Today we’d like to introduce you to Eddie Matthews.
Hi Eddie, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
What’s going on Houston? I’m the owner of a live music booking company called “Vanguard Entertainment Group” and the leader of a band called “Vanguard Collective”.
Many people don’t know this, but when I started Vanguard, the company I was an accountant working a 9-5. While I had financial security and a career path, all could think about was how bored I was, haha. At the time, I was working during the day and playing one or two gigs a week in the evening. I started the company because I was tired of daydreaming about what it would be like to play music full-time. Sure enough, after I went through the process of creating an LLC, I found that I was more focused on my goals and got more and more gigs.
Before I knew it, the places that I played at such as Lucille’s and Ready Room tapped me to run their live entertainment programs. The combination of playing music and booking other musicians afforded me the ability to focus on music full-time. I now had the ability to concentrate on growing as a sax player and musician. During this time, I developed the ability to grow as a businessman too. It is amazing how much singularly focusing your energy allows you to accomplish.
That brings us to where I’m at today. Currently, I lead the band, “Vanguard Collective”. We’re a 5-piece Jazz/R&B/Neosoul-influenced group. My main goal this year was to really dial in our sound. I truly believe we found it!
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?
The biggest struggle has been figuring out how to scale the business, managing my own group, and growing as a musician. All three aspects can be full-time jobs by themselves. The most important thing I’ve learned how to do is how to set time aside for all three things. It’s taken a lot of discipline but I feel I’ve found a good rhythm.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What really separates me as a musician is my approach to music. Anything Vanguard Collective plays will have an improvisational component best summarized by the term Jazz. The tendency among a lot Jazz Musicians is playing music in total reference to the original stylistic intent of the artist who created it. This way of looking at music aligns itself with the almost classical way the music is taught. For the audience, this can come across as rather uninteresting. Keep in mind that the only time most people hear jazz is a background music… to me, this is a problem. I don’t even think the pioneers of modern jazz wanted this.
As a musician, I categorize myself as being “Post-Jazz” (Yes this is something I made up lol). For instance, I listen to Latin, Hip-Hop, Electronic, Pop, and Neo-soul in conjunction with Jazz Music. When I’m playing, writing, or Improvising, I sometimes hear and reference elements of all of these within the same song. When I look at the audience while I can tell they get it. To me, this is the only thing that matters. That is, “as musicians, are we truly communicating with authenticity to everyone listening?”
All of this is a long way of saying that I approach the art form differently, and I think it shows.
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
Something interesting about me is that I like riding road bikes and working out almost as much as I like music. It’s sometimes hard to make time for it all!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.vanguardentgroup.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanguard_collective_htx/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vancollecthtx
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuSyRWDQ7Yf4MD0SKSW5XjA
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/vanguard-collective-htx
Image Credits
Tosin Alagun
