Meet Nashville’s Rising Stars: Amanda McCarthy

An Interview With Edward Sylvan

Don’t focus too hard on being the hometown hero. I found a lot of musical support in nearby cities and towns, but hardly any in my own hometown. I would often feel down in the dumps that I was booking great shows in Boston and New York City, but couldn’t even get booked for my hometown’s summer concert series. And it took a long time to realize it, but it was a blessing in disguise. I think some musicians thrive on being the big fish in the small pond and become too complacent to dream bigger. I’d rather be a smaller somebody in Nashville than be Queen of Small Town New Hampshire.

As a part of our series about Nashville’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Amanda McCarthy.

Amanda McCarthy is a storyteller compelled to speak the truth. Based in Nashville since 2020, with a 10+ year start to her career in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, she is an award-winning songwriter, entertainer and recording artist. Blending many influences, her original music is the infusion of pop, country, modern folk and rock — sprinkled with millennial snark and the heart of an old soul. Her debut album “Road Trip” was released in 2019 to high acclaim and she tours nationally when possible, with experience in all four corners of the country, including NYC and Los Angeles. Her current single “Don’t Stop Me” was released on March 16, 2022.

Amanda has supported shows for Steven Tyler (of Aerosmith), Hunter Hayes, Train, Imagine Dragons, Rob Thomas, REO Speedwagon, Hall & Oates, OneRepublic, Styx, Jason Lancaster (of Mayday Parade), Pentatonix, James Arthur, Jason Isbell, Natasha Bedingfield, O.A.R., Frank Turner, Fitz & the Tantrums, Hawthorne Heights, Levi Hummon, Alex Preston, and Abby Anderson. She has also been a guest of NASCAR and Royal Caribbean, and had a National Anthem performance televised on ESPN.

Amanda is looking forward to several cuts by other artists along with her own releases throughout 2022. She currently performs solo acoustic, as a duo/trio, and with her full band.

Thank you so much for joining us in this series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us a bit of the ‘backstory’ of how you grew up?

I grew up always loving music. It progressed naturally from Barney into Disney music, into the likes of Taylor Swift/Avril Lavigne/Britney Spears and etc. I tried sports, but it was never my thing and I always gravitated more towards music lessons and programs.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

While I always had a love of music, it was unfortunate circumstances that led to me diving in. At the age of 15, I was going through some traumatic things and didn’t know how to tell anyone. So all of those confessions and processing came out through writing songs. While songwriting came naturally to me, playing guitar did not, but I forced myself to learn because I was starting to play shows and wanted to “graduate” from singing karaoke tracks to actually playing my own songs that I’d written. Even after healing from those events, I fell in love with writing and performing and I was totally hooked.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

The most interesting thing that ever happened to me was that I got to sing for Steven Tyler of Aerosmith. Funny enough, I’d played years prior at a festival he was headlining but I didn’t get to meet him. But on this night, it was a chill bar gig up in the woods of New Hampshire, and he walked in during my last song. It was “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran, and I looked up to him gazing at me and I knew instantly it was him. I didn’t miss a beat in the song, but obviously, I was freaking out internally. I ended up playing one more song and chose to sing “Angel” by Aerosmith. I gave him space to eat with his family but he came to talk to me after and he was so so kind. I posted on Facebook about it and it ended up drawing attention from major regional news outlets in New Hampshire and Massachusetts. It even ALMOST went national, but this happened right before Covid hit, so that news ended up taking precedence. But, to this day I am so so grateful for this one in a million chance. It wasn’t just that a celebrity walked into a bar — it’s that he is truly one of my biggest musical inspirations since I was a kid.

Can you share with us an interesting story about living in Nashville?

I am still only a year and a half into living in Nashville, so I don’t have any particularly interesting stories yet. But I think the most interesting thing about living in Nashville is that my Steven Tyler story above, which was a one-in-a-million chance in New Hampshire, is just another day in Nashville. If you’re not running into a major celebrity, you’re probably not far from their manager, publicist, co-writer or cousin. I once had to follow someone in a round at the Commodore Grille that had penned songs for Charley Pride- THAT was pretty wild for me.

Can you share with us a few of the best parts of living in Nashville? We’d love to hear some specific examples or stories about that.

