Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from The Sea The Sea to Coyotes in Boxes, Qiet to Bud Carroll and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with Holly and The Guy, a soul-pop duo who have brought a new sound to the Americana-country-rock mix of Eastern West Virginia. So we asked them…
Credit Courtesy of Holly and the Guy
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How did the band get together?
We met on Craigslist back in 2014 while we were both looking for jam partners. Things just clicked, so we decided to try and start something.
What previous bands have you all been in?
This is the first official band for both of us.
Where does the band name come from?
Our band started out as only an acoustic duo. We were trying to be unique, so we decided to call ourselves Holly and The Guy!
How has Holly and The Guy’s sound changed over time (if at all)?
We have definitely gone from an acoustic/pop sound to more soul and R&B.
Where does the band play in and around West Virginia (venues, festivals, etc.)?
We spend a lot of time playing at local bars, such as 26th St. Drinkery, Jake’s and Boulevard Tavern. We are excited to be playing the July edition of Ritter Live!
Credit Courtesy of Porch Unplugged
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Holly and The Guy have played in and around Huntington over the last two years.
What’s it like making music in West Virginia?
Making music in West Virginia is definitely a great experience. We aren’t necessarily “country” or “southern” in our sound, but we draw from the southern influence brought to us from West Virginia.
Do you feel held back by being in West Virginia? Or does it feel like a musically-supportive place?
I think it is a little of both. Not being a “country” band sometimes has its downfalls in this area, but we have met so many supportive parties around here. It’s all about meeting the right people that will support your goals no matter what. I think every area is going to be like that!
Credit Courtesy of Porch Unplugged
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What, in your opinion, needs to happen in the West Virginia music scene for it to move forward?
I think people just need to start supporting local music way more. Go out and catch a festival. Pay $5 to hear a band at your local bar, or buy a new band’s album! We need to support our people and get the word out that great things are happening here.
What’s been the highlight of Holly and The Guy’s musical journey?
I think the highlight thus far has just been playing so many shows and meeting so many great people. Musicians are great people to know and never cease to inspire us.
What’s your advice to anyone starting to make music?
Our advice would be to just keep playing! You cannot imagine how much hard work pays off in the long run. The more you practice, the better you’re going to get. Just keep working hard and great things will come.
Holly and The Guys‘ latest release is the four-song Holly and The Guy EP. Keep an eye on their social media for their summer tour dates, not to mention their full-length album release. To hear more #WVmusic, tune in to A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Bud Carroll to New God, Rozwell Kid to Coyotes in Boxes and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with Brad Goodall aka B. Goods aka keyboard player for up-and-coming Huntington band Ona. You can also add solo performer to that list of titles, as he’s been releasing EP’s and singles over the last few years. We chatted with Brad about his solo releases, his Ona relationship and what it means… to have a mullet.
Brad Goodall’s newest release is “Jewel City.” Catch him on tour with Ona throughout the year. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
Interview Highlights
Credit Sam Adkins
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Brad Goodall regularly performs at Black Sheep Burrito & Brews in Huntington, West Virginia.
On learning the piano:
I didn’t start playing piano until I was sixteen. There was always one in my house. I remember being real into making movies and making skate videos when I was twelve or thirteen years old, and then I was trying to make short films, but nothing ever got made because I needed my friends help and they never felt like doing it. So I kind of turned to music because it was something you could do by yourself, like piano. Thinking back on it, that’s kind of how I got into it. I was like, “Oh, I can just sit and play this in my room, and it fulfills the need that making movies or skateboarding fulfills.”
I learned to play piano from these two books, which I still have, which are still sitting on my piano. They were The Billy Joel Anthology and The Elton John Anthology. That’s literally how I learned to piano, from five or six songbooks that I bought around high school age.
On moving to New York City to play music:
When I was in college, I got kind of obsessed with the history of New York, especially because the jazz stuff introduced me to it. Then I developed my own curiosity towards it and took a couple of trips by myself, where I walked around with a backpack for a week. I came home to Huntington, I was just middling around town playing in restaurants, and I guess I needed some new experiences. So I sold my car and moved up there.
I didn’t know anybody either, which is kind of crazy. Most people don’t do that. No family members or friends, and I had one connection I made from a Craigslist ad. He was actually a nice guy, and he helped me a lot. That was all I had, really.
On playing covers:
When I go on YouTube and watch my favorite artists, they’re not usually playing covers. When you go to a concert, you want to hear them play their songs that they were lucky enough to write. You’re better off putting your energy towards writing than learning covers, definitely. If you’re just starting out and trying to learn to perform, sure, play some covers. That’s how I started. I use to play a Wilco cover, I use to play a Dawes cover, but I never play them anymore because you should be focused on writing. It’s more important than learning covers.
I feel like cover bands, it’s kind of cheap. Not in an insulting way at all, but it’s kind of cheap because there’s not really any risk there. The songs are road-tested. If you’re playing a song that sold 3 million copies, even if you butcher it, you’ll still get a response from the crowd after they hear the first lyric or chord change. In the end, people want to hear what your thoughts are, what your musical ideas are, and that’s always what will survive longer than a cover act.
Ona is (from left to right) Bradley Jenkins, Zack Owens, Zach “Jeeter” Johnson, Max Nolte and Brad Goodall.
I was in North Carolina when they called me, when they were kind of hinting of offering the gig to me. I had booked a two-week tour with my friends, and I had one month to go up there to get my stuff in New York and come back to Huntington. We were rehearsing and hanging out as soon as I got back, but I didn’t play with them until Marshall’s FEST. It was my first real experience performing with them, and we had a good time. I was probably rehearsing with them for a month before I performed.
I grew up with all of Ona’s members except Max Nolte. I grew up with Zack Owens because we went to the same public schools and skateboarded together. I knew Zach “Jeeter” Johnston from skateboarding as well, just rolling around together with the local skate scene. I knew Bradley Jenkins from high school, and I know people were already kind of talking about him then. When I got to college, I had this really terrible party house, and Bradley would sometimes come over and play guitar on the porch, and we would talk about music. We were like eighteen, and he was just starting to make home recording and stuff. I wasn’t writing music at the time, but he was definitely more serious than I was at the time. I didn’t know Max until I got home and joined Ona.
