Daily Inspiration: Meet Todd Cameron

Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Cameron.

Hi Todd, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
I started playing music as a kid in church. At an early age, music really moved me in a way that felt like I could escape the real world and just live in each moment. My love for performing continued into high school at coffee house showcases and jamming with friends. Into early college, I was in and out of a few bands and leaned more into the rock side of things. I went to every concert I could from the time I started driving and every Live show I saw made me want to be on stage even more. Once I was finishing up grad school in WV I found myself on the weekends playing several small cities across my home state.

I had a pretty consistent band and we were able to secure a lot of fairs and festivals as well as local clubs to try and build a following. Shortly after, I made some connections with some Nashville Studio producers and within a matter of a few weeks, found myself moving there. I continued to write and record songs with various producers and friends for several years. I went out on the road to tour all across the US trying to get in any show I could all the way up until 2020. Then suddenly, I hit a wall as an artist, the whole world was shutting down with Covid, and I decided it was time to take a step back. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.

I refined who I was, and my personal goals. I started writing songs that I’d lived, and bringing those stories to life. With some encouragement from friends- I began to release that new sound and material. Luckily with social media- it took off and fans really began to relate. Over the course of the last 1.5 years, I feel blessed to have so many songs released that fans have continued to support daily. I’m just here to tell a story and plan to continue to do so with the new music ahead!

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
That’s an easy one- NO. It’s probably been the biggest roller coaster of emotions from the start I’ve ever had. But that’s the beauty in life, there’s always sunshine after the storm. My Initial struggles were to get folks to come to shows. People don’t know who you are, they could care less about what you’re singing. Learning to create, from the stage, an atmosphere that shows your passion to reach the attention of those followers was definitely a tough challenge.

But looking back, every tough show got a little easier because you start figuring out how to actually put a show on! What gets fans going, how to keep them there and create an experience so that they won’t forget you. In between all that, I made the unfortunate mistake of trusting too many people. There are a lot of folks who hype you up and say they want to help and do this for your career and all these great things. In the end, it seemed to always be a letdown. They didn’t come through on promises, investments that landed me in the red quite a few times. Someone always “knows” someone in the industry, but it seemed to be a lot of blowing smoke.

I’ve been fortunate to be in several meetings with higher-ups in the industry and thought “That went great!”

Then it would be weeks of not hearing anything, or the feedback would be to go change everything about who you are, or the songs aren’t what they’re looking for. It was always an excuse and landed me back in trying to be someone who I’m not. Even after trying to make those changes, it still didn’t get me any further with those folks. I had always heard from day 1 that it was all about “who you know” in this town and a lot less about rewarding hard work.

Thankfully, I quit trying to be what every critic said I should be, and just figured out that I’m Todd. This is the music I make. This is who I am. And the fans have ultimately been the driving force behind it. Though it’s been tough at times to accept, I’m thankful for every step of the process because it makes you learn to be resilient through it all.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m currently a solo country music songwriter/artist based here in Nashville, TN. If anything, I guess I’m known as the guy who never sleeps or is burning the candle at both ends haha. I’ve been in town about a decade now and worked a full-time job while pursuing a career in music. Most of my spare time is spent writing, recording, and networking someway in the industry almost nightly. Weekends were for touring. I didn’t take more than 1 weekend off in a row in that 10 years.

I’m most proud of being able to help support some folks back in my home state West Virginia in 2016. We teamed up with local sponsors and The Salvation Army for a show that raised over 25K dollars to support folks that lost everything during a terrible flood that impacted many parts of the state. Being able to give back to the community who supported you, and pushed you to chase your dream is one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve been able to have along the way.

What sets me apart is probably the way I go about pursuing my dream and career. I’ve generally stayed away from the industry standards in a lot of aspects of career development in music. I’ve made it a point to not chase a sound, or even pay attention to what is going on among other artists. I really don’t even listen to country radio- I’m diving into every other genre! I’m going about it my own way and letting the fans be a part of each piece of the project. Even down to voting on which picture should I use for the next single! I feel like in this day and time, people are consuming music at such a rapid rate.

It’s forcing artists to just put out whatever content and music they can as fast as they can to “stay in the news feed.” I’m pursuing the fans that want to jump on for the long haul. The ones that want to be a part of building this as much as I am, because, without sustainability in fans, I feel like you’re relevant one minute, and gone the next. So my pursuit might take longer, but the fans won’t be involved for just a season, but for the entire series of what I continue to release. Quality over quantity.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Being resilient. There are always going to be ups and downs.

How you learn to bounce back after each one without being completely broken is a true measure of the strength and determination a person has. The more you can “bend” without “breaking” and not lose who you are in the process I believe truly defines who we are when navigating the roads towards any type of success.

Contact Info:

• Email: booking@toddcameronmusic.com
• Website: toddcameronmusic.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/toddcameronmusic
• Facebook: Facebook.com/toddcameronmusic
• Twitter: twitter.com/todd_cameron198
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBLUIxx9dGYaANxdvGcsDug
• Other: https://linktr.ee/Toddcameronmusic

Image Credits
Dusty Barker and Patrick Samokhvalof