How did growing up in a small town (Clearwater, KS) influence your music?

I grew up in Clearwater, KS, which is about 2,000 people. My family owns a grocery store there. My dad is the butcher. At one point or another, my whole family has worked there. It’s called Mizer’s. It’s affected [my music] a lot because you know, you go to Nashville and you’re writing songs, and there’s a lot of people there that didn’t necessarily grow up in rural areas or know a lot about country music but they think they can go there and write country songs.

When you go to Nashville and you grew up in a town where your dad was the town butcher and your grandpa started a grocery store in a one car garage, you can actually start writing songs that relate to a country audience. It’s been pretty seamless.

How do you stay connected and true to your roots while you’re in Nashville?

I come back a lot. We tour the Midwest a lot. My wife is from Andale which is about 700 people and is west from Wichita. We’re back here all the time. We’re always fighting that battle. Are we going to move back to Kansas or stay in Nashville kind of thing. We’re very connected to this kind of lifestyle. It’s more our pace.

What is your music writing process?

Ninety-five percent of the time I’m music first so usually it’s a piano chord change or a guitar thing, and then there’s that five percent of the time that I wake up with a line that’s just burning me up and then I can write the entire thing and then I gotta find music for it. Most of the time I have music and I have gibberish that goes over the top of it and then I try to look for words in that and it comes out naturally.

Where do you pull most of your inspiration from?

I guess if I had to describe myself as a songwriter to visual art I would be a landscape photographer. A lot of people go for very concrete ideas and I just enjoy painting a pretty picture for people to listen to. My favorite kind of art is landscape photography and landscape paintings so that’s what I kind of try to do with songwriting.

What message do you want fans to take away from your music?

I’ve fought the battle of “Am I trying to save the world? What am I trying to do here with this?” but ultimately, this makes me happy because when I go out and sing a song I can see people smiling and having fun and dancing. I guess what I want to do is relate to the common guy and gal who, whether they’re a stay at home mom, or work 9 to 5, or they’re a welder or a farmer—whatever it is— when they get done at 5, they have the pressure of bills, family illness. There are so many things that can be plaguing people. What I want to be is the reason that they smile. They can turn something off and completely unplug and smile and feel good about themselves and about life and that’s kind of what I’m trying to always do.

How do you balance this lifestyle with your personal life?

Most people who work normal jobs get home at 5 or 6 or whatever it is and have their evening with their kids. I might be gone for three or four days at a time, but then that leaves the other half of the week wide open so I get to spend consecutive days and nights with my children. I get to spend the same number of hours with my family as everyone else does— I just do it blocked. It’s really not too hard to balance. Just a lot of communication has to happen between me and my wife.

What advice would you give someone starting out who wants to follow in your footsteps?

Well, unless you get a really lucky break, it’s just persistence. I’m 11 years in and been writing songs and playing shows for longer than that — about 14 years — so it’s just persistence and continuing to develop your craft. Read a lot and listen to a lot of music. If this is what you want to do and you want to be the best at it, then learn from the best. So constantly be evolving and trying to do the best you can.

What is your ultimate goal for your music career?

I have lots of goals, but I also am a family guy, so my number one priority is to be there for my kids and never make them feel like I put my career ahead of them. There’s opportunities I have passed up that could have put me in a bigger position, but at the end of the day what I’m trying to do is make my kids feel like they have a dad and feel loved. The ultimate goal obviously is to go headline stadiums, but I don’t know if that creates happiness. Right now I’m just happy doing what I do. I’m not saying this is the ultimate goal, but I’m happy.

Click below for gallery of photos from event:

PHOTOS: Local artists rock Rossville