Meet Will Glazier | CEO & Founder of Grand Alliance Music

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

Hi Will, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
The thought process behind starting our own business (Grand Alliance Music, LLC) was honestly to be a catalyst for others to help finish their tunes and a conduit to perhaps show them the way, and somehow along the way what it has turned in to is so much more than we have ever imagined. The setting is simple really, and somewhat of coincidence but the fact is, when I (Will) currently of the group Willdabeast (and slew of other recording/performing groups over the past 2 decades) had a simple idea, when partnered together with a simple friendship, attempt to help others all while carrying substance. I started in the late 1990’s with a ska/punk band named Cherry Bing that would eventually provide the first glimmer of the future, the last two decades has been drenched in incredible memories and packed with content. As just teenagers wrapping up high school, getting these incredible opportunities (sold out shows, touring our regional NE market, recording at the famed Goo Goo Dolls studio in Buffalo, NY, performed at Warped Tour, preliminarily agreed to a record deal with a renowned label at the time,) etc all before the age of 18. You could say life was headed this way from the start and experience would always be on my side, even through the failures. My thinking was if I could help people navigate and traverse these challenges, (help them fail more gracefully), and this is part of the reason behind Grand Alliance Music.

Humorously and unexpectedly this is where our story really begins, around 2021-2022, when I got some random messages on Soundcloud, maybe it was the other way around with me commenting on his tracks I couldn’t tell ya but either way I found myself in the DMs of a mr. BUTTONZ out of the Michigan area. Ironically come to learn he saw me play when MMPF and Willdabeast came through in about 2015 for a Kalamazoo/midwest run.

I formed an intrinsic relationship with Ben Nowacki (co-founder of Grand Alliance Music) and over the years (yes I eventually messaged him back or vice versa), and we started talking about all music things, including the business. The more I listened to his remixes and flips the more I encouraged him to release his very first track. He was hesitate, I think mostly because of the process of it all and that’s when the light bulb when off. I always could see his path formulate in front of me eyes, and from there the ball almost never stopped rolling or picking up speed. How could we do this for others? And after his first track ‘Watch Me’ came out on our newly minted label Grand Alliance Music, the whole purpose and world seemed to opened up right in front of us. Turns out, there WAS a need. There IS a purpose. And here we were right here to try our best to fill the void to the best of our ability.

Ben Nowacki said ‘I was hesitant because I didn’t have confidence in my song writing, I only had a background in promotion throwing small shows, and I just didn’t know the proper steps to one finish a track, mix it down, get it mastered, the proper EQing, I just didn’t know, that’s were Willdabeast came in and showed me the way “.

After this nothing seemed impossible, even when all chaos seemed to hit. The company really hit the ground running even in our inaugural year. The challenges seemingly never stop and yet our incredibly team headed by Ben and Will has been able to knock it out together. Why? We have drive, focus, strength, togetherness. We’re an artist driven label- who authentically supports others authentic creations. We just help connect the dots (or try our best to). We have released over 30 tracks since our inception in just our inaugural year alone. Best of all, there’s more to come…

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
It really all started making sense many decades later. I had, believe it or not, even more run ins with success (or whatever you’d want to call it) along the way. I just call it experience personally. Eventually I moved away from Buffalo because the band (Cherry Bing) broke up/got abandoned for different reasons ($ opportunities I’d say), but I think you need to look at who’s still out here and doing things within our music communities actively to see who survived. And I don’t mean this in an ignorant way, I try my very best to operate in the same way we run the foundations and core principles of our business. With integrity and the never-give-up / put forth all efforts possible in every step of the way. We can’t be perfect because that’s near impossible, but what we can do is represent our very best in authenticity, every step of the way. I believe more than anything that if there’s a true story behind what we’re telling, if there’s real passion and belief in our mission and/or product, we do have a fighting chance to co-exist and stand beside what else is wading out there in the waters because it has an opportunity to deeply enrich others. All I can say is, I know I’m still out here (because I’m up most night burning the candle at both ends), making music, supporting others, deeply entangled the my life and hopefully others with original music and content from talented folks all around the world… what an honor!

