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questions and answers
The music ensemble cheered during the pandemic. Now you are in the event planning business.
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Snacktime members (from left): Sam Gellerstein, Austin Marlow, Aaron Goode, Ben Stocker, Kayla Childs, Eric Sheman, Michael Spearman, Yesseh Furaha-Ali’s Flower Show After Hours. Photo courtesy Snacktime
If you’ve never heard of Snacktime Philly, you’ve probably heard of it. heard her. Homemade brass music, melodic pop, jazz and R&B songs have filled the air in Rittenhouse Square almost every weekend since August last year. What started as a one-off gig has grown into a vibrant Philadelphia routine, dancing every weekend (even when masked and socially separated). Despite the pandemics that blocked much of the music and entertainment industry, the long, cold winters, and the challenges posed by Rittenhouse residents and the Philadelphia police force, Snacktime has become a staple of the city’s ever-evolving music scene.
However, the band, made up of core members Sam Gellerstein, Ben Stocker, Austin Marlow, Yesseh Furaha-Ali, Michael Spearman, and Eric Sheman, also has a rotating cast of instrumentalists who attend various performances, Music with Philadelphia. The elementary school teacher and sousaphone player Gellerstein is expanding the Snacktime brand into event rooms. As a longtime member of Philadelphia’s food and beverage scene, Gellerstein wants to bring his love of food and hosting to the next party, along with a brass ensemble. Gellerstein sat down with us to discuss the history of Snacktime, the hurdles of last year, and how the band is bringing something new to the Philadelphia event planning scene.
Tell us about yourself.
My name is Sam Gellerstein. I was born in New York, grew up in Florida and have been in Philadelphia since 2012. I am a musician. I teach instrumental music in the school district. I eat and drink a lot in town.
What did you do before the pandemic and before snack time?
I’ve been teaching for two and a half years. But that night I was also a full-time musician. I used to play with other people’s bands and have a lot of weddings. I’ve had a lot of fun doing things, but I’ve always missed being able to do what I really care about in the music world.
How and why did Snacktime start?
In November my friend Daniel McLaughlin, co-owner of Mission Taqueria, asked me if I could start a band for him. Friendship after party .. I’ve run a band in the past, but just because I’m used to playing with other people, I haven’t done that in a while. I’ve put together a little band. It gave me a lot of inspiration and confidence in the feeling that I could lead. Then Jen Zavara of the Juana Tamale Open popped up her first place in South Philadelphia, Underground Arts. We decided to have a monthly collaboration event called Snacktime with artists, musicians and one other chef. We went through the first one, and then a pandemic happened. So the world has shut down.
Then, sometime in June, my friend Jeff Blood Show and I started Clarion’s Call for Justice. This was an anti-racist marching band rally that allowed people to vote and spread their activities. It took a while, and then around August Jen answered me and asked, “Hey, can you put a little band together for another pop-up?” Jen hired us and we had a little brass band play pop songs, hip hop and R&B together . People liked it and it sounded good. So I hit my boyfriend a little more.
After that I played for people almost every weekend from August to January. And as we kept playing, we got better. The musician’s cast calmed down and people became more attentive. The people were masked and far away, but we played outside so we could still dance. We just kept walking and got some cool presses.
I know at some point you started to receive backlash from some residents of Ritten House Square. What happened?
One Friday a police officer called me from a blocked number, but I didn’t answer. Basically, the message was, “I don’t have to pay the full $ 300 fine, so I want to solve it.” I confirmed that there was no illegal activity, so I knew from above that it was wrong. Since we are a marching band, it is not amplified electrically. And on top of that, we play no later than 10 a.m. But every time we play a cop comes along. One day I got very frustrated and wrote this huge Instagram 3 page post How Frustrating I was and that’s how we met our lawyer Leo Malbi Hill.
To be clear, we had a lot of very supportive and friendly people, so I don’t want it to sound like a resident of all Rittenhouses. However, there are very influential and wealthy people in the area. Basically, it was resolved that we had a big meeting. I thought, “Hey, you can play until 9am on the weekend.” And there we left it.
But ironically, so many people came to our support that we were booked with a lot of other things. We play so many of our events that we couldn’t play Rittenhouse as often as we used to. It’s funny that the solution just came about by getting more jobs from the people who really supported us.
A member of the Snack Time band. Photo courtesy of SNACK TIME
What does a typical weekly life look like for you now?
We play most nights. He currently has a contract with a live casino in South Philadelphia and plays before and after the Phillies match. Basically, we hold one or two events a month. We did it once at the Warehouse on Watts last month. I’m doing a show in Broad Hall. Middle Child Clubhouse, Fiore Fine Foods and formerly Bonapetti. We were asked to have a big music festival. I do a lot of cool things just because I’m busy.
I always say we can do anything. We can do anything from divorce to weddings to bar mitzar. We are there to make everyone happy.
I know that part of the reason you named the band Snacktime was because you wanted to include food as part of your experience. However, most marching bands have not yet moved on to offer a full event planning service. Please tell us about this movement.
An important pillar of Snacktime is the fact that I am deeply involved in the Philadelphian food and beverage industry. At our center, especially during the pandemic, I’ve been with a lot of my friends who are cooks and we put these big meals together. There was nothing special about eating a really sick meal. I love to cook and I try to make people have a good time. So I thought this could be something that sets us apart.
The slogan I came up with is “the party you want to go to”. And I don’t mean that exclusively. I’ve noticed that a lot of event companies have something like pasteurized, sterile one-way streets. I want to work with customers not only to offer options like chicken, steak, fish but also to make sure they get exactly what they want. If your favorite food is pizza and you want pizza for your wedding, I work with some of the best pizza people in town. We want to open people to new cocktails and wines. Snacktime personally brings everything I love into life, music and food and people, dance and love and good feelings, and stuffs everything that doesn’t really seem to be happening in Philadelphia yet. It’s like. It’s like one stop shopping for a really fun party.
I also want to be able to access Snacktime. People believe that these events must be very expensive. Food, catering, and band prices are astronomical. Snacktime isn’t a big company so you don’t need any extra cash. We need enough to pay everyone a fair and high wage.
When the world returned to normal: “Well, that was fun. Now we can play our gigs in Philadelphia again. ”Instead, point Snacktime in this new direction. Seems really ambitious. Have you ever thought about breaking up the band and getting back to your pre-COVID musical life?
From a music life perspective, I let everyone know that snack time is my priority, just like I do other work as often as possible. If you stay with me I think this will continue to be a very rich experience. A slowdown is not planned. If anything, we are preparing for diversity of all kinds in the future. As long as nothing really crazy happens, you won’t see Snacktime melt in a long time.
Do you think Philly’s music scene will at some point make a full recovery after COVID?
I definitely do, and I’ve seen it before. I didn’t have a reservation so I think it was the only gig in town yesterday. However, the venue is open. Philadelphia is a resilient city so I’m sure it will recover completely. Make sure all the musicians there stay strong and let’s not just pay for what people think because we’re desperate, but also accept the right ones. No matter how excited we are to come back, we hope we are safe and protecting ourselves and our colleagues.
How do you see the future of Snacktime? What does the band look like to you even after 10 years?
I hope Philadelphia can continue to be a band that can be expected to be there. Maybe one day the venue, the restaurant. I try to take it every day, but I really hope we can create something like this and become a permanent part of what Philadelphia music looks like.
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