#guesstimate

Plz Subscribe – #guesstimate #insidergyaan #consultinginterview … source

Like on a scale of dumpster diving to five star Michelin on [ is this person ]able to accept yuck, even get evangelized to previously unfounded kinks, I am on the dumpster side. No doubts.

People dragging panels from every other continuity, despite the obvious incoherence.

because one thing happened pre flashpoint and one is at the tail end of official new 52 labeling,

and like I don't care what hand wavy multiversal bullshit crossover event proclaims

Those are not the same. One is on the pathway of the Siberia railroad, and the other is a local train station in bum fuck suburbia. Technically sure they are train stations none the less but there's no reasonable relevance between them

Just people collectively whine and cringe over new 52 being sacrilege, and yes honestly it's a bizarre business decision to actively purge your loyal fan base...

Twitter comic fans remind of abusive boyfriend girlfriend knowing what's wrong but just not having the motivation to break it off

It would be sad if didn't scare me so bad

And I am physically holding in a scream everytime someone uses the descriptor of canon, pointing to Arkham games verse or any of the animated films

In this blog post I will be introducing Taylor Garcia, who is a member of the band Guesstimate. I have talked about him previously in another blog post of mine where I reviewed one of his basement shows, so I have attended a few of his shows to listen to his music and he is a friend of mine I met through work. However this was a great opportunity to really sit down and get to know him as a musician and what led him up to where he is now. Doing this interview with Taylor let me see that he is truly passionate and dedicated to music and he really thinks about how his music and his band. So I hope that through this interview and blog post, some other people out there can recognize his genuineness as well.

So how did you first get into music? What was the first instrument you played? And what instruments do you play now?

I first got into it in elementary school; it was when the teachers asked us to pick instruments for band class. I remember I wanted the cello at first because it looked cool but I ended up with the trumpet and really liked it. This was like in 4th grade, but I didn’t take it seriously until I was about 16 or 17 years old. Before to me, it was just something I did, but now I'm much more serious about it. The first instrument I played was the trumpet, but now I play quite a few instruments! I play the trumpet, flute, flugel horn, keys, and drums.

How did you form your band? And who are your bandmates?

So we have all been living together since August 2021 and that's how our band formed. The bass player Bobby moved in and at first it was just him and the drummer Andrew playing together a lot. Then I started playing with them a bit at some point, and we would play together on the porch a lot during the summer of 2021. There was a traffic light intersection right in front of our house so cars that were stopped at red lights would roll down their windows and give us a thumbs up so we knew were doing a good job!

After that, more people joined the band for our first show in October 2021 so there were 7 of us total. We wanted to expand the sounds of our music and add more people. However, it was hard to get a large group to commit to a project so we narrowed it down to 4 people. We officially decided on the 4 people in our band now in the middle/end of October 2021. It was like “too many chefs” in the kitchen so we had to cut down, and it has been the 4 of us since - me on keys and trumpet, Chris on guitar, Bobby on bass guitar, and Andrew on drums. Bobby is the oldest, about in his 30s, and I am the youngest - 24 years old.

How did you come up with your band name “Guesstimate”?

The name “Guesstimate” was Bobby’s idea. I don’t know how or why he came up with it, but we all agreed on choosing it for our name.

What type of music would you say your band makes?

Progressive fusion rock with psychedelic influence. It comes from 60’s music like the Beatles but their weird songs like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”. In the 60s a lot of people did acid, like psychedelic drugs, so that's why there are a lot of weird songs in the 60s, and they really inspired us.

How would you describe your basement show scenes?

It is like a bargain. Getting 3 to 5 bands for $5 is a pretty good deal to me. We perform in New Brunswick, so is an interesting town because there are talented people from NY and Philly coming through because of that. Our shows are also a safer place to hang out at because you don’t really have safety concerns like getting drugged because it is more inclusive and everyone is welcome. We don’t turn people back at the door. It's a really chill vibe compared to other basement shows on campus of Rutgers, which is right nearby us; it's a lot less frat-party like.

Why do you do basement shows instead of more concert-like performances?

It’s hard to book concerts. No matter how good your music is, selling tickets and finding so many people to attend is very hard so you have to start small. Also a lot of venues don’t pay musicians very well. They expect you to pay for free. So if we post our own show, we make sure everyone is paid evenly. It removes a lot of the business side of music when you want to show yourself.

Out of your band's music, which is your favorite album and why? Our Second album “Unfortunate Prey”. It’s kind of a wordplay with our first album, which was called “Fortune Hunters”. It's my favorite because it is our newest release at the moment, and I can relate to it the most. We explore different directions musically so it’s a lot of fun and we do different stuff from our first album; it sounds more refined. Our first album was recorded live and the second album was recorded traditionally studio style.

Out of your band's music, which is your favorite song?

I would have to say “Focus” but “Mr. Majestic” is my second favorite. “Focus” is a 15 minute song when we play it live, but we had to cut the album version to 13 minutes. It has a lot of different movements and it is a good representation of what our band can do and where we can go. There are some heavy rock parts, some really slow parts, some fast parts, some singing, but mostly instrumentals - just a little bit of everything. I played flute, trumpet, and flugel horn, Bobby played keys, Moog taurus, and bass, Andrew and Christ played their regular drums and guitar. It’s very demanding to play the song, that is why we named it “Focus”!

