Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Bettencourt.
Hi eric, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I was born in south eastern Massachusetts and my family moved to northern Maine when I was 10 or 11. We lived in a very small town of around 900-1200 people. I had a freethinking neighbor who became a mentor of sorts who taught me my first guitar chords and eventually helping me to string together into song parts of bands I was obsessed with like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and The Beatles. Combining simple guitar riffs and chord patterns with melodies and lyrics came naturally for some reason. Before I knew all the basic chords or even how to play an entire songs I was combing simple riffs and chord patterns with lyrics and vocal melodies into snippets that felt to me like unique creations. Music and songwriting after this point became nothing less than an obsession.
After completing high school in 1996 I began classes at Maine’s largest college, The University Of Orono. Ended up graduating from UMO with a BS in Mass Communication with a focus on Design and Advertising. But by the end of my four years I wanted nothing more to do with any of that; my goal was to make a living playing music.
During summer breaks over those years, friends and I would head to the coast of Maine, to live in and around the largest and most happening city in the state, Portland. I learned to build houses during the days and at night we’d head out to watch bands and basically rip it up. As 20-somethings tend to do. Had many stretches over the years of playing with local music groups as well.
Eventually I found a way out of the daily grind and phased into teaching guitar lessons around town. This lasted until I became too busy with my own bands and music. Giraffe Attack was the first band I started that really gained traction and provided me enough income to focus on only music. Like most groups we started playing covers but over time our own songs grew popular with our regular dive bar crowds so we leaned harder into that.
By that point I probably has 100 songs, many of which, didn’t fit in the bar-band scene so in the mid/late 2000’s I bought my real recording setup and began to track my original music as I learned the art of studio engineering.
I dropped my first album, Fine Old World, in 2009. It was well received by the local musicians and music fans alike. This provided tons of opportunities for better shows, radio and TV spots but more importantly, it gave me a sold network of musicians, many of whom I looked up too; as well an friendships with many of the scenes movers and shakers. Basically I had found my community.
While working on Fine Old World I was simultaneously recording a slew of the more rocky, harder-hitting songs we played live in Giraffe Attack. Six months after my debut album came The Giraffe Attack Collection.
By this point I had expanded my vision and studio space and started a record company of sorts. Ultimately I ended up fully producing half a dozen or albums for local artists and stayed busy with many smaller recording projects for other acts. All the while I was still playing live most nights of the week as well as grinding away at recording my own tunes.
In 2011 I released another album titled Secret Songs for Secret People. This was the most well-received LP to date and garnered me further credibility in the local music scene. I brought to light the more folky aspect of songwriting style.
About a year later I dropped the Weightless Embrace EP, it was a collection of uniquely arranged cover songs. For example, we took the frantic Jimi Hendrix song Manic Depression and did a slow, moody rendition in a minor key.
Around this time I began to think seriously about moving to a bigger market. The alure was equal parts finding more challenge in the craft and better climate. Half my bloodline is Portuguese and this is where I get my love of how climate I’m pretty sure. Maine was definitely a problem in this regard.
All the while I was still playing live but the band lineup had changed and I started fresh with a new group called Velourosaurus. We picked up where Giraffe Attack left off still playing almost nightly around the Southern Maine bar-scene but pushed more into higher paying gigs like weddings and corporate functions.
Still I found myself ready for a change and began the process of packing and planning for a move to Austin. Out of all the viable music scenes Austin fit best, both in terms of climate and vibe. During late 2012 I drove an antique VW camper van south excited to delve into something completely new.
Knowing no one and really knowing nothing about the city I began to sus out open mic nights and was immediately offered many gigs at the bars hosting them. Due to quick friendships and locals eager to help me find a footing I was turned on to stages with great local bands. Overtime many of the artists I came to love also because friends and I found myself playing with many of Austin’s best musicians like David Hamburger, Jeff Plankenhorn, and Dave Scher to name a few.
Hamburger and I would go on to start a rockin’ blues/folk band called Club Staccato. We were playing a weekly residency at Strange Brew, one of the best clubs in town at the time, when it shut down.
It was around this time that I began submitting my songs to song writing festival like the famous Kerrville Folk Festival. In 2013 I was one of six winners. Adrianne Lenker, who would go on to form the world famous indie act Big Thief, was one of the finalists as well that year. Adrianne, with now Big Thief guitarist, Buck Meek, and I did a short tour together in the northeast where I was able to introduce them to my fans while they helped get me find stages in NYC, where they lived.
Once Strange Brew shuttered it’s door Cub Staccato lost enough momentum that I formed another band called The Fursdays. The band name came in part from our Thursday residency at the doomed Hill’s Café in South Austin. I played mostly acoustic with David Jimenz (The Last Jimenez) on guitar and Irland transplant. Andrea Magee on the bodhran, a traditional Irish drum. Andrea is currently making waves in the duo, Beat Root Revival, and well as solo artist. We would all sing on each other’s songs taking turns in the spotlight.
