Daily Inspiration: Meet Brian Rose

Today we’d like to introduce you to Brian Rose.

Hi Brian, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My music journey started very young, I was naturally drawn to music and started playing violin when I was 5. Whenever my dad was driving me somewhere, he’d play Led Zeppelin, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, and I quickly became fascinated with guitar, even trying to play my violin like one. One day while at a music store with my dad, someone was playing something on guitar that sounded so cool I walked right up to him and asked “how are you making those noises!?”. That was my queue, and I was playing guitar by 7. My first guitar was a cheap Epiphone. In my childhood, playing guitar and finding bands I liked was a world for me to get lost in, I would spend hours on hours playing guitar and learning my favorite songs. In middle school, I formed a metal band called Nurge and played with them until unfortunately getting extremely sick, where I was in the hospital for 3 weeks from having Lyme disease, which turned into meningitis and kidney failure. I had severe nerve damage as well, and being a young kid that threw a dent in my confidence and self worth. All I did was play guitar in my room, it was really the only thing that helped me feel like myself while I was recovering. Having the music world to get lost in gave me a deep connection to something I was struggling to find in other areas of my life. This was cementing my deep passion for what music can do for people, it’s powerful. I also was starting a brand new high school 3 months late, not knowing anyone, still recovering from Bells Palsy nerve damage in my face, which from this experience to this day I can pinpoint back to the development of my sense of humor. I did fully recover however and got back to my active life at the end of 9th grade. While I was in 11th grade, I was picked up to play guitar in a blues band when I was noodling around at a music store with a friend in Cleveland, Ohio. I played with them through my high school years, they were all much older than me but playing in a crusty dive bar every week was a blast.

A part of my story that was pivotal in my journey was learning about an uncle I never met when I was 15 years old. I have such a vivid memory of the day – I was with my mom, who always told me she was an only child growing up. Her mom passed when she was a teenager, and that day she wanted to make a pit stop to visit her mom. While at the cemetery, she led me to an unfamiliar area. While here, she said’ I’d like to introduce you to someone.” She pointed at a headstone, and said “This is your uncle Jeff.” Jeff’s headstone had guitars and music notes all over it, he played guitar and built guitars, he died when he was 19 from a drug overdose. The purpose of introducing me to Jeff from my moms end was “I can’t stop you from taking any particular path, but you need to know what happens when you get too deep in the wrong crowds.” By that time, I had already been playing in bands and was getting quite clear I was headed into the music world one way or another. After that day, she gifted me a guitar he built and his song book. Both of which I still have with me of course. I never knew Jeff existed until I was already on my journey, the crazy part is we are the only two musicians in our family and extended family. When my grandfather had learned my mom told me about Jeff, he insisted I was the spitting image of him. To this day, continuing what my uncle Jeff couldn’t is a huge driver to stay with it no matter how turbulent the waters get at times.

When I was 18, I moved to Chicago for music school on a whim because I loved the city, and my grades were not good enough to get into the music school I wanted to go to, which ended up working out because I wouldn’t have been able to afford that school anyway. While I was in Chicago, I had a music business class I fell in love with. I would hang back after the lecture, and just chop it up with my professor about all things music, his journey, what I want to do, etc. At the end of my freshman year I played him a couple records I was working on, and he invited me back to record them professionally with him over that summer. I brought two of my friends with me, and we made an EP that summer. From that EP, it landed me some studio work from people my professor had introduced me to. Things snowballed from there, I had my foot in the door in multiple studios around Chicago, was getting hired on work-for-hire jobs and had the opportunity to play on a now successful pop duo’s debut record. Granted it was not a linear road with the studio work, it kept me active in the Chicago studio circuit which led me to an opportunity to become a music studio assistant where a writer I worked with was a part owner.

However, a hand injury on my chord playing hand stopped me in tracks in 2015. I needed two surgeries and the mental gymnastics over every playing again were rampant. This entire journey, all those years refining myself and my playing, for what – so it seemed at the time.. It sparked me to figure out how I can stay in the game if I can’t play guitar. It took about a year, but I thankfully recovered with no motor skill issues in my hand and was able to hop back into the studio world. I did that for a couple years, while taking odd jobs in between my gigs to make ends meet. It wasn’t glamorous by any means, but I was a sponge on how these music operations worked. A big part of it was truthfully just being a good hang, easy to be around and insightful when asked for input. I did this up until 2019, where I left the studio world to pursue starting my own band. Getting back to my roots, I realized all I wanted to do at that time was play guitar in a heavy rock or grunge band – the stuff that inspired me to get into music in the first place.

