Jason K Powers: Welcome to Backstage Money, real World Finance for Musicians.

I'm your host, Jason K.

Powers, and this is where music and Money collide.

Today I am joined by Lexxi Garza, Hartless powerhouse, vocalist and pianist, originally from San Antonio, Texas.

Now in Nashville.

She has toured nationally and internationally, lights up dueling piano stages, and is a multi-instrumentalist who will jump from bass to drums, to keys in a single night even.

She's the entertainment director with Pete's Dueling Piano bar and co-owner of Sound City Entertainment with her husband Jason Hartless.

In recent years, Lexxi has also joined legendary rocker Ted Nugent on tour, appearing on stage during various shows in his US tours, becoming the only female to perform live with Nugent himself.

Lexxi, welcome to the show.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Hi.

Thank you

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

I appreciate you coming on.

This is, uh, this is an exciting time.

We've been doing lots of recordings and, and I've, I've really enjoyed meeting everybody and, and I've heard some of your story and I'm, I'm really excited to, to share that with everybody.

So let's jump right in.

Let's, let's hear about, I always like to start with origin stories.

We call it, you know, how did you, how did you get into music?

You started at a pretty young age.

And kind of found your gift pretty early on, I think.

Right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Yeah, I was five and it's kind of a, a really dorky story.

So when I was a kid, I was obsessed with Little House on the Prairie.

Like that was my favorite show.

I watched it all day every day.

and I don't really remember doing this.

This is just a story that my parents told me, um, later, but I had like a little Fisher-Price piano and they heard me, um, figure out the theme song with no reference in the exact key in on the piano at five.

And they were like, not normal child behavior.

Yeah.

And so they, they put me in piano lessons and I, I studied classical music for.

Probably 10, 15 years after that.

I didn't start singing until, uh, college.

So that was kind of a labor bloomer for me as far as singing goes.

But, um, yeah, so been in it

Jason K Powers: Yeah, so, where did you kind of excel and, and did you think growing up in, in junior high and high school, you were gonna be a performer?

Or were you, did you just love it or what were you, what were you thinking at that time?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, so you know, I always kind of knew that being a performer is.

Is in my blood.

It's kind of where I belong.

You know, I, I have a, a pretty big personality that was allowed to shine in that sort of an environment, you know?

My parents were, were really supportive.

I was homeschooled

Jason K Powers: Okay.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: 17, so I was kind of able to have the fLexxibility to do the tours and, and do all the different kinds of bands and all the different projects and stuff.

And so, I, I always knew that that's what I was supposed to do.

I just, at the time, you know, I knew how fickle the industry was and I wasn't sure if it would ever happen, you know?

'cause there's a lot of times the people out there that.

know, it never really happens for, it's just, it's very common.

So I didn't know what the future had in store, but yeah.

I'm glad I stuck with

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

And, and here you are.

Right.

Right.

See, as, as we say, my haven't we come a long way, you know?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yes,

Jason K Powers: right.

Well, so, so when did you start going on stage?

When did you start performing in front of crowds and, and how did you get sort of from, I'm gonna say a prodigy musician child right, to performing where you're at now?

I mean, what, what was kind of that?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Yeah, it was, you know, I, it's so, it's so funny looking back on it to say, because be 28 on Friday and it's crazy to, to say, you know, I've been here doing this thing for.

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: years, you know, that it's just, it's, it's crazy and I'm really lucky.

my first recital when my first time playing in front of people was a piano recital because I studied classical.

Um, we had like a, a sort of, you know, all the students for this teacher would perform for this recital.

And I was so nervous.

I remember sitting down.

And I played my pieces like 10 times faster than they were supposed to go.

I just was like, my brain just like completely quit.

And I was like, let me just get through this as fast as possible, you know?

and then as you know, I started to perform more, you know, every, anywhere I could.

My dad, you know, he.

Kind of helped me get exposure with a bunch of different bands.

And he was always like, don't worry about the money.

Like getting your name out there, getting your face out there, your talents out there.

That's what's important.

And everything else is gonna come along naturally, you know, and that's exactly what happened.

You know, by the time my, uh, I was in college, I had been a part of, know, leading worship teams and classical recitals and jazz bands and rock bands, and I'd kind of done.

All of this stuff, which was was awesome, moving into a more professional stage of my life that I had all these sort of tools under my belt, as it were so.

Jason K Powers: Then what's your involvement with, so take me now, you start doing the dueling, the dueling piano thing, right?

You have the, uh, what, how did you get from.

That, uh, Pete's dueling piano war, right?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, so long story short, so I went to college for classical music when I was 13, and it was fun.

It was great.

That's kind of where I realized though, that I am a rocker at heart and I would like, it would be a chore for me to learn these Beethoven sonatas, and I really just wanted to be listening to Iron Maiden, you know?

