosts they'll come on and we'll just banter like the old days. I'll do solo missions which is just me talking about the life and times of what it's like to be in this industry you know and you know all the highs and the lows and you know everything in between you know and then of course we'll have the longer form interviews whether those are over Zoom or they're here in our

Gerard Longo (07:32.295)
It's really interesting to me that the Quincebin over the course of its lifetime is a singular podcast with so many different facets to it. And it can be all of those things. And it all makes sense based on the lineage and where we've been. And again, it was the point of singularity for this entire ecosystem now. So, you know, and I've, I've thought I've batted around the idea, you know, of, you know, do I...

Gerard Longo (07:57.919)
Does it make sense to still call it the Queen's Finch? Should I call it the underground cast or something like, yeah, it's part of the history. It's part of the lineage. It's part of the heritage. You know, it's really part of, it's the key like core component of this entire story. So to do that justice, you know, you let that point of singularity be what it is and it kind of branches off from there, you know? And what has been created out of that to me, you know, I never expected 10 years ago at all.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (08:18.892)
Mm-hmm.

Gerard Longo (08:25.414)
You know, but I'm happy that it's led here and you know, I always point back to those early days

The Rogue Scientist Productions (08:25.999)
Thanks for watching!

The Rogue Scientist Productions (08:30.663)
Exactly. And you kind of start it with the passion and then it kind of just grows into something else. So it just it really becomes a very, I find this fun is primarily meeting new people, meeting all these all these new artists, meeting all these just people in different industries. I find this incredibly fun. And so whether like it becomes monetary gain at the end of the day, I don't always see that. But just

The Rogue Scientist Productions (08:58.307)
being able to pursue the passion and being able to find the passion in it and have fun with it. I really enjoy the podcast here with myself. And I'm sure you've probably seen the same thing in the last 10 years is that you started just enjoying the process and it just kind of becomes in molds and becomes something else as you go.

Gerard Longo (09:19.347)
Absolutely. And I think it, you know, it takes a little time to really enjoy that process because first you have to understand what the process is. Because when we started, I mean, it's funny because me and Scotty, you know, we recently just had the chance to go back to New York for an opportunity. And it's funny because back in 2014, I just think back to those early days, we're both underemployed. We went into the city a couple of times, just, you know,

The Rogue Scientist Productions (09:26.785)
Mm-hmm.

Gerard Longo (09:42.231)
trying to drum up interest for the show. We had this idea of like, well, maybe we should drop off a demo at SiriusXM, maybe we should drop off a demo at this place, which would have gone terribly, especially in a post 9-11 world, right? And so, you know, it's interesting, because back in the day, it's like, we thought it would be that easy, like, oh, we just got to keep pumping out content, the right person has to hear it and discover us, you know, and then we're gonna blow up. It's trial and error. And it's so much of that, you know, because every single

Gerard Longo (10:11.195)
opportunity, whether it works out or it doesn't, is an opportunity to learn and adjust the sales, you know, make those two degree turns that are more in alignment with the overall vision of what it's going to turn into. And back in the day, like back in the early days, like we didn't really understand what that meant, which was kind of nice to be that naive, you know, like, oh, wow, we're going to do it, we're going to make it, you know, but what is making it making it is this abstract concept, you know, there's no single point of arrival.

Gerard Longo (10:40.159)
You know, it's you keep arriving, you keep having milestones, you keep pushing past these markers and what it does over time is it inspires you to find the next one and that's where you really start to enjoy the process. And I really think that's come from me really just over the past couple of years. Um, you know, because, you know, in the midst of all this too, you know, I had various, you know, bouts of going back to corporate America and I finally left, I believe for good at the beginning of 2021. And I.

Gerard Longo (11:09.135)
I made up my mind like this is going to be the one that sticks. This is going to like, no matter what happens, hell or high water, this is it. You know, like this is going to be where it happens. And when you commit to that and you jump off that ledge, you've got to build the plane on the, on the way down. And that's been, it's been really challenging, you know, especially 2021 first half of 2022, I'd say really understanding what that entails and who I need to show up as to do that. But like ever since, you know,

The Rogue Scientist Productions (11:24.741)
Mm-hmm.

Gerard Longo (11:38.503)
I'd say the middle of last year, we've really turned a corner and like something has just really started to grow out of this, the likes of which we haven't seen. But it's really, it really comes down to me, like finding ways to embrace and enjoy that process, you know, the, I, I forget who, who coined this phrase, embrace the suck. I feel like it was Joe Madden who was the manager of the Cubs for a time. Cause he had a lot of isms like that, but like you have to embrace the parts of this that aren't fun. You have to embrace the parts of this.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (11:57.965)
Mm-hmm.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (12:06.293)
Exactly.

