Musack’s Donack Cary Wants Music to be the Answer. 1000s of success Stories later, he might be right
Musack’s mission is to give kids and teens a voice through music by providing guitars, drums, and support for music teachers – wherever the need arises.
But back in 2009, writer/producer Donick Cary (Letterman/Simpsons/Parks and Recreation/Silicon Valley) began Musack with a simple vision: to raise money to fund musical programs for his hometown high school on Nantucket Island. After a rash of teen suicides on the island, Donick thought about how he and his friends got through their teen years. Music.
Emmy-winning writer and producer Donick Cary got his start writing for “Late Night with David Letterman.” He continued working with the show through its move to CBS, serving as both head writer and the “guy in the bear suit.”
After five years in late night, Cary moved to “The Simpsons,” where he served as a co-executive producer for four seasons. He later spent a season in the same capacity on NBC’s “Just Shoot Me” and HBO’s “Bored to Death.” Cary has produced pilots for and developed with: Brillstein Grey, Sony Television, Happy Madison, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, FX, HBO, the WB and Nickelodeon.
Joe Winger:
What’s the most important message you have to share with our audience today?
Donick Cary:
Do good things, jump in and do good things. Lean towards the light. When things seem dark, head towards things that make you feel lighter and feel better.
Joe Winger:
What inspired you to create Musack?
Donick Cary:
We’re in our 16th year. I had a birthday party in my hometown where I grew up and I reunited a ska punk band from high school to play at that party.
I grew up on Nantucket Island, which has a wonderful reputation, a lot of money and big time summer fun. But in the winter, it shuts down a lot. It’s very quiet and can be considered claustrophobic. And we all felt a little bit like, where did everyone go? Why did they abandon us?
Like in any small town, you deal with a lot of things: drug abuse and ways that people deal with claustrophobia.
The summer that we were having this birthday party, there had been a number of teen suicides in the high school that I went to.
I lost a very good friend in high school to teen suicide.
Looking back, how did we get through high school?
And the answer for us, it kept coming back to music.
We discovered different bands: Elvis Costello, The Specials, TheGrateful Dead, The Dead Kennedys. Awide variety of music. We learned how to play the music and we made mixtapes with the music. Music really was there for us when we needed it.
I talked to the music teacher at the high school and just tried to get a sense of how they were coping with this long winter that they had just survived and and losing a number of kids. He said something interesting to me.
“I don’t really know, but I have 10 kids who want to play guitar and we have no guitars.”
That was like, okay, I don’t know what you do about any of this stuff, but we can get 10 guitars.
It was just what can you do? Here’s something you can do.
So we got 10 guitars that year. We gave him to the high school program there. Six months later, he sent me an email with the kids playing music with the guitars we got.
It was like, oh there’s some answer here.
He said, I actually have 10 more kids. If your charity has 10 more guitars. We were like, great, let’s get 10 more guitars. How do we do this?
That’s where it started.
We set up a 501(c) (3) then started to do fundraisers here in LA.
We started to hear about music programs everywhere we’re facing funding cuts, budget cuts kids who wanted to do different kinds of programs. There’s no reason we can’t help wherever the need arises.
Joe Winger:
What are some of the immediate requests you have for that we could help with?
Donick Cary:
First thing is we would love sugar dads and moms to jump in and support however they can.
We’ve structured this in a way we can be pretty nimble and help wherever need arises and whatever that is. Some of our programs are as small as five kids who want to start a band on the Navajo reservation and we find teachers and then we build with them something that they want.
Some of the programs we do are as big as the Chattanooga public school system. They wanted help buying 500 guitars for their programs.
We would love help organizationally by having some more grant money or bigger money. This is a very DIY event. I have a partner in crime, Katie Kerrins, who is incredibly helpful.
We have requests coming in all the time.
If someone [who wants to donate] loves a certain genre of music [musical, opera, class rock, punk rock, whatever] we can tailor their funding with their musical passion.
Joe Winger:
Someone in our audience may have annual tickets to the Bowl or The Garden. Maybe some fraction of that can go to you in the future.
Donick Cary:
Yeah, we would love that. Our fundraising mostly comes through these backyard events. We book a lot of bands.
