In this interview spotlight, I chat with Bill Abernathy about his new album Crossing Willow Creek, challenges, motivations, listening preferences and more.
Be sure to check out our feature on Crossing Willow Creek, available here.
Full Q&A along with links and music below.
Where are you from and what style of music do you create? (In your own words, not necessarily in marketing terms or by popular genre classifications.)
I live in Kansas City MO. KC and the surrounding area have been my home my entire life. I currently live in the KC City Market area and really enjoy living here.
Regarding music style this is always an interesting question. I am really a storyteller and use music to highlight the stories and messages in the songs. As each story is different with various messages the musical treatment also is quite diverse. For example, the Kansas song “Dust in the Wind” is much more effective in the acoustic style it is recorded in, than say a blue grass or heavy metal style. My music has been called Rock, Country Rock, Country, Folk, Acoustic Rock, Americana and a host of others. I just call myself a singer songwriter and let other people decide what genre each song is. Kind of a cop out but it works for me. LOL
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to keep going?
Music has always been a part of my life from a very early age. Playing guitar and writing songs is a love of mine from very early in my youth. Sometimes I like to revisit the tunes I wrote when I was younger. I have found that many times the concept of the song is pretty good, but the execution is not so good. With the experience I now have I find many times I can modify those old songs into something much better.
For motivation, there are always things that happen in our lives that have meaning to us. Some good, some not so good. Some funny, some sad and everything in between. I think taking these learnings and turning them into music is fun and a good way to say what you want to say. I always think of the Jim Croce song… “Every time the time was right, all the words just came out wrong. So, I’ll have to say I love you in a song” That is a great line because it really is easier to say things in a song that is it in a conversation sometimes. Again, it may be a cop out, but it works for me and seems to work for others as well
How is this new release different than previous ones? Were you trying to accomplish anything specific?
Crossing Willow Creek is really a statement of two things. First from a musical perspective we wanted to take some songs we had recorded acoustically and produce them up a bit. We accomplished this, and I really like the way all the tunes came out.
Philosophically Crossing Willow Creek is a statement documented in the song Changes. “Stepping out of the old into the new”. I have always been very comfortable with playing and producing acoustic music, but there are times we need to step out of that comfort zone and see what an idea can become if treated differently. We stepped (or maybe dragged) me out of that comfort zone and created a product that is really quite different that the original production. We are really proud of this work and it shows that stepping out of your comfort zone may be a bit scary but can certainly create something cool. Again, from Changes “Change always teaches us to be everything we’re destined to be”.
Name one or two challenges you face as an indie musician in this
oversaturated, digital music age? How has technology helped you (since we know it does help)?
Being and Indie musician is kind of like the movie “The good the bad and the ugly” With today’s technology producing a quality recording is so much easier that back in the tape days. You really have no limitations on what you can do, and it’s fun to play around to get the tunes the way you want them to be. That said, you also need to realize that you want the songs to sound like you wrote them, so chasing the bright shiny technical object sometimes is a hinderance and can become time intensive, quite expensive with little value add, but it can be fun.
I think finding your audience in this market is a challenge. With so much music hitting the air waves daily, it’s challenging to find your space. This is why it I have chosen to work with Michael Stover and MTS Management group. They understand this market far better than I ever could and are doing a great job getting Crossing Willow Creek into the markets that really make sense.
What was the last song you listened to?
John Mayer – Shadow Days, great song
Which do you prefer? Vinyl? CDs? MP3s?
I am a fan of CD’s. I really enjoy Vinyl but it’s not very convenient for someone who travels a lot. Of course, MP3’s and their lovely compression programs are very convenient, but there is a noticeable drop in quality with the MP3 forma
How about this one…. Do you prefer Spotify? Apple Music? Bandcamp? Or something else? Why?
I use Spotify for most of my passive listening. I think their user interface is easy to operate and I can usually find what I want to listen to. It also seems my music gets played on Spotify more than the other platforms. I have also used Pandora a bit, and Apple as well. All have their good bad and ugly. I just seem to find Spotify easy to operate.
Where is the best place to connect with you online and discover more music?
I really like to hear from folks that listen to my music, and there are several ways to connect with me.
Anything else before we sign off?
I was thinking about this just this morning. My musical journey has been a bit backwards. Though I played in my youth, I really did not take music that seriously until later in life. Typically, music is a young person’s game, but I have found it very interesting to see where and how far my music can go. Thanks to all today’s technology it can be done. It’s exciting to have fans contact me and say one of my tunes touched them in some way. I hope to be able to see that happen for a very long time.
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