We recently connected with Samuel & Kim Barker and have shared our conversation below.
Samuel & Kim, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
Samuel: I can honestly say I get my work ethic from my mom. She worked multiple jobs to provide for my brother and I as we grew up. Whenever she had time off, she would spend that time with us going to see movies or attending our school functions. She really never stopped doing things even if it was detrimental to her health via a lack of sleep and exhaustion. While it is preferable to get a good night’s sleep, sometimes you have moments that are more important and fleeting like being with your kids or getting to be a part of a moment that won’t come around again. Working hard to put yourself in the position to achieve those moments calls for a solid work ethic.
Kim: I grew up in a family with two working parents. There was never enough which meant they sacrificed and worked multiple jobs so we didn’t feel left out. They also taught my brother and I how to be valuable and help the people who you are able. There’s definitely an element of “go, go, go” there. Not as intense as Samuel, but my family did a lot.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
Together, we co-front the Houston-area folk-rock band, Brightwire. We are currently entering our 7th year as a musical outfit, which has been rounded out by our dobro/steel player Michael Helfenstein for 4 years now. This past year, 2022, was probably our most successful year we’ve had as a band. It started off with the Houston Chronicle naming our last full-length record (Cracked, Flawed and Frayed) as one of the top local releases of 2021, then we moved into recording a new EP (Ghosts Best Left Alone) which has gotten airplay across the nation. We toured for the first time since 2019 which allowed us to play a couple of festivals, visit new states and play with a lot of bands we respect and admire. We also teamed up with our local ACE District to start a monthly open mic event in the Baytown Town Square. There really aren’t any venues for musicians to perform at in the city, so we really wanted to create a space for our local musicians to come together and socialize in hopes of creating an active music community here.
This year, we’re working on some new recordings, preparing for an April tour through the Midwest, in June we’re hitting New Mexico and keeping an eye to the future for more touring. It’s early in the year so there are still so many opportunities to keep everything growing!
Oh yeah, we also started a podcast! It’s called Music in the Minor League. We release new episodes every week. We have conversations with other bands out there in the minor leagues of music chasing the dream or just happy to be out there making music after all these years. We’ve already got quite a few episodes recorded and are looking forward to sharing those with everyone. We initially just wanted to do two a month, but response has been so good, we’ve moved it to weekly!
To circle back to the work-ethic question we began with: we’re also working our secondary jobs. One of us works in social work, one is a librarian and one is a teacher, which keeps any moment away from the band filled with activity. It’s a lot of work, but we’re never bored.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Samuel: For me, the three qualities, skills and/or areas of knowledge that served me best on my journey are as follows:
1) Knowledge gained through my employment: In my career, I’ve worked extensively with technology, literature and recording. These are all things that allowed me to accumulate skills that made pursuing music much easier. Rather than needing money to pay people to record, we’re able to do a lot of that ourselves due. We’re also able to write our own press releases, bios and the like, which helps keep overhead low.
2) My ability to remember most everything. Kim always hassles me about my ability to memorize things quickly and to recall them with great accuracy. It helps with learning lyrics, remembering staff at the venues we play and remember folks we meet in the audience at shows…and about any other facet of being a working performer.
3) Finally, as we started with, a strong work-ethic: By having a strong work ethic, it has allowed me to go the extra mile to provide opportunities to myself (and others) I wouldn’t have had otherwise. When I wasn’t prolific enough as a songwriter to get into certain peer groups, I made up for my lack of experience by running sound, helping with bookings and doing other tasks no one really liked doing. That provided opportunities to not just get into advantageous situations, but to more quickly learn the skills I needed to flourish by being surrounded by artists that were more experienced than I was at the time. Being the small fish in a big pond forced me to work harder and learn more quickly to keep up.
Kim:
1) Never stop learning. I surround myself with smart people that I admire and respect. I try to listen to those people and emulate them. I read a ton, and I love learning. I went to college for the first time in my 40’s. I can’t believe I waited so long, I mean, I could have a doctorate by now!
2) Leave yourself a little room for error. It’s ok (and often admirable) to admit out loud that you can’t know everything and you might be wrong about something. I think that quality goes with along with tolerance, for yourself and for others. Your view can’t be the only view, this world is just too big for that.
3) Don’t stop, keep moving. Incremental progress is still progress.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?
Samuel: My coping mechanism for feeling overwhelmed is to just always feel overwhelmed. It’s like David Banner/The Hulk dealing with his anger: “I’m always angry.” Ha ha. While partially true for me, I usually try to take a breath, focus and let that initial wave of panic wash over me. I think we get caught up too often in not wanting the initial panic to happen, but it’s usually unavoidable. Once that washes over you, it’s easier to focus. Come at it from the view of trying to fix the small parts you can fix and, usually, you eventually knock out the whole problem. Basically, even steady baby steps will eventually get you to your goal, just don’t give up.
Kim: I was taking medication. That wasn’t working very well, it didn’t sit well on my stomach. I, like a lot of people, had to learn to work from home during the pandemic on the fly, with minimal equipment. It was very overwhelming, and distracting myself with audiobooks or TV was my go-to for a long time, until even that didn’t work anymore. About 2 years ago I read a book on meditation (Ten Percent Happier by Dan Harris), and found a lot of what Sam talks about above. Taking a breath, letting yourself sit with that very uncomfortable feeling, be it fear or anger. I have to remind myself as I do that, that I’m not my feelings. It may not be fun, but Sam is correct. You learn to sit with it, take action and move forward. There’s not really a shortcut I have found. Keep trying to focus through it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.brightwiremusic.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brightwiremusic
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brightwiremusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@brightwiremusic
- SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/brightwire-official
- Other: Listen to our podcast at: https://anchor.fm/musicintheminorleague
Image Credits
Feature Photo: Melissa Brawner Free Music Friday: KBTX Hunt Club: John Stoll Old Quarter: John Stoll Open Mic: John Stoll Swing Station: George Blosser