Gerard Longo (12:08.115)
You know, the late nights, the early mornings, you know, and you have to be willing to get knocked on the head a few times. I mean, that's the only way you learn. If you're not willing to deal with that discomfort, then you're not going to grow and it's going to stay on America around forever. So you really have to be willing. Then to move forward with purpose, but also understand that not everything's going to break your way, you know, there are going to be things that let you down, but it's all a matter of how you respond to those.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (12:34.623)
Mm-hmm. And but with the podcast, I like with our podcast here, it's helping grow our business, the Road Scientist Productions. With yours, it's helping grow the Underground Music Collective. And could you tell me a little bit more about the Underground Music Collective? What's kind of your goal to kind of push forward? And what's your what are you striving to do with that project?

Gerard Longo (12:47.189)
Mm-hmm.

Gerard Longo (12:58.195)
Well, we want to and are, you know, in an ongoing sense, creating an ecosystem for independent musicians and creatives to further their careers, to strengthen their own platforms and to build community. I'm a big proponent of the notion that the rising tide raises all boats. And you know, this is a tough industry. I think any creative industry is a tough industry because oftentimes, if not all the time, you're building from zero. You know, very few people have.

Gerard Longo (13:28.031)
the leg up and all the connections and all the resources that they need to just go from zero to a hundred. I am also a big believer that there's no such thing as overnight success. So you combine those two things and it's like, okay, we need to build community here and we need to have some strength in numbers, you know, because there are so many factors that could work against you if you're not prepared for them, if you don't have the right resources, if you don't have the right people in place.

Gerard Longo (13:52.383)
And so we've really emphasized building community through, of course, like we offer, you know, reviews and features, you know, for independent artists, when they release music, we have our UMC 20 playlist, which comes out every Tuesday, which we put 20 tracks and the latest episode or episodes of the Quinn Spin, if I've recorded one or two and released them in a week. But also educational content. We a few months ago launched a Wednesday wisdom series where we have industry professionals from around different...

Gerard Longo (14:22.087)
from different sectors from around the industry, offering their insights into what this industry is and what it takes and their experiences in it. In addition, we have hosted a series of virtual panels so far throughout the year. We'll be announcing the next one very soon if we haven't already at the time of release, where again, it's taking different perspectives from different segments of the industry, different genres. February, we had one for Black History Month.

Gerard Longo (14:46.675)
International Women's Day was March and we had one then and then we had Jazz Appreciation Month in April where people are talking about the challenges, but also the triumphs and successes that they've had and everything they've learned. And what we hope is that that, you know, inspires the creators in our community to take action on their own journeys and to take those lessons with them. Right. And in addition to that, we've also

Gerard Longo (15:11.523)
launched some opportunities to connect creatives through our new creative agency at UMC, where we have a team of UMC verified creators. We just launched that on May 1st. And these are folks in different disciplines, photography, videography, graphic design, web design, social media. I'm an artist coach and I'm part of it. We've even got a couple of like music instructors who teach voice and instruments. And the idea is like, hey,

Gerard Longo (15:37.855)
Come to us with your creative needs, use our people, use their services, and then what we're gonna do on the UMC end is we're going to highlight everything that's created in the industry. So we have a from the agency section on the blog now, which of course is what brought UMC itself to the dance, was the publication end of it, where we're gonna highlight these projects on an ongoing basis as they're completed. And the idea is that people who come in and work with us not only get really good content from these creatives,

Gerard Longo (16:04.895)
But they are tapped into everything else that we're doing here at UMC as a byproduct of that. And on the creative end, the verified creators, of course, they get more work, but they get to work with artists that they feel passionate about. And they get to help these artists realize their creative visions as they build their portfolio and as they build their own presence in the ecosystem. And of course, UMC is the facilitator for that. So we are, you know, there are so many ways we're approaching this. I should also mention in the middle of May, we launched an affiliate marketing project.

Gerard Longo (16:34.027)
program so influencers can get involved with our platform and tell people about our platform through our merch and our other product offerings that will be releasing on an ongoing basis. So there's so many ways to tap into what we're doing. And it's crazy to me that this all started in my childhood bedroom with a laptop and a USB mic, because what this has become is, is so far beyond that. And I should also mention that we have a hand in the live events scene here in Nashville. And

The Rogue Scientist Productions (17:02.98)
Mm-hmm.

