Happs Musician Q&A: Chris Gales
An interview with Chris Gales, Memphis singer-songwriter, guitarist, and streamer on Happs.
Memphis guitarist, singer, songwriter Chris Gales has been performing for audiences from all over on world famous Beale Street for six years and began streaming his performances live four years ago. We talked to Chris about his musical journey, growing his fanbase on Happs, and his tips for other livestreaming musicians.
What’s your musical background?
I’ve been a full-time musician for about 11 years. That’s when I decided I was still young enough to give music a shot. I got a solo acoustic gig on Beale street in Memphis at “King” Jerry Lawler’s Hall of Fame Bar & Grille owned by wrestling legend Jerry “The King” Lawler. I have been performing there for a decade.
How did you get started streaming your performances?
I began about four years ago. During the daytime, there’s not many people flowing on the streets where I perform. So I said, “What can I do to spice it up?” A streamer would come into the bar and do his stream about wrestling from the bar. I got interested and started going live and attracting fans. People would come into the bar from all over the world, see that I’m streaming, go home, find me, and watch my streams from abroad. And the rest is history. I grew a huge fan base that way and now have a lot of great loyal fans.
“I got interested and started going live and attracting fans. People would come into the bar from all over the world, see that I’m streaming, go home, find me, and watch my streams from abroad.”
You stream while also performing live in front of people who are actually in the room. What advantages are there to that approach?
The best part about it is when I’m streaming on stage and the crowd in the bar is not really paying attention, I will give a little more attention to the people watching the stream. If the crowd is on point in the bar, the people who are watching the stream feel that energy. Also, I’ll try to include them along with the crowd that’s physically there which seems to go over really well.
How do you include the online audience?
I look out for my super fans, the ones who watch me online on a regular basis and encourage my community. Regardless of whether they tip me, these fans keep my online community fired up. So if one of them makes a comment like “I would like to hear ‘Tennessee Whiskey’” or something like that, I will shout them out over the microphone as if they’re sitting in the bar with me: “ShippingFool wants to hear ‘Tennessee Whiskey.’” And they feel like they’re part of the live crowd. Or if there is a birthday, I will sometimes have my live audience scream out “Happy Birthday” to whomever is watching so they feel included.
Before Happs, you were going live on Periscope. How has that transition been for you?
A huge portion of my Periscope community has come over to Happs. And now that I’m multistreaming to other platforms, I’m getting people who were fans to come to Happs from other platforms. That is really cool because it’s bringing my entire community — on Periscope, Facebook, YouTube, and now Twitch — together. Just this morning, I did my coffee chat and communicated with a viewer in the chat. We were listening to his music and he was a wonderful artist. I was introducing people on all my platforms to him.
“Happs has a community of its own and it allows you to connect across platforms too. I’m learning and finding new fans through Happs. I’m reaching people I haven’t been able to with other platforms.”
Has being able to multistream with Happs been a big game changer in your world?
Yes, it’s a huge game changer. Like I said, it’s allowing me to find fans and community members I didn’t even know were out there. They’d just been waiting for this. I never really streamed on Facebook or YouTube and now I have people out there watching me on both. They were craving to see me live, but they never ventured over to watch me on Periscope. Now they’re getting to see it all and I’m still able to get out there to new fans.
There are people who are dedicated to Periscope, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. Happs allows me to communicate with all of them. It’s like an international translator for all of those people who want to keep speaking their own language. You don’t have to leave the platform you’re used to hanging out in yet you can still come and join other people from other neighborhoods who do have the same interests.
I still try to shout out Happs to viewers too. That gives them the ability to login and easily contribute to the cause by tipping. I say, “If you come to Happs, it’s easy for you to make a contribution to the artists that you’re enjoying and tip us.”
What would you tell another musician who’s just starting to get into livestreaming?
Usually, the audience comes to you. This is a way for us to go visit new fans all over the world and increase our reach. You’re not limited by where you are physically. Viewers don’t even have to understand the words you’re singing. They don’t have to know what “Tennessee Whiskey” is talking about, they can feel it. You’re exposing yourself to the world from your own studio or from the stage.
It also helps out the venues where you perform. I’ve had people come see me live because they saw me streaming. They’ve travelled from another country and come out because they saw me online. That’s great for the venue too. In fact, the venue owners come in to my streams on a regular basis when I’m streaming from their venues.
“Multistreaming is a huge game changer. There are people who are dedicated to Periscope, Facebook, YouTube, or Twitch. Happs allows me to communicate with all of them. It’s like an international translator for all of those people who want to keep speaking their own language.”
Any particular story that comes to mind of a fan you connected with via livestreaming?
One encounter was with Shane Russell, the son of a television announcer named Lance Russell. Lance Russell helped create the wrestling community here in Memphis. Wrestling is real big in Memphis. So I’m sitting onstage at Jerry “The King” Lawler’s Bar. And I see Shane come in to the stream. I said, “Hey man. How’s your dad?” His dad was still alive at the time. He said, “Dad’s fine. He’s right here watching with me.” And I grew up watching Lance! Every Saturday morning, my dad and my grandma would watch Saturday morning wrestling. So now this gentleman who I heard every Saturday morning growing up was sitting in my stream. I got to use his line, “Yellow, everybody.” And Shane said his dad’s face just lit up when I did that. So I got to entertain somebody who had been entertaining me over my television screen my entire childhood. That was a very touching moment. I think that was a year before he passed.
Amazing, that’s a great story. Has there been anything surprising about streaming on Happs?
The Happs team is so darn helpful. One day, I had an issue trying to get my stream started. I sent a text message, I sent an email to Peter (Bittner at Happs) explaining my issue. I expected maybe he would say something later in the day. Nope, within five minutes, my phone was ringing. He helped me through the issue. It got resolved and I was up and going within five minutes of sending that email. You don’t get that with any of the other apps.
Any specific tips for how to make a livestream work best?
What’s best is to have a champion in your stream — or call it a moderator. When you’re doing a live show, you can’t be in the comments that much. You can’t thank that person who just gave you that big tip, but your champion can do it on your behalf. Have somebody in your stream who will do that for you. There are a few veteran watchers who get that and realize, “Hey, he can’t talk to this person, but I know how important it is for somebody to say something to them for helping pay the bills.” So it’s good to find those people, to encourage them, and reward them by either giving them a shoutout or a free t-shirt.
