Will McCartt on therapy, collaborating with Northwest Stories, and the influence of Gregory Alan Isakov

In this episode of First Spin, I sit down with indie-folk artist Will McCartt for a conversation about creativity, emotional vulnerability, and the process of finding your voice as an artist.

We talk about how music was always present in Will’s life — from playing guitar in church bands growing up to eventually writing a song for a major life event — but how it took years before he truly viewed songwriting as something personal and essential. What started as a hobby slowly evolved into a way for him to process emotions, experiences, and seasons of life.

Will touches on how songwriting became a space where he could finally process things honestly. That shift not only transformed the music itself, but also changed the way audiences began responding to it. We also dive into the atmospheric nature of indie folk music and discuss artists like Gregory Alan Isakov, Novo Amor, Lord Huron, and The Paper Kites. Will talks about building songs that feel immersive and cinematic — music that creates a sense of place as much as melody — and how layering textures and emotion together can completely change the way a listener experiences a song.

Beyond the music itself, we spend time talking about the realities of trying to build a career as an independent artist today: balancing demanding day jobs, navigating social media algorithms, staying authentic online, and trying to create meaningful art in a world that constantly demands attention. Will shares the philosophy behind his TikTok presence and why he intentionally focuses more on emotional connection than traditional promotion.

Along the way, we also get into conversations about family, marriage, creativity, growing up in Appalachia, and the strange tension between modern digital life and the desire for something slower, quieter, and more human -- discovering that honesty might be the thing connecting most powerfully with listeners.

Songs Featured in This Episode:

Coastline

anymore

Baby, Keep on Drivin'

So Long

With Her

Introduction music: Blood Sugar Blues by Drew White

Introduction music Blood Sugar Blues by former First Spin guest, Drew White.

If you enjoyed this episode, it’d mean a lot if you left a quick review—it's one of the best ways to help new listeners find the show.

And if you want to hear more artists worth your time, follow First Spin on social:
📱 TikTok
📸 Instagram

Official Spin Podcast Spotify Playlist

Official Spin Podcast Apple Playlist

Thanks for listening—see you next week.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hey, hi, hello, and welcome to another episode of First Band, the podcast that introduces you to up and coming artists before they hit it big, so you can say I knew them when. Regular listeners probably noticed a new intro. As I was working on the last episode with Drew White, I was listening to Blood Sugar Blues and thought that that part of that song would work perfectly as an intro to the podcast. So I hit him up, asked if I could use it. Thankfully, he said yes. So big thank you to Drew White for the new intro song. If you haven't listened to the episode with Drew yet, you should go back and listen to that. We had a great chat a few weeks ago. But my guest this week is Will McCart, singer-songwriter from eastern Tennessee. Will and I talked about how therapy helped him realize the importance of writing his own music, how he goes about creating atmosphere in his songs, his collaboration with the band Northwest Stories, and the beauty of making people cry with your songs. Here's a snippet of his song Coastline, and then my conversation with Will McCart.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

We had changed out. And when the wind we draw in all day, we lowered down. Enjoy the day. When the lights fell out of the sky.

SPEAKER_01 2:45

Thank you so much for being here, man. I really appreciate you jumping on. Welcome to First Spin.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Thank you. I appreciate it. Um honestly, it's something that I really appreciate you taking the time to actually talk to people and hear their story. So I'm excited to be on here.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

Yeah, yeah. No, I mean I just I come across so much great music, and uh I there are a lot of people that I don't think are quite up to the listener level that they deserve. Um, so anything I can do to kind of help people's career move forward in in the right direction. So I first came across your music, like most things on TikTok, uh, the song uh Coastline uh just immediately jumped out of grab to me. I'm a huge Gregory Alan Isaachoff fan, and there's obviously a lot of influence in your music from Gregory Alan Isaachoff. Um but yeah, Coastline is just such a fantastic song. Where did you uh when did you start releasing music? What what was the impetus for for starting a music career?

SPEAKER_02 3:43

Yeah, so I think the I mean I've written songs kind of my whole life. I've been around music my whole life. Kind of in I don't know, I feel like music for me has been something that it's not been something that's been like a main focus, but I've just always kind of been around it. So when I was younger, I was in like church bands and stuff, and honestly, it wasn't something I was like chomping at the bit to do, but needed help in doing. I was like, Yeah, I can play guitar and kind of you know figure out how to do some of that stuff. Um really enjoyed it though once I got into it. A lot of it was kind of like the lead guitar, learning how to do ethereal, landscape-y stuff, stuff that I feel like I still impacts a lot of how I look view music today. Um, kind of like creating the emotion and the atmosphere of a song type thing. So um, but even though I was around it for a long time, I was never really writing a lot of songs like for myself or anything like that. It was just kind of something like I did on the side, I could do it, I could fill in type thing. Um but when I was getting married, I was like, I've played music my whole life, I'd like to try to write a song, something to sing, like at this thing, um, at our ceremony. At the at the wedding, you mean? Yeah. At the wedding, yeah. And so that was the first time I really like sat down and started to write some stuff, and it was so bad. So like everything that I wrote was just, you know, I wrote probably like 10 or 15 songs, and every time, like, man, this is this is absolutely horrible when I would get done writing it, kind of thing. But I eventually got to like one that I think actually cut through to some like emotion in me that like meant something. So I don't even remember it. My wife asked me about the other day. Don't know what any lines were in it. I didn't write it down anywhere. It's been like seven years ago, so maybe I can go find a video or something of it somewhere.

