We recently connected with Riley Swann and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Riley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Being in a band like Blackheart Gypsy makes it VERY easy to be a creative, we have a “what if?” mentality with the songwriting process – basically that means that everyone is encouraged to put out the wildest ideas you can imagine. Personally, that’s what I feel like life is all about: expressing yourself creatively and honestly without any rules. It makes you a more well rounded person, I think. As for the idea of leading a “normal life”, all of us do that while being a part of the project. Some of our members are still in school, and some of us work full/part time to make ends meet… sadly, that’s the reality for most creatives!

Riley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Riley, I play guitar with the band Blackheart Gypsy. We’re an Indiana based rock outfit who write and perform music that is both nostalgic and fresh. We strive to constantly evolve our sound, and create an environment of love and unity for the people who follow us as a group. We all met in high school, and while all of us have our own personal favorite artists and genres, all of us really had an appreciation and passion for the rock and roll acts of old – from Black Sabbath to Led Zeppelin to Rush. Naturally, our music has a certain resemblance to those artists, but I think we’ve been moving more and more away from that and closer to something that sounds more like Blackheart Gypsy. We just recorded our second album in Nashville, Tennessee on Music Row – but our first album, “While the Widows Weep” was released in 2023 and is available on all streaming platforms.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

For us, there’s always a set of goals we hope to achieve over the course of our whole career, and another set of more short term goals to tackle throughout the year. The main mission that we stick to is to make music that WE want to hear. It’s easy to get caught up wondering how to make “a hit” or the next rock song of the century – to us that can cheat the point of making music. It’s important to make something that inspires you as a creative, and the goal is that it reaches like-minded folks who want something outside of the songs that are spoon fed to us by radio dj’s and social media influencers.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Developing an audience has never been easier than in today’s day and age, in the sense that most people have access to social media. That said, it can be challenging to cut through the noise and find your audience. Early on, it was unsustainable to publish content every other day and continue to be engaging. None of us are big into social media to begin with, so we adopted the style of putting out maybe a couple posts a week, but making the content fun and engaging by emphasizing our personality as individuals and as a collective. We try to never take ourselves too seriously, and as a result we grew faster and faster with an audience that shared a sense of humor and a taste in music with us. For younger bands just starting out, I’d recommend paying attention to what your favorite bands and local bands in your niche are doing on social media. You can get a good idea for what content you like, what aligns with your brand and your music, and what connects well with their audiences. There’s a lot of trial and error involved, but have fun with it and do what you enjoy – at the end of the day, posting is a good thing.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @blackheartgypsy
• Facebook: @blackheartgypsy
• Other: Blackheart Gypsy is on all music platforms!

Image Credits

Album art by @emilyroseart
Photos by Local Exposure & Kelly T Photography