Conversations with Drew White

 

Today we’d like to introduce you to Drew White

Hi Drew, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I fell in love with the guitar at an early age, and spent my junior and high-school years playing, joining noisy garage bands, and participating in my church’s youth group band. It was all fun, as music never seemed to be a viable career option. I just never really believed I could be good enough. I went to school at Furman University in Greenville, SC, and started writing a lot. I wrote some stuff I wanted to play, and tried out an open mic night. That open mic night landed me a paid show, and the rest took off from there. My college days saw my development as a performer and entertainer, and business manager. I booked all my shows, ran all of my own marketing, and still do these things as an independent artist. I played shows all over Greenville, and even in Edinburgh, Scotland during a season spent abroad. My first single, “Waiting On” was recorded in Greenville and saw what was to me, crazy streaming numbers, with over 60,000 streams on Spotify. All of this was new and exciting and led me to move to Nashville after I got my degree. The pandemic saw graduating college from home, and slinging boxes in a FedEx warehouse in Charlotte, NC. I spent that year working hard on becoming the musician I wanted to be, and finally got a job to move to Nashville. Of course I was still hesitant to jump into committing to becoming a musician. I didn’t know how I would hold up in Music City, and everyone told me you will “get scared, or get inspired.” I have had type-1 diabetes since I was 4 and had to additionally consider my ongoing need for quality health insurance. Nevertheless, I continued to write, work on my skills as a singer and guitar player, and just tried to stay focused on doing the next right thing. Well fortunately for me, that next right thing was quitting my 70-hours a week sales recruiting job, and recording an album. Local hot-handed superstar producer Asher Condit took a chance on me, and has been my partner in crime in the development and sharing of “Drew White” as a recording artist. Those little pushes I gave myself in that season have been everything to put me where I am now. After 3 years in Nashville, I have released my debut album, 2 singles with a third out in May, I have started a band, made hundreds of meaningful connections, sold out tiny venues, and it on the grand scale is very small, but on the scale of the work I have put in, it means the world. Long story short, Nashville got me inspired. I love the creative energy here, the influences of my peers, watching incredible performance after incredible performance. People shock me all the time. You meet them and they are kind, and you think oh hey what a nice and humble person, and then they sing or play a guitar solo, or pull out a violin and just drop your jaw. I love creating musical art, and it has been sublime to have this expressive platform where I can share the hardships of disease, where I can share my heartbreak, where I can share my heart in such a cosmic and spiritual way.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Absolutely not! I don’t know that there is such thing as a smooth road in the creative pursuit. My path is one riddled with self-doubt, insecurity, confusion, it took me 21 years to say, oh hey I really like this thing, what if I gave all my time to it? There has always been the reality that I need to be taken care of medically, and that has been a constant battle, whether it’s having an empty bank account after a trip to the pharmacy, or missing the chords and slurring my words mid-show because of a low blood-sugar. Even now after putting in a few years of heavy investment into my technical ability as well as my song catalog and grassroots fan base, every day is still a winding road. There are elating-highs and crushing-lows on a very regular basis. It is this excitement, and potential for possibility that has kept me going in a weird way.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am one of the many faces that make up Nashville’s music community. I am a guitar player, songwriter, singer, recording artist, and electric storyteller. In the journey of being these things, I have developed a reputation for being a rowdy performer with an irresistible and unique voice. I think what I am most proud of at this point is just the fact that I am where I am. Music for so so much of my life just was not an option, and my 20’s have been day after day of proving myself wrong, and pursuing something I am really passionate for, and am finally starting to accept that I am pretty good at. I think the thing that feels different in my story as compared to many of my peers is the journey that brought me here. I feel like I am a late bloomer in this industry, and what really makes me excited about it is those supporting me. My parents, my sisters, my band, my friends, my producer, everyone who has my back is the reason I feel confident doing any of it.

We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
I only took guitar lessons for a few months as a 10 year old. In that timeframe I so fondly remember going straight to the electric guitar sales room after every lesson. My parents insisted I had to learn on an acoustic guitar before I could get an electric, so every day after my lesson, I would run in there, find my favorite sunburst Gibson Les Paul (before it was sold and I moved to a cherry red Les Paul Jr.), plug it in, and go about practicing whatever I had just learned. I just remember all these folks who were, to me, amazing guitar players, coming in and plugging up and playing all these cool licks, and I just felt like I belonged. I didn’t feel that way anywhere else, at school, sports, whatever, but in that guitar room, I was amongst friends, and peers.

Pricing:

• Flexible Private Event Packages starting at $800
• Music is free to stream on any platform

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drewwhitemusic/?hl=en
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mYQnCgRBxzJFBUpNr9jg9?si=zLkpYgX5Rs-o1nFK8N0-jQ