JPG: From the new album, Odd, I love the line from “Groove of the Storm” where you’re talking about watching the storm on your porch. The house I grew up in that was just the coolest thing, to sit on the porch with my dad and watch some heavy storms come pouring down. I don’t know why, maybe because it was dangerous but peaceful at the same time.
KW: When that song was written, there were storms happening all the time the spring of ’08 maybe. It was really like a whole month or two, on and off freak storms. It was crazy.
JPG: As far as the track, “Doobie in my Pocket.” Based on a true story? Paranoid dream?
KW: Loosely. I don’t think I went through that amount of stress, but I definitely remember the doobie in my pocket and it was actually in my pocket. But the whole drama that surrounded it was definitely embellishment. The beginning and the end, totally.
JPG: I read that you have a theater background, that you majored in Theater at college [Virginia Wesleyan College]. How did that help you as you started performing in a live music setting? Does it still help you?
KW: 100% yeah. The solo act, once people started buying tickets and stuff and actually coming to the shows and paying attention, as opposed to the years and years I spent being the dude in the corner in the restaurant…Once people started paying attention, then it was just me and the guitar, so it was bringing out different facial expressions and things like that. I think a lot came from my theater background as well as being onstage in a play and having someone skip lines, you have to improvise and keep the storyline happening.
I’ve definitely run into a lot of problems with my technical equipment and loops will drop and equipment will fail. Just have to pretend that’s part of the show. I think it really helped me out having the experience of doing all those weird plays and assignments.
JPG: Were you doing support roles or leads?
KW: In high school I had a few leads and I did Children’s Music Theater growing up as a ‘tween, whatever you call it. Had some leads back then. But once I got to college I never really had the leads. Vaclav Havel from Czechoslova, we did one of his plays. The next six weeks would be powdered wigs and white face. Elizabethan. Then, directing a few people in some term assignment. Ran the gamut. Constant memorization. I think that didn’t hurt what I’m doing, too.
JPG: Returning to our last interview, I’d like my final question to be the same: what are you listening to now?
KW: Something I’ve been listening to a lot lately, Danny Gatton’s Redneck Jazz Explosion which was recorded in ’78 at the Cellar Door in DC, the show that Jeff Sipe was actually at. It’s like a real heavy connection with our band. If you listen to it, amazing, Buddy Emmons on pedal steel and Danny Gatton. The whole set is really amazing.
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