Photo credit: Talitha-Lahme
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
There’s a crack that meanders across the windshield of my dad’s Ford Transit that ironically follows the shape of our US tour this upcoming February. He bought it used a few years ago to haul around things he found on Facebook Marketplace, like go-carts or old wine barrels. I end up driving it when I’m back from Europe or down from Canada since I don’t have a car of my own. I found myself picking cities to live in based on whether I had to drive there or not. Funny how I also picked a profession where I have to drive around the world all the time. Maybe that’s why I picked those cities. Since it’s not my car, I can’t recall how many miles it has or how many times it’s broken down. You’ll have to ask my dad if he ever releases an album and you interview him. I’d read that for sure!
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
I find it pretty hard to eat cheap or healthy when I’m on tour in North America. Since I spend a lot of time abroad, when I’m back home I tend to live it up and eat all the things that are regionally popular… and probably terrible for me. On this tour, I’ll have liver dumplings in my hometown of Ste. Genevieve, MO. I’ll get toasted ravioli in STL. I’ll go to Hattie B’s for (medium) hot chicken in Nashville. I’ll ask a local what’s best in Louisville (PM me if you know what’s up). I’ll eat deep dish at Giordano’s or Pequod’s in Chicago. I’ll get my favorite food in the world, HOT WINGS, at the best place in the world to get them, Duff’s in Buffalo. I’ll go to my favorite Chinese place, Swatow, when I’m in Toronto. I’ll round it off with bagels at St. Viateur and poutine at La Banquise in Montreal. All that being said, I’ll go back to cheap and healthy food on the European leg of the tour.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I play pretty heavy gauge strings and usually keep it in standard tuning, so I don’t go through many. I also like the sound of dead strings. They sound warmer and, when they settle into the saddle, the intonation holds better. My philosophy is literally, “if they’re not broke, then don’t fix them”. I usually don’t play expensive strings either. I’d say a pack usually costs around $12 or so.
Where do you rehearse?
I play solo a lot and when I do, then my rehearsal space is wherever I am alone with my guitar. However, on the upcoming tours, I’ll take a band of old friends from all over the place. We’ll meet up on my farm in Missouri a week before the tour to learn the new album that they all recorded on, but we haven’t played live yet. We’ll set up either in an old tractor garage surrounded by farm equipment and my dad’s Facebook marketplace finds or we’ll set up on stage at my family’s winery where we’ll play a concert a few days later. Wherever it’s warm enough for us to not get sick and secluded enough for us to not get distracted and not annoy too many neighbors is where we’ll be.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
I started writing songs when I was thirteen. I think my first one was called “Wish You Were Here”. Original idea, right? Ha! It went something like, “Wait up. Slow down. Life’s too fast, break it down. blah blah blah I wish you were here…” I can say with all honesty, that it sucked. Bad. But you have to start somewhere and if I wouldn’t have written a few hundred shitty songs, then I would have never gotten to a few good ones.
Describe your first gig.
It was the night before New Years Eve 2001 in the neighboring town to where I grew up. It was in the gym of Perryville High School. I was fourteen and had a trio called “Espionage”. We played six songs. A few Green Day and Weezer covers and a few originals. My smash hit, “Wish You Were Here”, was one of them. Like the song, we sucked too. Bad. But we thought we were great at the time and a bunch of our friends and family were super supportive. If you were there and you’re reading this. Thanks. If you would have told me what I think now about how we sounded, then I probably wouldn’t have ever gotten where I have.
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My last non-music day job was actually working an under-the-table construction gig to try to pay rent while back in North America. Everything has gotten so expensive there and it seems nearly impossible to make any money off of music. It’s tough. It was all a little easier when I was younger and I could work with my grandpa on the farm. That was my favorite day job. We basically just rode around in his old truck and watched the corn grow.
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?
Being a musician has always been a precarious profession. I never made very much money doing it, but that’s obviously not why I went down this path nor why I stay on it. When I got started 15 years ago though, it was a little easier for me to justify earning $50 on a concert. It was easier because I was young, had lower expectations and expenses, and (a very important difference here) people would buy merch. Fast forward a decade and a half and it’s gotten harder and harder to justify playing gigs for little to nothing for the same or fewer people. Sleeping on strangers’ sofas feels more parasitic in your late 30’s and you don’t have the naive hope of a 21 year old thinking that one day you’re gonna make it if you just play one more concert in nowhere to no one. Beyond that, Spotify and the other streaming platforms have hollowed out merch sales to a level where I’m lucky if I sell three vinyl records at a show. Fewer people in my age group go to concerts as well. Everyone has little kids, demanding jobs, and/or can’t afford to go out because everything has gotten more expensive while their wages stayed the same.
My guess is that in 5 to 10 years there will be fewer venues and fewer touring artists. Mass entertainment also might be something that becomes more and more AI generated. All of that combined leads me to think that local DIY scenes of luddite songwriters without much (or any) online presence or hope of large commercial success will involve playing in houses or private underground venues to small communities of countercultural anti-mainstream audiences longing for connection, quality, and humanity is the future.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
That the inherent quality of what you create isn’t diminished or increased by its commercial success or lack thereof.