Stone Church Music Venue: Robin Johnson Interview | WTM

0:00So, what were some of the comments that you got when you came here? Were people like, “Oh, I would never do that.” Or were people like, “Yeah, let’s do it.” I mean, like Yeah, that’s not a good idea. I recommend the lipstick. But, with this space, it’s kind of like it’s just hard it’s hard not to do it. And now we’re stuck. It’s a very momentum-based business. So, like you can’t really stop. Because you’re a musician. So, when you’re playing the music, are you like a little Uh last time I played in front of people was at your place, which is almost exactly about when we opened this place.

0:44So, you’re in hiding? Yeah, totally. I like that. And now you’re interviewing him. I’m interviewing. I I just wanted to know I just wanted to know that after you play the music, do you think about or do you consider the type of music that you’re playing because you’re in this venue? No, I know, but I think I think the venue does bring out Mhm. the best in the musician. Mhm. Gary Clark Jr. played a little golf played here. And he did a Band of Gypsies Revisited. Is it a relatively one of the better shows we’ve had here. And his comment after was uh in a in a room like this

1:26if you don’t sound good Right. that’s on you. Totally. Totally. That’s a good one. Wow. This is so unique in so many ways. Wow. I’ve never heard anything like that. I mean, do you I’m sure you have a lot of first-timers that come in and they’re like, Both. Pretty much, yeah. Both from both from both entrances. Both the musicians that come in. Yeah. And then the yeah. And then the audience when they come. I’m loving it. What a what? I mean, our one problem is there’s not a lot of people that are very close to here. Uh-huh. Yeah. Mhm. So, it’s just a it’s a challenge because

2:10there’s, you know, you’re always trying to pull people from a large radius. Uh because there’s there’s more and more different types of music, Mhm. genres, and bands. So, audiences are all more spread out.

2:24Mhm. And like this area is very spread out and there’s a lot of competing interests. So, Mhm. So, it’s a challenge always to like get enough people in. But, I don’t when they do it, they usually like it. How do I do it? Uh I don’t know. Like random inspiration

2:42money on like Facebook and Instagram. Just giving them my credit card and like begging for them to like show our shows to people. Mhm. And then, people still are like, “Oh, man, this just popped up. It happened 2 days

2:55to get in. But, now they can follow you and be more in the know, right? So, is that Yeah, yeah, we’ve got a we’ve got a good following now. We’ve got like 11,000 Instagram followers.

3:04Mhm. More than that on Facebook. That’s cool. So, your your your your meta ads have paid off. Yeah, yeah. There’s definitely like I mean, it’s People want to hear that. Good testimonial.

3:14It’s It’s frustrating, but it does work better than anything else that’s going on. That’s what That’s the frustrating part. They got a chokehold on us. Yeah, they kind of like, you know, the you know, move fast and break things. Yeah, yeah. They like they broke it and now they’re the only like they’re our only hope for getting people. Yeah, yeah. There’s other stuff now. Email, big email lists are good, and texting is helping. And like more people are answering or like buying through texts. So, I wanted to you Do you think about creating your own music given the venue? Mhm. I should I mean, I should probably go into it again at

3:54some point. We’re waiting on you. Yeah. Yeah. Um Yeah, I mean I think the the space is I think it affects people’s performances periodically. It definitely does, yeah.

4:07Yeah. It’s very like But it’s also very adaptive. So we go from Oh, all right. Okay. All right. What do you say we get out of the place? Uh Stone Church. And your name? Robert Johnson. Oh, yeah.