In this episode of the CIAS Podcast, I sit down with worship leader and songwriter Charlie Hall. Charlie has been writing worship songs for over 35 years, starting at age 17 when he first found God. He shares how his music has always reflected the rawness of his journey, through depression, aggression, and sin, and how he’s stayed connected to his …

In this video, I’m breaking down some of my favorite chord shapes for worship—G, C, D, and a few others that really help fill out your sound. These shapes make it super easy to transition between chords and keep things smooth during worship. Whether you’re leading in a small group or on a bigger stage, these will definitely help you out! Make sure …

In this episode, I’ll show you the 3 best chord shapes for leading worship on acoustic guitar—G, C, and D. These simple shapes will help you make smooth transitions between songs, free you from technical distractions, and allow you to focus on worshiping. I’ll also share tips on using a capo to compliment different keys and how growing as a musicia…

In this episode, I share 5 actionable ways to break through creative blocks and find fresh inspiration in your worship songwriting. From changing your environment, to drawing from Scripture, and collaborating with others, these some of the things I talk about that will help you write songs that glorify God and resonate with your congregation. Don’t…

Do you ever feel short on time but still want your worship songs to resonate deeply with your congregation? In this episode, I’m sharing 5 quick yet powerful tips to make every writing session count. By the end of this episode, you’ll have key essentials to create impactful, spirit-filled worship songs that truly connect with your audience. 🔗 Free …

In this episode, I sit down with Jake Gosselin, founder of Churchfront, to hear about his incredible journey from playing bass in a high school band, to leading worship, and eventually becoming a successful entrepreneur. Jake shares how he navigated the world of worship leading, pursued music as a career, and even went to seminary with dreams of pa…

On this episode of the CIAS Podcast, we’re diving into 10 FREE and effective strategies to help you market your worship music, without breaking the bank. Whether you’re an indie artist, worship leader, or songwriter, these tips will help you get your music heard by the right audience and make a real impact. 🚀 What You’ll Learn: 1.Leverage Social Me…

🎙️ CIAS Podcast Episode #104 In this episode, we’re chatting with the amazing folks from Natural State Music. Haley, Del and Matt share their wild ride in the Christian music world. They all started out in church, passionate about using their talents to worship God. Haley had a tough break after a big label showcase didn’t go as planned and thought…

On this episode, I hang out with producer, brand strategist, professional YouTuber, award winning creative marketing specialist, and the founder of SellMusic.com Adam Ivy, who talks about some REAL truths for indie artists and songwriters. Adam has grown his YouTube channel to over 300K subscribers by helping independent musicians, artists and bran…

🎙️ CIAS Podcast Episode #102: Folk Worship Goes Viral with Brice Davis 🎙️ Join us for a laid-back chat with Brice Davis from Jacksonville, Florida. Brice has been on an incredible journey, balancing a full-time job, fatherhood (with two kids and another on the way!), and skyrocketing his music career on social media. Since August of last year, Bric…

On episode #101 of the CIAS Podcast I sat down with my friend Chase Wagner. Chase is a prominent artist, songwriter, and the Worship Pastor of Grace City Church in Lakeland, FL. From beginning to know The Lord through music as a teen in Seattle, to moving across the country to found SEU Worship, as well as Grace City Music/Church, he has found enco…

On this celebration episode #100 of the CIAS Podcast I sat down with my friend Chris Lawson Jones from the Wings Distribution Group. Chris has been working professionally in the Christian music industry for over 20 years and shares so much insight and wisdom. We talk through the state of the independent artist and how using a boutique distribution …

On this episode of the CIAS Podcast Ross King and I talk about the 4th ingredient in his formula for music industry success- raw talent. Ross says that we are not able to do anything about the amount of raw talent we are given, however we can lean on the other ingredients (work ethic, suck meter, and how are you in a room) to cultivate the raw tale…

On this episode of the CIAS podcast Ross King and I talk about the work ethic it takes to go pro. You might be thinking we talk about things like working 100 hour weeks and do whatever you need to to make it happen, but we don’t! We wanted to give you a practical look at how we manage and schedule our time as a professional in the music industry. S…

On this episode of the CIAS podcast, Ross King and I dive deep into the importance of how you are in a room. In a music career we will be in MANY different kinds of rooms, so having an understanding of how to be at our best in each situation is critical. We discuss many practical tips on what to do (and what not to do) Whether you are just getting …

On the latest episode of the CIAS Podcast I sat down with my good friend and 30 year music industry vet Ross King to discuss developing our personal quality control measure, a.k.a. our "Suck Meter" Knowing what is good, for the target you are aiming for, is critical for success in music. We develop our "suck meter" over time, but there are a few el…

