267. LIFERS - Tanner Dane

It’s been quite a summer for our buddy Tanner Dane — he and his band Hollyy have successfully turned the Belmont beach at Lake Michigan into a mini-Ravinia with their increasingly popular monthly pop-up shows that are only advertised at the last minute through their Tik-Toks and Instagrams. Except it’s not so mini anymore —thousands of people are showing up— and that’s driving the park district crazy. Cue the lawyers, cops and money. And if this sounds like business as usual in the city of Chicago — it’s also business as usual in the music biz. Where the “old boss” of making a name for yourself on indie labels until the majors deem you worthy of being called up to the big leagues meets the “new boss” of pumping up your social media numbers and manufacturing your own publicity schemes until the powers that be can bottle up all that buzz and finally release your excellent solo album that’s been hanging in limbo for longer than you’d like to admit. Same as it ever was. On this episode we talk to Tanner about the modern realities of being a musician, grand plans, the importance of a good solar battery, acting as your own suit, fighting city hall, mutualism, the joys of confusion, and we pick the best(?!?) opening lines in rock (spoiler: It’s “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar” and no one fucking picked it!).