In anticipation of this weekend’s U+N Fest, we’re re-publishing this interview with Unregistered Nurse Booking’s Dana Murphy. Grab your tickets for this awesome local fest, and send us a review!

Originally published in Issue #7

Baltimore city native, Dana Murphy, is the body, brains, and bank behind the preeminent Unregistered Nurse Booking. Dana’s workaholic & give-a-fuck attitude fuels some of the best garage rock, punk, grunge pop, indie, and hardcore shows in Baltimore. In addition to a generous, year-round schedule of shows, Dana has been involved/instrumental in local music festivals Ladyfest and UN Booking’s own U+N Fest. (THIS WEEKEND NOV 9-11th)

When booking shows she prioritizes quality, engaging headliners and a diverse lineup.

This past May, I did some quality brain-picking with Dana. Below, get a feel for what motivates this show-starter.

How did you get into DIY Music in general and why did you start booking?

I’ve always been really interested in music, when I was a kid I collected Motown CDs and was super into it and my dad played in a live band so I always went to bars to see him a lot. I started going to punk shows when I was in eighth grade, small local bands. I would actually go to Towson because that’s where people hung out… the county was the place to be when I was a kid. Lots of young people, and also older people hung out by the mall. Then I started bartending at the Talking Head and then I started bartending at Sonar so I’d see all these bands play and I remember this band I liked played and nobody was there and I gave them a case of water because they weren’t going to get, like, anything at all. And they were so bummed and I just thought “I wish you could have had a better show, I wish you could have been playing to a better crowd.” There wasn’t really a lot of rock music happening in Baltimore at that time in the DIY scene and I wanted to get more involved in it but I didn’t know how. I had booked the occasional show for a birthday party or something… and then a good friend of mine got attacked by a dog and needed to cover her medical bills so I threw a benefit show, it ended up being a really amazing bill with Future Islands as the opener and I started booking shows occasionally and then more and more.

What made you go on to start your first fest?

Well it was something that I kicked around for a long time; I really like the idea of fests. I wanted to try my hand at something different. I feel like, with booking, so many people are doing the same thing so it’s really important to try and have something different to present, and if you are a fest it’s really important to think of “What are you adding to this wide landscape of fests, why is your fest different or important”

So why have your fests been worth attending?

So I’ve done two fests, Ladyfest and U+N Fest. Ladyfest was an extremely eye opening experience for me, I had very genuine intentions to create something that promoted a really positive environment of underrepresented people coming together. It was a cool attempt. We donated money to Planned Parenthood.

U+ N Fest started off as kind of just my thing, and then it evolved into being booked by myself and Emily Ferrara of Post Pink and Farrah Skeiky does the photos.

On the future of U+N Fest and the difficulties they face:

There hits a point where to expand you have to be more corporate or like, there aren’t a lot of spaces. A lot of it is getting the right kind of venue that understands why you’re trying to do and work with you, the Ottobar has been very cool and flexible with this particular fest.

How do you fund the fest? Where does the money come from?

It was my money.

Do you think people realize that?

I don’t think people know that about booking, I’ve definitely lost thousands of dollars in like, a single day.

Is it important to you that people know that?

A lot of my friends have given me grief for being such a behind the scenes person, I don’t really explain that much of the other side of booking to people. I guess maybe it would provide perspective for people. I don’t even want to make bands feel bad when I lose money so I try not to tell them unless I have to.

I agree and I’m not concerned about the bands because I think they’re aware and I think it’s nice of you to watch out for their emotions, but more the people who attend.

I don’t think people who go to shows understand that when there is a promoter, that person is assuming, you know, $10,000 worth of risk tonight. It’s very scary. I think before the first U+N fest I legitimately thought I was going to throw up. I couldn’t talk to anybody, I was having a panic attack. And it’s always been like that because I don’t work for a venue. When you’re an independent promoter you have to assume a lot more risks. And promoting is not my job, I have full time employment.

