Pam Ross sits down for a conversation with Nashville Rocks
In January this year, singer songwriter Pam Ross was scheduled to come through Nashville and play several shows. I was lucky anough to catch her rolling through town and pursuade her to sit down with me for a conversation about her many awards and more. This is that conversation. You can see the video or audio on Youtube, Spotify, iHeart, iTunes and more.
Download her music and see the entire transcription below the video.
00:00:09:23 – 00:00:26:16
What’s up rockers? Hey, it’s Jason with Nashville Rocks, and I’m hanging out tonight at the Opryland Hotel with Pam Ross. Pam, thanks for coming out. Thanks for having me. Yeah, yeah. I asked her earlier if I should say Pamela or Pam. She said that was cool. She wants people to call her Pam.
00:00:26:16 – 00:00:52:02
Yeah, but you’re real busy. You are another award winning artist that I’ve had the privilege to interview. So tell me about the award part of things. Are you, like, actively going, I want to submit for all these awards or are they kind of coming naturally or how does that award scenario work?
Most of them, are through Michael, my manager.
00:00:52:03 – 00:01:10:07
Okay. With Oh, yes. And records. I know him well. Yes. He’s awesome. He couldn’t say enough good things about him. He, takes care of a lot of that. Okay? He knows, you know, he’s like, hey, this is a great song for this. Yeah. And, you know, just. And he let you know when it’s time. I. It’s time to submit for the Jose Awards again.
00:01:10:07 – 00:01:26:17
Right. He sends out an email. Hey, it’s time to submit. That’s all right. And so for some awards he does it for us. Others he’s like, I can’t do this for you. Like the Jose. Right. If you want to, you know, here’s the link. But here’s your reminder, you know, submit. He sends the reminders for all of that.
00:01:26:23 – 00:01:47:03
And I love your I love your email. Signature that’s got all of your awards. And I think that’s fantastic. Like when you’re communicating with people from from a music business standpoint, if you’re communicating with people like that and you’re letting them know, hey, look, look here, I’m an award winning artist, you should pay attention, right? Yeah, I hope it helps.
00:01:47:05 – 00:02:05:23
I think it will. I think it does. I think, you know, I see a lot of artists. Sometimes they don’t take the business side of things seriously enough. Right? You have to go into business for a reason. And it’s. It is the boring side. No one likes doing it. I don’t want to sit in front of my computer doing all this stuff, filling up your show.
00:02:06:04 – 00:02:24:19
So, yeah, I don’t know. It’s like the I just want to play my guitar. I want to write songs, I want to go out and play. But unfortunately, you know, that’s not the way it is, is, you know. Yeah, absolutely. You got to do the best. You’ve got help from me. Yes. Thank you Michael. Great. Yeah. That’s right.
00:02:24:21 – 00:02:45:09
I’ve worked with him with several other artists. He does a fantastic job. He’s constantly letting me know what all his people are doing all the time. He’s good about that. So you got him. Do you have any any other support team members? No. No. He just you and Michael going at it that my wife, she she does.
00:02:45:09 – 00:03:06:04
She does. Okay, okay. She helps a lot. She takes care of the, the the taxes and all of that. Okay. You know, I just keep a record of what’s hard to do and how much I make. You know, how many CDs I’ve sold, how much I’ve spent, when I’ve had to travel. Right? You know, and then I hand that over to her, and she does the taxes thing.
00:03:06:04 – 00:03:21:03
And you do have to do that. People forget that. Chris notices that you are you’re doing this for a living. Oh, the buyers paying you in cash. Don’t worry about it. Oh, no, you have to worry about it. Yeah. I hate to break it to all you guys getting out there. Yeah. So so let’s talk about that. You’re talking about the business side.
00:03:21:03 – 00:03:49:07
We’re talking about team members. It’ll help. You can hear the boat going by down here at Opryland Hotel. Tell us about, like, what your advice would be to a new artist coming up nowadays coming up in Nashville or coming up in any town that’s got like a good music scene. What would you recommend to new artist? The thing I always recommend is, be original, be yourself.
