Listen to the Podcast About Barrel Room
Podcast Summary
Recently on Eventful Endeavors, host Hunter Dunn had a captivating conversation with Jimmy Heberling, the proud co-owner of the Barrel Room, the only dueling bar in Oregon. Jimmy shared his background as a guitarist, venue owner, and operator, highlighting his passion for music, particularly dueling, for its ability to intimately connect with audiences.
Originally from LA, Jimmy relocated to Portland, where he was planning to open a local dive bar, but things took an exciting turn amid the pandemic. He seized an opportunity to rescue the closing Barrel Room. With a new venue and lease a couple of blocks away, Jimmy became the torchbearer for the beloved dueling bar, carrying on its namesake, and reopening in 2023. Despite a few address confusion issues with Uber and Lyft, the Barrel Room thrives under Jimmy’s management, recently celebrating its third anniversary.
The Barrel Room offers dueling shows every Friday and Saturday, with unique programming throughout the week. There are open jams on Sundays and Tuesdays, where anyone can come play their instruments for free. Additionally, the venue hosts a late-night DJ on Wednesdays, comedy performances on Thursdays, and frequent poetry nights.
Jimmy shared how he navigated the unpredictable terrain of reopening a venue post-COVID, trying various programming options from salsa bands to local music battles. However, the consistent favorite was dueling, which was gradually established as the fixed weekend performance. This Barrel Room tradition is gaining momentum, promising a bright future for this unique Oregon entertainment venue.
For an unforgettable experience at a venue that truly values the connection between the audience and the performers, the Barrel Room is your place.
Learn more about
Barrel Room
This interview was provided by
Felix and Fingers Dueling Pianos
Podcast Transcript
Felix And Fingers (00:24)
Okay everyone, welcome back to Eventful Endeavors. My name’s Hunter, based up here in the Pacific Northwest, and I am very excited to be joined today by the one and only Jimmy Heberling, who’s the co-owner of the Barrel Room, currently the only dueling bar in the state of Oregon. Jimmy, thanks for taking the time.
Jimmy Heberling (00:41)
Hi guys, thank you Hunter, pleasure to be here.
Felix And Fingers (00:44)
Okay, excuse me, to start, can you just kind of give us a very brief background of who you are as both a working musician, I know, and a venue owner and operator?
Jimmy Heberling (00:56)
Yeah, you got it. I did study guitar myself. I graduated from Musicians Institute in Hollywood before working at Howl of the Moon that was in LA that closed ten years ago now. But I love dueling because of the way that it connects to the audience. And it’s so much fun to just do the guitar songs for dueling and let the players, you know, have to handle all the really difficult requests.
I moved up to Portland, Oregon, 2018. I was looking to start probably like a neighborhood dive bar type thing till COVID hit. And then there was a dueling bar called Barrel Room in Portland that was gonna close permanently. So I ended up working with the owners there. I took their namesake, their email list and everything. Found a new venue, new lease a couple of blocks away.
And then we reopened up in 2023. So we just celebrated our three year anniversary last week.
Felix And Fingers (01:50)
Sweet. Out of curiosity, I guess you said just a couple blocks away, so not too far a move. Same. I was just wondering if you had to like…
Jimmy Heberling (01:55)
Yeah, and Uber and Lyft
refused to change our address. And so sometimes people still get dropped off a block away after this.
Felix And Fingers (02:00)
wow. Okay,
fun stuff. And what’s a so no dueling is every Friday and Saturday now, right?
Jimmy Heberling (02:11)
Yep, almost every Friday, Saturday. Occasionally I’ll have a touring show that takes over a Friday.
Felix And Fingers (02:16)
And that’s kind what I was gonna ask next was just like, what’s your sort of typical week to week programming or even month to month look like? Because I know when I’ve been down there to play, right, I see all kinds of posters and I’m like, okay, that’s pretty cool. I be interested to check that out.