Do you have a favorite performance that your band played and why?

So far my favorite would be our show in Ortliebs in Philly on October 1st because there was a good crowd, people really liked us, and it was our first time there so we didn’t have any expectations really, but it ended up being a lot of fun. I remember there were 2 dudes named “Leaf” and “Bugs” going crazy in the front of the audience. It was really exciting to see strangers love our music.

When is your next show?

So November 12th we’re recording at Leesta Vall Studio in Brooklyn for customized vinyl records, which is the first time for us and pretty exciting. But our next show is the 19th at 10 or 11pm at Crossroads venue in Garwood, NJ.

Altogether, if you could not tell already from this interview, Taylor is a really chill person to talk to and he had some interesting things to say about his bandmates and their music. I focused my interview more on getting to know how his band started and where they have been headed musically so far. Although they only started recently last year, it's great to see that Taylor truly enjoys what he does because I think that kind of passion is what it takes to produce good and unique music. I enjoyed doing this interview with Taylor and just getting to know the details about his journey and his insight on his own music/band so I hope you as the reader did as well. If you would like to listen, Taylor's band Guesstimate's Spotify is linked down below so feel free to check them out or check out their next show on November 19!

One random day in August 2022, I was at my job with my coworker who was on the same shift as me, and I was complaining to him about how I had never been to a basement show and I wanted to go to one before the summer was over. He told me that his band holds basement shows and I should definitely watch one of his. I agreed and told him to let me know about his next show, which ended up being on a Friday night, August 12. I wasn’t sure at all what to expect since it was my first basement show ever, and he had only vaguely told me about his band and his bandmates before, so I did not even have much to go off of. In fact, I didn't even know the name of his band until he had told me that his show was on August 12. 

The name of the band is Guesstimate and the name of my coworker is Taylor. He is the trumpet, flute, and keyboard player of the band. The rest of the members are Andrew, who is the drummer, Chris is their guitar player, and Bobby is the bass player and vocals. Unfortunately, Bobby was injured that night so I was not able to see him perform, but the show still went on. Their type of music is progressive rock and fusion jazz with psychedelic influence, which is very different to the pop and R&B type of music I normally listen to. However, this by no means did not mean that their music was not worthy of listening to. 

My good friend came along with me and we both arrived at Taylor’s house, right off of Rutgers campus where the show was held and walked around to the backyard. We were greeted by band member Andrew, who was really friendly, and he took our $5 admission fees and led us down a steep stairwell into their basement. The basement was very clean, which apparently is extremely rare for basement shows, according to my experienced friend that came along with me. It was so well maintained that there was no dirt on the floors to be seen. Guesstimate was one of the last acts in the show, so when I arrived, the opening act, Curly, was performing. 

Curly was a solo performer, who was singing acoustic songs/covers with his guitar and ukulele. He seemed to be more new to the music industry with a still small and growing presence as he did not have a large audience. There were about 10-15 people, mostly older adults past college age, who were just standing around and not doing much while listening to his music performance. To be quite frank, the audience was dead and it felt awkward just standing there with no one else vibing or dancing or even moving around. This performer also attempted to do some kind of interaction with the audience by throwing his stuffed bunny doll around to each person in the audience without it falling to the ground but that was not much of a success. I believe he was trying to get the audience to interact more and hype them up, but it was as they say, a "tough crowd". Although I see flaws in my experience with Curly's performance, I do think that he was still pretty talented in his acoustic music and it was enjoyable to listen to. 

Once it was Guesstimate’s turn to play, the audience grew a bit more, probably to around 20-25 people, and it was definitely a lot more lively. There were more people vibing to the music and actually moving around, making the experience a lot more enjoyable. Guesstimate performed their tracklist of their album, Fortune Hunters, which is linked below.

Their music was almost entirely instrumental, with little to no words, as lyrics do not seem to be the focus. Their instruments, the trumpet, the keys, the drums, and the guitar, are the focus of their music. I liked that all of these instruments complimented one another and still created a listening experience just as enjoyable as concerts with songs that did have lyrics. My favorite songs were Saturday and Three Amigos, because they were upbeat songs that were easy to dance to. I also enjoyed Taylor's Delay, which centered on Taylor's trumpet performance, as hinted by the title. Not only did I enjoy seeing Taylor play the trumpet live in person, but I also saw that he would switch and play the keyboard within seconds too, so it was fascinating to see him playing two instruments at the same time.

This is a small bit of Taylor's trumpet performance in the song "Taylor's Delay", including personal commentaries from my friend and I.

noun

An estimate based on conjecture.

an estimate based on little information, being little better than a guess.

An estimate that is hardly any better than a guess, often because it is based on insufficient or unreliable data.

an estimate that combines reasoning with guessing

verb

To make a guesstimate.

To make a guesstimate of a specific quantity.