Meet Pete Stevens | Musician

We had the good fortune of connecting with Pete Stevens and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Pete, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
We decided to start Crystal Casino Band LLC to officially kickstart our band taking our music seriously. We wanted to be able to track our income and expenses and be able to use the money our music makes to fund our passion. We haven’t regretted this. Since starting the LLC we’ve been so much more organized and our band has grown so much.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Our band, The Crystal Casino Band, is wistful and reminiscent of the 2014 tumblr era. We take our influences from that era and turn into our own unique, raw & personal flavor of alt rock that you can sing along to. We’re currently working on a brand new album, TCCB’s Maryland House, and have been dropping singles every 6-8 weeks in 2022 to promote it. So far these songs have been well received and we’re so excited for our audience to hear what we’re cooking up.

While the band started in 2015 it wasn’t until recently that things really started taking off. Our songwriting became more collaborative and better, our songs were professionally produced, and our marketing efforts finally became fruitful. My advice for any bands in a similar position would be to simultaneously focus on making great and well produced music while also learning the ins and outs of marketing through playlist promo and organic content. If you can manage to do both at the same time, things will start looking better!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I think my favorite neighborhood in the Washington, DC area is the Adams Morgan neighborhood. There are so many good spots to choose from there but I would definitely recommend eating at the 24 hour diner, THE Diner. And for bar recs I would recommend stopping off at Madams Organ or Roofers Union. They’re right across from each other and are the best bars in DC to catch live music

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would like to give a few shoutouts. The first are to my Aunt Liz & Uncle Jim who got me involved with music at a very young age. Their passion for the Ukulele kickstarted my love for music. If it weren’t for them, who knows if this band would even exist! The second shout out is to Jay Nemeyer and Kyle Downes for their production work on our music. They make our music sound as good as it can possibly be. We would not be at the level we currently are at if it wasn’t for their help in making the product achieve it’s full potential.

Website: https://www.crystalcasinoband.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crystalcasinoband/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/crystalcasinodc

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CrystalCasinoBand

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPCy8v5yPOSNz6WRig9AIzw

Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1ZOITEwKW2JCm6HDS96hwF?si=xVnNJizrRKCkj7nt1P_HUw

Image Credits
DC9 photo taken by Meredith Wohl. The performance phtos are taken by Sarah Rodriguez