Low Cut Connie's Adam Weiner on Becoming a Full-Time Musician (Episode 102)

You learned how to make music. Nobody taught you how to make a living making music.

Low Cut Connie is a Philadelphia rock and roll band formed in 2010, known for a ferocious live show, a spot on Barack Obama's list of favorite songs, and Elton John calling them one of his favorites. Essentially it is the project of frontman, pianist and songwriter Adam Weiner.

In Episode 102 of The Career Musician, Adam tells Nomad what it really took to go from piano bars and day jobs to a full-time artist career. If you are trying to figure out how to become a full-time musician playing your own songs, this conversation is honest, funny and very useful.

An overnight sensation, 15 to 20 years in the making

Nomad asked how Adam stays so humble. His answer: it took him so long to get anywhere. As of about five years before this conversation, he still had a day job as a teacher, and he says he could list the 300 jobs he worked before that. He did not become a full-time musician until his mid 30s.

He moved to New York at 18 thinking he would be an actor, and ended up playing piano: in restaurants, in a karaoke bar, in Italian restaurants, for ballet classes, behind Broadway singers, plus teaching lessons. He was making a living, but always playing somebody else's songs. So he quit all of it, left New York and started touring his own music. From that point it took about another ten years before people really started paying attention.

Nomad related. He spent years as a music director and sideman, then found himself in his 40s asking where his own music was. Adam's story is the reminder: at some point, you have to take the leap.

Finish what you start

One of Adam's early hustles: a piano student hired him to produce her album. He set up a makeshift studio in his house in Queens and ran her sessions nine to five. Then at five-thirty, with the same musicians and the same gear, he switched to his own record and worked until midnight. He finished it. Almost nobody heard it, and he guesses it sold about 150 CDs. But it was finished.

Nomad's line on the show: finish what you start, build your catalog, complete each song. Adam took it further.

"If you want to write a great song, you have to write probably a hundred songs start to finish before you write one good one."

Adam Weiner, 15:51

The same goes for engineering, producing and making albums. A rare few arrive fully formed. Most great artists have to create themselves.

Hostile audiences are the heavy bag

After moving to Philadelphia as a home base, Adam booked himself a run of shows, playing only his own songs for strangers. In Cincinnati he got heckled and completely bombed. He calls it the most galvanizing experience of his career. He decided that was unacceptable, and spent five or six years playing for tough rooms on purpose, learning how to handle a heckler and win over people who did not know him.

"Hostile audiences, that's the heavy bag. Performing for fans is easy. They love you... The hard part is making fans."

Adam Weiner, 12:14

It was not about money. It was about the craft. By the time Low Cut Connie started, he had total confidence that he could win over a room. That is Luck = preparation + opportunity, earned one rough gig at a time.

Make your craft your religion

Adam gets up early, around 5 or 5:30, and works as a tight team with his manager and publicist. He is obsessed with being ahead of the calendar, so a holiday release is never a last-minute scramble.

"You only get one bite at the apple when you release something. Take the time to put it out at the right time, in the right way."

Adam Weiner, 21:08

He also never stops practicing. He sings and plays piano about six days a week and takes Sunday off. He asked Tony Bennett, on Twitter, how his voice held up, and the answer was that he sings every day. Adam even says he is glad he had no success 10 or 15 years earlier, because he was not ready. Mastery of the craft comes first, then the business starts to flow, and then you have to put your business hat on and protect it.

His fitness is part of the job, too. He works out about six days a week, because a show where you are standing on the piano and running around will hurt you if you are not in shape. As he put it, it's your instrument. That is Reliability beats virtuosity in practice: the artist who shows up at full strength every night.

The short order cook

When the pandemic shut down touring, Adam went back to his piano bar roots. A chef hands you the menu. A short order cook asks what you need. His twice-weekly live streams from his house became Tough Cookies, named after the viewers who started filling the chat with cookie emojis when he told them they were tough cookies. He promised them one hour to change their frame of mind.

The show grew into interviews with artists and people behind the scenes about what they went through in the business, with longer conversations for his paying members. Vinyl of his new album sold through faster than expected. He pivoted, as he put it, every five seconds. That is Diversify or Die under pressure.

Face reality, learn the game, and run the marathon

Adam's advice for new artists came in three parts. First, face reality. Learn to look yourself in the mirror. Not every song is a masterpiece and not every show is perfect, so learn to take criticism, edit and come back stronger. That is Objectivity from the ETHOS code. Second, learn the game you are entering: the business, the team, the history, the time commitment. Third, if you truly cannot give up, accept it and go all in. It is a marathon, not a sprint. Maybe in ten years you will be halfway to where you want to be.

The takeaway

Take the leap. Finish the work. Seek out the hard rooms. Practice like it is your religion, then protect the business. If you are building your own career right now, start with the free Get the Gig Guide, and put your plan on paper with the free plan of attack (POA) worksheet.

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

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