Passenger Profile: Rob Raede

This month's profile is of Rob Raede, a gentleman who spent 20 years working on Wall Street before realizing that his true calling was the music industry. Schooled on trombone, Rob had the good fortune of being able to tour Germany-well, German topless clubs, anyway. This is a fascinating story of someone who took the long way home!

Did you come from a musical family? Did your parents encourage you to play an instrument?
Yes, my dad played clarinet and was a big Jazz fan, especially Dixieland. I still play some of his old records now and then. I got a trombone in the 4th grade when they handed out band instruments, and played that until my sophomore year in college. When I was 9, my parents bought me my own horn, which I still have.
Funny thing about that horn-when I was a senior in high school, I had this image in my head of where I wanted to be someday-sort of 'visualizing success.' The picture in my head was of me, driving south on PCH, ocean on the right, and my trombone in the passenger side of my two-seat sports car (which I dreamed of owning some day). The setting was that I was either on my way to a gig or just coming back from one, and I was this successful musician, living the big SoCal life.
So ... fast forward 30 years, and a couple of summers ago I dusted off my horn, took it in for a tune-up, and started playing again. And it came back pretty fast, so I went over to the local city college and tried out for the Jazz band, and passed the audition. One day, I'm driving to rehearsal, taking the long way through Santa Barbara by the beach, my horn sitting in the passenger side of my little two-seat blue sports car that I now own-and it hits me! I made it-I'm in the picture I had in my head when I was 17. Of course, three weeks later I blew out a muscle in my jaw from trying to play too much too soon and had to quit, but I had done it.

Were you schooled in that instrument or self-taught?
I took trombone lessons all through high school until I quit playing in college. I taught myself to play bass, which I played in the band in Germany, then taught myself to play guitar. Later on, after college, I took up classical guitar and took lessons, and then have taken guitar lessons off and on since then.
In the last couple of years I've taken private voice lessons, and took several classes at SB City College to learn Pro Tools, voice, songwriting, and Jazz guitar.

Tell us about your most embarrassing experience as an amateur musician-in high school bands, for example.
When I was a senior in high school, I was named the drum major. In our first half-time show, while twirling my mace around, I managed to smack myself in the left eyebrow and split it wide open. Just about knocked myself out, too. I ended up going to the football team doctor to get it patched up, much to the amusement of the football players.

At what point did you really get serious about a career in music?
When I quit Wall Street four years ago I knew I wanted to get right into music, so basically, January 1, 2005 was the exact date.

You gave up music for a while to take a job on Wall Street where you worked for 20 years. Did that frustrate you or did you still work on songwriting and perform on weekends?
At first I did no music. Then I took up classical guitar, which I drifted away from when we had kids. As the kids got older, and I had more free time, I started playing guitar again, and trying to write some songs. In the last few years of my 'day job' I formed a singing trio with two ladies and we started performing around town a little bit. The more singing, playing, and songwriting I did, the more I wanted to do. And one day when it became clear that I didn't have to work the Wall Street gig anymore if I didn't want to, it occurred to me that I'd much rather be playing music. So I shut down the firm and here I am.
My wife says I work way harder now than I ever did as a fund manager-she literally has to drag me out of the music room at 5 p.m. everyday.

In college you said you were a part of a group that went to tour Germany. How did that come about?
At the end of my sophomore year I decided to join the Marines for a summer ROTC-like program. But I had six weeks to kill between the end of the school year and when I had to be in Quantico VA for the Marines. A friend from high school called me one morning and said he'd just talked to someone who had returned from Munich where this guy played on the streets for passing change, and was making like $40 a day, which sounded like huge money back then. So my friend says we should form a duo and go try our luck. I thought about it for like five minutes, and called him back and said yes.
Off we went on one of those cheap flights they had back in the '70s with no return trip ticket, not much money, and only the name of some friend of a friend as a possible contact. After spending a miserable four days wandering around rainy Germany, making very little money, we headed to Nurenburg where this contact lived. Turns out this guy was great-took us in, fed us (which we desperately needed), and introduced us to all the folks he knew in the local music scene. But he wanted a favor in return-a topless dancer owed him some money, and could only pay it back if she could work, and she didn't have a DJ to play the records for her show. So I spent a week being the DJ for a topless dancer show that played NCO clubs at U.S. army bases in southern Germany. Anyway, one way or the other, we made enough money to get home.
The next summer we went back with a third guy on piano (me now on bass, the original guy on guitar), and we played all the songs we'd grown up listening to-Beach Boys, Beatles, CSN, Stones, Creedence, etc., and the Germans loved it. We called the band California Highway, because, while it wasn't cool to be from the US back then (some things don't change), it was cool to be from California.
By the third summer, we had a manager, a VW bus with our name on the side, groupies, the whole thing. We never recorded anything or took it very seriously, but we managed to wangle a live performance on Bavarian radio, and played all over Southern Germany at clubs, U.S. army bases, etc. Great summer job.

Do you remember the very first song you ever wrote? What was it called? Was it good?
Yes-I wrote a song for the band in Germany which I called '"California Highway." It was terrible. The song's about a road trip from Portland, Oregon, down to San Francisco, and I think I mentioned US 101 in the song. It was several years later that I realized that 101 doesn't go anywhere near Portland.

How did you first hear about TAXI and did you become a member immediately?
I read about TAXI in a magazine, and pretty much joined right away. Even though my songs weren't really ready for primetime then, I learned a lot from the reviews I got back, and the Road Rallies are really terrific.

Has TAXI helped your career? How?
Immensely-the song reviews have helped me improve my songwriting, the Road Rallies have exposed me to a huge amount of knowledge on everything from proper vocal technique to recording strategies to songwriting skills, and of course all the contacts one makes at a great conference like that. Then, of course, there are the forwards I've gotten and the licensing deals I've signed, which are great first steps to making some real money from my second career.

What is the one goal you would still like to accomplish?
I'd like to perform at Carnegie Hall someday. My Dad would've enjoyed that.

And with Rob's persistence, I'm guessing he will. Take it from Rob, read the TAXI critiques, come to the Road Rally every year, network and stay with us. WE CARE. WE WANT YOU TO SUCCEED! Have a wonderful holiday.