SPEAKER_01 5:13

You was gonna say, is there a video from the wedding or something? Yeah, there might be.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Unfortunately, so we had a huge thunderstorm that happened in between the wedding and the ceremony, and I was sang it at the ceremony, so a lot of stuff kind of got torn down and stuff between it was a lot of fun, kind of made towards like just our close friends and family that kind of stayed towards the end. So it was it was a cool experience, but there wasn't like the normal setup that you'd have at a wedding to like have it all video and stuff. So maybe I can find it somewhere. But, anyways, that was the first time that I really even like put my hand in trying to write anything musically. So after that, my wife was actually the one that encouraged me. She's like a you know, she really enjoyed the song then to get some bare bones equipment and just kind of start writing stuff. So I did, but again, like it just it's a long took me a long time to feel like I kind of found like my lane or things that really connected to me. It was more just kind of like a hobby. I would do it here and there. Um, but later on in life, so really just about two or three years ago, um, really through like going to therapy and stuff for some of the first times, realizing that I kinda I've been a person that struggled a lot with connecting my emotions, kind of and integrating that into my life. I've been someone's kind of closed off in a lot of ways. It's almost like I feel like I live life a lot of times, not actually feeling the things until like later on there's like a disconnect between the two. And so music started to be kind of come a space for me that helped me to connect how I've actually been feeling recently in life or to process a lot of things. So really it kind of came out of like a therapy type space for me that I started becoming more serious about it and writing more. Um, I would find that when I would sit down to start writing, it'd be me just processing a lot of stuff that's been happening over the last few months that I felt like I hadn't my body hadn't had time to like catch up to yet. So that's been honestly pretty recent that I feel like I've been kind of writing from that capacity. And I think when I let my headspace and emotions kind of go to that area when I wrote, the music started getting a lot better too. Um it it seems like it's resonating with people now when I play it for people and things in a way that it just it never did before, you know.

SPEAKER_01 7:12

I I've noticed that on like just on Spotify alone, in the last six months, you've like quadrupled your listeners, right? Like you've gone from like less than 20,000 to now like over 70,000. Yeah, it's been really cool. Do you have an idea? A, do you do you care at all about the streaming numbers? And B, do you have an idea of why uh like what what it is that's making that happen?

SPEAKER_02 7:36

I do, yeah. So I do care about it. I think as I've gotten more into it, it'd be something that I would love to do more full-time if I'm able to do it, you know. I want it to always be something that feels creative for me and like an outlet, but if I could do that more full-time, that'd be great because it's hard to do kind of after my job. Um, but as far as what's caused it, I think some of it might have been, I don't know if you noticed, but I did a song with Northwest Stories, um, Northwest Stories. So they're quite a bit bigger, and I think that probably helped me find some new people just from kind of the crossover in that collab. But also I've been trying to push TikTok quite a bit more over the past little bit and just be more consistent on there. And you know, that 85% of the time you get 200 views and nothing happens, and then that last 15% of the time one kind of takes off and seems like it connects with people well. Um and it's got me on a lot of just like normal people's playlists and things that I think have kind of helped trigger the algorithm when that happens, it seems like.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

Um a lot of like indie playlists too, just kind of like the fundamental indie playlist that a lot of people go to to find new music. You've you've found your way onto a number of those as well, which I'm sure helps.

SPEAKER_02 8:38

Yeah, absolutely. I definitely think that it helps. So, but yeah, it's been cool. It's been really encouraging to like, you know, every so often get messages and stuff about the way the music's actually impacting people in their real lives, or that really means something to them. So that's been really cool. I've I've really been encouraged the past like six months or so as that's growing. Not just that the numbers are growing, you know, that's cool to see, but honestly, when I hear something back from people that it's really made them stop or reflect or have a moment in their life that means something, that's been really encouraging to hear.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Do you have any specific examples of like complete strangers reaching out to you and telling you something about one of your songs that really stuck?

SPEAKER_02 9:13

Yeah, I mean sometimes I'll see stuff. I mean, you can even see it in the like comments or something, and sometimes, but there'll be people be like, This song came on at like 3 a.m. in the morning, and for some reason I just like sat there and let it play for like 15 times through and just stared at the wall and like gave me a moment of peace that I haven't had in a long time, you know, something like that. Or uh I saw a message the other day where somebody had commented that they just had a lot of anxiety recently, and when they woke up, life just felt really heavy. And one of my songs had come on, and it kind of like eased that for them for a little bit. And they just want to reach out and say, like, hey, thanks for putting your music in the world because that actually did something for me, and just want to encourage you on that. So there's a honestly been a lot of those kind of things, and and that drives me to keep wanting to put stuff out more than like any metrics does, honestly. It means so much.

SPEAKER_01 10:00

There was uh it's funny you mentioned that because I uh I was perusing your TikTok earlier today, just kind of getting ready for for our conversation. And you know how TikTok makes search suggestions for you on certain videos when you're scrolling through. Yeah, on one of your videos, the suggestion for what I could search for was grounding sounds for anxiety. Nice.

