our team

services

SANCTUARY

Aenean tellus urna, vehicula quis quam vel, finibus sollicitudin quam maecenas mollis risus eu purus faucibus efficitur.

Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six and that one time Channing Tatum was at one of their shows (and didn't say hello)
By:
Emily Plazek - Millaze
dangetkin1.jpg

“It's great to control your own destiny.” is pretty much everything MIC tries to explain with the IMBM, and Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six encapsulated the sentiment into 1 sweet little sentence in their Welcome-to-the-MIC-MVMT interview.  Let’s dive into who they are (+ an explanation of their unique baseball reference name) now:

Quick little intro about yourselves, and your origin story?

This band was started a little over 6 years ago, but there has been almost a complete turnover since then.  We used to perform under a longer, less baseball-referential name but when we released our latest album in January, we rebranded to Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six.  A twelve-six is a baseball pitch - a kind of curveball - and taps into my deep love for the sport and, in particular, former Pirates pitcher Jeff Karstens.  He threw the slowest curveball!  Anyway, our lineup has been steady for the last 3 years or so with Bill Brandt (guitar), Alex Herd (bass), Eddan Sparks (drums), and Jake Troxell (keys, and last original member of band).  A baseball band name pairs well with our americana style of music.

What do you love most about being an indie band?

It's great to control your own destiny.  Because our bassist Alex owns and operates a recording studio (Thunderbird House), we get to follow a song's path from when I quietly work it out in my basement all the way to when Alex mixes it and we send it away to be turned into an album.  We get to have the complete freedom to write and shape our music.  It's a big job to do it all yourself, but ultimately it's a really good thing to own the process and only be limited by our own creativity (and talent.  and bank accounts.  and weather patterns.)

dangetkin2.jpg

What are some of your struggles as an indie band?

The hardest thing can often be as simple has having trouble finding the time to do all the writing, practicing, and recording that we want to do.  For the most part, none of us in the band are exclusively musicians.  We have day jobs to support ourselves.  And, of course, we have families and responsibilities and side hustles and hobbies that pull us all in different directions.  It can be hard to find even one night in a given week that the band can get together to practice. 

Any advice for up-and-coming indie bands?

Find a way to make music that requires a lot of hard work and still manages to be fun.  If you're making a big effort, and you look like you're having fun doing it, people will want to be a part of it.  And go see music.  Lots and lots and lots of music.  Be inspired/steal from the great bands that are doing incredible stuff in Pittsburgh.

Favorite PGH spots?

Because of Alex's history there, Thunderbird Cafe really got to feel like home field to us.  We've missed it terribly since it's closed for redevelopment, and can't wait to see how the project turns out.  As far as parks or nature places, because the studio where we practice and record is underground, anytime we can even get to street level and see that the earth isn't a cold, dark place is a good time.

Craziest/funniest tour/concert story?

There was that time Channing Tatum was at one of our shows (and didn't say hello).  I know we don't know each other but, come on, Magic Mike, you still say hello.

dangetkinandthetwelvesix5.png

Anything else you want to add? Go ham! Give us anything cool you want to share!

We're in the midst of recording our second full-length album.  It should be done by the end of the summer and maybe we'll release it in early 2018.  It's going really great and I'm excited to get this new material out of Alex's studio and into the daylight.

Here are the links to some blog/press coverage we got mostly related to our album release in January:

http://www.soundsceneexpress.com/new-album-s-t-from-dan-getkin-and-the-twelve-six-offers-creative-twist-on-country-rock-roots/

http://www.btrtoday.com/read/musicmeetup/123-the-music-meetup/

http://wyep.org/audio/local-913-episode-102-dan-getkin-and-the-twelve-six

http://lebomag.com/mineos-main-stage/

https://soundcloud.com/nycwaves/dan-getkin

Follow Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six on Facebook, and visit their website!

Come to Indie Rock Fest at Cattivo this Saturday 7/22 -- MIC is hosting and you can see these guys live, their set is around 11:59pm/midnight Saturday night!!

Here’s the Facebook event page with all the info, and get your tickets here, $10 for 2 stages of 12 bands night long 5pm-2am! See you there!

Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six and that one time Channing Tatum was at one of their shows (and didn't say hello)
Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six and that one time Channing Tatum was at one of their shows (and didn't say hello)
dangetkin1.jpg

“It's great to control your own destiny.” is pretty much everything MIC tries to explain with the IMBM, and Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six encapsulated the sentiment into 1 sweet little sentence in their Welcome-to-the-MIC-MVMT interview.  Let’s dive into who they are (+ an explanation of their unique baseball reference name) now:

Quick little intro about yourselves, and your origin story?

This band was started a little over 6 years ago, but there has been almost a complete turnover since then.  We used to perform under a longer, less baseball-referential name but when we released our latest album in January, we rebranded to Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six.  A twelve-six is a baseball pitch - a kind of curveball - and taps into my deep love for the sport and, in particular, former Pirates pitcher Jeff Karstens.  He threw the slowest curveball!  Anyway, our lineup has been steady for the last 3 years or so with Bill Brandt (guitar), Alex Herd (bass), Eddan Sparks (drums), and Jake Troxell (keys, and last original member of band).  A baseball band name pairs well with our americana style of music.

What do you love most about being an indie band?

It's great to control your own destiny.  Because our bassist Alex owns and operates a recording studio (Thunderbird House), we get to follow a song's path from when I quietly work it out in my basement all the way to when Alex mixes it and we send it away to be turned into an album.  We get to have the complete freedom to write and shape our music.  It's a big job to do it all yourself, but ultimately it's a really good thing to own the process and only be limited by our own creativity (and talent.  and bank accounts.  and weather patterns.)

dangetkin2.jpg

What are some of your struggles as an indie band?

The hardest thing can often be as simple has having trouble finding the time to do all the writing, practicing, and recording that we want to do.  For the most part, none of us in the band are exclusively musicians.  We have day jobs to support ourselves.  And, of course, we have families and responsibilities and side hustles and hobbies that pull us all in different directions.  It can be hard to find even one night in a given week that the band can get together to practice. 

Any advice for up-and-coming indie bands?

Find a way to make music that requires a lot of hard work and still manages to be fun.  If you're making a big effort, and you look like you're having fun doing it, people will want to be a part of it.  And go see music.  Lots and lots and lots of music.  Be inspired/steal from the great bands that are doing incredible stuff in Pittsburgh.

Favorite PGH spots?

Because of Alex's history there, Thunderbird Cafe really got to feel like home field to us.  We've missed it terribly since it's closed for redevelopment, and can't wait to see how the project turns out.  As far as parks or nature places, because the studio where we practice and record is underground, anytime we can even get to street level and see that the earth isn't a cold, dark place is a good time.

Craziest/funniest tour/concert story?

There was that time Channing Tatum was at one of our shows (and didn't say hello).  I know we don't know each other but, come on, Magic Mike, you still say hello.

dangetkinandthetwelvesix5.png

Anything else you want to add? Go ham! Give us anything cool you want to share!

We're in the midst of recording our second full-length album.  It should be done by the end of the summer and maybe we'll release it in early 2018.  It's going really great and I'm excited to get this new material out of Alex's studio and into the daylight.

Here are the links to some blog/press coverage we got mostly related to our album release in January:

http://www.soundsceneexpress.com/new-album-s-t-from-dan-getkin-and-the-twelve-six-offers-creative-twist-on-country-rock-roots/

http://www.btrtoday.com/read/musicmeetup/123-the-music-meetup/

http://wyep.org/audio/local-913-episode-102-dan-getkin-and-the-twelve-six

http://lebomag.com/mineos-main-stage/

https://soundcloud.com/nycwaves/dan-getkin

Follow Dan Getkin and the Twelve Six on Facebook, and visit their website!

Come to Indie Rock Fest at Cattivo this Saturday 7/22 -- MIC is hosting and you can see these guys live, their set is around 11:59pm/midnight Saturday night!!

Here’s the Facebook event page with all the info, and get your tickets here, $10 for 2 stages of 12 bands night long 5pm-2am! See you there!

Find us @theMICmountain on social media because we, too, are humans on our phones.

Join The Mountain Climber Club mailing list to get an industry secret that the Interns just discovered - plus all the behind-the-scenes that's coming in 2021.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form