Tag: BGS 5+5

BGS 5+5: Corb Lund

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Corb Lund
Hometown: Taber, Alberta, Canada
Latest Album: Agricultural Tragic (June 26, 2020)
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My full name is Corby. My outfit sometimes calls me ‘El Presidente’. Ian Tyson calls me ‘Corbo.’

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I read a lot and that seeps in for sure. At a pretty granular level, but it definitely has a big impact. I’m a history nut also. When I was younger I used to draw and paint quite a lot, but there’s no time for that stuff anymore, too busy touring. I’d also like to try live theatre. Some other lifetime, probably.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

It took me about five years to write “Bible on the Dash.” I had to recruit my old buddy Hayes [Carll] to help me finish it. I had a verse and chorus FOREVER and I was stuck. When Hayes got hold of it we wrapped up the rest in a couple hours.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

The few hours between soundcheck and the show are pretty important to me. The venue and the green room are empty because everyone is out eating, so that’s my only real time on the road to work on my voice or new songs or guitar playing. I jealously guard it. And I don’t really eat food anyway and dislike restaurants.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

Two things. First, I’ve always been very committed to doing my own thing musically. I’ve always wanted to be able to look back at a solid body of unique work and be proud of it. It’s important to me to get my voice and perspective and culture into my music at all levels. Secondly, to just roll up my sleeves and do things myself. I have plenty of excellent help now, but in the earlier, leaner part of my career I swore that I’d never wait around on the music industry. I just made my own records and booked my own tours and printed my own T-shirts and fixed up my own van. Unless you win the record deal lottery at 22, no one’s going to do that stuff for you. There’s a grand tradition of that, from SNFU to Chris LeDoux.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I spend as much time as I can on our family ranch in foothills of the Alberta Rockies. My great grandfather homesteaded there in 1898 and it’s a huge part of my psyche and my art. That area comes up pretty often in my songs. It’s pretty country.

Photo credit: Scott Slusher

BGS 5+5: Jaime Wyatt

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Jaime Wyatt
Hometown: Fox Island/Gig Harbor, Washington
Latest Album: Neon Cross
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): My family and close friends call me James

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Gram Parsons is one of the most influential artists for my life and creativity. I identify deeply with Gram: He was a hippie who was obsessed with country as well as soul and his original music was a perfect blend of genres, incorporating vintage and modern influences. I try not to make a perfectly vintage sounding country song, as I feel like I’d rather listen to the classics than listen to a straight reproduction.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

I toured with Wheeler Walker Jr. as support and during a set in Los Angeles, a man screamed, “Jaime, I wanna have your baby!”

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

For both pre-show and pre-recording sessions, I do yoga, meditate, go for a jog and do some mat exercises, vocal warm-ups and then crack a Coca-Cola and smoke a cigarette and pace until I hit the stage, or pick up a guitar and pace around with the guitar.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Many many times for many many songs. For me, following the melody is very important and it should lead the lyrics. I write mostly in my head then bring to an instrument, so a lot of songs come to me while I’m sleeping, driving, meditating or walking outside.

“Just a Woman” almost didn’t make the record, because I did not want to risk comprising the potential of that song. I felt I was representing women with that one, which might be a total lie, but I did not want to fail all of womankind, by making the lyrics cheesy. I finished the bridge right before we tracked the song with the band. I heard a major/minor Beatles thing when I woke up that morning and was blessed enough for that melody to return to me while I was outside pacing in the courtyard. Then I finished the second verse maybe one hour before the final recording session.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I’d say 50 to 60 percent of the time. I’ve done this to hide that I’m gay or that I don’t want anyone I know to know how I feel and I’ve done it to give a wider demographic of people the opportunity to connect to a song.