Over these years I would make the trek back to Maine picking up where I left off the year before with regular gigs around town lucky to have mostly the same players every year.
In 2013-14 we developed live a ton of new songs I had been working on and before I headed back south we went into a professional recording studio and tracked them all. I finished the recordings in Austin and released An Underwater Dream in 2014. Another well received LP that I even had pressed to vinyl.
All throughout I was still making all my income from playing music but was slowly getting burned out as most of the highest paying gigs were a slog. I began to grow weary of playing weddings and hotel lobbies. Unfortunately the shows that I played my music became far and few between because the pay wasn’t comparable and I found myself frequently wanting money to cover bills.
Although I was still working on another album and releasing the occasional single I was slowly backing away from wanting to play music. This realization was a turning point for me. My main motivation, and love of the craft, has always been targeted fat creating music not regurgitating it; which is what the higher paying shows called for. In my younger days rocking covers to drunk crowds with some of my best friends was great but it sioly go old. As this routine grew stale I recognized the danger towards my genuine love of music-making if I continued on this way.
So I began to distance myself from the gigs I didn’t like and that forced me to consider other options for earning income. I have always loved working my with hands and building an fixing stuff and starting doing many odd jobs around the city. Everything from repairing cars and music gear to general house upkeep. Although I didn’t love this work in the same capacity I found it preferrable to playing shows that made me dislike playing.
Even though I had taken a step back from playing so regularly I was still writing and recording constantly though with far less time to do so, given the work I was doing on the side. But the pandemic gave me a great opportunity to stay home and focus on just music. I began streaming YouTube shows from my little recording space and was able to support myself financially through that bleak stretch.
Thanks to this strange respite from the daily grind I was able to finish, Bric-a-brac in 2020, my 5th full-length album.
Though it was very well received I didn’t get the momentum I was hoping for. And I was still very weary of using the thing I love to derive all my income so I continued to work as a general handy-man around Austin. After Bric-a-brac I released a few more singles then life got very much in the way.
For five years I had been living in a great spot in an ‘old’ South Austin neighborhood but it was time to move. Over the years I had amassed a great collection of wood working tools and studio gear and the space had grown pretty camped. This became an important inflection point and seemed like a good time to go about things in a different and better way then I had. I’d always kinda ‘lived in my work’ but I was ready to keep living/working/and music separate.
Long story short: For reasons mostly out of my control I had to move all three space several times. I now have a solid woodworking shop, which I absolutely love, but had to settle on a less than ideal living situation with my studio crammed into my bedroom, again. Coming off the heels of so much incessant busy work I can’t bear the thought of starting the whole process over, so I’m trying to make the best of the situation for the time being.
It’s only been in the last few months that I’ve been able to settle back into my life and sit down at the microphone. And as much as these last years were a total slog, aside from the Maine Summer runs which I still do; I did come out of it with a new found appreciation, love and perspective for music. If things happen for a reason then in this case this was it.
All that said, I am in the process of building momentum in a different way than before and will start on November 13 at the iconic Saxon Pub with a killer band.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definity have had my share of challenges over the years. Probably the biggest one I had to overcome first was a lack of natural talent. Every bit of skill I have was hard won.
My grandfather played church organ but aside form that I didn’t really come from a musical family. I still think on how unlikely it is that I play at all considering music in general wasn’t a big part of growing up at all.
My parents bought my younger brother an acoustic guitar for christmas one year. I was probably 9 or 10 at the time and he’s a couple years younger than me. For years that thing went untouched. It was in my early teens that I became obsessed with Jimi Henrdrix among other classic artists as I mentioned. I thought it was pure magic that I could literally make the same sounds on this old guitar that I was hearing off these cassette tapes. I think purple haze was the first ‘riff’ I learned. .
At the time I couldn’t sing a lick. Never used my voice in that way but knew I had to figure it out. It wasn’t until my very late teens that I began to try singing.
I was lucky to grow up with a few musicians my age who were absolute naturals. So I had a certain level of real world inspiration to draw from. We didn’t have internet or anything like that by then so I’m thankful to have had these friends as examples of what was possible.
With guitar I would do my best to learn. Essentially I had to teach myself how to learn the guitar. It was a clunk process and for a long time I was a clunky player but eventually I got better and better at learning how to learn and it was an exponential up-curve after awhile. The better I got the more motivated I became; the more I pushed forward.
What I lacked in ‘natural talent’ I made up for with grit and determination. I’ve always been someone who goes full bore when I lock into something. And learning the guitar and entering the world of possibility that came with it was like a north star.
Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses and though an aptitude for music wasn’t my strong suite my creative imagination made up for it.
I’d always loved drawing and painting as a kid and had a fairly vivid imagination and deep curiosity for pretty much anything I didn’t understand. It was this drive to understand things in a complete way that leant itself to the beginnings of my musical awakening.
