We recently connected with Ian Campbell and have shared our conversation below.

Ian, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I wish that I had come back to music as a career sooner than I did. When I was in my 20s, I started working as a musician and moved to San Diego to pursue it further. When I got there, I got a job to help make ends meet and ended up getting back into the business world and ignored my music for quite some time. During that time, I stopped writing and performing, and could tell that there was something missing.

When I found out that we were having a baby, suddenly tapping into that creative side of me became a lot more important. I knew that I wanted to show my kid that you could be creative and still have a full life – it didn’t have to be the choice of one or the other. It was then that I started performing and writing again.

Looking back on it, I definitely wish that I would have jumped back into music sooner in my life with a clearer picture on how to be successful in building an actual business around it.

Ian, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Music has been a part of my life since I can remember. Ever since I could talk I’ve been singing and making music. I started playing guitar when I was about 15 and when I was in my 20s, I worked with an entertainment company as a jazz singer and started a little acoustic jam band and loved every second of it.

Now, I play music that kind of sounds like Bruce Springsteen, Jason Mraz, and Stephen Kellogg all came together to jam and write songs.

You ask about what I’m most proud of…it’s tough to narrow it down to specific moments. One thing that I can point to, though, is a recent song that I wrote for my son that he now asks me to sing for bedtime every night. If there was one thing that I would define as my proudest moment in music, it would have to be that.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

That you need to get signed to a record label, or “make it big” to be successful in the music business. Coming up, there was never discussion about creating a viable long term career as a musician. It was either go big or go bust, and that was a big reason why I walked away from it when I did.

Now, in large part thanks to the digital marketing channels that didn’t exist before, it’s more achievable to develop a sustainable career that you can rely on, not a meteoric rise and fall that a lot artists have historically experienced.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I would have to say it’s one of two things: either the moment when you finish a song that you’re really happy with or the moment when you play with truly remarkable musicians on stage and everything just clicks. It’s hard to explain, but if you know, you know.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.officialiancampbell.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/officialiancampbell
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/officialiancampbell
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMxk1f_apzGNt2aU5v9V-Aw