Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: I grew up in rural North Carolina, and my parents liked all kinds of music – everything from Chuck Berry to Ray Conniff, Buck Owens to Herb Alpert, Grandpa Jones to the Brothers Four. I listened to the radio or their records all the time, and I remember taking over selecting music for the monthly record club when I was pretty young. I cared more about that than everyone else; so, I started collecting music very early in life.
My mom and a couple aunts could all play piano (mostly church hymns), and several friends and relatives played guitar or banjo. My dad loved music and had some spoons taped together so he would play along with others since he didn’t play an instrument. He would also spontaneously start “buck dancing” anytime he heard some lively music – much to the chagrin of me and my brother. J
When I was young (maybe 2nd or 3rd grade), I started piano lessons and did them for a couple years, which gave me a great foundation for future musical adventures. I really wanted to play guitar, though, and I’ve been trying to play guitar ever since about 4th or 5th grade. Although I took a few guitar lessons here and there, I am largely self-taught.
In 7th grade, I started playing drums in the school band program and joined the high school marching band the following year. Our band director (Bob Buckner) was incredible, and he brought in some talented drum & bugle corps instructors. We had a lot of fun in the band, practiced relentlessly, and won many competitions across the southeast. One year, we traveled to Wisconsin to compete and won the national championship, which was quite an accomplishment for such a small school. We competed against high schools that had more students than the population of my entire hometown! In the band, I learned a lot about how to practice and work hard towards a goal.
Older kids in the band were always turning me on to something I’d never heard, and they always seemed to appreciate that I liked older stuff like Jimi Hendrix or Deep Purple. One guy two grades ahead in the drumline with me (Eric Wilson) was an incredible guitarist and showed me how to play barre chords and other cool stuff on guitar – like Rick Derringer’s “Rock N Roll, Hootchie Koo”. Little did I know that I would be in an Atlanta band called the Hodads with Eric in the future and that he would contribute to the first Crawdad Crash album. Another slightly older drummer turned me on the Ramones, and I am forever grateful. The first time I heard them, I loved it, and I thought, “Hey – I could do that!”.
So, I was exposed to a lot of great music and surrounded by people who loved music in my childhood. My parents were very supportive – and didn’t seem to care that I spent all my money on records and concerts!
Q: Can you describe the musical style of Crawdad Crash in three words?
A: Hmm…. That’s hard. I usually say that Crawdad Crash plays a gumbo of rock & roll styles, synthesizing influences from hard rock, country, punk, blues, glam, power pop, R&B, garage and surf – but that’s more than 3 words. J
Basically, I try to smush everything I like together, use lots of guitar and drums, and make it fun. I think everything sounds better with some loud guitars, but the Crawdad Crash style is not for everybody. Back in the day, the Georgia Theatre sound guy said he dug the “punk blues” sound of the Fontanels, and Crawdad Crash isn’t far from that. Sometimes, I try to add humor or cartoonish elements to songs. So, let’s go with “Punk Cartoon Blues”. How’s that? That’s definitely more descriptive than “Loud Guitar Fun” – and sounds more appealing than “Not For Everybody”! J
(BTW, afterwards, I asked my friends in Terry Funk Railroad this question and got these responses: “Maximum Country & Western”, “Mutant Rawk Symphonies”, “Post-Garage Analog Rock”, and “Gabba Gabba Hey”! All good answers!)
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: Earlier this year, I built a Crawdad Crash website (www.crawdadcrash.com), and I put links and information on there to make it easy for people to discover and listen to Crawdad Crash. I put details on there about releases, most-played songs on various streaming platforms, upcoming shows with friends, and so on. I also share background stories about each song in the “Crawdaddy’s Notes” section for each release. I am hoping the website will reach a broader audience than just my Facebook page, X (formerly Twitter), and email lists.
I love to hear what songs people like and why, and I try to take that into consideration. For example, I received positive responses to the 2 covers on my second album – Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now” and Nick Lowe’s “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?”. So, I decided to record more for the new album. Ultimately, though, I’m just trying to record what’s in my head and hope that a few others will like it if I do.
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘Reign Of The Crawdad’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Yes, this is my third Crawdad Crash album, and I approached it a little differently. When I wrote and recorded the material for my first album, I ended up finishing enough songs for two albums, which I released as “Dawn Of The Crawdad Era” (named after a line in the song “We’re All Doomed”) and “Dawn Of The Crawdad Era, Part 2”. I put a lot of pressure on myself to get those out – to get them over the finish line after years of hard work towards this goal of releasing my own albums. With this new album, I felt less pressure, and I took more time in the recording and production, trying to apply everything I’ve learned the last few years. Recently, I watched the documentary about Tom Petty recording the “Wilderflowers” album and how he had fun and took his time to get it the way he wanted. I tried to do that.