Pretty much of the gate I was humming little melodies around the riffs and chord patterns I was coming up with. And this is still how songs are born. I finished a couple songs that were comprised of the only chords I knew at the time. They were simple, and if I am being honest they’re quite terrible, but they felt like a creation that was unique to me anyways. Songwriting also became an obsession that I still hold to this day.
Over the years I would occasionally play a show and sing in public and when I listened back to recordings it never squared with what I thought it sounded like. I knew this was the next thing to figure out.
It was only in the early 2000’s that I began challenging my voice to go places it wasn’t used to. I had bought a Bealtes song book and taught myself to read the vocal notes so that I could pick them on guitar and match my voice. Around this time I also got a decent 4-track recorder and fell in love with layer song parts and then mixing the final tracks into something I could listen to. It was an indispensable tool for honing and strengthen my voice, and eventually learning to even sing harmonies on it.
It took years of trying different deliveries and styles to find confidence in my own sound.
One of the most important aspects I listen for in any song is uniqueness. If something is too derivative of something familiar I have no time for it. I do feel very fortunate to have found my own sound. Another lucky break that I feel extremely fortunate for.
When I started playing music, recording albums and making money the biggest drag was having to book myself. Something I am still terrible at. It was my kryptonite. But as I made more of a name for myself the gigs and opportunities came to me enough that I didn’t have to walk around what my hat in my hand.
On the horizon of this exciting time for me was another unexpected road block; social media.
To this day posting anything on social media is like a triple dose of kryptonite. If I had to choose I would say this bleak landscape is probably the biggest struggle for me. I admire artists who are good at it but I feel on some level that having the love and ability for self-adverting is antithetical to what makes a creative person tick. It’s been my experience anyways that the more business minded an artist is the more they are lacking in originality. Obviously there’s fringe cases that go against all of this but for the most part I don’t think it’s an easy balance to achieve.
This is one of the many reasons that I’ve had to step away from making music for a living. The slog of all the posting and engagement did it’s fair share to push me from this pursuit.
Probably next on the list, if not tied with having to engage with social media, is the feast or famine aspect of playing music. The two things combined played a huge role in forcing me to step away from playing live to recalibrate and get to a point where making my daily take was automatic.
Every facet of my life suffered when I found myself without enough money for the basics. The biggest issue was with the kind of shows that consistently paid well. They were the worst ones. Weddings and wall flower hotel lobbies.
There’s not many things better than playing in front of a crowd hanging on every word and note of a song you’d written. I was spoiled but this kind of experience many times but my lack of follow through and momentum building, due to my lack of will power when it came to booking and social media; kept my progress from level to level too slow to bear. This cycle of playing the kinds of shows where being unappreciated and largely unnoticed began to grate heavily on my nerves and my drive to play at all. I found myself wanting to do anything but music and the more I slogged through it the worst it got.
So I started taking side jobs fixing various things for people in my south Austin neighborhood. Be it cars, guitar or basic property maintenance I had found a steady cash flow. It’s been about 3 years since I dove headlong into real-world work. This solved the cash flow issue and though I was still playing the occasional show I knew I had to find a new model for getting back into playing music.
It’s been a crazy few years just trying to get settled into a place that I could record and work again but I’m back in the clear and currently working on rebooting my music career.
Addendum: I would also add a touch of perfectionism to this list. I’ve been working for a long time at the art of “letting go” – but getting things perfect, esp in the case of making recording sound exactly like they do in my head; has definitely hindered my output. it’s something I am very aware of and fight best i can everyday.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I have way too many hobbies and interests and often end up making money from them. For instance I taught guitar lessons for years and have been thinking about building a roaster up again. currently I’m very much in the process of phasing out of work and services for other people to bring the scope of my income closer to the things that truly fulfill me.
I have a woodworking shop in South Austin and spend a lot of time tinkering on various projects. Some are paid commissions and some general repair jobs for everything from furniture to guitars. A lot are just things I feel like making or modifiying. Currently have several custom guitar builds ‘on the bench’.
As I said above I’ve been come pretty proficient at the workings of a recording studio and for awhile was helping other artists bring their musical ideas to life.
Can you talk to us a bit about the role of luck?
I’m sure luck played a part but honestly I was really hoping for way more!
Those stories of ‘beign discovered” are alluring and on some level i thought that would eventually get me the boost needed to get to another level but all my fanbase has been organic and hard-won.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ebettencourt.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericbettencourt
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EricBettencourtMusic/
- LinkedIn: https://ericbettencourt.bandcamp.com/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/EricBettencourt-Ch2
- Yelp: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/eric-bettencourt/300685333
- Soundcloud: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4M9QLrQVHyGxzc2MbnJL8R?si=YGML_JYiSOqPUg0Bj93q7g&nd=1&dlsi=d6dd9e191f774be6