00:03:49:09 – 00:04:06:13
You see a lot of people, especially in Nashville, when you go out, they try to emulate their favorite artists. They try to look like them. They try to sound like them. They try to sound just like whatever’s cool right now. Yeah. And you know, the train’s left the station. The people out there, you know, if they want to.
00:04:06:15 – 00:04:23:02
I’m just gonna throw a name out, okay? Tim McGraw. Okay. You love Tim McGraw. So you look like him. You sound like a what? The record industry has a Tim McGraw fans already have that sound that they can go to. You know, what made Nirvana so special was they started something new. It was different. That’s what was like.
00:04:23:04 – 00:04:45:16
That’s right. And so anytime you get these really huge artists, you find that they’ve started something. They didn’t follow in other people’s footsteps. And that’s harder a lot of times because, you know, it’s like nobody comes nobody comes to the early shows. Yeah, you’re not sounding like so-and-so and you’re not. Well, no. And I don’t want to, you know, because you can’t shine in someone else’s shadow.
00:04:45:19 – 00:05:09:11
You’re only going to go so far. You’re just going to. So it’s just it’s a harder road being you, being you, be you. I say that whatever that is, you race it and and be it for better. That’s right, that’s right. You be you man or or man or whoever. Okay, cool. So, so the only reason we’re meeting tonight is because you got gigs here locally going on, like, right now.
00:05:09:15 – 00:05:27:08
You got one tonight? Yep. On my way to which is the 20th, its inaugural day. It’s MLK day. And it’s a time it’s been a busy day. It’s been a busy, busy day for me. It’s just been like one of those yeah. Yeah kind of days. Absolutely. But you’re you’re at Eastside Molding. Yes, yes I am the how about that.
00:05:27:08 – 00:05:43:15
Have you played Eastside over I have never played. You said no. So looking forward to it. Same as tomorrow night when I’m with Nashville tour stop at, True Music Room. I haven’t played there before, so, I love playing new places. It’s cool to go back to places like the Commodore. I played there all the time.
00:05:43:15 – 00:06:00:03
You were there on the 18th. I was there 18th and 19th. So how was that? Tell me about the Commodore, because I’ve heard mixed reviews. Oh, I love the Commodore. If you’re coming to Nashville and you’re starting out, that’s one of the places I suggest going. Especially as a singer songwriter. Yeah. I mean, that’s what I had to do.
00:06:00:03 – 00:06:18:22
I had to sit there and wait for hours until all the rounds were over to play in the open round. Right. And you get one song and whether you know it or not, that’s your audition. So make it a good one before you get to come back to the Commodore, you’re gonna go back and open rounds. But if you want to get in a round, you have to play for them first.
00:06:19:00 – 00:06:38:23
You have to wait all night long. Play in the open round. You get one song. If they like you, you can come back, okay. And you playing, and then you start getting booked in rounds and. And that’s how like America’s Got Talent or something. There’s judges sitting there and it’s, you know, whether doing you or whether, you know, it’s on Saturdays, Tuesdays it’s Jimmy and Analisa and Sundays it’s Debbie Champion.
00:06:38:23 – 00:07:00:00
And they’re all just awesome people, wonderful people. And, you know, they’re just looking for good songwriters. Yeah. And so, you know, and they’re there to help. There really are. That’s great. And, you know, you get in there, you start playing there when you’re meeting up, you know, if you graduated. Oh, as soon as I got off stage I’m like, how can I get a show here and play one of the rounds?
00:07:00:02 – 00:07:17:10
Like, oh, you just had your audition. What do you want to be like? Okay, I was I thought that might be going on, but I wasn’t sure. Nice. But, you know, and and you meet other songwriters. They’re too nice. Yeah. And so you get to meet a lot of people. Do you co-write? I’m not a lot. I do have a co-write on Wednesday.
