Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jonathan Cyphers. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Alright, Jonathan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
In October 2021, I moved from New Hampshire to Nashville, TN, to pursue music full time. I had taken a few trips over the summer to write songs and network, but this was a pretty big deal for me. I was moving away from family, friends, community, everything I had known and was comfortable with to pursue something that had no guarantees. I only had a few friends in Nashville, had never lived outside of the Northeast, and didn’t even have a place to stay lined up when I packed my car and started the drive down. I just knew that I had a unique opportunity and it was mine if I wanted it. So I decided I wanted it. I found a room for rent through one of the friends I had made in Nashville. Enough freelance graphic design work came my way, so that I could focus the majority of my time and energy on songwriting. An artist friend told me early on that I shouldn’t get a job unless I was desperate for it because as soon as I got one, it would take my focus. Every time finances got thin, I would get just enough freelance work to get by.
I wrote a few songs that were particularly impactful, both to myself and the people I shared them with. I didn’t have the money to fund recording a project, let alone a single, so in June of 2022 I launched a Kickstarter with the help of my production team. The goal was to raise $15,000 in 30 days, which felt like an unbelievably steep order. I didn’t have a massive fanbase and I had never tested them in this way – it was a monstrous ask and most of my plans were built around the potential of not reaching the goal. A lot of work and grassroots marketing went into the fundraiser, it was really a group effort – I couldn’t have done it alone. By day 28 we reached the goal and surpassed it, ultimately raising $15,555!
In August, we began working on the first song of a five song EP with the hopes of releasing it sometime in the next year. Production went so well with the first single that we realized if we played our cards right, we could release the first song sooner than we thought.
On November 18, I released my first single – “The Silence” – available everywhere! This has been a mind-blowing and exciting and humbling experience, all at once. In the grand scheme of things, I have lived a lot of life in a short amount of time – going from writing the song to fundraising for it to producing and releasing it in seven months is incredible!
I’ve found it is possible to successfully accomplish the biggest risks by just taking steps forward. A lot of little decisions and a lot of prayer has brought me this far. There’s a lot of story yet to be told, but it’s been an exciting adventure so far. I look forward to seeing what comes next!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am an independent singer/songwriter from New Hampshire, currently living in Nashville, TN. My father was a songwriter and I grew up watching and listening to him as he would use songwriting as a sort of therapy, almost. He’d come home from a rough day at work and write a song that embodied his passion and help him process the frustration of the day. Poetry came naturally to me, probably from growing up around that and my mother’s love for Gene Kelly musicals, and I picked up instruments pretty quickly as well. I picked up the bass guitar in high school, but didn’t start writing music much until I was in college. I actually learned how to play the guitar because it was too hard to write songs with a bass. I wrote my first song after learning how to play four chords and then the rest is history.
My roots are in folk and Americana music, but I love alternative and indie pop music. Since moving to Nashville, one of the things I’ve striven to achieve, with the help of my amazing producers, is blending all of the sonic influences in my head. My goal as a songwriter is to write songs that are meaningful, authentic, true, hopeful, and sound interesting. I don’t want to add to the noise – there’s a lot of music released on a daily basis these days and I want to make sure that if I’m contributing to the conversation, it’s with purpose.
I don’t want people to just relate to the song, but also be challenged by it, in a good way. My hope is that I can write from the heart, let people know they’re not alone, and encourage them to keep going, lift up their head, and find hope – real, authentic hope.
My first single, “The Silence” (which is out now!), touches on a lot of that. I’m really proud of its message and stoked by how it sounds. It is beyond anything I’ve been able to create on my own and it really embodies my hopes and goals when I write a song. I am really grateful for the responses and reactions to it that I’ve received. This is the first of many songs I look forward to sharing with the world!
Is there a mission driving your creative journey?
One of the biggest goals for me as a songwriter is to use my medium to encourage others. I’m naturally a moody person and it’s easy for me to write from that perspective and there are a lot of songs that do that. The problem is that often they leave the listener there, in that depression. A friend of mine once challenged me with the idea that “the song is not over until there’s hope.” I don’t know why, but it really stuck with me. I want people to listen to my songs and feel seen, feel like they’re not alone in this world, and also feel encouraged and hopeful in a real, authentic way. Hope is a powerful thing. My goal is to not belittle the pain of a moment by just saying “everything was awesome” and completely disregard reality. There’ s a tension between hope and life, believing for the best and seeing the worst unfolding around you. How do you have hope in the darkest moments in life? That’s what I try my best to write about.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
As much as social media has made it easier than ever for artists and their fans or potential fans to connect, it has also broken things a lot. Content and art are not the same, but the algorithms definitely have a habit of rewarding one over the other. I don’t think that’s the fault of society, but I do think society can help bring back the balance. The more we consume, the greater the demand for content, and soon it becomes a game of who can create the most – who can shout the loudest in a room full of people shouting – all the while an algorithm decides who sees what, when and the artist ultimately doesn’t have much, if any, say in it. Finding ways to work with social media and allow artists to focus on creating art, rather than content, is huge. I’ve seen glimmers of hope over the last few months, but I think there’s still a long way to go to get back what’s been lost in the last few years.
Also, I just want to share the released of my single, called “The Silence”? I’ve attached the cover art, and here are the links to stream it:
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/
Apple Music: https://geo.music.apple.com/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Contact Info:
- Website: cyphersmusic.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/cyphersmusic
- Facebook: facebook.com/cyphersmusic
- Youtube: youtube.com/@cyphersmusic
Image Credits
Photos by Alaina Broyles & Grace Graber