Welcome to season two of Unsigned and Independent. We have another episode and another season of this and Kevin kind of restate your goal for why you started this show. So the goal was when I first came into Nashville, I saw these bands, artists that I thought were really good, and I didn't understand why I've never heard of this person or this group, and I wanted to get them on to talk about, you know, the late nights of Broadway.
I'm playing late, getting up early, and just the whole grind of the industry without the backing of a label or a record company, or a management team or which all the things I hope to get right and want to be coolest to see some of these some of these folks develop into signed and not independent exactly because when we started the Bobbycast a long time ago, that was a deal. We had a lot of artists on and songwriters that later became stars I met. I think
about Ryan Hurd, who was just a songwriter. We talked to him, is all right, new guy heard? You know, he would talk about how hard it was to write songs get a publishing deal. But this is what you're doing. Even a step farther back, it's like a prequel. He had an early Bobby cast. And so who'd you talk with this time? This is Tara Fister. Why Tara? Because I met her through somebody I had on the first
season last year. Actually his name is Graham, and he kind of told me about her, introduced me to her, came across her stuff, and she had this presence about her, has this presence about her. She's got bright hair, bright clothes, tattoos, she's got this presence on stage where just like, I need to know more about this girl. She good live, Yeah, it's great. So you talk with her. She's from Saint Louis,
she's been here for ten years or so. Does she have the frustration of, hey, why hasn't this happened for me yet? No? She has such a good outlook on you know, I'm gonna do what I need to do and everything else would kind of take care of itself. She's had her frustrated days or her weeks, you know, taking care of everything, funding everything, managing everything, but overall she's got a good outlook on the bigger picture. All right. Here we go, Unsigned and Independent with Kevin O'Connell aka
kick Off Kevin. Here is Tara Fister here on the Bobby Cast in a special edition? By the way, is this a new season? Yes? Oh I did Music to My Ears season two, episode one of Unsigned and Independent. Hey Tara, good to see you, Good to have you in here. How long has it been since you moved to Nashville. It'll be ten years this July, I believe. Wow, Yeah, Forest, I moved down. Okay, I like literally pulled into town as a fireworks are going off. Really yeah, so it's
a little it's a cute old story. That's awesome. I saw the fireworks show here a couple of years ago, and it's probably the best I've ever seen. Yeah, as long as the smoke doesn't blur it out right? Yea, that is true. What was your mindset coming in from Saint Louis to Nashville? Where you like, oh my gosh, I want to be all over the radio. I want to, you know, sign with this purse or this label and do this and this or was it kind of just a freelancing let's see what happens, let's move and just
chase a dream here. Yeah, well I had. I had just turned twenty one. I worked at a Ford dealership, okay, And I was coming to Nashville about once a month to do a writer's round and try to create some type of circle or community or just you know, get my feet wet. And one night after a writer's round, I was hanging out with a group of friends and we were going to the Preds game. So we were standing in Rippy's and just standing there, you know, taking in the scene, and a guy on stage whose name
was Greg Humphrey. He just pointed me out in the crowd and he was like, you're a singer. And at that time I had had enough beverages where I was like, hell yeah, I'm a singer. And he got me on stage and I sang a couple of songs and he through the tip jog at me and he was like, if you can come back with this tip jugful, I'll have a job for you. I was like deal. So I ran the tip jar and I came back and I gave him my card and he called me. Two
weeks later. I went to the game, went back to Saint Louis, you know, went about my life, and he called me about two weeks later and he was like, what are you doing for cmafest And I was like, whatever you tell me, I'm doing. So he's like, oh, why don't you come down you can play with my band, blahlah blah. So I came down two weeks later, played with this band, went back home, and then he called me again about two weeks later and said, if you
want to move, you have a job. Wow. So I packed up everything, which was like a bag of shoes, a bag of clothes, my guitar, a microphone in my car and moved like a week later and slept on one of my girlfriend's couches for a couple of weeks, and then segued into somebody's apartment that the roommate situation didn't work out, and then into a house. And here
