Welcome to Music Matters Podcast with Darrell Craig Harris, talking about all things music with celebrities, artists, music business insiders, and more. Allie Handel, how are you doing today? I'm good Craig, thanks for having me. It's a pleasure and we were connected by our good friend Laura Whitmore. First of all, I love your music. I was checking out your songs that you have out and video stuff and it's all awesome. Kind of blues rock, blues Americana, what would you call your style? Well, I'm definitely rock, for sure. It's been a little bluesy in the last several years, incorporating a lot of slide guitar and stuff. But I would say primarily rock but with a groove. Focus, like Prince is one of my favorite artists of all time and Zeppelin. They both have a lot of groove even though Zeppelin is totally rock, bluesy rock. Yeah, and you also have an awesome band. I've been watching some of the live stuff. It's a pretty funky soulful band, which I love. That's one of the things I've always grew up with. So you have a new album coming out, Slow Burn. It's going to be out this year. The release dates to be determined. Fifth album, as I mentioned. And the reason why we're talking today, a couple of reasons, but one of the main reasons is to talk about Venus Guitars because Venus Guitars is a guitar line designed with women in mind. And as we know, most guitars, that's not usually the case. No. Speaking of the guy, I know how that is. But how did you get involved with Venus Guitars? Tell me that story. Well, it was through our mutual friend Laura and she had been working with them and she knew that I've always been involved in different aspects of working to empower women, especially in music. So she reached out to me and she said, hey, there's this new guitar brand and I think you would really like them. And so she connected me with Ron, who started the company. And the guitars are phenomenal. And this one right here, the Revolution, it weighs five and a half pounds, which is insane. Yeah. I love that. Oh my God. It's crazy. You know, picking up my Les Paul after this is just like, oh my God. Right. I know. Exactly. It's crazy. And you know, I do play one of the things I do for fun and money is playing in an Aerosmith tribute. So of course, I don't have a few Les Pauls and heavy guitars, you know, that play for that. But when I switched to playing this Venus, oh my God. I mean, you know, I could just play for hours and hours and just feel great afterwards. You know, I didn't have that like, you know, walking around. Yeah. And we all love our, you know, we love those guitars. We love the classic guitars. But yeah, the company, I'm a bass player. So I feel you with that, with the weight is a big thing. And ergonomically, men generally are the designers of guitars. They have been going right back. They don't always think about, well, how's this going to work with a woman's hands? And maybe, you know, the guitars tend to be, maybe they're bigger. I don't know. You tell me what the difference is you really notice. Well, definitely with the Venus, it's a smaller scale on the forward. And that can be nice, especially I find when I'm like, so one of my absolute favorite, actually probably my favorite living guitar is a guy named Greg Koch. I don't know if you're right. Yeah. Oh yeah. He's great. Okay. He's amazing, you know, incredible. He's also like a foot taller than me. Huge hands. And he can play anything. And you know, he's amazing. And so I love learning his riffs, you know, say from a YouTube video or whatever. But I've been recently working on one of them. And I decided very, you know, very much on purpose to learn it on this guitar because it's a little bit of a, you know, smaller scale neck. So those giant stretches that he does with his huge hands are a little bit easier for me on this. And the thing is once you get used to it, you know, then you can actually transfer that to any guitar, you know, but just, you know, when you're learning something new, I find especially learning something that's a little bit beyond my technical capability. I tend to really, you know, have a lot of muscle tension, you know, to just relax, relax. Yeah, you're trying to dig, trying to. Yes, trying too hard and you even walls were like gripping, you know, your, your, I brought to your throat at the beginning. But, you know, it's a little bit easier to just relax a little bit of a smaller scale neck and just, you know, take it easy. And so that's one of the reasons, you know, I love practicing with that as well, but there's a lot of, you know, it's just comfortable. Sort of like, I mean, actually musicians in a lot of ways, especially guitar based players, drummers are kind of athletes in a way. And you, you want to exactly, you want to protect your these. So when you're constantly having to overstretch, as you mentioned for chords or ergonomically, it's not really, it's like wearing the wrong pair of shoes or the shoes that were not actually designed for your foot. It can cause long term problems. And is that something that like you find like that's a really big advantage with these guitars for, for, for women players and female players? I think so, but also it's not just for women. Like I was gonna say, it's not just women. And obviously there's a lot of men who are smaller than Greg Cawke, you