Jimmy Heberling (02:29)
Yeah, well, we’re getting into a really good rhythm now, which is dueling every Friday, Saturday. We have open jams or anybody can come play our instruments for free, sign up on the board and they’ll put bands together on Sundays and Tuesdays. And then on Wednesdays we have a late night DJ thing that’s going pretty well. And Thursdays we have comedy. And then occasionally we have some one off events. We have poetry pretty consistently and ⁓
a couple touring shows that come through, really good Russian band coming up. There was a moment there though we tried all kinds of things because when I reopened I was really expecting it to be like the previous barrel room and the previous owner was telling me all the things that it was going to be like and then opening post-COVID was ended up being completely different. So we did start with duelling every Friday, Saturday for the first year and I could not keep it working. So I ended up sporadically doing
dueling every couple of Saturdays sometimes not at all and I was doing salsa bands and battles of the bands local bands almost anything I could find until Let’s see must have been last November. So it’s been about six months We’ve been doing dueling every Friday and Saturday day again, and it’s picking up enough steam that it looks like that’s gonna continue
Felix And Fingers (03:46)
Okay, sweet.
like the first year that they’re like, and I, I’m assuming, but I want to confirm like, this, Barrowm is this is the first time you’ve been owner and operator of a venue? Okay. Yeah. And I, I, before I sort of started dueling as my main thing, I ran my own lessons and occasional recording project studio for about two and a half years. And you know, after
Jimmy Heberling (03:57)
yes, yes, Brandon’s thinking now.
Felix And Fingers (04:11)
teaching for a whole bunch of different companies starting my own thing. was exhilarating and scary and so much that I learned very early on. like, so that first year or so sounds like, like, was there a lot of just kind of throw stuff to the wall, see what sticks?
Jimmy Heberling (04:19)
Yeah.
First year was almost entirely like, we’re making dueling happen. I’m flying in new players every weekend because there was nobody that lived in Portland. And it was the second year that it was trying anything. I tried some pretty weird stuff. But then I had to keep on firing promoters because they don’t treat people well, even their own staff or especially guests. So going back to dueling was a breath of fresh air because the players are so professional.
It’s so easy to work with. just tell them one time, like six months ago, here’s your date, and then they show up on time and they’re ready to go.
Felix And Fingers (04:59)
And so you did you kind of know from the get-go especially like having done it yourself right as a guitar player that you wanted dueling to be a man’s day
Jimmy Heberling (05:08)
Yeah, I thought it’s pretty perfect and it turns out to be because I can work as a manager, make sure that everything in the bar is going well, I can talk to the guests and make sure they’re gonna have a good time for their anniversary or whatever. But then I get up on stage for like five songs to play, Sweet Child of Mine or something that’s really important for guitar. And then I’m done on stage, I can go back to making sure things work, but I still get to play the fun stuff and make sure the entire place works out. Yeah, it works really well for me and I think it’s just a great show.
Felix And Fingers (05:12)
Excuse me.
Jimmy Heberling (05:36)
For the audience, it’s such a personally interactive show that really speaks to people and I get to talk to them afterwards when they’re just in love with the place week after week.
Felix And Fingers (05:47)
Mm-hmm.
That reminded me of another thing I was gonna ask actually. So for anyone listening who has not been to a show at the Barrow Room, I guess, now this is a good incentive to come check it out. But we break up the dueling show with a band set in the middle with mainly Jimmy and staff, because you have an incredibly musically talented staff.
Was that something that you did from the beginning or did that come along sort of, did it evolve organically just like when you realized you had all these musicians on staff, had that work?
Jimmy Heberling (06:18)
Yeah, no, we just kind of attracted them organically. When we first started out, we were just hiring people based on job positions like bartender, line cook. But it didn’t take long before people who are in the service industry and also happen to be fantastic musicians were just asking for jobs all the time. I think I put out like an ad early on for
bartenders and whatnot and I haven’t for the past two out of three years because I always have people who are hanging out and enjoying the community who also have bartending or whatever experience. So when I need somebody I will finally hire them but every employee has stayed for so long that most of them have been here for most of the time are open. I have no openings for people so it’s only attracted the right people who already were like embedded in the community by the time I had to say hey will you work here please they already knew.
and everything about it. Yeah.
Felix And Fingers (07:08)
Got it. That’s awesome. ⁓
For the venue itself, and I always kind of love geeking out on this stuff actually here. Why not? give a little bit of a… I don’t think you’ve been in here either, but this is my little office. This is my back of the house office. Yeah, I like geeking out on the space setup. Are there…
Jimmy Heberling (07:22)
No, I haven’t.