SPEAKER_02 10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

So the algorithm knows exactly what it's yeah, knows exactly what it's doing. How do you go about because I, you know, you mentioned uh obviously Gregory Alan Isaacov, but like Novo and Moore, the paper kites, Lord Huron, um, which all kind of has that atmospheric, you know, you just even if you're walking through a very urban environment, when you're listening to that music, you feel like you're in the forest or like out in on a lake or something. What are the elements that go into creating a sound that that feels like you're in the forest or feels like you're um just you know, you know, in a wide open space?

SPEAKER_02 10:57

Yeah. I mean, honestly, I don't have any of it set to like uh this is exactly how I do it, and it works out this way every time, kind of thing. But I think for me, it begins with the writing process. If the songs affect me when I write them, I let them sit for a while. And if I come back and they still like those just the words and the chords themselves seem to have that effect on me again, it feels like it's something that I really want to keep chasing down the road. So a lot that I'm working on stuff now for a record that's gonna be coming out later this year that I wrote three or four years ago now. But I kind of like to let it sit and just kind of continue to grow in like what it actually means to me first. So I think letting there just be space and time there is something that has helped me to begin with to kind of feel out the songs that feel like they really carry that bit of magic or whatever you want to say in them. But then from there, it's just kind of like I said, some of my background is doing more of that atmospheric y type stuff in the church setting when I was growing up and things. So a lot of like your reverbs or your synthesizers or that kind of stuff just starting to kind of layer on different textures that just kind of again, it's case to case song to song, kind of where you want to take it. But trying to layer that stuff on to add depth behind the words, but for me it all comes back to the emotion of it. So, like, does the sounds that I'm finding or creating seem to carry the right emotion for the words that I'm speaking for whatever it is for that song? And sometimes that might just be like one or two things, like a whistle and something else that's happening. And sometimes, you know, get stacks and stacks and stacks of stuff that are kind of all playing together on a certain song. So it's really, yeah, it's just kind of you feel it out as you go and you keep coming back and you're listening to it. And if it seems to be carrying the right weight or the right emotion, that's kind of like where I let guide me on a song to song basis, I think. Uh, don't know if you're familiar with him. I feel like he is criminally unknown in the music world for a lot of the people that he's worked with. But he has actually worked on a couple of Gregory Alan Azakov's records. Also, um, I don't know if you know Jack Van Cleef. He's done his stuff before, yeah. Um Nathaniel Ratliff, uh Jamestown Revivals, a lot of those kind of like folky, indie, folky type people. Uh, but he's really, really good at some of that atmospheric type texture-y stuff, and then also just has an incredible ear for just mixing and stuff too. So it's been a cool process of doing as much as I can to kind of get out of my home studio here and be like, this are kind of the holes that I'm seeing in this. Like, can you help add on? And then kind of back and forth on it. But it's been really exciting to kind of take it to that next level past what I'm able to physically have here in my little studio. How did you get connected with him? I just emailed him. Uh, I'd kinda kind of seen that he had been on any like one of those things that as you get into the music world, you're kind of like, Oh, I wonder who like did this or did that. And I noticed he was on some of my favorite records from like across the board of favorite people. Um, a lot of that texture-y stuff always resonated with me so much. So I just shot him email kind of in the dark. He helped with my song so long as well. You can kind of hear a little bit of that in that one. Um, but I sent him some of the stuff that I was working on, just like, hey, notice you were on all these records and really love these sounds. They've kind of always stuck with me as I've gone. Would just see if you'd be interested in maybe working together. And he was. So it was uh that's awesome. Yeah, it was so cool. I was I was pretty nervous to send it to him because he was like somebody I really look up to.

SPEAKER_01 15:42

So yeah. Oh no, that's great. So working on a full album, because so far you've you've just released mainly singles, right?

SPEAKER_02 15:49

Yeah, so yeah, so I feel like I yeah, I kind of got serious about it a few years ago, and I've kind of noticed like letting stuff sit or have time has been helpful. So I've worked on it, those few that I've released recently, like with her so long coastline, but then a lot of them feel like they kind of need to be put together. So I was like, I know it's gonna take a while, but I want to take my time and like do these well and have it be a full story.

SPEAKER_01 16:11

Are are all of those going to be or a lot of the songs that you've released already going to be part of the album, or are you doing a whole range of it? All those are kind of separate. Yeah, it'll be a brand of slate.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

Okay, yeah. After those, I was kind of like, I feel like these ones that I've written uh after those felt like they needed to be together. So I didn't want to just keep I know a lot of the industry stuff that you hear now is like turn out something every like six weeks and try to stay relevant and you know, kind of thing, which I get that, and it it does help with the algorithms and numbers and things, but I really value kind of the story of the piece and wanting it to all be together and being something that like, yeah, it might take me a while to get there, but I can look back on it in five years or ten years and be like I'm really proud of like that set of songs that I worked hard on, you know, because I realize pretty quickly once the song's out in the world, there's no getting it back and tweaking it or putting it together with stuff, you know, it's it's just out there. It's kind of the fun part's kind of the working on it piece. So I've been taking my time and really enjoying that. Yeah, no, that makes that's cool. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

I feel like a lot of people don't realize that uh until it's maybe, maybe too late. Um, you mentioned your new song with or newest recent release with North Northwest Stories, Baby Keep Driving. How did uh how did that come together to work with those guys? Uh I was trying to remember.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

