Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Meg Schenck. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Meg, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

So I have always loved singing, writing, and performing, and knew, at a very young age, somehow that it was going to be part of my life forever. But until recently I have also worked a side job in addition to pursuing my music career. However, early this fall I got the opportunity to quit my waitress/bartender job and was able to perform on stage full time! It requires a lot of work but if you want it more than anything else, you will find a way. Sometimes the universe just lines everything up for you, and sometimes you just have to risk it and see what happens!

Meg, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I moved to Nashville in 2017 as a student at Belmont University and fell in love with the city. I am 24 and have only been gigging in the Nashville music scene for a little over a year now. I will tell you this: you learn so much not only about your craft, but also about yourself in a really small time period! I had booked us a spot at Tin Roof’s BusCall in midtown and received a message on Instagram asking if we could play cover sets. I responded with “Of course we can!” The manager wanted to book us for a paid week in Vegas. So we rehearsed and rehearsed and rehearsed until we were ready to go! This time last December I had gotten my first taste of what I had always dreamed of- being paid to travel and perform for someone! When we got back to Nashville I wanted to keep playing on stage and before I knew it, we were playing almost every weekend! In the last year, my band has booked the Saturday night residency at Winners Bar and Grill and are continuing the residency in 2023! I have learned how to connect with the audience and leave everything on the stage every time! However booking these gigs are not easy. I think I have contacted more people and booking managers in the last year than I ever thought I would. It got to a point where I was sending an email or text every day or every other day just trying to get ahold of someone! It gets discouraging when you hear nothing but crickets week after week, but if you don’t try, you’ll never know, right? So that’s what kept me going! Well that and my amazing team! So I would send an email and head straight to rehearsal to work on tightening our sound and working out kinks in our set so that we would be ready for the next show! After sending email and email, I finally got a response and we were booked on Broadway! People have their opinions on playing cover sets downtown, but it’s such a great chance to work on stage presence, stamina, and just honing your craft even more! To put it short: You get good! Fast! And I’m very excited to continue looking for more places to play and can’t wait to play some of my own songs someday!

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My newest goal is to have 4 gigs booked at different bars each week in addition to an original gig every month! We have been tightening our sound with every rehearsal, and we’re probably averaging 15-20 hours a week rehearsing! I would also love to get a new song out for streaming platforms! If you search Ms. Maddix, you can find a couple songs on there, but I really would love to release something that other people can really relate to! So fingers crossed that in 2023 we will have a new song out for the public!

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I feel like this life and career looks so glamorous and perfect from the outside, but in reality it requires a LOT of work and determination. There’s a reason the saying “It takes a village” exists! Until you get the resources and advantages from a label, you’re basically a baby business owner…. So you’re booking, emailing, calling, texting, posting, creating PR, producing, and more all by yourself. So it’s good to get a team going, otherwise your mental health will decline rapidly. There’s so much work that goes on behind the scenes and I wish more people would honestly talk about it and how difficult and taxing it can be to “do it on your own”. Find people you can count on who have the same goals and together you can be unstoppable!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.msmaddix.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/ms.maddix?igshid=Nzg3NjI1NGI=
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ms.maddix?mibextid=LQQJ4d