00:07:17:12 – 00:07:38:09
I don’t I want to co-write more. It’s like a goal of mine, but not living here. It’s hard. So you got to do it on zoom. And, we’re I’m living right now. I that’s gonna be interesting songwriting to. Yeah. But really, it’s, you know, you know, I write most of my lyrics when I’m out running, so.
00:07:38:10 – 00:07:53:22
Yeah, well, that’s kind of where it. When my genius thoughts come to. I’m driving down the interstate and I don’t have a anywhere to write. I’ve written lyrics. I wrote a song on the way to Pittsburgh. When? To playing in Pittsburgh. So it’s, you know, it’s really not that. Yeah, it’s not that. Well, what? Yeah, we know you’re a singer songwriter.
00:07:53:22 – 00:08:12:16
We know you’re playing it. You said, well, we know you’ve done Commodore and you’re going to be at this. Tell me again, true. So it’s a Nashville tour stop showcase at a true music bar. National tour stop. It’s inside the Cambria Hotel. What would you say is your songwriting style if you had to label yourself? I don’t like to label, but I also like to label.
00:08:12:16 – 00:08:30:06
Oh, yeah, it’s called Pan Music. It’s called Pan Music Ubu. It’s because I write in a blend of genres that’s what I want my Jose Award for, female multi-genre artist. Nice. And it’s not just I write a country song. Was there a song? Was there a song? It was a body of work. They look at the body of work.
00:08:30:08 – 00:08:50:18
It’s, you know. Yeah, I have some songs lean Country, some little rock, some more pop, some are more like. And there are some songs that have everything just thrown in it. So I listen to different music. So when I write, that comes out right. When I’m in Nashville, I do play the more leading country side songs, for the most part.
00:08:50:20 – 00:09:08:07
And when I go to different places, you know, at, oh, about a rock song, okay, I’ll play a blues song. Okay, I’ll do whatever. So I, I write in a lot of different genres, and it’s, it’s not a purpose. It’s really just because that’s just how you do. I blend genres because I listen to different styles of music.
00:09:08:07 – 00:09:31:05
Right? Right. That’s great. That’s great. So tell us how we can find out more about you and what you’re up to and when you’re going to be playing and where. Hey, I’m Ross music.com and I kept it simple. You want to find me on Facebook go to Pam Ross music. You want to find me on Instagram, go to Pam Ross music, etc. etc. etc. I wish I could do that with Nashville Ross.
00:09:31:06 – 00:09:51:21
It’s it’s it’s just I, you know, some people, they have different names all over. Yeah. No. Yeah. It’s Pam Ross music. That’s where you find me. Anywhere you could stream music, blah blah blah blah. It’s very simple. Nice. Well, we’ll look forward to what you’re up to. I hope things go well tonight. Thank you. And then the gig in two days.
00:09:51:21 – 00:10:14:11
Right. I’m forgetting things already. Tonight. Tomorrow night. Tonight. Tomorrow night. Tomorrow night. Nice. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Is there anything that you want to get out there to fans or potential fans? I have a new single coming out next month, February 14th. Not because it’s a great love song. It was just happened to be that that was the time to drop next single, right?
00:10:14:14 – 00:10:40:23
But I do have another single coming out. Is my second album, and this is my third single from that album, and we’re talking about on Spotify, just streaming and anywhere you can stream. Okay. And I’ll be releasing songs all this year from that album, so lots of music tickets. That’s fantastic. How do you feel? And I’ve got places to code in here, but how do you feel about the streaming environment as opposed because, you know, it’s changed over the years?
00:10:40:23 – 00:11:01:08
How do you feel about it? It’s a mixed bag. It it’s good and that people can get their music out there. And you know, I love that. I mean, everyone loves that you can hear so much music. It’s not being controlled by, you know, some record label executives. Right, right. And so you you’ve got to listen to your music if you want to.
