We recently connected with Chris Chamness and have shared our conversation below.
Chris, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I’ve been a full-time musician now for 5 years. I graduated with a degree in Music, then spent the next 4 years playing and holding down part-time jobs like working in retail or being an Uber driver. I started getting more and more gigs to the point where I could stop doing anything else to supplement my income on the side. It’s definitely not always been easy the past 5 years, but I’ve slowly developed my career to where it is today. I’ll have toured the UK twice by the end of the year, which was a big step. A lot of my job is trial and error, so I think it was helpful to learn some of the lessons I have along the way rather than having someone hand it all to me. I’m sure I’ll say the same thing about myself in another 5 years.
Chris, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I have never NOT been into music. Even when I was a year old my mom said I would grab anything and act like it was a guitar. Nail clippers, those ball poppers kids push around. When I was 8 or 9 I’d make my friends pretend we were in a band together and would mime playing along with our CDs. I finally started taking guitar lessons when I was 11, which is good because I think any later and I might not have had the discipline for it. I started forming bands when I was 14 by meeting people from other schools around me and was always in some sort of band through all of high school, college, and beyond. When I was about 25 or so I had a roommate in Chicago who kept pushing me to go out on my own, saying that I was good enough to do it. After a while I took his advice and started trying, which lead me to where I am today.
I’m most proud of the recordings I’ve done so far. I released my debut EP ‘Square One’ under my own name in September 2021. I had a great team of people around me to help make that record happen, including Lij Shaw at Toy Box Studios, a Grammy Award winning studio down in Nashville, TN, as well as Nick Lobel of Candy Planet on mixing and Ryan Smith at Sterling Sound on mastering. The artwork was done by Ahmed Emad Eldin, who is responsible for the artwork for Pink Floyd’s 2014 album ‘The Endless River’. I have even more material coming out now using the same team (my new single “Concrete Skies” comes out October 19, 2022) and will be releasing a few more songs in 2023. When I step back I can notice growth in my songwriting, which is something else I’m very proud of when I give myself a moment for self-reflection.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I’m sure it’s said ad nauseam, but the most important thing people can do is give smaller artists a listen, find which ones you like, share their music with anybody else passionate about discovering new artists, following them on social/streaming platforms, and come see them play. I know going out can get expensive, so even just sharing content or listening on Spotify are a massive help. But when you do go out, even just giving your care and attention means the world to people like me.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
I used to think you had to tour constantly, picking up a few fans in each state as you went along until suddenly one day you were playing bigger/better places, working with management, etc. What I should have realized was creating a following in your home city first is much more important. I burned out a lot of great musicians on performing by wanting to constantly go go go rather than focusing on one or two nearby cities. Because of that one of the bands I was in changed members just about every year for 5 years. Now I’m focusing more on St. Louis and Nashville as a starting point in America, and Liverpool in the UK.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/cjdcham
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrischamnessmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chrischamnessmusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCS1yUO9kkDGc6S6wcVbsgIQ
Image Credits
Black & white photo and red photo by Karla Jensen. All others by Steve Money.