Daily Inspiration: Meet Geordy Shallan

Today we’d like to introduce you to Geordy Shallan

Hi Geordy, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Happy to! So I moved to LA just over a decade ago to study theater at Loyola Marymount University after a brief stint in Denver studying music business. From there I quickly started to dive into the worlds of my two favorite things, music and comedy. Those early days led to a lot of interesting stories, like getting by eyebrow split open in a mosh pit at the Whisky a Go Go with a foam lightsaber to a brief chance encounter with Bo Burnham shortly before a Dethklok set that would shift my perspective about pursuing my passions forever.

Once I graduated, I formed what would be my first serious music project, The Crown Remnant. I wrote somewhere between fifteen and thirty songs for that band with the two other contributing members of that band – one of which was Michael Nolasco, who No Kings has worked with multiple times as a producer. He’s still one of my favorite people on the planet.

Anyhow, after a few releases and three years of building the band up to a regionally touring status, I chose to leave. I had begun to feel creatively stagnant in the context of that band, and the chemistry of the project began to feel lacking as well. After leaving, I began producing, co-writing, and mixing for local bands, which was so much fun. It presented the unique challenge of how to bring out the best in the diverse clientele I was working with, and to understand how others perceive art and creativity.

After my stint in production and creating some experimental internet based projects, and right as the world began opening up post-pandemic, I realized how much I missed writing for a project with a live aspect to it. After all, live performance was a big reason why I had begun writing songs and playing in bands in the first place. That realization is what led to what would become No Kings.

At that point, I had a backlog of songs I’d written over the years that felt like a solid representation of what I wanted the project to be – a singing forward Metal project that would draw influence from unexpected places, while maintaining a core foundation in Metalcore and Alternative Metal. So I reached out to some of my favorite musicians I’d played with over the years, and we got in the studio with the aforementioned Michael Nolasco, and his production partner, my dear friend Brendan Collins.

Shortly thereafter, Syd Drapkin, who funny enough had joined The Crown Remnant right as I left, joined No Kings – that would solidify the first iteration of No Kings, and bring in her unique contribution of Bass, Piano, and Alto vocals for our first release, The Remedy. The Remedy actually just turned two, which is mind-blowing, it still feels like it came out yesterday! From there, we played our debut show to a nearly sold out crowd at the Whisky A Go Go as support for a band I loved growing up, A Skylit Drive, and began playing regionally pretty much immediately.

Since then, we’ve played as many shows as time has allowed, we’ve gone through a few line-up changes, and we’ve just finished our follow up release, which will be out next year. No Kings may only be two years old, but it’s a band with quite a history at this point. We’ve worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and we’re incredibly grateful for how lucky and fortunate we’ve been in two years.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I wish it was smooth! Getting a music project off the ground is truly never easy. At first it requires a large amount of capital, with a likely very small ROI at first, if one at all. Additionally, your members are essentially multiple business partners with a financial and creative stake in what you are doing within all confines of business, so initial decision making can prove hard and become time consuming, mainly in an effort to reach a satisfying compromise.

Because I started this project, I was able to lay the groundwork of it based solely upon my vision, but there were several points where members, myself or otherwise, butted head. This led to dismissals, arguments, and what I would consider a few less than stellar business decisions. Thankfully everyone in our current line-up is aligned on our goals, vision, and what we consider best practices now. Initial chaos really is the nature of the beast when it comes to these things though.

Creatives are generally a very emotionally volatile bunch, usually because they care – they’re very invested in what they do, and rightfully so. There were moments during the recording process of our first and second releases where hour long arguments would happen over one note choice. That being said, those arguments seemed to work out for the best. So though it may have been hard at the time, I consider it worth it.

Outside of the struggles of running a creative business on a predominantly democratic model, it can be a financial rollercoaster, especially when you’re fully independent like we are. We’ve gone from in the green to in the red and vice versa several times, and we anticipate that will continue to happen for the next few years. I think few people outside of those involved in music realize the upfront costs of things like recording or merch.

