Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Liv Margaret. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Liv , thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I always loved performing and I always loved music. I was exposed to live music at a very young age. The majority of my family is musical. My dad, mom and uncle had a bluegrass band for a while when I was young and I would come along to all their gigs. I don’t even remember what age I was, but I was certainly a kid. Then, my dad and uncle went on to form a cover band of their own when I was in middle school. At about 12, I started composing my own music and wanted to perform it. My dad and uncle allowed me to open up for them a few times at their gigs and that’s where it all started. From there, I would perform a cover song and an original song at coffee houses. I knew at the young age of 12 that I could do music professionally and that I wanted to make a career out of it. At 13, I started playing in my church band playing keys and singing. That was valuable experience and where I learned how to play with a band. The older I got, the more songs I was writing. Eventually I had enough to create an album. Luckily, my parents believed in me and my capabilities and helped fund the recording process of my first project at 15. It was some super small studio out of Oklahoma–super random. The album was total crap, but I didn’t know any better at the time and neither did my parents. I was just happy to record and pursue a music career! Either way, it was an incredible experience and led me to more recording projects that helped me grow into the artist I am today. We all have to start somewhere!
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.
I am a singer/songwriter from New Hampshire, literally from the middle of nowhere. I moved to Nashville when I was 18, not knowing a single soul. I was ready to hone my skills and pursue an artist career in Music City and moving there came with a lot of learning opportunities as you can imagine. I decided to attend Belmont University in Nashville where I majored in music business. With this degree, I learned all about music publishing, artist management, how to use recording software, how to read business contracts, I learned about copyright law, and about sync licensing. I wanted to know all this stuff so I knew exactly what I was doing, hopefully giving me a better chance navigating the vicious waters of the music industry. While at school, I also learned amazing skills as a singer through my vocal lessons that really took my voice to the next level. Today, I not only write and sing music as an artist, but I am now a vocal coach myself, teaching artists how to develop their unique sound. I absolutely love that job! I love helping artists find their best take in the recording studio, or push them to a place they thought they never could go with their voice. I love helping others find their artist voice, like how I found mine.
Since graduating Belmont in 2018, I have had many accomplishments that young Liv would be proud of. One of those being when I first heard my song playing on the radio, and then again years later on Sirius XM radio. Another big marker for me was when my single “Shut It” hit 100K streams on Spotify. It was a big milestone for me, even if it’s not that big of a deal to others, but I think young Liv would be proud. I constantly have to remind myself of how far I’ve come. It’s easy to lose sight when you are in a business that makes you compare stats, streams, and followers constantly in order to get ahead. My focus and mission as an artist is to create for the sake of creating, because I love it and it’s part of me. I no longer want to make music for anyone else, I don’t want to just create ‘content.’ I want to write music because it moved me and came from deep inside me after a spark of inspiration, not worrying about catering to an audience or creating for anyone else. I believe that only then I will find true success as an artist and success can mean many things.
For those who don’t know my music, I would currently describe it as Pop/Rock. That is the direction I am currently going, which is forever evolving. I’m taking influences from Gwen Stefani, Joan Jett, Pat Benetar, and UPSAHL to name a few. It’s been very fun exploring my sound over the years. If you go all the way back to my earlier releases, they sound a lot different than the ones I’m releasing now. But I guess that’s all part of being an evolving artist. My new single” Take Ya Shot” out January 26th, is definitely influenced by Joan Jett. It’s a fun pop/rock anthem that has an empowering edge. As far as the future goes, I just plan on recording whatever comes out of me, because who knows how it can be used. Hopefully that will help me get to the point where I can live solely off of my music. It’s about to be year 10 in Nashville, so fingers crossed!
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Did you know that the law that says how much an artist should get paid for their music is like almost a hundred years old? Yes, go ahead, google it. That law says with mechanical royalties, the fee paid per song is currently 9.1 cents. This is often split between Co-Writers and Publishers. Now with streaming, that’s a whole different animal. Guess how much an artist makes off of a single play on Spotify? Between $0.003 – $0.005 per stream. I think it is safe to say that these ancient laws about music need to be updated. The newcomers on the scene, meaning the streaming platforms, need to pay their artists more. It’s simply a slap in the face what artists and songwriters are receiving from streaming. That’s the first thing society can fix. I don’t know how society can fix that, but it’s definitely something we should be talking about more. You as a consumer have more power than you realize. Right now, the best ways for an artist to make money is through merchandise, touring and maybe some unrelated brand deals. Even then, if they are signed, record companies take a cut of those things too! The best way to support an artist in today’s world is by sharing their music, buying it if that is an option, buying merch, and buying tickets to shows. Doing these things will allow artists to truly make a living doing what they were made to do.
What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?
As an artist, the most rewarding aspect of pursuing a music career is seeing how my music influences others. It’s the best feeling when I find someone who related to the words I wrote and felt raw emotion from it. It makes me feel accomplished, like I’ve done my job as an artist. It’s always amazing hearing what others have to say about your music because they might say or feel things from my songs that I never would have imagined. Being a creative is super hard because it can be very vulnerable putting something out into the world that is very dear to me and personal. You never know how it will do, which is very scary. That is why hearing positive feedback is so rewarding for an artist. I hope my music will continue to move others and help them feel what they need to feel, or maybe process emotions. That’s the power of music and that’s why I share it at the end of the day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.livmargaret.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/livmargaretmusic/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/livmargaret1
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/livmargaret
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCEbPYVmGqlARbL1JzFe92Cg
Image Credits
Photo 1: Tammie Valer Photo 2-6: Matteo Guastamacchio Photo 7-8: Linda Guastamacchio