Growing up in Indiana, our Swag Spotlight artist this week, Dylan Schneider’s first love was sports. He grew up playing baseball and participating in choir but always had music lingering on the sidelines. “I didn’t really get into music until I was like fifteen or fourteen,” he tells us. Despite this, Schneider recalls getting his first guitar at only eight years old.

“I just didn’t really have the patience to learn at the time,” he admits. As he matured and realized baseball was not his true passion, Schneider found himself gravitating towards music even more and was eventually introduced to the country music genre.

Around the time he started listening to country music, Schneider found himself wanting to pick up the guitar again. This time he wanted an acoustic guitar. His parents surprised him with one just a few days before Christmas. Perfectly timed, the singer was able to get his guitar signed by someone he admired, Brett Eldredge. An early influence, Eldredge grew up close to Schneider. “That was a huge inspiration from the very beginning and after that, it just stuck with me. I started teaching myself to play and writing songs after that.”

The Turning Point:

After high school, Schneider hit the ground running with music. He developed a large social media following on YouTube and committed to playing music for a living. In 2016, the artist made the big move to Nashville. “I kind of just decided I wanted to do it,” he shared. “I just loved music so much and playing shows.”

Schneider added, “I always said regardless I wanted to go to Nashville and play at the bars. As long as I could make a living, make some money, I wanted to do music, because I loved it so much.” The singer found so much freedom in music and that was special to him. 

Combining his electric love of musical genres like rock (Nickelback), rap, pop, (Justin Bieber, One Direction), and country, the singer was able to create music that felt authentic to him. “As I grew up, I kind of went through a phase where I wanted to be a rockstar. I had a phase where I thought I wanted to be a rapper. […] Eminem was somebody that I really liked. Drake, Lil Wayne, kind of in the beginning of middle school,” he recalls.

His grind in Nashville and his love for music catapulted Schneider to play on stages with artists like Florida Georgia Line, ultimately leading him to his first record deal and a slew of successful EPs. 

“At the end of the day, I love that there are so many different influences going into country music right now. People like Sam Hunt, I think that stuff’s cool. It’s individuality. You’re telling your story anyway, it doesn’t really matter what people have to say or what’s right or wrong. As long as it sounds cool.”

Today:

Now, Schneider is a BBR Music Group artist with even more fans and music under his belt. The singer has truly found his sound and his home in Nashville. He continuously makes music that his fans fall in love with, without losing the authenticity that he has had all along.

Most recently the singer debuted his first major-label single, “Lost In A Small Town.” The song started to take shape at the end of 2019. “I threw out this line that was like ‘she’s the kinda girl that would leave you lost in a small town,’” begins Schneider. During a write with his producer and his friend, Gabe, the song would go on to live many lives.

Despite the fact that it was finished, Schneider felt that it was not good enough, and the men redid the entire song. “We ended up writing the song twice and it stemmed from an entirely different song.” Now the singer says,  “I like the way it is now and I’m excited about it.”

The song is a fresh way to share about a break-up in a small town. Instead of focusing on the girl, the song really focuses on how it feels to feel like everything in your life is different. The perspective change and unique story-telling makes the song a great one.

If that is not exciting enough, Schneider promises that more new music is coming down the pipeline. Switching it up from what he has done in the past, the singer has decided to release individual songs over the next few months. “Each song is going to have their opportunity to be heard.” The singer promises that there are a lot of songs that are ready to release. The next song should come in the upcoming weeks.

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