Last Updated on September 19, 2020, 8:35 AM | Published: September 19, 2020
Tower Theater partners with Chad Whitehead in the lead are providing an upcoming video series targeted to musicians and bands in the Oklahoma City metro.
The series, called Scene Skeleton, will kick off September 30 and provide musicians with insights about strategies, best practices and other music industry topics. The sessions are intended to help musicians better navigate the music industry.
“Incredible talent”
As the talent buyer for The Tower Theater, Ponyboy, and Patchworks Presents, Whitehead has a unique view of the dynamic of talent development in the metro.
“I suspect one of the reasons that artists move to places like Nashville and LA is that the infrastructure is so much more established in those places,” Whitehead told Free Press.
“The long-term, big picture question for me is: How do we develop the infrastructure of live music and music in Oklahoma City to best support the incredible talent that we have in the State of Oklahoma?”
He said that Oklahoma City has always had a great pool of talent but not the same infrastructure that other notable music cities have had and wants to change that.
“Our people are our strongest asset and I believe our music industry professionals are some of the most talented, innovative and resilient Oklahomans I know,” said Tava Maloy Sofsky, Director of the Oklahoma Film + Music Office, one of the sponsors. “We all must do our part to protect Oklahoma’s music eco-system and we see Scene Skeleton as a valuable resource in critical times like these.”
The series
Each episode will be a discussion Whitehead has with the various promoters, actors, recording artists, and others who make the industry work. Musicians can suggest questions they have when they register for the series.
The September 30 launch episode, “What do agents do?”, will feature Susie Giang, Ground Control Touring, and Jonathan Knight, Atomic Music Group.
The next two episodes are “What do managers do?” and “Bands as Brands”.
The complete eight-episode lineup is embedded below.
Whitehead said the series won’t be like so many social media events where it can be seen later and pirated.
In order to view the series, musicians will have to go to the Tower Theater website and sign up for a free ticket. Each episode will only show at the scheduled time and once it is shown, it won’t be available anywhere else.
To register for free tickets and submit questions in advance visit
www.towertheatreokc.com or https://linktr.ee/sceneskeleton.
Opening the door
The series is intended to open the door to the industry that musicians don’t often see. It’s a highly-competitive industry where players guard their knowledge.
“One of the impacts of COVID that’s been somewhat positive, is that it’s kind of allowed everyone to be a little more supportive of each other,” said Whitehead. “And, I’m seeing that from agents to managers down to artists.”
But, opening up will have its challenges.
“Is there a way we can connect some of those so that they’re not so distant from each other? We’ll see,” he said. “This whole thing is very much an experiment.”
Care for musicians
He said the effort is also a way of caring for musicians who have had a difficult time staying employed during the pandemic. Live music in a variety of venues is the lifeblood of the music industry and how musicians are found and offered recording contracts.
“I think artists are pretty discouraged right now.” said Whitehead.
“And, they’re not always turning to positive ways to deal with that discouragement. So that’s a piece of this, too. We’re trying to create a little bit of connection in a pretty lonely time.”
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Founder, publisher, and editor of Oklahoma City Free Press. Brett continues to contribute reports and photography to this site as he runs the business.
