Sometimes you hear a song, and even if you can’t necessarily relate to all of the lyrics, it stops you in your tracks because of the raw honesty the singer conveys.  Our Swag Spotlight this week, Brett Sheroky’s “Better On Paper” did exactly that for our Managing Editor, Christina. In their most recent interview, the songwriter turned artist talked about his influences, his decision to move to Nashville and the support he lovingly receives from his wife.

Growing up in St. Louis, there wasn’t a huge music scene for Sheroky to gravitate towards however music was always a staple in his house.  The classic country music artists, as well as The Eagles and Jimmy Buffet, were some of the greats he names as music that inspired him when he was young.  He learned to play guitar and started listening to classic rock and even credits his two sisters for getting him to experience 80’s pop.

He met his wife while they were both in school to become speech therapists, and just one day after they got married, they moved down to Nashville so he could pursue his dreams of being a songwriter. “It was drilled in my head that I had to have a career even though I always wanted to do the music thing, so I went to school for speech therapy and that is where I met my wife,” Sheroky tells us.  “I never really wanted to be a speech therapist but it was a means to an end, there were a lot of opportunities that let you pick your own hours and schedules so I could work that around music so I went with it.”

Just a few short months after moving to Nashville, Sheroky was diagnosed with cancer, a battle that he had to face head-on with aggressive chemotherapy and surgery.  “I do remember thinking, I just got here, I don’t even know if I’ll ever be able to give this thing a shot,” Sheroky says of songwriting.  “It was one of those things, I definitely thought about music a lot, it was a motivating factor, you’ve gotta beat this because you have to go do this thing.”  Currently, he is in remission and wakes up every day grateful for the chances he is given.

His journey as a songwriter and now an artist is unique and he continues to pursue the dream with the incredible support of his wife, whom he calls his hero.  “We have 3 little kids and she plays the part of a single mom a lot, we have to sacrifice time as a family since this business demands that and I can count on one hand in all of the years that we’ve been together that she has said it’s been too much for her and she’s complained,” he thoughtfully explains.  “She is an incredible person and I am very lucky and blessed to have her in my life and her support is everything, honestly.”

When discussing his current single, “Better On Paper” which was one of our September Picks, we are glad to hear that the story of a broken marriage and divorce is not based on actual events, rather an honest depiction of a real-life struggle many have to face. “I am super proud of that song, It is an important song, a lot of people experience that and even though I haven’t gone through it personally, life isn’t always drinking beers on a tailgate, there is real stuff that happens in life and it is easy to lose sight of that being a writer in Nashville, you are under pressure to write singles.”  The video for the track premiered exclusively on NYCountry Swag last month and you can watch the simple yet heart-wrenching visual above.

Striving to blend the commercial with substance in his songs, Sheroky explains that for now, he only will record songs he has written because he wants to convey realness in what he was feeling when he put the pen to paper then ultimately records and releases music.

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