We recently connected with Wyatt Justice and have shared our conversation below.
Wyatt, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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’ve been working full time for almost four years now. I made the leap from my old job as a pharmacy tech in September of 2021 and had almost no success building a fan base outside of my friends and immediate family for several months. It was very worrisome to say the least. I had a couple of shows a month for about six months, but then the operators of The Ranch Bar & Grill took a chance and booked me along with the band I was playing with at the time. We played that first show and they asked me if I would like to play solo every Wednesday shortly thereafter. I happily accepted and having that residency every week made people take note, pretty soon the gigs started coming as fast as I could book them. I still to this day credit The Ranch with keeping me from going back to my day job. The relationship’s I made there are what I built my entire career off of. I think that slowing down and making friends in that place is a lot of what made me the artist I am today. I’m deeply indebted to all of those guys, love y’all Ranch family!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I grew up singing in church and basically left it at that for a long time. Fast forward to my teenage years I bought an old Squier Bronco Bass at an antique store and promptly stuck it in my closet never to touch it for several years. A while later my friend Logan Schrader who was praise and worship leader at my church called and asked if I still had that bass, and when I said yes I asked him if he needed a bass for the service tonight. He replied that he did, and he needed someone to play it as well. I told him I didn’t know how to play it yet but I could still give it to him in case he found someone to play, then he told me, “No, it’s easy to play. Just bring it and I’ll show you how to play it when you get here”. That’s basically what set me on the path to learning how to be a musician and not just some guy who liked to sing. That turned into learning guitar, singing with a band and eventually realizing that I had some ability to write songs. I never identified with popular music, but I found a way to write my songs in such a way that even people who prefer the more radio friendly brand of country music tended to stop and take notice of my songs. I think that’s what sets me apart from a lot of other people in my scene. I’m far from the only person doing what I do, but I think that’s what drives a lot of songwriters, it’s all been said before, but we find a new way to say it. I don’t see myself ever being the biggest thing in the world, but I pride myself on writing songs that are specifically human. Not everyone can relate to my songs individually, but can almost sympathetically enjoy it through being put into another persons’ shoes for a few minutes at a time. I wouldn’t say I have a specific demographic of fans, which I’m kind of proud about, hopefully that’s indicative of me doing something right. I don’t write “popular” songs, but all kinds of people seem to gravitate towards them anyway.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The best part of my job is seeing people from all walks of life bond over one thing. General togetherness I guess you could say. It’s incredibly rewarding for me to watch people come together and resonate with what I’m doing and the stories I continue to tell.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I don’t know if I’m even qualified to talk about building a social media following, but I know I do it differently than most do. I don’t have a massive following but I can tell you that about 80% of the people that follow my music I know on a personal level. I take a very boots on the ground, grass roots approach to building fans. You may play a show to 100 people, out of those 100, 50 might be actively listening, and of those 50, 10 might really be into it, and of those 10 you might have two or three that absolutely love what you’re doing. I try to make a point to find those two or three people a show and have a good conversation with them about what other music they like, if they play themselves, etc. I really enjoy getting to know people and I think that behooves me in my style of making fans. I honestly just try to make friends first, and through friendship I’ve made a lot of fans. I can see the snowball get a little bit bigger every month or two, those fans bring new people to shows and so on and so forth. I found out very quickly that genuine music attracts genuine people. I’ll just keep trying to seek out those folks, it’s done well for me so far. I’m not rich but I am deeply fulfilled, the lights are still on and the babies are still fed. That’s good enough for me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wyattjusticemusic?igsh=MWl4MmF5d2FqaHBxdw%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/15BJbgDiGN/?mibextid=wwXIfr
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCdVPRW2eyUXixt7EPwJ2UIw?si=ECvnQW33k5OK-UX9
- Other: https://music.apple.com/us/album/just-too-heavy-single/1772664402
https://open.spotify.com/user/buckslayer1?si=IdFDkO9ESx20FxE3mxtm_g
Image Credits
Phil Clarkin
Shelbe’ Hollingshad