I wouldn’t have come home and joined if I hadn’t known these guys as well as I did. I thought it was a cool offer from a cool band, but had it not been old friends, I don’t think I would have joined.
Credit Brian Blauser/Mountain Stage
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Brian and his trusty electronic steed, rehearsing for Ona’s 2016 performance on Mountain Stage.
On the experience of joining a pre-existing band:
There were tons of inside jokes, and I didn’t know what they were talking about. That was a big thing I noticed like, “Yeah, this is a brotherhood, and I’m this new guy standing on the wall.” I did notice that right as I got back. Bands that hang out together all the time, and we do hang out together all the time, there’s definitely a language (like a pig-Latin) that develops in a band. You either know it or you don’t. It took me a long time to catch on to a lot of the stuff they were talking about and how they interacted. But musically, they let me do my thing. Nobody was telling me how to play, and they still don’t tell me how to play. I have learned how to scale it back because when you’re playing jazz, you’re filling every single gap all the time. But for indie rock, it’s all about honoring the song, giving it enough so that you are giving the ear enough to grab a hold of.
That was definitely one of the most show business-serious things I’ve done. That was definitely a home game, for sure. I was super nervous, we were taking our deep breaths side stage and saying, “Ok, let’s go and have fun and play. Focus. Get in the zone.” And then when we sat down, someone from the audience yelled something funny at us, and the nervousness went away immediately because I knew: this was our crowd. And I thought, “This is our crowd. We’ll have a good time. This won’t be as scary as we think it’ll be.”
On recording material with Ona:
I contributed to American Fiction in very, very small ways. All of the organs and just about all of the keyboard parts on that record are played by P.J. Woodard, and he did a great job playing on it. I only play on three tracks, including “World at War” and “American Fiction.” But most of that record is all P.J. I just jumped in at the end and did what I could. All of the songs were just about done by the time I got back to Huntington. They were putting the finishing touches on the record by the time I got back home.
Credit Courtesy of Ona
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Ona’s most recent release was American Fiction.
The first album, from what I’ve gathered, was a lot of Zack and Brad sharing the writing experience pretty equally. I know that for some songs, Zack would write them entirely himself, and then Brad would come up with another piece or a bridge or an outro.
From the practice sessions we’re having now, it definitely feels like it’s more of a team effort. Someone usually comes up with an idea, then Brad is usually quick to write up lyrics. Max will throw a verse or lyrical idea out there, and then it’ll catch. So it’s definitely a team effort, which I like.
On the meaning behind his new solo single ”Jewel City:”
The career is great, and being able to write, record and perform is priority No. 1. But I’m not a huge fan of Huntington, or I wasn’t when I left, for sure. That’s why I left to gain new experiences. But Huntington has improved a lot since I’ve been gone, and the scene is really strong for a small city. So this is a transitional song about weighing the pros and cons. The lyrics show that I’m not super happy to be back, but I’m comfortable. The longer I’m here, I’m happy about it.
On his hopes for #WVmusic:
There are definitely genres that work better around here than others. I love synthesizers and keyboards, but I don’t see very many keyboard bands, so I’m trying to fill that gap. I would love to be the flagship keyboard artist [laughing].
On the future of Ona:
I think we’re going to make a really good second record, and it’ll be different enough where people will see that there’s growth happening here. But the common denominator is definitely going to be Zack’s guitar playing and Brad’s voice. It will still feel like the first album, but there’s definitely new things happening in there that I’m really excited about.
The next record will be a little while from now, but not too long. I would say next year sometime. We don’t want to wait too long, that’s for sure.
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from The Sea The Sea to Coyotes in Boxes, Qiet to Bud Carroll and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with 18 Strings, a Morgantown-based string trio with an Appalachian twist (which they refer to as Appalachicana). So we asked the band…
Credit Helen Comber
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18 Strings’ members include Andy Tuck on vocals/guitar/harmonica, Chris Jones on mandolin/fiddle and Greg Thurman on bass.
How did 18 Strings start playing music together?
18 Strings started at the beginning of 2016. While the group is young in terms of band time, we’re all experienced and active members of the West Virginia music scene. In fact, Andy Tuck (vocals/guitar) had crossed paths with Chris Jones (mandolin/fiddle) long before 18 Strings began this past January. That was when Andy was performing a solo gig at Black Bear Burritos while Chris was eating (because the burritos there are delicious). Something grasped Chris to say, “Hey, why don’t we do a little something?” Chris wanted to get his mandolin back out, and that’s a good sign when he wants to get it out.
We wanted to do a stripped-down, acoustic string band type of thing. Chris and Greg Thurman (bass) were previously in a band called Whitewater, so Chris immediately called Greg to join our new endeavor. We got together at Chris’ kitchen table for our first band meeting, and we just clicked. It felt good from the get-go, really.
We all really like to play music in an original way while maintaining connections to tradition. If anything, 18 Strings was brought together by a mutual desire to explore the sonic possibilities of a string trio and to push those boundaries.
Where does the name 18 Strings come from?
The name of the group comes from the number of strings in the group — 6 on a guitar, 8 on a mandolin, 4 on a bass.
The name just jumped out. That was the one that everyone in the group perked up at. Andy was set on the name “John Work Three” after reading a book about Muddy Waters and learning that John Work III was the guy who initiated the first trip to Mississippi to record blues musicians. So “John Work Three” sounded cool to him, but no one in the band’s named John Work, so people would have been confused.
Chris was the one who finally said we should go with 18 Strings. Greg went along with that. And Andy was the one who suggested 18 Strings in the first place, so that was that.
John Bright down at The Purple Fiddle brought up a good point and say, “What happens if you get someone else in your band? Are you going to change the name?” And Andy said, “It will have to be 18 Strings etc.” If we were to add another instrument, it would probably be a second guitar.
Credit Helen Comber
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18 Strings are known for gigging at 123 Pleasant Street.
What’s been the highlight of 18 Strings’ musical journey?
Opening up for Larry Keel at 123 Pleasant Street on April 15. Up until that point, we had done mostly small, intimate venues. But that was the first show where we had a sound guy and an audience that was larger than what we had played in front of before. Plus we got to watch Larry Keel for free, so that was a highlight, for sure.