I think same thing. I think they just kind of came across a Spotify playlist or something for with her, or maybe it was TikTok for with her, and they had reached out and like, hey, we really love this. And they're doing a cool thing where I don't know if you've noticed on their discography, but they do a lot of collabs with a lot of different people. So it's something they're kind of doing to just kind of help similar to you, honestly, just like, hey, here's a smaller artist that we really like what they're doing, and we're trying to get their name out there a little bit more, and they're willing to actually like add their name to it and work on you with stuff, which is extremely unheard of. I really appreciate that about them. But they reached out and I'd written Baby Keep on Drive and a little bit before they had reached out, and it didn't really feel like it fit onto the record with where the story was going for that one. So I just pitched it to him, like, hey, here's another one that kind of felt like it was a little bit more upbeat, and I felt like kind of crossed with their the music that they put out naturally anyways. So it felt like a good fit there. And then same thing, I produced a lot of it, but they produced a lot of it, and we kind of went back and forth on what we wanted to add or keep or change kind of thing. So but it was a cool experience. And like I said, I really appreciate them finding some guy with like probably had like 10 or 15,000 monthly listeners at the time and just been like, hey, we really like what you're doing, and we want to put our name on it, you know, and help it get out there more. Yeah, that's so great.

SPEAKER_01 18:30

Good, good on them for doing that. That's really absolutely cool. Yeah. So you mentioned you're working on the full album uh Till the Cows Come Home is the title of it. Uh do you have a release date yet? Can we break some news here on First Spin?

SPEAKER_02 19:42

No, I do not have a release date yet. Still finalizing like the last two or three songs. It'll probably be towards the fall, I would say, that I'll be having everything kind of completely wrapped together. So, but yeah, nothing, unfortunately, nothing wrapped up to that point yet. And that's the honestly the perfect time for your music to come out anyway.

SPEAKER_01 19:59

Yeah, that's that's that's when you want to be listening to this.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I was like, it needs to be in the fall, anyways, whenever it gets wrapped up. So I'm I'm glad it's kind of staying on pace to end up being that way.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Unlike Noah Khan, who just dropped his super sad, folky album right at the beginning of summer. So you're gonna have a sad summer, everybody. Sorry. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 20:17

I saw he had a couple tweets like that. He's like, you will be sad even if the weather's warm this year.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

Yeah. You also did a really cool, at least a snippet of um Harry Styles Matilda, which is one of my favorite songs on Harry's House. I think Harry's House is one of the best albums that's come out in the last decade, personally. Uh any possibility of you releasing a studio version of that? Because I just think your version of Matilda is so cool. You took what was already such a fantastic song and put your unique spin on it, and I I just I think it's great.

SPEAKER_02 20:47

I appreciate that. Um, you know, not anything yet. I really just kind of did that one little clip when I was doing it. But Harry Styles is one of those people I feel like I listen to a lot that you probably doesn't really fit in with a lot of the other people I listen to, but I love some of his slower stuff and his songwriting. Um, but yeah, I mean some of his slower stuff I listen to as much as Novo and Moore or something. It's just it's so beautiful and so well written. Maybe something I'd do down the road. I've been so busy trying to get this project done that kind of covers and things haven't been really on my mind much besides maybe posting a TikTok or something. But there are a lot of songs out there I think would be cool to cover in that slightly more slow atmospheric way, like that. So maybe down the line I'll have some time for it.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yeah, cool. What is your what is your day-to-day look like now? Because it music isn't your full-time gig yet. Hopefully, someday.