know, but also, you know, I have a lot of fans who tend to be older men because they love blues rock and you know, whatever, but a lot of them write to me and email me and they have had to stop, they think they have to stop playing because they have arthritis or they have other problems that come with being older and all that kind of stuff. Well, I feel like a guitar that is a little bit smaller, a little bit easier to manage could be helpful for that. And maybe they don't have to quit playing, you know. Right. And also the weight because a lot of, a lot of players, not new men and women have, as you get older, you have back issues. And so finding a lightweight, especially a lightweight electric guitar is such a huge advantage. Yeah. Yeah. And I haven't like tried like throwing it up in the middle of a set yet, but I feel like I could if I wasn't afraid that I wouldn't catch it. Yeah. I've never been, I've never been that afraid. I'm always, I'm always, yeah, I'm always looking around. Even when I'm walking on stage, I'm like, try not to hit anybody. That's the goal. So you actually, you have an interesting history because you actually also, you're a guitar method book author. Tell me about that because your book's popular as well. Oh, thank you. Yeah. So back in 2011, Hell Leonard approached me because they wanted somebody to write a book that they titled Guitar for Girls. And they heard about me and said, oh, you know, we would like a woman to write this, this book. So are you interested? And while I kind of hate the title Guitar for Girls, that's right. And I was like, guitar's not different for girls or women and actually more women and dudes by my book than girls, actually. I didn't love the title Guitar for Girls because, you know, guitar isn't different for girls than boys or men or women. You know, it's the same chords, the same techniques. But what was different and what I really took, you know, I really took care to emphasize this in the book. There were so many mental and psychological things that I limited myself with as a young girl learning guitar when I was 12 years old. And I really wanted to point those things out to try to help other young girls, young women, older women to battle those things. Like, I mean, even speaking about how our bodies are different from men, like I worship, worshiped, still worshiped Jimmy Page as a guitar player, right? I always wanted to play my guitar down at my knees because it looks so cool, right? And it's just it's just it's the iconic rock dude, right? And I was always like, why am I such a loser that I can't play my guitar down at my knees? It's like, it didn't even occur to me as a young person that maybe my arms were not as long as his. Like that did not even occur. I just thought I saw it, you know, it wasn't cool. Well, you're trying and you're trying to figure it out. And also you're you're a young lady dealing with that stuff, too, trying to deal with all that. But you're trying to figure out like, how does this work? And actually, too, like there weren't back in those days, there were a lot of singer-songwriter guitar heroes for women, you know, like the people that we all know. But there really wasn't a lot of rock. There weren't really any lead. Yeah, you weren't seeing anybody. I had nobody. No, I had no women. No women really blazing the path for me. You know, people would say Joan Jett, but she didn't play lead guitar. I wanted. Right. And she was part of a band at that point. Yeah. Well, I mean, I kind of knew about her more when she was like, you know, you know, well, I'm all I'm all of them. She was. Yeah, she was like Joan Jett and she was cool. But, you know, she didn't, you know, and Hart was a little bit, you know, for me, I was just more into the like, you know, I was in a Metallica and Iron Maiden and all that. Cool. So, you know, I those were the guitar players, you know, Kirk Hammett is, you know, I wanted to be aggressive like those guys. And I was so unlike them in so many ways. You know, it took me a long time. I didn't have that confidence. And so, you know, and I quit playing so many times because I sucked, you know, I just wasn't good. And I didn't realize like I was comparing myself to my heroes when they were famous and successful at their prime and not taking into account the thousands and tens of thousands of hours that they put into their instrument and their craft and their art beforehand. And I just thought I sucked. And so I quit way before I should have. And fortunately, I didn't quit forever because I can't. But, you know, so many people I talk to, adults, you know, I wish I wish I could play music, I wish I could play guitar. And it's like you can play guitar. You still can. It's never too late. Never. Yeah, it's that age is really not age or gender is not a boundary. It's just like you mentioned, it's finding it's finding a path that's comfortable, that that's that's well prepared to show you a path that where you don't get frustrated. And you just learn. So how was how was that putting the book together for you? Was that was that a quite of a challenge or you just kind of thought back about how you learned guitar and how you learned to play? Well, I actually had been thinking about putting together something that was more like guitar for singer songwriters. And that is kind of what it