Life & Work with Daniel Lieving

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Lieving.

Hi Daniel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I was born and raised in Cartersville, Georgia. I started taking an interest in music at a very young age. My Dad taught me a few chords and songs on the guitar when I was eight years old and I haven’t put it down since. Always hearing great music, my parents were spinning on the turntable or in the car Aerosmith, Fleetwood Mac, Bad Co. Zz Top just to name a few off the top of my head, I became obsessed with wanting to learn more and get better. I started taking lessons from an amazingly talented teacher named Chris Fowler and it helped me immensely. After getting some skills on the guitar, I decided to focus on learning to sing and write songs. I was very fortunate to have great vocal teachers in Middle school and High School.

In High School, I joined my first real band with some other high school friends. We had three singers so we did a lot of three-part harmony, two guitarists a phenomenal bass player and drummer this was an experience just made me love it even more. We played quite a few gigs and had a lot of fun. After that, we kept all the same members except the lead singer and I took on that role. We changed the name from Addams Needle to After Six and we started getting some traction locally, mostly in our hometown and Rome, GA. Then we split after a few years kept a couple of the same guys and became Autumnattic. The band was great; we rehearsed at least 2-3 times a week, had some solid songs and even played showcases from some major record labels. But as bands tend to do, we split up shortly after having some offers. So this began my solo journey I teamed up with another great writer and guitar player and we did a really cool project back in 2011 that I’m still proud of to this day, but some personal issues got in the way of us really doing anything with it. So for the next project, I just teamed up with a great producer friend of mine Woody Earwood and put out my first official solo release called These Seasons in 2017. There is one single “You look good on me” available on all streaming platforms the other tracks from the ep are being remastered and will be rereleased at a later date.

So now I’m married and have this amazing wife that sings with me and we are working on our first ep as a duo. The first single “Could’ve Been Should’ve Been” will be released this summer. We now have a great group of guys backing us up and have some full band dates booked through the summer and fall. I’ve had day jobs through most of these periods but in 2014, I decided to go all in and do music full-time. I began hosting an Open Mic night at Pisano’s in Kennesaw every Thursday night and playing gigs on The weekends. I soon after started another one every Monday night at The Local Bar and Grill in Cartersville, GA and booking more gigs and was able to make my passion, my job finally. I say job but if you’re doing what you love it’s not working so I’m immensely blessed. Watching so many artists coming to the Open mics that I host has been such a joy. Im just giving them a place to come hone their craft and network with like-minded people but what I get from it is feeling like a small part of their journey to becoming something great and that is pretty awesome.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
I think the biggest challenge for musicians is sometimes thinking we aren’t connecting with people. At the end of the day, that’s what we all hope for. The nights when you’re feeling good the crowd is in and you feel like you’re connecting is an indescribable high. On the flip side of that, you have some nights where you’re background music and the manager at the bar/restaurant keeps telling you to turn down, the crowd couldn’t care less and some seem even annoyed that you are there. So those nights are tough but I’ve learned to take the good with the bad and realized that there is a difference between a gig and a show.

If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Just be nice and work hard. I think that will carry you a long way.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://instagram.com/daniellieving?igshid=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daniel.lieving?mibextid=LQQJ4d