Your Lore Chapter 13: David Onigman - CEO, JamBase
YOUR LORE: DAVID ONIGMAN, CEO JAMBASE
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INTRODUCING DAVE
To be honest I can’t completely recall when I met Dave Onigman, “DaveO” to those who can name any Phish or Dead tune AND the year of its recording in the first note. If you can’t he’s Dave. To be clear he’s Dave to me. #Fail. Now Dave is one of those guys I’ve felt like I’ve always known, a BFF I never knew I had, until i did. What I do know is that he’s a few lbs younger than me and having grown up in Massachusetts he saw Strangefolk when he was but a young-in. Authors note: in preparing this post I noticed a “he could be my cousin” resemblance in the picture above, that hadn’t previously caught my attention. To be fair I get the “best friend I never knew” glow from nearly anyone who utters “Strangefolk bla bla bla 199X”. BUT Dave didn’t lead with that, in fact I think it fell out on accident years after we got to know each other. Dave’s an understated dude by most measures, unassuming, curious, affable and comfortable in his everyman’s “this is what i am” stance. Unapologetic in optimizing for being who he is. That’s the core of what makes Dave exceptional. There is however one nuclear explosive that radiates from that core and defies his otherwise “let the river take me where it wants to go” approach to most things, his love of music. Driven by that passion he and a small but might team have done amazing things at JamBase including their core live show data base, The JamBase Podcast, The JamBase exclusive videos series Songs of Their Own, 20 Years Later, Gimme Shelter in Place, and more recently there Live Stream Schedule and JamBase Live Video Archive <= (this is badass.)
When in comes to music he and his merry band have interviewed, reviewed or gotten stewed backstage at any and every act you and I know and love but that’s not their MO. Dave & Co are fiends, freak shows, obsessively and unavoidably “of music” that’s part of what I love about him and the JamBase team as a whole. And that my friends is where this particular story begins - and ends. Ladies and gentlemen, children of all ages please welcome “DaveO” - that’s Dave to you (and me).
Reid: You’re a class of person who I would categorize as “of music.” You're like a music junkie . How did that “music addiction” unfold? When were you self aware of it?
David: Pretty early! My Dad was deeply into music, he had pretty eclectic tastes but Neil Young was his #1 artist of all time. My mom can’t stand Neil Young’s voice. Being the youngest of three and a father who bought a lot of records and tapes, I think the “music addiction” started early exploring his collection. I remember listening to the tape of Sgt. Pepper’s being a big day. Then it was picking up the saxophone in 4th grade that put me on a path of listening to a lot of Miles Davis and John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins and going to see a lot of jazz at a young age when I was often the only young kid there with his parents.
By the time high school came around I was definitely aware that I was a ‘music guy.’ I was playing or singing in any school-sponsored ensemble that was available to me. I was in Concert Band and Jazz Band, and I would sing in the choir - but it was like, Choir & Band met at the same time so they had this smaller add-on choir for band kids that I also wanted to sing. And I was in Vocal Jazz, and I would have a band every year with my friends, and I’d be the guy that would head up music for whatever the drama department was doing that year, and then the dance troupe needed someone to play music between numbers so they could change outfits - and we’d be the ones to do it.
Then my friend Kati brought me to go see Phish in 1999, thank you Kati.
Reid: I see you as a live music guy vs. recorded album guy is that accurate and is there a hard line in your own thinking between your engagement/enjoyment of live recorded music and albums?
David: I think you’re likely wrong on this one, even before COVID if I had to describe myself as a recorded album guy vs. a live music guy, I might have still told you recorded album guy!
Please don’t get me wrong, live music is one of my favorite things in life, but I’ve got two young kids and also just a general problem with staying up too late at night these days. And as far as engagement goes,
I would describe my listening experience to recorded music as more engaged than that of a live show. At least in the evenings when I’m consciously sitting down to listen to some music, which I try to make time to do. I have a stereo system in my living room that I absolutely love and sometimes it doesn’t get any better than listening to a record in your own living room, by yourself.
When I’m at a show, and I want to reiterate, I love live music and find it to be one of the most life affirming experiences in life, but when I’m at a show - I’m engaged with a live production which is more than just the music. It’s about how the FOH engineer is doing with the mix and what the light show looks like, even a small one, or how they are constructing the flow of their show. I’m very engaged at a live show to a number of items, but I’m kind of even more in my music zone listening to an album, by myself, with no distractions, as the artist and producer intended.
