Meet Tim Hassler | Musician & Band Manager

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tim Hassler and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tim, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
As a band, creating a business was a very gradual process. While the first time we ever played together did happen to be in a professional context, it was in the service of pursuing an acting career. Once this opportunity ended, our group kept playing together mostly out of enjoyment and friendship. It wasn’t until years later that we started using music as a means to support ourselves. It started off as busking and small shows, really just a fun way to make some extra cash. Eventually, though, we started taking enough gigs where we needed to more formally create a “business”. When we began, most of our time an energy was spent on public performances, but we found that we filled a niche market in private events and were able to start splitting our time between both public and private shows. I guess the actual thought process was, “Oh, people will pay for this product? How can we get them to pay more and more often?” That was when we realized we needed to have more professionalism and legitimacy in our venture. It was a lot more difficult–there was more pressure to appeal to a client, rather than just trying to sell your art, but once we were able to learn the ropes it became natural. Handshake agreements turned into formalized contracts. I still have no idea what I’m doing, but I’ve learned that most people really don’t either.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Trying to make music for a living was not where I saw myself when I started playing–not even when the band started playing together. We were all trying to be actors and spent a lot of time and money towards that pursuit, so it took some work to make a music career happen seemingly out of nowhere. The connections I had and the lessons I learned from the acting world didn’t always translate over to music, even though it all fell under the umbrella of the entertainment industry. There was a lot of learning on the job, and while my actor training helped in my on-stage performance, at times it came most in handy when I was pretending I understood something that I had no idea about. The classic “fake it ’til you make it.” We cultivated a lot of our style while busking in the subways. We learned what worked, what didn’t, who would listen, and most importantly who would give us money. We weren’t always the most successful buskers, but it helped pay rent while we were first living in New York. If anything, the struggle helped us the most artistically. There were some really depressing days. You spend four hours straight playing in a freezing dirty tunnel on an empty stomach and a very full bladder, and you walk away with not even enough money to cover your subway fare. Life was rough, but it was great working towards something with your friends, and that’s what ended up in a lot of our writing. Life will kick your teeth in every now and then, but there’s always something or someone to keep you going.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I lived in New York City until this past year, then moved up to the Hudson Valley with my wife when we bought a house together, so we can do a progressive trip.

Most of my time living in Brooklyn was spent looking for a deal. My wife makes fun of me because my favorite slice pizza in the city is a dollar slice from 2 Bros Pizza. I always say I can taste the value in it. Is it the best? Not at all. I guess I was usually starving and broke when I ate there, so it tasted really good.
Sunset Park has some of the best street style tacos in the city. Any cart will do, but I could take you to the best one–I’d have to see it to remember which one. Then sit in the Sunset Park and watch the sunset over the Statue of Liberty while the kids play soccer behind you.
We’d walk through Prospect Park. It’s such a quiet respite from the constant noise of the city. There’s lots of little nooks to sit and think or read or sleep. Not far from there is the Brooklyn Museum, which has some really great exhibits if you don’t want to deal with the crowds in Manhattan.
Up the street from the museum on Washington is a tiny Banh Mi shop–I think it’s just called Banh Mi or something simple like that. Then you can go across the street to Tooker Alley for a good cocktail.
Then in Manhattan there’s a little Italian place in Soho called Fiat Cafe that my wife and I love. She’s French and I think she saw it mentioned in a French guide book–so maybe it’s a little touristy, but food is excellent and the price is great.
One of my favorite bars is in SoHo, called KGB Bar. It sits atop a cabaret space, dimly lit and littered with old soviet paraphernalia. It’s a great place to conspire and dream and share secrets.
Up in my new neck of the woods, there’s plenty of hiking trails, and I’m about a 5 minute drive from a ton of really great breweries, wineries, distilleries, and cider houses.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
We’re a whole band, so I gotta shout to the fellas in the group. That’s Ben Quinn, Titus Tompkins, Britt Reagan, and Mark Spitznagel. There’s varying levels of commitment and responsibility, but we try to maintain a pretty democratic way of working and we’d be nowhere without everyone’s dedication to making great music.

My wife, Melanie, has been essential to our business, both with graphic design and her general business intuition and knowledge. She’s helped us make bold choices and to be more confident in the value of our product.

Website: https://www.thegoodmorningnags.com

Instagram: @goodmorningnags

Twitter: @goodmorningnags

Facebook: facebook.com/thegoodmorningnags

Youtube: youtube.com/thegoodmorningnags

Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5XWN4gnBDmZEIaAeQBnjbA

Image Credits
Melanie Brown Carly Holmes