Um, and it, it sort of developed, you know, down the road that I wanted to be a front person.

I wanted to be as big of a personality as I could be on the stage.

And I, my first job coming out of college was actually on carnival, uh, cruise ships, and I

Jason K Powers: Okay.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: piano bar entertainer

Jason K Powers: Um.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and right out the gate.

Um, and it was awesome.

It was fun.

It was a lot of work.

It was, you know, six nights a week, four hour show solo, um, which is a long time to be on

Jason K Powers: Yeah, sure.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and entertaining singing.

And, um, when I got off the ship, I don't know how this happened to this day, somebody, um, from a, a company called Howl at the Moon found me.

Me and I sort of fell backwards into dueling pianos.

I had no idea

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: it was, and spent about five years really honing that craft, and that's how I ended up at Pete's.

Now Pete's is a very prestigious, um, dueling piano brand.

Like it's very hard to get your foot in the door there.

And I was working for them in Texas just as a sub, and that's how I ended up landing the E.D.

Jason K Powers: Yeah,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: here in Nashville.

Jason K Powers: yeah, yeah.

So for the listener who isn't privvy to this, explain the dueling piano thing.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, doing pianos is a very interesting concept and I think everyone would have a different answer for this for sure.

but to me, you know, we have, we have two pianists.

They face each other, um, and we don't have a set list up there.

We take song requests.

the audience, so the audience can write down their favorite songs, they can write down what they're celebrating.

If it's a birthday, they write down, you know, what, whatever they would like to pay attention to us to pay attention to on the stage.

They bring it up to us and we play it, it's very chaotic

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, there's definitely a comedic element as well.

We bring people up on the stage and we make 'em feel special.

We play games with the audience.

We give away jello shots.

I mean, it's, it's a whole.

a whole night of shenanigans.

It's not just like, I'm gonna play a song and then my partner is gonna play a song, and then I'm gonna play a song.

It's very cohesive, it's very fun.

Um, I mean, we'll, we'll go from Janice Joplin to Cardi

Jason K Powers: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know?

Um, so it's awesome.

It's, it's really, really fun.

I'm, I'm so

Jason K Powers: yeah.

We, we had a really great one in Denver.

We go do for a long time and, and.

You can't walk out of there.

Not smiling.

I mean, it was, it's always just a lot of fun, I think.

I think everybody

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

And I

Jason K Powers: before you knock it right, everybody needs to go check it out and uh, I.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: yeah, and it's, you know, every club that you walk into does it differently.

Like, Howell is different than Pete, which is different than sluggers in Chicago, which is different than New York and New York and Vegas.

You know, it, it's such a, it's such a broad concept and it really allows the entertainer to shine because the way that I do the show is different than.

You know, somebody else on my team.

And it, it's so awesome to have all these personalities and all this talent to create this one big cohesive ball of

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: energy,

Jason K Powers: Right, right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know?

And it's it's so much fun.

It's, it really feels like I get paid to,

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: a week, and then I walk, I walk home and

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: it's

Jason K Powers: But there's some, there's some entertainment aspect to this where.

It's really on you guys in a way to kind of lead the entertainment, you know, and keep the momentum going and keep the fun going and right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Yeah.

I always tell people, you know, to treat the show with brand new doers when they come in, they have no idea.

You know, they're like, how do I do this gig?

I'm like, treat the show like this is a house party and the audience, or your guests, you know, and at the end of the night, you know, you want this table from New York to be best friends with this table

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Oh, I'll cross the bar.

You know, it's, and that's really, it's so true, is what we're trying to do is through music and we're trying to help people forget

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for a night, you know, and just come in and have fun and celebrate their birthdays, and celebrate their bachelorette parties and just come in and have

Jason K Powers: Yeah, that's great.

That's great.

And we've talked about that before on other shows about.

Just for the music entertainer you are.

That is an important thing to keep in mind.

I think people are going to these things to kind of get away from it, so to speak.

You know,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah,

Jason K Powers: and, just disconnect and have a grand time.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Even we, as the entertainers show

Jason K Powers: Yeah,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: to forget about stuff in our life, you know, it's like,

Jason K Powers: that's great.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: it's just as much benefit for

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for them.

So it's definitely a privilege to be in that

Jason K Powers: That's fun.

That's fun.

Well, and so you're married and you do you get to perform with your husband much?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: I

Jason K Powers: You do.

So I, I wanna, let's pause that thought for a second and back up a little bit.

You have a, a pretty interesting how I met my husband story, I think, and, and why don't you tell us who your husband is and then how you guys met.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, so my husband is Jason Hartless, show appear on well.

Jason K Powers: Yes.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, he and I'll, I'll let him, I'll leave most of his intro for him when he comes on here, but, um, he drums full-time for Ted Nugent has for the last, uh, 10 years.