What’s it like making music in West Virginia?
Making music in West Virginia is an amazing experience. The cultural backdrop is already so rich in tradition, and it’s a wonderful to be a musician in an ever-evolving scene.
With that said, Morgantown is a strange little world. Andy has been around Morgantown for 15 years and has watched the scene become a bit cliquey. Even though there are heavy metal groups, bluegrass groups, indie rock groups, and jam band groups, there are very few bands that weave in and out of those particular genre styles. Luckily 18 Strings can fit in with multiple styles since we do multiple styles of music.
There’s also a cyclical nature to Morgantown because an entire new population comes through every so many years because of West Virginia University. In terms of how we’re getting along in Morgantown, we’re still working on getting a solid fanbase.
Where does the band play around West Virginia?
We play at Black Bear Burritos a lot and 123 Pleasant Street in Morgantown. Even though Morgantown is our homebase, we’re not bound to Morgantown, by any means. The band’s been booked all over West Virginia, including Elkins, Parkersburg, Thomas, and Cleveland, West Virginia. We’ve also played in Pittsburgh and North Carolina. We’re just trying to get as many opportunities to play as we can right now.
Credit Courtesy of 18 Strings
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18 Strings describe their bluegrass-rock hybrid as Appachicana.
Do you feel held back by being in West Virginia? Or does it feel like a musically-supportive place?
At times, West Virginia is very musically-supportive. The community that exists around the music can be very tight-knit.
With that said, if you’re just strictly talking about numbers in terms of places to play and people who come out to appreciate live music, one could say there’s a certain disadvantage to West Virginia’s music scene. If you take the city of Pittsburgh, for instance, there’s a million people in that metropolitan area. Whereas in West Virginia, there’s a million people in the entire state. If you take 10% of that million people who could be fans of your music, you would have a more concentrated fanbase in Pittsburgh compared to a less concentrated fanbase in West Virginia’s metropolitan areas.
This is where our music comes from. Our music is rooted here. But we can’t wait to go out and play in other areas so they can see that the music we represent, the Appalachian style of music, is being done in a new way.
You describe your music as Appalachicana. What does that term mean?
Chris came up with that name. What he was getting at is that we’re rooted in Appalachian musical styles, but we’re influenced by a lot of other American types of music, including acoustic classic rock songs like “Going to California” by Led Zeppelin and “Fearless” by Pink Floyd and artists like Bob Dylan, John Prine, Lead Belly, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Allman Brothers, and The Beatles. Appalachicana is geographical in location, but American music in scope.
What, in your opinion, needs to happen in the West Virginia music scene for it to move forward?
A Morgantown musician workshop would be great, where musicians who are interested in a larger scene could get together at a brew pub to cross-pollinate and be open to other styles. Most of the musicians that you talk to are into a wide range of music, but what they choose to do is focus on what the band is up to.
And there needs to be more promotion of West Virginia music. There’s a West Virginia Music Hall of Fame, and it’s great, but there needs to be more. It feels like there’s a cultural fence around West Virginia, and in order for the music scene in West Virginia to move forward, we need to kick down a couple walls and get out there. If you’re in Athens, Georgia and say, “I’m a musician,” then people will say, “Oh great! Where can I see you play?” Whereas in West Virginia, people would respond with, “Oh, how’s that working out for you?” I know West Virginia people love music, but it’s not taken seriously.
What advice would you give to anyone starting to make music?
The best thing to do is just to make music. Play with people at jam sessions, on your porch, in your garage, wherever. Just play with other people and learn how to collaborate and help each other learn. Because at the end of the day, playing music is supposed to be fun.
18 Strings’ self-titled debut will be out later this summer. Keep an eye on their social media for their music and tour dates. To hear more #WVmusic, tune in to A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with Fayetteville singer-songwriter and storyteller Andrew Adkins. And boy, does he have some stories to tell. So let’s get to our #WVmusic chat, shall we?
I was in a band called Public Enemy… [laughing] I was Chuck D’s first hype man until I was replaced by Flavor Flav [laughing]. No, I’ve always loved music. My parents loved music. My dad was a big Harry Chapin fan, and my mom was a huge Beatles fan. I got to go see Kenny Rodgers and Dolly Parton in concert. I was always exposed to music, and I always loved every part of it, whether it was a record, whether it was an 8-track, whether it was Joe Cocker or the “Snoopy vs. The Red Baron” story.
I was always obsessed with words and putting words together and making them rhyme. It’s like this brilliant puzzle. When you write a song, you literally create something out of nothing. It did not exist until you made it exist, and I was always obsessed by that. I didn’t really play the guitar; my parents bought me a guitar when I was 12, and it was really hard. It’s still under my bed. It’s not a good guitar [laughing], which is why I didn’t play it back then.
Credit Chuck Toussieng
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Andrew Adkins is a man about town (that town being, of course, Fayetteville).
On one of his first experiences performing live:
I used to come to this party in Fayetteville that was a big jam every year, and no one would ever play with me. I was offended by that, and it hurt my feelings, so that gave me a complex where I wouldn’t play out in front of people. Then years later, a gentleman by the name of Ben Criner who started The Wild Rumpus with me told me that no one would play with me because I didn’t know how to count to four. And I didn’t know what that meant, so he picked up a guitar and taught me. I didn’t realize that music had to have a time, rhythm and meter. Because I thought words were the most important part, so I would change chords where the words needed them to. So the first measure would have 29 beats in it, and the second measure would have seven beats in it. So when he sat down and taught me, that just changed my whole world. That’s when I really, really started writing songs.
We were a bunch of raft guides in Fayetteville. We played every Saturday night, and other raft guides would hang out and drink and dance and yell at us songs to play. We knew 20 songs, cover songs mostly, but that’s not I wanted to do. So I would write songs during that week just for that Saturday night. I would simplify my songwriting so other musicians could jump right in.
We did that, then people started offering to pay us money to play. And I was like, “What? You can get paid doing this?” So when we decided to start playing gigs, I didn’t want to be a cover. I’m not bashing cover bands, but it’s just not my thing. I started writing songs like crazy, and we would do a three-hour show with all original songs. Some were better than others, but at least we weren’t playing cover tunes.
