Photo credit: Phillip Douglas.
Tell us about your tour vehicle. Any notable breakdown stories?
We travel in a converted Chevy 3500 box truck. Equipped with 4 bunks that we built ourselves. It also has 2 tvs and a place to hang our road clothes and room for all our instruments and gear in the back. It has got almost 250,000 miles. Two weeks ago we had multiple tires replaced and an oil change (pretty typical for us) as well as having to replace the fuel pump and the power converter.
As far as breakdown stories, they are mostly tire changing stories. We had one run we did, I think it was 24 shows in 27 days in like 7 states and we had just replaced all the tires and we got a bad batch and had to change four of them on that particular tour.
How do you eat cheaply and/or healthy while on tour?
This question is as tricky and loaded as the chili cheese fries and gas station hot dogs. Certain guys do really well with it. Me personally, I try not to go overboard with the fried bar food and such, but you can tell by my girlish figure that doesn’t always work out. We always try to use our venue meal or any hospitality we get for the show to save money.
How many strings do you break in a typical year? How much does it cost to replace them?
I rarely break strings, but I also change my strings about every two weeks, more depending on the shows before and upcoming. If it is really hot and muggy or outdoors, then I’ll change them every week. I use D’Addario lights 0.10s on my telecaster and buy in bulk online usually to save money. They are usually about 7 bucks a pack at your local music store.
Where do you rehearse?
Our rehearsal space as of recent is a close friend of the band’s computer repair shop where we’ve been tightening up songs off the new record. Before that it was our original drummer’s house for a decade.
Too many stories to really recall any one crazy experience. I remember one summer with no AC that was particularly brutal. But I mostly remember sharing my original songs for the first time with all the guys there and coming up with structures and arrangements and making bad jokes and laughing a lot.
What was the title and a sample lyric from the first song that you wrote?
The first song I wrote was a god awful junior high ballad called “Feet In the Sand” about a beach trip in the 9th grade. I think the first lyric was something about bare skin and salt water. It was pretty awful but you gotta start somewhere.
Describe your first gig.
My first gig was with my high school Christian band called “Glorifeye”, yes we were as awful as our name. We opened a 3 band bill with other local acts in our church gymnasium. #rocknroll
What was your last day job? What was your favorite day job?
My last day job was part time almost 8 years ago working for a food delivery company in Columbia, SC. It was miserable. As for my favorite day job, it is a tie between screen-printing and tending bar.
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?
Well, I’ll just have to say it hasn’t changed enough, and I never know what to expect with this business but like everything else in what we do whether it is writing, record or playing shows, I hope it only gets better.
What one thing do you know now that you had wished you knew when you started your career in music?
Really, anything related to the business and networking side. I was very slow on the uptake in that part of the industry. And I say that because like most folks I knew nothing about it when I started. I just wanted to write songs and play shows…..
Or, that I should always have a pedal steel guitar in the music. haha