Gia G
Interview conducted on March 5, 2022
By Dan Locke
Gia Federico is an instrumental guitarist out of Boston, USA, she is signed with Sliptrick Records with both GIA G and Devil In The Mist . The ‘ Cosmic Wave EP ‘ is the latest release for Gia Federico’s solo instrumental project Gia G and the first since 2019’s The Ladder. The new EP is her best to date and takes her music in a different direction and higher level. Showcasing her diverse prowess on the frets, with jazz modal and scalar legato featuring in Intricate Fusion and Cosmic Wave , to the acoustic slap song, Reminiscing, which shows another side of her style with a great feel, bluesy runs and phrases. Cosmic Wave takes the listener on a journey of musical knowledge, intricate writing, great for listening when you’re in your car breezing down the highway.
You are from Boston. What is your upbringing?
Hi , yup, i grew up in Somerville right next to Boston , Cambridge , Charlestown, Medford . i Grew up in a middle class Italian family
How did you discover music?
Through my parents’ albums
How did you start to write music?
Through the yrs. i just started over the time
How did you get your first guitar, and do you still have it?
I bought it at a music store for 90 dollars , a remake of a Fender Telecastor , no i dont have it anymore
What is your guitar of choice now? Year, make and model?
My Custom Shop Fender Strats , i have custom ones , 2005 , 2015 , 2022 , 2022 , i alco have 4 custom shop Jacksons, and am Endorsed with Viper Guitars and 2 Gis G signature Guitars through them , a 6 string and 7 string, and currently having another 6 string made with Fishman pickups , kinda a remake of a Fender Strat. I have a total of 27 guitars.
What is the different in playing a Strat vs. Les Paul?
Honeslty I havent played a lot of Les pauls to make a fair judgement , i want to get a Custom shop Les Paul in the future
How are CopperSound pedals?
Oh, that’s one of my new Endorsements , awesome very well made pedals , great company
How did you get your name?
Ah well the name of the band project is my real name and my middle initial begins with a G
Describe your music.
i think it’s very original and i have my own tone and style of playing and writing , i mean you can hear my influences you can hear to , but i have created my own world
What was your first performance at like?
Very nervous, and there like only the other band in the audience lol, it was little club in Somerville, no longer there know lol
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve. Do you belong to any to songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP ?
Yes i with BMI
What makes a good songwriter?
Originality, being creative , original sound , tone, and being open minded
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
yes on my first EP from my old band, its called Closer ,
Tell me about Cosmic Wave?
Ah i think it’s my best release to date, and i recorded and released new styles and scales i have never released yet, i think it will take me away from the styles of Music and Guitar playing i was thrown in that i really didn’t belong
How is it to have an top song on the KB Radio Top Ten?
Oh awesome, it’s my 3rd song to go in Top 10 on their charts, It went to #1 Cosmic Wave on there , for week, Second song i have had to go #1 , My song Somewhere for my Alternative Metal Band Devil In the Mist did for 2 weeks. Also Cosmic Wave has gone #3 on another big chart, #6 on another, and i recently found out the EP hit the top 100 on Billboards charts when it came out , which is amazing .
Reminiscing-slap acoustic playing? What made you bring this style of playing to your main front from one year ago?
Yes it is , i also play and dabble in that style for yrs, i released another Slap Acoustic Instrumental short song called Spontanous . I always wanted to bring it out among other styles to
What is your favorite track on your album?
Hard to say, depends on my mood , i think there all very different , so it’s tough , But if I had to choose,, it would be Reminiscing
You have reached over 100,000 unique views on YouTube. What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
that was just for 1 month , i hit 500,000 this past month, but my total views on my YouTube page is close to 6 million views , and almost 70,000 subscribers , streaming music is great, but as we know most artists / bands get screwed on the streams , very little money you get
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag.
Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
lol you think haha, among other things , people are forgeting about a lot of stuff, i alwasy said common sense no longer or is slowly fading away
Digital vs. vinyl?
hard to say i love vinyl ; it keeps it organic which is sorely lacking today in music , sounds to mechanical today
What song from the past is in your mind right now?
Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you? Many, many songs , each song brings back memories and future to
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
Hahah, live music was dying way before COVID it was going that way, The Internet did , and is expanding with technology
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
For me yes big time , i busy my whole recent career up this past decade online so i was all set , my pages , fans ect
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
Wrote the EP promoted and networked more, got more Endorsements worked a lot to
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
i eat healthy, exercise, clean my hands lol
Tell me about your home recording studio?
It’s in my bedroom, but my bedroom is huge, its top line Commercial Studio with big board, Pro Tools HD , Neve Pre amps , Universal audio preamps , i do all my Guitar recordings keyboards and if vocals are needed
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Reading, eating wicked strict , I’m always researching stuff , business , investing , ect
Recently the virus has come back with the Delta outbreak, then you Omicron, which as cause many people in the industry to worry about the future of live music. How would you like live shows to be held and still keep you and fans
safe. I honestly think there should be more control at places, and the bathrooms should be cleaner lol, and have the fans separate from the bands when there behind or getting ready before a show ,
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
pay to do anything , never mind pay to play , yu have to pay to everything with music lol
In the past if a musician stops doing music they find a new career. For example David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants.. If you can’t do music what would you like to be doing?
Well i do it already, i am a Investor , do the stock market and also I work for my dad or basically helping running it , Real Estate
Red Hot Chili Peppers are about to sell their entire song catalog for $140 Million. In the past year a lot of musicians such as Stevie Nicks ($100 Million) , Bob Dylan (over $400 Million), Taylor Swift, Journey, Def Leppard, K.T. Tunstall, John Legend, ZZ Top and Shakira have sold their catalog rights within the last year. Bob Dylan sold his entire catalog for a reported $300 million. Neil Young song 50 percent of his worldwide copyright and income interest in his 1,180 song catalogue to Hipnosis Songs Fund limited . Once you get to the age of about 70. Publishing is far more lucrative then the mechanical royalties paid to artist based on sales, airplay and streams. A good example of this is Michael Jackson brought the rights to the Beatles catalog in 1985. And in the late 80’s the Beatles Revolution appeared in a Nike commercial.
