1. Hello Brittany, can you tell me a little bit about yourself before you became a country musician? Growing up I was involved in my church youth choir and I competed in pageants and talent competitions around the state of NC, so music has been a big part of my life for quite some time! I attended East Carolina University where I graduated with a Bachelor of Social Work. But, my heart was with music, so two months after my college graduation I packed up and moved to Nashville.
2. What has been your favorite venue to play at so far in your music career? So far, The Stewart Theatre in Dunn, NC has been my favorite venue to play at mainly because it was my first hometown show where I performed my original music and the theatre was nearly sold out with close to 500 people in attendance. It was such a great time!
3. What goes into naming a EP? I’m sure quite a bit of brainstorming! But, the only EP I have released so far was a self-titled EP.
4. Is there anything new coming up with your music in 2019? I hope for more shows and more new music to be released. I do plan to film an acoustic video for my current single in the very near future.
5. Who are some of your musical icons? I have always been a big fan of the powerhouse vocalists such as Martina McBride, Whitney Houston, Celine Dion, LeAnn Rimes and bluegrass songstress Alison Krauss.
6. What is the background story behind your latest song “Playing With Fire?” This song is about having feelings for someone that you know is bad for you and will keep breaking your heart, but you still keep going back to them hoping things will change. So, in essence you’re “Playing With Fire”.
7. If you have to describe your music in three words, what would they be? Real, Catchy, JAMS 🙂
8. What is one of your favorite quotes? “To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven…” Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
9. Is there anything else you would like to share? I am a cat mom to a 10 year old tabby cat named Ozzy!
Country Musician Brittany McLamb is from Salemburg, North Carolina. With a whole family that enjoyed listening to country, bluegrass and gospel music, and extended members who sang in gospel groups, McLamb followed in the same direction and joined her church’s children choir where she was showcased in many lead roles and solos. She carried these abilities and love for music over to local talent shows and pageants. She also passed down her crown and title of “Little Miss Salemburg,” McLamb performed her first vocal performance at the age of 10. She dressed in a fringe and rhinestone decorated cowgirl outfit that was topped off with a matching cowboy hat and boots, she sang to the audience a cover of “If You’re Not in it For Love by country artist Shania Twain.
In high school McLamb was signed with a local talent agency that put her as a performer on the classic live television shows like “Arthur Smith’s Carolina Calling” and “The Jimmy Snow Gospel Hour,” where she traveled to perform on the show.
After receiving her college degree from East Carolina University, McLamb made the move to Nashville to start her music career beside music industry expert and mentor, Patsi Bale Cox who had worked at many record labels as well as independent public relations companies. Cox quickly introduced herto the late Billy Block, who radio show was a Nashville gem. After working almost 3 years developing her network, improving her skills and interning for the Billy Block radio show, McLamb started writing and recording her first EP. The EP was released on iTunes in 2013.
After the release of her first self-titled EP McLamb finished a recording project in early 2015 at Omni Studios with the great fiddle master Deanie of Nashville’s best musicians and Singer/Songwriter Melonie Cannon at the helm. These unique songs display McLamb’s lively vocal talent and the way she combines country and bluegrass in her music. The songs were released in Fall 2015 and her third single, is titled “I Like Where This Is Going,” and was put out in 2016 and McLamb also co-wrote this song.
Since these three releases, McLamb has gotten the chance to open up for country singers and groups like LANCO, Parmalee, William Michael Morgan, Charles Kelley, Brooke Eden and Granger Smith. On April 20th2018 McLamb released a new single named “Lose It.” This single is available on iTunes, Spotify, Amazon Music and Google Play. McLamb newest single “Playing With Fire,” came out on November 30, 2018.
If you would like to find out more about Brittany McLamb then check out her website athttp://www.brittanymclamb.com.
A beautiful singer, songwriter, and gifted producer, North Carolina native Katelyn Clampett truly is the complete package. Her lively range, genre adaptability and wonderful writing skills have taken her all around the world. Clampett was a backup singer for Selena Gomez and Ariana Grande. Also she has gathered admiration from Victoria Beckham, Vince Gill and Kara Dioguardi.
Larry Gatlin & The Gatlin Brothers discovered Clampett at the age of 2. She next went on to receive a Songwriting and Vocal Scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. After winning many songwriting awards at Berklee, she went west to compete on American Idol Season 9. Shortly after moving to Los Angeles, Clampett was invited to join Selena Gomez and The Scene as a backup singer. She also went on tour as a backup singer (keyboardist and acoustic guitarist) with Victoria Justice and Ariana Grande, and she also shared the stage with some popular country artists, such as Dan+Shay, Love and Theft, Frankie Ballard and Kip Moore.
On November 30, 2018, Clampett released her new single “Home for Christmas.” This new song was written by Clampett and she also produced the track herself in her home studio in Nashville, with the help of a all female production and recording team: Alex Kline (guitar), Robyn Dell’Unto (co-production), Sarah Emily Berrios (mixing) and Amy Marie (mastering).
1. Hello Katelyn, how have you grown as a country musician in the past year? I think I’ve grown immensely as a person, which subsequently has grown me as a country musician and songwriter. I’m very comfortable with myself at this point, and comfortable with saying things that I think I used to feel too introverted to say out loud. I’ve really learned how to trust myself and my natural instincts too. It’s funny, on “Home for Christmas,” a couple of the lines that I almost took out (out of fear of being “too true”) are the ones that stand out most to people. I’ve really learned how to hone the skill of not going down the rabbit hole of second-guessing to the point of paralysis, but to really trust my abilities and be confident in my perspective’s ability to connect with others when writing. Overall, I’m a lot less of who I’m told I should be this year, and have very much grown into myself, allowing my quirks to be on full-display. 😉 I think there’s a lot of liberation in that. 2. What is the background story behind your new single “Home For Christmas?” I wrote it one day by myself in my home studio in Nashville, after thinking about holiday plans and feeling a massive rush of anxiety about it (some members of my family like to plan Christmas wayyyy in advance- cue eye roll). I realized that most Christmas songs out there are about the joys of the holidays, and I think it can be pretty anxiety-ridden and sometimes painful for a lot of people. So I wanted to take a comedic stance on how uncomfortable the holidays can be. I feel like everyone thinks their family is crazy to some capacity, and I wanted to paint that picture and make people laugh/relieve some tension about their holiday situations, so that they know they’re not alone.