SPEAKER_02 21:33

Yeah. Uh so I'm a civil engineer actually. So I it's a very boring. I do like roadway designs and project management and a lot of spreadsheets and CAD designs and stuff that's very detail oriented. And you know, I don't know if you've seen like blueprints for a house or something like that ever. But I do that for like roadways to get things built and then like kind of manage the process of like local governments and state entities. And stuff like that. So nothing at all creative, very different lane than music. But I'm kind of thankful for that in some ways. It feels like music's a real like gift to have on the side of things that's just separate from a lot of my day-to-day. So I'm I think there's something for me that's been really beautiful about having something that kind of clock in and out of, but that's not like where my goals or aspirations are. And then I have something on the side that's like something that really means something to me that I get to come to in the evenings or when I'm processing something emotionally. And there's not a lot of weight on that thing to perform. But speaking about music, it's like I can be really free with it and kind of see where it goes. So but I would love to cut back. It just takes up so much time to be doing what I'm doing. Lots of times it's not even 40 hours a week, it's more than that. So it'd be nice to you know cut back to just have more time to put into music. But until then, you know, just doing it the best I can and see where things take me.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of people in that boat. A lot of the people that I talk to on the podcast are, you know, have varying professions of of different things and and jobs that you know they spend all day doing. And then in the evening they work on their music, the weekends they work on the music. And I just I think it's it's really admirable. Um, because it's it's tough, man. It's tough to find the energy, it's tough to find the time after you've put in a full week to to uh focus on your creative endeavors. Um, you know, this is podcasting is uh is not my is not my full-time game either. So I I get it, yeah. Um there was a song that you released in 2022 called I Love You, uh, that has vanished from at least from Spotify.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Yeah. Um, yeah, there was actually a few. So there was two EPs before that, which is right when I bought recording equipment. I didn't even know that you could go back and delete a STEM after you tracked it. So everything on those was like one takes, nothing, like no editing. Like I was literally just learning how to do stuff at the time. Yeah. Uh yeah, I couldn't stand to listen to them anymore. Just how after like having grown after a few years, I was like, I gotta get rid of those. I'm sorry. Like, people can't go back and find these once I have better music out in the world. Um, I love you was one, I feel like I hadn't really found a lot of my sound or what I was getting. It was like I was learning again, it was a lot of like processing how to even make music. And so I was kind of going down the rabbit hole of more techno-e type stuff at the time and loops and things like that. So it was a fun process of making it, but I feel like through doing all that over those years, it kind of helped me find like my true sense of where I feel the most creative, and I wanted to kind of have a cohesive image on that. Not that it can't change down the road, but it didn't feel very honest to like where I was at anymore. So I took off that one and a couple other ones from back in the day. You and like five other people might have noticed that, but there's not many people out there that would know that those were on there. I left a few from back then that I feel like aren't quite the same. Honestly, a lot of it was just the production was so bad. It'd be like 15 dB too quiet because I didn't know what I was doing with stuff, kind of thing. It just it yeah, stuff that it drove me crazy. Maybe other people didn't notice that, but anytime it would like I would I would hear it for some reason again, or somebody would play it. I was like, I gotta get rid of that stuff. I just it's like not there. But yeah, I took, I think when I started taking it at the time, I don't think I was taking it very seriously. It was just like I was kind of having fun with it, figuring stuff out, would upload it. I had really no care in the world of where things might go, but as I kind of got more serious about it, it was like uh, you know, as I've learned a lot more and just was like, I want to have more of a cohesive like story and narrative on a lot of these things of what I'm saying. And yeah, I learned a lot more with like just lyrically and storytelling-wise, too. I think as I connected, I I figured I felt like for a long time I was kind of running away from doing the folk music stuff, trying to find something a little bit more just different. I feel like a lot of singer-songwriters just kind of fall into that camp of like kind of folky Americani-type music type deal, which is great. But I think I was trying to do something a little bit different, but I realized that I'm from Appalachia too, so there's a lot of just like that kind of heritage and stuff here. Um, I'm actually from near Bristol, which is where like it's called the birthplace of country music. So there's a lot of bluegrass and that kind of stuff in this area that I kind of grew up around. Probably part of why I was trying to do something maybe a little bit different than a lot of stuff that I've seen growing up, you know. But I've found that I can be the most authentic um emotionally when I play that kind of music for some reason. So it just lent itself to like I'm gonna I have to do this because the more I play that kind of stuff, the more honest I seem to write. So it's just kind of something I figured out along the way. So uh don't feel like I set out to be an indie folk artist at the beginning, though.

SPEAKER_01 27:53

Um, you uh kind of have a very like specific thing that you do on in most of your videos. They're beautiful muted photographs. Um I don't know where where you find these photos, if you take them yourself, or if you just find them somewhere, and then you write either the lyrics or just some kind of like, you know, maybe a couple people will stumble across this today, and that's cool. Like if this resonates with you, welcome. This is my music. Um, I think it it fits the vibe so beautifully. Why did you decide on that approach to your social media strategy, or is that just kind of what organically started happening?

SPEAKER_02 28:26

I think a lot of it was kind of organically, but I think it comes from a deeper space of like I don't really want my music to just be associated with me. I kind of want it to be associated with like a feeling or like that atmosphere, like I was saying. I want it to almost be like when you hear that music, it takes you to kind of what those, you know, those beautiful pictures and images are of. Um a lot of those at the beginning were stuff that I did take, or I have a lot of family members that are very artistic and have a lot of film photos and stuff too. So a whole lot of that stuff's from there, and then some of it's from like other places that I've just found things or whatever. But I have a deep that stuff like it brings me a lot of peace, those kind of images and things. Like I look at a lot of beauty in that. And I want my music to carry more of that emotion and weight to it than just be kind of me in front of a video, kind of pitching my music. I think also I didn't want to be something, it feels like every everything's just an ad or everything is just like asking for your time on social media. And I generally mean it on those posts. I'm like, hey, if this happens to find you and it offers you 25 seconds of just like a moment of peace, and like that's a really beautiful thing. I hope that it actually gives you something. So it felt like an authentic way for me. I know a lot of people probably still just scroll by it, but to try for the ones that does connect with to try to give something back for a moment versus just ask you to like, hey, follow this link and go listen to this thing for me, go chase this thing down that I'm trying to work on. Um, and that feels very honest to what I'm trying to do with music. So I wanted to follow that more. Um, and then organically, too, it felt like some of those were the ones that kind of took off. It felt like it resonated with people more than some of the other things I had tried doing. So it was a little bit of a mix of both, you know. It's so felt like the more honest I was with what I was trying to do, the more naturally it helped me find the people that were resonating with it too, which is a cool thing.