Photo credit: Magdalena Wosinska

BGS 5+5: Teddy Thompson

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Teddy Thompson
Hometown: Brooklyn, New York
Latest album: Heartbreaker Please
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Ted, Abudharr

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, January 2016. It was for the great Celtic Connections Festival and it was just one of those magic gigs. I have a lot of family from there, and also Glasgow audiences are just the best. At once erudite and rowdy. Good times.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

Movies. I’m a film buff. I subscribe to The Criterion Channel and that has made my lockdown a lot easier! I like to be immersed in another world and a good movie gives me that feeling. Really I think I’m an escapist, but escaping into someone else’s world can make you see your own differently. Songwriters are always looking for an angle.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Playing at the school talent show, known as JFP, at Bedales when I was 14. As a somewhat awkward kid, lacking in self-confidence, it was a powerful feeling to be applauded on stage. After that, girls looked at me differently.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

I like to smoke a cigarette right before I go on. Can’t be good for the throat, but there you go. I used to like to get shitfaced after the show, but now I don’t do that. I’ve aged out of the post-show party scene.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

Sam Cooke and chicken.

Photo credit: Gary Waldman

BGS 5+5: Pharis & Jason Romero

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Pharis & Jason Romero
Hometown: Horsefly, BC
Latest album: Bet on Love

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc. — inform your music?

Music and handcrafting go hand-in-hand for us, and the connections between the sounds, the textures, and the colors the sounds create are an essential part of the art we’re making, oral or visual. The music we make is informed by the banjos we build, the jewelry we create, the gardens we plant, the overwhelmingly beautiful part of the world we live in.

We work as banjo makers, sending custom-made Romero Banjos to clients around the world. It’s a powerful artistic outlet, inspired by things like old furniture, deco and nouveau paintings, the look and feel of raw copper or wood, the feeling when you’re up to your thighs in river water and casting a fly rod, the geometry in tree branches and tall grasses; often our strongest inspiration is found in the forms seen in nature.

Jason is an old film nut — he briefly studied film in college, and old Japanese films really formed an aesthetic cornerstone for him. The texture of the film is something you can feel and almost taste, and his banjo playing draws on the texture of the instrument’s tone in a similar way. Pharis finds a large part of her songwriting happens with rhythm and nature — the swish of cross-country skis on snow, the soft splash of a canoe paddle. And like many songwriters, a turn of phrase in a book or poem can be her basis for an entire song.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

Pharis’ parents said she came out of the womb singing — her family sang together from day one — but she didn’t want to be a performer. Pharis’ dad was part of a couple groups that were invited to play at Expo ’86 in Vancouver, BC. Her dad had her sisters up on stage but Pharis, 7, refused. She studied classical music from a young age, and being on stage was a painfully nerve-wracking experience for her. But she persisted (her mom persisted), and when she and her sisters sang a Beatles song in three-part harmony at a festival, it was good – and people loved it. That’s when Pharis really woke up to the love of singing harmonies and the lift it gives people when they hear them.

Jason always loved music — especially the Beatles and Led Zeppelin and Cream — but his relationship was as a listener until he was 19 and heard a 5-string banjo played in an Irish bar band in Chico, California. That sound redirected his life — a month later he had a banjo and has been obsessed by it ever since.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

We often have our two kids on the road with us. It’s incredible to all be together, but it means we need to pay attention to making time for quiet and stillness. We try to give ourselves a good hour before a show to sit, have a cup of tea or a glass of whiskey, not talk, and warm up our voices slowly. The important word here is “try”, as our most important ritual on the road is being adaptable and resourceful — and sometimes that means waiting for the babysitter to show up five minutes before we go on.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

We live an hour away from our main town and there are few places to eat out, so we eat at home a lot and love making and sourcing good food. If we could sit down and play and sing tunes with some close old-time music pals, drink some mezcal margaritas, and then sit down to fresh greens and grilled veggies from the garden, pesto, some kimchi and a grass-fed burger, life would be excellent.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

Pharis: I was in a band called Outlaw Social years ago. At a big CD release show, packed to the rafters, we had a guest fiddle player join us on stage. I meant to introduce him as our substitute fiddler player, but my tongue slipped and I introduced him as our “suppository fiddle player.” The bass player, bless his heart, quipped, “He just slips right in.” The room completely fell apart.