And I met Jason when I showed up on the Ted Nugent 22 Detroit Muscle Tour.

Um, and when I showed up, you know, everybody was running around.

They're getting ready for the show, they're still setting up.

And I, I showed up and I asked our tour manager, who at the time was Ted Emporellis, he, he's, he's tour managed for huge acts like John Bon Jovi's with for years.

And I was like, Hey, Ted, like, where can I stand where I'm not in the way of all this stuff?

'cause everyone's like going crazy.

like, oh, you can wait in there.

And he points off to this little room on the side in the back.

And I'm like, all right.

And I walk in there and there's Jason on his little drum pad and he is warming up.

He looks up and he's like, what is this girl doing in

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: And come to find out later, that was Jason's dressing room and no one was supposed to be in there.

And the tour manager had sent me in there trying to set us.

Which

Jason K Powers: it's worked.

That's funny.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: which worked.

Um, and he, Jason, like, did not want to talk to me.

He was so shy, like he had no idea what to do.

He was just like not making eye contact.

I was like, this is not gonna be awkward.

Like, this man is gonna talk to me

Jason K Powers: Oh funny.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: or not.

And so that's kind of how all that started and that's how we met.

And then I went out on stage with him later, and then we became best friends and.

Jason K Powers: Then there you,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: We just celebrated our one year wedding anniversary

Jason K Powers: that's great.

That's great.

That's great.

Well, so you guys now, how did you get hooked up with, with.

Ted's tour and in the first place.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, so I got called to open for him last minute, like five days before the show.

He was performing in Waco, Texas, and they're opening band had lost their lead singer.

And I got called in.

It was just, it was a set of like, Zeppelin and

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: stuff.

uh, it was one of those like domino effect things.

It just, it was crazy that Ted and Shemane just happened to be there early and they heard the whole set and, uh, get a call from an unknown number on my phone the next day.

I almost didn't answer it.

And it was Ted and he was like, would you wanna come out and sing some songs on my tour this year?

And I was like,

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: we

Jason K Powers: Gimme,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know?

Jason K Powers: gimme one second.

Okay.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

And so that's kind of how that happened.

It started out with just the, the Texas chapter of the tour.

'cause that's where I lived.

So I was able to, to make it out to all those.

And then it kind of became more, more than that.

Um, and then this year I finally got to do the Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Michigan, which was a bucket list for me.

'cause that's where both Ted and Jason are from.

Um, so that was

Jason K Powers: Very nice.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: And so, okay, let's.

Talk a little bit about the touring session work and then also your work at Pete's and

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: with Sound City Entertainment, which we'll talk about.

Like how are you one, how are you juggling all of this?

Or are you, I guess I we were under the assumption you're juggling it right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Well Jason, Jason and I, I'm really lucky to have him because everything that I'm not good at, he's good at and everything that he's not good at, I'm good at.

so we kind of all of these things, you know, like I just, I just finished four nights back to back at Pete's and I had no energy to do anything else.

And so he was the one that was handling like the accounting for our company.

handling all the stuff that I couldn't get to.

And then there's some weeks when he's on the road where I'm the one that does that.

know?

So it is really, I don't know if I could do it without him.

Um, I don't think there's any way could pull off that kind of responsibility and schedule without cloning myself at

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: um, yeah, I really, I really make my mental health a priority and.

I've got severe A DHD, so making lists is like

Jason K Powers: Yeah, yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: to make sure I get to everything, you know?

Um, yeah, I, I like being busy.

I like having all these things going

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: once, and so it's good.

It's really great.

Jason K Powers: What, uh, what's your favorite part of the dueling piano format and in that area of entertainment, what's something musicians can maybe learn from that to grow and build from, or get exposure or, you know, what's that look like?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, I think, you know, to, to do doing pianos, it's way harder than it looks.

And I say that because you have to be pretty fluid on.

All of the instruments and be able to change around at a moment's notice.

And I think, you know, at the end of the day we, we play other people's music for a living, you know?

I think as long as we don't lose sight of what we're trying to do, which is make the audience the star, like it's about the audience.

It's about them coming in and giving us their business and giving us their time, and being respectful of that, and us being grateful for that.

And I think.

You know, staying humble is really, really important.

And reminding yourself like, Hey, there's a lot of talented people out there, and I'm the one that's getting to do this.

I'm the one that

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: the stage.

I'm the one that has This privilege to be a facilitator of this night and this person's life right now.

know?

And I think as long as it always is centered that.

It is not always about you, you and your abilities and you know, it's, you wanna create a party and create an environment and I think as long as you don't lose sight of that, everything else just kind of comes along.

You know, I think staying humble is so, so important.

And I know I live in like one of the big three cities.

There's LA, Nashville, and there's New York and there's, you know, there's some ego's out

Jason K Powers: sure.

Sure, But it seems to be a recurring theme though.

