We recently connected with Stu Basham and have shared our conversation below.
Stu, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
It started when I got a cheap kid’s keyboard for Christmas one year at age 4 or 5 I think and taught myself how to play a couple songs. I started falling in love with playing music and more specifically writing my own songs and finding my own voice.
Stu, 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?
I am not your typical country guy.
I was raised in Oregon, surrounded by mountains instead of farms, I sipped craft beer instead of whiskey, and drove an old Subaru dubbed the “Stubaru” instead of a pickup truck.
I was on my way to becoming a commercial pilot, but got tired of working on the “backup plan” and went to pursue my passion for songwriting and performing. The long journey took me to Denver, Colorado, as well as New York City, and now I’ve ended up in Nashville.
After writing pop songs for most of my life, my wife turned me on to Rascal Flatts and many other country artists. I was hooked and continued to dive deeper into the genre, finding new inspiration in artists like Luke Combs, Zac Brown Band, and Old Dominion.
My older brother shared Dave Matthews Band with me as a kid and I have since mixed that influence with a modern country sound, creating a unique take on country, rock, and jam band music with a heavy focus on lyrics, a staple of the Nashville songwriting scene.
I’ve been releasing one song a month since the summer of 2022 and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. I’ve been recognized as One to Watch by NSAI and have had multiple songs recommended to publishers.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I wish I knew way earlier how professional and serious songwriters are in Nashville. I had no idea it could be like a 9-5 kind of job. I used to just write whenever inspiration hit but when I started taking songwriting seriously that’s when doors started to open up and the inspiration kept coming. I wish I had known about the craft way earlier or read books like “Writing Better Lyrics” by Pat Pattison. That book has changed my life and all of my songwriting.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I’ll share a story that most people can’t relate to and that’s what makes my journey unique. I’ve always wanted to be a performing artist but there weren’t many opportunities in Oregon to pursue music. So I started flying planes because I enjoyed that and thought that might make a fun career.
So I got a few ratings and on my last one you do a “Cross Country” flight which is really just a 2-3 hour flight flying into a bigger airport and then back home. Taking off and landing are super fun, as you can imagine, but the rest is just sitting and pressing auto-pilot while you wait to land the plane. It became really boring really fast and I couldn’t imagine doing that the rest of my life so I decided I wanted to move to a new state (Colorado) and keep my music dream alive. That journey eventually led me to meeting my wife, moving to NYC, and then to Nashville.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stubasham/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thestubasham
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/stubasham
Image Credits
Kristen Drum