Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Barilla.
Hi Nick, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Music has always been a safe place for me. I started playing saxophone in middle school and was involved with Marching Band throughout college. During my first year in college, I started to focus more on songwriting. I didn’t have very many friends and didn’t feel like I fit in. I found the music hall on campus and would play piano for hours upon hours during the week and found it to be very therapeutic. I taught myself how to play the piano by watching YouTube videos and reading Chord books and just kind of went from there. As I started to become more involved in writing songs, words started coming out and I decided to take voice lessons on campus. I don’t know if I would be where I am today without my vocal coach, Lisa Brovey-Kovach. One of the most important things that sticks out to me during my formative years was having a stage to perform on campus. We had an open-mic night every Thursday night where I could showcase my original material – which was not good by any means at first! Each month, national touring musicians would come and perform at our open mic night and that instantly gave someone like me, a college student without a path, something to build on for the future.
From then on, I started booking shows locally and started to build a following nationally touring colleges on my own in 2017. While I was in college, I was introduced to a music producer, Daniel Blake, through a mutual friend and we have been making records ever since. Each small achievement in my journey has led to a great career in music.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Although the successes in my career might be most notably visible to onlookers, there have definitely been a lot of hardships that have gone unseen.
II have a song called ‘The Opener’ and there is a lyric in that song that says “Lots of people told me I should be on TV, I measured up my worth, as I was playing first”. People always ask me: “Why don’t you try out for a TV show?” almost suggesting doing so might ultimately define musical success. Let me tell you, those shows are not the end all be all. I have a lot of friends who have been on television and the reason they are successful now is because they have put the work in after the show. Work in the MUSIC industry. You have to understand that television shows do not always accurately represent the music industry.
I have tried out for American Idol four times and faced the same rejection each time. I was contacted by producers from The Voice in 2019 for a private audition and didn’t make the final cut. I even had a song considered for the TV show “Songland” that was pulled when the band the song was chosen for did not chose to appear on the show. During that process, I had to wait 6 additional months to release my album ‘Moments’. And then 2020 happened. Not only was that devastating emotionally and financially, but it put a complete stop to my career. I also got a concussion in 2020 that put me in therapy for three months and heightened all of my senses, including anxiety and depression. Luckily, I had really great doctors and was able to make a full, recovery. In many ways, I felt like I was back at square one.
Through it all, I have learned so much about myself and my career. I can remember watching the Ellen show back in college and a musician was being interviewed. They were talking about the struggles they had on their journey and Ellen simply told them, “Never let someone else determine your self-worth.” As I reflect back on all of the “what-ifs” and letdowns in my journey, I can only be thankful for those letdowns because they have made me stronger and wiser. I am a true believer that things happen for a reason. My newest record, ‘Silence all the noise’ will be released soon and all of the songs were recorded in my home studio. Music once again served as a positive outlet for me to express myself and to ‘silence all the noise’ when the world around me got loud. I can’t wait for people to hear this batch of songs.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
It took me half of my professional life to tell people that I am a musician. There is a lot of pride that comes with that, but also a lot of vulnerability. At first, it was very hard to understand that Nick Barilla the musician was the same Nick Barilla the person. Early on in my career, I would have concert venue performances on the weekends in front of hundreds of people, sell merch, take pictures, etc. I felt like I was on top on the world. On Mondays, I would go back to working in retail and be treated generally poorly by customers and that had me feeling very down. Finding the balance in my life was very tough at first. When I decided to go all-in on my music career in January of 2017, I saved up enough money to invest back into my career and create enough bookings that would sustain me for the year. I am most proud that I was able to go against the norm and decide to live my best life by being kind to myself. Prior to 2020, music was very much so about “me”, but now I would say the opposite is true. Since I’ve been back to performing again as of late, I have come to realize that music has given me the opportunity to make other people’s days better. When people dealing with things like divorce, health issues, financial issues, and life, in general, are able come together for one evening and enjoy themselves and forget those things weighing them down, that is what makes me happy to be a musician. Regardless of what success might look like to others, that is what defines success to me.
How do you define success?
Using the gifts that you are passionate about to make an impact on someone else’s life.
Contact Info:
- Email: nick.barilla@yahoo.com
- Website: www.nickbarilla.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/nickbarillalive
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/nickbarillalive
- Twitter: www.twitter.com/nickbarillalive
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw4NJrDzIgGP4gLW2zEfSww