It, you know, and other people we've talked to there, there is that recurring theme of humility and

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: yeah,

Jason K Powers: your fans are the reason you're up there still.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: And even for the guys that have been at the longer you're at it, I, it seems like the more you appreciate that, I think, but.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Yeah.

And I, I think the industry, like, it's, it's so tough and it always has been, and it's always been competitive and it's always been, you know, dog eat dog and sometimes, and I staying above that and staying above, you know.

Getting into the fray and getting into the mix and just staying grateful.

You know, I'm, I'm really, really lucky to be where I'm at right now.

You know, where people are, are really hurting for work and, and there's the whole component of ai, which, you

Jason K Powers: Yeah, there's a whole nother show on that.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: later.

Yeah.

Like, it, it's, it's, so grateful to be one of the few people that has this work and this consistent opportunity and that will

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

There's this humility aspect, and then there's the entertainment aspect, right?

I've gotta be, you gotta have a certain personality to, to draw the crowd and to, to, to draw them out and, and entertain, whether it's dueling pianos or whether it's on stage in front of thousands.

You know, there's that aspect of you've gotta be on your game when you're on stage,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yep.

Jason K Powers: you know?

And, and some of that attributes to keeping up on your mental health.

We've, we've had these conversations with people, making sure your mental health is in check when you can, and, and so you can get up there and be on top of your game.

And, and you also have a perspective, which is also a common theme on kind of physical health, right, too.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, a hundred percent.

Yeah.

And you really, you really have to take it seriously.

This is something that Jason and I, my husband, were, we're just talking about the other day.

It's like, you know, he just turned 30 last year and I'll be 30 coming up here soon.

And it's like, we really wanna give ourselves the best chance at being in this industry for as long as we possibly can.

And that really means that you have to live like an athlete.

You know, and there's no other way around it.

'cause it just starts

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yes, for now.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know?

It just gets harder and harder.

Um, so I think I'm a big believer in implementing those healthy habits early on creating a lifestyle out of it, um, is really

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

So what are your maybe non-negotiables during heavy week shows or, or what's maybe overrated?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, I, uh, I drink a gallon of water

Jason K Powers: Okay.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: no matter what.

Um, I'm a big hot yoga fan.

Um, I deal with a lot of anxiety in my life, and so I kind of carry my tension.

my body, you know, and when I'm like really anxious, I'll literally just kind of sit like this, which creates all these issues like in my neck and, which is horrible for singing And, uh, you know, yoga, I'll go probably four or five times a week.

And it really helps just to keep me like limber and stretched out, which is really important for, you know, not just singing, but piano playing too.

And, um, eating healthy.

I've, uh, I've got celiac disease, so I.

Can't eat bread or pasta or anything.

So that's kind of helpful that I'm forced to be But um, eating healthy is really, really

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

All right.

Sound City Entertainment.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: How did this get started?

What is, what is Sound City Entertainment?

How'd you guys get it started?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, sound City Entertainment is the company that Jason and I co-own, and we provide various entertainment to clients, um, all across the world.

that could be doing panels or it could be an acoustic guitar player, it could be a juggler, it could be whatever The client needs.

Um, and we, we provide those services to different clients.

So.

Um, and it got started because we had this opportunity with, um, Park West Art Galleries.

They were looking for entertainment and they, um, they'll have, you know, 70 events across the US throughout the year, and they wanted Dualing Pianos and as well as some other things.

We just brought Eric Martin in a couple of weeks

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: but I just didn't wanna deal with like, the business side of it.

I didn't feel equipped, I didn't feel I could handle that well.

Um, which is where Jason comes in.

'cause Jason graduated from Berkeley in with a music

Jason K Powers: Okay, good.

There you go.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Two, our two forces kind of collided and we were like, Hey, let's, let's do this company and see what we can, what

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: So

Jason K Powers: that's been, uh, for how long now?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: we started that, say in the beginning of

Jason K Powers: Okay.

Okay.

And so far, so good.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: So brand new?

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

So far So great.

Jason K Powers: Good.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: We're, um, we're really grateful to, um.

Be able to

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: people.

Um, and we, we often go out on our own gigs, which is where, you know, we get to play together and

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

So from the artists, from the musician standpoint, how can they get connected with, you know, companies like yourself and, and, and what's one way.

Maybe some advice you would give to artists who are trying to get themselves out there, get connected in every way possible, you know, and, and get that exposure, get things booked.

You know, what, what, what advice can you give on that side?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah, I think know your brand.

I think if you come in with a, a very developed, solid um and product, then that's really important so that you can be like, Hey, this is what I can offer.

You know?

Um, I think really working hard on your skills.

And not money or not worrying about making it to the big stage, not worrying about fame, just sticking with your course and sticking with your guns.

And don't ever

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Don't ever let anybody take your dream away, you know, because these things take time.

