The Crooked Stuff: Designing a sonic vehicle.

Applying the founder playbook to myself.

The Crooked Stuff is my band, my creative sonic vehicle. Underneath the hood, it’s a fully integrated and constantly evolving design project. With a 20-year hiatus from music, I wanted to apply everything I’d learned as a designer to the process of envisioning, writing, producing and performing with a band. The hunch was that it required 20% solid creativity and 80% execution. I knew I had the creative DNA, and design had certainly taught me the execution skills. I put myself in founder mode and started applying to myself what I had been doing for others in the business world.

Designing a turn-key vehicle.

In order to create a sustainable business, you have to understand the environment it will be grown in. The music industry is a complex web that is continually shape shifting to adapt to technological, economic and cultural changes. A band is ideally designed to survive and thrive through it all.

Strategy, innovation, brand identity, product design, user experience, financing, partnerships and everything else that matters in the “business” world matters in the music industry. Design thinking and doing were my superpowers for creating a turn-key operation that typically requires a record label, management, booking, radio and sync partners. Powered by AI, I built the tools needed for moving forward, rapidly and consistently.

Build with authenticity and clarity.

The Crooked Stuff has been running as a working band for 5+ years. 26 songs released. A full-length album with PR, sold-out shows, Sundance Film Festival showcase, and national radio play. A real audience that shows up because the vehicle and the experience are real. Industry players are now supporting us because it was built to be turn-key for sustainable and fun business.

The insight: brand-first thinking works in any situation, and it’s a critical guiding light for all creative and business decisions. The clarity of the container makes it easier to know what songs belong in it. That’s a specific gift I bring to musicians and businesses that are trying to figure out what their thing actually is.

Most creative directors can pitch you a brand strategy. Fewer have built one for themselves from zero and made it work. When I walk into your room to help you think through your brand, product, team, or next move, I’m offering the same thinking I applied to my own fully creative, personal and successful venture.