From blue man to rockstar: what it is to be a freelance musician
“Can you see me” a voice says from the black screen of my webcam link, a light switches on to reveal a small hotel room with a half unpacked suitcase on the floor and a tired looking man on the screen smiling “That’s better” he tells me.
Charles Henry, born Charles Henry Garland III currently plays guitar, zither and chapman stick for the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas and on the national Blue Man Group Tour. His life as a musician is as diverse as the music industry itself with jobs ranging to playing small shows at high scohols to playing big shows like ‘stadium of fire’ opening for Miley Cyrus to 50,000 people.
The 34 year old musician has never had a “real” job and yet has had a 16 year long career as a freelance musician. When all of his friends were out looking for a job ahe turned his hobby and passion into a fulltime job. “I was fresh out of high school” he explains “I worked for Up With Kids… That was my first freelance job. It ended up lasting 2 years.” Up with people is an education organisation that brings people from all over the world together through music. It’s musical stage show tours, stopping at many communities where each cast learn about different cultures in each community.
I’m curious to know just how much of the world Charles has seen and where his life as a travelling musician has taken him “Oh wow… Where hasn’t it. I’ve toured through nearly every state [of the USA ] Canada and Europe, Sweden, Denmark, Germany… The Netherlands, I’ve been to all the cool places.” The life of a touring musician is so hectic that it takes Charles a while to figure out where he is today “Denver I think… Yes Denver.”
Charles has worked for The Blue Man Group for 13 years now in their Vegas venue. The national tour takes Blue Men and Musicians from the different casts of each BMG venue, Boston, Chicago, Vegas, New York and Orlando. “We each bring a piece of our own BMG show with us, I bring Vegas”
Over a decade is a long time to play the same show but Charles never gets bored of performing. “We make each show different for ourselves, the audience can’t tell… But we have our little ways.” The Blue man group was founded in by 2 new york street performers and is known for its spontaneous approach. “The show is slightly different each night anyway. You could see the show 100 times and never see the same show twice, not completely.”
Touring is an everyday part of Charles life and as a session musician he has worked for large bands and artists, Including The Cab, Third Eye Blind and Austin Brown to name but a few and toured across America as a part of their crew. On this tour there are 2 buses “there are 24 of us on the tour” he explains to me “That’s 4 musicians, 4 blue men… Three to perform and one backup. The rest are crew, and management.”
Most people would be phased by working for world famous acts, not Charles. “Austins mum is Rebbie Jackson. I met Janet Jackson they were down to earth, the whole family is.” Charles own family were worried at first when he told them, I want to be a musician, but became used to his lifestyle over the years.“ My mum was always wondering when I was going to get a real job, she just didn’t understand I could make a living this way.”
Charles is adamant he wants to be a freelance musician for the rest of his life and will never quite settle down. As to which type of job he prefers he can’t quite decide “I like different things about different gigs. The Blue Man group are my family. ” he pauses for a moment and then smiles “but being a RockStar is pretty cool you know”
Now that his life risk has panned out and his family can see that unlike many of his friends his career has survived this recession and supported him so far, they support him every step of the way and see him as an inspiration, living proof of where in the world a dream can take you; if you choose to chase it.