We recently connected with Joe Holt and have shared our conversation below.

Joe, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I have that thought multiple times a day. I do in fact have a “regular job;” I work as a personal trainer. But even that has similarities to music: it requires self-promotion, and initiative, in a way that a salaried position wouldn’t. It is also inconsistent, just like music, and I have some excellent and busy weeks followed by dry spells. Sometimes I do crave regularity and I’ve applied to my fair share of day jobs over the years. I’ve worked as a dishwasher, a barista, and a waiter, but I’ve never had a job that I wouldn’t immediately drop if a musical opportunity came along.

I’m happy as an artist because I have to do it. I don’t really wake up and choose to write or anything, I do it because I have an itch that I can’t scratch any other way. Even scratching it doesn’t really help – it’s like a mosquito bite that gets itchier the more you scratch it. But while you’re scratching it feels good and provides a temporary relief.

I had a bad week last week, blame it on the season or whatever, and the only thing that made me feel better was breaking out what my friend calls the “red rectangle” Focusrite (I read somewhere that you can never trust a straight white man with a Focusrite and I’m sorry to perpetuate that stereotype) and recording a demo of a new song. It’s not perfect and I may not do anything with it, but it let my brain do what it’s supposed to do for a few hours.

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?

I’m Joe and I’m an indie-folk artist originally from England, now living in NYC, where I’ve lived for the last eight years. Bullet point credentials include a couple of NPR features, opening slots for bigger artists including Parker Millsap and Steve Forbert, and moderate success on independent radio stations – my recent album “Tired of Trying” was the number 1 add on NACC’s Folk Chart, and that same album debuted in the AMA top 200.

When I’m not bragging about myself on the internet I also enjoy spending time with my beautiful fiancé Kaela and our 18lb chihuahua mix Penny.

My songs are intimate and honest (my mum would say “depressing”) and I use a lot of open tunings and fingerpicking. Everyone in my family is a classical musician and I have some influences from that background too; a lot of my songs have strings, or horns, and my latest record includes a reworking of Gabriel Faure’s “Libera Me,” which got played on WFUV here in NYC.

I am finishing work on another album, which I hope to release by the end of this year or early in 2024. I’ve been releasing a ton of music since 2015 – an album a year – but I will probably not release one after this upcoming one because I’m getting married in 2024 and I dunno if you knew this but weddings are kind of expensive. Please consider streaming my music two billion times to help me pay for that wedding.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Yeah there’s a website called indieonthemove.com that I use every time I book a tour and it’s fantastic. I’ve known about it for my whole career actually but I wanted to share it here so other musicians see it. Besides that I wish I had just started seeing more shows more often; when we moved to NYC money was super super tight and I didn’t do a good job going out to support my friends and meet other musicians because the $10 tickets were insurmountable for me. In retrospect I would’ve made more connections, both with venues and with other musicians, if I had budgeted for those shows and said yes more often. More importantly I would have done my part to support the local music scene, without which no one would ever have a music career and there would be no music.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

I don’t really love referring to myself as a capital C Creative, in fact I sing about that in one of my songs (check out “People in New York” on Spotify everyone) but it may be helpful to think about it as a compulsion. I honestly feel powerless about my need to write and record and play; it’s the only thing I can do that brings me true happiness, outside of spending time with my loved ones. I think everyone is a Creative in terms of potential; everyone has a creative side, and everyone wants to express that every now and again, but I do think there’s a group of people, myself included, who cannot rest without expressing it, who can’t consider a day a good day until we use our brains in that way. And the people I know who have “music careers,” whatever that means, are usually the people that have that compulsion. I don’t know how you could survive in the music industry if you weren’t absolutely, helplessly, committed to pursuing it, and willing to sacrifice everything required of you.

Or just have a super rich family or John Mayer as your dad or whatever

Contact Info:

• Website: www.joeholtmusic.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/joeholtmusic
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/joeholtmusic
• Twitter: www.twitter.com/thunderholt
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/W-NaNAJcSxE
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0vuX1waQoA8skZGeqOq2vH

Image Credits
Ryan Haines, Tanya Nowossjolova, Kat Kennedy, Steve Rosete