ended up being because most and this is a vast generalization, but it tends to be true with the people that I've met. Most girls who pick up the guitar, often they do want to sing also. And so they tend to be aspiring singer songwriters. And back in 2012, this was kind of the, you know, the maybe not even the height, but, you know, Taylor Swift was huge and all, you know, a lot of singer songwriters were very prominent in the zeitgeist. And and being a female singer songwriter myself, who also happens to play lead guitar, I really wanted to explore a lot of the different techniques of accompanying yourself on the guitar and how you can learn how you can learn how to play guitar and and sound better than you are so much quicker than when I learned guitar. Like I learned by playing songs that maybe I wasn't that interested in, you know, like and the way I learned piano. Wait, we all go through that. I know. It's like, I don't really want to play Swannie River on piano, but I guess I'll tell me how to learn how to play or like, you know, Johnny Good. Yeah, what's funny about that. And I totally get that too. But what's what's what's funny about that is that as you get older, like when you're getting you're being forced to learn how to read music, you're like, oh, come on, it's because it's painful. It takes a while to do it. But then as you get older, for me, as I've gotten older, I'm like, oh, that's what's kept me working. Well, absolutely. Yeah. Being able to read music is amazing. And for my book, I specifically I was very specific in that I did not want any I did not teach how to read music at all. And I really didn't teach music theory because I find I really wanted people from the very first chord that I presented, I wanted them to be able to play a song. So I populated the book, like I start with the two easiest chords to teach. And then we went into the song Fever, which is too boring, you know. And that was the only song actually in the whole book that was not written by a woman. Everything else was written by women. Fever was written by I think I can't remember off the top of my head now, but it wasn't written by a woman, sung by a woman. But I really wanted to showcase female songwriters. And and so every song that I put in there was written by women, except for that one, but I really did not want the lack of or the frustration that sometimes comes with learning music theory to get in the way of the students love of playing music and playing guitar. Because I feel like if they can play, they can always learn music theory. If they want to go pro. And you just don't want to have them give up at the beginning. Right. No. And guitar is hard enough at the beginning, especially, you know, your fingers hurt and you have to press really hard and you're not used to that. And all the whining. How to make your fingers do something they're not used to. Exactly. It's like, OK, that's hard enough. So I want you to really at least be working on a song that's cool. You know, so I put in songs from all kinds of incredible female artists and writers like Stevie Nicks and Joan Jett, of course, Ani DeFranco, I made sure to put in Ani DeFranco because she's one of my absolute all time heroes in music. You've played with a lot of folks, but also you've done a lot of touring and national touring. What's been exciting for you with that interacting with other musicians on the road and learning and watching other musicians, too? What's what's really helped you grow and learn from that experience? Well, I mean, just looking at touring, opening for Greg Koch, I mean, that was that's a literally, you know what, it could have been intimidating, but I I really had to frame myself to just be like, you know what, this is amazing. Literally every single night on that tour, after I was done with my set and went to my merch table and finished that, I would just go out and be a fan and just absorb what he was doing. He's just so musical and so funny, you know, and he just is so expressive and free with the guitar. It's just just amazing. So in really just watching how he is on stage and how he interacts with his band. And I mean, he's been doing it for so long and he's such a master. I just I love getting to see people like him and his element, you know? Yeah, and it's inspiring to see great players, right? Incredibly inspiring. Yeah, it's like I'm a musician, but I'm a fan, too. And I think that's what kind of kind of seems like that's the same thing for you. Like, and also you can learn so much from watching those guys. So much, so much. Yeah. Yeah. And what do you have coming up? You have obviously the album's coming out. Are you going to be touring this year? Is that what your plans for that? I hope to be. I'm currently getting ready to I'm getting a new sizzle reel together and all that kind of stuff for the band. One of the things that's been the most challenging for me as someone who I really feel like what I do is best demonstrated with a full rock band. You know, and touring with a full rock band is challenging. It's very expensive, but I am really determined to at least spend part of the budget that I have, you know, kind of for my album promotion on touring. Because, you know, for some people, it's a profit center for me with a band. I'm not sure it's going to be a profit center at first. But