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: These things take time.

you know, even Jason and I, we've been at this for years and years and years and, you know, I, I only went out with Nugent in 22 and I'd been in the industry for like 20 years at that point, you know, so things.

You know, they take time.

And I would say just try not to, to, to be discouraged.

You know, when things don't as fast as you think they should or as well as you think they should.

Just, you know, remember your passion or

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, and I think everything else will happen along the way.

Jason K Powers: I love the don't ever quit, you know, that's the, that's the thing.

That's hard, I think for artists is like the long road to, you know, for, for most, for the average person at least, you know, it's, it's that long road and you've gotta really, as, as I would say, think long range.

You know, you have to

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: yeah.

Jason K Powers: looking down the road, what are you working towards, you know?

And keep work in that direction and, and don't give up.

I love it.

And.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: And a lot of people, a lot of people do, which is unfortunate.

You know, it's, sorry, I'm gonna cut you off.

Um, know, and I, know, I'd be lying to you if I said that I never thought about quitting before.

I mean, that's definitely crossed mind in my husband's minds many times.

Many times.

But there's this, like, there's this thing inside both of us that like every time we've tried to quit.

We end up coming right back to it because it's not an option for us.

There's something in us that prevents us from leaving what we

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and yeah.

We'll go on a sabbatical.

Yeah, we'll take a hiatus.

Yeah.

We'll, you know, we'll take a break or whatever, it's just not possible for us to

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: We're just, we're

Jason K Powers: It's, well, it's part of you.

It's like, you know, the music side through and through, you know, in, in your life.

And, and that's like, I guess like losing an appendage, you know, to, to quit.

That kind of thing.

You're like, I'm, I'm, I'm not quite ready to lose my arm.

So, you know, you get right back into it.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: exactly.

Jason K Powers: not quite ready for that.

Yeah.

Uh, well, let's talk, let's talk money for a minute now.

What is in from your vantage point, what's, say what's a reliable way you've earned income through music across seasons, and maybe one lever you're leaning into this year even?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Well, I'm, I'm, really, really lucky dueling pianos, has always been there for me.

It's, I, I tell people it's my nine to five.

And it's so, it's so awesome because I can go out with Ted or I can go out with whoever and I come back and dueling pianos

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for me.

and I know many, many musicians are not in that, um, in that situation.

And so, you know, I'm, I'm really grateful to to have that always there for me.

Um, I know that a lot of musicians when they're off the road.

They'll, you know, session work is big here and in Broadway, like, they'll pick up shifts on Broadway.

Um, which is really unfortunate because of how little Broadway pays these days.

You know, it's, it's really terrible to have all these people getting paid, you know,

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for a four hour show.

It was really insane.

Um, I, Jason is always like, man, you're in the, the 1% that has consistent work.

He's like, nobody has consistent work and I'm just.

I am so grateful to, to be there, but at the same time, like my heart goes out to all of my friends that are not

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: boat, you know?

And that it's really heartbreaking to see these people with all of this talent that are struggling, you know, and, and with this technology now, and the way you know the world is it's just getting

Jason K Powers: Right,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: day.

You know?

Hopefully it'll balance out and turn itself back around, but right

Jason K Powers: right, right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know?

Jason K Powers: So what's some of the best advice, best financial advice or career advice another musician or mentor has given you?

I.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, always have a contingency plan.

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Love it.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, have a backup plan.

I don't mean that like, you know, make sure you have a degree in

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: What you wanna do,

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for it.

Like, by all means, mean, you know, have a plan for the dry season, you know, and have a plan for when things aren't going exactly how you expected them to go.

You know, I, um, I injured my voice in 2023 and I was touring and I got COVID that turned into

Jason K Powers: Oh man.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: I coughed so hard.

Um, my right vocal cord started bleeding.

Jason K Powers: Gosh.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Which sucked, sucked.

And I had to take eight weeks off.

So that was two months of no income.

And I didn't really safety net or a contingency plan, so I just kind of sucked it up,

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: really, like got my butt kicked on bills because I didn't have, know, any sort of plans.

I just didn't think that was gonna happen to me, you know?

But it really opened my eyes.

And I think the most important thing I could say on, on that is make sure you

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: net.

Um, whether it's financially or otherwise, you know, because I mean, I could fall down my stairs out, out of the studio coming down from this

Jason K Powers: Right,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and break

Jason K Powers: Right,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: You know,

Jason K Powers: right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: it's such a fickle, um, thing that we do.

And so I think being prepared.

if God forbid, something were to happen and you couldn't

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: while or, you know, you ran into some, some financial issues to have

Jason K Powers: Yep.

Yep.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for you.

Jason K Powers: Yeah, there's a pretty common theme throughout in, in the music industry where the planning ahead thing is trouble, let's call it, you know, it's, it spells trouble for people 'cause.

