Brass Mash Internships
Nat testing the photo booth at Liquid Gravity Prom-ish
If you have been to one of our shows recently, you may have noticed some fresh faces greeting you at the door or the merch booth. You may have noticed that we have lots of equipment in place when we play. And since time moves forward, you may have concluded that none of the band members are getting any younger (except Kai, who is probably forever youthful). It takes a lot of work to run these shows.
Enter our interns! Says our bandleader, Colin - “The interns make my life liveable! They are doing all the jobs that need to happen during the show. They are collecting money at the door, they are running Go-Pros, they are setting up and tearing down, decorating if we need to decorate. I couldn’t do it without them. Making the band happy by not having to put a bunch of heavy stuff in the trailer.” Did I mention we’re all old? We need this help!
Michaela and Julianna working the super important merch booth at the Avila Beach Party
Nicholas Mendez, our lead intern, offers more details about what interns do at shows. “We get together and make a game plan of how the night’s going to go - who will be watching the door, manning the cameras for social media. We interact with the fans, as they tend to ask us questions about the group…it’s almost a promotion type thing, we always talk about [the band].”
Colin, who has worked as an educator teaching multiple aspects of music and theater tech, implemented our internship program with reciprocal benefits in mind. “It’s important to let students know that careers in music are entirely possible,” Colin says. “There are hard skills that you can take on and learn, and they’re so usable. Being able to set up and tear down a sound system, and wrap a cable properly - It doesn’t matter what type of instrument you play, if you can do that, you are so valuable.”
Our interns get hands-on experience in their preferred field of expertise. “I knew,” says Colin, “if I could get a couple of Cal Poly students who are genuinely interested in being in the music business, I’ll just interview them and figure out what they’re good at and where they see their future. I’ll make positions that meet their interests. I don’t interview interns for a specific thing that I need - I interview them for positions that they need for their careers, and make a position that will help their resume.”
“I’ll do anything to help - I’ll write letters of rec, they can put Brass Mash on their resume. I come up with as many perks as I can.”
As you’ll see in future posts, our interns have had different paths to working with us. “We put up posters at Cal Poly, and I have a contact at the Cal Poly music department. When students go to an advisory session and say they want music industry experience, they’ll send them to me to see if it’s a good fit,” says Colin. “Sometimes they just show up! Or people just call me.”
If you are interested in helping out Brass Mash as an intern, let us know! And check out the other blog posts that feature our amazing interns.
