Growing up in Birmingham, Alabama, Billy has always been immersed in country music, being southern culture influences his music. His twin sister grew up playing the fiddle, he got his start accompanying her on guitar. He grew up playing a lot of bluegrass, Appalachian music, country, folk and western style music. He also listened to a lot of rock music growing up, so he started branching out and learning electric guitar.

Billy was in band in school, playing old standards. He went through his Led Zeppelin and Nirvana phase, learning his favorite rock songs on guitar outside of school. He started a band in 6th grade with his best friends Will and John called Bobby Light and the Swag Muffins. Will is his roommate in Nashville and still plays in his band. Will has always been a part of Billy’s music, to have someone he’s grown up with and played music with still be a part of it’s the creation is really special.

Will always wrote songs, but Billy didn’t start writing songs until he got to college. Jake Smith and Josef Kuhn really encouraged him to start learning. They all started writing songs around the same time, often together, sharing ideas back and forth. The people who influenced him the most as a songwriting were his friends.

When he started out as a songwriter he would try to pin down ideas to write about. Practice makes perfect after all, but as he grows as a writer he lets inspiration lead the way. Sitting in a moment, and letting a song come to you is better than grasping for something. Even though songwriting started as sort of a collaborative effort, he prefers to work alone, his makes his best work that way.

People describe his music as southern rock or at times indie folk. People describe his music in a lot of different ways, but the subject matter is very southern. He takes a lot of influence from really old country music like Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, George Jones and Charlie Daniels. Sonically he takes inspiration from the rock music he’s always loved like Sonic Youth, Pearl Jam, Sound Garden or Nirvana. He relates to to subject matter of southern and country music, sonically he relates to rock and shoegazey music. 

His first show as solo artist was in Micheal Alan Scott’s backyard in Marietta, Georgia. He remembers feeling pretty accomplished and looking back at videos of his performance and thinking about how excited he was to get better. “I’ve always been like, a supporting character is someone else’s band”. Playing in other people’s bands and it was a pretty different experience to be the frontman. The thing that was the most memorable for him was that he was surrounded by his best friends.

Billy’s EP is essentially about growing up, and becoming a supposed adult. It’s about growing up in the south, focusing on southern themes and culture. He had a blast making the project, surrounded by his friends the entire time. Billy and Jake Smith co-produced it, Josef Koon played drums, Maddie Kerr played a little bass and Brenna Kassis sang a little. Throughout his journey as a musician he keeps his friends close, he couldn’t have done it without them.

Listen to his new EP below and follow Billy! on Instagram.