On cover bands versus original material:
I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been on tour and not very many people show up at our show. “Oh sorry, there’s a real popular cover band playing down the street. They’re playing “Wagon Wheel” seven times tonight, so everybody’s down there.” We were in New London, Connecticut, and we had to compete with a Def Leppard tribute band, and we drove by that club on the way to our club, and there was a line going down the street. And no one showed up at our show because of that. I think cover bands are an issue everywhere, not just in West Virginia. Even though here, it seems like a lot.
Credit Amos Perrine
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Andrew Adkins is 100% original.
It’s very difficult to make a living playing music when you’re out there banging out original songs. I understand that people want to go out to a bar and have fun and hear songs that they know. But guess what? If you go out and see an original band, eventually their songs will be that way as well. I think that’s a huge issue: people don’t give bands a chance. There are so many great bands right now in West Virginia, and the reason why those great bands might not stay together is because it’s hard to compete with Joe Q “Ride Sally Ride” down the street playing your favorite hits from the ‘70s and ‘80s. Those songs from the ‘70s and ‘80s are classics because you’ve heard them a million times. But if you go see this other great band who has wonderful songs, those are going to be classics and you’ll know those.
I used to tell people on stage that I wrote songs. And then I stopped saying that. I stopped telling people I wrote the song. And it changed my whole career. Because when you tell someone that you wrote the song, they immediately click into hyper-judgment. They’re going to judge your words, your melody, just everything about it. But when you don’t tell them, they’re more open about it. Then after the show, they’ll come up to you and say, “Oh man, that one song you were singing was so great. Who wrote that?” And you’ll say, “Well I wrote it. I wrote all these songs.” To which they’ll respond, “Wow, you’re a good songwriter! I like your songs.”
But the reason I don’t tell people about that is because a songwriter told me one time, “Who are you to dictate their listening experience? Don’t tell me what I should be thinking when I’m listening to this song because I want to have my own emotions and my own reaction and interrupt it for me.”
On labels (especially in country music):
When people ask what kind of music I write, it pains me to say country music. But guess what? I’m from the mountains of West Virginia; that’s what I write. But I write country music in the sense that I’m from the country, and I sing about the truth of being from the country. None of my songs have a tailgate or Budweiser or misogynistic treatment of women, but none of my songs are on the radio, either.
On the rise of Appalachian music:
We have this authenticity about our music that it is the Appalachian sound. In “Americana” music, that’s what they’re after: that Appalachian sound. So what you have is a lot of young kids with beards, flannels shirts and tight pants, and they sing these songs about Appalachia (or try to), but it’s all fabricated.
The authenticity of music coming out of West Virginia right now can be heard and felt to where you just know they mean what they say and they say what they mean. Sure, we can listen to Britney Spears, but you don’t have an emotional connection to her songs other than a love of that time in your life.
Credit Chuck Toussieng
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Beyond singing and writing songs, Andrew Adkins also builds guitars, mandolins and instruments for regional artists.
On working in Fayetteville as a guitar maker:
My brain works all the time, so my hands have to work all the time or else I’ll get into trouble. I build guitars, banjos and mandolins, but mainly acoustic guitars. Which goes back to Appalachia and how wonderful it is, because I use a lot of wood from Appalachia that no one else will use. I try to use the wood from here in Appalachia because I personally think it sounds amazing.
It’s hard to convince people to play them over a Gibson. But I don’t even try to convince them anymore. I just hand it to them and let them play it. You can’t deny sound. When you try a guitar and hit it, you know when it sounds good. When people are asking about it, I just say, “Come to my shop and play one.”
On advice to folks wanting to get into music:
Take it serious. There’s nothing worse than showing up to a gig unprepared. So have a set list! Don’t stand on stage and say, “Well, what do you want to play next?” Don’t show up to a gig and ask the sound guy if they have an extra cable. Be professional. Dress like a professional. Act like a professional, especially if you’re an opening act for a band because they’re paying attention. If you show up to open for a band that’s on a much higher level than you, and you’re asking for a cable or dressed in flip-flops and shorts or you’re talking with your band instead of your audience, they’re not going to hire you again.
And to be honest with you, I didn’t know those things, and I’m not blaming you if you don’t know those things, but you should find them out. So ask me! I’ll tell you. I learned that stuff the hard way.
So my advice? Be prepared. Be professional. Be respectful. And don’t wear shorts or flip-flops.
On the name of his record Wooden Heart:
When I build guitars, I have scrap wood and it’s so beautiful, I can’t throw it away or burn them. So I have a woodshop filled with tiny pieces of wood that I save. Years ago, when my musical career wasn’t going as well as it is now, a friend of mine had a baby, and I wanted to get them a gift but couldn’t afford one. So I carved a heart out of cherry wood and gave it to them as a gift, and everybody loved it. Everybody started asking me for it, and I started making and selling them.
And then I got sick a couple years back, and I couldn’t tour with my band or work on making guitars. I just didn’t have the energy. So to keep sane and to keep some income coming, I kept carving wooden hearts. And that’s the thing about Fayetteville and how supportive they are: people were buying wooden hearts like crazy just because they knew I was in a tough spot.
A girl texted me one day and asked if I had any wooden hearts left, so I dumped them out on a table and took a picture of them, and she said, “That would make a great album cover!” Ever since then, Wooden Heart has been in my head for being an album. When I put out my first solo album, Wooden Heart just didn’t fit it. I don’t even know if Wooden Heart fits this album, but it’s just been hanging around for so long, I decided to use it.
I love writing songs, and I love creating stuff with wood.
On releasing Wooden Heart during the Brian Jennings Family Reunion in Fayetteville:
Brian Jennings was a dear friend of mine and everyone’s. He was a well-loved person and a great human being. He passed away two years ago from complications of cancer. I’m not very Facebook savvy, but there was a Facebook thing that was like “List 20 Things People Don’t Know About You.” Brian was a raft guide, he was a river manager, he was on the Olympic kayaking team, he was a ski teacher out in New Mexico, and just a well-loved person. And on that list on Facebook, he said that he knew so many people from so many different places, he wished he could get them all together once a year so they could meet each other. After he passed away, I promised his parents I would make that happen.
