Artist Story: Nicholas Barron

Nicholas Barron, Singer/Songwriter

My idea of success has changed significantly over the 24 years that I've been making my living through music. I felt successful when I was 21 years old and playing in the Chicago subway. It was there, and on the Chicago streets in the bitter months of winter, where I learned to sing blues and soul music, both in solo and ensemble settings. Making enough money to buy dinner and have a delicious beer or two felt like success.

Back then, all I cared about was singing and playing guitar. The music and the experiences were pure and raw, and it was the most immediate response of my musical life to date. To get people to reach into their wallets or purses because they were touched by what I was doing was magical. Being a street musician is where I earned my stripes. I founded C.A.S.A. (The Coalition for the Advancement of Street Art) to stop the city from banning street artists and with the help of the ACLU and one alderman, we won!

During my tenure as a street musician, I got a job at Guitar Center in the middle of winter and quit 45 minutes later. I was asked to hang Christmas lights in the guitar rooms. I began to imagine the lights as a tether preventing me from playing the guitars which I had no desire to sell. So, I quit my short stint in retail, got my guitar, went to Chicago and State, and made $100 that day!

Shortly thereafter, I started playing in various Chicago venues seven nights per week. I sometimes had up to 15 gigs a week. My hierarchy of needs was advancing and success now meant that my music could support all my basic living expenses. Constant performing in venues helped blaze a trail into commercial jingle singing. Singing on jingles increased my disposable income exponentially. I considered this to be great success.

At a certain point, I got the proverbial “carrot” dangled in front of my face and was told I could be a star and all the rest of it. For a long spell, I grappled with that illusion. My idea of success was then defined by becoming famous. I recorded with multi Grammy-winning producers and showcased multiple times for major labels in Los Angeles and New York. I’ve gotten about as close as one can get to tasting commercial success in music only to see it vanish in an instant. To crash down from such heights, however, can awaken one’s sense to what really makes a successful music career. This was true in my case.

Among the many peaks and valleys of my career, one thing has remained constant: all along, I have been writing and recording my original material. I spend countless hours working on the best metaphor and line for a song and imagining myself as Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen. I’ll finish a song and play it that very night at whatever venue I am performing at and get a good response from people. It’s that same response which felt like success when I was on the Chicago subway and it still garners a huge feeling of accomplishment inside of me today. It has always been about being present in that moment. That is really all that defines success.

It’s important to note that we live in a culture now that is obsessed with fame. There is an ever-present belief and enormous social pressure that “making it” in music defines success. The truth is that only a handful of artists of any kind achieve this to become part of the ‘American Dream’ lexicon; their work and their faces splashed ubiquitously. I have wanted to achieve that and many of my past decisions have been based on achieving that level of alloyed success.

That said, I have been joyously playing music night-in and night-out for years. I have bought a few houses and other material possessions and supported my family with my music. I have recorded eight CDs of original music and in the microcosm have a great fanbase of folks who claim that my songs have helped their lives in one way or another. Just the fact that I can sing and play fluently and communicate with other musicians and my audience through music is beautiful to me. I am in the best moment of my life as a person and as an artist. I am done with everything that is about a system which works to define you and challenges your authenticity.

The extreme highs and lows that I have experienced in music thus far have positioned me to come full circle in what I feel makes a successful music career. I will never compromise again, or be told that ‘if I only changed this or that,’ I would be successful. My success is about communicating my music. New technology allows me to achieve this and still make a viable living. I feel resolved and released from the chains I placed around my soul when I was seeking commercial fame as a means to define my success. I feel that I have “made it” by being able to play and sing powerfully and to affect people’s lives—and in essence, my own. That alone defines success.

Nicholas Barron is a singer-songwriter who has made his living through music for more than two decades. He has seven records out on his own label, and one record that was released on Candyrat records out of Milwaukee. In January of 2007, the Nicholas Barron Band was introduced as the launch artists for the New York Times Emerging Artists series at Joe’s Pub in NYC. He has opened for: Al Green, BB King, Joan Armatrading, Johnny Cash, War, Average White Band, Michael Bolton, The Meters, Eleni Mendel, Tuck and Patti, Charlie Hunter, Medeski Martin and Wood, Karl Denson, and Buddy Guy. He has sung on numerous national and local TV spots, including Comcast, Coors, Miller Light, Cherry 7-Up, McDonalds, Applebees, Supercuts, and on and on. In August 2008, Nicholas began painting and is now a full-time painter as much as he is a musician.