So why do you do it?

Haha, I guess there’s a couple of reasons. I’m an events manager during the day, I really enjoy putting events together, I think it’s really fun, it’s very satisfying to see people actually having a good time and living a little more in the moment. I have notoriously been a little bit of a jerk about photography at shows. I want people to actually have the experience of being there and enjoying something, when you see people standing there not staring at their phones, not taking a picture every ten seconds and really just having an amazing time or you create a really great show, it’s just really satisfying. And also I just really like music… I’m a behind the scenes person…

It’s really important to me to not have my face be the face of Unregistered Nurse or for people to know that much about me. I just didn’t want it to centralize on myself as a person, that’s not why people should be going to my shows. I think part of it stemmed from the landscape of rock and roll shows which is what I booked at the time, it was really sexist and I wanted to book shows that always featured women, but I didn’t want it to be an outward statement. I just wanted people to think these were good shows and maybe after time put it together.

To not associate that exclusively feminist connotation, like it’s just good music and you just happen to be a woman putting it together?

Exactly. It’s a patronizing culture at times. I love music and I love the bands I’ve been involved with, I don’t want to say anything negative, but it can be… My mom is a contractor and does very male dominated work and when I was a kid she would always be like “You want to enter a field like this, you have to know you have to be twice as good to be taken half as seriously.” I think that’s just ingrained in my mind, you know?

Being that it’s a male dominated field and you’re not a male, and that it’s so reputation based, do you feel like you have to prove yourself way harder than male peers?

Yes, I’m just going to add a caveat that I feel like I’ve done a pretty good job and had luck and success and I appreciate that, but I will also say that I don’t think a lot of people realize the deep level of sexism that I’ve experienced which has been shocking and very frustrating. Definitely. As a woman, when you book a bad show – you know, guys book bad shows all the time, one of my best friends is a promoter also and he does an amazing job and you know you just have bad shows and people will be like, “ahh it was just a bad show.” I feel like anytime I book a bad show, people will make comments like, questioning my ability a little bit. It’s more than just a bad show it’s “Are you really any good at this, are you still good at it?”

Do you actively combat that or do you keep doing what you do and that’s proof in itself?

I’ve been extremely vocal for a long time about men and women needing to be on a more level playing field with music. I don’t want to make myself too much of a center focus, but I have made a lot of comments to people, especially in private, to dude friends who book shows, “What is this all dude bill? You need to reach out to women, you need to include people of color, you need to think about a more diverse audience and it’s not just you and your friends that look like you.” I recognize that I have a lot of privilege too as a white woman, I have a better position than a lot of people but there has definitely been a lot of sexism. The only thing you can do is piece by piece try and dismantle it in whatever little ways you can. I don’t really think there is an overarching solution.

How do you create an inclusive experience? Is it important to prioritize gender inclusivity and people of color in your booking?

I never book bands that I don’t think are good. But at the same time – this is so funny to me. I get a lot of accusatory emails that are like “this is affirmative action booking” or “you won’t book my bands cuz we’re a bunch of dudes” but like, there are so many great bands that people are passing over because they’re not as well represented, you know? It’s less about reaching to a less-good portion of bands, to force them to be in shows. It’s about seeing what’s beyond just a bunch of white dudes who are getting all of the attention. The most obvious bands are dude bands who get the spotlight shown on them and there are lots of great bands, lots and lots of bands to choose from… I think it’s definitely gotten better, but it was so intense seven or eight years ago.

Do you have any advice for somebody who wants to start booking shows? How do you get in, what do you? What are your first steps?

I think you should decide what you want out of what you’re doing. Do you want to work for a corporate entity? Do you want to be booking at Madison Square Garden in 15 to 20 years? Are you trying to book the bands you love in a basement, you know you need a sense of purpose. Define where you want your actions to take you. Um, I don’t know. Be really tenacious and don’t fear rejection.

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