We recently connected with Sammy Shepard and have shared our conversation below.

Sammy, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have done Music full time since August of 2022. I have learned a whole lot in this time and have made myself a career that I plan to continue and grow through my whole life. I was able to get in to a bar to play my music for the first time, and then from there got some content to mass email out to places around me with music with hopes of playing. Many were non respondent but a few came back and they were added to the list! I continued doing this process while also recording my first album all on my own for free out of my parents basement/ the studio I built and grew up in. Fast forward to now I have my album out with a second coming soon, a single on June 28th. And I play 4 shows a week all different places around town, with bigger shows sprinkled in. As time goes on I hope to weed out smaller shows and get more and more big ones!

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.

So I started playing bass guitar at 4 years old, and soon after followed drums and piano and a few chords on guitar. I played often and found earlier on music was my thing. But it wasn’t until COVID that I, like many others, threw myself into a hobby. For me it was guitar, I began teaching myself guitar and I loved it. But between maintaining a high gpa in high school to get into college for politics, and a managers position in a fine dining establishment I had very little time once Covid came to a close. I graduated and attended ga southern university for a year, in this year I would play guitar for about 4 hours a day. It was in this time I realized music was what I am meant to do and I decided to come home and make my album.

Fans should know that I love very little more than sitting in my studio and building songs from scratch. It’s the most calming thing I do, and I hope to do it forever!

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

There are a few:

I want to travel and see the world, and if playing music gives me a way to do that that’s 1000% better.

I want to make it to a financial point where I can pay my parents back for everything they’ve done to invest in me so far while I pursue this. My dad comes to every gig and runs my sound from the crowd on his iPad. He hasn’t missed one in a year. They deserve so much, and as soon as I’m able I will repay, that is a big driving factor for me too.

The truth is it’s easy to want to give up sometimes, it gets real hard and discouraging. But at the end of the day I’d rather be exactly where I am playing music forever than in a career I hate with my music and love withering away.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

A follow and a like go a long way in todays world. If you see something that catches your eye just let them know in some kind of way. It’s the little bits of encouragement that keep us going. Stream music from independents, go to live shows and make an effort to just be there for the music that you thoroughly enjoy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sammyshepardmusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sammy_shepardmusic?igsh=OWVjOWhyc3JtYjR6&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sammyshepard2292?si=E0mNHYV3X6D5sc0a
• Other: https://app.getpinpoint.io/sammyshepardmusic