We caught up with the brilliant and insightful JT Roach a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, JT thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I knew that I wanted to commit fully to becoming a professional singer/songwriter/music producer while reading The War Of Art by Steven Pressfield. Reading this book made me realize that no one would treat me like a professional until I treated myself like one and fully committed to the idea. At that moment, I quit my job in Chicago and put together a plan to get to Los Angeles and immerse myself in the music industry to find a way to make it my career. 10 years later I am still here and living my dream of having music be my main occupation.

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?

My name is JT Roach. I am a singer/songwriter/music producer from Madison, Wisconsin, currently based in Los Angeles. My first three years in Los Angeles, I lived in an artist commune house where I wrote demos out of a walk-in closet, and slept on a twin mattress in a hallway in order to continue pursuing my dreams when I ran out of money. I have been living in Los Angeles for 10 years working full time in music. I won the One Republic episode of NBC Songland Season 1 with my song “Somebody To Love”. I am signed with Prescription Songs publishing as a songwriter and music producer. I have over half a billion plays on songs that I have written across streaming services, as well as over 100 million plays on my own project under the name “JT Roach”. This year, I cowrote a song called “Yogurt Shake” for NCT Dream, and the song was on their album “ISTJ” which is in the top 5 of best selling K-Pop albums of all time. It has sold over 4 million copies.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

“The War of Art” by Steven Pressfield is the first book I recommend to any creative who is considering whether or not to commit to pursuing their passion. It is the book that tipped the scale for me in convincing me to pursue my dreams fully of being a singer/songwriter/music producer. The book categorizes what hold you back as “resistance”, and in personifying it, gives you tactics for fighting against what is holding you back from doing what your heart really wants to do. The idea that was most powerful to me personally from the book, was the idea that to be treated like a professional by others, you first need to treat yourself like a professional by committing fully to your craft and spending the amount of time that professionals do practicing and working towards your goals. In my case, it meant not having a “plan B” and only committing entirely to my goal of making music for a living.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first moved to Los Angeles, I ran out of money and had to “couch surf” at my friends house for a long period of time. I wrote demos out of a walk-in closet, and slept on a twin mattress on the floor in a hallway for three years while pursuing a publishing deal. I eventually signed with BMG, and am now signed with Prescription Songs. I am particularly proud of that era because I proved to myself that I would do anything to make it work, and that being a songwriter is truly what I am meant to do with my life because I had so many opportunities to quit, but it has never been an option in my mind because I truly love making music.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jtroach.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/jtroach
• Facebook: Facebook.com/jtroachmusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-thomas-j-t-roach-29186533
• Twitter: twitter.com/jtroachmusic
• Youtube: YouTube.com/jtroachmusic

Image Credits
Headshot photos by Jack McKain. Photo with One Republic and Shane McAnally was taken by NBC while shooting NBC Songland.