I am ten years later. Do you like the idea that it was just so sudden and like you had to make a decision right then and there, almost as if you didn't have to maybe build up too and think about it too much, or just like, you know what, why not, let's do it? Well, to be if I was being honest with myself, I would say that I always knew, even when I was aty biddy, like when people would ask me when I was little, you know,
what do you want to do? I would always answer, I want to be the girl in music videos, and I meant the singer, like, you know, the not the main character, but me watching like rebuff on the TV or whatever. Okay, I want to be the girl in music videos. And so I think there was no really thinking having to be done. I've always known in my core that no matter what I was doing, it would be revolved around music. What surprises me the most about it is my parents just looked at me and you're like, okay,
see you later. I was that. When I think about it, I'm like, oh my gosh. I was so naive. I had never lived out in my house. I had never paid bills, Like even when I was in college, I was going to a university right on the road, so I had lived with my parents. Like there was never any I just looked at my parents, was like, I think when we move Nashville. My mom was like, great,
we'll see you later. Like, oh, okay, bye. Were you did you think she might have be a little reluctant to it, either of your parents like, oh, I don't know, this is such a good idea. You don't know if you're gonna really make it or are they always been that supportive? They've always been really supportive. I was. I'd like to think that I was always pretty straightforward with them too. I wasn't a big head like. I wasn't a you know, I wasn't sneaking out and lying and
do whatever. So and they've known, you know, my first job was working in a music store, and I started taking piano lessons when I was itty bitty and took every lesson you can think of from there on out, and it just I think it was a very natural segue into where I am at now. Was music always a big thing for you? Yes, it's um a little bit of everything. So I have a My dad is one of six and all of his all of his sisters. He's there's three boys and three girls, all of them saying.
My grandma plays killer piano. I just have vivid memories of show tunes when dinner was over in washing dishes, and all of my aunts would split into harmonies and sing Oklahoma or Carousel or whatever was in their mind that day. UM so kind of started there, and I just my mom always joked about that, I kind of came out singing my brother was in theater. My sister was a big rockhead. My dad loved the rat Pack, my mom was into country so and I was the youngest.
So I was just kind of a little a little melting pot. Oh wow, okay, yeah, youngest, just a brother and a sister. Okay, so youngest of three? Are you the only artist in the I guess you guys all have some musical talent involved. My brother does. So it's my sister Lee, my brother Stephen, and myself, and I'm Stephen is a theater kid, so he did it, you know,
an adult as well. And he's phenomenal. He's one of those guys that, like, they always told him that his biggest challenge and I would be deciding if he wants to build and paint the stage or be on it. Wow. Yeah, he can do anything. Wow. That's awesome. So you're not the most talented in the family, or are you equally talented? I'd like to say equally talented, different tastes. It's like apples and oranges. You know, we're still we're still the
same things. You mentioned Reebo. You'd watch her on TV growing up. Who are some of your other idols or musicians? Bands that you looked up to and maybe still look up to well when I was little. It's interesting I was kind of forced. Sounds harsh, but it wasn't harsh. I just I wasn't allowed to watch MTV, so really the only thing I could watch was CMT that had music involved, you know. So, um, Lean Walmock was huge for me. Leon Womack was kind of my like my lady.
She's still my lady crush, but at this point in my life, I think someone who has a huge phone over me. I love the Food Fighters, I love Billy Joel Um. Those two are kind of my main like they can and honestly, I'm am a pretty huge John Mayer fan. And I know people can talk all sorts of smack, but I really do enjoy his guitar playing like I just love his tone. Anything he does, I'm like, yeah,
I'm there, I'm right there with you. He has an album that kind of changed the way that I started playing that I started singing um just listening to him The Search for Everything, and I had to still feel like a man. Um. I love that whole album, so that's awesome. I've never seen him. I would love to see him he's fantastic. He really is. My friend. Garrett and I went Garrett throwing. He's a fellow artist as well, um Wisconsin guy. But we made the agreement going in.