SPEAKER_01 30:08

Right. Yeah, I hear that from a lot of people that I talk to that the more honest you can be with yourself and what you're presenting, the better results you have, even if it feels uh, you know, almost antithetical or you feel like you're not uh doing what you're supposed to be doing. Yeah, right, for sure. But yeah, people can people can sense it. Yeah, people can sense it when you're being your true self.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Yeah, I agree. There's a lot of stuff, like, especially as a musician, it's a lot of what I see on my feed all the time, but it's like stuff that you see it and it's working for people, but just doesn't feel honest for me to try to go post that thing, you know, kind of deal. So I've stuck to it, I've kind of doubled down on it in a lot of ways and try to keep doing that. And I want my music to be finding people that it really resonates with. I don't care so much just about the numbers as much as like having deeply engaged fans, I think, moving forward. I think that's a lot more valuable. So I hope it's continuing to find those kind of people that it really resonates with in that way.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

You said that it was kind of going to therapy that um encouraged you to start taking it more seriously. Did I follow that correctly? Was there was there a particular moment in in therapy? Was your therapist like, hey, you should start focusing on music more, or you should explore this, or what like how walk me through how that happened? Because you were already releasing music, but not really taking it seriously. And then something happened in therapy and you started taking it seriously. I'm just curious as to what that bridge is.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Yeah, so that's a good question. I think that it was more therapy was helping me to tear down a lot of my own kind of walls I had around emotion, emotional vulnerability, let's say, just kind of that's to sum it up cleanly. And as I was learning to tear some of that stuff down, I felt like my music started to become a space that I really had to have in life. So I started writing a lot more than I ever had before. And it started being a space that I actually needed in my life. Like if I don't write when I'm feeling those things, I know I'm not getting stuff out that I'm trying to process in my life at the moment. So a lot more writing came because of that in therapy. So that kind of was the start of like I mean, I went from having written a few songs in my life to now, I mean, like hundreds of songs, just because I kind of have to be doing it all the time for me personally. But then when I started to play those songs live, I noticed that it was connecting with people in a really honest way. Like I'd be playing shows and people would be like actually in tears at the shows or come up to me like, you have no idea like how much that meant to me. But like for something in that connected so deeply to me. So it was those two things together that was like, I want to be doing this with my life as much as I can be. I want to be riding as honest as I can be with myself. And I want to be sharing that in rooms with people where like that visceral impact happens on them from hearing that being spoken out to them. So those two things combined for me were really what made me take it from being something that's like, oh, it's kind of a fun hobby to being something like I have to be doing this. And I really, really love to share it and have that connection with people. So I'll chase that as long as I can to be doing it as much as I can. So that was no one in nothing in therapy is like, hey, you should be a songwriter, go do this specific stuff, but it helped me connect the dots of a lot of things that I think are something I just felt like I needed to be doing while I'm here and do it the best that I can be.

SPEAKER_01 33:17

I mean, what's better than something you create resonating with somebody so deeply and personally that it's moved them to tears, right? I was really nice. I was yeah, I was lucky enough to see Gregory Alan Isaacov with the LA Philharmonic at the Disney concert hall in Downtown LA last year. Yeah. And there was a woman directly behind me and a woman like in front of me and a couple seats over, and both of them in just borderline sobbing the entire show. And you know, like not to the point where it was distracting, right? Not where it's like, you know, shut shut up. I'm trying to do it. Like nothing like that. It was just, it was just like, wow, like I get it. Like it's just it's so moving. Um if you ever get a chance to see him with a full orchestra, it's unlike anything. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:06

I've I've seen him a few times. We actually went to see him in red at Red Rocks last September, which was incredible to go out there. But yeah, actually, one of his shows is I went to see him in Knoxville, close to where I live a few years back. And that was one of the uh something that was helpful for me in feeling like he's one of the so I've never really felt like someone that felt like they had a great voice, or I my range is like eight notes, and I sang like bass two when I was in choirs and stuff in high school and things. It just like never felt like the person that was gonna be like a lead singer or dreamed about like being on stage in front of people because I felt I never felt very confident in my voice. And I remember going to his show and being like, I can actually sing all the songs that he sings, and these carry so much, like it was literally like a a uh religious experience in some ways to go to one of his shows. It's just so beautiful from top to bottom. And it kind of helped me feel more like, yeah, like there's something I can do that, you know, like I can I don't have to have like this register that goes way off into the moon to be able to connect with people. It's more about like the world you're creating and what you're speaking and how that resonates with people. And that I think was part of what kind of helped me lean more into the folky scene of things and be like, yeah, there's something really beautiful in that. And it I found my way my footing more after that. But that show is helpful because he I mean he's an incredible singer, but you know, he's not singing songs like Harry Styles or somebody where it's like going up and down and just all over the place. But there's never been anyone I was listening to more that has an impact on me personally, which I think is a really beautiful thing, and kind of gave me some courage to step out and be like, Yeah, maybe I could be a guy that could stand in front of people and it actually means something and carries some weight, even though I can't do what so many other people are so much more talented and can do.

SPEAKER_01 35:48

Right. I mean, you know, from the music I've heard, like I think you have a fantastic voice. And I think, you know, you sound a lot like Gregory Alan Isaac. Like you really do. I mean, even the times that you could when you cover his songs, it's kind of like, oh yeah. I mean, it sounds pretty, pretty damn close to the original, which is not an easy thing to do. I've I've tried to do it myself. I've tried it, you know, if I if I go, I'm going, and disablesong, and you know, I can't I can't find that range. So, you know, kudos to you.

SPEAKER_02 36:15

I think it his voice probably just naturally sits comfortably where mine sits, which is nice, you know, kind of thing. So, but it's the lower register down there for sure.

