We recently connected with Ashley Gearing and have shared our conversation below.
Ashley, appreciate you joining us today. Are you 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?
I have earned a full time living from my work by creating my own opportunities. For many years I worked as a recording artist for two major labels. I felt underserved and in a way taken advantage of because they were using my likeliness and talent but I wasn’t making any money, the company was. I decided to pursue an independent career and created my own touring llc with my bandmate. My duo The Wildcards is an indie band that is completely run in house by a touring company we created. Through our company we manage contracts with our agent and the performance venues and self market, produce and create. Within that we are able to book our own shows around the country and make the profit rather than having others take pieces of the business and maintain complete creative control.
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?
The Wildcards is a touring duo based in Nashville Tennessee made up of Ashley Gearing & Andrea Young. The main features of the band are Andrea’s second to none fiddle playing and their soaring harmony vocals performing their songwriting originals and unique takes on party favorites.
Both gals have had an extensive career in the entertainment business, touring the world and playing with the biggest stars. They realized there was a way to combine their talents and decided to create not only the duo but their own touring company to facilitate the touring demand.
The list of business duties is never ending and include : itinerary and travel planning, band coordination, songwriting, producing, recording, public relations and marketing planning, charity work, venue outreach, contract negotiation and more. The girls tag team these duties with a small team..
We are most proud of the good vibes we provide our clients through music and show opportunities. We love to bring the party everywhere we go and give back when we can.
We love creating original music in the studio but it is also really fun and rewarding to put our own “wildcard” spin on common musical favorites in and outside of our genre. One of our favorite covers we do live is “I Got A Feeling” by The Black Eyed Peas.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
It seems so simple and obvious but it needs to be said..: raise your voice when you like a certain new artist or Creator. Tell your friends and family about new discoveries. It helps more than you know. So many people find new things they love and keep it to themselves. In this instance, sharing about people that are creating with passion can really help change the trajectory of someone’s career or simply encourage a creative to “keep going.”
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
There are so many opportunities around each creative, but as artists we sometimes feel silly or too prideful to ask for help. The resources within our community socially can be endless. We have utilized different scholarship programs and grants at times to keep our business afloat, but also have crowdfunded and had people within our community be of great assistance financially and emotionally.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help and do the outreach.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.playthewildcards.com
- Instagram: @PlayTheWildcards
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewildcardscountry?mibextid=LQQJ4d
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/thewildcardscountry?mibextid=Zxz2cZ
Image Credits
Donielle Freeburg