We called it the “friend reunion,” but really Brian made people feel like family. So that’s why I called it the Brian Jennings Family Reunion. People come from all over the world for this event. I wrote two songs for him to sing with us, and I finished them and sent them to him. He said, “Next time you play at the Rivermen (a rafting company in Fayetteville), we’ll do those songs.” Unfortunately, he passed away before he got to do those songs. Since I’m putting those songs on the album, I thought it would be great to put it out at the Brian Jennings Family Reunion.
Credit Courtesy of Andrew Adkins
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Find “Growing Older,” as well as 11 other original tunes, on Andrew Adkins’ newest release.
One of the songs is called “Growing Older,” and it’s literally a conversation that Brian and I had. It’s his words; I just made them rhyme and put a melody to it. So that song’s taken a life of its own of being the anthem of that event.
Brian represented Fayetteville and West Virginia as good if not better than anyone I know. He was a good liaison to the people that live outside of Appalachia.
On the current state of #WVmusic:
West Virginia has some negativity floating around, just like any state, but we have brilliant people here, beautiful people here, and people who want to move forward. It doesn’t always get recognized because it’s always easier to recognize the lowest common denominator.
I think the Appalachian sound is as identifiable as Delta Blues or New York jazz. I really think that the Appalachian sound is that recognizable. We don’t have a machine pushing that. When somebody starts that machine, they’re met with a couple issues: they’re met with a lack of money, and they’re met with some hostility from folks who are a bit stand-offish. Sometimes people have great ideas that fail, so we’re a little skeptical.
But if we continue on the path that we’re on right now, I think West Virginia will become a music destination. I mean… why not West Virginia?
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Tyler Childers to Ona, Bud Carroll to Coyotes in Boxes and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with The Horse Traders, a four-piece Americana alt-rock band out of Huntington, West Virginia. While they may not be trading horses, the band is known for trading good times and great tunes, especially with their new four-song EP I Don’t Mind. We sat down with The Horse Traders in our Charleston studios to talk about their musical journey, their love of #WVmusic and, of course, ’90s Britpop.
Warning: This podcast-y chat does contain a few expletives. Listener discretion is advised.
The Horse Traders’ newest release is I Don’t Mind. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
Interview Highlights:
On The Horse Traders’ musical origins:
Patrick Stanley (guitar, vocals): I decided I wanted to be in Oasis when I was 12 or 13, so I learned four chords on a guitar I found in the basement of our house. Two or three chords’ worth of improvement, here I am in The Horse Traders.
Travis Egnor (guitar, steel guitar): I got my first guitar when I was 5. No one really understood why. We didn’t have any music in our family, other than we had a big console record player filled with records and 8-tracks. It was a little bit of everything. One of my favorite songs was called “Cherry Baby,” some disco song, but I liked it just because it was on orange vinyl. There was some cool stuff in there, like some Stevie Wonder, Hank Jr. and Alice Cooper. It was a mix of two uncles, my dad and my mom’s music. I ended up listening to a little bit of everything.
Jeremy “Wood” Roberts (drums): I grew up in a super Christian household with not a lot of cool music in it. But “Hee Haw,” “Austin City Limits” and, believe it or not, “The Lawrence Welk Show” was some of the first stuff I got into. The “Grand Ole Opry” too.
I started playing drums in school, but I thought it was kind of lame, so I played guitar. I found rock n’ roll and MTV, and it got a lot more fun.
Credit Anthony Michael Davis
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The Horse Traders’ name comes former member Frank Miller and refers to Travis Egnor & Jeremy “Wood” Roberts’ constant buying, selling, and trading of items.
Brandon Mooney (bass): My parents had really good tastes. My dad was really into Creedence Clearwater Revival, which oddly enough he played bass when he was younger. He played in a Jimi Hendrix cover band when he was in high school. My mom was real into Michael Jackson, Beach Boys, Prince, stuff like that.
When I was a little kid I use to do concerts for my mom and sister in our living room with a hair brush, white glove and a little leather jacket. I did Michael Jackson concerts; it was pretty weird. I was a weird kid. Weird adult, even weirder kid.
Going into high school, a buddy offered to sell me an acoustic guitar for $40, and I thought it’d help me get girls, and I was really into Dave Matthews. What I found out was you could play all the Dave Matthew you want in high school, but that doesn’t make you know how to speak to people without that guitar in your hands. I learned how to be a huge Dave Matthews fan and to play music that actually meant something for a change, like The Horse Traders’ stuff currently.
On the formation of The Horse Traders:
Travis: I always say it’s a continuation of another band that Wood and I were in, but it’s so completely different now that it’s even hard to say that. Wood and I were in another band called Dead Leaves with a couple of guys that lived in Nebraska, and that was really difficult to keep going. So when we decided that just wasn’t going to work out, we decided to start another band and got together with our good friend Frank Miller and started The Horse Traders. There’s a few of those songs that we touch on every now and then, but it’s mostly different now.
As The Horse Traders, we had decided that we wanted to back up some other songwriters, so that’s how we got to playing with Patrick. Frank had some health issues and wasn’t able to continue touring and playing on the regular, so we decided to get ahold of Patrick and see if he wanted to be a Horse Trader.
Patrick: I owned a very small amount of instruments and musical equipment before I met Travis and Wood, but to be a Horse Trader means that nothing that you own is as valuable as the thing you’re about to own, and you should trade things, even if you love them more than you’ll love anything else.
<a href=”http://thehorsetraders.bandcamp.com/album/take-it”>Take It by The Horse Traders</a>
On the differences between Huntington and Charleston’s music scenes:
Wood: I started playing in Huntington when I was 16 or 17, and we had played Charleston a bunch because it was closer. It was always a treat to come to Huntington because the venues were always nicer, the crowds were always better and there was better food to eat. There’s a larger concentration of artistic people in Huntington then there seems to be anywhere else in the state that’s close to our age range.
Travis: He’s right. It’s amazing how different Huntington and Charleston, being as close together as they are. But the two are not similar; they’re very different. I feel a lot more comradery and support in Huntington, even though I know several bands from Charleston that I like a lot and are friends with. It seems like there’s a certain line that doesn’t get crossed in Charleston versus Huntington. The other bands we play with in Huntington are literally some of our best friends.
