We caught up with the brilliant and insightful TIM THURMAN a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
TIM, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.
Learning the craft of becoming a Nashville performer and songwriter isn’t the easiest of things to accomplish. I’ve heard many horror stories of artist arriving in town and leaving. Some of the greats themselves left upon arrival. It is intimidating at first. I would say, the answer is time over learning how. When you move to town you already have the understanding you know how to write and perform. However, the moment you venture out into the music scene in Nashville, you question everything you know about the craft and your abilities once hearing and seeing who is out performing live. There is a lot of amazing talent in this town. At least that was my experience and some other musicians I know and work with. You have to start over and learn the Nashville way. The more time you spend in Nashville networking, co-writing, pitching, making demos, playing writers rounds and downtown the more knowhow and experience you obtain. Nashville is the town you come and learn how to co-write, perfect writing, and learn how to entertain and perform. I believe it’s a must being a musician. Like the saying goes, practice makes perfect. Myself personally, I moved to town and purchased a home. My thought process was I cannot leave once I arrived and would have to give it everything to make it work. Sink or swim! You can set out and accomplish anything you put energy into along with time. I’ve had the opportunity to meet, learn, write, and play with some great musicians. The key is networking and reworking what you thought you knew into something new. Always learning and pushing for more. When you get turned down for a pitch, don’t let it bring you down, let it build you up. Take the advice and rework the song the way they asked. You may not always agree but they may take the song if you listen and try again. That was my experience. I reworked a song for four years and they finally said it was ready and it charted for eighteen weeks. I could have given up and moved on, but I always took the advice given and made changes. It’s rewarding to have that on my resume. I think the biggest key for success is to listen and keep learning in this industry. I myself still have a lot to learn. Welcome to Nashville!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’m Tim Thurman, I am a Country Recording Artist and Songwriter in Nashville, Tennessee. I grew up in Northern California on a little farm, i’m the youngest of four boys. We raised livestock, grew up in a church pew, and we all did 4H. I served in the US Army from 2007 to 2010. Growing up I always loved music and would try to make up my own songs. I started in grade school band as a trumpet player and learned how to read music and understand it. When I was around the age of fifteen, I remember hearing an add on the radio of a guitar expo, and I traded my Mom a few weeks of chores for a cheap guitar. I sat on the front porch and learned as much as I could by ear. Eventually, one day I put lyrics to a melody, and I was hooked. I’m also the grandson of a Buckaroo from the Buck Owens Band out of Bakersfield, Ca. I had asked my grandfather what to do and how to get more involved with music and he encouraged me to make the move to Nashville in 2016.
Following the Camp-Fire in Butte County California I released “My Hometown,” and helped raise over 20K for local residents, My last single “Don’t get better than that” went to country radio in 2021 and spent 18 weeks on Country Breakout Charts topping at #67. I’ve had the pleasure of opening for touring acts, I have traveled and played venues across the West Coast and Midwest, as well as playing Nashville Festivals, the famous Bluebird Café, Broadway, and local singer-songwriter venues in Nashville.
Currently you can find the band and myself playing honky-tonks in Nashville every weekend. We Just released a new song “Under the Weather,” and it is available for streaming and download on all platforms.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
When you visit Nashville or any place with live music. Please Tip the bands. The amount of time, energy, and dedication musicians put into their craft is ridiculous. At times its way underappreciated. Even a small tip goes a long way. Most musicians are booking, writing, performing, learning new songs, traveling, and keeping up with social networking along with networking for their own career. No one is doing it for them. They wear every hat in the game. Most bars pay a small base amount but every musician that is on their own lives off that tip bucket and splits it at the end of the show!
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
I love creating and sharing. Having someone connect or something you made have an impact on someone is an amazing feeling. It’s been a fun and exciting ride and i cannot wait to see what the next curve brings. Also, when i was injured in the military, it became the only thing i could do that i was confident about and enjoyed doing. I had the real job but music was always my passion and a bad situation gave me a good opportunity to give it a shot. I would also say another aspect would be my family. You want to build something that you can pass down and they have been a huge support throughout the process.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.timthurmanmusic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tim_thurman_/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/timthurmanmusic
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tim-thurman-bbba32174/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TimThurmanMusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFS-bvXErxZWnN9ctfwAm3Q
- Other: https://timthurman.hearnow.com/under-the-weather