you want you want to get the music out there. And sort of it started presenting your children to the world. Absolutely. And, you know, I, you know, when I first started for many, many years, I toured solo acoustically, which is really fun and great and it's a great skill to have. But I can't like take a rip in solo on a lead guitar without a band behind me. Not in the way that I want to. Yeah. And you're a killer and people who haven't seen you, you're a killer guitar player and I and I really your own style, which I really love. Thank you. You're welcome. But yeah, so so that's really, you know, what I'm aiming to do is to get out on the road with a band, release the record and really promote it as well on social media, because that's how I've amassed my following more so than touring in the traditional way is, you know, advertising via Facebook and Instagram. Right. Putting videos and stuff. Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, it seems it seems to be the modern way. And I mean, a lot of people are challenged, you know, challenged with the touring expense and just like you mentioned, when you want to take your bad out, it's a great band. But it's like, you got to figure out, you want to pay the guys, girls. Absolutely. Yeah. They're professionals. Yeah. So it's like, it's a challenge. What's some advice for that you would give young artists, especially young female artists that are trying to figure this thing out and figure out a path to be successful and find success. Don't give up. Just keep going. You know, it's really hard. You know, I'm not going to sugarcoat it. And it's not hard because you're a woman. That's not why it, you know, it can be. I mean, but it's a lot easier now in that respect than it was when I started. It's still a male dominated industry. Okay, fine. So are a lot of industries. And we can work within that. You know, that's okay. You know, but just don't give up. That that's really the only the best advice that I have. Or if you feel discouraged, because I think everybody feels discouraged, not just women, men and women, boys, girls. It's a heart industry. It's universal. It's universal. And it's not getting easier. It's not getting easier. I feel like it's getting harder. But, you know, I guess I would say don't do it unless you feel like you have to. Like if it's in your heart, like then then do it with all your might and do whatever you need to do. Like, you know, there's a lot of stigma among musicians in having a quote unquote day job. But, you know, there's also a lot of power in having money to support yourself and to have a career. You know, I've put out most of my records independently and I've self funded myself. Through having, you know, I started a licensing business 20 years ago with a business partner, so I'm also an entrepreneur. And that has helped me not take the gigs that I hated taking when I was a full time professional musician. I used to do church gigs Sunday mornings where I'd have to get up at 5 a.m. and drive to Orange County. And not that I hated playing positive music, you know, but I did do mall gigs. I did do all these things where I was background music, restaurant gigs for $100. I don't do any of those anymore. I only do stuff that I want to do. I hire the most incredible musicians in Los Angeles. And that's because I can afford to pay them. And that's because I have a company, you know. So there's always trade offs. There's always trade offs, you know. Yeah, always put yourself in a position where you can say no. Yes. Yes, especially as a woman, especially as a woman. I was just going to say exactly because you're going to meet people along the way and maybe you get the creepy vibe and you do not want to be in a position where you cannot walk away. And that and I've said that, you know, I've been playing for like four over four decades and I always tell people, I'm like, there's no shame. And like you mentioned, having an income, like that's that's actually the smart path and these days, very few people, very few musicians can only can survive on only music income. It's great if you can. And if you want, I mean, and I aspire to do that someday, retire from from my company. But you know what? For now, I also have health insurance, which is huge, you know. And these are things that are not sexy. You don't care about what your night's here. No, no, and they're not sexy, but they're really important. And to be able to, you know, to every day, you know, and I've designed my life at this point to be able to play music and to practice every day or to do gigs that I want to do and to hire the people who are better than me. That I think is so important to surround yourself with whenever you can with people who are better than you, who are doing better than you, you know, so you can continually learn no matter how good you are. I mean, that's that's why I wanted to tour with Greg. I'm like, how amazing would it be for me to see how a master does it? And that's all great advice. There's there's a lot there to unpack, but that it's all good. Those are all golden points that you've lived and you've been there. And I said on this other side of my my my career, I often say the same things. I like, please just like set yourself up for success. Yeah, because then you never have to quit. Exactly. You know, you don't have to