Brandon: I agree. Charleston seems more detached in that sense. For the most part, they’re all just bands that know each other, not bands that hang out with each other.
Patrick: It’s less stratified in Huntington. Mountain Stage and a bunch of other awesome musical things in Charleston are more established, but Huntington’s still trying to shake around to find out what the scene’s going to look like, which makes everybody a player.
On the future of #WVmusic:
Travis: It’s going so well. Now if we’re talking about Huntington, I’d suggest more of the same. It’d probably help to bring in some bigger, similar artists. I thought it was great when Jason Isbell came last year and played the Paramount Arts Center in Ashland, but there wasn’t a local opener for it. That’s really important because when you put a local opener on a show like that, not only is that local opener going to get their music to a larger audience, but it’ll get to the bigger artist they’re opening for. Eventually people are going to say, “Holy crap, there’s some serious stuff going on in West Virginia.”
Credit Anthony Michael Davis
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The Horse Traders celebrated their first anniversary as a new line-up in the spring of 2016.
Patrick: A perfect example is Lucero and Tyler Childers. Ben Nichols has played with him multiple times. Last time at the V Club he said, “I hate having to come up here after Tyler Childers,” which is crazy for him to say. That’s great. That’s an unreal thing for us to have in this tiny little place, where someone one who means a lot to a lot of people comes in and says, “This local boy, it’s really hard to come in and play after this guy.”
Travis: When you’ve got bands like Ona and Tyler Childers and Tim Lancaster and just some really amazing artists, eventually if you put them in front of the right people, they’re going to take notice.
Patrick: That’s the thing with the musical secret of any place in the history of recorded music: it’s this amazing secret, then it gets exposed, it’s still cool for fifteen minutes and then it’s over. We’re lucky enough to be a part of the time when it’s getting cool, and hopefully we’re going to be around when it’s the really cool thing to be a part of and see some of the aftermath of that. A scene is great until it’s discovered, and then it exists in this moment. Then once everyone knows about it, it’s over. I guess we’re lucky to be around in a time when we’re struggling to make it known.
Travis: Most of the stuff I listen to anymore is the people that we know.
Patrick: On a daily basis, I still listen to one Tyler Childers song.
Brandon: Go listen to anything that John R. Miller touches. And Tim Lancaster is great. And I’m super excited for the new record from Brandon Mitchell and his group The Disappearing Man. We didn’t talk about how important Nathan Thomas is to all things Huntington music.
Patrick: Yeah, let’s talk about that. One of the best things about the Huntington scene is we have local radio enforcement to back it up. That’s easy to overlook sometimes, and it’s easy to be like, “I forgot to listen to WMUL today,” but the fact that we have somebody who is so passionate about bringing local music to college ears, and Huntington ears is unbelievably refreshing. It’s great to have that shoulder to lean on and that person and influence.
On advice to anyone wanting to get into music:
Wood: Go to college.
Credit Courtesy of The Horse Traders
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The Horse Traders latest release is a four-song EP titled I Don’t Mind.
Travis: Don’t have crazy, lofty expectations. Go into it with your whole head and your whole heart. Do it as good as you can, as often as you can. Play with everybody. Don’t just decide that you’re a punk musician and just do punk. Don’t just decide that you’re a country musician and just play country. Play everything with everybody. It will make you such a more well-rounded musician, and you’ll meet tons of people and have much more fun.
Patrick: Finish writing your songs even if they’re bad, because they’ll eventually be good.
Since the show began almost two years ago, A Change of Tune has highlighted some of the best up-and-coming artists out of these West Virginia hills with podcast-y chats ranging from Rozwell Kid to Beach House drummer Graham Hill, Goodwolf to Teammate’s Scott Simons and beyond.
But those interviews have been a bit infrequent, and since West Virginia Day is coming up (not to mention A Change of Tune’s second birthday), we thought we’d do something special: 30 days, 30 brand new #WVmusic interviews that range from Morgantown alt-rockers and Parkersburg singer-songwriters to West Virginia music venues and regional artist management and beyond, all of which contribute to this state’s wild and wonderful music scene.
And today, we are chatting with Hello June, an indie rock four-piece that was started just a few years back by Morgantown native Sarah Rudy. The band has now grown to include Summersville’s Nate Snyder and Charleston buds Whit Alexander and Chad Brown. We sat down with the band to talk about their new release and what it’s like being a rock’n group of twenty-somethings in northern West Virginia.
Credit Courtesy of Hello June
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How did Hello June come together?
Nate Snyder (bassist): Sarah started the band in 2013 with Whit. It started as a little project, mostly recording songs that Sarah was writing. And that’s how Hello June’s EP came out around that time. it kind of took off from there. Eventually, everything went on a little break. Sarah ran into me, randomly, through another band practice that never worked out. We hit it off, and she asked me to play in Hello June. So I came up, and Chad moved in with us around the same time. Me, Sarah and Chad actually live together. So we all started playing, and Whit rejoined as the drummer as he was the guitarist previously.
Sarah Rudy (vocalist & guitarist): Hello June was my first official project. But Chad, Whit and I had a little project when we lived in the same apartment building around 2008 or 2009. So we had a history of playing together. And the reason why things are coming together so quickly with Hello June is because Chad and White grew up learning how to play together, so it’s really awesome to have them in the same room.
Nate: I literally just joined in February of this year [laughing]. It’s only been this formation since mid-March.
Are you all from West Virginia originally?
Sarah: Whit and Chad are from Charleston. I’m from Morgantown.
Nate: I’m from Summersville.
How did you get into music?
Nate: Well, I started playing bass originally than switched to guitars and then drums, because in Summersville, nobody ever seemed to have a drummer. When I was about 15, I was sneaking into bars to play a 30-minute set with bands who were in their 40’s, and then I would have to sneak out really quickly. That was my first taste of playing music, and then it kind of just kept going from there.
Credit Courtesy of Hello June
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Hello June in silhouette.
Sarah: I grew up playing. My grandfather played guitar, so he taught me how to play. Music is just integral to my family.
Chad Brown (guitarist): I started playing drums when I was 5, then switching to guitars at around 11. Everyone in my family plays music, so I’ve been around the Appalachian music scene since I could walk.
