We were lucky to catch up with Adam Hoffman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Adam, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I’ve moved a lot in my adult life. I moved to different cities for bigger and better gigs. After graduating college, I had the choice to join a touring band or work as a showband musician on a cruise ship. I knew I wanted to be a professional musician since I was very young, so I went to music school for jazz. After my audition with this touring band, I decided to work on a cruise ship. I had never seen the ocean, been out of the country, or even seen a cruise ship in person. It was one of the best decisions ever made. I got to travel the world, play in front of 800+ people every show, and work on my sight reading skills, as well as learn different styles of music from people all over the world. It was a huge risk, but I don’t like getting comfortable. I’ve moved to cities where I had my daily gigs at a bar or small venue, had my group of friends and the spots we would hang out regularly. I always move away because I have bigger goals for myself than some of those places had to offer. Don’t get comfortable with a life you’re not happy with, or you might be stuck there forever.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a professional drummer in Nashville, Tennessee. I knew I wanted to play drums from a young age, and would practice 8 hours a day, everyday. I graduated from Capital University with a Jazz Studies degree then worked for Princess Cruises as a showband musician. Since then, I have been a freelance musician playing with hundreds of artists all over the US. I was most recently on tour with MONA as direct support for Candlebox’s last tour.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As a musician, you need to spend thousands of hours failing. Over and over again. Music directors and professors will tell you that you suck, other musicians will look down on you for your playing, and then you’re right back into the practice room for the rest of the night to get better. It takes a different type of person to want to do music for a living. The pay can suck, you won’t get any sleep, and all of your mistakes are in front of an audience. For most, this is when they find a day job or quit all together. The resilience it takes to do this is like no other profession. Sacrificing sleep for days on end to learn a song you’ll play once doesn’t sound ideal, but you could change someone’s life with that song.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I decided to move to Nashville, I had never really listened to (or enjoyed) country music. My friend sent me a Spotify playlist of 300 country standards that are played downtown by most of the bands here. The next day I bought an iPad and found an app that I could read all of my charts on. I spent the next couple months not only charting all of these country tunes, but learning the language and vocabulary of country music so I could make myself more versatile as a musician.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @adamhoffmanmusic

Image Credits
Adam Hoffman Carlos Novais