We were lucky to catch up with Kyle Elliott recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kyle thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

Earning a full-time living from playing music has definitely been a journey. It wasn’t like that from day one—My first gig was due to me hounding the manager of a small restaurant off the main strip of broadway in Nashville, TN to let me play. I had met the manager from my day time job working in tourism with the said restaurant. After 2 months of asking, someone finally called in sick… So I got the phone call “Can you be here in an hour” so I went. From there I was given 1 show a week making $50/show. Not exactly rolling in it. However, my other job allowed me to make a decent living while playing my one show. After a few months they gave me a few shows per week and things were looking up! Then… Covid. All venues completely shut down and I lost my day time job and my couple gigs a week.

However, due to this almost all other musicians and singers in the area moved back home since they couldn’t afford to stay in Nashville. That being said I am from Nashville, so where was I gonna go. After the venues started opening back up I got more and better opportunities to perform at bigger and better venues. Before I knew it I was playing 5-6 shows a week making 3-4 times what the first venue was paying me.

After 1000s of shows and working on my skills daily I had time and experience to start seeking out shows on the road. These days I am on the road roughly 20+ weekends out of the year and performing around 300 shows per year. I have released several songs over the years and have grown my fan base to tens of thousands.

This career has been hard but I’ve been able to carve my way through it to earn a solid living and be quite successful at it.

Looking back, one thing I would have done differently is to focus earlier on building a sustainable business model around my music. Understanding things like licensing, merchandise, and digital revenue streams could have sped up the process. Also, learning how to market myself effectively would have saved me a lot of trial and error.

The process wasn’t quick or easy, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to do what I love full-time.

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 have always loved music from a young age and was consistently in musical groups and classes throughout my educational years. I gained a lot of my musical experience for my mother who is a music teacher in the public school system for over 20 years after high school I joined a band for several years which gave me performance experience. It’s where I also became consistently writing new music and lyrics.

Today while playing the hundreds of shows per year and meeting tens of thousands of show goers and fans I think what upsets me the most part is my authenticity. I truly play every single show like it’s my last. Some shows are cover shows where I have no idea what song I’ll be playing next. Other shows I get to share my original songs and stories with fans who truly appreciate what I’ve been building over the years.

I’m true to my roots and I’m always willing to try new things to help grow and chase that dream we’re all dreaming of.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The best way to support artists and the creative world is to share. It’s completely free and only takes a little bit of time and who knows maybe your connection will lead to someone’s big break. You can also support by directly buying merch attending concerts and personally connecting with the creative individuals even if it’s just an email or a DM. It goes along way.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Being an artist is a money pit and a complete gamble. When most people think of a job, they think of the corporate structure, but there’s a ladder that you climb and they’re seniority and experience that helps you reach the top that is the complete opposite for the music industry as someone who has been performing in the industry for over a decade I can tell you it does not happen that way. Sometimes people work for 10+ years and finally get their break break while others don’t sometimes you can be in town for a week and catch the biggest break of your life and the next thing you know your opening for a big headlining tour.

My biggest struggle is planning my financial future, for my personal life will also trying to fund my career, which has no guarantee to return on investment. Like I said it’s a complete gamble, but sometimes betting on yourself is the only way to get ahead.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thekyleelliott.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thekyleelliott
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thekyleelliott
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/thekyleelliott
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@KyleElliott

Image Credits

Photos taken by Heather Ayres