I’ll be honest — when I moved to Nashville to pursue music, I feared that I was going to run into a lot of mean, catty and toxic behavior. But I’ve seen so little of that here — I mean there’s always going to be a bad egg or two — but most people are just here to write good songs, play good shows and have a good time doing it. And if we’re being honest, that’s something I struggled with back home. The musicians I vibed with the most on a personal level weren’t usually in my genre, so while I had great friends and great support, it felt a little lonely musically. I decided to start hosting rounds here as the “Nashville Writers Collective” and that has been a blessing not only musically but in making friends, and truly having a like-minded community that supports each other.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

I was playing one of my earliest shows when I was 16 and I dropped my guitar pick. Even now, I am still not great with strumming by hand alone. So to this day, I always keep a spare pick in my pocket or close enough to reach so if I drop it, I can grab another one without missing a beat.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

My Auntie Debbie was my first “manager” when I picked up a guitar at 15 and decided I wanted to perform the songs I was writing. She helped me book my first shows, start my social media presence, paid for voice lessons, anything I needed to get started. As I got older and started to learn more about it and get the hang of it, I became fascinated with the process and started doing most of it myself. But even as I took the reins she still came to all my shows and was hands down my biggest promoter and cheerleader. She passed away from cancer in 2017, but I still carry her energy with me every day.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

A lot of the songs I’m writing right now are a lot more introspective and reflective. My life is in a good place and I feel content, so I’ve been processing a lot of old feelings through my music. I’m currently working on an EP that addresses traits about myself that I don’t like and working past them. My new single “Don’t Stop Me” is the first single from that EP. Following the EP will be a full-length album that puts old relationship grievances to rest, or just says anything I have left to say, leading up to the moment I get married in 2023 so that once I say “I do” — everything else is behind me for good. I’m also always working on writing songs for other artists, which is a really fun and different way to be creative as a songwriter. And honestly, sometimes I like being the behind-the-scenes songwriter even more than being in the forefront as the artist.

What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Everyone is going to tell you that you need to be this, that, or the other cookie-cutter thing to be successful. For me, it was everyone trying to box me into being JUST a country artist, when I also wanted to explore the pop and rock genres. It was around this time that I wrote a song of mine called “Elephant in the Room” that is more rock-centered, and it opened doors for me at the time I would’ve never imagined for me. I consider it to be the song that started my career and it’s still one of my most successful to this day.

2. Talent is NOT everything. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a room and thought I was the most talented person there. I was never a natural or child prodigy when it came to music — it took me a long time to be decent at guitar and my voice needed a lot of development. It was overwhelming as a teenager first starting out to be surrounded by people who were more skilled than me, and I was SO sure they were going to be famous. But many of them fell away from music after they got too old for their parents to do everything for them. I’ve been doing this for over 10 years now, and I know for a fact that hard work and passion is 90% of the reason I’ve accomplished anything I have in music so far.

3. You can make decent money singing covers at bars and restaurants. This may seem like a no-brainer to some people, but for all the advisers that came to my school and talked about different career paths in music, no one ever mentioned this. It wasn’t until my aunt told me an artist “was only doing paid gigs” that I even knew that was a possibility. From that point, I was a full-time musician within three years.

4. Don’t focus too hard on being the hometown hero. I found a lot of musical support in nearby cities and towns, but hardly any in my own hometown. I would often feel down in the dumps that I was booking great shows in Boston and New York City, but couldn’t even get booked for my hometown’s summer concert series. And it took a long time to realize it, but it was a blessing in disguise. I think some musicians thrive on being the big fish in the small pond and become too complacent to dream bigger. I’d rather be a smaller somebody in Nashville than be Queen of Small Town New Hampshire.

5. Awards are also not everything. That being said, I am BEYOND grateful for the times I have won an award or have been nominated. It’s always special to be recognized. But at a younger age, it would tear me apart when others around me got those nominations and I did not. But many household names never won an award until they won a Grammy.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Honestly, I probably need this advice from someone else! I am the “yes girl” in many regards and don’t always have the right balance of working vs resting. What I’ve found that works well for me is having 3–4 really busy work days at once, and then a few days to rest. Everyone has their own rhythm that works best for them, so I definitely encourage experimenting with what that may be and sticking to it as often as you’re able to.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I dream of a world where artists can make music in any genre they want, without sticking to one thing, BEFORE they are a household name with an enormous fan base. Life is not one color or emotion, and neither is music. The country songs I write mean just as much to me as the pop songs I write. And this expands outside of music as well. Some days I wear pretty flower dresses, some days I dress like an emo kid from 2007, and some days I’m a total tomboy. But just like my music, I try my best to live and dress as I am feeling that day. And I think people, in general, would be a lot happier if they didn’t feel like they had to be one person with one personality all the time. Allowing different sides of you to shine through is the best advice I can give to anyone who is trying to live their most authentic life.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

I once read a fortune cookie that said “A ship in harbor is safe, but that’s not why ships are built” and honestly my life hasn’t been the same since. I am an avid traveler, and many of my songs and experiences wouldn’t exist without taking those trips, or saying yes to an opportunity or experience that seemed crazy at first glance. I also fully believe this quote is partially responsible for me deciding to move to Nashville.

Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. :)

I would do almost anything to talk with Taylor Swift. Not as a crazed fan, but just have lunch with her, as a person, and see who she is outside of social media and the internet. And I would never be opposed to getting to chat with Steven Tyler again.

How can our readers follow you online?

Website — www.amandamccarthy.com

Facebook — www.facebook.com/amandamcmusic

Instagram — www.instagram.com/amandamcmusic

Spotify — www.tinyurl.com/amandamcmusic

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!