We were lucky to catch up with Nathan Aronowitz recently and have shared our conversation below.
Nathan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Like many young musicians with a big dream, I moved to Nashville bound and determined to make music the engine of my livelihood and success. It took about 8 years to finally get an opportunity good enough to quit my day job, but man that 8 years was sooo necessary for my overall development.
I really do think that there is a simple Nashville formula for making a living out of music, or any creative work for that matter. You move here with a dream, get a side job to pay the bills, and then accept every single gig that gets thrown your way. It could be some music completely out of your wheelhouse, or some session tune that you totally do not dig, but you’d be amazed at how one gig can lead to the next, or how doing a good job for someone could lead to you doing an even better job with someone even cooler.
I think Nashville is really inspiring because as your ‘here and there’ gigs become more frequent, and the 50 dollar gig becomes a 300 dollar gig, every person you meet along the way connects you to our flourishing creative scene, and by the time you hit the Ryman stage, you might find yourself playing to more friends than strangers.
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’m so lucky to be a full time touring musician, playing over 150 dates a year with Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country. During my limited time at home, I produce records with my label Sugar Shack Sound and get to play shows with my psychedelic funk rock band Freedom Junction. I really can’t believe I’m saying this, but this year we have already played the Ryman and Red Rocks, with many more cool shows on the calendar that I could have only dreamed of playing when I first moved to Nashville in pursuit of music. My Nashville career is about 11 years in the making, however I genuinely feel like the real trip has only just begun.
How’d you meet your business partner?
Daniel Donato is the mastermind behind Cosmic Country, and we actually ended up meeting in a very ‘Cosmic’ way. When I was 18, my best friend and drummer Noah Winner Miller and I accepted a recording gig out at a countryside studio in one of the surrounding Nashville towns. As it turns out, Daniel was the guitar player for this session. Who knows what happened to those recordings, or if they were even released, but Daniel and I didn’t cross paths for another 8 years until he saw Noah and I playing for local guitar slinger Luck McQueary at the American Legion. Daniel was trying zero in on the Cosmic Country band and ended up hiring Noah and I after that show. Oddly enough, when we set up a jam at our place for the first time, Daniel had been living within walking distance of our band house for the past 4 years. It just goes to show that you never know how or when an old connection might come back around and change your life for good!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
Resilience is what really makes the difference between reaching your dreams or not. As soon as I graduated music school, I simultaneously got severe tendonitis in my hands and was diagnosed with a lifelong autoimmune disease. I was getting a great amount of gig offers, but had to start declining them. I couldn’t even open a door or drive a car with my right hand, let alone play hours of high level music. I remember resting in a depression for most of the week, gathering up the steam to work my Music Minister gig on Thursdays and Sundays, playing left-handed piano and directing the choir with my bad hand. I ultimately had to make the decision; is this going to break me and ruin my music career before it even has a chance to start, or am I going to do something about it. Obviously I choose the latter, and ended up re-learning the piano and guitar over a 6 month period, using the pain to inform a more refined and sustainable technique. I really didn’t know if there was a light at the end of that tunnel, but it turns out that overcoming my injury made me so much better of a musician than I could have ever imagined, and gave me a base level of gratefulness for simply playing and enjoying music pain-free.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.sugarshacksound.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sugarlegg
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sugarlegg
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sugarshacksound
- Other: Artist page on Spotify
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2MHgqMChva3ugXXGBAattf?si=KDexuMXQRoCJZ1RK_bg-lw
Image Credits
Ant Braaten (all pictures except 2)
Chris Layton (final black and white picture, 3 piece band playing all in shot)
Emily Aronowitz (portrait of me with cool background and peace sign)