Tyler Hale - Gold Diggers LA - Venue Interview
Born in Seattle, WA before settling in Venice, CA, Hale was influenced by Paul McCartney in his formative years. Having worked with the folks over at KCRW, Hale knew he wanted to be involved with music in someway. His friendship with Justin Gage (Aquarium Drunkard) led him to Gold Diggers! It was great talking to Hale about his childhood growing up, getting into music, his career in radio and booking philosophy/favorite shows at the LA venue Gold-Diggers!
Are you originally from the Venice area? When did you first begin to fall in love with music? Was music and art elevant around your households growing up?
I was born in Seattle and bounced around a bit growing up due to my dad’s job in television. Living primarily in Seattle, a few youthful years in Nashville, high school/college in Phoenix and Los Angeles. My family is originally from LA, so it’s always been in the picture for me (despite a bit of criss-crossing about). I’ve been living in and around Venice for nearly 17 years. This pocket is so community-oriented — and, for me, routine-based, I couldn’t live anywhere else in LA. I surf down the street a couple times a week, grab coffee from friends at their shops, I go to the farmer’s market with my fam on Fridays… It's home, and far enough away from the music stuff in LA that I feel like I have two different things going. It keeps the grind in check! Music was always in my household growing up (especially that Nashville-era I mentioned earlier… Where my dad worked at TNN). I have early memories of standing side stage at the Grand Ole Opry watching Dolly, George Jones and others. Pretty illuminating stuff to see as an impressionable 10 year old. I took to piano, clarinet, and eventually the guitar in my younger years and got serious about songwriting when I was 15 or so. My dad is a published songwriter and writes music everyday, my mom paints… Art and music was fully appreciated and supported growing up — I’m very fortunate for that.
Who were some of your earliest influences? When and where did you see your first concert and when did it dawn on you that you wanted to be involved with music? Have you participated in any bands yourself?
The Beatles, specifically Paul McCartney, have played the most pivotal role in my appreciation of music. Growing up, my dad was all-consuming of The Beatles: countless books, rare records/tapes/CDs, trips to the UK to go on tours of their history, etc.. I was lucky to be exposed (I’m talking non-stop hahah) to all of this growing up. Because of that, my first concert was Paul McCartney at the Kingdome in Seattle 1990. I was 6… I think it was all about the “Jet” pyrotechnics and lightshow for me. But a cool ‘first show’ none-the-less and Sir Paul has turned into my greatest inspiration and source of musical study and comfort. Of course, my parents' listening extended to adjacent artists and diverse sounds. So I had a fairly well-rounded base of music appreciation. 1994 was an important year for my own musical discovery at age 10. Two records — Weezer’s Self-titled (Blue Album) and Green Day’s “Dookie” sent me on my own hand-picked path and I really haven’t turned back. I stayed in this pocket into my early teens… Eventually leading to Radiohead and Wilco and on and on it goes — still to this day I have an insatiable appetite and curiosity for music. Lately, it’s mostly been jazz on the turntable, but it moves quickly. I try to keep a steady showcase of what I’m listening to on my Instagram - what I’ve dubbed as Friday Flyers. I see shows often and love to travel to interesting venues and festivals to let it all seep in. I played in bands throughout high school and college… Various venues and recording a bit. Things were going steady and I took a summer semester at Berklee College of Music to try and get serious about it… I mostly left feeling defeated as a musician, but resolute to continue on the path in some form. I still kick around my own songs — they might see the light of day down the line. Curation and the business side felt like the best fit. It was during a college internship for Conan O’Brien’s Late Night show in NYC that the lights turned on. I was always a huge fan of the music I’d see on that show, so I tried to get close to the booker to understand what they did. I wanted to do that, I thought it was the coolest job in the world.
Prior to Gold Diggers you worked over at KCRW. What was that experience like and how did you get into radio broadcasting?
I jumped at the opportunity to work at KCRW through their promotions and marketing department. A way into the music industry with some meaning! I got close to the magic of it all… Wide-eyed, watching countless artists and bands I admired cramming into the small hallways to perform bleary-eyed sessions at 11am. Incredible stuff. I worked hard and was there for nearly 8 years — culminating with a stint leading their digital music efforts (writing editorial features/interviews, session video stuff, label exclusives etc). I’m still close with many of the KCRW DJs and staff, and am grateful I got to be part of their legacy and incredible mission of spreading music, art, culture, news and information for the betterment of society. A rarity these days.
