In this interview feature, we chat with Kyle Sturrock about influences, motivations, the digital music era, his latest release and more.
Full Q&A along with links and streams 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.)
For a majority of my life I lived in Connecticut, but am now permanently based in Dallas, TX. It’s an awesome city with an incredible up-and-coming music scene- I’ve met some of the most talented musicians since moving down here. You could classify my music as folky-pop. At this point it tends to be based around acoustic guitar, and I have a big focus on my lyrical content and trying to tell a story in a way that’s never been done before. I take a lot of influence from artists such as John Mayer and Ben Howard, but also incorporate some country vibes as well.
What led you down this path of music and what motivates you to stay the course?
We always had music playing in my household growing up, though neither of my parents are particularly musical. My dad has a big classic rock record collection, and some of my earlier musical memories are of my siblings and I picking different music to play on the record player. I started playing guitar when I was 14-15 because I wanted to compete with my brother (typical sibling rivalry), who had picked it up a little earlier on. I never took much of an interest in learning how to play other people’s songs, and quickly started experimenting with creating my own songs and writing lyrics, though I rarely (if ever) played outside of my bedroom. I’ve known since around this time that music was something that I wanted to pursue, but it took a long time to accumulate the confidence in my skill to take the music I was creating outside of the bedroom and onto the larger stage. After practicing and writing songs for the better part of 6-7 years, I moved to Dallas and started performing live for the first time. There’s nothing more exciting than the feeling you get when creating a new song- even if I wasn’t pursuing music in a serious way, I still think I’d be writing songs for myself. I also stay motivated by surrounding myself with inspiring musicians who are always working hard and doing great things both locally and nationally.
How is your new release different than previous ones? Did you set out to accomplish anything specific?
My EP, Crosswinds, is my first release so I don’t have much to compare it to. It was the first time that I was able to sit down and flesh out my acoustic songs with a full band, and I tried to keep the authenticity and original intent of the songs intact while taking advantage of all the new sounds at my disposal. Coming into the project with no experience recording in a studio, my goal was to let myself and the other musicians experiment as much as possible to try and discover each song’s sound. Since I spent so much time writing these songs on my own, it was a new experience letting other people develop the songs alongside me- it was a great learning experience, and I’m proud of what is hopefully my first project of many.
Do you face any challenges as an indie musician in a digital age? On the flip side, how has technology helped you (if it has)?
Besides the obvious monetary struggles that the current digital distribution format causes, I think the current openness of the digital market makes it very difficult to break away from the pack. The “independent musician” space is extremely saturated right now, since anyone can create music and distribute to the world, for a lower price than ever. The saturation has made the consumption of indy music pretty disposable, and it has become much more difficult to grab a listener’s attention as something that’s worth listening to long-term.
That being said, the fact that musicians like myself have any opportunity to get music out on so many different platforms so easily is credit to the digital age that we’re in. Though the saturation has made it difficult to stand out, without the digital age we would have much less of a chance to fight for success and progression in our crafts. Along the same lines, social media gives anyone the opportunity to have as much global reach as they want to have- it’s a lot of work to make it happen, but 20-30 years ago we wouldn’t have had the chance to try.
Where can we follow you online and hear more music?
You can follow me on Facebook and Instagram at:
You can find my new EP, Crosswinds, on the following:
