Meet Gary Cain

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

Gary, thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts with us today. We’re excited to dive into your story and your work, but first let’s start with a broader topic that might be stopping many of our readers from pursuing their dreams – haters, nay-sayers, etc. How have you managed to persist despite haters and nay-sayers that inevitably follow folks who are doing something unique, special or off the beaten path?
So much criticism and negativity comes via social media and is often fairly anonymous. Anyone can take their pot-shots at you, or just have an opinion on something they maybe aren’t knowledgeable about. I think if you keep in mind that the negativity people are spewing online is more about them than about you, you can do a better job of not letting it affect you. I am at least in some significant part a blues player, and its a genre that is gate-kept to an extreme degree. People that have a very narrow view of what blues music is or should be. It is frustrating in that they are often in positions of power in the industry – festival bookers, radio deejays, journalists et cetera. But I think the approach of not worrying about the things you can’t control is helpful. No matter what you do, it’s not going to be for everyone. Some people just don’t get it, and again, that’s more about them than it is you. I have always found it motivating for someone to tell me I can’t do something.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’m a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, releasing my 3rd album, “Outside The Lines” on May 3. My musical style is often described as “one foot in the blues, one foot in everything else”. Music generally and playing guitar specifically has always been a huge part of my life. When I was a kid I’d practice literally all day, and have to be reminded to eat. Somewhere along the way I got sidetracked into some gigs that paid the bills, but weren’t really where my heart was musically, and for a time that sort of squelched my love for it. After getting back from an extended overseas tour on one of those gigs I took some time to reconnect with my love of music and have tried to stay true to that ever since. I have had pressure and advice to conform to a more traditional blues style in order to be more marketable, but I’ve chosen to stay true to myself even if that means a longer, harder road commercially.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Understanding the power of consistency over time in developing your skills is so important. When they say you need ten thousand hours, I think that may be an understatement. If you put in the time, and work, you’ll make progress. You also need perseverance in that sometimes you have to keep going even if it feels futile. You will have moments where it seems all is lost, or things are hopeless, and you need to resolve yourself to keep at it regardless. Don’t trust that voice in your head when it tells you you can’t. From a practical standpoint, I think organizing my booking and marketing communications using a good CRM program was a huge step – one of my weaknesses is my memory, so scheduling tasks and follow-up emails was a huge help, and now as things have grown with the number of them that are required, I simply couldn’t do without it.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
The biggest challenge is getting seen and heard in such a crowded marketplace of content online. There are thousands of songs released on Spotify every day, who knows how many videos added to youtube. Getting your stuff in front of people organically is a huge challenge, and it’s an absolute necessity now.

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