We’ve had everyone from Childish Gambino to Weird Al to Flav aFlav to rancid and the specials. Like we get bands that we love. They come and play. We raise money with that and it goes right to the kids programs.
We love bringing donors into that loop. We get to have a good time raising the money and the money goes to a thing that then creates a good time for kids that then feeds back.
We’ve had kids open for the bands on different years and artists go and play with the kids. We’ve done 45 record releases where artists do the A side and kids do the B side. So there’s a real connection between the artists and the kids programs.
It’s very transparent, very hands on, feels like a win for everybody involved.
Joe Winger:
What’s one of your favorite stories about how Musack has helped….? What’s the terminology? “Students”, or who is the ultimate audience for Musack?
Donick Cary:
It’s a thing that we keep trying to define. Then we’ll get a request for something that doesn’t quite fit it.
We started by getting kids to play guitar and punk rock songs. Then rap music and rap production.
The real part of it is giving kids and teens a voice to get through those years where sometimes you hit a wall.
Most of the artists that are involved in the charity usually are like, “Oh my God, a guitar saved my life.”
We want to make sure that every kid has a guitar or whatever version of music that will save their life and give them some kind of voice.
One example, this rap program.
The second year that we existed we had some kids reach out wanting to rap. It was a way for them to hang out together. We had some help from the Nantucket Community Music Center. They set up a production booth, we had a teacher meet them every week.
They trudge through the snow. They’d bring their lyrics. They wrote these rap songs. And by the end of the year, they had all written these incredible songs.
And I was like that’s what this is all about.
A real lesson for us was that we don’t want to be imposing a program on kids. We want to hear from them what they need. Because they’ll show up for that.
Another story.
I was in an aboriginal detention center in Brisbane, Australia. The music teacher there was a really interesting dude. He loves Iron Butterfly of all bands. These kids are aborigine kids in Australia who have been picked up for going on a joyride in a car and then put in essentially a prison system.
It’s crazy. But we were helping him with a lot of guitars. [the teacher] said all they want to learn is Bob Marley. So do you let them play Bob Marley? And he was like yeah, of course, if that’s what they want to do, that’s what they’ll show up for. It was this theme of listen to the kids.
They’ll show up every week if you’re feeding them. We really try to support that.
Joe Winger:
You’re helping these kids get a voice and – not too dramatic – a lifeline through the music they create with your program.
Donick Cary:
Yeah. We hope that we’re also funding music. There’s a type of music teacher that when I talk to, they get it. They listen to the kids. There’s two types.
There’s one that is imposing a methodology and a system. That’s great for some programs.
But where I really get excited is when there’s a music teacher who’s making music with the kids and the kids are equal partners in that process. When you have a band, it’s a team and the music teacher becomes part of that team.
We love that. More of that wherever we can find it.
Joe Winger:
Your biggest event of the year is the Musack Rock N Roll Carnival. Give us an idea of the scope and what it is.
Donick Cary:
It’s in our backyard, which makes the scale of it only, it can only go so far, but we have about 500 people show up in the backyard. It started as really just barbecue and have a band.
Our friends, Yellow Tango came and played the first year.
Then we’re like, Oh, Yellow Tango is coming, why don’t we have some comedy also?
So we had a few people doing stuff and basically just grilling burgers, and called it a Rock and Roll Carnival.
It grew a little bit every year.
It comes out of [my work as] a writer / producer in TV. At a certain point I realized there was this wonderful opportunity for me as a comedy person to bug bands, who also like comedy.
There was a good reason to bug bands, maybe we could all do something together.
This sort of materialized as a place to do that.
It’s a ridiculous thrill for me to write to everyone from Jeff Tweedy to Pavement to Pavarotti.
1 in 20, I’ll get a response and 1 in 20 again will actually show up [to perform at the Carnival. But the people who show up have an amazing time.
Donors get get an experience that doesn’t happen anywhere else. They meet the artists, they meet everyone.
We’re all doing this thing, which is giving instruments and lessons and supporting kids music program. So you feel good about being here. The artists feel good about being here. It just feels like a win all around.
Some people show up and have a great idea for catering. Great idea for wine. They could donate. We have a silent auction. We can include almost anything in that.
Every dollar raised goes right to kids programs.
Joe Winger:
The silent auction items were amazing. Was there one thing this year that really just caught your eye?