Gerard Longo (17:03.455)
beyond now, we actually just announced that we're going to be doing a show up in Bethlehem at Steel Stacks to give back to our previous local community up there. So we're very excited. We're bringing them a Nashville-style writers round. And of course, here in Nashville, we have our Nashville live event series as well. So we've got a lot of shows coming up here throughout the rest of the year. So a lot happening. I hope that was condensed enough because there's so much to explain.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (17:30.983)
Oh, no, that's perfect. And it really kind of shows just how much you can accomplish with, like you said, with a laptop and a mic. And you started with a laptop and a mic. And just to see over the past couple of years just how that's grown and grown and grown and grown into this vision and into this project. It's an amazing sense of fulfillment to be able to just kind of look back in your history and go, it all started just with that laptop. And you...

The Rogue Scientist Productions (17:59.627)
might still have that laptop on you, you might not. But just to kind of go, this is how it all started, is an amazing sense and an amazing feeling.

Gerard Longo (18:10.251)
Thank you, yeah, it is, you know, it's again mind blowing to me. And that laptop's got to be somewhere. I don't, it's no longer active. I mean, that thing died a while ago, but it's got to be somewhere. So one day when we have our physical headquarters, you know, we'll have the hall of fame wing and it'll be behind some glass, you know, under the lights. This is the laptop that started it all. This blue, this, this blue Dell, was it a Dell Inspiron? I don't even remember, but it was this blue Dell laptop. And that.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (18:25.527)
Yeah. This is where it started.

Gerard Longo (18:38.855)
It started there and the USB mic that I bought the next day from Best Buy after I went through and listened to those old episodes from college, you know? And yeah, you never know where it can take you. And it's taken me here and you know, not to say like I have it all figured out or I've made it like it's, it challenges me every single day and like that challenge doesn't stop, but it's all a matter of like being willing to rise to it and the longer you stay in it and the longer you stay meeting those challenges, the more adept you are to actually managing them. And.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (18:48.889)
Mm-hmm.

Gerard Longo (19:08.523)
pushing past them.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (19:10.727)
Exactly. And it's a great message to my listeners because that it, similar to you, how you're trying to grow the music industry. The Rhodes Scientist Productions is focused on trying to build the artistic community up here in the Northeast. And so we're trying to help in push for the growth of like acting, music and everything up here in New Hampshire and all along those ends. And so it's a great message to kind of see just

The Rogue Scientist Productions (19:40.195)
the willpower of just wanting to accomplish these projects and the willpower of just wanting to meet these needs. One thing I did wanna highlight because you did mention it, you do some coaching. And so can you tell me a little bit about that?

Gerard Longo (19:56.707)
Yeah, yeah. So that was actually the first hint of the creative agency. We launched that on my birthday in March. It was it was G's birthday surprise we were we were teasing it with. So on March 10, we officially launched a coaching program. And that was born out of I mean, I take on a lot of client work, you know, with artists, you know, whether that's content services, you know, what have you, but a lot of it ends up being coaching anyway, over the years, you know, to where we're actually going through like goal setting. And, you know,

Gerard Longo (20:26.403)
I'm responsible for helping them stay accountable to their goals, but also helping them drill down what they're doing this for, what their why is. And so UMC coaching is a tailored program to all of the coaches. It's a continuation of all the coaching that I've been doing for years. It's just in a more formal program. So what it is, is we start with the mission, vision and values, and identify that because as that goes, so goes everything else.

Gerard Longo (20:52.231)
I know this from my own experience, you know, if you're doing things that aren't aligned with your grand vision, then you're going to be out of alignment. You're going to really start to feel that. And it's really going to take you off your, your long-term goals. Right. And so we start there and then, you know, we, from there, we craft the story, you know, if the story needs some refining, you know, as far as the artist story that they're trying to tell out in the world. Um, and from there we go into the goal setting, we take deep dives, going into

Gerard Longo (21:21.183)
the opportunities they have, you know, the resources they have at their disposal, but also what could get in the way of those and how do we work around that? And then the accountability piece is huge. I mean, and that's been huge for me, you know, especially as we've been growing here over the past year, I have to give a shout out to Brandy Sims and her team at Branding PR because, you know, just having somebody else to like, you know, who's trying to help you move things along, like

Gerard Longo (21:44.371)
really makes you want to be accountable. And so I want to pay that forward to these coaching clients now where it's like, Hey, where are we on these goals? What's getting in your way? How can we work around that? What resources can I provide you? You know, because if we don't, again, it just goes back to that idea of the rising tide raises all boats and no matter what, like nobody can get there alone. You can get, you can get started by yourself, but you're, you need that team around you, you need those people to push you, you need that iron sharpens iron.