leave LA and move somewhere else and be like, oh, God, I guess I just can't do music. I mean, most of my friends who I came up with in the singer-songwriter world, they fall quit, not all of them, but most of them because it's hard. It's really hard. But, you know, I can't I won't I'll never quit. You know, yeah, it's your it's your identity. It's part of big part of who you are. It's not the only part, but but we all have we all have many parts of who we are. Absolutely. Yeah, which is it's important. It's healthy, right? Yeah. Yeah. Tell people how they can find you online. And also we can mention how to find Venus guitars as well. Yeah, you can find myself at alleyhandle.com. And I'm everywhere, you know, under alleyhandle, alleyhandle music. And Venus guitars is I believe the website is Venus guitars.com. It's actually yeah, it's Venus that Venus dash guitars.com. Venus dash guitars. Yeah. And you can learn all about, you know, this is the revolution right here. They also have the elite which oh, I think I have that right here next to me. This one. Oh, awesome. That's really cool. This is the the higher end one. But I like them both for different reasons. This one has Demarzio pickups and it actually blends in really great with a two guitar band and just seamlessly folds right in there. And yeah, the dual humbuckers, you get some of the less polish vibe, but without without the weight. They're great rock guitars that you can do. You know, I'm a little bit of a bluesy rock person with my own original music. But man, if you want a hard driving rock sound, these freaking awesome. Also, the swappable pickguard. We didn't talk about that, but that is something that is so unique and so much fun. I actually want to incorporate it into my live show. I haven't done it yet. But do you know about this feature? I don't. Well, actually, I saw something about that. My first thought was, yeah, my first thought was I want one for my P-Base. I know it's so cool. I mean, and when I first heard about it, I didn't really quite understand how it worked, but so you see the pickguard on here. Yeah, they sent me a whole bunch of different pickguards. They have four different shapes and like a million different colors. But like here's like a bunch of ones. Oh, wow. How awesome. It's really cool. My favorite is Purple Galaxy. So for people for people listening, check out the video. Oh, yeah, it's really beautiful. Awesome. But they have magnets and you can switch it in like five seconds. You just. Oh, OK. It's crazy. Wow. Yeah, that's cool. Turn around and I'm surprised that the people have not thought of that idea. Right. Look at this. Because I haven't seen it before. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And it's like, oh, it's almost like a new guitar. The pickguard makes such a big difference. Exactly. And if you know, in the age of social media and creating content, I mean, you could also I have a my bass players a little bit of a diva and his bases are all black and green. These players are always divas. That's right. You should know. It's a bass player. Yeah. But he's always he's always wearing black and green and his bass is black and green. I now can match his bass if I need to. There you go. You know, the full, full fashion is an effect. Exactly. Exactly. You know, and so it's just a little fun thing. But it's a kind of a vision turning around in the middle of a song like during Drum Soul and then turning right back around with a different, you know, different looking guitar. Oh, that's kind of fun. You know what? And that's music. I mean, music. Showmanship. Yeah. And it should be fun. It should be like that. You know, it's something I kind of, for me, like I always say, is like, don't forget why you started playing in the first place. Because we can all get very serious and very hyper focused on the business and the But you have to remember, keep the spirit alive. Keep that 12 year old kid when you first picked up your guitar, your bass. And so it's so important, don't you think? Absolutely. Allie, thank you so much for joining me. I know you're a busy lady. And I also shout out to Laura for putting us together because you guys are doing amazing things. And I love the She Rock Awards. You were actually, you mentioned you were one of the first on the first show. Very first year. Yeah, Orianti was there and I was there. It was a lot of fun. But it's grown so much. I know. Yeah, they're going in. I think next year is going to be the 15th year, which is just crazy. And it's a huge, gigantic show now at NAMM. So it is. It's a spectacle. It's incredible. So everybody, please check out Allie's music. You're on all the streaming outlets, Spotify, of course. New album, which is album number five. Slowburn is out later this year. So keep a lookout for that. Venus Guitars, Venus-Guitars.com. You can check out all the models I was just there today on the website. And then having fun. Yeah, checking that out. So but thank you so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me, Craig. Awesome. Have a great day. And by the way, I see your cat is up on the couch. That's Nora. Yes. I do. But she's always here. Yeah, she's been a very good kitty during that. She likes to do interviews, obviously. So let's get it. Awesome. Have a great day. Thanks, Craig. Thanks so much, Allie. Bye.
