As a college student, I’m continuously told how these will be the best years of my life and about all the great things I will learn; but as much fun as it is and although I am learning things, I continue to find that certain conversations with artists teach me more than any course I take. On a crisp Tuesday evening, Alpha Rev frontman Casey McPherson, one of my friends, and I all walked over to Starbucks a few blocks from the venue. Walking over from the venue, we all talked a bit about the tour and some minor issues as well as the industry as a whole. Once we grabbed some drinks, it was time to sit down and chat about Casey’s music, life as a musician, and some of the lessons he’s learned. The 30 minutes we spent walking to and from the venue and sitting at the Starbucks were packed with more information than I had learned the whole semester. Moments like that are what inspire me to spend countless hours on email setting each interview up. Take a moment to read what Casey had to say and make sure to keep an eye out for Alpha Rev’s new music. If you get a chance to see the band live, you will not be disappointed.
Arin: How did you get your start in music?
Casey: I grew up and that was what I was good at. That was what I was attracted to, what I gravitated towards, what made me feel peaceful. I felt like I could get in touch with God through music. Things made sense with music; I can say things I didn’t know how to say verbally. And so it became my emotional and spiritual outlet and when I found out you could make a living doing that I was like, “Alright,” so I learned how to do it.
A: What are some of the challenges you have faced getting to this point?
C: The saying that art and commerce don’t mix is very true. In terms of… I’ve had to really – my biggest lesson is to learn what I will and won’t compromise on. When I first started, I wouldn’t compromise on anything so I was broke all the time; and then I did a major label record and I compromised on everything and couldn’t sleep at night because I didn’t like myself. So up till recently, I’m learning what compromise is because you’re working with a group of people and everyone needs to make money in order to live. You’ve gotta be successful in someway. It can’t be my way or the highway, but it is my voice [and] my music that I wanna get out there, so I try to be as true to that as I can.
A: What can people expect to see from your live set?
C: We’re doing music that isn’t released yet. A couple of the songs are released that we’re selling tonight, but it’s a big sound which I love. A big orchestration, but with a real minimal group so you’ll see a lot of gear on stage. The guitar player and the keyboard player both play bass as well as their respective instruments, so the guitar player is playing bass with his feet while he’s picking his guitar and the keyboard player is playing bass with his left hand while he’s playing keys. The drums you’ll hear [are] more orchestral, tribal drums than your typical two and four beat. We’re just trying to stretch ourselves, trying to write a beautiful melody and a beautiful song while still keeping different parameters.
A: What is the current plan to release new music?
C: We’re going to have a January/February release and I think we just went to radio Monday. We started showing people the single and the single’s called ‘Sing Loud,’ and you’ll hear it; it’s the second song in the set. It only sounds good if it’s mixed right because [of] its big harmonies and stuff; and this song, you’ll hear, it’s more poppy than the rest of them. It’s one of the compromises I have to make to be successful. Is it my favorite song? Hell no, but I know people are going to like it and they’re going to relate to it and it’ll feel good to them, so that’s compromise in real time.
A: Having seen a lot good and bad, what advice do you have?
C: In this industry, it’s all about not burning bridges, but being someone with enough integrity that people know they can count on you for your honesty.
A: Have there been any life lessons you’ve learned?
C: What you do is not who you are and it doesn’t define your values. That’s the biggest lesson.
A: As a musician, you have a platform to spread awareness and support causes. Are there any that are important to you?
C: I’m really heavily involved in mental health. Over the last couple of years, we’ve raised over $50,000 for them, like Mental Health America. I lost my brother and father both to suicide, so I’m very – and I went through a period of time where I was getting arrested all the time and doing a bunch of stuff I shouldn’t be doing – so I’m really involved in that and we kind of stick to charities that are about that. We are helping this non profit called Trade in Hope which deals with American sex slavery, so I’m doing the soundtrack for that documentary. So we’re trying to get that going, but those are really the only two things I’m doing.
A: How have you used social media to bridge the gap between you and the fans?
C: So the cool thing about Facebook and Twitter is that you can have a thought and say it and people that you’d never talk to that would just come to your shows would be able to see it and reply. We try to do that when we’re touring. Keep it light; don’t over-promote your social media. They want to know who you are, they want to buy into the story of whatever you’re doing, and they want to get a sense that you have some sort of intelligence or humor about yourself. If you’re too serious all the time or you’re just over-promoting, no one’s going to care. We created this program for our email list – I found a programmer to do it – and it’s an online telephone number. So you’ll see tonight, I’ll hold up a little sheet of paper with a phone number on it and get people to text their email address to that phone number; and I have it set to where it automatically emails them free music and it texts them free music and it puts them into our emailing database so next time I send out a newsletter, they’re already in there. It’s pretty revolutionary because normally you get about 5% of people at a show to sign up on your email list by the merch – 5-7% – now we’re getting between 30 and 50.
A: How did the writing and recording process for the upcoming album work?
C: Well, it was different; it was three main sessions. One session was right after my overproduced record for Hollywood. I decided I wanted to make a record, just go into the studio with the band and make a record, so we made City Farm which was a fan paid-for record. Simple, no click track, no editing of any kind, just one take. We loved the take that we took and then we mixed it so we did that. Then, I went up to Nashville and we worked with a guy that I’ve worked with before, Jamie Kenney, and wrote and recorded some songs with him that made the record; and then the whole band, we finished the record out going back to Austin working with my buddy Dwight [Baker] and did… We had kind of figured out what our sound was by then and went into a rehearsal room with the drummer, and we came up with some cool beats and melodies and took it to the studio and formed some cool songs in the studio; and some of these tracks have over 100 vocals on the tracks doing weird string parts and so I just kind of wanted to experiment with that. Tonight you’ll see – I’ll be looping my vocal at certain songs – and so you’ll hear my vocal going and that’s because I’d sang it before and I was looping it. Just trying to experiment a bit more and be challenged.
A: Do you have any specific goals with music?
C: Well, I think one goal is to be proud of what I do and I’m not quite there yet. I want to sit down and listen to a record and be like, “Wow, I’m proud of that.” Because of my own laziness or compromises or lack of ability or whatever, you end up making a record and you’re almost ashamed of it and you don’t wanna hear it which is really what has happened to me with my records. I can listen to my Endochine record before Alpha Rev and I’m proud of that, but it’s really dark. But I think that’s one of my biggest goals is to be proud of what I accomplished.