As we know, covid hit a few months later in 2020, which ripped the rug out from everything I had set in motion to do. None of the studios were operating, it was a huge uphill battle to get people to meet, I felt like the moment I finally had a shot at ‘my thing’, it was over. Fast forward to the end of 2020, I had been mentally preparing myself if I needed to make a pivot from music. I really needed a job, and by the grace of God, I came across an opening with a company called Songfinch.

Songfinch, a custom songwriting company, had just started building out its teams. The only role available was for customer success, but being a music company in Chicago which is not super common, naturally I applied to it. I interviewed, and the guy who would later become my boss told me on our call “yeah, you’re just not a customer success person. But – there may be an A&R role opening up in a few months. If you’re interested, I’ll reach out when/if it becomes available.” I of course told him I’m interested, and we got off our call fully expecting to never hear from him again.

About a month later, I got an email asking if I was still interested in the A&R role to which I replied “hell yeah I am!” We interviewed again, and they offered me the position the next day. Granted I had no previous corporate music experience, I was extremely excited and felt like I finally had my way out of the hole I was in. I was ready to dive in and give it my all.

At Songfinch, I had the profound experience of spearheading the growth of multiple music departments, found a passion for creative operations in the process and was directing Artist Services by 2024 as a co-developer of the company. Through my time at Songfinch, I built many fantastic relationships with many artists and creators, especially in Nashville. We had 500+ artists working out of Nashville, and there were talks about needing someone in town and I volunteered myself to go. Of course, that took some time to unfold fully, about a year. I planted the seed with my boss that I wanted to move to Nashville in 2022, and in October 2023, I was on my way.

Shortly after arriving in Nashville, I was connected with Jamie Shoemaker, the founder of UPstar Music from a mutual friend. Our friend Hunter was writing songs for Songfinch, and during one of our sidebar conversations he mentioned I really needed to meet Jamie, as we were very alike in mindset and vision. A month or two after I moved to Nashville, we all got lunch and hit it off right away, a completely organic situation. Jamie and I had got together a few times, and having such an aligned vision for UPstar and the current music ecosystem, our chats would last hours about it all. At the beginning of 2024, he asked if I was interested in joining forces with him to scale UPstar. Easiest ‘hell yes’ I’ve ever said. This was a full circle moment for me, because years earlier while recruiting artists to come write for Songfinch in Chicago, I relied heavily on UPstar’s page to scout country artists.

Now, we are building the future of UPstar Music together and couldn’t be more proud of what we’re doing. It’s such an honor to be part of the community Jamie spent years building, and having the opportunity to apply my passion for music and artists to this incredible organization. Everything I had ever done led me to Jamie and UPstar. We have exciting plans for the near and far future of UPstar. At the end of the day, UPstar will continue to create a meaningful impact for artists or country music fans, and having a hand in the process is a big win in my book. The story continues!

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
Currently, I’m working as the Relations Manager for Jam Factory Entertainment. I specialize in talent relations, strategic business growth and partnerships. I have a lot under my belt that I’m proud of career wise, one of the biggest ones is my ability to keep going when all the odds felt stacked against me. I’ve had to out grow my adversities while maintaining a positive spirit to keep pushing forward when life just felt like this impossible mountain to climb, the daunting realization of what I’d need to do to get where I want to be, and the years it’s gong to take. In my examples, building my confidence and self worth back up using music as my vehicle to do so after becoming ill, and learning to play guitar again after my hand injury when there was extreme uncertainty of how the recovery process would end up in the long run. This made me realize something very important that can be applied to anyone, in any field and at any age of your life – if you’re not moving forward, you’re falling behind. There was no way I could let my current circumstances determine my future, and still feel this today. That’s the a secret key to materializing your desired life – knowing you have it already while your current circumstances do not reflect it. I would even call this practice a discipline, because it’s not easy to do and life is not linear. Learning to detach myself from the possible outcomes of various situations made me a better resource for artists, a better employee and a better business. It also overall makes you happier, as there is more room to be filled with the good, rather than exhausting that space on the anxiety of all the ‘what ifs’. These are lessons I acquired from getting back up after taking an L, and could have only truly learned through experience. Applying these lessons to my current role and my life today is something I’ll very proud, no one can take that from me.

Do you any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
Going out to breakfast with my grandpa. Every other weekend or so when I was still single digit aged, my grandpa would take me to Bob Evan’s followed by a long drive out on the back roads. Part of me still feels like I’m chasing what that really was – the company, the nature, the peace. There’s just something that hits different about a grandparent kicking their wisdom about life with the windows down riding through a long back road in the country.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.upstarmusiconline.com/
• Instagram: brianxrose