Photo credit: Laureen Carruthers

BGS 5+5: Reckless Kelly

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Reckless Kelly
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest album: American Girls & American Jackpot

Answers provided by Willy Braun

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I get a lot of ideas from books, lines here and there, but a lot of time they’re just ideas. A theme or a mood. I get some ideas from movies as well but that’s a little more rare. I’d say most of my ideas for songs come from things people say or do in everyday life. I’m always writing things down.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I’ve always known I was going to be a musician. It’s the family business. My dad, uncles, grandpa, brothers, cousins, etc., are all musicians. I grew up singing on stage with my dad’s band and eventually my brothers and I all joined so there was never really any question about what path we were going to go down.

However, to answer the question more directly, I remember when I was about 5 I got up and sang a song with my dad at a chili cook-off. After the show the girl at the concession stand gave me my Coke for free, and I remember thinking that was the coolest thing ever. It may have been what hooked me for good.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I have a place in Idaho where I do the majority of my writing these days. It’s in the high desert with mountains all around so it’s really inspiring. It takes me a few days to get in a groove but once I find my rhythm I usually get a lot done. It also helps that it’s off the beaten path so distractions are at a minimum.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

If I could meet one person it would probably be Sir Paul McCartney. I’m pretty sure he’s a vegetarian so I’d eat whatever he wanted to have as long as we could chat about writing and of course, the Beatles. I’m sure we’d have a couple bottles of wine to wash it all down as well.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

I use a lot of metaphors in my songs so that’s a place to hide out, ha ha. I almost always write with a caricature in mind, so even when I say “me” I’m not usually talking about myself. A lot of my stuff is fictional so I don’t worry about hiding much. The new albums are the first time I’ve really explained a lot of meaning behind the songs. Normally I let people make up their own version of what they think it’s all about. This time I felt like it was important to let people behind the curtain a bit because of the concept. I wanted them to get it.

Photo credit: Cynthia Dawn Photography

BGS 5+5: Ruthie Foster

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Ruthie Foster
Hometown: Austin, Texas
Latest album: Live at the Paramount

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Sam Cooke. Growing up in a mostly gospel singing family, Sam Cooke’s music was playing on the stereo all of the time. He was not only the most melodic gospel soloist I’d ever heard, but he could sing anything from popular songs to fronting a full band with horns, changing stylistically as a singer (Sam Cooke at The Copa). I’d like to think that my music brings a similar energy to the live stage, which is why I decided to record with a big band on my latest release.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I was about 10 years old sitting on the front pew in my family’s church in central Texas watching and listening to my uncle sing a solo one Sunday afternoon. He’d sang the song many times before but this time it was different. Tears were streaming down his cheeks, his voice was shaky, and he had his hand on my other uncle’s shoulder, who was playing the piano. Visibly moved, he changed the energy in the entire congregation. Everyone was crying, me too. I knew then that singing was a true gift that can be used to elevate.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

I have a tough time finishing songs when I’m in my head too much; I’ve had no problem starting them at all. “Singing The Blues” is a perfect example. At the time I was getting a little pressure about writing for my next album and I resisted. Touring a lot while house searching from the road and trying to write was stressful. It wasn’t until I decided to put those feelings on paper when I realized that the song was really about my life. So I was able to start and finish it, “Trying to find a new home, trying to write a new song. Trying to find a rhythm, that’ll help me get through it, singing the blues”.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I love to cook at home when I’m off the road. One of my favorites is baked fish with garlic, fresh dill, seasonal vegetables, and a good wine. I always prep and pair that dish with one of my favorite singers, Tony Bennett!

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

One night onstage at a festival I started to lose my voice from really bad allergies. I tried to sing but after a few songs, I was straining and in extreme pain. I stopped and apologized for not being able to continue, but someone in the audience started singing the lyrics for me, then there were more people joining in on a few more songs and before I knew it, the set was complete and sung entirely by my beautiful fans while I played guitar for them! They had lifted and carried me through the show! I was incredibly moved and grateful.

Ruthie Foster – “Singing The Blues”

I’m very proud of being brave enough to tell my own story about how I came to the blues.

Sam Cooke – “Bring It On Home To Me”

Sam was soulful and a skillful in the music business, owning all of his own publishing.

Tedeschi Trucks Band – “Midnight In Harlem”

This tune reminds me of learning to adapt to my new environment while writing songs when lived in NYC.

