We recently connected with Nicholas Thomasma and have shared our conversation below.
Nicholas, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
I remember many years ago asking Bruce Ling of Hawks and Owls how it all worked. I really wanted to understand how artists survive financially as if there was some magic formula. He said “I don’t know Nik. I play a little music, I watch the river and sometimes I do a little electrical work and somehow at the end of the month the lights stay on an all the bills get paid.” I was so mad. I wanted there to be a mathematical equation like “If you play X number of gigs each year” …but it’s not like that. Bruce was serious. I know now what he meant was that he doesn’t always know where the money will come from but somehow it comes. I’ve come to accept that as part of the reality of being a full time artist. You don’t really know who is going to buy your art, you just trust that someone will.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Traveling around in a bright orange 1973 Volkswagen Bus, singer songwriter and Earthwork Music artist Nicholas James Thomasma combines stories and songs for a show that can be enjoyed by patrons of all ages.Whether he’s performing with his backing band Nicholas James and the Bandwagon or as a solo acoustic act, Nicholas charms the audience with his playful sense of humor and real life stories. Nicholas is the curator of a monthly songwriter in-the-round concert series called the Songtellers at the Midtown in Grand Rapids, MI and volunteers as the Secretary for the Michigan Music Alliance.
Early on in his career Nicholas James won an Elyse Fishman Scholarship from Wheatland Music Organization to study songwriting. He has since released 5 full length albums, won multiple awards including a WYCE Jammie Award for Best New Solo Artist in 2010 and a bronze award in the Music City Song Star Songwriting Competition in 2022. In 2017 he taught his first songwriting workshop and fell immediately in love with teaching. He has since taught songwriting at the Earthwork Music Songwriters Summit for Resilience, the LowellArts Song Camp and Huco Songs, the Port Austin Songwriting Retreat Weekend.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
I think the biggest misconception about my job is that it’s easy. People see me on stage having fun and joking around and they think that’s what I get paid for. It’s not. I mean, that’s part of it but my job consists of countless hours sitting in front of my computer writing emails, following up, wrangling schedules, following up, planning setlists, following up, doing all the necessary social media promotion, following up, designing and ordering merchandise, following up, recording, learning new songs and writing on occasion too. Not to mention all of the time I spend driving to gigs and then once you get there you have to set up and tear down all the equipment too. And I have to run the merch table. And document the event for social media. I do this because I love it, not because it’s easy. There are far easier ways to make money.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I think the Covid19 pandemic was a true test of artistic resilience for me. A lot of people shut down. Some of my friends told me they couldn’t create anything at all. I, on the other hand, wrote tons of new songs, played a series of “Driveway Concerts,” launched my Patreon community, started a songwriting retreat weekend in Huron County at the tip of Michigan’s Thumb called Huco Songs, started a livestream series called Beans and Business where I talk about the music business over coffee for a few minutes every week, uploaded a bunch of cover songs onto my YouTube channel and started volunteering with the Michigan Music Alliance. Some people took that opportunity to rest. I did the opposite. I worked my ass off during the pandemic. I think it’s in large part because of the work I did during the pandemic to continue to stay visible that keeps me so busy now.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.nicholasjamesthomasma.com
- Instagram: @nicholasjamesthomasma
- Facebook: facebook.com/nicholasjamesthomasma
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/nikjamest
- Other: https://www.patreon.com/nicholasjamesthomasma