Today we’d like to introduce you to Gustavo Rodriguez.
Hi Gustavo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, you could tell our readers some of your backstory.
At the beginning of The Pandemic, my wife and I lost our jobs like many other performers/entertainment workers. We got bored sitting in our house, so we started doing livestream Facebook concerts from our living room with both of us singing. At the same time, I played guitar, and my wife, Livia Rodriguez, played the Cajon I had gifted her for Christmas right before everything shut down. Everyone started telling us we should promote this duo as a product, so L&G LIVE was born. We expanded our group from the L&G Duo by adding a female singer with our friend, Neydi Jimenez, to form the L&G Trio. We primarily booked those two products for about 2 years until we started rehearsals for our biggest product, Live Effect Party Band, a high-energy Band that consisted of Drums, Bass, Guitar, Keys, and 5 vocalists. We had about a year of rehearsals and workshops to ensure we could hit the ground running, and now Live Effect has been awarded the best new band in The Villages! Funny enough, March 11th was exactly a year since our first performance at The Villages in 2023!
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Trying to start a business while living off of the income from said business took a lot of work. Especially when you’re handling everything yourself, many people don’t know what goes on behind the scenes. You have to understand and perform your craft as a professional while also understanding the business aspect of the product that you’re providing. Juggling schedules for all our band members while also being in charge of payroll, updating social media accounts, scheduling/running rehearsals, writing contracts, and keeping track of up-to-date insurance and permits was a huge obstacle to tackle!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
We try to give our clients and audiences an experience on top of a performance. We’re very interactive; we love talking and joking with the audience. Just that little bit brings them into the show more, which makes each gig very special. For our smaller acoustic products, we promote ourselves as a group that can take requests, and sometimes, our shows are primarily requests! For Live Effect, we pride ourselves on having up-to 5 part harmonies and big arrangements, including medleys, mashups, and choreography.
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
Not every day will be amazing or productive, but that’s okay! As musicians/performers, we sometimes get into this rut or “imposter syndrome,” but you have to keep pushing through because there will be those days or those gigs where everything just clicks in the best way possible, making it all worth it!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/landglive?igsh=MTJpbnMycDV2bWpwZw==
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LandGLive?mibextid=JRoKGi
Image Credits
@lindseyhansonphoto @ap_photography.fl