Bill Withers – “Grandma’s Hands”

This one captures how I felt about my own “Big Mama” and reminds me of how she still sings through me.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe – “Singing in My Soul”

The very first and baddest rocking mama on guitar ever! Huge influence on my playing.

Photo Credit: Yellow House Studios

BGS 5+5: The Sweet Water Warblers

Posted on by Editor

Artist: The Sweet Water Warblers
Band members: Rachael Davis, Lindsay Lou, and May Erlewine
Hometown: Hoxeyville, Michigan
Latest album: The Dream That Holds This Child
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): “Party RD,” “Lou,” “Segue May” …also, Rachael’s daughter Lela calls the two other Warblers “MayLou” collectively

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

Rachael: That’s hard to say for a trio, but for me (Party RD) that’s the simplest question. My parents are musicians and no other artists could have possibly influenced me more. They taught me how to play instruments, and sing harmony, and write songs! They taught me how to set up equipment and make a budget and how to be gracious and approachable and original. They supported me in all my artistic endeavors and never gave a shadow of a doubt that I could succeed. I’m not sure there’s any other artist that could approach that degree of influence.

May: It’s really hard to say, it’s an evolution of things. One influence leading to the next one. I will say Joni Mitchell’s bravery in her vulnerable music and also in using her voice to speak for justice is something I continue to draw from.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

May: I draw from everything I possibly can. I believe that the art of noticing is directly connected to the act of being present. I try to explore and notice the world around me and use it to fuel my songs. I like to paint, draw, sew, cook, garden, run, walk, bird, read, write poetry, talk about things deeply.

Lindsay: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd was a book we were reading and referenced a lot while we were putting the album together. It’s a moving memoir of a woman’s journey to find the sacred feminine, and it spurred some exciting late-night conversations.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

Rachael: When we write together for The Sweet Water Warblers, we always carve out a good amount of time, space and intention for being creative. I think the first time we did a co-writing session with the three of us, Lindsay had just moved to Nashville, where I had already been living for a few years, and May was still living in Northern Michigan. Lindsay and I met at her house and we FaceTimed May in Traverse City. The distance and delay made the process not as fluid as it could have been. That is to say, that it really wasn’t that difficult, but it was technically the toughest time we had writing. After that, though, we did resolve to all being in one place for that process in the future, which we have adhered to since.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

Lindsay: There were a few ritual-like things we did while making the album that focused our intentions. At the beginning of each day in the studio, every person there brought in a mentor to the spiritual space of making music together. We went around and spoke their name and who they are to us into the studio mics. It didn’t take much time but hearing about all the people who’d brought us to that moment gave our task an even deeper sense of purpose. I loved hearing who was named and the way they were remembered.

We lit a candle to mark the beginning of tracking for each song. The flame seemed symbolic of the offering in each like a unique being we set out to shine a light on. We also started our first in person meeting with Dan Knobler by sharing 10 minutes of silence. Nothing like silence to frame the experience of making sound.

For live shows we come together and sing in a quiet private space before we take the stage. Allowing our souls to harmonize for the sake of sharing the vibration is a sweet reminder of why we’re there, and it gets us aligned and ready to connect with the audience as one.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

May: There are so many, but I’ll get specific with this band in recent times. We finished a song at one of our shows this February and the emotional quality in the room was so thick, that nobody even clapped for a good 30 seconds. That was magic right there. I hope to always have new favorite memories on stage and with these ladies, that’ll be an easy dream to achieve.

Photo credit: Scott Simontacchi

BGS 5+5: Sarah Siskind

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Sarah Siskind
Hometown: Brevard, North Carolina
Latest album: Modern Appalachia

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I would say my biggest overall influence is The Story, which was an alt-folk duo out of Cambridge, Massachusetts in the ‘90s consisting of Jonatha Brooke and Jennifer Kimball. My dad used to bring cassettes home from the library of albums he would read reviews about and pass along ones to me he thought I’d like.

