Karen Waldrup and then folk/Americana duo Whitherward each performed and then sat down for these interviews during the Winter 2017 NAMM show in California. Country singer/songwriter Waldrup was making her third appearance on NHTE and talked about having added saxophone to her music, plus a full-length album she successfully crowdfunded, targeted for a summer 2017 release. Ashley E. Norton and Edward Williams talk about three endorsements that they (Whitherward) got while at the NAMM Show. They also talk about a new album, living on the road (literally), and having played over 250 shows last year and probably more than that in 2017. Ashley also refers back to her NHTE Episode 6 interview and talks about the record deal she’d just signed then and how it never turned into anything!
KAREN WALDRUP
“My writing has always been a little bit more edgy than straight up country. Like I definitely would never want, like, necessarily, like, straight up banjo throughout my whole set because my music just doesn’t really lean that way. It’s a little bit more edgy, a little bit more groovin’, a little bit more New Orleans, like, raspy, if you will. And so, because of that I just felt like (saxophone) would be great and I started adding it to the band.”
“My grandmother… said to me one time, ‘The moment that you stop caring what other people think about you is the moment that you start living.’”
“Music is like having a pizza topping. Some people like pepperoni, some people like olives, some people like cheese. I can’t control what they like. I just am the kind of pizza that I am. So, I think that’s important because it’s eventually someone’s turn to order pepperoni. So eventually it’s your turn and in the meantime you just support all the other pizza toppings while you’re waiting on your turn.”
“I think every artist moves to Nashville or L.A. or whatever with some idea that there’s gonna be this wizard who’s gonna make it happen for you.”
“I really believe that you have to follow whatever it is that you’re meant to do. And you can’t worry about what other people are doing or what other artists are doing because that’s their journey. You can only worry about your own.”
WHITHERWARD
(Edward) “I studied engineering when I was in Nashville, so I have all the skills I need to do that. So, it’s a boon for us that we can keep everything in-house and we can just go to a studio and know what’s happening… and then we can kind of control our own vision too.”
(Ashley) “We wanted to put more money into the marketing of this album than we did into the recording of this album.”
(Ashley) “It’s kinda hard for us to sign onto somebody all of a sudden telling us what to do when we’ve been doing it ourselves for the last three years.”
(Ashley) “My mom always says that it takes two people to complete an art project – one person to do it and one person to tell you when it’s done.”
(Edward) “Most of our possessions are in the car… We manage to make the touring work because we kinda have to cut everything else out.”
Karen Waldrup
“Just Don’t Know Me Yet” (live)
“Start A Scandal” (live)
Whitherward
“Are You There” (live)
“Teeth” (live)