Community Highlights: Meet Nick Jarosz of The Collab Sessions

Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Jarosz.

Hi Nick, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
The Collab Sessions actually started as a local event series in Chicago. I and Collab Sessions co-founder Andrew Dewar had been playing music together for a while, but we wanted a way to get more involved with the Chicago music scene. We began holding these one-day open-house-style events at studios around the city as a way to meet new musicians and industry professionals.

The basic idea was to walk into the studio in the morning with something extremely simple- a few chords, a drum beat, a bass line, etc.- and to let musicians hop in the booth and record their takes over what we already had. As the day progressed, the song would fill out as more and more musicians came through the studio. After the event, we’d take the tracks, them down, and arrange the song as a sort of musical collage. We’d try to get musicians from as many backgrounds, genres, and experience levels to participate as we could, and anyone session could see dozens of different musicians show up.

These sessions were really about exploring the collaboration and relationship building that occurs between disparate musicians as they create music together, and we’d film the entire day to try to capture as much of that journey as we could. It could be chaotic, but they were rewarding to be a part of. However, Andy and I got busy with other things, as often happens, and the Chicago Collab Sessions fell by the wayside.

Fast forward a few years to the beginning of the COVID lockdowns, and all of a sudden we both found ourselves with a lot of time on our hands. I recommended to Andy that we revamp these sessions, and configure them in a way that would be more COVID friendly. Instead of events that were open to the public, we could host smaller invite-only events. Instead of having the musicians track one at a time in the booth and arranging their takes in the post, we’d have them live to track their arrangement at the end of the day as a group.

We also decided it’d be a lot of fun to expand outside of Chicago, and start hosting these in cities across the country. Naturally, we knew we’d have to hit Nashville, and we’re already planning a return trip. The musicians we worked with were absolutely outstanding.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It definitely has not been a smooth road for us. As I mentioned, this series ran for about a year between 2016-2017 and completely fell off for about 3 years before we picked it back up. We’re still entirely bootstrapped as of now, and it is very much a passion project for both Andy and I.

However, we’re hoping that we can eventually bring some partners and sponsors on board to help expand take on bigger and bigger projects. In a lot of ways, it’s a lot like owning a small business, and so there’s a ton that we’ve had to learn that go along with that: marketing, event planning, video production, social media, etc.

Just finding the time to plan, host, and release these events is very trick in itself, since we aren’t getting paid to host these. Luckily, the events themselves usually go smoothly, and we’ve basically had zero issues working with the musicians.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
The Collab Sessions is really about the process of music creation, rather than the final song. Every time we host an event, we have no clue what to expect. We throw musicians of different backgrounds, experience levels, and genres- who’ve never worked together before- into a high-pressure situation in the studio and we see what happens. We describe it as a sort of awkward first date for musicians. When they walk into the studio, they’re almost invariably nervous, timid, and maybe a little awkward.

Once they start putting notes down, though, the relationships really start forming. The group dynamics really take shape the further into the songwriting they get. It’s interesting every time because the people are different every time. Our role is really to simply document, on video and in audio, the entire day as the song unfolds. Andy and I try to take as small a role in the creative process as possible. We simply bring the musicians in, set the timeline and a few boundaries, and let the artists do their thing.

Something we’re really proud of is that we try to craft these events so they’re a win-win for everyone involved. The musicians get to partake in these events for free, and their feedback so far has been nothing but positive. We also provide them with still photos and video clips from the event that they can use as they want. In return, we benefit from receiving exposure to their social media followers, as they share and promote our content.

What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love how much opportunity there is in Nashville for musicians to find gigs, practice their craft, network, and make a name for themselves! There’s only a handful of other cities in the country where a musician can go and find as much opportunity, support, and tools to build a career, and Nashville is at the top.

This, by far, has to be the city we had the easiest time finding high-quality musicians to participate in our event. Even the ones who had gigs that day were more than willing to offer referrals to people they thought may be interested. It was very evident how tight of a network the Nashville music scene has, and we were blown away by how talented all the musicians were who participated. It was a real treat for us to be working in Nashville.

In terms of the least favorite thing, it was definitely the crowds! Understanding that the popularity of the whole Broadway scene is in part what makes Nashville such a huge market for live music acts, the multi-story bars packed full of people is just not my cup of tea.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: www.collabsessions.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/collab_sessions (@collab_sessions)
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheCollabSessions
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLM55XtsExjkKzDUt3AspZw