Today we’d like to introduce you to Steve Riley.
Hi Steve, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am self-employed musician and multi-media artist. From the time I was a small boy, I knew that I wanted to be a musician. I was first fascinated by music when I was about 4 or 5 years old, watching the LPs go round and round on the turntable of my family home. About the age of 9 I was drawn to drums in particular, and chose that as my instrument. I was active in band and choir all throughout high school, then I went to The University of Kansas and received a Bachelor Degree in Percussion Performance. Along the way I learned how to play other instruments such as keyboards, guitar, and bass, which led to songwriting and eventually formal composition. My biggest break was in 1988 when I won 1st Prize in an international composition contest, and have since had over 25 musical works published, which have been performed worldwide. Since 2000 I have made my living solely as a self-employed musician, supplementing that work with other related skills such as music education (having worked as a percussion teacher in various capacities at 3 universities), recording engineering and mixing, video creation, voice acting, and continued musical composition.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
No, I would definitely say that it has not been a smooth road! But I don’t feel that my struggles have been any more difficult than anyone who has had a dream of wanting to be successful in their chosen field and is willing to make sacrifices to work in a career they enjoy. For me, that meant having to work part time jobs unrelated to my field for 12 years following college graduation until my self-employment in music and related skills was successful enough for me to sustain a living. Self-employment also means having to have many skills outside of those specialized to one’s field. In my case that meant learning how to bookkeep efficiently, learning how to negotiate to receive a fair salary in the various jobs for which I am contacted, managing social media/advertising, and networking, just to name a few. My field is also not necessarily one of great fortune (although it can have the potentiality to be so!) But for the rest of us who are not fabulously wealthy in this field, you decide early on in life what are the luxuries of life are that you can live without in order to not have to get up and go do a job that you abhor day after day.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Being a self-employed musician, in my personal case that means essentially 3 disciplines: as a performer, as a composer and as an educator. As a professional percussionist, I perform mostly in the Greater Kansas City and Lawrence area. My specialty is musical theatre (having performed over 100 productions at venues such as Starlight Theatre, The Music Hall, The New Theatre and The Rep in St. Louis). As a former Principal Timpanist of the American Wind Symphony and The Topeka Symphony, I am also active in classical music, and play drum set frequently for jazz, church, and rock gigs. I am also a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with 4 albums available on Bandcamp and all major streaming platforms such as iTunes and Spotify. As a composer, I have over 25 works published with 4 different companies, and my compositions have performed at events such as PASIC, The Midwest Clinic in Chicago, and BOA in Indianapolis, as well as worldwide performances in Europe and Asia. As an educator I have taught in various capacities at Baker University, Kansas State University, and The University of Kansas, and I also have maintained a private teaching studio since 1989. I am most proud of 3 creative works: first is my song “Singing Through Cells” which is from my CD “Through Cells” and which has a video on YouTube; second is my work “Eye Irascible” for percussion ensemble which was premiered by The Eastman School of Music in 1999; and third is my 7-year project of re-creating the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” in audio format, whereby I recreated the entire movie via voice acting all of the parts, recreating all of the soundtrack music, and recreating the majority of the sound effects (Foley). These projects can be observed on my website, www.airstrive.com, and also by visiting my YouTube channel, Airstrive. I suppose what I believe sets me apart from others is the various skills that I have that allow me to pursue these multi-media ventures.
How do you think about luck?
Well, I think good or bad luck is something that we all deal with from time to time, and I’ve had my fair share of both in my professional and personal life. I try to be a positive person and believe that they have balanced each other out for the most part, but I do believe that both types in most cases were out of my control. So I try not to get too up or too down because you never know what may happen from day to day, and I feel it’s best to just try and stay as grounded as you can and be true to yourself. I think the most common cliché we hear about good luck is “when preparation meets opportunity”, and I have always tried to remain creatively active… so when those good luck opportunities do come my way, hopefully I am ready for them! But sometimes bad luck happens too, and you have to learn how to deal with those disappointments as well if you want to survive in this business – or in life in general. Perhaps one wouldn’t know about the sweet without the bitter, and vice versa. All you can do is try to balance both, I reckon!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.airstrive.com
- Instagram: steve.riley.airstrive
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/steve.riley.3114
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/steve-riley-20ba8719a/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@airstrive6246
- Other: @airstrive.bsky.social