Nice.
Felix And Fingers (07:31)
How much setup was there to do when you first got the new location? Was it just sort of bare brick and you had to put in the layout from scratch? Was some of it already done?
Jimmy Heberling (07:40)
Yeah, it was a lot and no matter how much due diligence I did, there was more than could have been anticipated. We moved in August of 2022 and we opened our doors April 23 and I was there pretty much every day with contractors and even before I signed the lease, before we got the keys, I checked out every office I possibly could for like, what is it going to take to
have legal grease traps in the building. What is it going to take to have a fire marshal walk through? I contacted everybody including Northwest Natural for natural gas and they told me very specifically, I see your address, I see the old account, all you have to do is call us the week you want to turn on your kitchen and we will simply come out, flip a switch and you will have your gas turned on. And so I did. must have been three, four months into the build out which is already expensive.
I called up, said hey, want to get natural gas on? And they said, oh no, we took away your entire meter. And now you have to have a special two pound pressure test, which involved four months of going back and forth between plumbers to install piping, a different company to check for leaks, and then Northwest Natural to come in at the very end. And I went back and forth between all of these, and it cost $15,000 and it took four months.
to turn on natural gas. And that’s something I’d even checked on. And it was so expensive. We had no money left over to put a sign out front of the building. we were like week one, we had our grand opening. And I looked at the numbers and I got all the, I’ll say executives into a meeting and I was like, hey guys, we’re gonna run out of money in like three weeks. What do wanna do? We almost closed our doors right then. was definitely on the table.
Felix And Fingers (08:58)
Oof.
Jimmy Heberling (09:21)
And there’s been several moments since then where it’s like, well, that’s it. There’s no way we can stay open through this. We’re right, guys. And then something pulls through, and somehow we’re still open. It’s incredible. It’s been three years of that.
Felix And Fingers (09:32)
I mean, I know the, I hear the statistics commonly of like how brutal the restaurant business is, right? I think it’s what, like two out of three don’t survive the first year. And you guys.
Jimmy Heberling (09:43)
And I
hear it’s worse for bars, where alcohol is the mainstay. Like one out of ten closes in the first year, and then those that stay open, out of ten close… Sorry, it was the opposite. One out of ten is the only one that’s open after the first year. And then after five years, of those ones that stayed open, one out of ten is left.
Felix And Fingers (09:48)
Okay.
makes it through, yeah.
Okay. That, I think that kind of leads nicely into something that I have been really fascinated by, I think just in the last like, you know, five, six years that I’ve been playing music for a good chunk of my living. Just kind of the economics of it all. It’s a funny Wild West, at least definitely from the musician’s perspective, right? You know, right? There’s frequently little to no correlation between
Jimmy Heberling (10:04)
incredibly great.
Felix And Fingers (10:30)
how much work goes into putting together the music for a show and how many people you’re playing for and how much you get paid. It’s just random. But at the end of the day, what it all boils down to is for a venue to stay open and for musicians to be able to come play there regularly and pay their rent doing it, you need to have an audience in area.
Jimmy Heberling (10:35)
Yeah, yeah, it really can be. ⁓
Felix And Fingers (10:56)
Something I’m curious about is how much, how did you guys go about sort of figuring out what was the sweet spot? And I have no economics background whatsoever, and I’m sure there’s a term for it that I just don’t know. But you know, sort of where to set the dial for the cover charge if you have one for both the dueling show and just other types of events you do. Because that’s something I appreciate that you guys do. Not every venue owner does the cover charge.
Jimmy Heberling (11:15)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. I’ve been back and forth. It’s mostly been trial and error. I guess it’s making educated guesses and then trying it out and seeing how it works. What I’ve found here in Portland, like we’re in downtown, like Old Town, very central, right? But almost all of our ticket sales online, where people buy with credit cards, we get their zip code. Almost all living in suburbs and driving in or Ubering in, whatever.
and they come from pretty rich suburban life. And so my idea was I could charge more online and they don’t seem to mind. Our ticket sales don’t go down when I increase the price. So what I had to do is then balance it with at the door, how much do we charge? Because it could work that I could charge $40 for a ticket online and people would still buy it. But then at the door, people walk in, they would not
pay $40 before they know what the show is like if they’re just like in the neighborhood. And I don’t want to try to still get walk-ins. So I ended up raising the price from 20 to 25 six months ago when we started dueling twice a week. so now we have $25 cover at the door too, which turns a lot of people off. But I think I get more online anyway, so that’s the sweet spot that I’m looking for is it doesn’t detract.
