Meet Moors & McCumber | Americana Musical Group

What’s one piece of conventional advice that you disagree with?
We’re a duo, so you get two answers for this one! But we agree with each other’s answers. The first piece is that we should have something to fall back on. If you start out that way, you’ve already planted seeds of doubt and you don’t fully invest yourself. The second is that good things come to those who wait. If you’re self-employed, good things come to you because you work smart, work hard, and maybe also have some good luck. Investing in your business, day in and day out, prepares you to accept challenges and opportunities that come your way. We always look for what’s next instead of waiting for lightning to strike.

How do you think about risk and what role has taking risks played in your life/career?
Like most business owners, we investigate opportunities and take calculated risks based partly on how the potential success or failure affects our ability to reach our goals. Ultimately though, we had to get comfortable taking the biggest, obvious risk: Being self-employed earning a living based on the music we create and perform, and having no defined “Plan B” to fall back on.

What is the most important factor behind your success / the success of your brand?
The most important factor behind our success has been the quality of our songs, our voices and the musical chemistry we bring to our creations in the form of recordings and public performances. We have to believe in our songs and performance before anyone else will. When we get goosebumps from what we deliver, we know the audience does, too.

What’s the most important lesson your business/career has taught you?
Life and a career in the arts is a long game, and you can’t do it alone. There are no overnight successes. Long-term success comes from years of hard work and collaboration. We’ve had to stay focused, patient and diligent.

How has your work-life balance changed over time? How do you think about the balance?
“Work-life balance” means different things to different people. As touring musicians who are on the road half of the year, our lives often don’t look balanced. We do our best to stay connected to our families, and mind our mental and physical health when we travel. As artists, it is difficult to separate work and life. We’re fortunate that our profession is our passion. We love what we do so much that it’s easy to neglect the other facets of our lives, so we have to make time for non-work activities. There is no “one size fits all” recipe. Each of us has had to discover our own balance point through trial and error, and changing circumstances.

Why did you pursue an artistic or creative career?
We each initially pursued music not as a choice, but more of a “calling.” The drive to write and perform original works was so strong that we felt like we had no other choice. The path was obvious. We each dabbled in other career paths along the way, but knew we owed it to ourselves to see where this path would lead. So far so good!

What are you inspired by?
Inspiration comes from all facets of our lives — relationships, history, nature, culture, etc. We’re especially inspired by other people and their journeys — other musicians, underdogs, overachievers, etc. Many of our songs reflect things we all experience, such as love, loss, struggles, triumph. Our creativity really shines when we let go and dance with the muse.