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Reid: What's your go to playbook at a live show in a bar vs say a shed - do you have a spot you like to be? Are you thinking sightlines, sonics, close to the band, close to the bar?
David: You can generally find me “near the back” of things. Like the Great American Music Hall or The Fillmore? Right towards the back of the floor. Or at The Greek in Berkeley - at the back of the bowl, in the center. I’d take sonics over sightlines for sure. Bars are good, too. But ideally I want to be standing in a spot that’s not the most crowded spot in the room and that sounds great. I know what all these musicians look like, and especially in a case like yours, I don’t want to be seeing that all front row and center and shit.
Reid: Your oldest kid Graham is a “live music kid.” In fact, he was in the latest Tea Leaf Green music video. How much of that do you think is nurture vs. nature. Obviously he’s been around music a ton, but how does he compare to you as a kid? Approximately how many shows has he seen, and what are his favorite bands or songs?
David: Ha! Yes he is. I think a lot of it is nurture in just the exposure he has at home and through stuff we do with JamBase. But he also genuinely finds music interesting. His interest level has probably diminished a bit since he last saw you. It’s a bit more about YouTube videos of Marvel Easter Eggs or theories or building legos these days. Don’t get me wrong, he’s still much more hip to all things music than your average six year old, but the days of him being able to recite the Jason Isbell setlist he saw at The Fox four months ago in sequence are behind us for the time being.
He’s been to a lot of shows, and I’m not sure how to quantify it. I should make him a JamBase account so I can track these for him! He’s been to the past few High Sierra Music Festival’s, he’s seen Jason Isbell a handful of times, lots of other smaller festivals and one-day multi-band shows in the Bay Area for sure. Being an ‘industry kid’ he also gets to do awesome stuff like seeing a band’s soundcheck before their shows or record videos with us at the office. Every year when Umphrey’s McGee comes to town we go on down to the Fox Theater, and he gets to see the band and run around The Fox when it’s completely empty which is always incredibly special. I think his favorite artist is Jason Isbell; he likes Phish a lot, too. He also likes The Lil’ Smokies, one of my wife’s favorite artists.
I worry about the Rock & Roll privilege he grows up with. It’s like most of the shows he’s gone to, he gets to say hello to the artists ,or has his run of the place, or could go the soundcheck or things like that. Graham has hung out with Trey more recently than I have! It was at High Sierra a few years back and we were busy working on recording a video or something and Graham came back to camp and was like, “I MET TREY!” - cause my wife had run into him backstage when they were walking around. I love that he can have these experiences but it’s like, damn it kid - you’re supposed to show up to your first music festival woefully unprepared in a tent that leaks water and sleep horribly, not go eat the band’s snacks while they are on stage.
Reid: What are some guilty pleasures you have in regards to music listening? Bands or songs that Jamband fans might find “off center” one way or the other?
David: I’m not a big fan of the term guilty pleasure, if you like something - fuck it, you like it, don’t feel guilty about it. Especially if it’s music. But to the spirit of the question, my wife has brought me to see Kelly Clarkson two different times and both times it was fucking awesome. She puts on a hell of a show, has incredible pipes, and both times I saw her she was doing this thing where she was playing a new different cover every night which was cool. A certain type of ‘jamband fan’ might find the amount of pop music or country music I listen to off-center. Like Nate Reuss, before he was in fun., he was in this band called The Format which is like some of the best pop/rock songs you’ll ever hear. I love shit like that. If you’ve never heard it check out their album Dog Problems.
Reid: You are understated about it, but I’ve been on the receiving end of your musical talent. How do you see yourself as a musician? What do you aspire to creatively in playing music, and/or personally, what’s your drive? Is it informed by the avid listener side of you or some other separate perspective in your head, The Creator Dave persona?
David: That is kind. As far as how I see myself as a musician, how about jack of all trades and master of none? But lately I’ve been embracing my rhythm guitar & vocals role. During COVID right before we moved, I was playing a socially distanced block party in front of my house in San Leandro. It went for 15 weeks straight, and I played over 250 tunes and it grew into something special in the neighborhood right around Week 8 or 9. A lot of people were coming out and it was something we all looked forward to doing on Friday’s - watching David getting drunk and play covers! A friend and neighbor has taken over the slot from me after I left to keep it going which I’m happy about.
