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A quick chat with road warrior and pro musician Andy Sheridan.

How did you get into music?

My life has revolved around music from an early age. I started taking piano lessons classically at age 4. Both my parents are musicians. Guitar came in high school. I was just trying to be cool! Piano wasn’t cool to me then, I hated it actually when I was younger but my parents made me stick it out. Boy am I glad they did!

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I'm bringing Christmas In May!

Every year I walk into the mall on a nice fall day and at some point it happens. I start noticing the red and green decorations and find myself humming “Chestnuts Roasting” (Yes, I know the real title is “Christmas Song”. I choose to not use it as I think that’s a cop out title!) Last year, they literally had Christmas music and decorations up the first week of October! Before Halloween?!?! Seriously guys! What’s up with that!?!?!

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What I Learned From Justin Bieber

 

Baby, baby, baby oh…Ok I’ll stop right there.  So the story goes that Justin Bieber and his mom uploaded videos of Justin singing at a talent competition on YouTube in 2007.  The next thing you know he’s having a meeting with Usher and on his way to stardom.  Wow!  That is one crazy story!  So anyone can do the same thing and just wait for that major record label to call them,right? Lets just say the odds are not good!

Instead of kids getting their new favorite artists from pop radio, kids discover music on the web. We live in a fast instant gratification world and there is a vast amount of information.  Which means for artists that your 15 minutes of fame (AKA Vanilla Ice) is now 15 seconds of fame.  So as artists, how do we use internet marketing in a way to get real results?

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Swiss Cheese And Toilet Paper

At least once a week I get a CD of an aspiring artist handed to me. I’m convinced Starbucks is the music and business hub of Nashville. I really try to make an effort to listen to everything that I receive. After all, I know first hand from the last fifteen years how hard being an independent musician can be.  You never know, that blank disc with the band name scribbled in mint green marker just might be the next Coldplay.

Ninety-nine percent of the time the CD is sonically not up to par (this is my nice way of saying absolutely freaking terrible!) and there are always basic song writing mistakes spread through out. Now if you had stopped reading here you would walk away thinking there is no hope and that Blake guy is a total jerk. But wait, there is hope! This is the point where we all sit back, take a deep breath, take a sip of our favorite coffee, and address the issue of why working with a producer is so important.

A friend of mine once told me about when he fell into an opportunity to work at a small

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