3. What is one of your favorite holiday traditions? Every year, my brother (who’s 28 years old now- a full-fledged adult, mind you) will wake me up at the crack of dawn to go see what’s under the tree. His love language is clearly “gifts,” and I always deliriously bark at him for disturbing my beauty sleep (always right on the cusp of those solid 8 hours). But his enthusiasm is so childlike it’s precious and it makes me feel somewhat like a kid again, which I think is a really important thing! 4. Is there something you wish your fans would take away from this song? To just recognize and acknowledge the craziness of the holidays but not let it bring you down or effect you. To realize the humor and lightheartedness in potentially dark home atmospheres, and to realize that, if that’s you, that you’re not alone. 5. Was there any other artists or producers that helped to create this song? I wrote the song and produced the demo alone in my home studio. The finished production is mostly my original demo, where I played banjo, mandolin, did the programming, engineering and editing. I’m proud to have had the help of some incredible women and musicians finish the song with me, including Robyn Dell’Unto (who helped me finish the production), SarahEmily Berrios (who mixed the song), Alex Kline (who played dobro and electric guitar) and Amy Marie (who mastered the song). Proud to have had a badass all-female production team on this song! 6. Is there anything new coming up with your music in 2019? You’ll just have to wait and see. 😉 But I have spent 2018 writing/producing for other artists as well, so I’m very excited for 2019! 7. Is there anything else you would like to share? Music video is coming out soon! And if you like it/resonate with it, add it to your Spotify playlist! ❤
1. Hello AJ, can you tell me a little bit about yourself before you became a country musician?
For sure! I grew up in Ohio primarily just playing whatever sport was in season. I grew up just jamming whatever my dad had rocking in the car (Bee Gees, Neil Diamond, Brice Springsteen, etc.). I got my first guitar in middle school but I never really learned how to play it until I got to college.
2. Since 2015, you have been living in Nashville and played over 300+ live shows, what has been your top three favorite venues or shows to play at?
The coolest place we’ve played so far was the Hampton Beach Sea Shell Stage this past summer. It’s just this really cool little out door amphitheater backed up right on the beach in New Hampshire. I love playing at Belcourt Taps and Dawghouse in Nashville acoustically. The Listening Room in downtown Nashville is also super dope.
3. What is your process when writing a new song?
Honestly it depends on the day, who’s in the room. There’s no real set way to write a song and everyone is different. If you have 3 different people in the same writing room, it’s gonna look a little different every day. For me, I like to have a general idea of a chorus or hook before even throwing it out in a write. I write by myself a decent amount and then once I get to a point where I realize what that song is/could be, I sorta save it until I write it with someone I think can serve the song well.
4. What is the background story behind your latest song “Whiskey Working?”
So we wrote that in March or so. It was one of those songs where I had the “that’s the whiskey working” hook sort of looped and we (Davis Branch and Sean Stemaly) wrote to that. I went through a really hard breakup over the summer and the song really started to resonate with me and I felt like I was channelling it pretty well so I just recorded it as soon as I could!
5. Is there anything new coming up with your music in 2019?
A LOT OF NEW MUSIC. I’ve been working with my producer (Aaron Patrick) a lot and we’ll just record a whole song in a day, sometimes write it and record it in the same day. We’ve probably got about 15 that we’ve done in the past few months and we’re gonna start putting some out as singles once we hit spring. There’s also a couple surprises before then too…
6. Who are some of your musical icons?
This is gonna be a little all over the place, but artists like Dierks Bentley, John Mayer, The 1975 and so many more. Dierks is just such a humble, relatable singer man. I got into songwriting mostly through John Mayer. That was the gateway drug. The 1975 just refuse to be put in a box. Their creativity is so inspiring to me.
7. What is one of your favorite quotes?
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.” I think people have such a bad perception of failure. You learn so much through what didn’t work. Trial and error has been great for me. Especially with touring and music.
8. Is there anything else you would like to share?
Come out to a show! I love to meet people in person more than anything. Instagram and all that social media stuff is cool but there’s nothing like the real thing.
In the year of 2018 country music is home to a broad range of traits and different sounds and right in the middle of it all is up and coming country artist AJ Gatio. Gatio’s music is a cross between pop and country. He is a developing young musician that is out daily creating a name for himself with his high power performing skills.
Since becoming a Nashville resident in 2015, Gatio has performed over 300+ live shows and has been a part of several huge events including CMA Festival and the Key West Songwriter Festival. In 2018, Gatio put out a song named “Too Hot,” and it was featured as an Apple Hot Track upon its release. He also has written many songs that were cut by other Nashville artists, including a song for country singer Spencer Crandall’s album that went Number 1 on the iTunes Country Chart upon release.
Gatio knows that country music is all about his fans and whether it is after a show or on social media, he is as sociable and personal with his fans as he is with his friends. On October 26, 2018 Gatio put out his latest single “Whiskey Working.” The song is available on Spotify and iTunes.
If you would like to find out more about AJ Gatio then check out his website at https://www.ajgatio.com.
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