I aspire to keep up the craft as long as I am able and hope to pass along the joy of playing music to my two children. I believe playing instruments and writing songs is a strong path towards having a far more intimate relationship with music, both recorded and live. I wrote a batch of songs like ten years ago, and every year I say I am going to finally go into a studio and record just to have them on an album, that’s something I hope I actually do this year. I feel like if more people tried to write a song and then took the leap to perform it in front of people, there would be a lot less criticism of people’s songwriting out there. I see these Phish fans on Twitter sounding off about songwriting and I’m certain 99 out of 100 of them have never put themselves out there, written a song and then gone through the experience of then singing it into a microphone on an audience that has never heard it before.
JamBase | Gimme Shelter In Place: Video Series
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Reid: Any videos or recordings I might share with the adoring massses?
David: Sure, Me & Jake Alexander did Standing On The Moon, I’m happy with the way that one turned out. It was never in the plans, but we were releasing this Songs Of Their Own thing and doing 50 new Grateful Dead covers in 50 days, and something happened and we literally didn’t have a video to post the following day so it was like, well, the two guys producing the series gotta record something then I guess? Jake had never heard Standing On The Moon before, so I played it for him a couple of times and we recorded ourselves doing it, and we had Episode 25! I love the outro to that and just belting out, “BE WITH YOU!” - it’s cathartic. I’m sure you know what I’m talking about, you’re one of the great Rock & Roll belters!.
Reid: What are the most overt ways the music junkie in you is enhanced by your role at JamBase and conversely enhances JamBase?
David: I work well with music playing when I’m not in a meeting or on a call, so that’s the most overt way the music junkie in me is enhanced by my role at JamBase- I can listen to like 5-6 hours of music throughout the day which is truly a gift to be able to do that. It’s not the most intent listening, but I get to consume as much music as I want. I’m fortunate about that.
As to how it enhances JamBase, it’s certainly my opinion that a company like ours thrives when it’s run by people that truly love music, and all of us at JamBase truly do.
Reid: How did you first learn of JamBase - were you a fan?
David: It was early! We have the ability to look up people’s old User ID’s in the system and see when they first signed up for JamBase. That is, if you can remember your email address for when you first signed up. The people you run into that say, “I signed up for JamBase in 2002!” often times can’t even remember what account it was and we have to dig up their old college email address to find them ‘cause they’ve registered for a new account since then. But yeah, I definitely remember being aware of it in the Fall of 2000, when I was 18, and I think that’s right around when my first user registration was.
Reid: For those who don’t know it, can you recap the mythology of how JamBase came to be?
David: Sure, it was the infancy of the world wide web, and Andy Gadiel and the other founders of the company were solving a pretty simple problem, “I just want to know when my favorite bands are coming to town.” Most bands didn’t even have functioning websites at the time so that was a real problem that needed fixing, and they were the first ones to do it. What started as a more curated jam-only listing of upcoming concerts quickly grew to be all types of music, and then came the introduction of original editorial content, and then things were off to the races.
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Reid: Some organizations start as a business and find a soul; some start with a soul or a mission and find a business. JamBase is so obviously the latter. How would you summarize your mission?
David: Well I would summarize our mission simply as a tagline which is just Go See Live Music. Everything we do at JamBase is ultimately about keeping people informed on all aspects of live music, and I know that we help spread awareness of music and get people to go see more shows, and that’s good work if you can get it!
I will say this about soul, we are a lean team working at this music-tech company, and unlike many music-tech companies out there, we are all truly music people. And it’s fantastic to run a group of people as talented as our current team that are also simultaneously all genuine music freaks.
Reid: Are there ways in which living your passion, making it your day to day work, is a buzz kill?
David: I think with any industry, if you work on the inside of it to some degree, there comes a little demystification of things, or perhaps a few things you wish you didn’t know about how the sausage gets made, but it’s very minor. I try to stay aware and thankful every day when I’m working at JamBase that I have my absolute dream job, and I am a very fortunate person in that regard.
