Will Eastman, owner of U Street Music Hall, a music venue in Washington D.C., visited the Maryland Music Business Society’s latest meeting last Thursday. He spoke about running a popular music venue and producing music as a DJ.
MMBS members were extremely interested in hearing Eastman talk about how he established both the U Street Music Hall and Volta Bureau, a music group consisting of him and two other DJs.
Eastman described the process of establishing U Street Music Hall as long and difficult. Due to the massive cost of the project, he split the cost with five of his friends, who all hold equal ownership over the establishment. The project itself began in 2004, but construction itself did not begin until 2007. The building was an old pool bar, which was very convenient for Eastman and his friends, as it had most of the infrastructure already installed. Eastman said that adding the necessary infrastructure, such as bathroom facilities and HVAC systems would have doubled the cost of the whole operation.
U Street Music Hall opened in March 2010, with just six people on staff. The venue initially struggled to attract major artists, so the staff members, who were all part-time DJs, played their own music. Today, the U Street Music Hall employs 25 people, including an accountant, a technician and a lawyer.
Eastman said that running a business as chaotic as a music venue is very hard.
“If I had to give myself a job title, it would be worrier-in-chief,” he said. “There are so many things that all need to go right for a band to successfully play a gig, and I have to make sure each of those things happen.”
Eastman also talked about his experiences with running a musical group. He is a member of Volta Bureau, a three man electronic DJ group. He said that being a member of a band or a group was also hard work.
“Each of us gets a say on how we mix a song,” Eastman said.
Since everyone has different tastes, one person might not like what the other two people have done to a song mix. He said that these disagreements can become a source of tension for the group.
He also talked about how to become successful as a musician. He said that getting established DJs and radio stations to play an artist’s music is an important component of success. Volta Bureau experienced this when Pete Tong played one of their songs on BBC Radio 1, giving the group a lot of exposure to potential new fans.