Meet Ashley Edwards of iAM Music

Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashley Edwards. Them and their team share their story with us below:

After several years of relentless touring and spearheading with Colorado-based independent project Hello Dollface, bassist Jesse Ogle, and vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Ashley Edwards began to notice a lack of connection and support opportunities in the music industry for hard-working, talented, independent musicians. In 2011, the two founded Independent Artist Management, a by-artists-for-artists networking and tour management cooperative for like-minded, unsigned musicians pursuing careers in original music. This is the origin of the “iAM” in iAM MUSIC. The name has become an affirmation of the organization’s deepest goals and principles.

In 2013, they free-formed what is now the iAM MUSIC Outreach Programming with “passion presentations” at high-risk youth correction facilities, alternative education programs, project-based middle schools and high schools, and have since created accredited 3-5 day per week dedicated band coaching full music education and production at Animas High School, Big Picture High School, Liberty School, Boys and Girls Club Ignacio, and the La Plata Youth Services Therapeutic Day program with multiple coaches, ZERO-Obstacles programming which includes free instrument rentals, full-rehearsal space and sound gear, no-cost-to-student education and mentorship with a focus on writing original music, theory, recording and production, networking, and team development in the classroom. Each semester, the program presents #YOUTH Student Showcase free to the community featuring all of theIn-House and Outreach Programming Student Performances and the #YOUTH Original Student Showcase in the Spring to feature young talented songwriters, producers, and composers.

iAM MUSIC is committed to its mission to pursue innovative ways to empower and encourage mutual support among musicians of every level while cultivating originality, and creating opportunities and space for collaboration and mentorship for both youth and aspiring as well as professional musicians. In addition, iAM MUSIC Fest! was launched in 2015 as a festival-format iAM MUSIC benefit to recycle funding back into education while presenting the community a special event bringing world-class independent musicians, visual artists, performing artists, local eateries, and businesses together for the purpose of sharing ideas, creating meaningful relationships & exchange, and social activism through creative expression in the Southwest. In 2015, the inaugural iAM MUSIC Fest! launched with an aim to unite and showcase hardworking independent musicians, as well as artists, dancers, comedians, poets, circus performers, and local businesses. In return, the funds raised from this event would be recycled and used to benefit iAM MUSIC’s efforts to provide Zero-obstacle music education and access to music in the Four Corners Region. For 3 years, the first iterations of iAM MUSIC Fest! emerged as one of Colorado’s largest independent music festivals, curating 3 days, multiple venues and stages featuring regional and national touring bands, visual and performing artists, dancers, poets, robotics, and painters, with the convergence of local businesses and vendors. In 2017, iAM MUSIC was elected to host the Colorado Music Summit – an educational networking opportunity for state-wide musicians in collaboration with the Bohemian Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries with the Colorado office of International Economic Trade & Development.

Starting 2018, the Fest! morphed into a Summer Concert Series, continuing into 2019, and a Covid-19 friendly 2021 event. In 2021, iAM MUSIC Fest! will continue to expand, spanning 6 months in launching in May. This year we are proud to announce our inaugural events in Silverton and Pagosa Springs in addition to our base in Durango, CO.

In 2017, The iNDIGO Room listening space was added to the iAM MUSIC studio space bringing an intimate, independent listening room style music venue to the region. Each month iAM MUSIC brings weekly and monthly ongoing community events such as Songwriter’s Series, Songwriting Panels, Jazz/Funk/Soul Jams, Saturday Concert Series, Ongoing Music Workshops, Internship programming, and coaching and lessons As of 2020, iAM MUSIC is an established living wage employer in Colorado and produces over 50+ ongoing events each year hiring 200+ musicians from all over the US, and in turn the revenue generated is re-invested into the education and empowerment of the voices and musicians of the next generation.

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?
As independent artists, we teach everything we have learned along the way. There is no guidebook – but trust me – we’re writing one.

While all-in-full-on starting 2012-2017, Jesse and I were managing 300+ booked dates a year, a board of directors, the band, the budget for the non-profit, grant writing, accounting, teaching in the classroom, privately, running to teach our Outreach programming at Youth Correction facilities one day and a high school the next day, presenting to Rotary Clubs, pitching our programming for Partnerships and Collaboration with Local Businesses, seeking Fest! Sponsors for our iAM MUSIC fest! Booking bands, managing student showcases, running out of funding, playing more shows to make up for it, paying off our van and touring between CA, and the East Coast – out into playing shows and collaborating with the Girls Rock Camp alliance in Iceland, Norway and Sweden. One year, our festival lost $20k and our entire board of directors quit and told us to turn our organization back to for-profit. Oh man. Then the following year we hosted the Colorado Music Summit in partnership with Bohemian Foundation, Colorado Creative Industries and our beacon and deepest inspiration as an organization – The Music District in Fort Collins. We felt seen. We felt heard. But it was a full-on five years build-up to burn-out. I personally lost it and had to step back and take a huge break. Adrenal burnout is real. Even when you do what you love! It cost me my relationship, my income stability, my band and my performance life. Everything took a backseat to health. The same thing happened with Jesse in 2019! It has been an absolutely wild ride.