Felix And Fingers (12:09)
Yeah.
Jimmy Heberling (12:32)
from online ticket sales, but still, walk-ins might end up paying it.
Felix And Fingers (12:35)
Yeah. Do you have a sense for what the split between online and walk-ins has been over the past year or so,
Jimmy Heberling (12:44)
Yeah, I do have this on a spreadsheet somewhere, but it’s like 10 % walk-ins something like that 90 % online and Dueling piano show is different that way almost every other kind of show that we host We’ll get half and half walk-ins or DJ shows are like 90 % walk-ins 10 % online
Felix And Fingers (13:02)
And would you say then, kind of this like, so many things I thought of off of that, ⁓ but has, how to put it, have you been sort of leaning into the dueling as like the venue’s calling card for lack of a better word? Cause I mean, you guys are the only one in the state.
Jimmy Heberling (13:08)
Yeah.
Yeah, definitely. That’s why I took barrel room in the first place. Again, it wasn’t like my original idea, but when I saw that they were closing, I’d been there a few times because they didn’t have any players in Portland at the time. They were flying in my friends from LA that I used to work with at Howl at the Moon. Every weekend I could go see my friends there. And I thought, well, if we could just literally take what they’re doing and continue it, if they have the budget to fly in my network of
dueling piano players from LA, I could work with that right away. And I already have a pool of talent to go with. And so I wanted to keep what was pre-COVID’s barrel room namesake was dueling pianos every weekend. They were only open Friday, Saturday. They didn’t do anything else.
Felix And Fingers (13:54)
She’s on Main up here, so like that, think. Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah.
Jimmy Heberling (13:56)
Yeah. Right. And it’s
pretty normal to do that, but post-COVID, we did not experience nearly the same thing. So that’s why we had to change a bit and started adding weekdays and stuff, which were easy. But I would love to keep Dueling as the namesake because it’s such a fun show for me to be a part of. It’s such a fun show for the guests to interact with. The employees adore it. I think it’s just a really good fit for where we’re at right now.
Felix And Fingers (14:21)
Yeah, I totally agree. On that, sort going back to when you were setting up the space, are there any, when you’re figuring out, OK, where are we going to put the seats, tables, and what we talked a little bit yesterday about how you sort of tiered them, make some use of the Z-axis, the stage setup, everything, are there any…
again from your perspective right having played many rooms in many countries. Are there things on the technical side that you feel like sometimes fly under the radar or overlooked but can just make a huge difference in the quality of show?
Jimmy Heberling (14:56)
Oh, um, you know what? My first answer is the performers who really is seasoned and just do a great job can make almost any room work. But there are ways that I can help. Yeah. I’d be happy camper all day long. But dueling specifically is so interactive. You’ve seen our room. is. We have a stage at the end of a
Felix And Fingers (15:08)
Yeah. Like I’d listen to Joe Satriani play a stick with a piece of floss on it. Yeah.
Jimmy Heberling (15:22)
long room, right? And we can seat about 110 people in that area. And I think if the stage wasn’t on the far side but it was in the middle, still facing out to everybody, but it’d be a lot closer to everybody. I think that’d be even more ideal. But when we moved into the venue, it did already have a stage exactly where it’s at now. And I looked at dozens and dozens of places and walked through a million different stages, it felt like.
and kitchen was always in the middle and it was broken up restaurant style. This is one of the few that actually had stage visibility at all. So I was happy to just to accept that. I did add onto the stage. I made it almost twice as big, but I kept it over in the corner where it’s been for the past 60 years. But yeah, we could help the players even more if they were closer. If the audience maybe was warmly lit a little bit better so could see people without.
having to block the stage lights. Having good sound sure helps. Again, really seasoned players, won’t complain, but they’ll notice the difference if they can’t hear themselves, or worse, if they’re getting feedback all the time. Yeah, that’s probably pretty basic. who has a music venue should know that if sound sucks, it will detract from the whole show.