I, the industry is built on almost a struggle till you make it struggle, struggle, struggle, struggle.

You know?

And you're that literal starving artist at times trying to make it.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: And you want to, you want to build.

And so you go, okay, well we're gonna, we're gonna penny pinch, we're gonna penny pinch until we have enough.

You know?

And, and I get that mindset and that, and that's a very common theme.

But every single musician I talk to, this is a conversation.

How can we, how can we buffer that somehow, or I wish I would've focused more on buffering that ahead of time rather than waiting until the, the time is now when I really need the money and I don't have it, you know?

And, and yeah.

And we see it all the time.

You see it, you know?

And, and, and God bless 'em all.

I mean, when there's.

The GoFundMe pops up, incident happens and the GoFundMe pops up and, and the fans wanna jump in and help and that's great, but it's really a conversation, you know, and that's one of the reasons I do what I do in helping musicians is like, let, let's try to get away from that scramble mode, you know, and try to get away from the, I am in so much trouble tomorrow.

If I get injured, you know, really, it's a scary place to be.

It is.

It really is.

Uh, and, and that's why I think it's, I think it's important and, and every musician agrees that that's out there making it, you know, like it's so important

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: to be finding that buffer for you to finding that safety net.

Finding a way to, I'll say, warehouse your money a little bit along the way,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: yeah.

Oh

Jason K Powers: you know?

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

I think it's, won't find a single successful musician who.

Didn't struggle

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: You know, even, even the people that, that had the funding to start and, and had all the right stuff, you know, it takes, it's

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: It's hard work.

for everybody and I think that I, if you are out there and you are getting paid in any it's 40 bucks it at Tootsies downtown or wherever it's $400,000 because you're touring with Post Malone or whatever.

You know, if, if you're doing that, if you're getting paid to play music, you've already made

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: And I think people should stop being so

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know, and give themselves.

And I, I'm like the biggest person that, that is really hard on myself.

And it, it's never enough.

It's never enough that sometimes to look back and see.

What I've come from and how much, you know, I've accomplished in my life and how much I hope to continue to accomplish.

And I think there's a beauty in, in giving yourself

Jason K Powers: Yeah,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you know, and not comparing yourself to other people.

You know, it's just because, you know, your, your friend over here is touring with Steely

Jason K Powers: yeah,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: You know, it doesn't make what you're doing any

Jason K Powers: yeah.

sure, sure, sure.

Well, it's for everybody, I think we are our own worst critic.

In many ways.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: yeah.

Jason K Powers: And, and that's it.

That's it.

That's it.

so you and I met through this same idea of how do, how do you build a system, uh, in a place that builds a buffer for you that you can access along the way and is your safety net?

That is something you could fall back on.

It's also something you can use along the way too.

And, and that's, you know, you met someone a while back that taught you about this and, and they introduced us and, and here we are, you know, having this conversation.

And, and I think that's great and I, I was gonna have you talk about that for a second about, you know, one of the main things I teach musicians is this vehicle, what we call the Infinite Banking Concept.

And it is this.

The concept is about how do we put our money into places that we control, into something that we have control over, versus constantly putting our money into something, something else that we have no control over.

Like, for example, putting our money in the stock market, for example.

We don't have any control.

The market's control,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Right.

Jason K Powers: uh, being controlled by debt.

The, the bank, the debt instrument is what controls us once we've gotten out of control with that debt.

Or we're constantly leveraging, you know, in the music space, maybe it's labels.

I'm not gonna camp there.

Maybe it's getting over leveraged on, you know, with labels.

And now you, you don't have any control.

And so how can you build up a system?

What vehicles allow you to build something up that you have control over?

Over That money and, and enter the Infinite Banking Concept.

And that's what it's about.

And of course, the vehicle that we show people how to do this is properly structured dividend paying, whole life insurance from a mutual carrier.

I see that 10 times fast.

But, but

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: it's a mouthful.

But I, I'm not gonna get into it for this show, but it's a mouthful because it's very particular for the listener.

You heard a few words there and you're like, oh gosh, that sounds boring.

I'm curious, when you first heard about this, what was your first impressions and then your understanding of it now, how do you see that being impactful in your own life, in your own career?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Well, so when I first heard about it, um, I was a part of like a, a video class.

And if I'm being honest with you, I was like so confused on how it worked.

I was like, what do you mean?

I like, I put money in and then it grows by itself and there's no tax, but how do I, you know, like it was very, um, it was not clear to me at first, and so I really spent time trying to understand it and I decided to open my own policy.

because I got tired of trying to go spend money that is mine and being told, oh, you can only, you know, spend $3,000 as your daily limit.

It's like, that's my

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Right.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, and it was very appealing to me to have a, a, a concept that would work that way, um, that would be there for me if I were to injure myself again.

