Today we’d like to introduce you to Amanda Roark.
Amanda, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Music has always been a major part of my life. I grew up listening to all genres, and my parents are both musicians. I started playing guitar at the age of 14, and I have been singing since I was a child. My career took off at the beginning of 2019. I was working a desk job at the time, and I became very ill. I ended up being let go, and I was very defeated. I had also been depressed for a while. I wasn’t playing music as I loved, and it was getting to me. My boyfriend, Clark sat down with me and said I needed to start my music career now because I wouldn’t have another opportunity like this. So I started booking gigs and competing in as many songwriting competitions as I could. I ended up winning the Undiscovered Artist Competition at Madlife Stage and Studios in Woodstock, and that kick-started everything for me. You win a day of recording in their studio, so I used it to create my first EP. I was my booking agent, manager, etc. at this point, and I constantly read books and watched YouTube videos to try and figure out how to get where I wanted to be with no money.
Slowly but surely, I made my way into the music scene, and I was featured in the local newspaper, playing in local festivals, moving to the finals in the Eddie’s Attic Songwriters Shootout, and planning my EP release party at Reformation Brewery. I ended 2019 with over 500 streams of my EP in only a month. After this incredible year that I’ve had, I only plan on going farther. In 2020, I have already been on 11Alive news, I am being featured in a couple of magazines, my band is touring locally, I am headlining at Smith’s Olde Bar, and I am traveling to Nashville to compete in Nashville Rising Song. I want to spread my message of love and peace as I journey into this next stage. My music is very uplifting, and always has a message of “Save the World” behind it. I want to someday have the platform to help as many people as I can.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Money was a major struggle in the beginning. You have to work very hard and book enough gigs to afford to live while investing back into your music. I also started from scratch with no knowledge of the industry, or the mechanics behind the job. So the first few months were rough for me while I did my research and discovered how to market myself. I was very persistent, and at one point I was walking into restaurants around town and speaking to the owners to market myself.
Please tell us about your work.
I am a singer/songwriter. As far as what I am known for, I would say my style is similar to Nora Jones, Amy Winehouse, and Allen Stone. I have an indie/soul sound to my music, and I like to cover Jazz tunes as well. My sound is very unique, and I like that people can’t quite point out what my sound is. It makes it mine in a way. I want to stand out.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I definitely would have started this journey earlier on. Seeing how quickly I am progressing now, makes me feel like I would have been much farther along if I had started this right out of high school.
Contact Info:
- Website: theamandaroark.com
- Email: theamandaroark@gmail.com
Image Credit:
Lindsay Ann Photography
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