I was like, neither of us is going to talk like at all, and he was like, I agree. So we literally just went in there and like stood next to each other and just like consumed the entire show in silence. It was great and soaked at all and stoked at all. I mean, yeah, that's a great idea. I don't think you've ever even thought about doing something like that. But it's almost like one of these we're like, you know what, I'm going to live in the moment
right now, right here. I don't want to talk to you. I don't, Yeah, I just want to act like I'm sitting in my car listening to them by myself or something like that. Well, and I've learned that the older I get and the more I can kind of like sit and reflect on myself and who I am and how I've grown, I've noticed that I just I really cannot concentrate if there's music in the room, Like if there's music going on, if it's if even if it's a bar downtown and people are trying to talk or
have conversations and you know, mingle my brain. I'm just watching the music. I'm just I'm like, you know. So it's nice to have concert buddies that kind of have the same mindset. You just go in. They're like, Okay, we're both going to thoroughly enjoy this standing next to each other, and that's it. And as an arty talk later, are you, like, are you watching or listening? I should say, more than anything listening and thinking? Are you are you
hearing everything going on? Like you're not just hearing a song? If that makes sense? Are you kind of breaking it down in your head? Oh yeah, I think yeah, because you have an ear for it and you're in it like I'm not. I don't play any I'm not musically talented at all. Yeah, so I wouldn't understand like I would some other things like you would with it. So
it's just interesting to me. If you sit there and listen to it, you're probably listening to a whole different sound then say, I would be, Um, yeah, I think that's a fair statement. But I also think, you know, with this being what I do, it's also nice to watch other people, you know, even the visuals. You look and you're like, okay, well, you know, like how am I consuming this? Like well, obviously like auditorian visual, So how would I've done that? Would I have put that
piano there? Would I have set the stage that way? Would I have these lights at this time? Was that confetti on point? You know? Like whatever it is you're doing, big or small, I just like to like research how other people present their passion. Do you find yourself It's funny and bring that up because I'll do that with like TV shows or radio shows, you know, working in the industry, and I'll be like, well, where is the producer? Why isn't he telling this person to do this or whatever?
That with movies all the time, now I'm like, oh, look at this shot. I'm like, no, Tara, I get consumed exactly. You're not enjoying the movie now, you're just looking at the background. So that's what I was going to ask. Can you do you think it like kind of hinders your enjoyment of a show or no? Is it more of an art to you that you're just trying to figure out your mind? I think it's more
of an art, and I think something else. So I've made my New Year's resolution was to see one show a month, because I think when you're a creator, when you're making music constantly, you forget to go get it, like you forget to go get it in your in your blood again, and you kind of forget, you know, I'm like, oh, I've got to play that night, Like I'm not going to go see this show, you know, But every time I leave a concert, I'm always so happy I did that. I'm always like, oh man, I
needed that. Like I think as an artist, you forget, you know, you're like giving, giving, giving, but you forget that when you go to the concert that artist is giving to you, like you fill your cut back up, and you forget that you can do that at concerts, even in small venues. You know, there's so many great stages in Nashville that are itty bitty that you can just go and you're like, oh man, I didn't even
know I needed that. You just walk out of there going like I feel different than I did walking in. You have a very profound look to you where it's like you walk in and you have this bright hair and these tattoos and a lot of your outfits are very bright and colorful. Yeah, And is that something that you have always done throughout your life? Like growing up as a teenager, did you always have different How many hair color shade have you had? Do you think probably
most of them? Is that something that you dive into and you just really enjoy just bringing out your personality with it, whether it's your tattoos or your outfits or your hair because I love it. I mean you walk in and you just scream confidence. Oh yeah, so it just that's what Okay, So maybe it's just a front and then no, I think with each passing year, I definitely settle more and more into it. I think it's
who I've always been. I think as a teenager, you know you're always you don't really I don't think majority of us know exactly who we are as teenagers. We have a vague outline, right, yes, but m yeah, No, the colors have always been part of me. I enjoy colors. I don't have. I like a nice solid black dress every once in a while, but other than matt, I'm whatever catches my eye that day is going on. So and a lot of times I don't think they really make a whole lot of sense, but my friends tell
me I look cool, So that's great. Thanks. Since you moved to Nashville and you started playing music right away, has this always been your source of income for you? Or have you had to have multiple jobs at some points? Like? What's that been like for you? Um, there was about a year where I bartended, but um, that was mostly because I wanted to bartend. I'd never bartended before and I just woke up and was like, I want to
dry bartending one day. So I did that for about a year and um no, But other than that, IVE always been music full time since I was twenty one. Okay, do you think that's pretty rare for you too? Because I talk to some people and they'll be like, yeah, I've had to serve for a year, like had to serve or had to barten, or had to do another job during the day and then perform at night. So
do you find yourself pretty lucky are you? Or do you find other people as well who can come here and make a living just doing music from the get go?
