Crowd Control Q&A | Sterling Masters

1. Where did you get your start as a musician?
I began performing live at around 14 or 15 years old. Mostly country parties in vacant fields and a few run down juke joints out in East Texas.


2. Tell us about one of your favorite musical experiences.
Performing with Fair to Midland, House Harkonen and a few other big groups in my first band. Opening for Ted Nugent and Foghat in college for a festival in Waco was pretty rad.


3. What do you think is the biggest misconception about the music industry?
That you have to be talented or beautiful or connected to be successful. Those these are nice if you've got them, but there are plenty of people in the industry that have none of it. The one thing most of them have in common is perseverance. Sounds cliché, but it's true.


4. How do you keep yourself grounded as a musician? (as in dealing with the highs + lows)
Lol, I haven't had nearly as many highs as I've had lows. I just keep my head up. Your worst day as a musician is still better than your best day working retail. If anything, the lows ALWAYS make for great songwriting.


5. How do you find ways to stand out in such an over-saturated market such as music?
Write music that matters. 30 - 40 years later, no one cares that KISS wore makeup or that Elton John wore a feather boa or that David Bowie was ambiguous about his sexuality. They just remember good music that meant something.


6. What is your number one piece of advice for a person wanting to take music seriously?
You can't want to. You either do or don't. If you haven't made up your mind about it, regardless of your status, you're going to be just one more person in the future who meets a musician or an artist and says, "I used to want to do that, too." There's way more of those than there are people who "made it." You decide which one you're going to be.

30 March | 2018