At the time I was way into Indigo Girls and Tracy Chapman (about age 13 or so), so when he first gave me Grace in Gravity by The Story, it unnerved me a little. But, then I woke up one morning and had to listen to it on repeat or I thought I’d die! So I listened to it on repeat. For years. The songs on that album are ingrained in me now. Dissonant harmonies. Bold chord changes. Strong female perspectives.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

My favorite memory on-stage is when Bonnie Raitt asked me to sing “Angel From Montgomery” with her as a duet for the first time… and then after… she handed her guitar to me and said, “Play one of yours.” I’ll never forget that feeling. I felt like I was flying.

What rituals do you have, either in the studio or before a show?

The most effective ritual for me is to straight up pray. I ask God for peace of mind and for blessings over every note that comes out of my mouth. For Him to guide the show and for me to be a vessel. I also do some floor stretches if I can. When I toured with Paul Brady, I had a mix on my phone I would listen to before every show and it was Snatum Kaur, Lauryn Hill, and Mahalia Jackson; I would do stretches as I sang along.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

Water, definitely. The county where I live in North Carolina has the most waterfalls per capita in the country. However, I absolutely love rivers. When I’m really stuck, or having a rough day, I go to either the Davidson or French Broad River in Brevard, North Carolina, and trail run or just sit and pontificate. Watching the movement of water brings me back to center. The sound even more so. It reminds me how ultimately small we are in the big picture and that this vast earth was created through suffering way bigger than mine.

Since food and music go so well together, what is your dream pairing of a meal and a musician?

I love this question. I’m a closet chef. If I could have dinner with any musician, I would have a big southern meal of pulled pork, greens, and pintos with Danny Barnes.

Photo credit: Brian Boskind

BGS 5+5: Roger Street Friedman

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Roger Street Friedman
Hometown: Sea Cliff, New York
Latest album: Rise
Personal nicknames: Rog, RSF
Rejected band name: Roger and The Rainmakers

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

There are so many… but in terms of songwriting I would say the most potent influence has to be Paul Simon. I am in awe of his ability to convey large swaths of meaning in one or two sentences. That combined with his sense of melody and the production value of his records. Just incredible. I strive to write meaningful songs and aspire to the kind of concise clarity he brings to his writing.

What’s your favorite memory from being on stage?

In September of 2018 we played The Guthrie Center in Great Barrington, Mass. It’s a theater that was built in an old church. It’s actually the famous church from the song “Alice’s Restaurant” by Arlo Guthrie. Anyway, it’s a beautiful theater and very quiet with great acoustics. We played it as a trio with acoustic guitar, upright bass and fiddle/keyboards. The encore was the song “Rise,” which is of course the title track from the new record. It’s a song about hope… the hope that we can rise above our petty differences and make a better world. When the chorus came I asked everyone to sing along, and all of those voices singing in that old church was a religious experience for me. I had the chills actually. I’ll never forget that night.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

I had pursued a career in music early on. I worked in a studio and was recording other people’s songs as well as my own demos… and then my life took a left turn and I wound up in a career completely unrelated to music. Sometime after my daughter was born in 2006 I wrote a song for her and went into a friend’s studio to record it just for posterity. While I was strumming the guitar and singing into the microphone, I felt like I was in one of those movies where the world goes from black-and-white to color. I had forgotten how much I loved making music and the acts of writing, performing and recording music. I had an epiphany right then and there that I was meant to be a musician. I think I had always known this, but I’d just forgotten for a couple of decades!

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

When my father was in his early 80s he developed Parkinson’s disease. He fell a few times and wound up in a rehab facility where I would go to visit him. One evening when I arrived he was sleeping peacefully. He had grown a long white beard and that evening as he slept he had an almost Buddha-like expression on his face. I wound up sitting there for about two hours with him and then had to leave before he woke up. I felt bad because I didn’t want him to think no one had visited so I left a note on his side table.

When I got home I started a song called “You Are Not Alone” which is on my first album, The Waiting Sky. I wrote the first verse and chorus in one sitting but couldn’t figure out what came next. It wasn’t until after he passed away that the rest of the song came to me. It wound up being about the last night we were with him in the hospital. It was a very difficult song to write emotionally, but also very cathartic to finish.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I love being out in nature — we love hiking as a family and do lots of walks in the woods. I also ride a road bike and there are lots of two-lane “country” roads in the part of Long Island where we live. We are on the North Shore of Long Island so there are many spots where I go to be near the water. I use a lot of nature metaphors in my songs, from the wind to the stars to the sea… nature really does inform a lot of my writing.