The lump sums being offering by publishing firms are more tax friendly concerning estate planning.
On January 19, 2021 Hipgnosis Song Management acquired 80% of Kenny Chesney’s recorded music royalties, covering the country superstar’s discography from his 1994 debut In My Wildest Dreams through 2017’s Live in No Shoes Nation.
Someone who was totally against selling his rights was David Crosby. He did not want to sell his publishing rights. In addition, it was not an easy thing for him to do. However, by making a deal with Irving Azoff’s Iconic Artists Group, it took a big weight off his shoulders. He could pay off his house and cover other bills. Now he does not have to work for a living. It should be noted that David is battling tendinitis in his hands, which hurts his ability to play guitar.
Do you think you would be willing to sale your back catalog if someone like Universal is will to buy everything, such as all the rights to all your songs?
Yup I definitely would , I’m no way on the size or level of those artists , and not even close to what they sold , but i would definitely , sell it all say if Sony or like you said Universal , etc. , i would take a much less price of course lol due to like i said I’m like a splinter , but i have much more than normal musician , i would sell all my music for 1 million hands down , but that’s after whatever tax or other thing that would be taken out so it would be a little over , but yes no question, they all did the right thing , cause the money they got they would never get with regular royalties and the money there getting is more there entire wealth they made .
There are many platforms out there that allow artists to get their music heard. Artist Republik
Artist Republik is a 360 degree platform used by thousands of independent artists! We offer reviews/feedback, ma… , DistroKid, Tunecore & plenty others offer distribution services.
These services enable independent artists to put their music on some of the most popular streaming services globally, from Spotify to Apple Music & everything in between. If you’ve been in any part of the music industry in recent years, you probably know someone that has distributed a song.
Spotify reports that in 2021 there are about 8 million artists on the platform. Of those 8 million artists, about 57,000 are raking in a whopping 90% of the total revenue from streams. That means that .71%
of the artists on Spotify are making good money. In 2020, there was a total of around $5 billion paid out to artists on the Spotify platform alone.
Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time.What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
Well when you say indie artists you mean not signed to label, and not being distributed through a big company like SONY Orchard and publishing, I’m not indie anymore , signed to Slip trick and the new EP is on Sony ORCHARD, but my other music is not , so i can see both ends , its going to hurt Indie artists, the problem here is , you need to be with a good distributor like Sony ect , which you can only get on if you’re on big indie label, that’s either owned by a major or its big enough to stand on its own and work with companies like Sony for that , , example Slip Trick is , or if your a major , you will benefit form being on Spotify and apple , YouTube , i see the difference with this new EP huge difference , i used to use CDBaby , which is big and id very good publishing to , but its geared more for indie , but signed bands. artists use it , there probably the best and ReverbNation is outside of being signed . But i see the big diference being on Sony Orchard , whole diferent world , so the industry is still very much like that , and i think its great to be with a label but one hat is big and has a good deal, and the distributing .
Over half a billion active users around the world share their favorite music on TikTok either with something like a dance challenges and lip-sync videos or creating a funny skit or candid camera moment.
TikTok has became a great platform for music promotion, sharing songs, and finding new listeners. In which it has become a place for music artist to earn revenue when people use their music. Which in many cases the daily promotion on TikTok has led to hug boosts on other platforms like Spotify, Facebook and YouTube.
TikTok does this with the algorithmically generates a feed of content for each user, which you see as the displaying of #. The more a user engages with content, the smarter TikTok gets at guessing what kind of videos the viewer wants to watch. Because a song can go viral because of this.
Sony Music and Warner Music Group- , The ByteDance-owned video app revealed that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
I’m on there just joined a few months ago, problem with that platform, as i see, you can only post live videos you record, unless there
changing you can upload actual music videos , like my new ones , or song mp3s as far as i know i ahvent seen that on there yet
Breaking news: TikTok is launching TikTok Radio, a full-time SiriusXM music channel going live this summer.The station will be available invehicles and as a streaming channel on the SiriusXM App, desktop, and all connected devices.
Some of the on TikTok include Cassyette, YukoEXE, Ashinikko, Palaye Royale, Josh Dun (Twenty One Pilots), Yungblud, Morrissey, Ozzy Osbourne, Joan Jett, Gene Simmons, and Mick Jagger.
The station will be part of a new TikTok collaboration with SiriusXMand its subsidiary,Pandora, to jointly promote emerging talent. Do you think this platform could became a force in the future of streaming music?
If what you’re saying is true, yes it could, but YouTube is still better, much setup better, and its owned by Google , one of the big tech giants , just like Apple music is huge , and movies , amazon music is and movies , Netflix , Warner bros yes owned by AT&T and combining with Discovery to make a new company so you will see them expand into music to on that platform ,
If you could play with any band in the world who would it be?
I honestly used to think that all the time , like oh if Ozzy asked me , or DIO , he’s gone , before that, Judas Priest, but honestly I’ve been doing so good wit my music and name , i think id rather keep going forward with my music and name , unless if someone offered me that and i could still do my own music , ya i would do it, like what Nita Strauss did with Alice Cooper , i would , but not forever and want to continue my own music
Anything you would like to say in closing.
Thank you for this awesome interview and going into a lot of topics i really liked it , Oh and my new music video for the second song on EP Reminiscing just was released
