Today we’d like to introduce you to Chandler James.
Hi Chandler, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started playing guitar when I was seventeen years old. I actually dropped an AP psychology course the second day of my senior year and took guitar lessons instead. Mostly because I heard it was an easy class and we really didn’t have to do anything. My friend was a bass player and wanted me to learn how to play the guitar so we could play together. I hated be bad at the guitar more than I like being somewhat able to play, so I spent about four hours a day practicing guitar and learning new techniques and everything else. Six months into my senior year I was playing during friends breaks around my small town and other small towns around us. When I graduated later that year I played at my graduation and that was by far the biggest crowd I had for a while. I was going to attend a four year school but decided to stay home and continue playing shows here instead of starting fresh somewhere new. Mostly because I knew I was not a good student and would not have focused on school in the least and within two semesters would have probably ended up at home anyway. During these three years I worked a full time job went to school full time and played two or three shows a week. In the midst of all of that I was visiting Nashville every so often and spending some time out there. During my second year of college I decided to drop out of school and move to Nashville, which my mother quickly informed me was not an option. It wasn’t that she didn’t want me to move but more that she wanted me to finish school first. When I finally finished my associates degree I picked up and moved to Nashville at twenty one. I quickly started playing on Broadway and attending writers rounds and other music events. I made a lot of friends and picked up a lot of shows and for about a year was a full time musician until I found a job I knew I would enjoy at Hatwrks on eighth avenue. I worked there for another year making hats and meeting all kinds of people and growing close with my co-workers until I decided that my music was taking a backseat to my job. I realized I didn’t move to Nashville to not do music so I left and went back to being a full time musician and that’s still what I’m doing. Much like any jobs it has its days that makes it feel like work, but I always say that if you can enjoy what you do at least most of time you’re doing pretty good.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The music road is a weird one to me. There are times when your killing it and it feels like you’ll be Garth Brooks famous in no time and there are times when it feels like the better option is to go home and get a job. I luckily haven’t had any major obstacles or setbacks, but one of the struggles of being a musician, especially in Nashville, is a lot of times you end up playing for not a lot of money because Nashville is so oversaturated with musicians that if you won’t play for that rate, someone else will. Nashville is such an expensive town to live in that on a musicians salary a lot of people end up having to live really far away and driving in everyday and paying twenty five dollars a day to park. A lot of times you’re eating free or discounted bar food. I pretty much lived off of burgers and chicken tenders for two years and now my doctor hates me. Nashville is a great town for opportunity, but your going to have to struggle to get there. At the same time though no one said it would be easy and no one forced me to be a musician.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a singer\songwriter. I also play guitar, but I would say I’m more of a singer than anything. I would say my “specialty” is the old southern rock and classic rock. I’m a really big Allman Brothers fan so I’ve been writing and trying to make more songs that sound like they are influenced my them. I think what sets me apart from others is that I grew up listening to all different kinds of music so I have influences from a lot of genres. I spent most of my after school time when I was young with my grandma, she showed me the old soul and Motown music. Motown was the music I fell in love with first. Then my mom and dad showed me country and rock and hip hop and everything else. So when I write music I’m trying to write from a pool of all kinds of music.
Where do you see things going in the next 5-10 years?
I think the music industry is facing a era of change like they have never seen. It was already changing with the flood of social media and other platforms that now just anyone can release music on, but with the advancement of AI things could change drastically soon if we don’t find a way to control it. I personally am not a fan of social media, I do it because its a necessary part of being a musician and promoting yourself, but I don’t really enjoy it. I think the music industry hit a sweet spot in the 70s and 80s of freedom to create and the business side of things would market for you. It seems like its almost flipped now, record companies are making young artist market themselves and then come to them with a following and tell them what they are allowed to release and what they cant release. I think you will also see a rise in independent artists such as American Aquarium and Muscadine Bloodline.
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