Paxton - indie artist
By: Dominick A. Miserandino
Paxton has turned his life from tragedy to success in a matter of a few years. He went from living on the street, homeless, to touring the country and releasing his second album. Paxton talks to us about this dramatic change in his life.
DM) I've read that your mother used to teach you songs and to sing before she passed away. Was her untimely death what initially motivated you to pursue music as a career?
P) Not really, I always had the idea of being a musician floating somewhere in the back of my mind. It wasn't until I was in my mid-twenties that I got the courage to write music seriously.
DM) Your life has gone from hitchhiking across the country for work to where you are now. At the low points, did you ever imagine your life getting to where it is today?
P) I never had a firm plan. I was always so poor that I just did whatever was available at the time, so as to be able to eat and pay the bills. Hell, I never thought I would even live to the age of 20. I always assumed I would die frozen and hungry under some bridge or something.
DM) You've held a number of different positions/jobs in your life. Did you enjoy any of them enough that you would do them over music?
P) No, never... I don't believe in going backwards.
DM) Your last album was on Nemperor records. Why did you decide to release the four- song EP "Ginger Dish" on your own?
P) I have a great relationship with Nemperor records, but I wanted to get the EP out quickly, and so Nemperor let me go ahead and do it on my own. Even still, "on my own," there is quite a large group of professionals working with Underdog Music, who do a lot of the important work. Consequently, I don't really think of it as "on my own."
DM) Who is Ginger?
P) My pit bull, my best friend and the great love of my life! That's a drawing I did of her on the cover of our new EP.
DM) Why did you switch your musical focus from country to pop?
P) Country music was very constricting to me as a writer. I wanted to "expose" situations that were more prevalent in my life. There's not a lot of call for songs about drugs, sexual deviance, and urban tragedy in country music!
DM) Who were some of your musical influences as you were growing up?
P) David Bowie, Elton John, Joni Mitchell, The Eagles, Queen, Janis Joplin...mostly the music that my mother and older sister listened to.
DM) Do you prefer recording or playing live?
P) Definitely, recording. Performing live still scares me quite a bit. I suppose I will always think of myself as an awkward, ugly little kid. I heard that Kurt Cobain had very similar feelings about performing live... I just hope I'll end up better off than he did.
Talk to other readers about this story.
|
