We’re looking forward to introducing you to SJ McDonald. Check out our conversation below.
Hi SJ , thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What do you think is misunderstood about your business?
The most misunderstood thing about being a musician is that you make so much money!!! Its crazy how high expenses are to tour, ESPECIALLY with a band. This is why I encourage people to buy merchandise from their favorite artists (and myself) because sometimes that’s the only way independent artists make their livings. A lot of times ticket sales just unfortunately don’t cut it.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hey y’all!! My name is SJ McDonald and I am a completely independent touring country singer/songwriter. I spent 7 years on Lower Broadway singing at The Stage on Broadway, and AJ’s Good Time Bar to pay my way through college (Belmont) and then after college, to pay rent, record music, and get on the road!! I have literally been all over the world at this point JUTS because of people I met in the Broadway Bars who became fans, then friends, who helped me find venues and events all over the country to come play at and start growing my fanbase. I’m on year 4 of touring, and the growth I’m seeing is INSANE.
I am independent, though I do have a manager who has been truly changing the way I woke for the better. As an artist, I’ve always sort of lived with a month-to-month mentality of find gigs, play them, make fans and friends, and try to save up to record new music and promo it when you can. NOW my manager is encouraging me to come up with longer, more extensive plans. It’s given me a bigger feeling of strength in my career, and I’m proud of myself.
Amazing, so let’s take a moment to go back in time. Who saw you clearly before you could see yourself?
My Grandmother. She has always told me “remember who you are” when I’d go places. I didn’t fully understand that until I moved to Nashville, started touring, and realizing there are so many opportunities to just follow the crowd, do what everyone else is doing, and not listen to you gut. I feel like those 4 words she has told me forever has taught me, whether I knew it or not, to find out who I am, and stick to it, no matter where I am.
What’s something you changed your mind about after failing hard?
I really thought that the end-all-be-all for someone in Nashville is getting a publishing deal. Then I got one, and lost it within the first 9 months. In the moment, it felt like a failure, like I was not good enough. Then after going through that and finding new pieces of my story, more resilience in me, being able to fully make my living as a touring artist with NO monetary support from anyone, proved to me that it doesn’t take just ONE thing to make a dream come true. It is a combination of things that line up differently for everyone… and when your magical combination doesn’t look like everyone else’s, it’s actually completely okay and doesn’t make you a failure just because you got to your goals by taking a different road.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What would your closest friends say really matters to you?
What truly matters to me is having a fun life and sharing it with the people I love. Having a life worth writing songs about!! Having a life that is not defined by the hard moments, but rather grows stronger because of them. Oh, and Dr Pepper.
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. When have you had to bet the company?
With “company” meaning my career in this context… I actually decided to bet it all the day after I lost my first publishing deal. It was September 2024, and just a few weeks before then, I had decided to finally give up all of my cover gigs in Nashville to focus solely on touring. I had set a coffee meeting with my Broadway booking agent, that coincidentally ended up being the DAY AFTER I was told I would be losing my publishing deal after just one year. Talk about timing….
I walked into that coffee meeting absolutely conflicted. I had made so many friends, contacts, fans on lower Broadway.. how could I continue to give it up if I no longer have the steady income of a publishing deal coming in to offset that change? But also, how could I just stay in one place, and turn my back on a decision I had made for myself weeks prior, that was long overdue?
I walked up to Bongo Java East absolutely confused.. but (this is going to sound crazy) on my way into the coffee shop, there was a homeless man sitting on the corner absolutely BELTING “I’m Going Through Changes” by Ozzy Osbourne. Something about hearing that song, in that moment, told me to stick with my gut. I’m a person who is always looking for signs, and that was the sign I needed. I also didn’t even realize at the time that “Changes” was the song he was singing. HAH!
Fast forward a year… I have traveled all over the US opening for incredible artists from Diamond Rio to Emily Ann Roberts, grown my career exponentially, and grown my team, all because I stuck with that gut feeling that told me it was time to move on. I knew that I’d never get to the next step without pushing myself through the hard times.
Image Credits
Emily Plecker, Trey Bonner, Jonathan Sommer
