Austin based singer-songwriter Scott Strickland has released a music video for his new single LA. The first single from his debut self-titled album which will be out on Friday April 29th via Smith Music. LA is the first official release since his 2015 EP, “Fly to the Sun”. Strickland explores many familiar themes of popular music in his new album and he considers this the best and most honest work he’s ever created. “These little songs are flares – fragments of what my life used to be as I pursue onward with my pursuit of what is good and true in the world,” says Strickland.

In this interview spotlight, I chat with Scott about the latest music, adapting during a pandemic, technology and more.

Full Q&A along with links and music below.

Where are you from and how do You describe your style of music?

I am from Houston Texas, more specifically Sunnyside, Houston, Texas which is close to 3rd Ward. I was
born and raised there and after graduating High School, I moved to Nacogdoches, Texas to study
filmmaking for both my undergraduate and graduate degrees. I moved to Austin in 2013 wanting
absolutely nothing to do with music anymore and put my focus and energy into my filmmaking pursuits while working for a retailer full time while also teaching filmmaking courses. It wasn’t until about 2017 that I truly got back into music and started taking it seriously. That took a lot of work and a lot of deconstructing stigmas of the “struggling artist” per say. While I was teaching, and basically playing music full time, I started making my first LP right when Covid hit in 2020. It was this complete sea change that allowed for me to just focus on Music as a whole and finish my record.

I would say my style of music is kind of like Dark Rock mixed with Pop, which is a big change from the
jazzier influences in my older works. There was a lot of chasing tones in the studio that allowed for me to basically paint the canvas sonically that I wanted, and that my producers were cool with. The album
definitely has influences of Dave Matthews, Bill Withers, and Ritchie Havens. The album is completely
symphonic, while also completely Acoustic, while also completely Rock. It feels good to say that. We did good making this record for sure.

How did you get here? As in, what inspired or motivated you to take on this journey through music and the music biz?

Like too many meaningful things in my life music kind of found me to be honest. I had gotten on a stage in 2014, mostly as a hobbyist for the first time as a front man since my college days (which again I was a hobbyist), and I was doing an open mic. A week later I had a show at same venue. A few weeks after that I had a full band show which led to me forming a new band and it was there that I started thinking about recording. It was there I started thinking this COULD be something. So I trusted the process. The band wanted to record an EP, and we did, and we had a lot of success from that. In my always wanting to see things through I just wanted to get deeper into song production, into doing better shows, writing better songs. Those things were important to me. As far as inspiration goes, I think the success we had early on and to see the people we were impacting with the music definitely encouraged me to keep going. To find the path, if that makes sense.

How does your latest project compare/contrast with your previous release(s)? Were you setting out to accomplish anything specific, follow a specific theme, or explore different styles of creation?

This was like night and day. The self-titled LP was very different in about every way imaginable. My first
EP “Fly to the Sun” was very, very acoustic. I mean we’re talking bare bones pro here. When Matt Simon, the guy that was producing, and engineering, and mixing the record decided to play Drums on it. I was shocked. He was like “It just needs it man”, I remember him saying. That was about five, 6 sessions, I think. “Try this Love” was the reaction to that because my band didn’t think we could actually play bars with just acoustic tunes, and they were absolutely right. So we went back in the studio, for one day and banged out 4 songs and basically made a demo that we sold as our first EP under “Scott Strickland Band”.

This project, the LP was recorded, scrapped, and re-recorded over the course of about two years almost.

I’m just talking tracking. Covid definitely made things difficult. There was a lot of stopping and starting,
especially since there we no vaccines back then. The budget was also basically non existent since there
were no shows. It really was just a mindset of “Screw it. Let’s just make the best record we possibly can.”

Nothing was compromised. We’d spend probably half a day making sure we got just the right tone. We did shoot outs with different microphones before just ordering one that best suited my voice. We went back over old tunes, tracked a lot of the tunes acoustically, and then started fleshing them out over time.

Some tunes we spent days tracking and at the end it just wasn’t working, so we’d start over and build it
all over again. We’re really just wanted to put our best foot forward, tell my story, and make the best
possible record we could. Sorry if that last part keeps getting monotonous.

Name the biggest challenge you faced as a creative during these unprecedented? How did you adapt? How have you kept the creative fires burning during all this?

Oh man well my wife and I separated. That obviously caused huge fissures with just about every
relationship and every aspect of my life imaginable. I was diving in and out of hotels. I stayed at one of
my producer’s (at the time) house. I finally got my own place December 2020, and kept recording. The
last song on the record – some was actually tracked in my apartment on a piano I inherited from a friend.

I lost all of my jobs. I went from having literally the best year of my life financially (2019) finally feeling
like I was on to something – to it all going away in 2020. I lost my wife, my house, many of my closest
friends, my best friend – I lost everything – and the one thing I had was this record. These songs. And I
was determined to finish them. To get through all of that I really had to ground myself. I had to being to rebuild my life and I centered it around God. Christianity more specifically – which had been a calling of mine my entire life. There were too many things happening around that time for them to just be written off as coincidence. So I started looking for answers, and as it turns out I still have more questions than answers, but believe me when I tell you I am more whole, more complete, than I’ve ever been.

What was the last song you listened to?

Cautious Clay. Man he’s fantastic. The song Cold War. Amazing.

Which do you prefer? Vinyl? 8-tracks? Cassettes? CDs? MP3s? Streaming platforms?

Vinyl. Full stop. I feel you’re listening to the album as it was intended by the artist. Having to actively get up and intentionally turn a record side to side instead of mindless streaming while so many of the artists I love and know get paid fractions of pennies for streams. Vinyl all the way.

Where is the best place to connect with you and follow your journey?

Honestly probably Facebook. I use the socials differently but I’m probably most active on Facebook. I
have a mailing list on my website that’s currently being redone as well. Www.scottstricklandband.com

I really appreciate Your time. Anything else before we sign off?

I honestly just thank Indie Music for their time. I can tell everyone that reads this that every single post
you read from an artist that’s asking them to subscribe to a Patreon, or YouTube or whatever – they really mean that truly. Since Covid, everything in the online world, no matter how big or small you are –
Everything has a paywall now. I now understand why so many artists put their all into creating music,
especially, and then you just don’t hear from them anymore. This stuff is so expensive, and requires so
much from you that it’s almost impossible to get any kind of exposure at all. And anything you’re seeing exposure wise, it’s paid for. So please, please – I know your Netflix and Hulu subscriptions are going up, but please go to a local bar, buy a local beer, find a local artist, get to know them, and subscribe to them and then go an proselytize that gospel to your friends and family members. Don’t just throw a few dollars in a tip jar. Me personally I would much rather get an email or a contact from you, than you dropping a few bucks in a tip jar and saying “Good job, Man!” Get that local band you like to do your companies holiday party. Building a relationship with a musician or an artist is one of the most rewarding things you’ll ever do for yourself, I promise. So please – in a world of remakes, revamps, and where originality is masked by milk crate challenges and franchises squeezing money out of everything they can please support your local artists. There’s a lot of good things out there. You just have to look for it.