Big Mike Hart on Producing, Touring and Road Rules (Episode 146)

Everything you do is an audition.

Michael "Big Mike" Hart Jr. is a guitarist, producer, session player, bassist and vocal arranger from Sacramento, with credits across TV (MTV Cribs, Making the Band 4, Bad Girls Club, VH1, HBO, BET) and artists like Karyn White, Michael Lington and Dave Hollister. He is the music director and guitarist for Kenny Lattimore and, when he joins Episode 146 of The Career Musician, he is calling from a hotel in Fort Wayne, on tour with Boney James.

Nomad and Big Mike kept crossing paths on the road for years. This conversation covers what it really takes to be a working session and touring guitarist, why he thinks of himself as a producer first, and the unspoken rules of the road.

It all starts before the call

Nomad opens with the question every aspiring player asks: how do I get where you are? Big Mike had just been talking about it with a drummer friend. You can get put on a gig, but you have to be prepared to stay on, and that work starts way before anyone can make a call for you.

"You can get on, but you got to have the skill set and preparation to stay on, and that starts way before you get the call for the gig."

Big Mike Hart, 4:26

He had just walked through the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, two blocks from his hotel. Howlin' Wolf's guitar, with the dirt and sweat still on it. Kurt Cobain's battered guitar. Eddie Van Halen's wall of cabinets. Johnny Cash's tour bus parked outside, while Mike sat in his own tour bus. The lesson: every one of those artists put in years of sweat equity before anyone celebrated them.

Make your work easy to find

Nomad points out that Big Mike's website works as a calling card: credits, achievements and links to his music in one place. Someone asks to hear your stuff, you send one link. No digging through hard drives.

Then there is the call that started this interview. A month or two earlier, Mike had texted Nomad out of the blue just to say hello. Nomad calls it a dead art form. Mike says social media only shows the highlight reel, and the pandemic left people isolated, so he just checks in. Sometimes it is returned, sometimes not. He doesn't change who he is either way.

He is also an introvert. No jam sessions, no head hunting, no showing off. And his advice to players who feel the same: don't feel pressured to do 40 takes for the perfect Instagram reel, because that doesn't decide whether you are qualified for a gig. Develop your style, walk in your gift, and use social media to your advantage on your own terms.

A producer who plays guitar

Big Mike sees himself as a producer first. There are players who live and breathe guitar for hours a day. He came at guitar as a songwriter and producer, a big fan of Babyface and James Taylor, and, maybe surprisingly, of country songwriting. Much of his R&B production starts from a country mindset.

Producing makes him a better band member, because he understands parts. Embellishing is great when it is called for, but on a record you play your piece of the puzzle. That is reliability beats virtuosity in one sentence.

"I've always wanted to be the guy to give you the record to learn, not the guy learning the record."

Big Mike Hart, 21:23

The reason is mailbox money. A gig check stops. A song properly registered with your PRO keeps paying while you sleep, as long as the paperwork is right. Nomad calls it building your catalog, your body of work. That is The Biz pillar: diversify or die.

We make music, not beats

Big Mike's production company with his longtime partner, a drummer and piano player he has played with since their high school band in Sacramento, goes by Bigs and Bangs. Their motto: we make music, not beats. No shade to beat makers, Mike says, it is a craft. But they want intros, bridges and outros, arrangement and scoring, records that last longer than one summer. Their models are Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Gamble and Huff and Quincy Jones.

He also came up under Derek "DOA" Allen, who showed him how to earn both from the stage and the studio.

The unspoken rules of the road

No tour manager hands you a pamphlet, but the rules are real. Big Mike's first one is punctuality. If you are early, you are on time. If you are on time, you are late. If the bus leaves at 10, you are not walking into the lobby at 10.

"Being a favorite and a liability don't go together."

Big Mike Hart, 43:13

Missing lobby calls and flights is the quickest way to get fired. Know your stuff: rehearsal is not the time to learn, it is the time to execute what you learned at home. Use voice memos for anything created on the fly, and ask questions before you hit the stage. Listen to the veterans. Know when and where to party, if you party at all. Word travels fast, because the gatekeepers are few.

And be someone people want to work with. Nobody wants to hear that you were the greatest musician they ever heard, but a pain to work with. That is how you end up the greatest musician at home, getting rusty. That is low maintenance / no drama.

Success, salt and pepper

Mike's definition of success: if you are happy and making a living you are okay with, you are successful. He shares advice Karyn White gave him on tour in Japan: you don't need everybody's audience, you need your audience. Then keep challenging yourself, because sustaining success means knowing you can't stay where you are.

His other passion is cooking, and it gives him the perfect closing analogy. Walk the spice aisle all you want, but you can never go wrong with salt and pepper. A guitar, a cable and an amp can say a lot. It doesn't take much.

The takeaway

Prepare before the call, check on your people, build your catalog, and be the player who shows up early and knows the music. When the next audition comes, prepare like a pro with the free Audition Secrets guide.

Get the gig. Keep the gig. Build the career.

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