This Friday, May 7^th, Connor Christian & Southern Gothic, as well as Leroy Powell of the Shooter Jennings Band will be appearing at The Peach Tree Tavern in Atlanta. Thanks to Val King, a mutual friend, for setting this interview up. I just got off the phone with Connor and it was fun and enlightening.

Hitman: Thanks so much for the time, we will do what we can here at Southern Fried to get this posted before this Friday’s gig to give you and the band as well as Leroy some “pub.”

Hitman: I always ask this of all musicians, and that is, who influenced you musically while growing up?

Connor: Well, my answer is not going to be what many people will tell you. It was really bizarre growing up. I lived all over, South Korea, Singapore, Belgium, so the music I was exposed to, this weird stuff, was not your typical music that American kids grew up listening to. Then by the time I was in middle school, you know junior high, that’s when I got into music like for example my first concert being Megadeath, Slayer and Anthrax. When I got to high school I heard Elton John’s album, “Madman Across the Water” and went and listened to all his early stuff, like “Tumbleweed Connection”, loved that stuff, the feel of it, all his stuff up until the 80’s. That’s when I realized that other music I had been listening to when I was younger was all wrong! From Elton John I got into The Band and some of that California country rock stuff like The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Hitman: And what was it that brought you to those countries? I have been to South Korea myself, only Uncle Sam sent me there as well as spending almost a total of two years in the Orient and South East Asia.

Connor: My Dad was a consultant for the Department of Defense, helping with security for the Olympics. In 84’ we were in L.A., in 88 the Olympics were in Seoul, South Korea, so that’s why all the traveling.

Hitman: So when was it that you said, “That’s what I want to do with my life, play and make music?”

Connor: Well, that’s funny, because I was at the point....you know the saying, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Right after I had gotten married my Mom had put together all this stuff from my childhood, and she handed me this piece of construction paper from something I did in first grade for my teacher Miss Lombardi. It was a drawing of me holding a microphone and I had written “I want to be a singer like Michael Jackson.”

Hitman: Well, look at that! And now you and the band, Southern Gothic have two CDs out, the second release from last year being “90 Proof Lullabies.” You’ve gotten some good exposure on CMT, and there are a good number of videos on You Tube of the band. When will you start work on the third release?

Connor: Well, we’ve demo’ed about 14 tracks and in 3 weeks we’re going to do another 8 tracks. In June we plan on going into the studio and get it finished. We’d love to have it out for Christmas, hopefully October, November.

Hitman: I took a look at your upcoming tour schedule and see you have some gigs planned in North and South Carolina, Georgia. Any hopes to hook on with somebody and go a little more national?

Connor: We’d like to. Last year we were all over the place with the band Drivin’ and Cryin’. We may do some shows with Collective Soul. That should be interesting, a bit different music, not sure if their fans will get us!

Hitman: I took a look at some of the videos on YouTube, as well as my daughter. Some great music there, she liked “Waiting for Princess.” I liked it also, very much. I was thinking, “let me put my finger on this”, and I was saying Marc Cohn, Bruce Hornsby, then it hit me, Elton, from “Tumble Weed Connection!"

Connor: Yeah, like “Country Comfort?"

Hitman: Yes! I got that feel as well as also “Burn Down the Mission.”

Connor: Oh man, thanks! That’s it, that’s the feel.

Hitman: One thing I’ve read and heard from others is that your fans are VERY passionate about you. They are not there at the club to just see a band, they are there to see YOU guys.

Connor: Yes! It’s funny, we’ve played some places where there were maybe thirty people, and I’m thinking, “how’s this going to work out”, and then they are all singing, singing loud, knowing all the words. It’s great!

Hitman: You know, for me, being older than you, it was The Allmans, Skynyrd, Tucker, Outlaws in the mid 70s, to early 80s. Then it all seemed to go away, no more new bands playing that for quite some time.

Connor: Yeah, then a little again in the 90’s.

Hitman: Yes, and then the second coming with Drive By Truckers, people now like Blackberry Smoke, bands such as yourself. But to some extent, the music has evolved to some degree, how would you characterize yourselves?

