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This former rock star abandoned his successful music career to travel the world

tom law playing black and white tom law playing black and white
Tom Joseph Law was a professional musician until he decided it was time to follow his other passion.
Courtesy Tom Joseph Law

The INSIDER Summary:

  • Tom Joseph Law loved music and traveling, but always put music first.
  • He played Wembley Stadium in the UK with his band and gained a large online following, but found the music business unfulfilling.
  • He decided to give up his music career and move abroad, and he's never been happier.

Tom Joseph Law doesn't do many interviews these days. That kind of attention is exactly what he hoped to shift away from when he moved to Croatia from the UK after 10 years in the music business.

Ironically, it's precisely this choice that makes him such a worthy interview subject. As a professional musician, he amassed a loyal following, charted on iTunes, and played Wembley Stadium on the same stage as One Direction, Nick Jonas and other powerhouses in the industry. Why did he give it all up?

Law, 27, had wanted to travel and spend time living in different countries since he was a teenager, but his music career always took priority.

tom law video
Editing a video for his YouTube channel.
Tom Joseph Law/Facebook
Year after year, he pushed off his travel plans to focus on his music, a career path that demands relentless work and focus.

"You have to be there, you have to commit fully," he said. "And I did, at the expense of traveling and feeling free... It was all music, and travel was put off to some distant future that never seemed to arrive."

Through posting acoustic covers of popular songs as well as original compositions on his YouTube channel, he garnered 5 million views, built an audience of 100,000 followers, and released an EP that reached number five on iTunes' Independent and Unfunded chart.

Just when he'd planned to wind things down and finally embark on his adventures abroad, he met fellow musicians Curricé and Matt DeFreitas at the YouTube Space in London and formed a band called Cahoots.

They won the #TakeTheStage competition hosted by Capital FM Radio in the UK, earning a performance slot on the same stage as Avicii, One Direction, Nick Jonas, and Jason Derulo at Wembley Stadium in front of 80,000 people.

On the band's official YouTube channel, you can watch Law and his bandmates banter with television and radio show hosts, hold meet-and-greets with ecstatic fans, and goof off on music video sets. It's the kind of rock star lifestyle that many aspiring artists hope to achieve, but Law still ached to travel throughout his time with them. He even remembers shopping for travel backpacks on his phone in the backseat of a car en route to one of their music video shoots.

"I remember thinking I was being pulled in half," he said. "I was living one life and craving another." 

He also said being a professional musician wasn't as fulfilling as it might have appeared from the outside.

tom law brit awards
Law at the 2015 Brit Awards.
Tom Joseph Law/Facebook

"Ten percent of my time was music," he said. "The rest was promotion, social media, tweeting, Instagramming, video blogging, interviews, stylists, makeup artists, Ubers, events, parties, networking... With social media, when you constantly capture and craft your life into something consumable for others, it robs you of being able to enjoy the present moment."

After a year with the band, he decided it was time to prioritize his passion for travel. 

The members of Cahoots opted not to sign with a label and went their separate ways. Law planned to move to Bali and start a business on his laptop as a digital nomad. When he met his girlfriend, an American who was moving to Croatia to volunteer for the Ecumenical Women's Initiative, his plans changed.

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Law with his girlfriend, Gillian, in the cafe where they first met.
Tom Joseph Law/Facebook

"I felt like she was gearing her life around something that mattered, and I was trying on different pairs of jeans with a stylist, having my hair done, and regurgitating the same promotional jargon to 10 journalists in a row, none of whom would remember me the next day or really care," he said. "She was part of this world that I wanted to be part of ... the complete opposite of the world that I was in."

When he decided to move to Croatia to be with her, people thought he was crazy for giving up a music career that had taken him 10 years to build, but he's never been happier.

tom law croatia view
A room with a view in Croatia.
Tom Joseph Law/Facebook

He's lived in Croatia for a little over a year now. Life there is "wonderfully simple" compared to his years in the music business. He's crafted his own career in marketing and writing with a new blog called Depth Over Distraction. He works from a coworking space five days a week and reserves weekends for spending quality time with friends and snuggling with his cat. He still tweets and posts photos on Instagram, but more out of habit than anything.

Music is also still a part of his life, and he sees many parallels between his two passions.

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Performing at Bokeria Kitchen and Wine in Split, Croatia.
3 Gray Goats Photography

Music and travel are both exploratory pursuits. They're unique ways to collaborate with others. And they demand personal growth.

"You can't be a good musician unless you're constantly growing and developing, and you can't really travel and experience other cultures without growing and developing," he said. "Learning is very central to my life."

It's this freedom to learn, explore, and connect deeply with others without the pressure-filled culture of his previous life that continues to drive his creativity.

"I actually play more music now than I did when I was a professional musician, and I'm far, far happier," he said.

SEE ALSO: This 33-year-old traveled to every country in the world and made $1.5 million doing it

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