Or if, you know, maybe not even like worst case scenario, if I wanted to buy a house.

Or buy a car, you know, and have it controlled by me 110%.

That was really, really appealing, um, to me to be able to have the control my own money, since that's not really something that I had experienced before.

Um, and so now I, I wanna say I'm a year in and I'm funding it still, and it's, it's great.

It's growing, it's doing exactly what

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: do, and I think I have that condition.

I'm more in control of the choices that I make.

I don't have to take out loans anymore if I don't want to.

I don't have to rely on, on institutions or other people for money.

I have my own

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

I think that's what's important for musicians is understanding, you know, like in this example, this vehicle would be great to buffer when you have this vocal injury and you're out for eight weeks.

Yeah, you have this now emergency fund that's, it's different than a savings account because you can, you can access this quote, emergency fund, but that emergency fund is actually still growing as if the money never left.

And then you could backfill that emergency fund at your own pace down the road once you've gotten past it and while you're not using it.

It's there to be used on other things if you need some money for Right.

Touring, for equipment, for

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Mm-hmm.

Jason K Powers: these kinds of things.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Yeah.

And I think, you know, I'm about to have to make a really big purchase 'cause my keyboard is super old.

I've been playing on it since high school and I like straight up, doesn't work anymore.

And I really want to get a Yamaha Montage and they cost

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: and I, there's no way I would be able to, do that in my normal life.

You know, there.

I couldn't just go and buy this keyboard now if I didn't have this banking policy.

But now that I have this banking policy, I don't have to take things out on a loan.

I don't have to do anything I don't wanna do.

I can pull from my own bank, my own banking concept, which is me.

I'm in control, I can go buy this Yamaha tomorrow with no strings attached and pay myself back on

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: you

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

But it's that idea of investing in yourself along the way.

It's, it's that idea of just, Hey, every penny I earn, commit to pushing some of it, a small percentage of it through this kind of vehicle because of all the advantages.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: know, it, it is a, I would call it a Both/And Strategy.

We're not, you know, a lot of people want to see this as just a, a glorified savings account.

You know, okay, well, I wanna put money into this.

I need to save money.

Because we have this perception, we, we think linearly.

and we, we want to put money into a savings account.

And then when we are ready to buy whatever, we then spend that money and that savings account goes to zero, and then we start saving again.

And I, I, I'm obviously biased, but I love this type of vehicle because even though we're gonna access that money.

We, we were putting the money into some small growth vehicle, not an investment product, but it's growing along the way, and then we're accessing it, and then it can still grow even though we've accessed it.

And then we can put the money back at our own pace.

Because what was your alternative?

You were gonna go finance it.

You're gonna finance a $5,000 keyboard, and then you have another payment, or you're gonna save up for it, and so that money's still coming outta your pocket until you have enough.

So either way, that money's coming outta your pocket.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Yeah.

I think, you know, to be able to have the control is everything.

And there's so many, so many avenues and so many situations where musicians can get

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: of when it comes to this.

You know, tours are expensive.

Albums are expensive.

Um, and you know, and my husband and I have very different opinions on this, a hundred percent in favor of the DIY musician, you know, because I've seen a lot of, of really talented artists who a lot of really, really good people taken advantage of by these record labels.

Um, 'cause they don't know what they're signing.

And a lot of times, you know, like the example in your book is perfect.

So one about, you know, we'll give you the $60,000 loan, but you have to, you know, recoup,

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: amount of dollars and it's, that's half a million dollars worth of music that you gotta sell.

You know, and that's just not, you know, unless you're one of the.

Billion people, that is an overnight sensation, which is

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Right?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Not that it can't happen, but it just, it's, it's rare, you know?

Then you're, you're stuck and not only do you not have rights to your stuff, you know, now you're, you've got this big IOU as well, you

Jason K Powers: Mm-hmm.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: it's just, it's complicated and it can get really tricky, especially for

Jason K Powers: Yep.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: for sure.

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Well, and I think sometimes losing sight of, as we talked about earlier, the thinking long range.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Mm-hmm.

Jason K Powers: You kind of lose sight of that.

And, and same with this type of vehicle.

You really need to think long range.

What's it gonna do for you over time?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Right.

Jason K Powers: tomorrow, but over time,

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: you know?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: yeah.

Jason K Powers: That's.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: definitely grateful for it.

I now feel.

I know how I, I, I don't want to feel ever again.

And that's how I felt when I injured myself, where I had no control and even know if I was gonna get to sing again.

I didn't know what was gonna be returned to me.

And I was like, crap.

Like I have nothing.

Like I have, have no playing, being, um, and I know that I don't want to feel like that again.

And so I'm really happy that I have this, this avenue behind me, this, this concept that I can contribute to and that I know is gonna be there for me when I need it.

You know?

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Yeah.

That's great.