Felix And Fingers (16:21)
Yep, you guys have a good monitor setup.
three years on now, is there any advice that you would give yourself three years ago when you were signing the lease or to anyone else who is either…
considering becoming a venue owner or operator for the first time or maybe an existing someone who’s been doing it for a while but is thinking about bringing dueling into their space.
Jimmy Heberling (16:50)
Hmm. I mean if I could talk to… Sure. Sure. But I’ll try to combine them. I was talking to myself specifically, I’d have to say like, don’t expect previous barrel room to be post barrel room. Like if I had… I had found great advisors, I had found people who literally owned barrel room before, I’d found people who have done big business and go deep into numbers and…
Felix And Fingers (16:51)
Sorry, that was like three questions in one. Whichever you want.
Jimmy Heberling (17:16)
I people who’ve done music venues in Portland that weren’t dueling pianos and I thought if I take their advice I’ll have a leg up versus just trial and error. And it actually ended up being a lot more trial and error that helped me specifically in my specific location. Because evidently what I’m doing there is very different than a lot of venues all around me in terms of what it takes for me to find people to get them into the door.
So I don’t know, it feels like every restaurateur or venue owner that I’ve spoken to followed a very different path than what finally worked for me. So figure it out on your own, make your own bass, make sure you have your own direct line to guests who want to come see your show.
Felix And Fingers (17:55)
Gotcha. And think that dovetails nicely into something else. was going to ask, you know, we all have our…
perspective taking moments through life. feel like a classic example, which which I have not personally experienced yet, right? But it’s becoming a parent and then things that when you were a kid were like, it’s not fair then you’re like, ⁓ no, no, I now I understand. Have you had any moments like that ⁓ going, you know, from being not just a musician or audience member, but to now like the, you know, the owner proprietor and you know, Sort of you’re the
Jimmy Heberling (18:13)
Yeah.
Felix And Fingers (18:25)
you’re the person overseeing all of this, things that maybe didn’t make sense why they were the way they were from the other side of the bar. And now you’re like, ⁓ okay, I see.
Jimmy Heberling (18:34)
To a degree, feel like that part of the transition into ownership wasn’t the hard part for me. I’ve always been a solopreneur, I guess, before this. And I was always leading my own wedding bands and I was employee number one at a booking agency, so was all bootstrapping things and I was in charge of everything. So that part felt very familiar.
The only thing that pops in my head of like the growing up now you’re adult and you see why thing is like I played at a lot of places where their equipment is old and it sucks and the mic stands don’t hold up microphones anymore and things.
Felix And Fingers (19:07)
always bring my own mic stand especially especially
as a keyboard player right like what often you gotta reach it way over in the boom is it max extension yeah yeah
Jimmy Heberling (19:12)
No
Yeah, exactly.
I’ve been singing lately and the mic stand just won’t lock in swivel-wise. So every time I touch it with my mouth it just like goes away from me. And I’m like trying to head bump it like as I’m playing guitar to push the mic back.
Felix And Fingers (19:29)
Yep. haven’t actually
done this yet, but what was it? was playing Freedom Fest last year, and the engineer there gave me suggestion and said what he does if the boom is just starting to lose the battle with gravity is to ⁓ take the little swivel arm and flip it around, because I guess most of them by default, when it lowers, it loosens. So if you flip it when it lowers, it’ll tighten against itself.
Jimmy Heberling (19:51)
Go now.
Yeah, that’s nice. Yeah, yeah, exactly. that’s what I’m learning here is I’m week by week, I’m making decisions of like, bartender tells me this thing is broken at the bar, kitchen guy says this thing is broken in the kitchen, piano player says this is broken on stage. And I’m like, broken and doors open is better than closing our doors. I can see that so vividly. You’re gonna have to deal with this broken thing because…
Felix And Fingers (19:56)
by another year maybe, yeah.
