We recently connected with Mitchell Manburg and have shared our conversation below.

Mitchell, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

Before I moved to LA to attend a year of music school I told my voice teacher all about my realistic plans and expectations. He smirked at me and said, “I don’t think you have a clue what to expect.” Sure enough, six months in I unexpectedly dropped out of school and was left clueless in Hollywood with my cheap guitar and student debt.

Let me give a brief backstory. I’m a lifelong guitar player but I never had any formal music training. In college I began to get recognized for my talents and called on for house parties and composition gigs. It was very encouraging and made me wonder what it would look like to just give music a shot.  Following graduation I moved to Alaska to earn some starter money (which is a whole other story) and came home to the Bay Area to where I got a job and a place to live with friends. I enrolled in voice lessons and started my first band with a “figure it out by doing” mentality. Playing guitar was one thing, but singing my own lyrics and operating a band was a whole other beast. We didn’t do too bad for a first go of it but I was definitely humbled and realized my learning curve. I was hoping there would be a clear “success” or “failure” marker but learned there would only be an internal choice as to whether to keep going or not. After two years my bandmates went their separate ways and my job hit a dead end. If I was going to keep doing this thing I knew I needed to learn the formal fundamentals of musicianship and business. And where better to explore my sound and learn the ins and outs than Los Angeles?

At age 23 I took out my savings and a $10k loan and moved into a month-to-month hostel in Hollywood. I was living by the skin of my teeth but was excelling in school and having myself a thrill. Midway through my program when I was to receive a secondary loan to pay for the second semester, however,  I was told by my representative that she had made a mistake and couldn’t grant me the said payment until the following annual year. Dumbfounded, I had to make the snap decision to drop out of school right then and there. And as I walked off campus in a daze I heard my old voice teacher’s words echo in my head. I didn’t know what I was going to do but I wasn’t ready to turn around and go back.

A year later I found myself playing lead guitar in a new band and running concerts in a record shop in Hollywood. Writing acoustic music kept me sane and I ended up churning out another EP. I found work as a substitute teacher, a healthy relationship, and a more stable living situation in Koreatown. I took classes at The Songwriting School of LA and eventually I started making a go of it as a freelance private guitar teacher. It was not all peaches and cream but I hustled and stuck it out in LA for five years.

Eventually my work and relationships came to a natural end (which were then punctuated by the pandemic) and it felt time to come back to the Bay to be closer to my supportive friends and family. But I take pride in the life that I built for myself in LA. From where I started to where I finished I persevered through a ton of hardship and held my own as a musician.

Since I’ve returned to the Bay I’ve kept up my hustle as a solo artist and teacher and have made some of my proudest work. In hindsight it would have been much wiser to have been patient and continued saving before heading down to music school. It was a bit of a reckless, high-risk decision with ill-defined goals and little chance of financial return. But at the same I don’t regret listening to my intuition. I didn’t get the classroom education that I expected, but what I learned about myself from my experience is priceless. As I continue to ring true as I continue down my musical journey I always keep in mind, “I really don’t have a clue what to expect.” Knowing what I know now, I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

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 am a guitarist, songwriter, and music teacher based in Oakland, CA.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate goal is freedom of expression. As an artist, a musician, and a teacher, it is my aim to artistically communicate whatever it is that may need to be said, and in doing so help others do the same.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I like to think I’ve built a reputation based on transparency. When I release a song I let my listener’s know where it came from and why I decided to share it. In my lessons I let my students know why any given concept or technique is helpful in the context of their goals. Just ensuring there is a genuine and clear intention behind everything I say and do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://mitchellmanburgmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mitchellmanburg/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2932338453669886
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3o-45QAorc&feature=youtu.be
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mitchell-manburg-music-oakland?osq=mitchell+manburg
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2pqmBNhRQQcd8iFssuHkLI

Image Credits
Virginia Cortland