Today we’d like to introduce you to Jan Seides.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I arrived in Austin in late 1971 from New York City, thinking I’d be leaving pretty quickly to go on to San Francisco. I only came because I met people from here in NYC who talked about it as if it was paradise, so I thought I’d stop and see paradise before I went to the Coast. But the “went to the Coast” part just never happened. I also thought I’d go back to NY at the end of the year, and go back to school there. But then I got the means through the state of Texas to attend UT, so that’s what I did instead.
Ten years later, I had two degrees, one in Music, one in Anthropology, and I had started writing and performing my own original songs. Of course, that never was going to make enough money to pay the bills, so I was playing piano to accompany dance classes at Ballet Austin, but even that was not enough. I was also writing people’s compositions down so there would be a tangible form to send to the US Copyright Office, but that stopped being necessary after about 1977. So I started teaching: piano, guitar, voice, mandolin, ukelele, theory, songwriting, whatever was requested.
Austin is awash in music teachers of all sorts, being a music town and also a university town, but I put together a studio unusually quickly because I was willing to go to my students. So my day started, for the most part, at 2:45pm when school let out, until 6 or 7pm each day, split between being at my students’ homes, or in my car. (I was a mother as well, so I was basically working the entire day.) That worked great for a couple of decades. Exhausting, as traffic became more and more challenging, but it paid the bills nicely.
Between teaching and performances both in Austin, and elsewhere in the rest of the country which I did several times a year, I was putting 20,000 miles a year on my car.
Then came the pandemic. I’ve always been pretty open-minded about technology, so I learned to use Zoom to teach, and now my studio is primarily online. And, interestingly, so are my performances.
I have a little songwriters-in-the-round show that I’ve been running since 2010 which started at NeWorlDeli on Guadalupe, and passed through Kickbutt Coffee for a few years, and is currently the first Friday of each month at Brentwood Social House. (Although we’ll be moving to First Fridays and the Vintage Bookstore and Winebar on East 5th in September because Brentwood is closing.)
It was based on that model that I put the show online in 2020, and it took me about 30 seconds to realize that I was no longer limited either to one day a month, or to musicians who were in or passing through Austin. Consequently, when the pandemic lockdown ended, I kept doing the show. The online show is called Any Sunday Songwriters, and features 2 writers from practically anywhere (The furthest away so far was India), and myself. There are hundreds of them online at https://youtube.com/janseides.
Beyond that, I have 6 albums available in physical or digital form (You can find them at https://janseides.bandcamp.com or https://janseides.com), and several singles. You can find all that on the usual streaming channels as well. And we’re currently in the studio creating a seventh album.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
I think that “smooth road” must only exist in someone’s (someone else’s) imagination. Struggles: The pandemic was the most recent, of course. Before that, I was doing all of the work I mentioned, while raising a daughter, and trying to maintain some kind of balance between her teenage turbulence and whatever the latest definition of sanity might have been. The average musician has to cobble a living together, and I was no exception. Being creative, inventive (I once taught a class of women how to tune up their own cars!), and frugal (Imagine my teenager’s feelings about that. She did not suffer in silence, more’s the pity.)
It took me awhile to figure out how to keep an income flowing throughout the year including the summer, but I worked it out after much trial and arrow.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Overall, I am a musician. Everything I do is related to that term. I am a singer/songwriter, performing my original songs in various venues, from house concerts to coffeehouses/listening rooms, to churches. In the last few years, I’ve been writing for musical theater, and now have two plays written. I run a Christmas caroling group, that performs all over Austin from Black Friday to December 24th. I play occasion-oriented music for weddings and other events of that nature. I teach people of all ages to make music .
I am very proud of the fact that I have found a way to make music my livelihood and my life. I can’t imagine a better one. Also, that I am part of a vast network of teachers who are making sure that the next generation or two will receive that part of the culture.
I have a long history of successful performances, award-winning songs, and musically-capable students. I’ve heard from various sources that when someone in Austin is looking for a good teacher, my name comes up more often than not.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is that I leave positive evidence of my being here behind – whether it be remembered songs that still get played, or pleasant memories of my performances, or successful students. We each get such a short time to bring something of value to the world. In my small way, I’m trying to leave it better than I found it. If my songs make someone laugh, or comfort someone in distress, or validate someone’s identity, then (I feel) I did the job I came to do. If one of my students can now play an instrument, and that gets them through a hard day or a hard life, or allows them to make their life better, then it was worth my limited time.
Pricing:
- Performances: $200/hr
- Lessons: $80/hr
- Wedding Ceremonies: $500
- Ceremony + Cocktail hour $1,000
- Christmas Carol performance (The Austin Carolers) $700/hr
Contact Info:
- Website: https://janseides.com | https://austincarolers.com | https://janseides.com/events
- Instagram: @janseides
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/janseidesmusic
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/janseides
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/janseides
