We were lucky to catch up with JD McGibney recently and have shared our conversation below.

JD, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I first got into playing music when I was fourteen. I discovered Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath and my heart fell in love with the guitar. It wasn’t until I discovered Killswitch Engage that went down the path of making music my career.

I had just gotten the album “Alive or Just Breathing,” and was listening to it straight through for the first time. I was swimming in the empowerment I felt as I went through each iconic track; I felt as though I could take on the world! Then the song “The Element of One” started. The acoustic guitar in the intro was such a drastic shift from the majority of the album that I was shaken from the trance I had entered and my full focus was on those guitars. I followed the melody being strummed as the guitars told me a story and my heart burst with joy, peace, and clarity as the distortion kicked in. The same motivational theme that was started with the acoustic guitars carried on as a theme of empowerment with distortion and drums.

I knew from that moment on that I wanted to deliver that feeling I just experienced to other people for the rest of 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.

After falling in love with the power of music and deciding I wanted to pursue music as a career, I started performing and writing with bands for a few years around Long Island, New York (where I am originally from), until I met my mentor. He helped to demystify the music industry for me and helped me realize that it is totally viable to make a living through my craft. Ultimately, he taught me to run myself like a business and to separate the practice of making art with the idea of finding success. To this day I always make it a point to switch between “artist brain” and “business brain.”

I eventually moved to Los Angeles in order to physically be present in an environment where the music industry was rooted and made myself available to friends, family, and opportunities as they arose. Every one of my opportunities has come from just making friends and saying yes to things.

When working with others, as with my own projects, I always make it a point to connect with the people I am working with. Regardless of a situation, industry, or project, the most important thing (I find) is that everyone is enjoying themselves and feeling confident when they leave. They say that people may not remember what you do or say, but they will remember how you make them feel.

Being that music always makes me feel empowered and happy, I’ve found that it’s been pretty easy to share those emotions with others in most environments.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

Music has been such an important pillar in my journey through life. It fell into my lap at a time I needed it most, but didn’t yet realize. It helped me work through so many difficult times in my life, and helped me survive (what I would eventually come to identify as) Generalized Anxiety Disorder.

My mission in my career, and my life in general, is to encourage people to conquer their battlefields. No matter what we are facing, have faced, or will face, we ALWAYS have the strength to overcome. For me, music just always helped me see that in myself, and so I use that as my tool to encourage others.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The hardest lesson I ever had to learn in my industry is that my music would never be the key to my success.

Now, hearing that as a musician and an artist may seem counter productive. What I have come to learn is that at the end of the day all music, as with all art, is subjective to those creating it and those observing/experiencing it. To say any piece of art is “good” or “bad” seems to demean the value of all art that is created with an individual’s heart. That being said, I do support any and all artists to always be willing to grow and enhance their skills at their craft.

For the longest time I was always concerned with writing “the perfect song” that would bring me success. It wasn’t until I was able to show music industry professionals on the business side of things that I understood the actual business, as WELL as was able to deliver what was required artistically that I noticed more and more opportunities starting to appear.

In short: Create art that means something to you and that you are proud of, but make sure you are reliable and understand how to run a small business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://onthewingsofdragons.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jdmcgibney/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jdmcgibney
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/JD_McGibney
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/jdmcgibney