So let's start landing on the plane and I want you to tell the listeners a little bit about, you know, we talked about Sound City, sound City Entertainment a few minutes ago, and just what you guys do there and how they can connect to you that way.

And any closing advice, financial advice for musicians, uh, that you have.

We're all ears right now.

The floor is yours as we.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Well, like I mentioned, you know, Sound City Entertainment is all about providing the top quality.

Talent and musicians and entertainers to our clients.

Um, and we have various needs at various times for various things coming up all the time, and we're always looking to expand our roster of talented people.

And so if people are interested in, in becoming a part of that, they can reach out to myself or on business cards and stuff like that, but probably the fastest is through, um, my Instagram and we're, Jason and I are very, uh, approachable and reachable, um, through that.

And so we would love to, to connect with, with musicians and, and talent and, and stuff like that.

So, um, and what was your other question?

Sorry.

Um, oh, what advice that was the other part.

Um.

Just keep doing what you're doing and don't, don't ever give up and don't get discouraged.

I mean, it is tough out here, but when you believe in yourself and you believe in what you're doing and you're working hard, the stuff will, it'll find you.

find you in its own time.

And something that got said to me when I was young is A, what's meant for you?

We'll find you.

You won't be able to get away from it.

And I think that's so.

So powerful and so important.

And I know it's cliche to be like, oh yeah, it's work hard, but it's, it's so, it's so true.

And I think if you stay humble and take the time to really, really get good at what you do, whether it's singing or drumming or playing bass or painting, whatever it is, whatever your thing is, do everything in your power to get as good as you possibly can at it, and everything else is gonna find you.

Jason K Powers: That's great.

All right.

Every show we wrap up with what we call final riffs.

Basically short questions, quick answers, snapshots to take us home.

So the first thing that comes to mind, and you can always say pass if you wanna pass.

All right.

Are you ready?

All right.

Who was your biggest musical influence growing up?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Iron Maiden.

Jason K Powers: Iron Maiden.

That's great.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah.

Jason K Powers: What band or artist will you never get tired of listening to?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Iron Maiden,

Jason K Powers: That's so funny.

Good.

All right.

If you could share the stage with anyone, who would it be?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: well, iron Maiden, but also Prince.

Jason K Powers: Besides Iron Reen.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: I'm a huge, huge Prince fan.

I would've loved to share the stage with him.

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Most embarrassing gig or performance?

Fail.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Uh,

Jason K Powers: Everybody's got one.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: that I was touring when I was in high school and I went to go do a solo and my keyboard stand completely broke and my whole rig fell onto the ground.

Jason K Powers: Oh my goodness.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: was

Jason K Powers: Oh my goodness.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: moment.

Jason K Powers: One city or rev or one city or venue you will never forget playing in.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Detroit, Michigan.

Yeah.

Jason K Powers: Okay.

If you were not doing music.

Which we can't imagine.

What would you be doing?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Um, I would probably be a personal trainer or something

Jason K Powers: Think so.

Yeah?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah?

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Good.

All right.

What is a non-music hobby or passion of yours?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: I love hot yoga so much.

I would do it every

Jason K Powers: Yeah.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: muscles allowed.

Jason K Powers: All right.

Coffee, tea or something stronger.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Tea and something stronger.

Tea and

Jason K Powers: Tea and something stronger.

Yeah.

There you go.

There you go.

Uh, any pets and what are their names?

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: I have a dog.

He's a blue healer.

He's seven years old.

His name is Prince.

Jason K Powers: Pr, the dog.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: prince the dog.

Jason K Powers: That's great.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: in the, but.

Jason K Powers: Very cool.

All right.

All right.

All right.

Lexxi, that was fun.

I appreciate, uh, how open you were about your journey and, and launching the business with Jason and taking care of the body and, and what, what the 2023 injury taught you, you know.

We're gonna be putting links for our listeners.

We'll be putting links to Pete's and Sound City Entertainment and the Instagram handles

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: Yeah,

Jason K Powers: to reach out to Lexxi and Jason.

So go follow book a Night out.

Go check them out, go to Pete's and uh, keep.

Yeah, keep up with the shows.

So for everyone listening, if this got you thinking about the money behind the music, grab my free ebook, A Musician's Guide to Infinite Banking.

It's at 1024wealth.com/music.

It shows how to keep money accessible, keep growth compounding smooth.

The feast or famine times, potentially self-fund tours, releases, gear on your own timeline.

When you're ready to talk about it, book a call with me.

Let's talk through it.

No strings attached.

I want to tell you more.

I love, I love sharing this with musicians, so reach out.

Meanwhile, subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

Share this with one musician who needs to hear it, and I will see you guys next time.

Lexxi, thank you again.

Lexxi Garza-Hartless: For having me, Jason.

I appreciate it.

Jason K Powers: All right.

Until then, keep your money working and your music moving.