We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Todd Murray a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Todd, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you 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?

I have! It’s been an interesting journey, to say the least, but I have been able to make a living playing music for the past 12 years. It’s funny, I really had no blueprint in the beginning. I thought you were either famous, or you just didn’t make money from music. I didn’t know that there were options between those two extremes. In the beginning, I only knew that I loved music completely and thought about it all the time, so I was just always following that passion. I was always working some kind of random job up until I was 27. I had a friend in Savannah who played music full time and I remember him saying, “I just play music man. I woke up today and did nothing all day until my gig tonight. And I did the same thing yesterday. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow” It was weird, but up until that point, I honestly didn’t know that a person could do that. I grew up in a small town in Ohio and I simply had not met a person that played music as their main source of income. With the encouragement of that friend and a TON of encouragement from my wife, I decided to give it a shot. I remember just walking the streets of Savannah with a homemade press kit that I typed up and really just going into any bar or restaurant that I passed asking if they were interested in having music. It’s just hilarious to me how naive I was. But I remember getting booked at places without them even listening to my music. They just liked what I had in the folder, or liked how I was going about it, and booked me on the spot. That part really shocked me. I had so much to learn, but getting out of your comfort zone can lead to really crazy things. I learned how much business is about building relationships. I also learned pretty quickly that I was going to have to work harder than I ever had in my life to make this work.
Since then I’ve been playing in various venues that include bars, restaurants, wineries, weddings, house concerts, community parties, and even hospitals.

Do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I always wished that I had an older brother or mentor who could have shown me the way so I could have maybe skipped ahead in line for parts of my career, but that’s something I can’t change. In a weird way, I wear that early naivety as a badge of honor. It made me self-sufficient and that’s a big part of my story.

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

My favorite thing in the world to do is to write songs. That’s the main place where I can get lost in a flow state and time will just disappear. So I’d say that’s the chocolate at the top of the ice cream and everything just flows down from there. So, where that has flowed to has been recording my own albums, writing songs for film and television, writing songs for personal occasions like weddings, and even surprise birthday songs. While those things are the most fun for me, the main source of my income has been playing shows. At some of those shows people want to hear some cover songs. So the little deal I’ve made in my brain is to make the cover songs my own. To really apply my love of songwriting to deconstruct songs in a way that lets me be creative, but also gives my clients something that makes them happy too. It’s a nice little compromise. I get a little uncomfortable when I start feeling like a jukebox. So at most of my gigs, I’ll play 50% covers and 50% originals, and that has worked well for me.

I think what people remember about my brand is my homemade license plate guitar. I’ve always referred to my music as “road trip music” since I have lived in so many states. About 10 years ago my mom had my cousin build me a homemade guitar for Christmas. It’s this rusty 4-String guitar made out of my old Colorado License Plate. They thought that I would just hang it on the wall as decoration, but I started playing it out at shows. It was kind of an eye-opener about the visual aspect of music. People who hadn’t paid attention all night at gigs would perk up and pay attention when I would pull that guitar out. It definitely has a unique sound, but it was just the look of it that would have people coming up and talking to me after the set. Again, it was my wife that really encouraged me. It’s not the easiest or most practical instrument but she suggested that I dig deeper with it to see what I could pull out of it. To you know, actually take my art in the direction that people responded to. Like I said, it’s a somewhat limited instrument, but I’ve found that setting up some restraints or parameters in creativity is actually really useful. If you have all of the notes or all of the options in the world, you can freeze up with decision paralysis.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

I’d have to say the amount of work that truly goes into being a full-time musician. I think that most people assume that as musicians, we’re just out partying and living the “rockstar” dream, but that’s not really how it works if you want to do this for 10+ years. There is a lot of discipline, cold calling, emailing, and sacrifice that goes into it all. Being a successful creative requires me to work harder than I ever did when I had a normal job. I know the old saying is, “Find a job that you love and you’ll never work a day in your life.” I think that needs to be revised to, “Find a job that you love and you might have to work harder than you ever have in your life.” I found out pretty early on that was the case. I think my passion and love for music have definitely been the fuel that propels me forward, BUT it’s not the only thing that you can depend on. It’s all about maintaining a work/life balance, similar to that of many professions. When you’re a self-employed artist (of any kind), there’s no one to make you turn off your computer and stop emailing people at 11 pm, you have to do that yourself. Just recently, I learned how important it is to take some time off and experience other things that bring you joy. That kind of joy and satisfaction of just living life reignites my creative spark, which is vital for any great song.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Here are the top 3 books that have influenced me: #1 Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon.
It’s all about borrowing (in a tasteful way) from people that influence you. Growing up I thought that being creative was all about pulling the most original thing ever from the either and going where no one has been before. This book really shifted my perspective on where to find inspiration. It was extremely freeing.

#2 Linchpin by Seth Godin
When I was making the transition from working a day job to going out on my own, this book was a game changer. It helped me think about my art not only as “the music” but also as the way that I treated the people that I worked with. That the way you treat your customers is also a part of your art. Seth is also a big proponent of really leaning into your weirdness to let that be your greatest strength.

#3 The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
This one was big for overcoming the fear and resistance of putting things out into the world. It’s about showing up every single day and just doing the work that you’re called to do.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://sincerelyiris.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sincerelyirismusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sincerelyiris
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/sincerelyiris
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/sincerelyiris

Image Credits
All of these images just so happen to be taken by Elizabeth Byland https://www.elizabethbyland.com/ All of the images were taken at Canvas Studios in Richmond, VA https://canvasrva.com/