A Texas-based singer/songwriter, he has played everywhere from traditional music venues to house concerts to online. He talks about his music, how he plans his tours, giving away free music on social media, his concept album that he’s writing with an eye on it eventually becoming a musical, and more.
“Not only do I recommend it for musicians, but I recommend it for people who just really like to listen to music and don’t want to go out to a bar, maybe want to have a more intimate setting where they can actually spend some time with the artist, get to know them a little bit.”
“The musician gets a free place to stay and the host gets kind of a behind-the-scenes, what’s-goin’-on. So, it’s a win-win for everybody.”
“It’s really nice that he’s built this kind of community and infrastructure where people like me… can still get around the country, and even if I wanted to do a European or trip to the UK.”
“I’ll start out with key points… It’s everything all coming together. So, it’s my usage of the Concerts In Your Home website. It’s my usage of my people that I’ve developed contacts with on Twitter or Facebook or any social media… I really like to do house concerts, so I start there.”
“Once I feel like I’ve kind of exhausted the house concert research, I go onto, ReverbNation’s got a really good infrastructure as far as venues, like clubs and different little listening rooms, and, you really do have to do your research. The other thing that you can do that I’ve done is, find someone that’s just a little bit more experienced than you and see where they’re playing, because stealing is the best way to go about a lot of this.”
“These paths have all been carved out… A lot of these venues have been around for a little while, so, you’ve just gotta find where other people that… fit your style a little bit, where they’re playing, put it in an Excel spreadsheet, and just, the more organized you can be the better.”
“Through Twitter I’ve been able to connect with a lot of people all over the world and I don’t know when is the next time I’ll get to tour the Philippines… I wanted to give an opportunity to those people to check out something.”
“The more nervous I get is when I’m playing in front of, like, colleagues from school… because… I know those people are judging me.”
“I’m combining a bunch of influences that my dad gave me – Chicago, Steely Dan, The Beatles, Dan Fogelberg – all this ‘60s, ‘70s music that I grew up with, and then I kind of went off, my era is the 90s and the aughts, so that’s kind of the music I grew up with on my own, so I feel like I try to combine a lot of that stuff into my sound.”
“Keep trying to meet as many people as you can and hope that that opens a door to something.”
“If you can kind of pave a lot of your own path by yourself, you just have so much more control of where your product goes.”
“I wanna give something of myself so that people will give something of themselves.”
“I don’t know that I want the same things that I may have wanted even five years ago… My idea of being famous is different than it was… Success is in the eye of the beholder. Do what makes you happy.”
"Cloudy Days"
"Gnarly Bear"