Gerard Longo (22:09.675)
kind of mentality, you know, and surrounding yourself with the right people that are going to push you to be your best and show up your best. And so that's what I want to do. You know, with UMC coaching, you know, we've had some clients come through already and they definitely seem to be getting a lot out of it. And you know, I'm getting a lot out of it too, just getting to learn from them and getting to, you know, further refine and adjust the program and refine and adjust my processes. And it's a two, it is a two way street, you know, like they learn from you, but also you learn from them.

Gerard Longo (22:38.139)
adds another layer of accountability for you to, you know, want to show up for them and want to make things better and better and better. So it's, you know, it's, it's really exciting. I feel called to do it. And it's, you know, something that we definitely, and I definitely look forward to expanding as we go and offering, you know, more under that umbrella as well, as far as, you know, some seminars, workshops down the road. So nothing to report on that yet, but you know, it's, it's in the works.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (23:08.967)
sounds like a really fun process and a really fun way to just kind of learn more about the industry as you're trying to help others with their pathway through the industry. I find that you learn a lot by trying to teach others. It's a huge piece is you learn a lot by teaching others and yeah.

Gerard Longo (23:24.502)
Yeah.

Gerard Longo (23:28.967)
Yeah. And, and just like, I love, I love when an idea is sparked, you know, from that, you know, like you kind of see the light bulb go off, you know, or even the light bulb goes off on mine. I'm like, Ooh, I have an idea for you. Like you just have that fun exchange of like, what do you think of this? Oh, I like it. Maybe we should do this too. Like it just starts that like momentum that grounds well, you know, I was working with a client here, uh, you know, and just trying to nail down, like, you know, what are his other interests that it can bring people in with? And we came up with an, I, with a pretty cool idea.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (23:33.513)
Is it?

Gerard Longo (23:57.247)
we both think for like a content series that'll bring people in who don't necessarily come in for the music and that content, but who might, you know, be interested in, you know, some of these other things. And then they can, that's their way into the platform. Right. And that's important too. You know, if you're building a platform, it's like, okay, how can I meet people where they are? You know, and it's, the answer is not always going to be your music. It's not always going to be your social media content. It's not always going to be any one thing, but it's the composite of those and who you are multifacetedly. That's eventually going to.

Gerard Longo (24:25.899)
connect you to your true audience. And so it's fun to helping people discover more about who that audience is and how to reach them. And that certainly, again, you know, it informs my processes too, because it's like, Ooh, okay, let's see how that works for them. And then if it really works, it's like, okay, we're onto something there. So more ideas like that, you know, like, yeah, you know, like let's spark more ideas like that and more coaching clients. And, you know, even, you know, as far as us building the platform ourselves, you know, like.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (24:45.64)
Exactly.

Gerard Longo (24:55.023)
It is, it's very reciprocal, informative, and it's really, it's a lot of fun. I'm glad to have arrived at this place where we've really stepped out and begun offering this in a formal sense, because I'm really enjoying it to this point.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (25:01.731)
Mm-hmm.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (25:10.547)
Yes, and just to make sure to my listeners, I do say fun a lot of the time, but it's also a lot of hard work in terms of learning everything. Yeah, I mean, just I know that building the business, learning how to do the LLC, learning how to do all these different portions, making sure that you're somewhat the accountant, the bookkeeper, doing all those different things, it's a huge amount to learn.

Gerard Longo (25:20.187)
Yeah.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (25:37.895)
at the end of the day when you're able to enjoy the process and enjoy everything that you've built, it's really big sense of fulfillment. So one thing that I did want to... Oh no, go ahead.

Gerard Longo (25:49.223)
Yeah, absolutely. You know, and it's important to know, go ahead. No, I was going to go ahead. Well, I was going to say it's important. I think understand how that backend works. So then you can eventually delegate it to other people, you know, like I'm finding myself at that point now where it's like, you know, okay, I know how the backend works, I know, you know, there there's just something that comes from knowing what good is, so you know, how to go seek that out and enlist that help, you know, because eventually, you know, as the

The Rogue Scientist Productions (25:57.973)
Yeah.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (26:04.367)
Thanks.

Gerard Longo (26:18.239)
founder as the head chef as whatever you want to call yourself, like you are responsible for the big picture. And that's a point that I've always known I need to get to. And, you know, it's exciting to see that finally take shape, but, you know, you have to really have the details down. So when somebody else does step in, they have everything they need. They're set up for success because otherwise, you know, you're going to be going back and putting out those fires and realizing the systems that you should have had in place, not to say that anyone's, you know,

Gerard Longo (26:44.971)
perfect, there are always going to be those things, but it's, it's best to lay that groundwork, you know, and understand how it all works. So you can impart that to somebody else when the time comes.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (26:54.271)
Exactly. One thing I did want to bring up was that you did say that you were launching a new platform today. Can you tell us a little bit more about that?