Whit Alexander (drummer & percussionist): My dad and uncle both played guitar, so I grew up around that. And when Chad had a band in high school, they were in need of a drummer, so I starting drumming on tables and then starting drumming with real percussion instruments.
When you were growing up in West Virginia, did you look up to any bands playing in the state?
Nate: Growing up, no. If you count college growing up, then I eventually found Daniel Johnston. He became a very big influence on me, and it was pleasure to find out that he was from West Virginia. When I was younger, I never got into the country music thing. I was always idolizing classic rock, and then I find indie and went in that direction very quickly.
Sarah: I always appreciated Jason Molina. He lived here for a little bit. He’s one of my favorite artists, so the fact that he had any ties to West Virginia was exciting to me.
Chad: For me, growing up in Charleston and being around Mountain Stage, Michael Lipton has been one of my favorite guitar players for a long time.
Whit: I had the opportunity to work with Larry Groce for a little bit on Mountain Stage about eight years ago, and he’s somebody that I’ve always idolized in the West Virginia music scene. But also, Bud Carroll had a band called American Minor that, when I was in high school, a band that I got really into. Their sound was really cool.
It’s interesting you all brought up Jason Molina and Daniel Johnston. Of the #WVmusic interviews I’ve done so far, no one has cited those artists for inspiration.
Sarah: I’m not surprised. We’re a little bit weird [laughing]. I know William Matheny loves Jason Molina…
Nate: …he just won’t admit it [laughing].
Sarah: [Laughing] He just doesn’t love Jason as much as I do.
When you were growing up in West Virginia, was it hard trying to make music that was less country and more indie rock?
Nate: Absolutely. For me it was, at least. I grew up listening to Garth Brooks, and I can literally remember the day I first heard The Beatles. And I thought, “Oh ok. That’s cooler than everything else.” I started down that path, which lead to classic rock and indie music eventually. But when I would hang out with my friends, and they would want to listen to the new Jay Z or Kanye West or Toby Keith album at the time, I would say, “That’s cool… but Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (which is another band from West Virginia that I should mention)!” And my friends would say, “Yeah… nobody cares. Go away. Go listen to your weird music.”
The lead singer from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah is actually from the Morgantown area, if I’m not mistaken. I got to meet Surfer Blood when they played up here at 123 Pleasant Street, and the first question they asked me was, “Does everyone here love Clap Your Hands Say Yeah because of West Virginia?” And I was like, “I don’t think anybody else besides me knows that they’re from West Virginia.” [Laughing] The lead singer is from here, but he eventually moved to New York. There’s actually a line “The Skin of My Yellow Country Teeth” that says, “Far, far away from West Virginia / I will try on New York City,” and that’s literally what he did. It’s kind of an autobiographical song.
And Katy Goodman from La Sera (who recently played here at 123 Pleasant Street) and Vivan Girls said that her family was from the Lewisburg area.
Chad: I came up on a lot more traditional Appalachian music. There was a lot of acoustic string music and a lot of Southern rock in my house. We played a lot of juke joints and dive bars, so it was a lot more normal for me to deal with that than to go out and fight to play a surf punk song or a metal song.
Sarah: I honestly don’t know if I ever thought about. I think I just do whatever I feel like doing [laughing]. I grew up listening to a bunch of different stuff like Neil Young and Elton John and some crazy things my mother would bring to the table. I never really thought about where we were in West Virginia or where I was even in the world. I just did whatever I felt was right at the time [laughing].
Credit Aaron New
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Hello June is Chad Brown, Whit Alexander, Sarah Rudy and Nate Snyder.
I’ve tried to find bands that have made good music, regardless of where they’re from or who’s in the band, but I would say that only a small portion of those bands involved women. What are your thoughts on that, Sarah?
Sarah: I think that’s pretty accurate. Haley Slagle is around Morgantown, and she’s one of the first women artists in West Virginia I noticed when I moved back here. The music scene around here is very male-dominated, and I don’t think that’s unique to Morgantown; I think it’s across the state. I definitely think that’s a good observation [laughing].
I really don’t know why we don’t see more women playing around the state. If you go to a show any given night, it’s extremely rare to see a female up there. So I don’t know if it’s because it’s expected because it’s the norm as of now or something else. I do think it’s changing in a different direction. Recently, I’ve come into contact with different females in our music. Tonight, we’re playing a show with The Furr, which has a female drummer, and that’s pretty cool. But in general, the female presence is lacking in my humble female opinion [laughing].
Nate: I will say that I have no experience in being a female member of a band [laughing], but pretty much every band I’ve been in has had a female in at some point, either permanently or is led by a female. It’s always been great. When I was younger, I heard somebody say, “Well, that band would be a lot better if that girl wasn’t on stage.” That really irked me at a young age, and even though I don’t necessarily seek it out, I always enjoy whenever there’s a female in a band. So when Sarah asked me play up here, it was even better because I knew how strong of a lead she was and how her work would be a good push for young girls and older women to just get out there and step up on stage, stand in the spotlight and do their thing.
Sarah: Thanks, man. Appreciate it.
Where does the name Hello June come from?
Sarah: I loved Johnny Cash growing up. I actually thought my grandfather was Johnny Cash probably until the year 2000. And I also looked up to June Carter Cash and her presence, probably because she was female and I felt connected to her. So Hello June stemmed from that. It sounds silly, but whenever Johnny Cash would get up on stage and say, “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash,” putting those concepts together is how I came up with that band name.
Credit Courtesy of Hello June
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A snapshot of Hello June’s recording space.
How would you describe Hello June’s sound?
Nate: That’s actually been a really difficult question for us. We describe our sound as indie rock in general. Some people describe us as bummer rock, which…
Sarah: I don’t agree with that.
Nate: We don’t agree with it. There’s a mellow feel to what we do, even though we do get intense from time to time in our live shows. I always tell people that it’s a little bit of rock, a little bit of indie and it’s also got a country tinge to it.
Sarah: Honestly, it’s really hard for me to categorize it. Hopefully one day I will be able to articulate that to you [laughing].
What are some of the influences on the band and the music?
