Today we’d like to introduce you to Clay Milford.
Hi Clay, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I had always been involved in bands. I probably started three or four different projects with people over the years, but I kept finding that I wanted to take things a little more seriously than my other bandmates. Sometimes they would even tell me I was taking it too seriously or that I wanted to practice too much.
Eventually, I got tired of trying to coordinate a whole group of people just to get together and write, so I decided to start doing my own thing. I figured, if other people could make music on their own, I could too. I could play just enough of the instruments I needed to be a little dangerous, and while I’ve never really loved singing or thought of myself as a great singer, I figured the songs needed vocals, so I would do them myself.
From there, I just started putting songs out. Through that process and interacting with people on social media, I connected with other producers, mixing engineers, and mastering engineers who helped me refine my sound and take the music to another level. Along the way, I also did some sync writing for TV, which taught me a lot about writing catchy, hook-driven songs.
Ultimately, it became a process of learning by doing—and realizing that I didn’t need to wait for the perfect group of people to come together before I could start making the music I wanted to make.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Definitely not smooth. I come from a city that isn’t exactly known for having a huge music scene, so finding quality musicians who shared the same taste and vision I had was difficult. Once I started doing my own thing, I had a much clearer idea of what I wanted, but art can be lonely without a community around you.
I don’t think I have more than 10 listeners in my hometown, but somehow I have people in Sweden who genuinely enjoy my music. That’s one of the coolest things about putting music online—you can make something in your little corner of the world and find an audience halfway around the globe.
Music is a tough business in general, especially when there’s always pressure to chase whatever is working at the moment—TikTok-friendly sounds, songs designed around streaming algorithms, music made specifically for TV, or whatever the next trend happens to be. It can be tempting to let those things dictate what you create.
But no matter what, it’s been incredibly rewarding. I keep finding new reasons to love making music, and for me, that’s what keeps me coming back to it.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
The main day jobs I’ve held have been as a teacher, resident director, fundraising officer, and now communications manager. Each position has taught me a lot—not only about myself, but about people. I’ve learned patience, grace, and what it means to take pride in your work and do things the right way, even when no one is watching.
I also started acting within the last year, and that has been a tremendous creative blessing. As a one-man band, I’m used to writing the songs, playing the instruments, recording everything, and figuring out how all the pieces fit together. Getting to walk into a room and simply say words that I didn’t have to write has been a really refreshing change of pace. It’s allowed me to be creative in a completely different way, and I’ve really enjoyed that.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
I love reading, and I love listening to podcasts. Right now, I’ve been listening to a lot of podcasts about college football coaches—college football is probably my biggest obsession—and I love hearing the stories of people who simply refused to give up on a dream.
A lot of people don’t realize that some of the college and NFL coaches making big money today started out as assistants making $9,000 a year. There’s something really encouraging to me about watching people succeed after being willing to take the jobs nobody wanted, work their way up, and still perform at a high level. It reminds me that success often has a much longer runway than we think.
As far as books go, one I’d recommend is The Power of One More by Ed Mylett. On the surface, he might seem like the kind of self-help guru you’d roast on social media, but I genuinely love the principle behind the book: do one more. One more rep. Write one more song. Play one more show. Make one more call. You never know when that extra effort is going to be the thing that makes something click or reaches someone in exactly the right way.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @thiscoastbias
