Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Brian Wolff. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Yes, most of the time… I am happy as an artist. I’ve got a good professional life set up for myself.
A big thing I had to figure out was how to find a balance between the good money earning gigs and the more creatively fulfilling gigs (bonus points if a gig checks both boxes). Both are important to me and it’s great when I feel like both my needs as a creative and my needs as a person to make a living are being taken care of.
I don’t have to wonder what it would be like to have a regular job. I’ve had all kinds of jobs, including a 9-5 office gig. I’d rather do music and I’d rather be my own boss. There’s a lot of value that independence adds to my life.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I’ve played guitar since I was 12 years old and always had an interest in writing music since those humble beginnings. Of course I didn’t have as much to say when I was 12, but there was something so special about those years developing as a songwriter and musician. It became a big part of my identity and it still is.
I really got hooked on songwriting when tragedy struck my family when I was in college. Losing my brother at a young age was such an impossible thing to deal with. I found songwriting to be a way to ease the pain for myself. When I finally got the courage to play some of these songs at a coffeeshop gig at my college (Binghamton University) I remember people in the audience very genuinely connecting to the songs I was writing and singing about my pain. That feeling of connection through music became an immediate addiction that I’m still always trying to feed.
While those were my beginnings as a writer, thankfully, I don’t always just write about pain. I do however write about observations about myself and the world around me. Sometimes funny… sometimes really deep… sometimes sad, but always coming from a super genuine and often personal place.
Fast forward to today, I’ve got my 2nd EP coming out in July. I had the amazing honor, again, of recording with local legendary rock producer, Frenchie Smith. I do a lot of solo shows all over Austin and it’s surrounding towns. I’ve also got a great band called Brian Wolff & The Howlers. The Howlers (Tim Moen, Joe Valadez and Scott Blanco) really bring these songs to life at the live shows and on the EP, itself.
I just want to make music I love… with people I love… and for people I love… for the rest of my days.
PS. My first EP “The Punch” came out last year and is available everywhere music is streamed online.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
When people really take in the songs and let me know how it relates to something they went through. That is wild when something I wrote that’s so personal connects in a deep way with someone else. It makes me feel really seen and heard and that means everything.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
Just be yourself. Just be yourself, always. You can’t please everybody, so why try to do that? Think about your posts from the perspective of you reading a stranger’s posts. Would you connect with it or care if you didn’t know you? If not, it’s time to dig deeper to do and say things that keep you, yourself, interested in what you’re doing. Like being on stage, if you’re having fun on social media, other people probably will too. Or, at least, the people that are meant to be your audience.
Also, it’s way less work if you’re not trying to play a character you believe people will think is cool. I try my absolute best to be the same person on stage, on social media and in my personal life. Of course, there are some people who intentionally have stage personas and that’s a different thing. This all gets a lot easier to keep straight when you stop pretending, though. That’s how I navigate all of it and this approach has seemed to have generated genuine followers that are engaged, even if the numbers are not wild. I’m happy with it.
Contact Info:
- Website: brianwolffmusic.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/brianwolffmusic
- Facebook: facebook.com/brianwolffmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@brianwolffmusic
- Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5tW2IMfCtMzMHLij0PlQht?si=MOB2G-wvRDao6a5bCjfA4g Patreon: patreon.com/brianwolffmusic
Image Credits
Susie Pollard Victor Kulagin Richie