Jimmy Heberling (20:20)
Can we make drinks without it? Then you’re gonna have to. Can we make food without it? Then you’re gonna have to. It’s a battle between when do I purchase a completely new thing versus I’m so close to looking at closing doors all the time. We’re not able to just make sure everything is perfect. And employees who’ve been there for long time get that too, and players too who’ve just been there for a long time seem to have an easier time. But when a new employee does come,
Felix And Fingers (20:31)
Mm-hmm.
Jimmy Heberling (20:46)
They’re like we can make this place so much better. We could add all these decorations we can Make our walk from here to there easier if we just move this entire wall You know what? We’re gonna get through this but it’s not going to be the expensive way if we’re gonna get through this it’s going to be the cheapest possible and I will buy new gear and I have this week when it’s really necessary, but I am like the
Felix And Fingers (20:54)
You
Yeah.
Jimmy Heberling (21:09)
handyman dad who’s just like underneath the toilet trying to fix it because the kids clogged it again rather than buy a new toilet.
Felix And Fingers (21:16)
Yeah. Have you seen Firefly, the show?
Jimmy Heberling (21:19)
yeah, it’s been a long time, but I do remember liking it.
Felix And Fingers (21:21)
I just did a rewatch and the whole time it popped into my head, Kaylee the mechanic, right? Compression coil bus were drifting and Mal the captain. Best not bust then.
Jimmy Heberling (21:32)
That’s what we’re doing.
Felix And Fingers (21:33)
Yeah. Which is then paid
off in a later episode, but…
Jimmy Heberling (21:36)
Right, yeah, if it was only as perfect as TV, then we’d be fine.
Felix And Fingers (21:40)
Alright. Do you have any, guess, like especially memorable stories from these past three years of a night that really stands out for hopefully good reasons or maybe one for not so good reasons?
Jimmy Heberling (21:53)
Yeah,
well, yeah, let me let me start not so good our first Halloween We had a dueling piano show and we tried to Make it as big as possible. Our neighborhood is known for Big events big holidays like that. The whole neighborhood gets crammed. We wanted to be a part of that. So we Brainstormed us with some other event planners and things and we tried to get like some Halloween games going and we saw a dueling piano So we had like this ⁓
like a trivia card in a way that like when certain songs get played you have to figure out some trivia things, go walk around the bar, look at different posters in the bar and figure out what the answer is, the first one to win, get something or whatever. And we thought of a bunch of different things like that and our heat broke that weekend too and the landlords couldn’t fix it until the following week or whatever. along comes Halloween, we have super low ticket sales.
Felix And Fingers (22:23)
Okay.
Jimmy Heberling (22:43)
The players were kind of fresh players too and they were just feeling the mood of the room which was cold, tired, and why the heck am I here for Halloween? And it was just a complete bomb. And all of the games and things that were supposed to attract people were just complete dead. We had a jar where you have to count the candy corn and the closest guess gets it. We had one person guess, like 200 and something. And so they got it. The answer was like 1500 candy corn.
Felix And Fingers (23:10)
Hopefully they were happy at least.
Jimmy Heberling (23:14)
Yeah, so that was a huge lesson in like plan for what actually attracts and brings people and not just silly little games that once they’re already inside Maybe they’ll enjoy maybe they won’t at all Like I should have focused more on what dueling piano is and the reason people come to dueling piano shows is because it can be so personal to them it can be so memorable it can be such a crazy good time the word
strangers end up all singing along together. It’s really special and we were focused on a lot of different kinds of things from different kinds of angles that wasn’t helpful at all. But highlight to contrast that was actually this past Saturday April 18th we celebrated our third anniversary and lately we’ve had so many employees have gotten out I think 10 employees that all sing and really well like they they capture the room for a moment.
every piano show. So when we piano shows, the band set’s been getting too long. I’ve been trying to break it up, do two shorter ones. So I thought for our anniversary, I just want to make it special for us. I want to just do what we do best. No DJ show afterwards. We’re just going to have all the employees sing after the piano show. And to make it special, I also brought in a Drake Queen host we used to use all the time. She’s fantastic. She warms up the crowd before the piano show starts and everybody’s already screaming before piano players even get up there.