On this episode I had a great conversation with my friend Kevin Winebarger of Courage Studios. Kevin is a marketer, artist, songwriter, producer and an all around guru in social media and making big impact in the music industry. Kevin has been working in the industry for nearly a decade and has been serving many artists along the way. Kevin took a …

Plugins are one of the most talked about aspects of recording music. There are so many to choose from and SO many companies who make them. Which ones do you need to make pro music? The questions and possibilities are truly endless. I wanted to walk through the top plugins I use on a daily basis. These are helpful tools and are also versatile and ca…

Have you ever got a troll comment? There are so many positive parts about the internet. It helps us stay connected, share our lives and even create new relationships. But of course there are many negative sides to it as well. Whether virtually or in "real life" there are going to be people out there who may try to discourage us from chasing after o…

There is so much noise and everyone seems to be trying to capture our attention these days. Social media is an incredible tool, but it can be difficult to figure out how to reach people with our music. Between endless scrolling and short attention spans, what is the secret sauce to finding people who are actually interested in being a part of your …

What if all of your imperfections, insecurities, pain, trials and weaknesses are where your BEST songs come from? On this episode of the CIAS Podcast I discuss why I believe our weaknesses actually make us stronger and our music better, and share a little of my testimony too (which is something I have never shared on the podcast before) Would love …

On the latest episode of the CIAS Podcast I had the privilege of interviewing Nashville based artist, singer, and songwriter Grace Graber. I felt called to reach out to Grace after hearing about her mission to bring attention to mental health issues in the Church and the Christian music industry. After experiencing both physical and verbal bullying…

Have you written an incredible song but every time you share it with people you don't get the response you were hoping for? I think this might be why… The best way to give your song a chance to make impact starts with a great demo. True, a great song is a great song no matter the quality of the demo, BUT a better sounding recording is always going …

Have you ever felt like you are stuck on your music journey? Like you can't get the ball rolling because it feels too heavy? Well, I think I've got something to help you with that… On this video I discuss 5 ways to keep going on your music journey. Get our music production course "Logic Pro X for Artists and Songwriters" here: https://www.bryanboli…

In the music industry there are not many sure things. It can take a long time to achieve anything great and there are so many unknowns. Every story of success you hear will be unique to the person telling it. But what if there are some general steps you could take to set you up for success in music? I wanted to share 6 steps I took on my music jour…

One of the most important pieces on our music journey is the relationships we have. Without relationships, success may not only be tough, but it's basically impossible. We need people to serve, and we need others to serve us to make impact. But how do we meet people? How do we build lasting relationships? Networking is a great way to build relation…

Do you want to know the specific personality traits and habits that can help you go pro as a songwriter? I have had the privilege of collaborating with professional songwriters in my career. Outside of sheer talent I have noticed some common personality traits and habits of the pros. Yes, skill and craft is the key element that will get you in the …

Is it possible to stand out and is it even worth it if you can? What does it take to make your own space in the music industry? I wanted to talk through 3 points of why and how I believe you DO have a place in the music industry. Especially as a Christian indie artist, this is a calling, so not only should we work towards making impact with our mus…

One of the most popular ways to write songs is toplining. Toplining is writing lyrics and melodies to a track at its core. Whether working with a producer in session, or building from a pre-made track, top lining is common in today's songwriting culture. I wanted to walk through 3 tips for toplining that will help you write the best songs possible.…

On this episode I walk through 8 categories of gear you need to get started in your home studio, with different options depending on your budget and need. The term "home studio" can feel intimidating, but with just a few basic pieces of gear you can be making high quality, release-ready music in no time. It can be overwhelming and you may think you…

On this episode I had a great conversation with my good friend Chris Clayton. Chris is a Nashville based, producer, songwriter and worship leader. He has a passion to help serve artists to equip them and their churches with impactful music glorifying the name of Jesus. I met Chris in 2017 at a Kingdom Songs event and he has been a personal champion…

On this episode I wanted to talk through 5 things that you should NOT do as an indie artist. You'll want to stick around for #5! I believe by avoiding these things it will help you go further, faster on your journey. And within each point I will also say what you CAN do in place of these common mistakes artists make along the way. For more helpful …

One of the most important parts of being a musician is having a community. Without a community we are working and creating with no real concept of reality. As a musician we are the sum of all of our influences and this is an ongoing process. A true community incapsulates all of the people we work with and the people who love our music. With the int…

