We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful The Outview. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with The Outview below.

The Outview, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

Our first experience with making money in music was actually not through live performance but instead was through TV sync licensing. Our debut self-titled EP had a song on it called “Bad Feeling” that was featured on a Showtime docuseries called Couple’s Therapy. At the time it was incredibly exciting because we didn’t fully understand the process of how music gets put on television shows and movies and to hear our own music (which we had essentially made in our house) on TV was completely surreal. Initially we had signed a small contract with a Sync Licensing agency in which we would give them access to our music to hold in their digital library. We were told that music supervisors on TV shows and movies would contact the agency asking for songs with specific themes, moods and vibes and if one of our songs fit, the agency would then pitch that song (along with several other fitting songs from other artists) and if the music supervisor chose ours, then they would negotiate a fee for our song and we would get paid from that. We were also told that there is a chance they select our song and then it still doesn’t get used, so we really had no idea what to expect. So one day, we were notified that our song had been chosen for a Showtime show called Couple’s Therapy. The show hadn’t come out yet so we had never heard of it and when we looked online there wasn’t really anything about it. Finally we learned what episode our song would be on and when that one got released, we signed up for a Showtime subscription just so we could hear it. We were absolutely ecstatic! For those curious, payments for commercial licensing are generally done quarterly, so it was several months before we saw any of the money from it, but it was still the most exciting thing ever at the time!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers?

We are a pop duo (and brothers) from South Carolina but have called Atlanta home for the past couple of years. We have been making music together in some form or fashion our entire lives so despite our own differing tastes, working together comes very naturally and makes for unique blend of influences in our music that gives us “our sound”. Gareth is a producer and professional audio engineer, so he does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to production and mixing. Ian’s musical background is more-so in live performance and the singer-songwriter genre so he contributes mostly in general song structure, lyrics and vocal arrangements. While we love collaborating and working with others, it’s also been a great creative freedom to know that we can be fully autonomous and do everything in-house if and when we need to. This was true for our most recent release “Permission” in which we were able to do much of the production in-house (special thanks to Aaron Pace for co-writing and mixing/mastering and Alto Moon for helping with vocal production) AND write, direct and edit the music video for it.

The Atlanta music scene has been very good to us and we take a lot of pride in the quality of both our music catalog and our live shows. The pop genre is one in which most people are very familiar with the big names like on Top 40 radio, but usually don’t know local acts who fall under that specific category so we love leaning into that space. The artists we get compared to the most are probably Maroon 5 and Charlie Puth.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Before we both lived in Atlanta, Gareth was actually living in Salt Lake City and Los Angeles for several years and all of our music had to be made remotely. It was a very tedious and challenging process because we didn’t have all the equipment that we have now nor did we have the tech and finances that we do now so flying to meet up and make music wasn’t really an option. We would have to Facetime, or maybe Ian would send a voice recording on his phone of an idea and then Gareth would build out the production. Then Gareth would send the production back to Ian so he could write lyrics, record the vocals in his closet and send it back to Gareth for him to mix. It’s not uncommon to do things that way now with how good remote-work technology has gotten from the pandemic, but at the time, it was a slow and tedious experience. We also couldn’t play live shows so on the rare occasion we were in the same city, we’d book a show, have one day to rehearse our set and then go out and do it. It was not ideal in anyway but it definitely taught us that we can do a lot more creatively than we thought we were capable of and it instilled in us a willingness to do the tedious things if it makes the final product better.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspects of being an artist are creating art that perfectly conveys your intent and idea and then see someone connect emotionally with it. Any creative will tell you that a lot of times, your ideas are terrible and then other times, your ideas are good but the execution of it just isn’t working. But every now and then, you have a good idea that you are able to actualize and the final result, whether it’s lyrics, music or performance, is exactly what it needs to be and any further changes would take away from the quality. That’s the best feeling in the world, to assess your art and not want to change anything about it and then to witness someone connect with it and have it resonate with them. Art has a way of connecting people and at the end of the day, that’s what most of us want the most, connection. So getting to see your own art be the vehicle for that connection is an incredibly special experience.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theoutview/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theoutviewband/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDnEh-Fwq54rah1n8clrInw
• Other: Newest Music Video “Permission”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGe9USxwxsw

Image Credits
Sophie Harris Em Pearson Gareth Calk