Joe George

What is Reverb.com, and what do you do there?

We’re an online marketplace where people buy and sell guitars, drums and other music gear.

I appear in our YouTube videos, demonstrating music instruments and gear, giving guitar lessons and discussing music theory. I also teach users how to replicate or change artists’ tones. In other videos, I interview musicians, usually about one of their songs or their gear. The music industry can be tough, and for a musician like me, this is a good way to earn a steady paycheck and stay close to my art.

When did you know you wanted to be a musician?

My brother and I loved music as kids. When I was about 9, we’d sneak across a busy road to buy albums at a music store on the other side. One night I was listening to “I’ve Just Seen a Face” way past my bedtime when a switch turned in my brain. I ran into my parents’ bedroom and asked for a guitar, and they told me to go to bed. Santa brought one that Christmas, and I’ve played it every day since.

How did you get this job?

In 2015, a family friend working here asked me to demonstrate a guitar pedal on a video. I was hesitant about appearing on YouTube until I realized what I could do. I love sharing, talking about and exploring the language of music. No one knows everything; there are endless things to discover.

Did you study music?

I attended Berklee College of Music but left before I finished when I had an opportunity to tour with the band I was playing with. I discussed it with a couple of professors I looked up to, who said: “You came here to prepare yourself for an opportunity like this. Go.” I felt like it was the right call.

How do you decide what goes in the videos?

Every month I meet with the content team, which runs like a newsroom. We map out our video plan based on artist birthdays, album anniversaries, holidays, bands that have resonated with viewers, audience suggestions and so forth.

What was a memorable moment?

A couple of years ago I was playing at a music hall in Chicago when a teenager approached me. He said he and his dad had lived in different cities for most of his life, but they had bonded learning to play guitar from my videos and playing together over Skype. I still get emotional thinking about it.

How has this job impacted your music career?

Last January, I was attending a trade show for Reverb when I saw Rex Brown, the bassist for the now-defunct band Pantera. He looked my way and pointed, and I glanced over my shoulder to see who he was looking at. It was me. He complimented me on my videos and called that night and asked me to join him on tour with his new band and record. Last September, I went to Europe with them, which was great fun. We’ll see how it goes. - The New York Times

Joe George is interested in music as long as he can remember, grew up with his parents 'records and was about ten years old when he wanted a guitar at Christmas after hearing "The Beatles' I've Just Seen a Face." ,

In his hometown of Peoria, Illinois, he also saw the Steve Miller Band, Def Leppard, Ted Nugent and Kiss as a teenager. Together with his brother, he annoyed his parents until they agreed to attend the concerts so he could get to know Rock'n Roll. From then on Joe George should never put his guitar down and he started to write his own songs and play any music that came to his mind. After high school, he moved to Berklee College of Music in Boston to study composition and film music, but left again, as he sensed the opportunity to go on tour with his band.

In 2015, talented Joe Shadid, his real name, came to the large online platform "Reverb.com", a marketplace for instruments and equipment where he has since appeared in the You Tube videos for instruments, amplifiers and accessories demonstrate, conduct interviews, give guitar lessons, teach music theory, or show how to reproduce the sound and sound of well-known artists and recordings.

"The music business can sometimes be tough, and for a musician like me it's good to have a steady income this way. [...] At the same time I can do what I like to do: I love to talk about the musical language, nobody knows everything, there are still so many things to discover, " said Joe Shadid in an interview with New York Times.

Due to his fame of Reverb.com he was also signed by ex-Pantera bassist Rex Brown as a live musician for his last European tour, which gave Shadid the opportunity to gain new experiences.
All in all, super prerequisites to build up your own solo career. Last year, Joe George released a new single every month including music video, which can be seen on his website ( joegeorgemusic.net/video ). The project was an attempt to bring people together through art and collaboration and had the peculiarity that Joe George cooperated with new producers, filmmakers, visual artists and musicians in each new single release.

In addition, his film-making skills recently earned him an Emmy nomination for his work on the Seeing Brave humanitarian documentary.

Together with his cousin Paul Grill (drums, percussion) and his old college friend Jeremy McDonald (upright bass, electric bass, oc-1, vocals), the first solo album by Joe George was released in parallel with "Beautiful Dreams" The American with the addition of a string quartet proves his skills as a singer-songwriter and arranger and combines in 11 wonderful, multi-layered compositions a variety of elements of folk, indie, singer-songwriter and film music.

"Beautiful Dreams" abounds with rich colors, but at the same time leaves enough room to immerse oneself in the thoughtful, empathic songs about self-reflection and problems on the one hand and strict amazement on the other hand.

Today we have the extraordinary pleasure to present you the new video for the album opener "Changes Are On The Run".
The song begins reduced with guitar and Joe Georges vocals, and inevitably locates in a nice retro atmosphere, before adding by piano and strings an empathetic drama builds up, which maintains an exciting, cinematic character until the end. On top of that, George is also a casual songwriter and narrator, as well as in "I do not want to sleep now", which I would like to mention here as another reference tip. Overall, the songs of "Beautiful Dreams" sometimes dramatic epic aspects, but without too much in the pathos to sink. Perhaps the whole thing could best be described as "Cinematic Folk". - Pretty In Noise (Germany)

With "Beautiful Dreams" came on December 14, the debut album of singer / songwriter Joe George out. Why one should still expect some of the good man, can be justified by the fact that Joe George studied composition and film music at the Berklee College of Music. In addition, he has cleared an Emmy for his film music to the documentary "Seeing Brave". You can expect from the debut therefore probably great to epic of George . Whether he could live up to this claim, you will now learn.

It all starts with "Changes are on the Run", which starts off gently, but then picks up more and more with strings, piano and drums. The string quartet is doing a great job. In "How Will We Do" may just start that string quartet and is then replaced by Joe with his acoustic guitar. The mood is very melancholic and calm on all songs. This is mainly based on the economical use of instruments. Most songs from "Beautiful Dreams" are on JoesVocal and guitar focused, all other instruments only support the established mood. He particularly uses the strings in a special way, which lends his songs an epic / cinematic note and thus differs significantly from the usual singer-songwriter music.

Personally, I liked "Beautiful Dreams" a lot, but keep in mind that this is not an album that you should be running on the side. The musical staging is so fantastic that it is worth the whole thing to get upset and indulge in the melodies and moods. The only problem that I see in Joe George is that this is not mass pop, but rather a niche. Nevertheless, it remains to be hoped that he will delight us with many other musical artworks such as "Beautiful Dreams". - Handwritten Magazine (Germany)