I will say that looking at an announcement of tour dates, and analyzing it the way I do at JamBase, is actually sometimes a bit of a drag. Especially with our position in the business as someone that helps promoters sell tickets to shows that need help getting the word out or selling out. It’s like, I hate looking at a batch of 30 dates from a band that we cover, looking at the rooms they are playing and thinking, “Ok - great - those shows aren’t going to sell out, so hopefully we can get some ad budgets from these promoters!”
And you know, sometimes just knowing stuff you didn’t want to know! It’s like, I’ve got a couple of friends I grew up with that were huge Strangefolk fans like me, and they think it’s the greatest thing that you and I are friends. And I’m like, yeah - it’s great, but once you’re on email threads with you, it’s like - oh shoot, Reid Genauer can’t spell? That’s a bummer, I wish I didn’t know that! Wasn’t he an English major or some shit?
Reid: You guys have done some inventive and innovative stuff over the years and continue to. What are some of the JamBase projects that have come out of Covid?
David: Two big ones, I’m so incredibly proud of this JamBase team and everything that everyone has been doing since COVID.
#1 - Live Stream Schedule - jambase.com/livestreams - our team is constantly curating the best livestream information on the web. And it’s not just a set it and forget it article we write at the beginning of the day, it’s a living and breathing section of the site, and someone from JamBase is monitoring it at all hours to make sure we’ve got the absolute best links and video embeds possible. This is something we didn’t want to get 90% right, we wanted to get it 100% right. So we do things like copy over any Venmo & PayPal links right from the artist’s information. And we do things like update Facebook Livestream URLs in real-time because we don’t want to link our users to a Facebook post *about* the livestream, we want to send them, or ideally embed, the actual livestream itself. And that takes hand-curation and doing it in real-time, and that’s what we do - the team is crushing the livestreams guide.
#2 - Jambase Live Video Archives - jambase.com/videos - we launched a project I am immensely proud of: the JamBase Live Video Archive. What we’ve built is this incredible cross-referenced database of live music videos, and we’ve been the ones adding all the metadata required to make it happen. So like, a YouTube video is not aware of what performer(s) are in it, or what date the show is from, or what songs are in it and at what time they start. But that YouTube video’s entry in JamBase does, and that gives us the cool ability to do things like, look at all Strangefolk videos oldest to newest, or say multiple versions of Westerly whether they are by Strangefolk, Assembly of Dust, Reid Solo, Reid Genauer & Folks, Strangle-fuck, or whatever you are performing this song as!
This has been an idea we’ve had for years and years and we finally built it and the response to it thus far has been heartwarming. Todd Levy, our lead developer, who built this with us sent me a text this past weekend after we kept reading Facebook Comments, or message board threads, or getting texts and he was like, “I feel like Sally Field over here, do you?” - and we really do, it’s rare that we build something that is universally loved in this age of the web and everyone that digs into this thing always has something nice to say about it and that’s been great to hear.
Fun factiod for JamBase’s 20 Years After Exclusive Video Series they used Strangefolks “So Well” as the series theme song “may grow old thats what I’m told 20 years gone by” gotta listen for it but its a folk yeah easter egg in every episode.
Reid: Is there is one “thing,” feature, recurring form of content, JamBase use case, etc., that you think is cool but underutilized?
David: I would say I am always looking to draw more attention to The JamBase Podcast. There are some truly fantastic and candid conversations that happen on it - and I love the format that we’ve struck with it - with a little bit of news at the top and then often a ‘themed’ interview that focuses on a singular topic rather than more wide-ranging generic interviews you might see elsewhere. Andy and Scott have become great interviewers and the production of the podcast continues to improve. We have always strived for it to also sound really good, and I love listening to a perfectly produced podcast of interesting content. I know the average listener might not consciously notice, but we are always striving to make it sonically pleasant to listen to. Authors note - they have interviewed everyone from Lucinda Williams to Ivan Neville.
Reid: Anything else I missed man?
David: Reid - I want you to finish mixing and mastering this record you’re in the middle of creating because I can’t wait to hear it in all of its sonic glory! Finish this album - that’s an order!
Thanks for all you and the team at JambBse do for live music Dave - you define the notion of letting the music play the band. May your ears always be filled…. RG
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