The hosts of The Better Band Bureau Podcast. Left to right: Matt Hoos, James Cross, and Aaron Gingras.

Do you feel like your band isn’t maximizing their potential? Do you feel like your band’s chemistry is off? Your guitarist sounds like a dying cat, your singer has a toxic napoleon complex, and your drummer keeps losing their sticks?

Find the solutions you need and discover the problems you didn’t realize you struggled with by listening to The Better Band Bureau Podcast every Wednesday from 7 to 8pm on 105.9FM. Your hosts James Cross, Aaron Gingras, and Matt Hoos will attempt to enlighten you on the ways and means of operating a successful band, whatever your version of success may be.

And now with that brief advert out of the way, I can discuss The Better Band Bureau Podcast on a personal note.

The first episode of the podcast I listened to featured Brandon Cunningham of Kawaii AF. Brandon is a small artist with a big voice, and following the tragedy and turmoil surrounding George Floyd’s death he decided to let his voice loose in an emotionally charged post. At the same time, James Cross was looking for a guest for BBB that would allow him to address the current issues.

As James puts it, “After the murder of George Floyd and everything I was like: I can’t talk about this…I can interview someone, but I should not be the person putting my thoughts out there because they don’t apply.”

And so James went looking for a guest. He had worked with Kawaii AF in 2018, so he was familiar with both Brandon’s gusto and social awareness. “He’s great with branding and image. He’s very outspoken. He is the perfect person. And thankfully he said yes when I asked him,” says James.

The episode, titled “How We Can Fight for Racial Justice in the Rock Scene: Brandon Cunningham’s Story,” aired on June 24. We talk more about it here, and it’s available on the podcast’s site. I cannot recommend it enough.

This is when my enjoyment of the podcast began, and I’d like to preface my appreciation for it by saying that I am not in a band and am barely a musician. I’m that one friend that owns a guitar, but more so as a fung shui element than an instrument. So what I’m saying is that this podcast, while benefiting musicians, can apply to all.

There’s an episode on managing your band’s chemistry, and the importance of having a parental figure in the band’s lineup. This topic applies to more than just bands, and includes anyone operating as a part of a team, business, or other group. And it’s these sorts of episodes that keep me listening.

I spoke with one of the people behind the podcast. The show’s primary educator, interviewer, and voice, James Cross is a multi-talented artist, engineer, manager, and producer. While his skillset mostly revolves around sound engineering, that’s still just one of the many things he does.

“I run a mixing and mastering studio called Pinnacle Pro Sound. Long story short, about ten years ago I started working at WGDR Plainfield, which is a community radio station, and did a bunch of stuff over there. Anything from running sound for their live shows to even training the new hosts that were coming in…”

His long-story-short wasn’t all that short. To reduce it further, James studied audio and entertainment management at Bay State College; he worked on the Warped Tour for three summers, putting him in touch with the music industry; he then stepped away from music until 2018, when he started Pinnacle Pro Sound and opened his recording studio.

Along the way he did play a little bit, filling in for bands here and there, but never settling into a permanent lineup. Notably, he did a five day tour with the late band Better Things. Their bassist left for basic training, so the band reached out to James, who said yes, but only if they let him work as their tour manager too. Naturally they agreed. Why would you say no to someone asking to do more?

The result of James’ bookkeeping was elation. “They were all just blown away because they had never seen what the numbers actually were for their previous tours.” And in a surprising twist for the band, “they actually made money on a five day weekender tour. They were astounded. And they would have never known that because they didn’t track their finances.”

These experiences—dealing with production, sound design, and band management—resulted in James acquiring a wide range of musical skills. “I’m a jack of all trades and a master of none,” says James. And with his wide breadth of knowledge, there were a lot of people asking him for help.

The podcast was kickstarted when, as James says, “I kept hearing people come to me with music industry questions, and I was like, ‘you know what, I have to do something about this.’” So he formulated a plan and brought Aaron Gingras and Matt Hoos into the mix. Both add their unique perspectives to the podcast.

Aaron Gingras, who plays with Suburban Samurai, did six years of production and coordination work for a major artist, and has a vast amount of touring and live production experience according to James.

“That’s my background too: touring, tour management,” says James. “But he is so much more specific in that one niche of production than I am whereas mine is a 30,000 foot overview.”

James met Matt Hoos during James’ stint on the Warped Tour. They haven’t met in person since, as Matt hopped on the Oregon Trail and headed west, but doing the podcast every week has kept them close. James brought Matt onto the show for his marketing and digital branding experience.

Matt Hoos, who plays for Alive in Barcelona, would often wander amongst the throngs of fans waiting to enter the concert. He’d peddle his band’s wares, then known as The Preserving Promise, and would sometimes sell $2,000 worth of CDs and merch before the doors opened. “Which is insane,” James says, “because a lot of the bands on the tour don’t even make that much. Like, they just hang out at their tent and make a hundred bucks for playing the show.” Matt displayed the vital role entrepreneurship plays in running a band, and in many ways displayed what The Better Band Bureau Podcast is all about: going the extra mile.

The podcast spends a lot of time focusing on the little things, as well as the big things that bands overlook, misinterpret, or ignore, and how all of these things are related. A potential reason why you’re not getting signed may be the same reason your songs lose their punch during production. The point the show often makes is how interrelated the individual struggles of operating a band become. Their are many moving parts to take into account, and The Better Band Bureau Podcast attempts to cover them.

“I realized that by putting that information out there I could help so many more people, rather than talking to people one on one,” says James. “I could never have one hundred conversations about the same topic and not be totally burned out.” Though he still loves helping people individually, the podcast’s platform allows him to reach more people than he would otherwise. Hundreds of people are downloading the episodes each week, according to James, and this is on top of those listening on air and streaming it.

The future of The Better Band Bureau Podcast is more than just a podcast. “We do want to open it up further and do coaching and have courses and all kinds of stuff to help DIY artists become successful financially or statistically or whatever they’re looking for. Artists don’t all have the same goals. So the artist who just loves to make music and wants to play a show for their friends once a month is going to have totally different goals than the artist who wants to make it big, which I would argue there’s no such thing as that anymore unless you’re a pop star. But the artist who wants to live the life and tour for six months out of the year, release an album, or release a bunch of singles—that kind of stuff—those people have very different goals. And so we’re going for the people who want to take the business seriously whether their goal is to make money or to have fun.”

As James implies, every artist has a choice how they want to approach music. As a career or a hobby. And likewise every artist can make the appropriate decisions in order to be self-sustaining, and he wants to help artists achieve that. It’s possible to profit from one show per month, or six in a week, according to James.

The classes and workshops are still just an idea in James’ head, and nothing to plan for, but it shows the heart of The Better Band Bureau Podcast. A desire to help, educate, and inspire.

James Cross always supports a go-getter attitude. He believes “the best time to plant a tree is ten years ago. The second best time to plant a tree is today.” So whether you’re launching a band, recording an album, or just picking up an instrument, your first words of advice are to say screw your inhibitions. Just put yourself out there.

Your second words of advice (coming from me) are to listen to The Better Band Bureau Podcast, because they’ll help you learn what to do next, like taping a stick to each of your drummer’s fingers. That way he’ll never lose them again.

You can find better tips than that by listening to The Better Band Bureau Podcast, airing every Wednesday on 105.9FM from 7 to 8pm. It’s also available on their website, where episodes are available always, and new episodes air every Tuesday at 6am.

Text by Luke Vidic.

Photos courtesy of James Cross.

DJ Spotlight: James Cross and The Better Band Bureau Podcast