Gerard Longo (27:04.679)
Yeah, so this is probably out a little bit after, but today as a recording day, we launched the creative agency at UMC, which again, just goes through our mentality of the rising tide raises all boats by offering creative services from industry professionals. Everybody's been vetted and vouched for by UMC.

Gerard Longo (27:28.019)
as somebody who does quality work for the right reasons. And that's really, for the right reasons part is just as important. Somebody who's gonna really help you toward your artistic vision. And somebody who's going to create with you collaboratively. Whether that's a photographer, whether that's video production services, graphic design, web design. We have people in house who are really good at what they do and who do it with passion and purpose and wanna help you, the artist, the creative professional who enlists their services toward your.

Gerard Longo (27:56.683)
passion and purpose as well. And coaching's a part of that. We have a couple of music educators as well, partnering with our friends at Music on the Move studios, Aaron McLendon, who's a voice teacher, Katie Thompson, who's a multi-instrumental teacher. They're the co-founders of Music on the Move and we are partnering with them. They're a part of the creative agency at UMC as well. And we have some just really talented creatives across the board who...

Gerard Longo (28:23.495)
are ready and willing to serve. So if you go to undergroundmusicallective.com, you'll see two tiles when you get there. You'll see the blog on the left, which is the traditional reviews, features, all the stuff that brought us to the dance. And then you'll see the creative agency on the right. You click that, you can look at everyone's portfolio. You can fill out the form to directly reach them, and then we'll put you in touch. And then from there, you can really create some cool work. And again, everything that...

Gerard Longo (28:50.831)
You commission our creators for, our verified creators will then be highlighted as from the agency on the UMC platform. So it's a chance for you to get some additional shine, additional marketing boost for the finished product and of course where the finished product is leading you. A lot of artists, creatives, they'll commission a photographer or a graphic designer for a new release that's coming up. They might enlist one of our video people for a music video.

Gerard Longo (29:19.315)
You know, so of course we'll highlight that music video, you know, especially if it was shot in house, you know, the photography work, because we want to give shine not only to the people who are coming in and using our services, but the people providing them. And so this is a perfect way to do it. You know, I spent, you know, months before we launched is really refining this and finding the right people because we want to get it right. We want to really offer something that's a win-win for everyone involved. And we feel that this is it.

Gerard Longo (29:46.279)
And of course, there'll always be those processes where we're refining and we're adding things maybe to the pot. I have some ideas of what I even wanna add as far as scope and services, but this is a great start for us. And yeah, so if you go to the website, undergroundmusicallective.com, you can click that right tile to go to the agency and check out who we have for you to work with.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (30:08.243)
Perfect. And so I hate to cut things short, but our time for this episode is definitely running out. I would like to thank you, Gerard, for being on our podcast today. Are there any projects? Are there any social media accounts? Any upcoming events that you'd like our listeners to know about?

Gerard Longo (30:30.759)
Yeah, I would say again, the website underground music collective.com that's our central hub for everything. So you can find it there, whatever it is, but also Instagram's our primary social handle. So at UMC Nashville is the main UMC account at Quinn spin official is the main Quinn spin account. And if you want to see what's going on in the live local music scene here at Nash live shows, those are the big three. And if you want to follow me,

Gerard Longo (30:57.171)
Well, it's at Gerard Longo 12, all one word. And that's mostly UMC stuff, but there's also some like, you know, fitness and family and travel stuff when I can actually manage to get out of town. So, you know, if you wanna follow me too, go ahead. But you know, focus on the platform first because that's where you're gonna find all the good stuff.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (31:09.967)
Sure.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (31:17.871)
Thank you. As for me, you'll be able to find us on our website, the road scientist productions.com, where we have our merchandise and links to my story on Kindle Vella, the world beyond. You also have all of our road scientists, social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, everything across the board. The best way to support us is to like our podcast on your favorite podcast platform of choice. Let others know how much you've enjoyed our show. We want to thank you, Gerard, for being our guest on the show today and thank all of our listeners as well.

The Rogue Scientist Productions (31:47.639)
This has been our podcast to all those out there looking to start a new career in the arts such as acting, writing, music, comedy, and more. Always remember, pursuing your passions is a bitch, but it's worth it.