October 2024

The music industry is rapidly evolving, especially with the rise of digital plat- forms. How do you balance the demands of creating authentic music with the need to stay relevant in a digital age? Balance? What balance? I have a problem with following directions and trends. The world wants pointless bedroom shred content? Fuck that. I’m not going to waste my day learning 60 seconds of a cover and finding the best lighting to show off my cleavage for strangers when I could be working on my music or trying to book shows. I’m a performer, not a bedroom musician, and it’s important to me that I present myself that way. I’m not diss- ing influencers - some players out there on the digital platforms have conquered worlds I could only hope to someday step foot on because they learned how to nav- igate social media. Who knows; maybe someday I’ll get better at it but right now my ADD and I are struggling just to get my weekly laundry done. Can you share an experience from your early days as a musician that significantly shaped your approach to songwriting or performing? Great question! I mean, I grew up strad- dling rock/punk and blues, with theWhite Stripes being the first band to blend those genres and really catch my attention. I watched “Under Great White Northern Lights” when I was about 13 or 14, and the way that Jack White stalks across the stage like at any moment he’s going to attack his bandmates, himself, the audi- ence, or all of the above had a deep im- pact on my performance style. I just loved the raw dangerous energy of it. But oddly enough, I think Death Cab For Cutie had a heavy hand in my writing style early on as well. “Plans” was one of the first CDs I bought where I heard a repeated motif build into this beautiful, overwhelming sonic wave and I loved how it could affect me as a listener. Crying to “What Sarah Said” and “Marching Bands of Manhat- tan” at 9 years old without really under- standing why grew heavy roots in my psyche. I use that technique to this day, whether I mean to or not. You’ve been candid about the challeng- es of breaking into the Nashville scene. What advice would you give to other art- ists trying to stand out in a saturated mar- ket? It sounds cliche, but really honestly just figure out what makes you unique and amplify that. If you try to be somebody else, you’re going to fail - that person al- ready exists and you probably look up to them BECAUSE of what makes them unique. I tried for years to copy my heroes and fell short every single time. You can’t stand out if you’re blending in. So figure out what it is that makes your music or personality vibrate at a different rate and turn that up as loud as you can. Independent venues are very important, they help shape many careers. How do you think the closure of these venues dur- ing the pandemic has impacted the music industry, and what steps can be taken to revive them? I cannot begin to stress how critical in- dependent venues are. The closure of those venues hits us the way rotten crops hit food supply, and makes it that much harder for performing artists to survive or maintain. I think it’s safe to say most of us wouldn’t have careers without in- dependent venues. I don’t know the ins and outs of running DIY rooms, but I do know that, like any other business, sup- port is everything. 17