For instance, if you want to record, let’s say, three songs – it can cost you thousands of dollars for anything of quality easily. Live drum recording alone, between just renting the studio, the necessary recording materials, and an engineer, will cost you upwards of a thousand dollars, realistically. Then factor in recording all the other instruments, paying your producer and engineer, your mixer, and your mastering engineer. Couple that with the payouts of the streaming models of companies like Spotify, and you’ll quickly realize it can take years to see any ROI from that avenue.

Luckily, there are other income streams involved, such as merchandise, but collaborating with fantastic visual artists can prove costly as well, and buying large quantities of whatever item your selling can end up costing hundreds to thousands upfront. The possible profit on say, a t-shirt, is fantastic though, and it’s a bit of a saving grace for a lot of artists who have solid enough fanbases to tour on a national or international scale. Even if the upfront cost is daunting, it’s very likely you’ll make good money on it.

We’re incredibly fortunate that we’ve been able to see the beginnings of success, and though there’s a long road and a realistically uphill battle for us, we’re more than happy to keep working towards meeting all of our creative and financial goals.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Well, singing and writing for No Kings is what I consider my “main” project and my favorite of what I do, but I’m fortunate that I get to do quite a few things within the greater entertainment world. This year alone, my favorite projects outside of the band were composing the music and contributing lyrics to “Fishman: The Musical” with my lovely friends in the comedy duo WizWorldLive, as well as composing the music for the October show of Fight Opera, a parody wrestling league based in Austin, Texas.

Outside of those, I’ve continued to offer my producing and co-writing services, and I’ve recently returned to offering mixing services.

I’d say I specialize in facilitating music from who don’t consider themselves musical, and in composing music that is emotionally transparent, regardless of genre. The only limit for the things I work on are the scope of the imagination between me and whatever team I’m working with.

In terms of what I’m known for, I’d say my quick writing and production turnarounds and my ability to build and maintain relationships. Oh, and my crowd work at No Kings shows. When you go from studying and performing improv and stand-up to singing in a Metal band, people never tend to expect how I engage with a crowd or the stunts we’ll pull. I still remember one of our former members popping in the wheels of his heelies to slide across the stage when we challenged him to. There’s truly nothing like seeing somebody in their mid twenties glide across the stage with that much confidence.

As of now, I think it’s more than fair to say that I’m most proud of the new No Kings release that’ll be coming out next year. It took over a year to record because of countless obstacles inside and outside of the band, but I think that ended up giving us much more time to sit with and craft the songs to exceed their initial potential.

I think what sets me, and to a further extent, No Kings apart from others is our willingness to depart from what is considered standard in whatever we’re tackling. We’re often categorized in genres that favor screaming vocals and solely aggressive musicality, where as we attempt to bring in melody and emotional dynamics to everything we do. We have a lot of respect for several bands who stick to the standard formula, but for us, that just doesn’t work. We love dynamics in what we do because we feel that it makes the aggressive aspects feel so much stronger. And furthermore, we double down on that mentality by drawing inspiration from artists across most genres, ranging from Melodic Death Metal to Punk Rock to Grunge. We’re a group of people that want to continue to build a community of people who might not feel like the wholly fit in anywhere, and we want those people to know they belong with us – and our music has to represent that.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
I think the best advice I could give is go to shows and find the unique ways you can be supportive. If you want to meet like-minded people who love the things you do, I guarantee that shows will be one of the easiest ways to do that. If you’re a Metalhead, hit up somewhere like 1720 or Chain Reaction or Knucklehead. If you’re an aspiring comedian, go to a Groundlings show or the laugh factory or the comedy store. You’ll learn so much about performing and your craft, and you’ll meet so many amazing people who share a love for the same things you do.

In terms of showing unique support, a little goes a long way. One thing that I do is I create content to highlight bands that we play with whenever I’m impressed. Often this can just be a minute long video where I edit together clips of two to three acts we love and encourage our fans to check them out. We don’t have the biggest social media following in the world, but three thousand people is nothing to scoff at, especially if you’re a smaller act. We’ve ended up playing in new cities with the bands we’ve shouted out more than once, and I consider building a network of talented friends you have a deep respect for quintessential in this industry.

So, in short, I think the best way to sum it up is show up for your scene and be supportive however you can be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beacons.ai/nokings
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nokingsca/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoKingsCA
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nokings
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@nokingsca

Image Credits
All images taken by Katherine Seibert