For the past three years I’ve been running a podcast interview project focused on underground/undiscovered/or otherwise unknown musicians.
I began this project because I wanted to give something back to music after decades of my own personal relationship with music. I found that most mainstream podcast/music shows focus on big name artists or industry recognizable names. I wanted to go the other direction, to find people recording in their bedrooms, or people playing instruments on the street, or just people who learned to play an instrument for the love of music.

Over the past three years I’ve conducted over 200 interviews with people all over the country and world at various levels in their career and with various levels of participation in music. It's been a truly humbling experience and infinitely motivational.

What I’ve learned from everyone I’ve interviewed is that although we all have our own passionate relationship with music, everyone has a unique perspective on what that means to them and how they’ve allowed it to interact with their lives. Some people have casual participation that allows them to express themselves, and that is their concept of being successful. While others are driven to reach into the stars and have a definition of success that puts the bar so high they may never reach it, just to keep themselves motivated to keep going.

Although everyone has their own relationship with how they define success, there is a consistent message that resonates across these interviews. You are never too old, too young, too inexperienced, too incapable, or too “successful” to begin learning an instrument or making music. All you need is motivation.

As with anything subjective, sometimes you won’t like what you make, sometimes others won’t like what you make, but the consensus is the same. If you want to do it, you should, and do it unapologetically, you should feel empowered to explore your own creativity to the very depths of what that means to you. That may seem like an obvious trope to some, but some people need to hear that, and need to be told it's ok to make music that only they like. Not all music is made with the intention of being a commercial success. In fact most music is made out of catharsis as a form of therapeutic release. It is all valid, and it is all “music”.

This project has truly been amazing! To speak to so many talented musicians, and hear how music has impacted their lives has been an honor they all trusted me with. I’m not very good at social media postings or podcast marketing, but I wish I were so I could get more traffic to these people that have taken the time to participate in this project.