PHOTO SUBMITTED / Steven Nix grew up in Loyd Star and was the school’s drum major before his family relocated to the Nashville area the summer before his senior year in high school. Nix is now a songwriter and has landed a contract with Bloom/BMG in Los Angeles.

Just a few years ago, Steven Nix was drum major at Loyd Star Attendance Center. But, now at 22, he’s an up-and-coming country music songwriter and artist in Nashville with big things on the horizon.

“Before I moved to Nashville, I was just a normal Brookhaven kid,” Nix said. “I filled weekends with riding the Boulevard with friends and floating the river. There was always something to do.”

Nix said he attended Loyd Star kindergarten through the 11th grade and then his family moved to the Nashville area – Lebanon, Tenn. – just before his senior year. He graduated from Wilson Central High School in Lebanon.

“In school I wouldn’t say that I really stood out, nor was I overlooked,” Nix said. “I was just a normal kid going to a normal school with normal friends. I found myself being the class clown more times than not. I guess I enjoyed the attention, but what kid wouldn’t? I was also in the marching band my seventh-grade year through my junior year. I was the drum major. I was pretty proud of that. I would say that I was a total band kid.”

“I’ve been writing songs for quite a while now,” Nix said. “I started when I was about 9, but the songs started to grow as did I, and by the time I was 15 or 16, I had my first girlfriend. That’s when my writing really took off. Nothing like puppy love to really spark a career.”

He said Ricky Skaggs inspired him at the beginning, but his musical influences are a variety of artists.

“Ricky Skaggs is one of the artist that really inspired me to even pick up the guitar,” Nix said. “I enjoy a lot of the newer artists, too. So, I have musical influences all over the map. I was raised on a lot of older country and blue grass music, so I listened to a lot of George Jones, Merle Haggard, Alan Jackson and Joe Diffie, but I also dove head first into Alison Krauss, Earle Scruggs, Bill Monroe and Ricky Skaggs.”

Nix said the move to Nashville was life changing, too.

“I moved to Nashville when I was 17 years old,” he said. “It was a huge move for me seeing how I had never moved before. It was scary and exciting all at once. I always knew I would end up here, but I never thought I would spend my senior year in high school here. I just got an early jump on what I knew I was supposed to do with my life I suppose.”

Nix said his life dream was to be a music writer and that those closest to him encouraged him.

“Faith in myself came from family and friends back home who continued their support for me and my music,” he said. “I never thought I would be a signed songwriter/artist, but dreams come true.”

Nix has signed with Green and Bloom/BMG in Los Angeles. The future promises work with other people who are passionate for music and who’ve made a name for themselves – big names that Nix can’t mention just yet.

“I can’t really talk about all of that,” he said, “but what I can say is we have had talks with some of the biggest names in Nashville over multiple songs and are hoping for a cut here real soon!” He said his sound is pop-country with a little old school mixed in every now and then.

The contract with Bloom/BMG promises to be just the beginning for Nix’s career.

“This deal enables me to write with hit songwriters and really get my name out there as an artist and a writer,” he said. “It already has opened more doors than I could have ever imagined.

“There have also been talks of pushing me as the artist, but I guess we will just have to see! I leave it all in The Lord’s hands. The cuts will come. Regardless, y’all be listening for me.”