We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sterling Cabbiness a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Sterling, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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 think the biggest risk I’ve ever taken was choosing to be myself when people tried to change me. Being a musician isn’t as glorious as people make it out to be. You get rejected a lot more than you get accepted. For me it started with people in my life telling me how making a living off of music was unrealistic. Knowing music was something that I had to do, and not just something I wanted to do. I would be betraying myself by not trying.

With that said it’s not been easy. There was a time pre-pandemic where I was living off of music alone. I learned that it’s not impossible. As a creative everything you do is judged. When I first started out what I was doing was not the best. I knew that. The fact that I put out work, I continued to practice, and play shows. Not only showed dedication, but it also helped me get better. I remember releasing songs and people would complain, ‘the guitar was too loud I couldn’t hear your voice’. On the exact same song someone else would say, ‘your voice was too loud I couldn’t hear the guitar’. That’s how I figured out that getting turned off to someone’s music had less to do with the quality and more to do with someone’s ego. There’s no right or wrong way to write a song, produce and album, or perform live. As a spectator when you’re connected to an artist and have some form of communication. It’s so easy to tell them everything they’re doing wrong and what they could do better. The funniest part is that none of them will ever put in that work or accomplish half of what you do.

When I stopped listening to everyone and their criticisms is when I started to create music that inspired others. That took me being open in my music, but also having the courage to not go down the path that everyone said was the only way. I think that from here on out the music I make and the success I have isn’t dependent on the reaction from others. It’s dependent on how genuine I am to myself and creating something that I can say is me. Being proud of myself not for making something that people listen to. For making something I want to listen to. That is the biggest risk that I take.

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 Sterling Cabbiness, I’m a musician from Austin Texas. I produce, write, record, perform all myself. I do a variety of different genres. Mainly my music falls under Pop. I create everything from R&B, Hip-Hop, and Folk as well. You can find my music on all major streaming platforms. I also perform live and have shows at least once a month. I also produce and write for myself and other artists.

I’ve always loved music. I started playing piano when I was seven, and taught myself guitar at fourteen. I’m a avid music fan. I started writing music when I was fifteen, and started working on music professionally since I was sixteen. I released my first projected at eighteen. Since then I’ve released over forty songs. played hundreds of shows, and racked up tens of thousands of streams on my music. Most importantly to me I just make music that I want to listen to.

Nothing really makes me different from anyone else. I just work harder than most people. I think that really shows in everything I do. I love all sorts of music so I have a real eclectic catalogue. I think there’s something for everyone whether you just wanna listen to my music at home or come out and attend one of my shows. Professionally I just wanted to be that guy in the room that could do everything. My thought process is, if you can do everything in a room. Write songs, produce, record, perform, play the instruments. You’re too valuable to be left out. It’s hard to get out there as a musician. Especially when you come from nothing. The people who know me respect me and what I do, and I’m humbled by that.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I used to have aspirations to become a musician who’d play arenas and have big releases with charting success. Now I’ve tampered down and just want to create music I want to listen to. I’m bursting with ideas. My biggest aspiration is to just leave something behind for myself. When I leave this world I’ll know that there’s a piece of me left over immortalized. I feel like if I can do that for myself I’m happy. if I can touch someone along that way too, great.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Honestly just being able to vent. I get to make music for fun! I used to take this so seriously, which is fine, I think there was some good lessons learned by doing that. Now I get off work and when I have nothing to do or I feel down I can make something for myself instead of destroying myself, someone else, or something in general. I know it seems weird, I was always of the mindset, ‘don’t listen to your own music it’s egotistical’. Now I listen all the time. Making a song is like fulfilling an itch. When I look out in the world of music and feel something’s missing in my library. I can create that now and share it with other people. Even if no one else thinks it’s cool. I sure as hell do. That feeling of accomplishment of, this is something I made and now it’s a tangible thing that was once nothing. It’s an out of this world experience that I love and live for.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sterlingcabbiness/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sterlingcabbiness/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SterlingPCMusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCexl_saasd96cHsOmd8G4Gg
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/73J7v6qhUqSD4bM4AMXhzK?si=rFCremdsTfSn_JyXW_Emrg Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sterling-cabbiness/1463950695 SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/user-183538811 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/artists/B07RSXF9YJ/sterling-cabbiness

Image Credits
Braiden Letsinger, Bruce King