Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: Can do! I was born and raised in Laramie, Wyoming. It was an interesting place to grow up, knowing that in the background of the University of Wyoming and everything Laramie is supposed to be, there was a lot happening. I was way too young to even know about this, but Fugazi came through town twice, Bonnie Prince Billy performed at the Buckhorn and so many others had happened upon Laramie that made a dent on my early teenage years.
I started playing cello and piano when I was 7 years old, and it stuck with me. Later on I started to get tired of the classical scene in my mid twenties, and moved on from there.
At an early age, my mom would be playing music from MIchael Martin Murphy, Neil Young, Kate Wolf, and a lot of classical music that still sticks with me. The most impactful out of those were Neil Young and Kate Wolf. Those two had lyrics that were deeply introspective, wildly vivid, and drew you in close. Throughout my life, I had always listened to them.
My dad would blast Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Ronettes, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. My dad showed me a whole different world of music that my mom typically didn’t like (knowing that she did go see KISS and The Rolling Stones live at different points in her life).
A favorite memory of mine was when I discovered Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and showed it to my dad. We were driving back up from Colorado Springs to Nebraska and I put it on for him. We listened to it twice, he loved it so much.
Q: Can you describe the musical style of wAHb in three words?
A: Wyoming Post Americana
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: I don’t have a lot of folks who listen to my music. But when folks reach out to me about how they discovered me, it brings a lot of joy. The one thing that I would really love to do is perform my music to anybody who is willing to listen. That is probably my way of connecting with people.
For a lot of the folks who have reached out to me to open for them for shows, it has been a breath of fresh air knowing that they had listened to my music and want me to come play for them someday.
Someday, someday.
Q: You have just released your new EP, ‘Early Virgins’. Is there a story behind it?
A: I made a joke to a guy who I work with (hi Don) about how I should title an EP of songs I wrote a while back “Early Virgins” because of the play on “Early Versions”. At that moment I knew I needed to get to working on it and see which songs I could use. So I chose a couple of older songs, and two new ones I had finished up within the same year and recorded them within a day.
Overall, Travis Beam, Coleman Walker, and Chris Lamb absolutely nailed their contributions to the tracks, and it really made it what it is.
Q: What is your favorite track from the EP and why?
A: Hands down, Shorties for the Camel. It came from a morning of getting no rest, and immediately waking up to go to the convenient store to buy a pack of cigarettes. The whole exchange with the guy behind the counter was this:
Guy: “Hey bud, what can I get for you”
Me: “Can you get me some shorties for the camel?”
What I meant to say was “Could I get some Camel shorts?”, but delirium does weird things to the connection between your mouth and brain.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the EP, “Early Virgins”?
A: When I wrote these songs, I had made a point to see the lyrics to where they go and keep them as they were. The music doesn’t come till way later. So for me it’s a huge puzzle between the music and lyrics. Some musical ideas that I would come up with would work with the lyrics, some didn’t. It’s a very special time when I find something that I’ve been fiddling around with, and it fits with something I wrote a month or two ago. It could even be nearly a year before I find something suitable for a song I wrote.
Recording wise, I used an MXL 990 to record the guitar and vocals. For the banjo, I used an MXL 991 which really brought it out more in the tracks King of Hearts and Dawn. I ran the mics all through a Scarlett and utilized Ableton live for tracking.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for you so far?
A: It was at a benefit show in Denver, Colorado. It was a large backyard with a stage. My buddy Eric organized it, and everyone that played there was so wonderful. I was the last one to play, and some of the folks were gone. So it turned into an evening that was super intimate and had tied everything together in such a way that made it way more memorable.
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: “It Takes a Lot to Love a Wild Thing”. I wrote this when my wife was in Los Angeles shooting a film with Gary Wilson called “The Absence of Milk in the Mouths of the Lost”. It’s an amazingly wild film, go check it out.
But I wrote it while she was away and I was really lonely. Funnily enough, this was before we were even married, and the last verse in it starts with “I’ll make my life a promise to you / and to you I promise my faith”. I guess I wrote our future in that song, and it still sticks with me. I need to bring it back out when I perform. It is such a lovely song.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into wAHb’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: Like I said before, my lyrics and the music is like a giant puzzle. The one way I could describe it though is I have to be practicing a song or messing around with something I found in a classical guitar book (good fingerpicking material). For someone like me to have a classical background it is really important to jot these down, and I usually have staff notation paper on hand to write it down.
Lyrically, I have to start with one line that comes out in my head and I form a song around that one line.
Then when I’m finished, those lyrics will be sitting in google drive folder for the longest time until I get the music matched to whichever songs are in that folder.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for wAHb, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: I want to play my music for more folks, no matter where it’ll be. The best thing for now is to see who discovers my work, and knowing that there is someone who is finding comfort in my songs.