00:11:01:09 – 00:11:22:02
And that’s why they don’t have to wait for the radio to play it. The bad side of it is one, you get paid nothing. If I just made $0.50 stream. Yeah. Oh, you know, I’d be rolling in the money. Oh, but you’re, you’re, you know, you’re making 0.0 $0.04. So you’re, you know, it makes it so hard for an artist to make a living.
00:11:22:02 – 00:11:44:19
Right? Even if you get a song cut now, unless it becomes a chart topper, if it’s just on the record, as a songwriter, you don’t make money anymore because people don’t buy the CD. But so. So you’re, you know, an artist has to resort to selling their CDs at their shows, doing their own merch. Yeah, it’s the merch and yeah, and it’s so that’s really the hard part.
00:11:44:19 – 00:12:01:17
It does make it harder to make money. You that’s really the downside of it. So it’s, it’s and you’re forced to do more of the business side of things too. You’re forced to concern yourself with. Yes. People used to buy more CDs and now it’s like, well, why buy CD? I can go online and stream it for free.
00:12:01:17 – 00:12:19:05
Exactly. Well, because you’re making me poor and it’s. Well, that’s, you know, please, my CV, you know, it’s it’s so it’s I but I understand that, you know, people aren’t wealthy. It’s like why I mean, I can go I’ve talked to a couple buddies, man. They’re like, man, I think what I’m going to do is I’m going to start handing out USBs, man.
00:12:19:07 – 00:12:35:17
I’m just going to like, have a USB with my latest album on and be like, hear that? I’ve. Yes, I’ve started looking into that. That is a lot easier because a lot of people don’t have CD players either, right? Yeah, I have a lot of CDs. There are some people who still want that tangible title. I want to look at it.
00:12:35:17 – 00:12:53:02
I want to open it up and see the lyrics. They miss that. Absolutely. But there’s a lot of people that that USB they would love. They want that they can just go plug that in and they’ll buy. They’re more likely to buy the full album when they have that, because they don’t want to see it. Right.
00:12:53:05 – 00:13:15:14
But they can plug this in and listen to it. I mean, and also it’s a generational thing, like back, back when I was younger in my 20s or whatnot, you know, it was a deal. Like, let’s say you were talking about Nirvana earlier, you know, when when that came out, you were you were burning that CD up. You were playing it over and over and over and over listening to every single song on the album.
00:13:15:17 – 00:13:29:02
Yeah. And nowadays it’s a single track. And that’s a shame, because you’re missing a lot of good music. Yeah, I think so. You know, there’s.
00:13:29:04 – 00:13:46:05
It’s, that’s one of the reasons why I released one song every couple months. Right. If you say it, you do because you have to direct people. Otherwise, if you just drop all your songs at once, people are gonna be like, oh, no. Number eight. Yeah. Oh, listen to number two. Yeah. And will they get around to listening to the other songs?
00:13:46:05 – 00:14:02:07
Yeah, but if you drop one every couple months, they’ll get around, listen to that song. Right. And then they’ll go back and listen to it. They’ll go back and listen to it. And then in a couple months and you’re hoping them, they’re putting it in their library so that they can. Yeah, they’re saving it. And then, you know, you drop your next one.
00:14:02:08 – 00:14:22:00
And so it really makes it a lot better. It’s a mistake for anyone to just drop a whole album at one time. You know, it’s nuts. Got it. You’re hurting yourself. That’s what. Thank you again so much for coming out. Thank you for having me. I appreciate the conversation and understanding how the music business works and everything. That’s fantastic.
00:14:22:00 – 00:14:41:12
Really is. So, yeah. So if you want more Pam Ross, I’m gonna have links in all the descriptions of the whatever video I end up publishing with this. It’s going to be on the website, everything. Make sure you go and stream her on Spotify. And hit her website. Pam ross.com. See, I’ve already got that memorized because she did it so well.
00:14:41:14 – 00:14:50:13
Yes. Thank you so much, Nashville Rockers. Make sure to hit the website, get yourself a new Nashville Rocks t shirt, and, we’ll see you next time.