Photo Credit: Drew Reynolds

BGS 5+5: American Aquarium

Posted on by Editor

Artist: American Aquarium
Hometown: Raleigh, North Carolina
Latest album: Lamentations

Answers provided by BJ Barham

Which artist has influenced you the most … and how?

I can confidently say that I wouldn’t be the songwriter I am today if it weren’t for the discovery of Bruce Springsteen and his music in my early twenties. A friend played me Nebraska and I was floored. Must have listened to that album for a month straight. He was one of the first artists I have a clear memory of hearing and saying, “I want to do that.”

He writes these elaborate short stories set to music. The songs are expansive and cinematic. The characters are all people we know personally. Intimate snapshots into the lives of the working class. He speaks the universal language in a way not many people will ever be able to. There is something so simple, yet so complex about the way he tells stories. I don’t trust a songwriter who says they aren’t a fan of Springsteen.

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I read a lot. I usually prefer fiction, but I’ll occasionally do a deep dive into a music-related autobiography. I tend to go for Southern writers and gravitate to the darker side of the genre. My songs take place in the darker corners of the Southern experience, so it doesn’t surprise me that my literary taste tend to go there as well. Faulkner, O’Connor, Harper Lee. The greats are what sucked me in.

I’ve been reading a lot of Cormac McCarthy, David Joy and Barry Hannah as of late. There is a familiarity of place that I really enjoy about them. I think a lot of the flaws in the characters of my songs are a direct result of the books I read in my leisure time. In my lifetime, literature has informed so much of what I know about people, I would be lying if I said it didn’t have an effect on me as a writer.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

The first time I played songs in front of people I was hooked. I was double majoring in political science and history at NC State University with every intention of going to law school after my undergraduate work. Then I fell in love with songs. I remember the first show like it was yesterday. Me and some friends from high school played (horribly) at Tate Street Coffee in Greensboro, North Carolina, in front of about 20 people. I was hooked. I became a student of every aspect of the trade. Songwriting. Performing. Business. There was no looking back after that first show. I had found my calling.

If you had to write a mission statement for your career, what would it be?

I played a lot of sports growing up and every time I would complain about a loss or another player just getting a “lucky” shot, my father always said that “luck was the product of hard work” and that is something that has always stuck with me. Work Hard. Get Lucky. It’s so simple, yet so profound. I have those words tattooed across my chest to remind me every morning that luck is not just something that happens to people. There’s a really great quote about luck being the intersection of hard work and opportunity. I think that was what my Dad was trying to say all those years ago, just a little less poetic.

When I started this band back in 2005, I knew I wasn’t the best writer. I knew I didn’t have the best voice. The one thing I did have control over was how hard I was willing to work. I truly believe that willingness to outwork anyone that was better than me is the only reason that I am where I am today. I get to earn a living from writing songs and playing them for people because I dedicated myself to the craft of songwriting and refused to take no for an answer. Some friends always say that I’m so lucky to be able to play music for a living. I just smile and silently thank my father for the lessons he instilled in me at such an early age.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

When I first started writing songs, they were extremely detailed and autobiographical accounts of my youth. The partying, the mistakes, the love lost. As I got older, I started moving more toward character based fictional narrative. Don’t get me wrong, there’s a little bit of myself in every single one of my characters. Some more than others. I believe it’s important to always add those dashes of personal experience into the songs. It makes them more believable to the listener and allows you to fall into those characters as you perform these songs every night.

The fiction is where you have the ability to make the songs universal and not just about you. The bigger picture versus the guy looking back at you in the mirror. I think part of the craft of songwriting is learning that balance. The greats came out of the gate with that gift. The rest of us had to learn it the hard way. It took me quite a few years to stop writing about the person that I currently am and start writing about the better versions of myself that I hope to become.

Photo Credit: Cal & Aly