Today we’d like to introduce you to Dave Freeman.
Dave, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My Dad was a college professor at Moravian College in Bethlehem, PA and my Mom took a pause in her career as a pianist to stay home with me. We were Moravians – a protestant religion that emphasized the importance of music and singing as an important part of daily life. When I was three, they decided I was ready for my first church service, and instead of screaming or crying they were surprised to hear me singing all the hymns with the rest of the congregation. The organist picked out my voice and told my parents, “bring him to me when he learns to read.” A few months later I was taking voice lessons from the head of the music department.
My parents were super frustrated that I did not respond to their many attempts to teach me piano. Especially because I would sit down on the bench often and either make up my own songs or play snippets of songs that I heard on the radio or the stereo. My aunt taught piano, and every once in a while I’d let her teach me stuff – and she told my parents to let me do my thing until I was ready to learn. I started taking trombone lessons (what every Moravian kid does, lol), so when I wasn’t singing in a choir or in school functions, I also played in my school and church bands and orchestras.
My Mom died when I was 14, and that’s when playing piano seemed to become more important to me. I had zero interest in learning all of the classical stuff, and my teacher seemed dumfounded that I could PLAY but not what he wanted me to. I saved my money and bought a synthesizer – it played one note at a time and I got really good at programming crazy noises that weren’t always very musical 🙂 At this same time, my Dad got super interested in audio recording, and it seemed like every other week a new piece of stereo equipment would take up residence in our basement “studio”.
Little by little, all this crazy life experience started to come together. I went to college (Temple University), but ran out of money to stay, so I started playing full time instead at the honeymoon resorts in the Pocono Mountains of PA. The Poconos had this amazing jazz community, so I became a sponge and tried my best to fit in and learn all I could. When the line dancing craze hit, I was offered the chance to play non-stop in a live band – and that was my first real experience with country music. About that same time I found out that this guy named Jimmy Buffett had written a lot more music than “Margaritaville”. Along the way I collected all these cool “toys” and got pretty good at figuring out how they worked. When I wasn’t playing, people would make me dinner and invite me over to make all their stuff work – eventually word got around and people started hiring me to do studio work and consulting.
Here I am all these years late – writing, recording, singing… the more things have changed, the more they’ve stayed the same!
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?
Smooth? The very nature of any artistic journey is that it’s never easy, if it was everyone would do it. It seems like everyone I knew wanted to know when I’d give up and get a real job, and when I actually DID that for a while I was miserable, and not much better off. One day, my day job boss took us all out to celebrate a milestone and we went to a piano bar. The piano player didn’t show up that night, and somebody told the manager that I played. I got up and one song became the rest of the night. The next day I showed up to work and the owner gave me a check and told me to pack up my desk – in the whole time I worked for him he never saw me look half as happy as I was the night before, and he encouraged me to get back to it. Here we are!
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a singer, songwriter, and piano player. I have a few songs out there, some I’ve released and some that other artists have released. I perform live with various bands as well as Dueling Pianos gigs. I’m most proud to have the opportunity to make a living playing and writing music.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
What I wish I knew is what I tell anyone who asks: if you REALLY want to do something, then DO IT. Don’t spend one second on a backup plan, instead spend every minute figuring out what you need to do better.
Surround yourself with people who support your decision. “Support” is defined as not asking about your backup plan, why don’t you take the fireman or policeman exam, etc… just like Thumper said, “if you don’t have something positive to say, don’t say anything at all,” and if they don’t get the hint… snooze em.
Also, understand that working for yourself means you might have an idiot for a boss – someone who might get distracted and forget to pay you – be prepared for that idiot. Learn to work smart, or work late until you do.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://davefreemanlive.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/davefreemanlive
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/david.freeman.395454
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davefreemanlive/
- Twitter: https://x.com/davefreemanlive
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@davefreemanlive
- Soundcloud: https://www.soundcloud.com/davefreemanlive