I think it really depends on your personality. Depends on your personality and your work ethic, and you're honestly your ability to live at a lower income at moments in your life, like if you have the ability to go like, Okay, well you know my bank account is has four dollars in it, but I know I'm going to work tonight, and I know I'm working this weekend, and so I just have to make four dollars. I have to not
freak out at having four dollars. If you can have the wherewithal to just like chill yourself out, you'll be fine. I've always eaten. My dad has a great saying of like what did He always used to tell some real It was something along the lines of like you may never have excess, but somehow you will always have enough. So I don't know if that's like a blind faith thing or if it's just like a you know, you
get what you put out. But I have always had enough, and there's been moments of like, you know, holy that was a big paycheck. So I'd like more of those. Anybody's listening, Yeah, Universe, if you're out there, I'd like some more of those places. If you get into existence, yes, I'm here, show me which door to walk through when you hit those low moments, whether it's monetarily or professionally. Have you had a moment where you're like, I don't know if this is what I want to do anymore? No,
you've never gotten there. No, I've had moments of like, I may have moments of going like, man, what am I doing with my life? But it always resolves to exactly what you're supposed to be doing, and it's just not easy. So you're gonna be uncomfortable. You are human,
You're gonna be uncomfortable. You're gonna have self doubt, You're going to compare yourself set time, you know, to those around you and wonder why you didn't get that call or you know, oh my gosh, there's so much you know, thinking someone's better than you are, but no one can do it like I can do it, and I can't do it like they can do it. Do you play downtown a lot or no? Um, I played down there when I'm in town like Monday through Wednesday, and then
you're traveling on the weekend. Traveling on the weekends, Yeah, you are? You like on tour right now or you I did a little tour last year. As of right now, my next thing I think is in Uh, I'm going to Oregon I haven't done like a tour, like a drive by drive mine or more like flight dates. I guess you'd say, are you filling in kind of thing or is it like a band that you're with. It's kind of about half and half. Okay, so half of them will be acoustic dates and half of them will
be band dates. Okay, yeah, okay, you got a pretty busy year coming up, or I hope. So, yeah, it's I've got a couple of dates I'm supposed to be playing, and I think it's October. I'm going over to Switzerland to play a festivals called Bottom Part, so that'll be I'm excited for that one. They have like a ten day festival where the whole city shuts down, and I've been over there a couple of times, I think three or four times now, So shout out to Bottom Switzerland,
high guys looking forward to that. Do you pay for all this out of pocket? Everything I've ever done is out of my own pocket? What's that like for you? Trying to You're booking your own stuff, You're paying your your your own everything, right, correct, So what is that entail overwhelming for you? There are moments where, especially last year and I feel going into this year where I'm like, Okay, I understand why this takes a team, because sometimes I
just kind of look around. I'm like, ah, there's a lot of things I need to do right now. But I think it's also I'm I'm grateful for it now because I think when the time comes that I'm able to afford to have that team, I will be understanding of their situations. You know, it won't be so expected. It'll be more like a, Okay, it happens that, Yeah that was weird. Let's you know, segue this way or whatever we have to do. And it's allowed me to just learn the business, you know five Like what do
they call it? Baptism by fire? So um, yeah, that's an interesting perspective. So if anything goes wrong in the future and you have a team, you're like, well, I've been there, I understand. Here's how we can either fix it, or you can understand and not just yell at them right within reason, or I have my feelings hurt or
be frustrated. You know, it's like frustration can only get you so far, and then it's like you just have to do something about it, you know, right, right, So but it's so the last two years I've been in the studio making my second album, and everything I have has been put into this album, financially, emotionally, musically, anything, sonically, whatever, you know, everything I have has gone into this album. And just within this past month are they like cherry
on top being sent to mix master. And it's been such an enjoyable process. And you know, the creating part is always the fun part is always the that's you know, why I'm here. It's like why the souls in this body doing what I'm doing. But now it's coming down to the business part where I'm going to have to present this to investor or you know, shot myself around whatever it is. And I have my ideas of how I want to do it in but I'm looking now for those people to help me execute, and I am
I'm just really excited to see what happens. Do you have a date set or a time frame set for the launch? I mean, honestly, you're promoted here. What's the album called? What do you think? In the mic? Is all your floors all yours? Oh? Well, thank you? I'm going to So I've got ten songs. I'm going to release them single for single to get my wear and
