About
Welcome to Indie Band Guru. Let me tell you a little about myself. I am Keith Pro, a true music lover who has held many positions throughout the music industry. Music business is as much a passion of mine as the music itself.
A brief history lesson of the Indie Music Guru:
I have loved music since I was a little child, says my mother. She says I used to demand that she put on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of The Moon while I lay on the shag carpet and stare at the ceiling.
Jumping in and out of bands starting at age 16, I never really found my true calling in front of the microphone. At that point I started managing a friend’s band, handling all the behind the scenes work in making the band a success. Never being satisfied, I started a fanzine to find more great music and reviewed 100’s of band’s demos, offering them straightforward tips on how to get to the next level in their careers. A few bands really struck me and I was signed on to be a promoter for them eventually turning it into a full-time booking agency working for a few bands and becoming the sole booking agent at a few clubs in New York City.
To expand my knowledge I then attended the Berklee College of Music and earned a degree in Music Business. At that point I went to work at a music marketing firm in Manhattan to continue learning all that I could about the business that I loved so much. Trying to take it to the next level myself, I started my own indie record label/management company to help bands achieve success in the drastically changing music industry. We had some ups and downs and continued to learn. And here we are today at Indie Band Guru, still staying busy in music and trying to guide musicians to the promised land of a successful career in music.
Come along for the ride as we build our team and offer tons of tips and ideas for all the hard-working bands out there.
My name is Marc Montfleurry, reviewer and writer for Indie Band Guru.
I have been a musician all my life. I love everything about music. I love to see shows or watch people on the street playing. I love to jam. I have been writing songs since I was about 9 years old. I never pursued it as a goal until the last four or five years though. I left home at 18 and moved to Philly in 1995. Pretty much working construction and office 9 to 5 death traps for a bunch of years trying to make a living. Through out this time I still wrote music, made beats, and collaborated with a host of artists from all sides of the spectrum.
It was a great education in personalities and expression. After some time I found myself in Ohio. Drunk everyday, depressed, and just sick of the grind. Not to mention so bored and hungry for the east coast. Not that anything is wrong with Ohio.
Finding myself in Northern Virginia in 2005. I struck out for the first time and tried to start a band. The fruit of that labor became the mighty Tifecta where I played guitars and vocals. It was a short lived venture. Circumstance was bringing me back to New York City by way of Connecticut And that was the main objective all along.
By 2007, I crash landed in Queens and started auditioning for bands. I had done some singing in a Progressive/Hardcore CT band Named Torus. But they would not follow me to the city. The first gig I got was as a fill in guitarist for A Broken Code, A Hardcore/Metal/Reggae band. Doing shows from Long Island to Philly. It was not really what I wanted to do although it was fun, and a bit insane. I felt that I had something to say and that there were people out there that wanted to hear it (Common rookie mistake).
I found what I was looking for in Black Pearle. A Rock/Hardcore/Funk band out of queens. It was too bad that the band was already half caved in before I ever set foot in that rehearsal room to audition. We made great sounds, played great shows, made grown women weep, and then imploded with a sendoff show on Fifth ave on a hot summer day in 2009 in front of our largest audience ever.
Since then I have been building a band and looking for a music scene to call my own. Hoping there is a pulse, some hot spot where all the art is flowing into each other and colliding, creating a picture of right now, today so I can look at it and maybe recognize myself in its reflections. I must believe it is there. Every once in a while it pops its head up and I have to chase it even if it keeps me out in the haunted streets of Brooklyn all night.
In comes Indie Band Guru. Why not chronicle the hunt. And I will. Enjoy