So had her do some performances, she did the hosting, we had an aerialist and contortionist and we had like four vendors selling their like handcrafts and a couple of our drinks went to charity so it was this whole thing. And it went better than I could have even anticipated. First of all in terms of how many people came, we had over a hundred before 5 p.m. And the vibe was just so ecstatic and happy from the get-go, from the host and everything.
By the the piano show started, they were like screaming before they said a word. And then afterward, I was concerned people would all leave for the bartenders to sing. This piano show went for three and a half hours, and that was after an hour of drag queen and acrobat. But then the employee band played for another three and a half hours until 1 a.m. and there was still people dancing there. We had to be like, hey guys, we’re gonna stop now. And so was fantastic.
for the guests who are coming to me and telling me how much they love the place, how happy they are that it’s been three years. The employees love that we did every single employee song. I thought it was going to dwindle out. I had to put most of the good songs up front. No, we did every single song that the employees have learned and then we had to start going into my songs just to keep the band set going. And the drummer, Mark, he played for seven hours with two bathroom breaks. Yeah, he does.
Felix And Fingers (25:38)
Nice.
That man has stamina.
Yeah.
Jimmy Heberling (25:47)
And we broke our record. We sold more in any single day than on that day. We beat out Dwarfinators and SantaCon and all of our biggest days previously. Our anniversary, doing what we do best, made the most impact.
Felix And Fingers (25:59)
I was gonna ask, and I wanted to make sure, I think I remembered that being how it was presented on the poster, so I’m assuming the performers themselves were okay with it. But yeah, Dwarf Wrestling, that, do you guys have that like, multiple times? It’s like a touring show or something?
Jimmy Heberling (26:10)
Yeah, that started like,
yeah, I must have been open for about three weeks when I got a cold email saying, hey, we have a touring show, Midget Wrestling’s coming through, it’s called Dwarfinators, can you do it? And I texted my landlord, I’m like, this wasn’t on our contract of what I was gonna do, but can I try it? And they came through and sold out the room, and so now they come back about once a year, and they do two days in a row, like a Tuesday, Wednesday. They bring in their own wrestling ring and everything, and they put on a really good show. They’re super athletic.
really nice guys. all set up their own stage, perform, and then they chill with us and eat some food and they’re just really fun and talented people. Yeah. So they’re coming back in May 2026. It is the last Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday, Wednesday of May.
Felix And Fingers (26:45)
That’s awesome. Yeah.
Do you know what data’s up your head?
Jimmy Heberling (26:57)
and
Felix And Fingers (26:57)
I’m just curious, because I’m like, if I’m in the area, I’ll come.
Jimmy Heberling (27:00)
Yeah, it’s a really fun show.
I’ll have get back to you. Oh, here it is. Sorry. May 26th and 27th is the right one.
Felix And Fingers (27:06)
Okay, I might be booked one of those, but I’ll check. Sweet. I think that was most of what I had that I was curious about. But since you mentioned them, always nice and I’m always curious about what other stuff people have going on. But do you still have time as you’re…
Being now the owner operator of Barrel Room, but you’re also doing still your own music stuff. Like I checked, I saw your personal website briefly. like a couple of wedding bands and just like independent composition, session work.
Jimmy Heberling (27:33)
Yeah, I’ve put all of that on hold and this is the first time in my life where I’m just focused on one thing and that’s barrel room. When I got out of music school they gave me the good advice to always have like three things in the oven. So, know, performing at weddings or running sound or writing sheet music. so I always kept about six things in the oven which is what you saw on the website. Also recording people and editing music videos and things.
Felix And Fingers (27:52)
Hmm.
Jimmy Heberling (27:56)
And it was a really scary step to just throw all of my eggs in this basket, but I had to tell all the bands I was working for, can’t take any gigs, you’re gonna have to find somebody else. And this is definitely my full time now, which is great. I love it.
Felix And Fingers (28:11)
Yeah, am Sam Gutman. I knew it was a G and it was taking me a second. Also a musician, just YouTube channel I enjoy because it’s very much sort of like perspective of a working musician for working musicians and he’s maybe a decade older or so than I am. So I’ve been.
you following it with interest as our stories have closely tracked. I’ve kind of taken his term, which he just says like, yeah, through my twenties, I just did the everything bagel of music, right? Exactly. And I’m sure you’ve explained this to folks as well when they ask you, what do you do for a living? I’m a musician. Okay, what’s that look like? Or often, right, it’ll be, oh, what’s your band? And then you have to say, well, it’s not band singular, right? You teach.
