5 Questions
with...
1. If I knew absolutely nothing about Christian Summer,
how would you describe your music to me?
-- well first of all...its just me and my acoustic
guitar at this point...but i would classify my music as new folk...people
compare my vocals to cat stevens and my guitar playing to that of john
mayer...not that i sound like either one...i would compare my guitar playing
and chops to somebody like paul simon while my song writing would be closer
to paul mccartney... so basically finger style guitar playing with with folksy vocals..
2. If I were to buy your new album,
what songs should I pay particular attention to and why?
-- my new cd...hmmm...i really just kind of wrapped
that up 2 nights ago...i have a lot of material on this cd...but some
of my favorites would be the nice and upbeat song "alriiight...",
the sobering song "time", the broken hearted song "worthy
(acoustic version)", and this little upbeat 1:30 ditty that nearly
closes out my cd called "good morning sunshine"...im gonna
push that last song to morning shows i hopes that it may get picked
up as an opener to radio or tv morning shows...
3. What was it like being the only acoustic artist
at Orlando, Florida's biggest Indie Festival [anti*pop festival]?
-- honestly i didnt look at it that way...i
was excited as hell to be invited to play...especially being from deland and
being considered one of the top indie talents in the central fl area...the
fact that i was the only solo acoustic act is actually par for the course for
most of my gigs...that was only pointed out to me after the event was over...but
when it was pointed out to me...it made me feel pretty damn good...
the
whole anti*pop festival was a great experience...it was really cool cause
i was booked with my friends band "dish" which is another top
band from deland...so we had a little deland crowd out there mixed with
the downtown orlando crowd...
4.
What was your worst on stage experience? What was your
best?
-- well...i was pretty drunk...i dont recall all
the details...=)...i kept dropping my picks...and i busted a string with
only 1-2 songs left in the set...it didnt really justify changing the
string with so little left in the set...besides i was in no condition
to change a string...so i closed out my set...and wanted to crawl in
a hole an die cause i was so depressed about performing so poorly to
a whole new audience of people...i knew i blew my chance at winning over
the audience...but as soon as i was stepping off stage i had like 10
people there asking for cds...i felt bad cause they had seen me perform
poorly...but i am not sure they knew how drunk i was...they sure made
me feel better about my performance...but i told myself...i cannot drink
soooo much and feel comfortable playing sloppy...
best gig...i
would have to say my best gig was my first gig at cafe davinci in deland...my
friend james killgallon who is in this blues/classic rock
band "no circus" loved my first few recordings...so he asked
me to open for them at cafe davinci...they always draw a huge ass crowd...so
my first real show was basically a sell out of cafe davinci's court yard
(which is huge)...this was january of 2007 right when i just started
writing and recording...so i only had like 6 songs...they told me i would
have
30 minutes...which was about perfect...thing is...one of the band members
showed up late or something...so they were not ready to play...the crowd
was really digging my stuff so i was asked to keep playing...i was out
of originals but i had been on this white album binge so i started playing
and taking requests from the white album...solo acoustic...and it was
fun as hell to have the whole audience sing rocky raccoon with me...i
ended
up playing for an hour and 15 minutes or so after only prepping 30 minutes...great
show...even by my standards today...
5. Do you think that the Internet (whether it be Internet
radio, legal downloading, MySpace, streaming audio, etc.) is a good tool
for musicians or is it a bad thing because it hinders profits?
-- i am gonna try not to derail this into some silly
diatribe about the state of the arts...but i think the internet is one of
the most liberating things to happen to the artist...artists have been controlled
by the industry for years because the industry had their little formula for
making money off of artists...of course 10+ years ago it was pretty cost
prohibitive to get a studio sounding recording for a reasonable price...radio
was one of your only choices...especially for finding new music...and trying
to promote oneself without the internet was hard as hell...
when the internet, ipods, mp3s, etc came into the scene...the
formula changed...now you can record a studio quality cd in somebody's garage
for cheap...you
can have your music plastered all over the internet in order to be heard
(instead of radio) and you have the internet's audience at your door to
take care of your promoting if you just work it...the record industry is
besides itself trying to figure out how it got caught with its pants down
cause their money making formula doesnt work anymore...which is great news
for the artist...of course with the record industy going down...so does
your chances of "making it" for whatever that means...
i dont so much mind people acquiring my music for free on the internet...its
not that i feel like i shouldnt be compensated but its gonna happen and
i cant do anything about it...why fight it when i can just stay cool accept
it...hell even embrace it...hopefully its for the best so that my audience
will grow with each download...i just hope that people will appreciate
the artist enough to take care of them...i mean if you downloaded my music
and really like it cool i am glad you listened and enjoyed...if you liked
it and told others...even better...and if one day you see my new cd in
the store i hope you may pick it up...or come see a show and buy some merchandise...i
dont feel as though i have lost any money via the internet...really at
this point...people ripping off my music is almost the best form of promotion
for me...it means that i am being listened to...which hopefully is the
main thing the artist is going for... |