The way we promote our music is crucial to how many people it can impact. If you do a google or YouTube search on music marketing you will find thousands of videos and many may have conflicting, or even contradictory information. So, how do we understand the best way to market our music with so many options? Although there are many sub categories I…

On this episode of the CIAS podcast I had a great conversation with my friend Daniel Doss. Daniel is a Nashville-based artist, songwriter and producer and has accomplished so much on his journey so far. From being a signed artist with Sparrow records, having a publishing deal with Word Publishing, leading worship at several churches, and having suc…

Happy new year! Over the last couple of weeks we have been reflecting and assessing everything that happened in 2021. I hope that you were able to celebrate the wins and find areas of growth for the new year. With all of that information in our minds I now wanted to look to the year ahead. We have just begun 2022 and we can bring everything we've l…

One of the most important things we can do as artists and songwriters is reflect. Not only is this a great source of creativity and inspiration, but it's a great way to evaluate where we've been. It's that time of year again where we all are working on our goals for the new year. I love setting goals and looking back on the goals from the previous …

There are a lot of twists and turns on our music journey. Within the same day there can be a wide range of triumphs and trials. The key is consistency, but how do we keep things exciting, how do we stay inspired and how do we keep it fun? One of the best ways to accomplish this is by never losing the wonder of it all. There is a certain quality to …

On this weeks episode of the CIAS Podcast I had an incredible conversation with my friend Temitope. Temitope is a Nashville based singer, songwriter, artist who has been on a mission to unite the Church across all races and backgrounds, through his honest approach, and in a conversation we should all be having right now. We discussed many of the th…

There are many traits that make for a successful career in music, but I believe the most important is being consistent. The ability to show up over and over AND OVER again will set you apart and help you build a long-lasting career. I have heard it said that most people give up after their first failure, and nearly 95% give up after a second, but i…

The yearly Spotify Wrapped numbers came out this week and if you've been on social media, you've seen everyone sharing their results. This is an exciting time for some and there is so much to be gained from it. Just in case you don't know, every year Spotify releases a cool, animated video showing all the stats over the past year on your Spotify fo…

TOP 5 Hidden Waves Plugins Happy Black Friday! Today is the best day of the year to pick up plugins. The deals are insane and if you are anything like me, you patiently wait to see all the new deals. I wanted to cover my top 5 favorite hidden gems from Waves. I use Waves plugins every day in the studio and love them. I have talked about many of my …

There are many layers to a music journey. Many of us get caught up in not knowing how to set aside time in a healthy way for each area. The main parts are songwriting, music production, promotion and brand building. Yes, there is more to it, but I think these 4 cover the most commonly disguised aspects. Identifying each part is important. I wanted …

On this episode of the CIAS Podcast I had a great conversation with my friend Tailah. I met Tailah through my good friend Jerricho Scroggins and my wife and I attended their wedding this August in Nashville! Tailah is doing big things. Tailah is an artist who has been writing and releasing songs for most of her life in Nashville. The combination of…

On this episode of the CIAS podcast I sit with Suzy and we discuss the hacks and scams that are affecting so many of us. My Facebook was almost lost to a very sophisticated hack last week. We were able to get it back but we are still uneasy and taking steps now to be more prepared going forward. On the show we talk about: *Our hack and how we were …

On this episode of the CIAS podcast I wanted to discuss 5 things that have helped me produce better music. These are more mind-set than technical and I believe will help you in whatever stage you are in. I have been producing music since 2010 and have learned so much along the way. In the beginning it was an outlet with no rules, and just a way to …

On this episode of the CIAS podcast I had the privilege and honor to have a conversation with one of my hero's and mentors Todd Fields. Todd has been writing, recording and releasing music as an artist for many years and has made real impact with his music. Todd not only has been writing and releasing music, but he was on staff at North Point churc…

Back in 2017 I started to focus on songwriting in a serious way. I had written hundreds of songs for myself and various bands I was in, but 2017 is when I became most focused on becoming a professional in the music industry. In the process I began to produce the songs I was writing to help bring out the best version of the work tapes I had. On this…

On this episode of the CIAS Podcast I had the privilege of talking with my friend Dave Taylor. Dave has many years of experience working professionally in the music industry, with 10 of those years spent with Integrity Music. Dave has a passion to help indie artists get their music heard through promotion strategies and consulting. I personally fee…

On this episode of the CIAS podcast I wanted to first celebrate our 1 year anniversary! It has been truly incredible to be on this journey with you over the last year. God has accomplished so much more than we ever could have imagined. In our first year we had nearly 8,000 downloads! The vision of this podcast is to help Christian Indie Artists and…