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

Trevor, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been one of the fortunate ones that have been able to sustain myself through music and music-related activities. As for how I made that happen, the short answer is focus and tenacity. My professional life has had two acts so far. Act one was in Canada, where I toured three times a year, recorded albums, got radio play, so on and so on. From the very beginning, my parents were very supportive and let me stay with them into my 20s while I grew enough as an artist that I could support myself.
When I started to feel like I had become stagnant, I moved to Nashville and began act two. Basically, I started again from the beginning. I still went back to Canada occasionally but wanted to focus more on building a career here.
When money started getting tight, I played on the street in hopes of making enough to put some groceries on the table. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.
All the while I went to open stages, befriended other musicians and slowly started getting hired to play gigs. Then it started happening more and more.
One milestone that comes to mind is playing a gig at the newly opened “Whiskey Bent Saloon” and being seen by the owners and booking guy there, which began a long and fruitful relationship not only with them, but it opened a bunch of doors for playing gigs on Broadway, which continues to this day.
Another is accidentally texting 80s pop star Tiffany and inviting her to a show I had which led to a guest spot on her album, followed by being a part of her band for the better part of 8yrs. (We were texting a bunch of people, meant to hit “Tim” but it went to “Tiffany” instead. Happy accident)
One of my first real Nashville moments was doing an opening spot for someone at 3rd & Lindsley and realizing that Johnny Hiland was to my right, Pat Buchanan was directly in front of me and Reese Wynans was at the bar. I remember thinking that if I had stayed where I was, this would never have happened unless some serious stars aligned.
Other milestones are being asked to produce a record for another artist, getting hired to voice multiple audiobooks and getting my first voice over job. Those fall into the “music-related” category.
There have been so many great moments. I wish I could name them all but I have to save something for my book. Ha!
They say that Nashville is a 10 year town. I don’t know if I could or would have done it any differently. I’m sure there have been opportunities that I missed along the way, but I’m in a good place and still moving forward.

Trevor, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m one of the weird ones that knew what he wanted to be at a very young age. I started playing guitar and singing when I was 9yrs old, my first band was at 12 and my first paying gig was at 15. I became a frontman because no one else wanted the job, but I work and play well with others, I love the concept of a band – individuals coming together with a common goal, existing as one, one song at a time. I also love playing solo acoustic gigs. I can stop on a dime, pivot and change directions anytime I want.
I’ve played a lot of different styles, from country to rock to blues, and a lot of their subsets. One of my favorite sayings is “I don’t know everything, but do I know enough to be dangerous.”
My job has enabled me to travel the world, see some incredible things and meet some of my childhood heroes.
I feed off the audience and involve everyone as much as possible. I try to put out nothing but positive energy, which, when I’m on stage is very easy to do. If you see me playing somewhere, odds are I’m having a ball. And there’s no better feeling than when the audience and I connect.

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

I think the only relevant story of my resilience is the fact that I’m still here, still going and still doing. To borrow an old cliche, this business isn’t for the faint of heart. I’ve seen a lot of people come and go, showing up with stars in their eyes only to leave with their egos beaten and bruised because they didn’t “make it” in their time frame. I didn’t move here to be “the next big Nashville” anything. I moved here because I wanted to be around people like me, who live, breath, eat, sleep, dream, whose very lives revolved around music.
I’ve changed the meaning of “making it” in my mind. I’m not rich or famous, but I’ve lived here for 15yrs. I stay busy and my bills are paid. In Nashville, I call that a win.
I’ve learned that you have to wear a lot of hats, and it almost feels like every other day a new hat shows up. But honestly, I love it. I love researching how to do something and then learning how to potentially do it better. And with so much social media and opportunities to be creative, there are so many avenues that creativity can be applied to.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I love this question and I’ll give you an answer but first, let me say this. I think an artistic and creative career has four phases.
Phase one is ‘Idealistic”. This is where you think what you do is really, really special and if given the opportunity, could potentially change the world, just like Bill and Ted’s Wyld Stallyns.
Phase two is “Realistic”, which is where you realize that you might not change anything but you can still play, hopefully make some money and have some fun. But then you get screwed around by club owners or bookers, or even your own bandmates. That leads to:
Phase three, “Cynical”. This is where we lose a lot of people. You get angry because you didn’t get your chance, or you got a chance and you blew it. You get screwed over one too many times.
But if you hang in there long enough, you get to phase four, which is “Philosophical”. Stuff happens. You live to fight another day. You just keep going because it’s what you do.
My goal is to stay in phase four, while keeping a slight underpinning of phase one.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://trevorfinlay.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/trevorplayguitar
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TrevorFinlayRocks
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/TrevPlaysGuitar
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/TrevorPlaysGuitar2
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4OtlBsu7795TdN79I4NEpn?si=ncF6H-5zTy2YkMsa80Zt9Q Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/297635792 Youtube Music: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCXk4-V6_UZMyvnxrM0cC4gw?feature=share

Image Credits
Judy Mulligan Charlene Frasher Austin Dellamano Michael Jenkins