But this is what you do when you are Guerilla-warfare artists willing to do anything for peace in the land of the flailing ethics of the corporate industry standards and illusions. YOU HAVE TO WORK IT.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
The heartbeat of iAM MUSIC inspires each musician to discover and explore creative expression; encouraging roots in community and social entrepreneurship. This is the defining piece that sets us apart. We are not educators — we are artists destined to believe and support in our fellow artists and cultivate the young ones who need uplifting and mentorship.

We have lost the art of ceremony, of initiation and of the nurturing and lessons that rituals bring across many cultures. We are devoid of spirituality in our daily lives. Not to sound culty, but iAM MUSIC is a place to find yourself and to find your tribe; your support, yourself, your heart and soul. You are encouraged to be you, to speak up, to find out what your message is and share it with the world. We do not care what your press photos look like. But hey- if that’s what is important to you – we will support you in making the best connections to get you what you need.

People and cultures around the world use music as a modality for collective healing and betterment within the individual and the tribe. Through this perspective, we infuse this intention in our teaching philosophy and in sharing the experience of music.

Our dynamic team of music coaches are working artist-entrepreneurs that have thousands of hours real-world experience, exposing our students to different teaching styles and personalities. Every coach at iAM MUSIC is out there grinding, surviving, putting love into their dedication and their craft. We embody our mission because we are living it right alongside our students and our community. As humans – we came here to create something. We want to remind you of that within you! Not as a soapbox, but as a hey – I see you – let’s do this – together!

iAM students learn to speak the language of music, work with other students, execute short and long-term project goals, and gain experience real-life performance opportunities alongside professionals. Coaches and students alike- it is important to our mission that we are all working alongside each other and all evolving on our path.

Whether as an individual, a band, or while working on a specific project, it is our aim to provide accessibility, instruments, tools, mentorship, and resources to help our students identify the path that best suits them as they evolve on their unique journey and discovery, finding their place in music.

What would you say have been one of the most important lessons you’ve learned?
If you build it – they most definitely will come.

SO: Your board of directors – choose wisely and with purpose. Work, wealth, wisdom. Always stay on your board for important decision-making!!!!

1. Know who you are and who you serve.
2. Get Your accounting together.
3. Never sway from your mission and your heart – corporate mindsets are effective but can eat the soul of your beautiful visionary artistic flow.
4. Artists can defy the notion that we are not good business people. We didn’t go to school for it – but we can teach you from experience.
5. Stay inspired.
6. Stay true to your craft.
7. Find and hire good grant writers, accountants, book-keepers, and administrators.
8. Evolve and learn from your mistakes – shake them off, move on quickly and do not get overly attached to old models of thinking.
9. Delegate Delegate Delegate – but first: Create templates.
10. Hire 501c3.org before ever considering starting a non-profit.
11. Get good rest. Drink lots of water. Eat healthily. Take Walks. Meditate. Take Breaks.
12. SAY NO.
13. SAY YES.
14. You need good, strong, committed leaders.
15. You need good communication and good PR and a damned good copywriter, PR person, and web designer on your team.
16. You are now officially always an ambassador – so be ready for a lot of bootstrapping while smiling.
17. Stay authentic.
18. Charge for coffee dates if you are coaching others constantly and are hardly able to pay rent.
19. Art first, then organization. Otherwise, your passion and inspiration dies.
20. Allow yourself to blow off your ceiling.
21. Forget your comfort zone, so get lots of comfy blankets when you have days off.
22. Take days off.
23. You are a reflection of the greatest possible dream you can think of. So just go for it and do not be afraid to ask for support.

Pricing:

• $10-$25 tickets to iAM MUSIC Fest!
• $60 / hr private lessons & artist coaching
• $25 / hr band coaching per person
• Community events – by donation

Contact Info:

• Email: iamashley@iammusic.us
• Website: www.iammusic.us and www.iammusicfest.us
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/iammusicinstitute
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/iammusicinstitute
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt3HYdOH9AzQqieYKiVJiTQ/videos
• Other: https://www.facebook.com/iammusicfest

Image Credits
Guillame Metz Photography