“A lot of the time, if something could go wrong, it did,” Ryan, the main force behind the Rock band Sound & Shape, tells us. Making a living as a musician can be hard, so we talked to Ryan about life on the road – DIY tours, scammers, and if playing live is enough to get your fans these days.

Sound & Shape are a Rock act that can easily slip past you, but they’re also one of those rare gems that makes you ask yourself, why haven’t I heard this before? They come from Nashville and have released three critically acclaimed albums and four EPs since forming in 2005. Not many people have heard of them outside of the USA, but they’re a band every true Rock fan should know. We talked to founding member, guitarist and vocalist Ryan Caudle, and were inspired to use his story to give all the young Rock bands out there some good advice.

We could argue that all musicians first fall in love with music because they hear a band or singer that inspires them. It was no different with Ryan. “My dad was a singer and keyboard player in bands while I was growing up, so I was always around music. The real Big Bang for me, though, came when I heard The Beatles for the first time. I was in first grade and they just blew my mind, and that made me really want to be a musician,” the Sound & Shape singer tells us.

“There have been a few times we’ve been screwed over, most recently through a pretty worthless publishing deal. Mostly it’s empty promises and relying on people I shouldn’t have.”