Donick Cary:
I have a love / hate [relationship] with our auction because we get a lot of amazing things that I want,and then I’m outbidding somebody on a guitar.
A couple of things come to mind. Neil Young signed a guitar. That’s so cool.
The most famous skateboarder, Tony Hawk was there and bidding on this guitar. So I had to pull out of the bidding and let Tony Hawk win.
Shepard Fairey is involved and donates things from his personal collection. There was a great David Byrne print that he donated this year.
Matt Groening and the Simpsons will get involved. Parks and Recreation have gotten involved in the past.
Joe Winger:
Other interesting experiences like renew your wedding vows.
Donick Cary:
I had a revelation about fundraising.
[People are] happy to help. But want to go to things that are fun. We try to be creative.
So we threw in a few things this year, different packages. There’s a full wedding package. If you want to do your wedding or renew your vows.
Joe Winger:
Can we talk about some of the very popular TV shows you’ve been a part of, the work you’ve done.
What are some life lessons that you’ve learned about how to achieve the level of success you have?
Donick Cary:
I’ve had a wonderfully lucky career. You work really hard and are ready for those moments.Then when the lightning strikes, you run for it.
The David Letterman show was where I started. As the head writer on that show for a little while, I moved from there to the Simpsons. I’ve worked on New Girl, and Parks and Recreation, Silicon Valley. I made a movie recently called Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics, which is on Netflix. Cartoons and live action and all sorts of stuff.
What I’ve learned from these kinds of shows and this kind of production is it’s all collaborative. We count on each other.
It’s a team sport, which goes to just about everything in life.
We depend on each other. We sometimes disagree on where the story’s going in a writer’s room. But we have to make a thing.
So you have to figure out who’s good at what. How to have everyone be a part of the team. You know that when you’ve participated and some of your ideas are in the mix, you feel better about the episode.
All of those are lessons with how to just treat other people and how to work with other people.
One of the biggest lessons is listening.
Listening is a really hard talent to learn how to use and really do listen to what other people are saying, and then figure out how they can be part of the what you’re working on and contribute.
Hey, this person is saying that they have access to a winery, so I’m not going to go ask them to book me Guns and Roses, they can get wine,
So figure out what people are good at and what feels good to them, and then in having them be part of the bigger process.
One other thing, it’s really important in life to get used to hearing no is and that failure is not really failure is how you define it, but you have to fail a lot to be successful.
Joe Winger:
Our audience is usually foodies, cocktail enthusiasts, winemakers, and wine lovers. Do you have a favorite meal?
Donick Cary:
We were foodies before that became a thing, That’s been a core to my existence, chasing a good meal, travel and finding things you’ve never eaten before,
[When I travel and return to LA], there are a few things I crave and eat in the first week that I’m back.
So those things are Marouche, a Lebanese restaurant that has incredible mezes. You just go and you order mezes, however many people you are, 4-6-8 mezes for eight, and they’ll bring 20 dishes. It is amazing. The family that ran it, the kids have taken over, but it’s been an institution and has been around forever.
Versailles Cuban food. There’s a couple locations. That pork drenched in garlic is like with an espresso on the side and plantains and rice and beans is like that is soul food.
That is the best food. I have to go within a week of being home.
Versailles got us through the p*ndemic
We have an Indian restaurant [locally] called Star of India. Chicken tikka masala from there.
Cooking wise, the smell of baked bread. Good baguettes with good butter and good coffee.
Joe Winger:
What are the best ways for them to follow up, to stay in touch with what you’re working on, whether it’s websites, social media, something else?
Donick Cary:
You could definitely go to the website Musack.Org. We are on socials, MusackRocks on Instagram, on Facebook.
You can keep track of when we’re doing a fundraiser. We do a few things throughout the year. Sometimes we’ll sell t-shirts. Sometimes we’ll sell these records the kids have made. Sometimes we’ll have an initiative: a band exchange. The kids are doing that we’ll do a fundraiser specifically for.
We have our once a year rock and roll carnival in LA.
We don’t just fund programs on Nantucket, but because we started on Nantucket, we would love to do more events [there] talking about a food and drink capital of the world.
If anyone’s interested in helping out with summer things, we’d love to bring some A list talent: a movie screening or conversation.