Jimmy Heberling (28:51)
Yeah. ⁓
Felix And Fingers (28:52)
You play with a wedding band, have solo stuff, you record if you have that skill set, you, yeah. All that. And yeah, and it is, I mean, it is fun, I… Well, honestly, I guess this guy here, it’s cropping me out, but I’m tapping the wall, I think has been…
The closest I’ve come really in recent years is sitting in my bus conversion here to having that, like, I’m just really going to focus on this one thing. And in this case, was, ⁓ making, getting my roof over my head and everything. But, ⁓ yeah. but yeah, there’s also something to the just, am focused. Everything is turning and I’m going to make this one thing the absolute best it can be. Right. Rather than having the attention divided.
Jimmy Heberling (29:23)
Yeah.
Yeah, that can be dangerous if we’re going to talk for a minute about musicians living. Because I think the tendency for me when I was young would be I’m going to pick the thing that I love the most, I feel the most fullness from. But if you first branch out, if you first do the everything bagel and then you find what works best, you find where the need for that is. And then you follow something that will…
that people are happy to pay you for is often a different decision than somebody fresh out of college thinking I’m gonna be the best sweep guitarist ever and they’re just gonna love me for it like people may not pay you a lot for sweeping arpeggios on guitar but if you tried a bunch of different things and you found where that fits in maybe you found a bunch of producers who do need guys who can sweep super cleanly then that could be the niche
but probably not. And you will never know unless you first branch out and then when something is really hitting, then you drill down on that one thing.
Felix And Fingers (30:35)
This is very much just like guitar gig to guitar gig actually, but I’m curious like who were some of your big guitar playing influences growing up and still are I imagine.
Jimmy Heberling (30:46)
Yeah, I was definitely much more floored by like Teachers who are right in front of me I mean I did go see like Steve Vai and things like that and I love it I don’t play like that either and I’m not really like influenced like I want to do this But I what I do see and love and want to do is funky stuff like Nile Rodgers is possibly at the top Players like him. There’s a guy Ross Bolton that played for Al Jarreau and a couple other people that
I just got some FaceTime with and I was just floored at how clean and groovy it was. So like Bill Conti from Tower Power is another really good one. Yeah, not the usual mainstay I think of guitar heroes, but the guys who lay down rhythm so well, that’s what gets me excited.
Felix And Fingers (31:26)
Yeah, and it’s like the deceptively toughest thing to do. I think I came to funk kind of later and I have not very much background or…
you particular skill set there as a guitar player. But when I picked up guitar, it more as a burgeoning metal head. And so in the same way, right, like the, you know, the more I’m playing, the more I’m like, wow, like what James Hetfield does is not easy to get it that clean and that precise. Or you graduate from there and this was less my cup of tea. Cause I realized I was just too much of a melody hoe. But then I listening to like Meshuggah and I’m like,
Jimmy Heberling (32:02)
It’s not gonna take much longer.
Felix And Fingers (32:04)
Is your arm even human? I’m not convinced there’s not a Terminator endoskeleton under there.
Jimmy Heberling (32:06)
Yeah,
it’s got a little blender with a pick on it.
Felix And Fingers (32:12)
straight up. Oh
man. Cool. Okay, let’s see. Speaking of the everything bagel, I’ve got to get myself inside for rehearsal shortly here. So I think that was about all I had. Anything else that you can think of things you’d want to share or?
Jimmy Heberling (32:25)
Rans.
No,
not really. Thank you so much for having me. It’s been a pleasure. I’m gonna see you in Portland tomorrow.
Felix And Fingers (32:34)
Cool, I was gonna confirm.
Sweet, and usual like six o’clock sound check.
Jimmy Heberling (32:38)
⁓ yeah, about that. 630. 6 to 630.
Felix And Fingers (32:41)
Okay, yeah, I’ll probably be there a little before and just come in and hang. Okay, sweet. Jimmy, thank you so much. Ton of fun. Really appreciate you taking the time.