The album title “Reign Of The Crawdad” doesn’t come from a song like the previous albums. Instead, I imagined a story arc of album titles / themes sort of like the original Star Wars trilogy or the Marvel universe, which gives me a creative outline for artwork and titles in the future. So, after the “dawn of the era” is the “reign”, and you can probably guess where this is going. J
Q: What is your favorite track from the album and why?
A: Right now, I’d say “You’re Not Gonna Like This (The Disclaimer Overture)”. I like how unique and cartoonish it ended up sounding with the violin, xylophone, and random percussion. Initially, it started out as a straight roots rock song – sort of like Jason & The Scorchers – but I kept working on it to get what I wanted.
BTW, I had never “played” violin before, and you can probably tell! J I borrowed one from a friend and did the violin part in one take in just a few minutes. Then, I tried to tune the violin and just made it worse! I had no idea what I was doing. Luckily, the first take was pretty much what I wanted; so, I used what I had.
Of course, as I was recording the album, my “favorite” would change from song to song. I would get excited about whatever I had done most recently that sounded good – like mixing in Tim’s trumpet parts on “It’s All Right” or Patrick adding a lead guitar to “Mirage”. I also like how this new version of “Next Time”, an old Hodads song, turned out – a little slower and heavier, but still twangy with some power pop vocal harmonies.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the album, “Reign Of The Crawdad”?
A: Sure. I started with about 25 or so original songs I had already written and another handful I was finishing. I selected a few covers that I thought would be fun to dismantle and remake with a Crawdad Crash spin. I recorded demos of many of these songs and then whittled the list down to a smaller number that sounded most promising and also covered the breadth of styles I wanted. Towards the end of the project, I cut out more songs so I could just focus on finishing the final 12 songs for the album. Then I mostly worked on mixing, mastering, and sequencing the songs for the album.
In parallel with the songwriting and recording, I worked on the pre-release administrivia (copyrights, cover song licenses, etc.) and collaborated with my daughter on the artwork. She’s done all the artwork for my albums and singles, which has been fun. She always comes up with something way better than my original sketches!
After submitting the album for release to CD Baby, I worked on getting the word out –e.g., built the website, posted on Facebook and X, emailed fans, updated the website, etc. I’m still working on promotional activities and planning a physical CD release for this album, too. Even as I finish up those items, I’ve already started planning the next album.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for Crawdad Crash so far?
A: To date, Crawdad Crash has been a studio-only effort since it’s essentially a 1-man band (me) – even though it may not sound like it. If there’s a demand for Crawdad Crash concerts in the future, I will be happy to cross that bridge then. I know some awesome musicians, and we could be “arena-ready” in no time! J
I do enjoy playing live – whether on guitar or drums. I play somewhat regularly with long-time friends in various bands. One of those is Terry Funk Railroad, which has two other songwriters besides me, and we play lots of fun covers (Clash, Cult, CCR, Stones, Who, etc.), along with songs from our collective bands (Crawdad Crash, Hodads, Fontanels, Buckofive, and Dangleleros). So, seeing TFR play a Crawdad Crash song is the closest you’ll get to a Crawdad Crash concert right now.
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A: All my songs are my “babies”, so to speak, but “Old Red Jeep, New White Snow” is special because it was my first release as Crawdad Crash (with me doing everything) and because it was inspired by my dad, who passed away earlier the year it was released. It’s a twangy, rockin’ Christmas song, and, in retrospect, I should have put “Christmas” in the official song title somehow – like “Old Red Jeep, New White Snow (Nothin’ Stoppin’ Christmas)”. Oh well… Maybe Brad Paisley or some other country star will cover it for a Christmas album and make it a hit – then everyone would know it’s a Christmas song!
Anyway, when I was a kid, my dad and other men from our church would deliver gifts to the needy around Christmas, and my brother and I would tag along. Many gifts were destined for rural mountainous areas with poor roads, but luckily my dad had a Jeep that could go anywhere. I don’t think the heater worked; my brother and I were always cold in there. One Christmas, it snowed about 8 inches, and my dad drove all over town picking up my relatives to bring them to our house for our traditional Christmas dinner. I extrapolated on this theme in the last verse, with my dad helping Santa Claus like Rudolph did. I didn’t originally plan for my first Crawdad Crash release to be a Christmas song, but it just worked out that way.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into Crawdad Crash’s unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: Sure. Well, first, I am always thinking about music and collecting ideas for songs – a funny phrase, something that strikes me as odd, a cool riff or beat, a weird sound, a memorable melody, or whatever. I try to capture those immediately before I forget them by scribbling a note, or sending myself an email, or playing or singing into my phone. Usually, I end up working on the ideas that keep bouncing around in my head the most. It’s sort of “survival of the fittest” because I have so many goofy ideas and don’t have time to work on all of them.
