1. How did the Texas Renegades start their career?

We got our start at a high school party. Andy was introduced to Tyson and Eli by a mutual friend who suggested that we should “jam” together.  I think we played every song we knew about three or four times that night, and at some point somebody announced “From now on we’re Texas Renegade”.  From that point we played several more high school parties after which we graduated on to “real” gigs, and we’ve been doing the same ever since.  I should point out that we were actually in high school when we were playing these parties, we weren’t some weird older dudes hanging out at a teenage party.  We were age appropriate.

 

2. What were the musical idols of the Texas Renegades and how was the group able to use their music as an inspiration to form their own style?

Our influences include artists and groups such as The Wallflowers, Counting Crows, Shawn Mullins, Reckless Kelly and Whiskeytown.  Although we listened to these guys a bunch, we never really tried to emulate what they were doing as far as their musical stylings.  In fact I don’t think we ever felt like we were worthy of doing anything as good as what those bands were doing.  They influenced us in the sense that they motivated us to make the best music we could, as opposed to influencing our musical style.  In a sense they gave us something to shoot for, something great.

3. What was the idea and reason behind recording «Bad Dreams And Other Things»?

Sonically on this record, we were attempting to create more of a rock sound while blending in some slightly pop textures, in stark contrast to the last album, which was decidedly more rootsy and folk rock.  As far as the material on “Bad Dreams & Other Things”, there isn’t really an overbearing concept to the album, but I believe that it can loosely be described as a “Getting over heartbreak” record, where as the last album carried the theme of flat out “Heartbreak”.

4. What was the idea and reason behind the album «After Everything»?

On “After Everything” we had a bunch of songs that we’d been playing live for a few years, so once we got into the studio we had a pretty good idea of what we were doing with them.  There was never any conscious effort to make a record that had such dark themes to it, it just kind of ended up that way.  Musically we went in trying to make sure that we were very true to the lyrics.  In the end we were really trying to define our sound with “After Everything” and I think that we did a good job of accomplishing that.

 

5. In addition to Texas, have there been other areas in the USA or the world where the Texas Renegades have done concerts?

 We’ve played shows in New Mexico, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alaska and Mexico.  And we’re always looking to expand further.  We’ve gotten to see and do a lot of cool things thus far and we want to see and do a whole lot more.

6. What was the idea and reason behind the album «3 AM»?

 To be honest we truly had no idea for “3AM” before we went into the studio.  We were really young (not too much older than we were when we were playing those high school parties), we had a handful of songs and we had saved up enough money to record an album.  So we booked a studio and got our good buddy Jason Allen to come produce it for no charge and we just did it.  In retrospect, it’s really surprising at how good it turned out.

7. How is life with Camp?

 Its pretty good, its hard to not love that little dude.  And he travels well, our manager calls him a magic dog because he never leaves any…uh…”messes” behind, and for the most part that sentiment rings true.  Currently we’re trying to decide whether to shave him or not, but we can’t decide if he’ll look funny or just sad.  My money is on both.

8. What would you advise others who want a career in music?

 Just play, don’t get ahead of yourself.  Play as often as you can no matter where that may be, benefits, cook-offs, bingo night, etc.  Do it, love it, and be prepared to eat a lot of Ramen noodles.  Oh and don’t sell your masters, don’t trust people to excess, especially strangers and put in the work when songwriting.  Just play good music, it’s as simple as that.

9. Do you have any message for your fans?

 I guess we just want to say THANKS.  We really appreciate the fact that ya’ll come out to support us, buy our records, buy us beers, spread the gospel to your friends and treat us with such respect.  It constantly blows me away that anyone would want to spend their hard earned money to see us play.  I mean, we’re just a bunch of dumb kids having fun. In all honesty having the support of fans really is the coolest thing in the world, no question.

10. Do you have any plans for another album?

 We do, we’ve been writing a bunch of songs and we have tentative plans to go in near the end of the year with Walt Wilkins as our producer, a prospect that we are very excited about. 

Thanks for answering my invitation and for taking the time to answer the questions.