We are sharing our recent interview with a very talented music artist Bill Abernathy.
Question : First of all tell us a little about your music journey.
Answer : Being raised in a musical family was really the start. In my youth years, I was involved in Church related music in multiple touring groups. That evolved into doing some more official music education, and then into playing across the country playing what we would now call Americana Music. After taking a short break, (30 years or so) I returned back into the scene writing, recording and publishing my original stuff. We now have 3 albums out that are being received well, so what the next stage of the journey is being written as we speak.
Question : Who or what inspired you to get into music industry?
Answer : I have always been drawn to singer songwriters who tell their stories through song. There are many I like, but I’ve been a big fan of Dan Fogelberg. I really appreciate his style and the way he marries his lyrics and music together for really increase the focus on the lyric and the stories in the songs.
Question : What kind of effect ‘The long gap’ has made to your music skills?
Answer : That is a great question. Though I never really stopped playing and writing, my style has certainly evolved over the years. I think my technical skills have improved, but without question my ability to bring additional emotion and emphasis through my guitars is much more pronounced than in the past.
Question : Tell us about your recent release “Crossing Willow Creek”?
Answer : Crossing Willow Creek is really a project taking tunes written purely acoustically and changing the production into a more electric sound. We had a lot of fun morphing the acoustic tunes into the sounds you hear on Crossing Willow Creek. It seems the tunes and the production is liked by our fans around the world. I guess the experiment has been a success. Did I mention it was a ton of fun doing it? haha
https://soundcloud.com/billabernathy/sets/crossing-willow-creek
Question : What kind of response you have received from the release?
Answer : Crossing Willow Creek has landed on multiple charts. Itunes, Boardboard, Roots Music, and several others. We also have tunes hitting multiple genre charts including country, rock, and folk. I think that really shows the versatility of the songs, and our focus on matching the story of the song with the best sounds to get the story across.
Question : What’s your favorite music genre?
Answer : That is an easy answer. I really enjoy Singer Songwriter work. I am a story teller and enjoy hearing others stories and how they choose to tell them through song.
Question : What’s the best part of being a music artist?
Answer : When a fan tells you your music has touched them in some way is about the best feeling an artist can have. I’ve had many folks tell me how they can relate to my tunes and can see a bit of themselves in the lyrics. That is about as good as it gets for me
Question : Are you working on any new project?
Answer : Our new project is in production now and hopefully will answer some questions for our fans. For one, I get asked a lot about what it’s like in the music studio. Another is what seeing us play live is like. The third is when we are asked to do some cover songs that folks request. Our new project is actually our response to of all those questions. We are recording and videoing us playing some requested covers in the studio and doing it all live. We are having a lot of fun with it. I will be out we think in August. I am looking forward to seeing folks like we have put together.
