1- Where did you grow up? I grew up in Chicago. When I went away to college it bothered me when people would ask “What suburb?” because I’m a city kid through and through.
2- What is one of the first songs you remember liking as a kid? I was big into John Denver when I was like 8 or 9 years old. Rocky Mountain High!
3- What influenced you to get into music? Michael Jackson’s death in 2009 had an unexpectedly profound effect on me, and it reminded me that I used to sing a lot as a kid. That’s when I started taking voice lessons, but it was all just for fun. I’m a professional writer, so eventually it dawned on me that I could write and sing my own songs. I worked on a bunch of ideas, and in 2015 a friend of mine who was a musician in a previous life offered to produce 10 tracks with me. That was Electric Sol’s first album and our sound was a bit different then. It was really the pandemic that influenced me to start taking music more seriously and really try to figure out what sound made the most sense for us.
4- At what age did you start playing/singing? I started singing at a very young age, probably 4 or 5, and would do school talent shows and sing the National Anthem at Chicago Park District events in my community. My family was very musical in a low-key way…We had an organ in the house and we’d have holiday parties where everyone sang but it was all just for fun. By age 10 or 11 I put music aside and moved on to other interests.
5- If you could go back in time, what advice would you give to yourself after finishing school? After I graduated from college I got a pretty good writing job, eventually wound up at a big ad agency, and pursued interests in photography, writing, and filmmaking. I don’t know that I’d do anything differently, although I wish it hadn’t taken me so long to realize that my first passion, music, was the one I should have been pursuing all along. 6- What are some of your favorite songs at the moment? That’s a tough one. I have more than 200 “liked” songs in Spotify and that just scratches the surface. At this very moment, my favorite song is probably a dance jam called Relapse by Satin Jackets and Tailor. I find inspiration in instrumental chill music so I listen to that a lot, and I’ll revisit classic 1980s songs from Talking Heads, Tears for Fears, Howard Jones, The B-52s, etc.
7- Do you listen to your own music? Someone has to, hahahaha. I do listen to it quite a bit, mostly so I remember the lyrics when we do live shows and also because a lot of it I genuinely like.
8- Which musician would you like to collaborate with next? It would be great to work on something with Satin Jackets.
9- What is one of your favorite memories so far in your music career? All the milestones have been super meaningful since we released Accept Me as a single in July of 2020, but it’s really the cumulative effect of lots of little moments that's made doing this so worthwhile for me. I’ve really come to love my band mates, and I can’t tell you how much every positive comment someone makes about our music—on YouTube, on Twitter, in a blog, or wherever—means to me. The idea that people all over the world are listening to our tunes and being touched by them in some way seriously blows my mind. 10- What advice would you give to someone that is just starting to get into music? I’d say that it’s important to enjoy the process and not worry so much about the results. If I had started doing music earlier in my life, I probably wouldn’t have had this level of maturity and it wouldn’t have been as much fun as it is now.
I’d also tell people to just do a little something each day to get better at their craft and to promote their music. That kind of persistence and consistency really do add up, and when I look back at the past year since we released our first serious track I’m amazed at how much we’ve progressed.
I’m also a big fan of Todd McCarty’s Band Builder Academy and would recommend that to any artist trying to figure out the music business and build a fan base.
Currently, Electric Sol has some great songs out including "Running In Place," "You Love Me," and "Accept Me." They also have other many cool tracks and music videos on YouTube. Check out their profile page on this website by clicking the box below.
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