Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Willow City. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Willow City, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

We first entered the entertainment industry in 2010 when Ezra was in his first film. Aside from having our childhood home published in books and magazines, we had never experienced what life was really like behind-the-scenes of a movie. We’d grown up in choir and taking piano lessons, but about the same time Ezra began acting we began performing music. It started out around the campfire; we would pull out our guitar and banjo and play songs the cast and crew could all sing along with. That led to performances at different events, and the ball just kept rolling. Fast forward to 2018 and we were on the precipice of officially launching our band Willow City. It was risky – we had decided to do college online to pursue this music career that was fully on a roll, but anything that is different or “weird” from how the majority of people do life can be so uncomfortable. But if you’re truly committed to something then you do what needs to be done to see it through to reality. It felt like stepping off the ledge of a cliff into nothingness, not sure if your parachute would open or not. We believe that moments like that, where we are just taking the next step not even fully knowing what the next step is, are moments when God really shows up. It was true for us in that moment – the doors that have been opened and the people we’ve met along this journey have been incredible and something we can’t take credit for. It’s amazing what happens when you use your gifts to serve people. The risk of stepping out to pursue a career in entertainment has paid off tremendously.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

We’re Beecher and Ezra Prōch, two brothers from the small Texas Hill-Country town of Fredericksburg. We grew up playing folk and bluegrass music and now write and produce alt-pop music that’s fun for the entire family. We want your family to be able to turn on our music or come to a show and not be nervous about what’s going to happen onstage. While we play music that really delves into human emotion (something we all have in common), at the end of the day we’re just two brothers who could live on any street in any town, living life, making friends, and singing songs that aspire to be the soundtrack to your life story.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Make yourself self-disciplined enough to study business. Being an artist is great but if you don’t understand the business side of things you will likely have a tough go of it, at least that’s what we’ve experienced and seen. Thankfully we grew up in a family that is incredibly entrepreneurial and were encouraged by our parents to pursue business from an early age – we were running our own business of selling water and rootbeer on Main Street in our hometown starting from the age of 8 or 9. That’ll teach you a thing or two about finance and budgeting! At least pursue a rudimentary understanding of budgets/finance/marketing/taxes. And for musicians, get acquainted with royalties and different kinds of music licensing – we talk to so many musicians who don’t know anything about joining a PRO (Performing Rights Organization) or registering with the MLC. There are so many ways to make money from your music but you have to do your homework.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

In our opinion, a great way to support a creative ecosystem is to encourage the people around you to pursue creativity in whatever they’re doing. An accountant can be as creative as a songwriter. A mathematician can be as creative as a painter. We need to broaden the definition (or our view) of creativity. We believe everyone is creative, it just manifests itself differently in our different roles and jobs.     

Contact Info:

• Website: www.willowcitymusic.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/willowcityofficial/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WillowCityMusic/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/willowcitymusic
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/willowcity
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6uD8hO8znBlZOnmSLpMadV?si=mj2IfbFGSZqRRhWjqQosMA

Image Credits
Richard Gauty, Jordan Streitz, Dylan DePaul