Shaun Groves is a husband, father, singer, songwriter, preacher, writer and a bloggger. Formerly with Rocketown Records, Shaun discusses his transition to being an independent artist, the benefits of blogging, Patty Griffin and the importance of community to artists.

Listen to Shaun’s song Miss Texas:

1. What has been the biggest shock/transition between being a label artist and an indie?

I haven’t been independent long enough to experience too many shocks.  Let’s talk again when I’m releasing my first full-length studio album independently.  

The most positive shock so far has been the ease of generating support from fans/friends like you.  A small army of 88 people fully funded the new live CD that just released.  And all I had to do was ask for help on my blog.  And that ask only had the effect it did because a small group of friends started reading my blog almost two years ago and told their friends about it, who told their friends about it, and on and on.  

The big revelation for me since I went independent is how I may need a label even less than thought I did.  I truly have amazing supporters backing and spreading anything I do...and even helping create what I do.  I knew they were out there but I never knew how powerful and generous they were.

2. How do you manage all the hats that you wear? Husband, Father, singer, preacher, blogger, writer?

Not well, honestly.  I’ve been very fortunate to marry well, very well.  

My wife is my opposite in most ways.  For one thing, she’s intensely organized.  Organization is her drug.  I sometimes wonder if we had kids just so she’d have more people to keep organized..you know, in case she got bored after getting my life together.  

We talk almost every night about the next day – what she needs me to get done for her and the kids, what I commit to getting done in my various jobs, when we’ll see each other and just hang out.  

She’s learned that I’m great at the big picture and dreaming for the future but can’t handle a long to do list that covers more than the next couple days.  I shut down.  She helps me take small bites – what I’m doing tomorrow and the next day.  

And that’s all.  Taken in bite-sized chunks like that, all the hats I wear aren’t so overwhelming.

3. What does your typical day/week look like?

There is no typical day or week, which is something I like about my life right now.  Yet I don’t thrive if life is total entropy.  I actually don’t like change at all.  So, there’s a skeleton to my day that never changes.  It’s the muscle and what not added to it every day that varies tremendously.  

Here’s what doesn’t change.  Becky works out and showers before I wake up.  I rise about seven, take a shower while Becky starts waking kids.  I get dressed and finish that process with her, sit down and eat something with my kids, get them dressed, play a little or take the two smallest to pre-school (two days a week). Becky teaches the oldest (now six) at home and runs errands with her while I head up to the bonus room/office and write a blog post, check my web site stats and thank anyone new who’s linking to me, return e-mails and add anything new to the day’s to do list.  Then I work the list until lunch time.  

I eat with my family and then it’s back up stairs or out the door, depending on where my list takes me.  I check my e-mail and my site after I complete something on my list, if I’m at home.  It’s a little doggy treat I reward myself with – a little conversation.  Plus a lot of the mail I get has a little exclamation mark by it and ASAP in the subject line and I truly will miss opportunities if I don’t check in often. I stop working at four and play with my kids until dinner around 5:30.  

Mondays are my days off and Becky’s break from children.  Once a week, usually Tuesday, we go on a date.  And that’s the routine.  It keeps me sane and healthy – that and limiting my travel days each month.  On the road, of course, the schedule is out of my control.

4. How do you see the music industry changing in the next 5 years? How can artists stay on top of that wave?

I truly don’t know.  My best guess is that we’ll continue farther down the various paths we’re already on as an industry.  

Artists who depend heavily upon the traditional touring, radio and expensive advertising/marketing model created BY major labels over the last fifty years will likely have no reason to wean themselves from that way of doing things.  And that way will always work for a certain kind of artist with a certain kind of consumer.  Rumors of that model’s death, I think, are greatly exaggerated.  

And the web 2.0/grassroots driven labels and artists will continue to put new tools in their box, gain more fans who convert new fans who convert new fans and on and on.  And that viral spreading of music is unstoppable now that it’s started.  It will no doubt morph many times over in the next few years, getting monetized and restricted, then freed up and evolved again, then monetized and restricted again and so on.  But it’s here to stay.  

What’s very encouraging to me is how many labels are finally making use of web 2.0 as a kind of street team on-line.  What I’m watching to see, though, is whether or not labels – used to being in control and measuring the effectiveness of every dollar and minute spent – will be able to fully embrace and milk web 2.0 and viral marketing strategies that often cannot be controlled or measured without slowing down the spread of the viruses themselves.

5. In your opinion, what should a musician look for in an “artist friendly label”?

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