Life & Work with George Collins

Today we’d like to introduce you to George Collins.

Hi George, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
My older siblings and cousins turned me on to music at a very young age, and I received my first guitar at age four.  I started writing songs immediately, and pursued both guitar and piano through my youth, taking lessons in a variety of styles while playing in bands and finetuning my songwriting.

During my university years, I supported myself by performing as a solo act in pubs around Charlottesville, VA, where I became well-known on the vibrant local music scene.  I also played in an eleven-piece Earth, Wind & Fire-esque band called Common Knowledge which included Carter Beauford and the late LeRoi Moore.  While I headed off to graduate school, Beauford and Moore became founding members of The Dave Matthews Band.

While backstage with Carter and Dave during their most recent concert in Prague in 2019, I joked that I was in The Dave Matthews Band even before Dave Matthews.  They both burst out laughing, and Dave clicked his beer bottle to mine and said, “If anyone ever asks me about that, I will back you up one hundred percent!”

Upon completing my JD/MBA, I set off for an adventure to Prague for a one-year consulting assignment with a newly established Czech bank.  I’ve been here ever since 1992, save for two years in London.  Twenty years later, at the age of 50, my wife and I had our first child, and I made the fateful decision to nurture my creative world and be a dedicated full-time parent.

Since wrapping up my financial career, I have been more creatively active than ever.  I have written two novels and a screenplay as well as numerous songs – I released my first EP, “It’s Been a Long Time,” last year, and I’m now releasing the singles from my forthcoming EP, “Songs for Grown-ups.”  At the tender age of 61, I feel like I’m just getting started.  People I know from the business world always ask me, “Don’t you get bored not working?”  Truth is, I’ve never been busier!

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
I left the music industry for twenty years to focus on a business career, but in recent years I have returned to music and am now passionately pursuing it full-time.

The biggest challenges have been getting used to the landscape of the new music industry — the technology that makes it possible to record remotely and live stream concerts to audiences around the world, social media, streaming and video platforms such as Spotify and YouTube, the time consuming but necessary administration and promotion that comes with being an independent musician without the support of a major label.

These new technologies present many opportunities, but as I am building my audience one fan at a time, this means I have to do it all myself — and still find time for writing and recording new music — and being a Dad for my two young daughters.

So time management is the biggest challenge I face these days!

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I should point out that, although I do not live in Nashville, I work with a studio based in Nashville as well as local musicians on my recordings. It is also worth mentioning that, in addition to being a songwriter and musician, I am a novelist and screenwriter as well.

In the coming months I expect to publish my first novel (a “jazz-infused love story” called PLAYING THE CHANGES), and I have written a screenplay adaptation of the novel and am working with a Hollywood producer to bring it to the silver screen.

My screenplay has been well received by many of the leading festivals in the United States and Europe, including the Nashville Film Festival.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
It was during the lockdown, which lasted off and on for almost two years for us in Prague, that I discovered the possibility of recording and releasing music remotely, and that is what inspired me to return to music full-time.

So, although I would never want to go through it again, the COVID-19 crisis did have a silver lining for me and opened the path to a new future.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://georgecollinsband.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georgecollinsband
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgeCollinsBand
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgeedwardcollins/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/geocollinsband
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@georgecollinsband
• SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/georgecollinsband
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mM7PMZoBjwqAEHCDFaJxT

Image Credits
Matej Slavik