Can you tell us about the origins of your musical journey? What initially inspired you to pursue a career in music, and how did you get started?
My dad is also a singer-songwriter with great taste in music, so he inspired me and raised me on good music instead of the generic/corporate junk that gets the most airplay. He bought me my first guitar when I was 13, and I was hooked. Between my love for music and my assumption that I would need guitar skills to get a girlfriend, I played it constantly and quickly decided I was destined to be a rock star like many other naive kids. I realized that I had a knack for writing catchy, eclectic songs which fed my delusions of grandeur.
Who are some of your biggest musical influences, and how have they shaped your unique sound? Can you share a specific instance where one of these influences had a significant impact on your music?
Radiohead, Nirvana, The Smashing Pumpkins, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Supergrass, Ween, Failure, Air, Elliot Smith, Beck, and U2. I hear the heavy influence of Billy Corgan from The Smashing Pumpkins in both of my most recent singles. The first single on my upcoming album, God of Vengeance, reminds me of Hello Kitty Kat, one of my favorite songs on Pisces Iscariot which is also my favorite album of theirs. And the vocal melody in my second single, On the Rock or the Sand, is very Corgan-esque. Not surprising considering I was completely obsessed with this band in my teenage years.
Touring can be an incredible experience. Could you share a memorable tour anecdote that stands out to you, whether it was a challenging moment or an unforgettable performance?
At this stage in my career and season of life, I am far too busy to go on tour as I also have a full time career in information technology and serve as a part time pastor at my church. But I do play a lot of shows around Cleburne, Texas and the surrounding areas where I live. I view every show I play as a ministry opportunity to help people encounter their Creator through music, and there are nearly always profound moments where I get to be part of God doing something awesome. Recently I had a show at a nearby rock venue, and most of the staff there are former roadies/security guys for bands such as Pantera. If you were to judge a book by its cover, these aren’t the guys who you would expect to come ask for prayer. But two of them approached me separately that evening between sets and asked me for prayer because they had heard enough of my lyrics to know where I stood on that. It is an outdoor venue and this was during the crazy heat wave where we were hitting 110 degree highs, so there was hardly anyone in attendance. A lot of people would consider that to be a disappointment, but to me it was awesome because I know God did a mighty work in their lives and I had the privilege of getting to be a part of it.
Many musicians have a pre-show ritual to get into the right mindset before hitting the stage. Do you have any special rituals or routines that you follow before a performance, and if so, what’s the story behind them?
Over the years I have learned that prayer is extremely powerful and effective, so before every show I pray and ask God to use me to bring light into the darkness and give me opportunities to connect with people who need to experience his love.
Collaborations can be a powerful creative force. Could you tell us about a memorable collaboration you’ve had with another artist and how it influenced your music or expanded your artistic horizons?
My good friend Kevin Reddoch is a very talented musician and a very skilled audio engineer, so he’s the one who has mixed and mastered all of my songs. He has been able to take recordings that would have been relegated to bedroom demos and beefed them up to make them release-worthy, and I am very blessed to have him as a friend.
Over the course of your career, you’ve likely encountered various challenges. Can you share a particularly difficult moment you faced in your musical journey and how you overcame it?
Parenting is hard, and when you have 7 kids between the ages of 3 and 15 and four of them are teenagers, it’s even harder. My music journey isn’t a separate endeavor apart from my family, and often my songwriting is happening while my 3 year old son is screaming, which includes both screams of joy and screams of frustration. My family is a higher priority than music, so I often have to shift my attention to them and avoid booking shows that keep me away from them too often, and it can be challenging to maintain that balance. Everything I do musically overflows from being spiritually healthy, and if I’m not taking care of my family, I’m not spiritually healthy. So perhaps paradoxically, the best thing I can do for my musical journey is keep my focus on God, my wife, and my kids.
Your latest album has received critical acclaim. Could you take us through the creative process behind it, from conception to completion, and the overarching themes or messages you aimed to convey?
My debut album, The Prodigal, was conceived on Christmas morning of 2021. I opened up a gift from my wife Lindsay, and it was a painting of an older man embracing a younger man in front of a farmhouse with pigs in the background. I recognized it as an illustration of my favorite scripture known as The Parable of the Prodigal Son. In the months prior, I knew God was calling me to pursue music again but I didn’t know what that meant I was supposed to do specifically. The moment I saw this painting, I immediately knew I was supposed to record an album, name it The Prodigal, and use that painting as the album art. I didn’t hear the audible voice of God, but it was as close to that as I can explain. Lindsay had commissioned it from a local painter because she knew that was my favorite scripture. But what she didn’t know was that the first Christian song I started writing after coming to faith about 9 years ago was about this parable. I never told her about it because I never finished it. That unforgettable Christmas morning experience triggered the most prolific songwriting period I’ve ever had in my life, and I finished, recorded, and produced 14 songs between January and July that comprised the album released in October 2022. The overarching theme is of God’s redemptive power and mercy. In this parable told by Jesus, the prodigal son didn’t deserve to be welcomed back home by his father, but his father celebrated his return anyways. I spent many years of my life denying the reality of Jesus and making fun of Christians for their silly, outdated beliefs, and I certainly didn’t deserve God’s forgiveness. But he gave it to me nonetheless, and he offers everyone the free gift of eternal unity with him no matter what we’ve done in our past.
Touring can be both exhilarating and exhausting. How do you balance life on the road with your personal life and creative process? Any tips for aspiring musicians who are just starting their touring journey?
As I said, I’m too busy to go on the road at this point in my life, but as someone who does play a lot of shows around my surrounding area, I can certainly speak into this. To achieve balance you have to define it first so you know what target you’re shooting for. Otherwise, “balance” remains a subjective and vague moving target. For example, how many shows should you be playing each week/month? How many hours in the studio? And if you’re married, you have to include your spouse in defining what balance means, because if the two of you aren’t on the same page, you won’t find balance.
More importantly, you will never find balance apart from God. If you are serving your own selfish interests instead of serving him, you may experience some fleeting moments where you feel balanced, but spiritually speaking, you’re anything but.
Every artist has goals and dreams for their musical career. What are some of your long-term goals or aspirations, both in terms of your artistry and your impact on the music industry?
My goal is to reach as many people as possible with the life changing message of Jesus Christ by using music and the influence it gives me to deliver it to them. So my plan is to keep working hard to make music and to get it into as many ears as possible. To do this, I intentionally write Christian music that sounds nothing like most people expect from Christian music. Instead, it sounds like an amalgamation of grunge, rock, indie, and alt-country that is normal enough to have some mass appeal but eclectic enough to tickle the ears of music freaks.
The music industry has undergone significant changes in recent years. How do you see the future of music evolving, and what role do you envision yourself playing in this ever-changing landscape?
AI will have a lot of upsides, but there will be many downsides and it will have staggering impacts on the music industry… good and bad. The market will be flooded with AI-generated music that had little to no human involvement. People already have a deep-rooted desire for authentic, real, human things. That desire will grow as they become inundated with non-human content, and I believe more people will seek out live music performances as a way to receive a 100% human experience. So I will continue to write and perform authentic music that helps people connect to God as long as he keeps me on this mission field.