Photo credit: Alysse Gafkjen and Blythe Thomas
Tell us about your tour vehicle.
I actually rent vans and cars from the airport to use for touring. I’ve never owned my own, but I spend at least two nights a week looking at vans on Craigslist. Still working on this.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
Honestly I don’t really. I try to find subways and sandwich shops but usually it’s McDonald’s. Still working on this too. It’s usually every man for himself but every so often I like to take the guys out for a nice meal at Denny’s or maybe a local BBQ joint.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I probably break 50 or so strings a year. Never the full set and I usually just replace the one that I broke and then put a new set on after I break a second. Which is way more expensive in the long run because I always have a bunch of partially used packs of strings laying around. The g-String is the hardest one to find. I’d say I spend $100 every year on strings so it’s really not that bad.
Where do you rehearse?
Used to be churches and anywhere with a good PA. Back in Washington we still practice in my buddy Cody’s garage. In Nashville I’ve been going to Diamond Sound.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
“Football games and paper planes”
Lyric: I wonder why there’s no more football games or paper planes but all our dreams stay the same
Describe your first gig.
It was an open mic in Seattle called “the still life cafe.” My dad took me cuz he always went to play there every week. I was thirteen and I remember eating vegetarian chili for the first time. I also recall being so nervous that what I had to sing about was silly. I said on the mic that I was too young to know much about life but after I sang there were a lot of older adults in their 50s and 60s telling me I know plenty and to keep on singing.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My last day job was working as a scooter/moped tour guide in Nashville. We showed people how to ride and then took them around to see the landmarks of the city. Other than that my favorite day job was a place called Carnation Farms in Carnation, WA as a groundskeeper/maintenance man.
How has your music-related income changed over the past 5-10 years? What do you expect it to look like 5-10 years from now?
I’ve been playing music full time since 2013. For a couple of years before that I was working day jobs and had support from friends and family, primarily my wife. In 2014 I signed my first publishing deal. From the spring of 2016 to the fall of 2017 I was between pub deals. Since then I’ve signed a new pub deal and I’ve had a handful of synch opportunities that have helped immensely. In the last two years or so I’ve been able to start making money touring. All that being said, I’m working toward touring as much as possible because it seems to be the most concrete way to build income and right now I feel really good about the years to come.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
I wish I knew what it meant when people said “be yourself.” It’s not about proving anything to anyone. It doesn’t mean you have to define who you are or spell it out all the time. To me “Be yourself” just means stop trying to control what everyone else thinks. Cut yourself some slack and stop comparing. You can’t be anyone but yourself, it’s impossible.