SPEAKER_01 36:22

He also had um, I mean, he had like a full career as a botanist, right? Before he became a full-time musician.

SPEAKER_02 36:29

Yeah, I think some some some sort of farming or CSA type stuff, I think uh that he did. Yeah, which is cool. I think there's something to that to to have be able to be creative as an outlet, too. I really do. I think there's something really beautiful about that.

SPEAKER_01 36:43

Yeah, and we've gotten away from it as a society in general, unfortunately. And I I think um, I don't know, how old are you? I'm 28. You're 28. Okay. So you're just you're a little younger than me. I'm 34. Um, and I'm I'm noticing kind of the younger generation seems to be much more interested in analog things, much more interested in putting the phone down, putting the screen down, painting and drawing, and just like doing something that's not just doom scrolling for hours, which I think is fantastic. And I think the quicker that we can get away from it, the better. Although the flip side is, you know, if you're trying to become a full-time musician, how else are you gonna do it? Other than being on the screen all the time. Like it's just you know, I spend a lot of time thinking about that.

SPEAKER_02 37:27

Yeah, yeah. I agree. It's there's definitely a balance there of honestly, that's part of why I do kind of repetitive things, is because it's it's quick and easy for me to pop out the same things. I kind of have a strategy of what I do. It feels authentic and stuff too, but it helps me not be sitting around on my phone all day long trying to do stuff and worrying about numbers and stuff. Cause yeah, I think we all collectively know the longer we do that stuff, the more we just feel more non-human. I feel like at the end of the day, compared to when we actually connect with something or ground with something or create something, it just brings something up in us that feels so much more wholesome. So I definitely feel better about yourself at the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01 38:03

Like it's just you know you're like, what did I do today? Oh, I spent six fucking hours on TikTok. Like, yeah, for sure. It's it's nothing worse than that. Yeah, yeah, I totally agree. Um, your fun fact is really cool. Uh, I always I include this in my email, and I'm always so glad I do. You married your high school sweetheart. How beautiful is that? That's really cool. Yeah, it is really cool.

SPEAKER_02 38:25

I feel like we've literally actually grown up together. So we started dating, or we might not have officially called it dating at the time, but we were talking or whatever by the time we were like 14 years old, so quite young and dated all through high school, all through college, got married pretty young, got married at 21. Um, but yeah, I feel like there's been we're we're 28, like I said, both of us are. But I feel like we've had so much life together, like we've seen so many different seasons and so much has come and gone that I feel like in a lot of ways we're an old married couple and like in a in a wholesome sense of how we relate to one another, you know, which is really cool. Um, we have two kids as well. We have a five-year-old and a three-year-old. Um, but yeah, it's been honestly like I'm the older I've gotten, the more lucky I feel to have gotten, you know, luck, I guess, lucky with that at a young age, and find somebody that means so much, and that we've actually been able to grow through all of those seasons and stay together. Uh just feels like that's just like a huge thing in life that I haven't worried about in my 20s. Like, what am I gonna do with this? Or am I have to figure out with who I'm gonna settle down with, or all that kind of stuff. That feels like, you know, a lot of my friends, that's something that we're kind of constantly talking about through a lot of our 20s, and that's just been something that has been so steady for me that I'm really thankful for. So it's a very beautiful thing. Um, it means a ton to me to have somebody like that that has been so close to you for so long and and to be in that close of a relationship as a marriage with someone like that. It's been really cool. I mean, it's half your life, yeah. I know it's crazy. Quite quite literally, half your life. Yeah, it's really cool. Even like her her family and stuff. It's it's it's cool to be like, I feel like we just are a part of the same family almost in some ways because we've we grew up together for so long now. It's a it's a really cool thing. And are both of your families still in the general area where you guys live? Yep, they are. Yeah, we um we live probably 30 minutes from both of our families, which is cool.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Yeah, that is that's great. Um, and you never had to had to bother with like the swiping, right? The swiping. I know. Yeah, the dating apps.

SPEAKER_02 40:20

Like we started talking when we had flip phones still. So it's been, yeah, we we we avoided all that stuff, which is really cool. So we're almost like from a different generation with that.

SPEAKER_00 41:03

But I don't know where I should start. And with a tie, oh feel the eye child. And I love you. It takes all me with the last section of the podcast is called Final Spin.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Just rapid fire questions. First thing that comes to mind. Um, if you could share a stage with any artist, living or dead, who would it be?

SPEAKER_02 42:11

Uh I'd probably have to say Gregory Alan Asakov. I feel like that's you know, some we talked about that a lot, but I just would love to even learn from him. I feel like to share a stage with him about how he goes about it. And I mean, he creates such an atmosphere at his concerts that that I would absolutely love to be a part of that if I ever had the opportunity to. What was the first album you owned that was just yours? Let's see. Um Mumford and Sons I think it was Sino Moore record, the one that The Cave and The Cave and Tim Shul, yeah, all those. Yeah. That I lived on that. That was kind of first when I was like, what kind of music do I like listening to as like a 12-year-old? And it's like, that was it, you know. So learned every single song on there when I was younger.

SPEAKER_01 42:55

They're making a biopic about your life. Who's playing the lead role?

