Today we’d like to introduce you to Pete Wheeler.
Hi Pete, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I guess my interest in music really started out at a young age, exposed to some of the records my parents played from Johnny Cash, Canadian classic Stomping Tom Connors all the way to Tennessee Ernie Ford, and all things in between. My clock radio only got one FM station, which was a classic rock station, and even that station didn’t come in very well, living in the sticks.
The reception was always better later at night and songs from Fleetwood Mac, CSNY, Pink Floyd and The Eagles filled the room from that tiny three-inch speaker. With only three channels on the TV, there was little to watch and the draw of running around in the bush, driving dirt bikes, or making money at the local farms, seemed a better option. Yet there was always HeeHaw on Sundays. Listening to the amazing guests and of course, Roy Clark and Buck Owens playing all those great country classics still echo in my mind.
This was enough to ignite the flames of a lifelong passion for the music I heard and the music in my head. Piano lessons started and never took off, but my innate musicality hung around for years, dormant and lurking like a bull about to charge. It would be my sister’s guitar that I picked up, yet, in some ways, it was really that guitar that grabbed me and never let go.
I can still remember trying to shape cords when my hand was still not quite big enough to wrap around the neck, and of course, the guitar wasn’t set up very well so the strings were pretty high off the fretboard. Not knowing any better, I guess it just made me work harder to get those fingers to where they had to go. After playing for a few months on the old guitar, Christmas came around and my parents got me a Fender Strat knock-off and a little practice amp with overdrive, and all hell broke loose!
In no time at all, I was getting together with friends, jamming and playing some of those classic rock favorites, and that’s where I cut my teeth. I can still remember the look of horror on my conservative grandparents’ faces as we played Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog” live at the pavilion in the park, and I stood up to the mic to scream “Now you’re messing with a son of a bitch!”
Well, that set the tone for many years of playing rock music at the forefront, while always listening to Chet Atkins, Willy Nelson, Garth Brooks, Jerry Reed, and bluegrass music. Fast forward through a bunch of years of touring and playing rock music, and the flame turned a different color; the road that always led home stopped calling me. The art of music production and recording started to firmly take hold after a few sessions in the studio with some really influential producers who turned me onto the love of the studio, the gear, and the process.
The beauty of this was being able to be with my family and also be a part of not only my own music but many other musicians’ music as well. The ability to help others to hear the music that was in their heads come to life became an even truer passion for me at that time. Throughout that phase, I designed and built studios for and with friends and produced all kinds of music, including music for film trailers, TV, and DVD promotion. Throughout the time spent producing and recording others, I became fast friends with Kip Walker, and through him met James and Bronson.
Throughout the next handful of years, the four of us worked on various projects but nothing as a group. The Durham County Band came together as the band’s byline may suggest, sitting around a campfire up at Kip’s farm near Durham “Guitars cigars and campfires, and a few too many beers”. I was working on some demo music for James’ solo EP, and around the same time, we all got together at the farm. I remember saying “we should do more of this, together the four of us” and DCB was born from the ashes of the old cedar scrub we had cut down earlier that day.
Out of the gate, we started with an old song that had been around for a few years that Kip and James had written with a friend of theirs, Buddy Bandit. It was an instant classic with everyone and still played everywhere yearly around that infamous holiday and is aptly named “Valentine’s Day,” an homage to all the lovers with no lovers. Kip noted, “The original song idea had a different feel, it wasn’t until Pete came up with that old Irish drinking song feel that the song really took a form that was true to the lyrics.”
The follow-up to Valentine’s Day was a flurry of writing and songs poured out of my fingertips as fast as I could play them. Starting with Back Roads, Don’t Turn away and Tonight Tonight, FM and Satellite radio were picking up single after single. There was no shortage of songs either. Throughout that same time I penned, produced, and recorded songs for James’s solo projects “Baby are You Ready” and “Double Down”.
There was also this little project I had in mind, and it seemed the right time to take a crack at it: build my own production suite. Quite a few bumps and bruises, a busted-up ankle, and a torn rotator cuff later, the studio was complete and ready to roll. The floodgates were opened.
To me, songs like “Get Flirty” seem to identify the DCB sound, rocking new country with a bit of southern rock influence. A great mix of all the old country that I grew up listening to, new country styling with a twist of the crossover country from the likes of Jackson Browne and The Eagles that influenced me on that little clock radio. And here’s where I hit the fork in the road. Songs like “Thinking ‘Bout You” and “Tomorrow’s Gonna Be There” that I released as part of DCB really had a deeper personal connection and meaning, and I knew there was a change in the air: the solo project was born.
The first Pete Wheeler solo track “Just Ain’t True” was received on the radio with open arms and is picking up speed with fans, new and old, while connecting with all the DCB fans as well. The backlog of songs is now well underway to being produced and delegated to DCB, Pete Wheeler, and other artists as well. I’ve always considered myself more of a writer/producer, and the new year looks so promising to continue to expand on successes and blaze a trail for Nashville North, so to speak.
A trail of stories sung to music that connects with people’s hearts and resonates with a deeper connection. A trail that leads us all to our own campfire in the middle of nowhere, where we can sit around and sing those songs, smoke those cigars, and have a few too many beers. I hope to see you there.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
With the ever-changing landscape of music production and how people get exposed to new artists, there’s an ever-present corporate control of the music that gets out there and can sustain an artist’s income to even a nominal level.
This creates the familiar “starving artist” scenario we have all heard of before. It’s a shame that many of the really great songs never get heard, and that life on the road takes a toll on family life for many artists. The sacrifices are many, and the rewards are few. That being said, I don’t believe many of us have a smooth road, but that’s what makes us who we are.
We become the people that we need to be by facing adversity head-on, and when you break through the other side, you’re stronger, smarter and a better person for it. Now, what you do with that knowledge defines your legacy.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
First and foremost, I’d say I’m a writer. I’m the primary writer for Durham County Band, and my solo Pete Wheeler stuff is my songs that don’t quite fit the DCB vibe.
On top of writing, I also play most of the instruments, and record and produce all my own songs up to this point. That’s not very common in the industry, and certainly not in country music. I think this helps with defining a sound that’s “country,” yet has my own twists throughout song production, which creates a sound that is unique.
Country music was defined by rebels, and playing it safe never got anyone anywhere – I’m a big fan of the road less traveled.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I know in my own mind I would say growing up, I was hard-working, mischievous, and adventurous. What my parents would probably say is I was a pain in the ass! If I wanted something, I’d work for it. There wasn’t a farmer in the area that I wouldn’t work for to make a few bucks to get a new motorcycle.
I can still remember making a bridge to cross a 10-foot-deep ditch out of reeds and sticks to drive my dirt bike into the back bush and the adrenaline rush of the first attempt to cross it. Now, you can see how I would see that as adventurous.
If I hadn’t made it, what a pain in the ass it would’ve been to dig my bike out of that ditch and tend to the multiple casts I probably would have needed. Well, I did make it, and I used that bridge all summer long. I was probably 12 at the time.
Contact Info:
- Email: info@sonicadisturbia.com
- Website: www.durhamcountyband.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/durhamcountyband
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DurhamCountyBand/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCg9hDBkNqvq0Db2lKQWOJdw
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1cWAseema07PkICHbadhmg?si=_t3lpvmNTba5V5o25-lmsA
