\nWhat\u2019s a common myth about independent artists and can you debunk it?
\nI think it\u2019s a common myth that independent artists don\u2019t like music or artists that are signed to
\nlabels, which is definitely not true. I have lots of respect and love for many artists that are
\nsigned, it\u2019s just a different path.
\nWhat advice would you give to someone wanting to enter the music industry?
\nBe yourself, work really hard, write lots of songs, and create realistic expectations for yourself.
\nAre there any resources or advice that have really helped you on your journey?
\nI think getting to know and befriend other artists has always been really helpful. Listening to lots
\nof great music, listening to podcasts, reading about writers like John Prine and Jeff Tweedy and
\nhow they write and think about things, and watching documentaries is all really helpful.
\nWhat has been your biggest accomplishment in your career thus far?
\nI think the biggest accomplishment is how long I\u2019ve kept my band together. That\u2019s really hard to
\ndo in today\u2019s era, there are lots of options for other people to do other things, so the fact that
\nwe\u2019re still all together. I\u2019m very proud of that.
\nWhat do you wish you had known when you started out?
\nI wish that I had paid more attention to the journey and less about trying to arrive and succeed.
\nMore about just enjoying the process and the ride.
\nWhat led you to becoming a singer-songwriter?
\nFor me, music got me through a lot of really difficult and even tragic seasons of my life and I
\nstarted writing songs to kind of deal with some of those things and that\u2019s really why I think I
\nstarted doing it.
\nWhat do you think is your unique skill that has helped you become successful?
\nI\u2019m not sure I have a unique skill, but I think I\u2019m good at building a great team. Both with my
\nband on the creative side, but also with my management and booking agents on the business
\nside. Really creating a collaborative atmosphere for the music and for touring and the recording.
\nHow did this project begin?
\nThis project began coming out of the pandemic. I started writing a lot of songs and playing with
\nthe band, just really having a lot of fun because we missed it for 18 months. I really wanted to
\nget in the studio, so I started writing a ton. Both alone and with other writers. And I started<\/p>\n
getting the band together to play those songs, and then we decided we wanted to go to the
\nstudio and make a record. What\u2019s different about this one is we started from scratch in the
\nstudio, really had no agenda, didn\u2019t know which songs were gonna make the record. We
\nrecorded 24 songs and Strangers No More is what came out of that.
\nWhat\u2019s the inspiration behind this project?
\nIt\u2019s really a record about community in a world of chaos. It\u2019s about getting older, it\u2019s about time
\nand a lot of self reflection about life and how much we need each other. It\u2019s about friendship,
\nthings of that nature.
\nWhat word or phrase would you use to describe this project?
\nI would use the word gratitude. It\u2019s an appropriate word for this record.
\nHow can listeners get in touch with or support you?
\nMainly through social media, instagram, twitter, our email list, and by coming to see shows!
\nWhat is coming up for you in the near future?
\nWe\u2019re on tour with Darius Rucker this summer and we\u2019re headlining in the fall and spring. Just
\ndoing lots of radio things and tv things to support this album and I\u2019m really excited about all of
\nthat.
\nMany people believe that becoming a musical artist is challenging to the point it becomes
\noverwhelming and too much to handle. Why do you think people believe that?
\nI think for a lot of people it\u2019s true. That\u2019s why people believe it. Because it has taken down a lot
\nof really creative people because you spend a lot of time traveling, there\u2019s a lot of self doubt.
\nYou\u2019re making something that\u2019s very precious to you, and then the world sometimes tells you
\nthat it doesn\u2019t mean anything or it doesn\u2019t matter. It\u2019s really difficult and hard to process that, so I
\nthink it is overwhelming and too much to handle for a lot of people and that\u2019s okay.
\nWhat\u2019s the most common reason for people failing or giving up?
\nBack to the last answer, I think it\u2019s really hard, and some people find that it\u2019s easier to do
\nsomething else with their time and creative talents.
\nWhat is your favorite word?
\nFamily.
\nWhat are you not very good at?<\/p>\n
Basketball.
\nIf you could have one superpower, what would it be?
\nI wish that I could fly. Not like in an airplane, but actually just like as a person.
\nIf you were a type of food, what type of food would you be?
\nI would be peanut butter.
\nIf you could switch lives with someone for a day, who would you choose?
\nThat\u2019s a good question. Maybe like a professional snow skier. That sounds fun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What\u2019s a common myth about independent artists and can you debunk it? I think it\u2019s a common myth that independent artists don\u2019t like music or artists that are signed to labels, which is definitely not true. I have lots of respect and love for many artists that are signed, it\u2019s just a different path. What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33322,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-33579","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nws"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33579"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33579\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33580,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33579\/revisions\/33580"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kjagradio.com\/themic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}