tear out of it. But I've also told myself with this project because my first experience recording my first album, I was so like deadline, deadline, deadline, which I was only doing to myself. Nobody was doing this to me. I was just gonna like, no, I want it by this time. I want to do it, dear. And and I've learned that listening back to those songs, I'm like, those things that bothered me. Even though I was like, oh, it's not a big deal, I was like, they still
bother me. Till this day. I listened to those songs and all I hear are the parts that bother me. So I've told myself that I'm allowing myself to take as much time as this is where I know that it is exactly what I want. And although it's more money and it's more time and it's time's not real, right, let's talk about it. Clocks are made up. This is actually a time podcast. Yeah. So yeah, I'm just I'm trying to allow myself grace and like, let my OCD just rest for a second anytime. I'm like, I want
to now. And the guy that I'm working with my He's one of my very good friends. His name is Jaycott's. He plays bass for Randy Houser. He's helped me produce this whole thing. And he's always like, hey, remember, you've got to like, I know you want to do it. I know you want to I know we want to push this forward. He's like, but let's live with it, give it a couple of days, let your ears come in and out of it, and let's see how we
attack it from here. And he's always right, I'm like, no, let's you know, like, I think this is great, let's move where. He's like, just give it a couple of days. You know. You're like, and I'm so grateful for him talking me off the ledge all the time. It's hard
to be patient though. It's like that old saying where if you go buy a car or a house or something, the first one you look like like, oh I love this, I want to get this, and you're like, well, no, let's look at a couple of other ones for yeah, and if you still like that one, then we'll come
back to that one, right. Yeah. It's kind of like that same mentality where you're like, you can't just jump on something and then just get it out there or buy it, purchase it and then be like, well, I probably should have thought about this little hard Yeah, and that previous album you're talking about is your self titled debut album? Correct? It was? Yeah, twenty nine years of learning. That's just how I described it, Okay. Yeah, I was just self titled. I was Tarilyn Pisto. Okay, And that's
that pretty much self explanatory. Twenty nine years of learning and stuff you learned over the years, and yeah, have a lot of fun and a lot of it was just that was kind of a coming of age album. I think those songs are even when I play them now, although a few of them have kind of evolved for me in my mind, but m or like change meaning you know, not what they once were. I thought it was interesting because they're three songs, are Hell raisor Scars
at Home. All three to me were totally different than each other. Yeah, Like you had your the hell raisors like this old almost like a blues old, like your raising hell kind of girl, I'm a badass girl kind of thing, and then the Scars kind of had like the rock feel to it, and then Home is like this homeie feel to it, So yeah, I thought it was interesting, and all three are great, by the way. So if you're listening to this, go stream that. Go
check it out now. And is that something that you aim for is to is it a song that comes to you and whatever however it comes out. You're not really aiming at a certain genre or a certain feel to it. It's just like this is how I listen to it, is that I hear it and it comes out yeah, okay, Yeah, I've I stand firmly on the ground of like a good song as a good song period. And if I feel as if I were to create music to fit in a certain genre, I would be
denying myself. As I explained to you earlier, I grew up around everything. So I feel like if I tried to whether I go like, oh, this is just gonna be a rock album, or this is just going to be a country album, or this is just going to be a roots album, or you know, however it would go. And maybe I can talk to someone who knows more than I am that or more than I do that can kind of help me, you know, round out the edges.
But I just try to live by a good song as a good song, and if you can play an acoustic and it stands on its own, it's a good song. So whether it's country or it's rock, I'm going to put it out, you know, because somewhere down the line someone's going to listen to it and go like I needed that today. Thanks. I like it. I like the versatility, thank you, And I want to close out with this. I try to ask everybody this, what advice because moving in all chasing the dream, live in a life that
doesn't really there's not much security in it. Everyone knows it for the love of it, right, Yeah, So what what advice would you give somebody listen to this that's like, Hey, you know, I have a job that I hate and I really want to kind of try this, but I don't know if it's gonna work out that are on the ropes or whatever it might be. Do you have any advice for advice for somebody that maybe sitting there?
Do it? Just do it, and you don't have to know what it looks like, and you don't have to know what it tastes like or feels like or what room you're in. But if you are sincerely doing something, every day that is not feeding your soul or making you grow as a human being. Stop. Don't do that. Whether you have to live with your parents for another year or however, you have to figure it out, find what makes you tick and go for it. Jump do it, take the leap. Yeah, I get Tara. Thank you so
much for coming on. Where can you find you on social media? Everything? My handles at I am pister, my last name F I S T E R. Okay, go check her out. Check out our music that self titled debut album, Hell Raiser, Scars and Home and the three songs are awesome. Check it out, terras or anything else you'd like the sex. Thanks for having me, of course, have a beer a thank you