“My artistic medium is probably sound. Music, but my interest is more in tonality and crafting sound. Stylistically, I approach it with kind of an air of experimentation and an interest in crafting that connection between sound and emotion. I’m not interested in virtuosity. I’m more interested in, ‘How can I make something sound cool?’
When I started with McLane & Company, I only played the banjo for them. I had given up playing the guitar since I was maybe 20. I picked it back up again when I was 30. McLane & Company was heading in a direction where we were going away from this Irish/folk kind of stereotype trope. In that, I was like, ‘It would be really cool to be able to lend guitar to this.’ So I picked it back up, and within a year I felt comfortable with it again and I felt like it was something I was proud of.
About four months ago I started another band as a side project. I talked to somebody at The Elephant Bar and was like, ‘You seem like the type of dude who would like to play shoegaze music.’ It was Elijah Durnell. He was like, ‘Yeah, I would love to.’ Then COVID happened, so that got postdated by about a year. But then we found three other people who said, ‘Yeah, I would love to do that.’
Whatever your niche is, whether it’s kind of weird, old-time folk – Brides of Neptune, whom I used to also play with – or whether it’s a big folk sound like in The Tumbleweed Jumpers, or whether it’s stoner metal like ZAF, or whatever, there are other people here in this relatively small town who are interested in that same thing, that same niche, and want to collaborate with you. It’s great. I love it.”
