How long have you been playing guitar? I’ve been playing now for about 7 years. I started in 2008 in August. I got my first guitar when I started going to college in east Texas.
Who do you consider your top influences? I grew up with a lot of Motown. My mom used to sing to sing to me all the time, Motown, old school stuff. Current artists that I really like, I learned a lot from John Mayer, a lot of guitar playing, melodies, and just a lot of feel from that guy. My influences go back to blues roots. People like B.B. King, Hendrix, Buddy Guy, Clapton, the list goes on, but mainly I feel that Mayer was my primary influence.
Favorite local venues? I am absolutely in love with Iron Horse Pub. There’s something that you get from that place that you don’t just get anywhere. It’s the love that make you feel comfortable there. I love the 8th Street Coffee Shop. I would say that those are the two venues that I feel most attached to.
Didn’t you used to work at Iron Horse? I worked at Iron Horse off and on about four to five years.
You’re not from here originally, right? Where are you from originally and what brought you to Wichita Falls? I was born in Louisiana and grew up in Rockwall Texas. What brought me here was college at MSU. I previously got injured at my last college in east Texas and that’s what landed me here in Wichita Falls.
What inspires you to write? For one I feel that it’s a God given ability, it’s a talent. It’s been really difficult for me not to write and not to sing. I think what influenced that was a lot of hurt and pain in my life and the only way to really get it out was through music. I grew up in choir and in school and church singing and it just came natural to use singing as a way to get those emotions out.
What’s your stage set up consist of? I play right now in a band called Downtown Royalty and we just recorded our first EP. For my rig, I play a regular Fender mexi Strat, nothing too incredibly special in my line up. A tuner pedal, SD1 overdrive from Boss, an SP Compression pedal which I’m very impressed with by Xotic, and just a wah pedal and delay. That’s my basic rig. I run it through a Vox AC Custom 15 with a replacement alnico blue speaker.
How did Downtown Royalty com about? Well, I used to open up for a group called The Band of Brothers and everybody that I play music with now were in that band. I used to open for them acoustically which was my first music experience here in Wichita Falls. The drummer and bass player are brothers and the guitarist Mark Forehand, who is also a singer/songwriter joined to form this band (Downtown Royalty). We mostly do original music and it’s a lot of fun. I love writing.
Do you still play many solo gigs? I dedicate as much time as I possibly can towards the band, writing and playing with those guys but I want to also start doing more solo stuff pretty soon.
What plans do you have for the near future? Playing more out of town shows, releasing the EP and I just want to continue to write.
