Kelly and Brody Are Doing Music Differently

I am heading back to Wisconsin, and I cannot wait to step into the Midwest metal community again.

This year, I have the honor of being the MC for the sixth annual Brodazoffa Farmageddon Festival—and honestly, six years is incredible.

What makes it even more exciting for me is knowing the story behind it.

Kelly and Brody saw something missing.

There weren’t enough places for metal bands to play. There weren’t enough opportunities for the metal community to come together. Instead of accepting that as just the way things were, they decided to do something about it.

They created their own place.

And then they kept building.

Every year, Farmageddon expands on what was there the year before.

My band, Mast, played Farmapalooza at Brodazoffa in 2023, so I’m especially excited to see what Kelly and Brody have added since the last time I was there.

It has also been a long time since I’ve spent an entire weekend at a two-day music festival, and I’m ready for it.

I’m looking forward to hearing the bands, catching performances I might not otherwise get to see, reconnecting with old music friends, and meeting new ones.

That community is one of my favorite parts of music.

You may walk into a festival knowing only a handful of people, but two days later you’ve discovered new bands, made new connections, exchanged ideas, and probably added a few more people to your music family. If you are around Kaukauna, WI and like Metal, you should join us.

Celebrating How Far Brodazoffa Has Come

Before Farmageddon even begins, I’ll also get to celebrate another milestone with Kelly and Brody.

The day before the festival, Brodazoffa will have its ribbon cutting with the Heart of The Valley Chamber of Commerce.

That feels especially meaningful.

A ribbon cutting represents something becoming established in the business community. It is not just a cute little dream anymore. Something that started as an idea has grown into a real place, a real community, and something that continues to create opportunities for other people.

Watching what Kelly and Brody have built is something worth celebrating. If you are a local Kaukauna business owner, I hope you can join our celebration!

Brody and Kelly's story happens to be a perfect example of what I am promoting at the event.

My New Podcast starts September 17th 4pm ET on W4WN. Doing Music Differently.

There are a lot of rules and assumptions in the music industry that we repeat so often they start sounding like facts.

Here’s one inspired by Kelly and Brody:

Old rule: “There is no place to play metal.”

Kelly and Brody could have stopped there.

Instead, their response was basically:

Then we’ll make one.

And that creates a completely different rule:

New rule: When there is no place to play your music, make one.

That is the kind of thinking I will spotlight on my new show, Do Music Differently.

The show is about questioning the rules we inherit about what a music career is supposed to look like, how success is supposed to happen, and what opportunities are supposedly available to us.

Sometimes doing music differently doesn’t mean discovering some complicated new strategy.

Sometimes it starts with looking at something everyone else has accepted and asking:

Does it actually have to be this way?

Kelly and Brody didn’t wait for someone else to create more opportunities for metal musicians.

They started creating them.

Six Farmageddons later, look at what that decision has become.

And If You Want to Make More Money From Your Music…

While I’m at Farmageddon, I’ll also be talking with musicians who want to figure out how to make more money from the work they’re already doing.

I’ll be inviting them to join me and Music Legacy International for our monthly Root Cause Challenge.

Instead of immediately adding another marketing strategy, income stream, or giant list of things you “should” be doing, we look underneath the challenge and ask what is actually getting in the way.

If making more money from your music is something you’ve been trying to solve, I’d love to have you join us.

But first…

I’m ready for two days of loud music, old friends, new friends, new bands, and seeing what Kelly and Brody have built since the last time I was there.

Congratulations to Kelly and Brody on six years of Farmageddon—and on continuing to prove what can happen when, instead of accepting that there isn’t a place for something, you decide to build the place yourself.