Today we’d like to introduce you to The Ransom Brothers.
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?
Sean McHargue and Daniel Solis met about 4 years ago through a mutual friend and started doing open mics. That eventually led them to being invited to play at The Saxon Pub. From there, they pushed to find some dedicated members to bring the project to life. Over time they added members Phil Eckhardt on bass, John Thomas on fiddle, James Rodman on Keys, and Aaron English on drums. The band has grown a solid following here in Austin with our big southern rock sound and continues to expand throughout and beyond Texas. Recently they played their debut show at Continental Club to a packed house and have made plans for Antones (not yet announced) this summer.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s never a smooth road in the music industry. There’s shows you get stiffed or paid next to nothing, there’s time equipment breaks, there’s times you play a great show and go to the next to play for 2 people. If you can’t roll with the punches in this industry, you won’t make it. Beyond the factors of the industry, maintaining healthy communication amongst band members is probably one of the hardest things to do. Hard in the sense that it takes a lot of effort to truly communicate with someone, let alone 5-6 other people at times, and make sure everyone is feeling their voice is heard, and they’re getting to play what they want. We all care about it enough to be vulnerable and honest with each other; that’s what makes our big band work, on top of being killer musicians.
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?
We have a big band 6 members, including two guitars, keys, fiddle, drums, and bass. Our singer and fiddle player harmonize on certain songs, with adds a lot to our sound. But the big difference is we make sure all 6 instruments have interesting parts to the music, there’s a lot going on, but if you listen to what’s happening, it all works really well together; it’s never really taken us long to work out parts either, the guys in the band are extremely creative/talented and come up with parts to songs on the fly all the time.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Be prepared to fail, be prepared to feel discouraged. But if you can use all that to motivate yourself to get where you want to be, the hard work pays off. But there’s a lot of networking to be done, most people don’t look at this as a business right away, but that’s what it is, we’ve always attacked everything with that mindset, and it’s led us to where we are.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.theransombrothers.com
- Instagram: @theransombrothers
- Facebook: @theransombrothers
Image Credits
Jaclynn Pierce