To finish this epilogue, it’s important to note, that when I moved away from Buffalo, NY I landed clear across the country in Bellingham, WA where I attended Western Washington University for audio production and recording with a minor in video production. I then started a 7-piece band called Snug Harbor which has been a staple of the NW soul/funk community for over a decade. This eventually led us connecting with my personal friendship and connection with Michal Menert of Pretty Lights and Super Best Records. He eventually invited some of us to join his live band he was starting- Michal Menert Big Band and together we helped orchestrate a 27-piece Big Band which performed at Red Rocks, Sonic Bloom and The Fillmore. Concurrently, we recorded several tracks on his album Space Jazz (one of Menert’s signature albums) as well as helping in establishing the foundation of his next iteration of his live group; The Pretty Fantastics. Will and Dan (Willdabeast) toured for several years under this new project title, also contributed to recordings (Michal Menert Pretty Fantastics album, ‘1’) as well as performing all over the country- even opening for them(selves) as well. This was from about 2014-2017 era.

After a few years on the road, playing Red Rocks (again) as well as about 48 other states, Willdabeast (Dan and myself) eventually branched off and began applying some of our knowledge to these situations and launched our own independent career as a duo. This brings us up to 2017-18 era and until the current day. Since that time, Willdabeast released several albums and EPs on Menert’s own Super Best Records. Then the collaborations started pouring in- GRiZ (A Fine Way To Die), Defunk (Horny, Shake, Losing It), Kaptain, Wet Paint, Ageless, SwAy, Wax Future, Derlee, Arise Wise, Sassabrass, Phunk Bias, Woofax etc. This group continued to develop and emerged on more labels like Jumpsuit Records (owned by Polish Ambassador), Gravitas Recordings (for several albums), Muti Music and Gravitas Recordings. It was here and then, we were feeling it, truly loving and feeling all gratitude towards everything music was giving and we trying to give back as much as we could too. We talk a lot on trips and supporting others is another deeper passion of ours and so things just happened naturally.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Will Glazier (founder)- Bellingham, WA is one of the most exquisite places in the USA I always say. Just a few years back I was flying back from Hawaii on my honeymoon and I recall leaning over to my wife (flying over the Puget Sound where we live), looking out of the window an hour or two from landing and seeing oceans, rivers, mountains, islands, I said ‘Are we still in Hawaii’? We sure have seasons, but this place is amazing! Some of the best hiking trails on earth- at Chuckanut State Park. There is also some world class skiing/snowboarding on Mt. Baker just about 45 mins up on the highway so it depends on what time of year you’re visiting? We could take a quick trip up to one of the best lifts in the area. Fishing, camping, amazing culture, water sports, claming, crabbing.. its endless activities here. Personally I’d personally give a taste of it all all while showing off a bit of my own flavor and cooking for you here at my home too. This place is a taste of heaven on earth and it sure inspires us to keep going headstrong in a beautiful way.

Ben Nowacki (co-founder)- “I’d have to find a show in Chicago at the salt shed that’s prolly one of my the best venues within 2 hours of me but other than that here in my town. Maybe take them to the beach, prolly around downtown or to Saint Joseph to some restaurants like “silver beach pizza “or “Tim’s Too”, around my towns near Kalamazoo where there’s a lot of fun antique shops/ art gallery’s if your feeling artsy”

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I’d love to shoutout so many people along the way, the people that say no, even to this day– because life is not easy and everyone has to realize the silver spoon (even the biggest of artists face rejections from time to time) and we all must know this is going to be a big part of the process. So dial it in and tune it up and try again. Whatever doesn’t work becomes engrained in you, or the better way becomes part of your new process. Remember you can’t play every show, every festival, get every collab – just as not every single person you meet is your friend- just like you aren’t employed everywhere you look. The world is in fact not our oyster, but we can be diligent in what we do and use our processes and tools our very best to apply these facets of information and create a bridge of harmonious optimization in togetherness. Shoutouts but not limited to:

Crew shoutouts but not limited to: Muti Music, Gravitas Recordings, True To The Sound, Otodayo Records, Westwood Recordings, Jumpsuit Records, Gradient Perspective, Interstellar Rabbithole Collective, DjFest App, Manic Minds Collective, The Subbox Decendants, Wild Buffalo, The DEN PNW

Roster shoutouts but not limited to: Boydex, Cryptochronica, Dystracted, Illucid, Kid Hoops, Leng Lewn, Vsoundz, Schuz, Willdabeast, BUTTONZ

Other Artists shout outs: Michal Menert, The Funk Hunters, Phunk Bias, Luke Rain, Bandersnatch, eputty, Brede, Torbjørn, Brotha Nature, Techtonic

Website: https://www.grandalliancemusic.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grandalliancemusic/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/GrandJams

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/grandalliancemusic/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@GrandAllianceMusic

Other: https://linktr.ee/grandjams