We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brad Williamson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brad below.
Hi Brad, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
In a world where social media is the main avenue for musicians cultivate an audience, developing imposter syndrome is nearly unavoidable. This fact combined with my time at Berklee, an environment that breeds & reinforces imposter syndrome, has made me extremely familiar with the topic. Not only did it hinder my own growth for a time, but I’ve watched it stifle some of the greatest talents I’ve ever seen in my friends and peers. To put so much time into an incredibly vulnerable craft and still doubt your worthiness as an artist is a soul-crushing battle, and all too common in those who aspire to be a part of the music industry. As a perfectionist, I know this battle well. However, through a lot of time and reevaluation of how I view the world, I was able to overcome my battle with imposter syndrome and become confident & secure in my abilities.
To me, imposter syndrome was feeling that I wasn’t doing enough to compete with all the musicians on social media; meaning I wasn’t posting enough, learning hard enough material, getting the right gigs, making good enough music, etc. And when people only ever post their best moments on social media, how could I not feel that way? I was comparing my everyday, busy, boring life to the most exciting things happening in everyone else’s. Breaking this illusion was a big part of overcoming imposter syndrome for me. It helped me to see that while social media is a good tool for keeping up with people and connecting, it’s a horrible tool for assessing your own self worth. These people all live everyday, busy, boring lives themselves, but since we only see a brief snapshot of their successes, we assume that the rest of their life must be just as exciting and perfect. This assumption is wildly untrue and toxic.
Another trait of imposter syndrome was comparing my skills to those of my peers, or to other musicians I aspired to be. Witnessing the sheer talent of my classmates at Berklee and the countless other phenomenal musicians I’ve met in my journey can be a way to get inspired, and drive me to work on my own abilities to try and in turn inspire others, which is a truly beautiful thing. This act of comparing was not that. Instead, when I compared myself to others, I focused on all of the things that made me “worse” than them and blew my flaws out of proportion. I’ve found that in order to combat this tendency to compare, I needed to stop thinking of musicians and other artists as objectively “good” or “bad”. Instead of thinking “wow, that bassist is so much better than I am”, I started thinking “wow, I really like what that bassist is doing and it’s really cool. Maybe I could learn to do that too!”. A lot of people think that there’s this imaginary point system that makes musicians objectively “good” or “bad”, but music is entirely subjective by nature. This idea of “good” and “bad” musicians is a social construct, because my definition of “good” and “bad” will never be the exact same as someone else’s. Therefore, no musician (myself included) is objectively “good” or “bad”, regardless of how I perceive their talent (or how people perceive mine). Ultimately, it’s about taking any element of competition or ranking out of music, because truthfully, it doesn’t belong in music and reinforces lots of toxic thinking as a result, often leading to imposter syndrome. Opting out of this imaginary competition has allowed me to focus in on what I can control: how hard I work on myself and my own music.
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?
My name is Brad Williamson, and I’m a 25 year old musician trying to inspire others with my work. I was adopted at birth by an extremely supportive family who has backed me at every step of my journey, which began when I got Guitar Hero for Christmas as a kid and shortly after picked up the real thing at age 9. For my adolescent years, I played in local bands of my own and was a part of the School of Rock program, which gave me opportunities to play with other musicians my age and perform at venues like Red Rocks & Lollapalooza. I then graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2020 with a degree in Bass Performance/Recording & Production, and have since been living & working in Los Angeles, CA.
After moving to LA, I began working at Yamaha Guitar Group as a Quality Tester, and recently became the Quality Lead of Bass Products for Ampeg. Since working there, I’m proud to have been involved in the development of Ampeg’s most recent products, the SGT-DI and Venture Series amps & cabs. I also got to be a part of the official demo videos for these products, which has always been a dream of mine. Having a full-time job as an artist/musician that supports your career and helps you advance in your field is exceedingly rare, so I am incredibly lucky to have this position and love my work. In addition to this, I do hired gun work as a bassist locally which includes cover gigs, backing up artists, session work, and touring. I recently did my first full length tour in October/November with indie group Under the Rug, which included 25 dates all across the US, and now that I’ve been on the road once I definitely have an urge to get back out there again. Living in LA has also given me opportunities to work with artists and companies that I’ve been inspired by for years, such as getting endorsed by Felix Martin’s FM Guitars.
In addition to all of the paid work that I do as a musician, I’m involved in several of my own projects. My progressive metal trio Vicarious, which I sing and play bass for, recently dropped our debut album “ESOTERIA” (which you can find on all streaming platforms), a record that I also did all of the mixing & pre-production work on. The album has so far been well-received, and I’m extremely proud of all 60 minutes of music on this record. We’ve spent the past 3 years writing, re-writing, recording, re-recording, mixing, and re-mixing it until we were 100% satisfied with the way it sounded. Lots of work went into making this music a reality, and the fact that it’s out in the world and people are finally hearing it makes me more excited than I can put into words.
