- Could you tell me a little about your upbringing before you came a country musician?
I grew up in a small desert town called Hemet in California. I started playing guitar at 13 and spent a lot of time playing music and writing songs in high school. I moved to Orange County so I could go to school and ended up liking the area so I stayed. I started the band as a fun side project with my drummer John off a Craigslist ad.
- How did your music career take off?
I’m not sure it feels like it has “taken off” in the sense that a lot of people mean that phrase. Looking back we have come a LONG way but to me it still seems like an everyday thing, and I hope that never goes away. I wake up everyday and just keep plugging away at it.
- So far in your music career, what part of it has made you the most proud and why?
The fact that we have done it all ourselves. We have no record label support and everything we’ve built, we’ve built it by working for it.
- If you could a duet with an artist or group who would it be?
Female- Cam
Male- Ronnie Dunn
- Who are some of your music influences?
Garth Brooks, Brad Paisley, Brooks and Dunn, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley are some of the top ones. I usually find something different about every artist that influences me.
- What is your favorite song on your EP “Messing Around”?
I like them all 😉 but if I had to pick it would be Trainwreck. I really like the lyrics to that song and I remember being pretty proud of it when I finished it.
- What show or concert has been one of your favorite to play at and why?
Night in the Country (Yerington, NV) has always been a blast. That crowd likes to have a good time. We played for them until almost 4am in 2015.
- Where do you see yourself in 5 to 10 years in your music career?
Headlining my own tours and making a difference in the country music scene. I’d like to see people getting back to writing more meaningful songs in the genre. It’s great to blend and mix in outside influences but country is in a different place right now and I would like to steer it back in a direction that’s a little more true to its roots. Good story telling, well thought out lyrics, and real instrumentation.
- In your free time when you are not busy with your music, what do you like to do?
Lol.. There’s not much of it right now, but if I find free time I enjoy being active so I work out and I love to read. I’ll read anything but fiction is usually my first choice.
- If you have to give advice to an up and coming artist or group what would you tell them?
-You have to put this first. Everything else in your life has to come after this career or it won’t work.
-Don’t give up.
-Be prepared to work harder for it than anything else. It’s worth every minute of it, but it’s a LOT of hard work.
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