Connor: Well yes, it’s a little bit of a mix with country, pop, some southern rock, some soul all mixed in. You know that Black Crowes feel to some of it. But we can play, at times we can go into reggae or even classical.

Hitman: Yes I got that Black Crowes feel from “It’s Alright.”

Connor: Yes, we’ve got a great band, I think we are one of the best live bands out there in the country, at least in this genre. We got really kick ass with our bringing on a fifth member.

Hitman: And that member is?

Connor: Jeff Spirko. We had gone through numerous fiddle players, and Jeff would fill in with us. I kept on asking him if he wanted to join. Then he asked does that mean Elena (Elena Martin) would be out, because he didn’t want that to happen. “No” I told him. Jeff slides over onto guitar, mandolin, keyboards and at times we will have two fiddles going at it. Yeah, we are really a great live band.

Hitman: No matter what type of music a band plays now, or what part of the country they are from, do you think it’s a big advantage nowadays with the technology the way it is, with the exposure, say good or bad of things like “American Idol?”

Connor: American Idol, nah, not good, but the other stuff, the MP3s, the Internet, it’s all good. Hey, we’re not selling ten million records so if somebody wants to share my music, download off the internet, share some MP3 files, I’m cool with that. There are countless cell phone videos of us I’ve seen! As long as it’s quality. You know when I was in 6^th, 7^th grade a friend of mine and myself were already making tape mixes up. We were the guys people would come to and ask, “so who’s the next big thing”, we were so into making the music, sharing it, you know we were listening to Pearl Jam live before others would. We were sort of the authorities. I think it’s great.

Hitman: You have a great head on your shoulders, got yourself a degree in journalism, and learned some production work at Georgia State. You directed your video, “3 Times.” When I read what it was about, I had to laugh. It’s about “doing it” three times, right? Man oh man, a guy my age, I’m lucky if I can do it for three minutes!

Connor: (Laughing) Yeah, well, I’m thirty now, I did that years ago, so for me too, 3 times in a night now is a stretch!

Hitman: So being the level headed guy you are, a good sense of direction, where do you guys want to be a year from now, five years from now?

Connor: Well, like I said, hopefully the new album when it comes out will sell well. Instead of 5,000 CDs maybe it will sell a quarter of a million. We’ve done our research, learning how to market it, who to sell to.

Hitman: Yes, all that is important, word of mouth though is still one of the biggest ways a band gets help. Being a great live band surely helps. I always use the Outlaws as an example. In the heyday of FM radio where DJ’s would play anything ..

Connor: Yeah, when they were allowed to do that!

Hitman: Yeah, besides just the one hit on the album, all the stuff would be played, but certain groups, especially The Outlaws, man they just blew people away with their live show and the word kept spreading.

Connor: Yeah, here’s an interesting fact we learned. We’ve gotten all this exposure from CMT, but we learned that 50% of people who watch CMT don’t have Internet access! And those that do, half of them never even use it! For us, like I said, we hope this next album which we feel is really going to be good sells well, gets us on Billboard charts. Now it’s a steady paying gig, but that’s through all the shows, the sale of T shirts, merchandise, etc. We want to get to do the amphitheatre shows, you know the bigger shows, get to where Zac Brown is at. His record is still up there after a year. In five years, well by then we should be selling plenty of records, if not, oh well, I may be doing something else, I wouldn’t want to be a bar band in five years from now.

Hitman: Connor, thanks for the time, let me see if I can get this turned around quick enough for this Friday’s gig, at The Peach Tree Tavern in Atlanta.

Connor: No, thank you, let’s stay in touch, and hey, I’ve got to talk to Charlie of Blackberry Smoke, maybe he can get us some of those gigs with The Outlaws that you’ve told me he’s been doing with them!!

Connor Christian and Southern Gothic is:

Connor Christian - Vocals, Piano, Guitar, Harmonica
Joe Abramson - Bass, Vocals
Shawn Thacker - Drums, Vocals
Jeff Spirko - Guitar, Fiddle, Banjo, Piano, Mandolin, Vocals
Elena Martin - Fiddle, Keys, Mandolin, Vocals

I also had a conversation with Leroy Powell just as he had finished his dinner at Applebees in Panama City, Florida. The band had just recently finished a gig on Kid Rock's cruise.