Sheridan Reed is a name you are probably familiar with if you are located in Austin, Texas or are one of the 200K people who viewed his debut single on YouTube “We should both be here” in 2018. With his smooth voice and killer hair, Sheridan Reed is working hard to carve his own path in music. We recently had the chance to chat with him about what he has coming up in 2019 and his latest EP release Serendipity, which you can check out here.
Could you tell us a little bit about how you got started and whats in store for you in 2019?
Sheridan: I have been doing music since i was pretty young. Originally playing more classical music and then transitioning over to jazz. I had my first rock band when I was in high school and then in college I was playing with a Jazz combo and an alternative rock band. When I finished school I wanted to commit to music and work on it more so I decided to move to Austin, Texas. It has been a really really good move for me. In the first year I began playing with a local soul band and that kinda got me geared toward that genre and type of music. I had the chance to play with some really great musicians that made me want to work harder to be on the type of level. This led to me trying to figure out more about the sound I wanted to go with and that culminated in me going on a US tour. 12,000 miles around the US in which time I started working with producer Moses Elias. He produced my first single “We should both be here”. We released a music video for that which in about a month had 200K views. Since then, he and I have been spending time working on the groundwork for 2019. I haven’t been performing much because of all the preparations and I recently released my debut EP Serendipity on May 3rd and prior to that I released a new single in March for Money Maker and a video for that. It has also had pretty good reception. My next big show is going to be at the historic Scoot Inn, here in Austin,Texas. This will be my EP release show on June 29th. In addition to shows all over the country we are getting set for my next EP, so we have already got a new one coming in the fall. It’s essentially recorded we just have to tweak a few things and finish up production on it. So, while I am really excited for the EP that just came out, I am even more excited about the next. I really think people will enjoy the progression on that. Aside from all that just working on getting my live shows really tight so they are performances to remember.
As an independent musician trying to make a name for himself in the industry, Is everything you do self funded? Is it hard to generate capital for your dreams when you don’t play a lot of live shows?
Sheridan: Oh definitely. Everything is self funded but luckily I had some private gigs that paid really well. It’s been a bit of a challenge not playing and being more strategic about shows that I do decide to play. Sort of like, not just playing any show that comes along but trying to focus on ones that matter. It can be difficult but opportunities come around and things work out like they are supposed to. That is kind of the theme of the EP Serendipity. This came about last summer, I was in a very similar situation where I had a producer and had a single recorded, basically trying to figure out my game plan for what I was going to do. Then a friend of mine said to me. “When you are on a path, the universe conspires with you.” I found that to be more and more true as time went on. I didn’t exactly have everything figured out but situations and opportunities lined up in a way that, since I was ready to chase them it all ended up working out very well for me. I think that is going to keep happening.
How much creative control over your musical environment would you say you have? In terms of writing songs and choosing which musicians you want to perform live with? Do people suggest musicians or do you just know who you would like to be in your band?
Sheridan: I have complete creative control over everything I am doing. I am still considered a complete independent artist so I have a few different go to musicians that I go with. My core of guys that I typically rely on but my producer also has a huge network of musicians that can fill in if my guys can’t.
Are there any bands of musicians out there that you would really like to go on tour with? Any out there that you say to yourself “I am really feeling what they are doing?”
Sheridan: Oh man…it’s interesting because there are definitely a few musicians I feel that way about but genre wise it’s hard to pin down my genre itself. It’s in the R&B Soul realm. Some artists I dig right now or that I would like to tour with…Vulfpeck is one of my favorites. I am not sure if they would mesh genre wise but I love them. Allen Stone is another guy that is up there that is great. Bigger artists if I am shooting for lofty heights….Jon Bellion would be one of them, Anderson Paak, Leon Bridges, Julia Michaels…She is actually coming to Austin in October and I am trying to finagle my way into seeing what the opening band situation is because I would love to play a show with her. Although, that is kind of shooting high.
Do you remember the moment of your life when you said “I can actually do this, I can actually make a name for myself in the music industry?”
Sheridan: Well actually there were two moments I can think of. One was when I was in high school and was playing with my high school band. We had a pretty decent local following and got some local airtime and played at some prestigious venues like the Crest Theater in Sacramento. I remember when we were first starting out, we were all 16 and we entered this battle of the bands at a place called Club Retro. We ended playing against several older local and bigger bands but we ended up winning that competition. I remember at the end standing on the stage with the whole crowd screaming. That instance got me hooked for sure. Then when I got to Austin and started getting back into playing live again. I had a small performance where some coworkers showed up. They had never seen me perform music before and they were definitely pleasantly surprised. They were essentially like “Wow, you can really do this”. It was moments like that which helped me realize that “Wow, maybe it isn’t just me thinking I can do this” When I think about it, if I wasn’t doing this what else would I do? I honestly can’t imagine anything else or my life any different right now. The last couple of years have been focused on long term career planning. There is always a lot of uncertainty and a lot of things that are typically up in the air but it’s the life I have subscribed to at this point.
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Derek Jones
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