Macon Magazine

72 maconmagazine.com | June/July 2025 See an extended version of this conversation inside our podcast, In Conversation with Macon Magazine. really worried about making money from my original stuff. That's why I started a cover band. WILLIAMS: I've had plenty of people ask me why you don't do any of your original music? Well, this is not really why they booked me… but if I can put me in a song or two in now and then. Someone later on, "What was that song?" Oh, baby, that was my song. MADDUX: Thinking about the policy, standards, norms, what would make it better for musicians here? LAWS: I would say a youth or teen center that is all an ages venue that allows kids to play their band on the weekend… Growing up, playing in high school, that's where I cut my teeth. It was a really cool, self-contained scene for those ages. MORRISON: Do you think that there's any power in musicians organizing and working collectively? MIMS: One thing I've always learned is everybody should talk about what they get paid. It helps venues not take advantage of if my other bands. The whole market, it helps everybody. MORETTI: I want to see people make a living playing, and when it comes to venues, they need to be willing to make that investment. It's hard when you have those that will accept something less, I'll just do it for tips – well, then that's going to screw everybody in the long run. It's this weird dichotomy, because you don't ever want someone not to have an opportunity to play live, but you also want to make sure people that are really trying to make a living playing music have a true opportunity to get paid something decent. DAVIS: I don't know if a standard would work necessarily. It would be awesome if that worked… Maybe the checks and balances would work itself out, because most musicians I know are not going to want it. That's just a weird attitude to have about music. MELVIN: I think it's too cut and dried. I think it is like, well then what inspires you to be better, to be good. You know what I mean? MIMS: Yeah, there should be a minimum. And I mean if you can draw a crowd, yes, you can have more. MORETTI: There should be a baseline. WRATH: Also, the bars still have a bottom line. They still want a good night of people buying drinks. MORRISON: I really believe that venues and artists needinto work together and figure out a good medium. But also, audiences and anyone who's going to be reading the magazine or listening to this need to also value their local artists. You have people who are literally going to Europe to see Taylor Swift play and they're going to put four to $5,000 on this specific experience. Those same people will be mad about the $15 Society Garden cover – and their friend is in the band. MORETTI: It's changing the mentality for everyone. DAVIS: It's the cultural shift of how we view [music] – sometimes the cocktail they're drinking is more than the cover that they don't want to pay. MADDUX: If you've never been told that it's important to value musicians, if your parents aren't telling you this, when do you ever really learn that? I do think that that is common beyond Macon. Tell us one thing that gives you hope about Macon's music scene. DAVIS: This. WRATH: This is great. MORETTI: No, it is. It's important out there, and communicating this beyond this table, that's the key. MADDUX: Well, we'll rise up together here. ABOVE Ashlyn Kilcrease articulates the value of playing in Macon versus Atlanta at the artist roundtable. RIGHT Johnny Davis, second from left, explains that money does not define his happiness as a musician next to Mims, Kilcrease, and Blak Pearl.

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