SPEAKER_02 43:02

I'm gonna say um uh the guy from Piggy Blinders, Killian Murphy. Um yeah, yeah. I feel like I've seen stuff with him where he feels like his art and his life feel very kind of like separate and he really enjoys his life. But I feel like he would he he feel like he would have similar energy to me.

SPEAKER_01 43:20

Is there an artist or a band that you love that people would be surprised by?

SPEAKER_02 43:25

Um, I mean, honestly, I said earlier, but maybe Harry Styles. I feel like a lot of his stuff is more upbeep and kind of in that like the pop sphere of things, but I really do listen to his music all the time. I think he's an incredible artist.

SPEAKER_01 43:37

What do you think of his new one? Uh Kiss All the Time Disco occasionally. Have you spent much time with that?

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Yeah, I actually have. It's something that I put on a lot when I go for runs, just like the upbeat kind of sound to it. But it's a I I really enjoy it. Um I maybe like a couple of stuff. It didn't really feel like I had much of like those slower songs that are on a couple of his older records. It was all kind of more upbeat, but I still still a big fan of it. I really like so much of what he does. Even if it's not slow.

SPEAKER_01 44:02

And then the final question is Is there an artist on Spotify who has less than a hundred thousand monthly listeners that you think people should be listening to?

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Yeah, there's a ton. Um I would say one of my favorites is Arnie Margaret. I don't know if you've listened to her. She's from Iceland, I believe. And I listen to her music nonstop. As much as I listen to anybody else's music, I listen to hers. It's so beautiful, so calming. I think someone that deserves a lot more credit than she has, number wise, for sure. Cool. Anyone else? Uh yeah. Uh I don't know if you've heard of Downy Chase or if he's popped up on any of your things. Okay. Um we've connected over the past bit on Instagram and TikTok, but his music's incredible. Uh his one of his songs came up and had to message him like, man, this is so good. I can't believe you don't have more listeners than you have on here. So definitely check him out. If you hold of heard of Cole, um I think it's Sheffley or Sheffield. I can't remember how to say his last name.

SPEAKER_01 45:04

Maybe that's kind of ringing a bell.

SPEAKER_02 45:06

Yeah, you'd probably it's the same, all these are kind of similar vibes, I would say, to me. Um, he's really good. Um, another guy named Emery Duncan would be a good one to look into. Um yeah, honestly, there's so many.

SPEAKER_01 45:19

Thomas Levine, do you know that guy?

SPEAKER_02 45:21

Uh he's got a song called Black Bear. Yeah, I've definitely heard some of his stuff. I don't know if I know I've seen his name on some things and know that I like his music. I don't know, I've listened to it very intently, but definitely heard some of his stuff. Yeah. I would say it's crazy. It's one of those things that like I don't know. I guess you just you get kind of fed like the mainstream stuff when you're not really in the music world, but when you kind of get in the music world and you start deep diving more, there's so many talented people that don't have, I feel like don't have the the clout that they really deserve, you know. So I don't know what happens to eventually just make somebody take off like the people that we know so well, but there's so many people that are so good. Another one is The Patch. Um The Patch actually did a couple songs with them, right? Yeah, incredible, incredible musician. He does all of his stuff himself. I swear the first time I heard one of his songs, Amsterdam, I was like, This is Novo Mora, I don't know it. And I went and looked it up and it was him. And like he probably has less than 50,000 monthly listeners, I would say. But there's so many people like that that are just incredibly talented out there.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

Yeah, that's what's so fun about doing this, man. The um I find so much great music. And speaking of incredibly talented people out there, will dude. I think the stuff that you're doing is fantastic. I'm very excited to hear that there's a full album coming of all new songs later this year. Thank you. Um if you decide to do a vinyl pressing, I'll certainly be ordering one because I feel like your music will uh it deserves to be listened to on vinyl. I'm trying to. I'm I'm working through some of that.

SPEAKER_02 46:46

I appreciate that though. And honestly, thank you for taking the time. I feel like something in the music world when you're an independent artist kind of coming up, so many people just want stuff from you, or you get so many emails trying to scam you on something, or there's just there's a whole business out there, it seems like, attacking the person that's trying to grow or trying to learn to extract from them, make money from them. But it's very rare to come across people that just want to listen or just want to help or just want to share. Um, so like honestly, like you and Northwest Stories have been a couple that I've come across, but that means so much to artists that don't have the stage to be found and given a voice for a little bit. And so what you're doing actually means a lot, is what I'm trying to say, and I appreciate that. And I'm sure everybody you have on the podcast, it really means a lot for them as well. So thank you. I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_01 47:32

Thank you so much for saying that. This is great. As you heard, Will is working on his debut full-length album to be released later this year. You can find the 10 or so songs he's released so far, anywhere you stream your music. And you can follow him on social media at Will McCartmusic on TikTok, at Will McCart on Instagram. While you're there, go ahead and follow the first spin socials at first spin pod. Also, I put out a playlist every week, well, except for last week, but don't tell anybody. This week I will be putting out a playlist 20 songs to help you get through the week. This week's is called First Spin Week of 525-26, and you can guarantee there will be some Will McCart on this week's playlist. How many times did I just say the word week? You can find this playlist on Spotify and Apple Music. That is all for this week. There it is again. Thank you so much for listening. And you know what? Send this to your mom. I think she's gonna like it.