I’m also in an Australian cinematic-progressive metal band called Nova Incepta, despite having never actually been to Australia! I auditioned for the group back in 2017 when I started at Berklee, and shortly after started working with the band on the album that we released in 2020, “Visions of Arcadia”. The wonders of the internet made this band possible, since I’ve never been in the same room as the drummer and we recorded and released the album remotely. Regardless of this challenge, we continue to work on new music together and will hopefully have another album ready to release in the coming year.
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?
As a musician, the three qualities or skills that I’ve found to be most important in my journey are having a good ear, having a professional work ethic, and being a good person. It’s funny that even with all of the time I’ve spent studying theory and techniques, only one of those actually relates to music. I’ll start with that one:
Having a good ear and being able to critically listen to music is a skill that so many musicians overlook. So much of a musician’s time is spent training their hands on their instrument that a lot of people may not consider training their ear as well. I don’t have perfect pitch, but I’ve worked up my ear to be able to identify everything from the notes in a car alarm to the key of a song I’ve never heard before. This ability has enabled me to learn entire sets of songs without even touching my instrument, because I can visualize the notes I need to play without ever picking up my bass. As a working musician, this is like a superpower that allows me to pick up songs in a single listen in most cases. For the tour I did last year with Under the Rug, the first time that I played 95% of the 20+ song setlist was on stage the first night of the tour because I was able to confidently learn the songs simply by listening to them over and over again and practicing them in my head. Of course it took years to train my ear to this level, but working on it every day by playing “musical parkour” (as Victor Wooten calls it) and basically trying to transcribe any sound that I hear (bird chirps, appliance noises, random parts of songs I listen to), was a huge part of this training. Learning that I could practice my instrument without having it in my hands by visualizing my playing was also a game-changer in this process.
Having a professional attitude in the work that you do as a musician is what gets you called back for more gigs. I was fortunate enough to have this beaten into my head ad nauseam as a young musician, but so many musicians think that they can rely solely on their talent to progress in the industry. The truth is, once you reach a certain level of skill on your instrument, any amount of skill past that is irrelevant if someone out there with less skill than you is more professional. Showing up on time/early, putting in adequate preparation for the job, and communicating effectively are all things that take zero talent, yet make a world of difference in being called back for a gig. I’ve seen too many talented musicians lose work over the silliest things, like no calling/no showing, being unprepared for the job, or letting their ego convince them that they’re “too good” for the work they’re doing. Whether it’s a $100 gig or $1000 gig, bringing the same level of professionalism to all work that you do will set you apart from the rest and help you to make a positive name for yourself in the community.
Lastly, being a good person is key to a successful music career. You can be the greatest bassist who’s ever lived, but if you’re a jerk to everyone you work with and are a pain to be around, your career won’t last very long. A lot of people in the industry refer to this as being a “good hang”, that is, you’re enjoyable to be around even after the music stops. So much time of working with other musicians is spent not playing music and just being in each other’s presence, so if your presence is hard to be around, then other people will pick up on that very quickly. Once again, there’s a threshold for skill where someone out there can do exactly what you do (if not slightly better or worse), and if they’re a more enjoyable person to work with then there’s a good chance they’re going to get the job over you. Conversely, you may not be the most skilled musician in comparison to other people in the community, but if you’ve established positive working relationships with everyone you work with, you’ll probably get called more for gigs.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
The most impactful thing my parents ever did for me and continue to do for me is to provide support and encouragement. This support was so impactful and plentiful for me that I was honestly a bit shell shocked as I made my way into the world and realized how rare it is, especially in the music industry. So many parents are quick to shut down big dreams of being a rockstar or “making it” in music, and countless passions are lost to the wind as a result. I was fortunate enough to have parents that did nothing but support, encourage, and nourish my passion for music, and because of this I feel as if I’ve been given a springboard to build a fruitful and sustainable career off of. They never once questioned if it was the “smart choice” or if it was “just a phase”, because they saw the love and drive I had for this thing and trusted that I knew what I wanted. The fact that they openly listened to me and treated me like I knew what I was doing, instead of diminishing my ideas and dreams, greatly improved my ability and desire to pursue music, and I can’t ever repay them enough for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.btwbassofficial.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/btwbassofficial
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/btwbassofficial
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@BradWilliamsonMusic
- Other: [email protected] https://www.tiktok.com/@btwbassofficial https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3f8DAagPICsfUK3tzRa8tN?si=ed81f39dfe024ee9 (Spotify discography)
Image Credits
Photos w/ basses: Felix Martin Solo shot: Katie Winton