So how did you initially get involved with booking gigs over at Gold Diggers? How long have you been working with them and what has that experience been like for you both on a professional level as well as personally?
August 2020 is when I started my first initial conversations with the Gold Diggers team. Justin Gage (Aquarium Drunkard) is a good friend of mine and part of the owner group at GD, he let me know they were organizing around media assets, livestreams — things I did on a daily basis at KCRW. Of course, at this time, Gold Diggers was fully closed due to COVID mandates so I joined the team initially producing livestreams (Steve Gunn was a notable one) and getting our content channel (GDTV) off the ground. I still work in that capacity in addition to my booking. Fast forward to spring 2021, we were kinda looking around the room discussing plans to re-open and there wasn’t a booker in the mix. I jumped at the opportunity and have been leading programming and artists relations for the venue ever since. The team is full of hard-working, kind, creative and supportive individuals. It’s a really wonderful place to work — where I’m trusted to put my curatorial tastes and musical relationships to task. It was bumpy learning how to program a venue those early days of reopening… Fits and starts and cancellations and every curveball you can think of. It’s a hard job, a very fulfilling job, but the unique cocktail that is Gold Diggers (recording studio, hotel, venue) is a playground to sink my teeth into. It’s rewarding and challenging on so many levels, and we continue to grow with partnerships across the musical landscape, official showcases at SXSW and more to come.
Who have been some of your favorite moments booking and promoting shows at the venue? Any career highlights? You also contribute to the wonderful folks over at Aquarium Drunkard! How did you get into contributing work to them?
At a high-level view, my goal is to keep things evolving, current, unique, and entertaining. I always want people to leave having felt they were a part of something special. Atypical presentations from artists you might be familiar with, underplays, and debuts. I take the curation bit very seriously (imprinted from my days at KCRW). It’s also extremely important to me that we keep our door open to our ‘alumni’ artists and musicians so they always have a reliable outlet for audiences and a backdrop of venue support. I love our monthly partnership with Desert Daze… Those nights absolutely blast-off and are generally underplays for the artists. Great folks behind the scenes at Desert Daze and we continue to find new ways to expand our like-minded music sensibilities. Rose City Band’s LA debut was memorable, Whitney did 3 sold-out nights, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s had a private show that was fun. Gold Diggers is a bit of a homebase for Taper’s Choice, having had their very first show and many runs since then. It’s pretty sweet to be part of that growing story.
Courtney Barnett, Jake Xerxes Fussell both come to mind. I love working with my friends at various record labels and turning over the proverbial programming keys so they can showcase in the room — International Anthem, Northern Spy and others. We have a burgeoning LA songwriting community in the venue with residencies and crossover nights ft. Johanna Samuels, Will Fox, Sylvie… Often times with support from our promoter friends, Sid the Cat. I love hosting jazz and improvisational presentations anchored by Dave Harrington and artists like Patrick Shiroishi, Logan Kane, Nicole McCabe, Josh Johnson. I could go on and on. It’s fun to book shows in tandem with Aquarium Drunkard and present evenings through that lens. As for my association with AD, Justin goes back as a longtime friend (he actually DJ'ed my wedding in 2011)... I took to writing up albums I was passionate about, surf features with musicians, mixes and whatnot. My musical knowledge and taste owes a lot to the fine work of the AD crew at large. Great company to keep!
What have you been up to more recently? Do you have anything going on for the Spring/Summer? Is there anything else you would like to further share with readers?
Aside from the music… I’m pretty active with surf and outdoors-y pursuits leading the way. To that end, I’m currently in recovery from shoulder surgery, having dislocated and fractured my shoulder snowboarding. I’m taking it easy right now, but eager to get back in the water, hopefully, by mid-summer. Low and slow currently… I’m a bit of a wine geek (snob?) so leaning into the food & wine interests at home as well. I’ll be heading to Europe this summer with my wife and daughter — eventually making our way to Montreux Jazz Festival (we’re going to catch Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways show!). Through the moon about it, and can’t wait to embrace that legendary and magical environment. I’ve heard only incredible things from friends and musicians alike. I appreciate the opportunity to tell a little bit of my story and hope to see you at Gold Diggers one of these days! Please say hello. We’ll have ourselves a time.
