Modern Renaissance Man: Jack Piatt on Jammcard and Building Music Community (Episode 45)

Work begets work.

Jack Piatt is a dot connector. He is the reason Nomad joined the Pantheon Podcast Network, and he is the one who brought Nomad in to meet the team at Jammcard, where Jack runs operations. He is also a poet, a filmmaker, a former paratrooper and the guy who got tasered at Frank Sinatra's house in Palm Springs. He left that one as a cliffhanger.

Episode 45 of The Career Musician is a long, loose, very fun hang. Underneath the tangents is a real lesson about building community in the music industry, and about how a winding path can turn out to be the whole point.

Everything is poetry

Jack grew up in the country outside Dayton, Ohio, surrounded by a sea of corn. His grandmother was a published poet who could recite all of her work from memory on the front porch. He started writing poems as a little kid and has written thousands since.

When he thought he had stopped writing during a busy stretch, he looked in the notes app on his phone and counted almost 300 poems. That became his new book, Poems From My Phone. He loves photography for the same reason, and likes to point out that the word means writing with light. He even shared that with the famous rock photographer Henry Diltz, who had never heard it.

The takeaway for musicians: you may be creating more than you think. Capture it, wherever it happens.

Know how you are wired

Jack turned down a football scholarship, joined the military and became a paratrooper. Because he was tall, he ended up jumping with Stinger missiles strapped to him. Nomad, who is afraid of heights, needed a minute.

Jack talked openly about having ADHD and what he has read about it. In the wrong setting it is a daily challenge.

"If you put me in an area where I can thrive, it's like a superpower."

Jack Piatt, 28:31

After the military he studied journalism at Southern Illinois University and landed a suit-and-tie advertising job at the Denver Post. They called him a top recruit. He quit anyway, because it wasn't him. He went home to Ohio, took the job with the least responsibility he could find, waiting tables, and wrote his first poetry book. Nomad connected it to The Fountainhead: take a simple job if you have to, so your focus goes to the work you care about.

A lot of musicians know that feeling. The day job is not the failure. Ignoring what you are built for is.

The night job that became the bridge

Around 28, Jack packed a bag and moved to LA with a couple of buddies and nothing lined up. He cleaned lawns in Riverside out of a stranger's beat-up van. He was signed to a small management company as a screenwriter, so he needed a night job, and took one as a security guard at a Hollywood nightclub.

One night a week became two, then five. Then promoter, then promotions manager, then general manager of the whole venue, a restaurant, screening room and club with live music most nights of the week. He says major artists came through on any given night. It was the bridge to everything, because he met so many people.

One of them ran a Sunday night where live painters painted to live music. That was Jammcard's future CEO, and Jack was signing his paychecks back then. Everything you do is an audition. The security guard on the door is building relationships too.

Inside Jammcard

Nomad sees Jammcard as a camaraderie center: a place where players drop the chips on their shoulders and remember they are all in this together. Jack describes an invite-only app where professional music people can talk, book each other and collaborate without getting hit up, plus a service that puts bands together when a client needs players. It is not only for artists. Lighting techs, sound engineers and pro videographers are part of it too.

The signature event is the Jam Jam, which started with musicians in a circle at a house in the Hollywood Hills and grew into a big event at NAMM. Jack says invites fill up in minutes because it is authentic. You walk in, you leave your ego at the door, and you play. That is Low maintenance / no drama as a culture.

So how do you get in? There is an application and a vetting process, and Jack is clear that he doesn't personally let people in. Mostly it comes down to touring credits, session work and whether you can work professionally at that level. He compared it to a community of the best carpenters on the planet, hired to build incredible buildings. Could you get hired there?

"This is not about being exclusive in a bad way... It's a celebration of excellence."

Jack Piatt, 1:02:28

If you don't get in yet, his advice is simple: keep practicing, keep playing, keep building your resume, reapply, and email to ask what you need to work on. Someone on the team will tell you.

You are an independent contractor

The conversation also touched on AB5, the California law that lumped independent contractors together in a way both men felt didn't fit musicians. Jack was careful to say his understanding was limited, and that Jammcard's CEO had been leading conversations with lawmakers about the musician side. The bigger point for you: you are self-employed, and the rules around how you get paid matter. Make Music Your Business.

Film and music dance together

Jack and Nomad worked together on a short documentary about Lolo, the barber on Catalina Island for more than 50 years. Jack directed and Nomad wrote the score, including a theme he played on a charango. The film screened at the Catalina Film Festival in the island's historic casino theater.

Jack was also producing a documentary about legendary session and touring players, including Leland Sklar, and was attached to produce the life story of Dave Mason of Traffic. His point: watch any movie that isn't silent and tell him music isn't a key part of it. Film and music go hand in hand, and players who understand both have more doors to walk through.

The takeaway

Jack's path looks random until you see the thread: create constantly, say yes to the night job, treat everyone well and connect the dots for other people. Community is not a buzzword. It is how the work moves. If you are building the resume that gets you through the next door, start with the free Get the Gig guide.

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

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