From Hiatus To 250K Streams: The Gale Bird Story With Sean Monahan Gig Gab

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From Hiatus to 250K Streams: The Gale Bird Story with Sean Monahan

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From Hiatus to 250K Streams: The Gale Bird Story with Sean Monahan — Gig Gab 511 episode image

Sean Monahan from Gale Bird joins Dave Hamilton to walk you through their path of being successful working musicians in an original band. You follow Gale Bird’s path from college songwriting to a 13-year hiatus and a full-tilt return that finally landed Gale Bird on a label. You hear how the band treats music as both passion and business, blending Sean’s production chops with Joshua’s marketing instincts to create songs that connect. You get reminded that “overnight success” takes decades, and that everyone who hires you is thinking in terms of return. Failure, lineup changes, stalled gigs… they’re not roadblocks, folks, they’re prep for the next shot. That’s where you lean into the mindset: Always Be Performing.

You also learn how the label helps identify the songs that will land, how playlist strategy works, and how Gale Bird built a digital identity alongside their live-show firepower. You dig into their content engine, daily-posting experiments, AI reels, and the push to film everything. Collaboration becomes a skill, not an accident, and you see how respecting different strengths keeps the whole machine running. Gear Gab rounds it out with a bit of a wishlist: Kempers, custom Teles, splitter snakes, and the stress test of soundcheck when tech goes sideways. Press play and enjoy!

00:00:00 Gig Gab 511 – Monday, December 8th, 2025
- December 8th: Pretend to be a Time Traveler day
- Guest co-host: Sean Monahan from Gale Bird
00:01:50 Went to two different schools together
- Met in college, started writing songs, doing some local touring
- Then a 13-year break after college while they started families
- And then, two years ago, you got the band back together!
00:03:19 Signed to a label
00:05:11 A Passion that’s also very much a business
- Producing art that is digested by as many people as possible
- Sean’s been a full-time musician since college
- Learned all the right production techniques
- Met all the right people
- Hiring the right engineer and session musicians for the album
- Joshua has been in sales and marketing as his career
- And also understands aesthetics and marketing… and is Sean’s co-songwriter
00:07:57 The label saw *people* they could invest in, and also liked their sound
- Holy City Music
- Overnight success takes twenty years
00:10:07 This is the entertainment business!
- Whomever hires you is thinking about dollar signs
- They need to see the return, and as a musician you have to understand that
00:13:21 Failure prepares you for what’s next
- Sometimes a gig ends
00:15:54 250,000 streams in one year!
00:16:56 The Label helps
- Staying in touch with Playlisters and other avenues like radio, too
00:19:38 Getting on Playlists
- Label says, “write 20 songs, we’ll pick one or two” when we analyze what will perform the best on the streamers
- One side of the business: live shows full of rock and feels and merch and all that
- The other side: the digital side. People need to have a representation of the band that’s unique to them.
- The label is the expert for the digital side, knowing how to identify the songs that will land on the streamers
- Turns out we land in the “country” genre, so we’ll add a banjo to a song (for example).
- Roses by Gale Bird is a perfect example
00:24:25 SPONSOR: Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at rula.com/giggab #rulapod
00:26:12 Creating a social media system for your band
- An experiment: post every day for 2 months and see what happens
- Lesson learned: go heavy for a shorter period of time
- Always be thinking about future content. Film, film, film
- AI Reels
- A/B testing
00:33:31 Creating side businesses to funnel and fuel Gale Bird
00:35:00 Learning to collaborate on your own songs
- “The better a songwriter is at collaboration, the more successful they’ll be”
00:36:48 The Gale Bird formula
- Can play as a duo or a full band or anything in between.
00:38:39 Respecting skillsets
- Sean shines in the studio: plays all the instruments except drums
- Joshua shines on stage: sings, plays acoustic guitar, and has excellent stage presence
00:44:05 …and managing pride
00:44:27 Gear Gab
00:44:56 Fender and Guitar Center collaborated on a custom telecaster
00:46:32 Sean went to a Kemper rig
- Wishlist: Kemper Stage
- Hipshot B-Bender
00:48:25 Behringer Wing Rack
- Mackie DL32S
- PRORECK Splitter Snakes
00:54:12 The stress of tech issues at soundcheck
00:57:10 Gig Gab 511 Outtro
- Follow Gale Bird
  - On IG @GaleBirdMusic
- Contact Gig Gab!

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