Nate: The National is really big for me, I think for Sarah also. For me, I look up to bands like Frightened Rabbit and Death Cab for Cutie. Those all are really depressing bands, which I realize…
Sarah: Yeah about that “bummer rock” description… [laughing]
Nate: I’m the bummer, and they’re the rock [laughing]. But those bands have been big to me. I’ve also been listening to a lot of Lady Lamb recently, because I’ve been trying to get more into the mindset of Sarah’s style of playing. I’m producing the new Hello June record, so I wanted to make sure I understood how female vocals sat into the mixes and how they should be presented. And going to newer bands like Lady Lamb, La Sera and Alvvays, I paid a lot of attention to those sounds and used those influences on how we recorded.
<a href=”http://hellojune.bandcamp.com/album/hello-june-ep”>Hello June EP by Hello June</a>
It doesn’t seem like you’ve released much since your 2013 self-titled EP. Is there a reason for that?
Sarah: We just took a very long break. Whit and I released that EP, and we desperately tried to get a band together at that point, but it just wasn’t happening. We both went back to school (Whit studies computer science, I was studying biology), and we finished our degrees. We just weren’t focusing on music at all. Just recently, I decided to pull it back up and see what we could do with it.
Now you have the band back together and a new single out titled “Handshakes.” Can you talk about this new release a little bit?
Sarah: I wrote the bones of it a couple years ago, and I always wanted to do something with it. I brought it to these guys, and it started coming together. When we started playing together, that’s when things really started coming together, and we started figuring out different arrangements that we appreciated. And then we started recording it.
Credit Courtesy of Hello June
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Hello June’s new single is “Handshakes.” Expect a full-length from the band by the end of the year.
Nate: When Sarah first asked me to play, I was already a huge fan of the self-titled EP. So when she said she was working on a full-length, I thought that was incredible and jumped on the opportunity as quickly as possible. I didn’t know what my part was going to be. I fell into playing the bass after trying several different instruments including a very small synthesizer [laughing] which is funny because I’m 6’4’’ and giant. So a little tiny synthesizer was an interesting choice for me.
But whenever we started restructuring the songs that Sarah had written three or four years ago, it was originally just me, Sarah and Chad with headphone practice and ran everything through the computer in our apartment because we couldn’t play loud. For a little while, Whit was even playing drums in the keyboards, which was hilarious and awesome at the same time [laughing]. He was actually really good at it. We finally got a space, and as soon as we got into the space, we could finally play how we wanted to…
Sarah: Like real people [laughing].
Nate: We could make as much noise as wanted to, and we definitely did. I think it took two or three practices when we began feeling really tight as a band and how to react to each other doing things. Sarah did the self-titled EP pretty much by herself with Whit on it as well (she had a drummer at the time who also did some tracks), but she handed the reins over for me for most of “Handshakes.” Between the four of us, we’ve all been jumping in and attacking the recording process on our own, taking things one step at a time. We all had enough experience to know how it would go, but not enough to see how it would turn out…
Sarah: We still don’t know how it’s going to turn out [laughing].
Nate: [Laughing] Yeah. But so far, we’re pretty pleased with what we’ve done. We’re anticipating eight to ten songs on the new full-length, and the original three songs from the EP will be recorded the way we play them now for the upcoming full-length release. Because they still get a lot of attention and good response from the shows, so we thought it was time to rerecord them and put them back out.
Let’s talk about you all playing in Morgantown. How welcoming has the city been to your music?
Sarah: Very welcoming. The response we’ve gotten has always been positive.
Credit Courtesy of Hello June
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Hello June performed at U92 FM’s inaugural Moose Fest at 123 Pleasant Street.
Nate: I was recently talking to U92 FM’s Aaron New about Moose Fest, which was our first full-band show. We were playing the upper bar of 123 Pleasant Street and the tiny area in front of the window. He said that from what he heard, other than Rozwell Kid playing the fest (who has been an established band for a long time), and he said that people were really excited to see us and the bar was full when we played. A lot of people did respond really strongly to Hello June’s first EP, and I think everybody was excited to hear that something new was coming out.
We picked a weird time to start being a band and playing out more since all the college students leave, so the audiences are cut in half in Morgantown, but a lot of the locals have come out and are being receptive to our music.
Sarah: When I came back from Baltimore around 2011, I was not super into playing shows at that point. I felt like the Morgantown music scene was harsher at that point. But more recently, there’s been some really, really quality bands that have popped up, and the audiences have helped with that.
What have your experiences been playing music in West Virginia?
Nate: Having played in West Virginia most of my life, it’s definitely been a lot of positives and a lot of negatives, especially being an indie band. Morgantown is really the only place you can fit in, for the most part. Maybe Charleston (sometimes). It’s hard to book shows if you’re not playing modern country songs, not even classic country. We’re lucky to have 123 Pleasant Street, and Mainstage Morgantown is starting to get a little more indie. And Gene’s is starting to put on shows. The fact that they’re opening the doors to alternative and indie bands, not just your typical metal and country and bluegrass, that’s just amazing. Don’t get me wrong, there are downfalls for playing in the same spot. But you just have to keep pushing through that and look at the positives.
#thestruggletostay has been a big topic of conversation in West Virginia. Do you all expect this band to stay in West Virginia much longer?
Chad: If we got the opportunity, I don’t think anyone would think, “No, we can’t move. This is not an option.” It’s so cheap, and we’re all here. Whit is married. There’s no need for us to go anywhere now. It’s easy here.
Sarah: I like it here. I wasn’t expecting to stay much longer after moving back from Baltimore. I was just finishing up some school stuff, but I now appreciate the mix of things going on in Morgantown.
Nate: For the longest time, my life’s goal was to leave West Virginia. But I realize now that it’s not a terrible place, and I can accept where I am for right now.
When people walk away from this interview, what is the one thing they should know about Hello June?
Chad: We have fun [laughing]. We do.
Sarah: We’re all really good friends. We have a strong connection.
<a href=”http://hellojune.bandcamp.com/track/handshakes”>Handshakes by Hello June</a>
Hello June’s newest single is “Handshakes,” available now on their Bandcamp. Hear more #WVmusic on A Change of Tune, airing Saturday nights at 10 on West Virginia Public Broadcasting. And for more #WVmusic chats, make sure to go to wvpublic.org/wvmusic and subscribe to our RSS / podcast feeds!