Sometimes an entire song comes to me quickly (like with “Kick Your Ass” or “We’re All Doomed”), and I basically write the whole thing in my head. This is rare, though. Usually, I take ideas and work on them with a guitar until I get something I like that’s also uniquely me. Sometimes a song starts with the music, and then I put the lyrics on top. Sometimes I have lyrics and / or melody, and then I work out the arrangement. Occasionally, I will go to the piano to work out a melody if I can’t figure out what I want on guitar. It’s a very iterative process. I work on what I can with the time I have until I’ve exhausted my thoughts; then I return to it later when I have more ideas or more time. My brain keeps working on ideas in the background, subconsciously. I repeat until the song is “done enough” to record a rough demo. Sometimes I’ll try out songs with my friends at this stage to see what works and what doesn’t. It’s always interesting to get others’ interpretation of a new song; many times, it’s not what you would expect.
BTW, music is not my “day job”; so, I am limited by time and budget. I record everything at home whenever I have some free time. I leave drums and microphones setup in one bedroom so I can start recording drums anytime I want within a few minutes. I use the “Glyn John” 4-mic method for recording drums. Everything else is relatively portable, and I can record other parts just about anywhere.
When I start recording, I always record drums first because I think they provide the energy for the whole song; plus, they are very difficult to record later in the process. Since I’m trying to remember the song and hum it to myself while I play and record drums, it’s easy to get lost or forget something. So, I immediately record a scratch guitar or vocal track to ensure that I didn’t miss anything on drums. After I edit the drum and scratch tracks to be the foundation for the song, I add bass, guitars, keyboards, banjo, percussion, etc., to fill out the sound.
The last parts I add are either contributions from collaborators or the lead vocals and lead guitar, which are the hardest for me. If there’s anything very difficult on guitar or more nuanced than my limited punk “stun guitar” skills can provide, I try to get someone else to play the lead or fills. My son Patrick is very talented and has played lead guitar on many of my songs – usually recorded in just one or two takes in a few minutes. He’s a “real” guitarist like my friend Eric from the Hodads, who played some lead on 3 songs of the first album. It was very little time and effort for them to play and record their parts, which always humbles me. I still play guitar like a drummer! My high school friend Tim Gillespie has played trumpet on several songs; he just records his parts by himself and sends them to me to mix in.
Throughout this entire recording process, I am constantly producing demo MP3s that I can review and critique. I try to apply a couple of concepts I learned from agile software development – (a) fail fast (i.e., try something, get feedback quickly, and learn from it) and (b) always leave the output (in this case, a song instead of software) in a “working” state after each iteration. So, I record / mix, listen, and adjust repeatedly until a song is close to done. Then I will also master it as part of this cycle so that I record / mix, master, listen, and adjust until “good enough”. Sometimes I will get a friend with good ears to listen to a song if I feel like I’m not getting the mix I want and can’t figure it out. Sometimes I need to boost the drums toward the end of the process because I’ve layered so many other tracks that they’re lost in the mix. I listen to songs over and over on different devices – headphones, home stereo, car speakers, etc. – to get the mix right. For each album so far, I’ve produced hundreds of demos, and I’m pretty tired of listening to them by the end! J However, I don’t know of any other way to get the final product that I want. If I had an unlimited budget and access to superstar musicians, priceless equipment, and renowned studios to record my songs, it wouldn’t sound like me – but I wouldn’t pass it up either!
One last thing to mention here… I’m not after perfection in my recordings – I’m just after “good enough”. I remember Neil Young saying something like this: the first take is usually the best, and re-recording something over and over removes the “soul” of the song. I agree and try to use the fewest number of takes possible, choosing energy and enthusiasm over perfection. Sometimes “magic” happens – like, I play an incredible unplanned lead, a mistake sounds great, or the final lyrics just pop into my head. I try to recognize when this happens and preserve the “magic”. Most of the time, though, whatever happens is a direct result of trying, learning, experimenting, and working hard on something. And, if you want to write, record, and release an album, you have to treat it like a job and put the appropriate amount of time into it to get the results that you want – just like any other project. So, I balance time in vs. quality out. If I waited for perfection, I’d never release anything! J
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for Crawdad Crash, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: I have another 40-50 songs either written or in the works; so, I’m planning on more albums of original material. It’s fun to do covers, too – especially when I can put a unique Crawdad Crash stamp on them. So, I may do a covers album, or I may just sprinkle more covers across new albums. I may try to do more singles or EPs so there’s less time between releases.
For any fans out there, please tell your friends about Crawdad Crash, let me know what you like, and keep up with news and releases on the website (www.crawdadcrash.com), Facebook, or X. Email me (contact info on website), and I’ll put you on the mailing list.
