Today we’d like to introduce you to Joe Hassett.
Hi Joe, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Hi, I’m Joe (aka Shier Wild) an alt rock musician based in Atlanta. In 2015, I shelved my dreams of being an artist for a more ‘realistic’ pursuit — tech. I was so serious about it I moved to a city I couldn’t afford (San Francisco) and even left my guitar in Atlanta. Shortly thereafter I became hyper-aware of hours-long gaps in my days, hours that used to be filled by me fiddling around on the guitar and writing music.
Now, instead of exercising that creative muscle, I was doing nothing at all — it was boring and depressing. Luckily a close friend lent me her dusty guitar and I got back to writing and started playing some open mics around the city with grand plans to start releasing my music to the masses.
Five short years later, with the pandemic eliminating my go-to procrastination methods, I finally realized those plans. I released my first single, ‘Firefly’ on May 8th, 2020. followed by a few more love songs.
In the past year, I’ve begun challenging myself to write about other emotions. My latest release, “Right from Wrong” (June 6th, 2022) is an angry one that diagnoses the mistreatment of women in society. That the release closely coincided with the Roe v Wade news was a very unhappy accident.
Currently, I’m hard at work with my amazingly talented friend and collaborator Michael Curley on an album — /S — scheduled for October 2022. It’s equal parts confrontational, introspective, and as the name implies, sarcastic. Gonna be a good one!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
As most already know, the road to being a career musician is about as comfortable as being a Rottweiler’s chew toy (**note to self: write a song called ‘chew toy’). Aside from the obvious skills of making music and performing, to stand out in the industry today you have to be a master networker, digital marketer, project manager, and content creator.
Nowadays, listeners and labels expect a brand, and building a brand is hard. Of all the tracks I’ve sent off to labels, I’ve been rejected 100% of the time, I don’t always know exactly why, but a lot of the feedback is not around the music needing to be better, but my following needing to be bigger. To be fair, I get it. Why invest in me over someone that has already gone viral on TikTok?
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I just like to write. I’ve got hundreds of songs backlogged ready to be recorded and released. Unfortunately, songs don’t record themselves, but luckily I’m able to enlist the talents of Michael Curley and Niko the Kid to help me with that part.
It’s super motivating that I feel like I just keep getting better at it. I guess it makes sense that the more I write the better I get. With more confidence, I’m able to get more personal in my writing, which surfaces a rawness and realness that my earlier songs just didn’t have. It’s very exciting to continue to tap into that as I’m definitely of the opinion that my best songs are ahead of me.
What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Awareness of my own strengths and weaknesses. It can be easy for ego to get in the way when you’re creating. Once I truly opened myself up to feedback (as opposed to just superficially) I became way more productive and made way better music.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://shierwild.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shierwild/
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3RTMDO2pJlzjV4TBnz2OZJ?si=jsx7Q97mTKyxdPRTjfvUDA
