Meet Circuit Saga

Today we’d like to introduce you to Circuit Saga.

Hello Circuit Saga, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Music has been a huge part of my life for as long as I can remember. You could say I’ve been a musician since learning to play “Happy Birthday” on toy bells when I was a toddler.

My parents started me on piano lessons not long after that. I experimented with other instruments like bass guitar and drums (my dad was a drummer in high school) before falling in love with guitar when I was in 5th grade. Maybe a year or two after that I formed my first band and have been making music ever since.

I grew up in Pittsburgh and moved to Nashville in 2005 to attend Belmont University. I could say I came for the music business degree, but what really led me here was the opportunity to continue making music with a close friend of mine, Kaleb Jones (Avi Kaplan, The Daybreaks, Kaleb Jones).

We were in a high school band together, and as soon as I arrived we formed another band, Lórien [1]. We played around town and regionally, were featured in three straight Pop/Rock showcases at the school, and made some great music together.

Eventually, one member decided to move on, so we changed the name to The Young International and continued making more music, playing more shows, was featured on Lightning 100 a few times, got to work with Grammy winner Vance Powell [2], made more music, changed our name again to INTL [3] thinking it would be more marketable, and were gearing up to release Mystery [4], our best work yet (in my opinion).

However, due to creative differences, the band fell apart. This whole process took place over about 10 years and we all learned a lot from it, at least I know I did. Most importantly, though, we made a lot of life-long friends and I’m thankful for the community that has blossomed out of those bond-forming years.

It was at this point that I began leaning into my “normal” career as an essential piece of Sun Records. I started with Sun as an intern in 2008 and have been with them ever since. My role has grown from a part-time intern to Senior Director of A&R + Sync. At the turn of 2021, Primary Wave purchased the label and I’m now glad to be working alongside an amazing team.

A while back I started 226 Creative to house all of my creative and side-hustle freelance work. It started out as a graphic/web design business but has morphed into a music-focused agency. I now represent and license my own music, some of my friends and independent artists, as well as an indie record label from Pittsburgh. 226 Creative is now also a record label distributed through Symphonic where I will be releasing my instrumental project, Circuit Saga.

I started this project a couple of years after the band broke up, though it’s been slow to get music out since I’ve been primarily focused on my career on Sun. To me, Circuit Saga is a way to tell a story the best way I know how, through music.

I’ve been thankful to collaborate with Thomas Doeve (Watts, Amy Stroup, Andrew Belle) on a lot of Circuit Saga music. Thomas was the drummer in Lorien/INTL and is an amazing producer and songwriter. He mixed and played live drums on the upcoming album, Galaxy Atlas.

I’ve also been thankful to collaborate with local artist Ryan Rado [5] on the upcoming album. I asked him to interpret my music through his art. We filmed him creating pieces inspired by the music in real-time and will release them in connection with the music. When Galaxy Atlas drops on 9/30, there will be a gallery opening on 10/1 with each piece on display.

The first single from the album, Star Prophet, was released on July 8. Click here to stream or watch the video.

To me, Galaxy Atlas is a wordless, musical expression of a journey through space and time. But to Ryan, it may have meant something else, as can be described by his art. Music is amazing in that way, how it can mean so many different things to different people. I’m excited to be able to share these songs with the world soon and learn what they might mean to them.

1 – https://open.spotify.com/artist/3iEXO7ytBu5Ievm3nLjhYX?si=Pxh8PBODTgWAJ1zabKZtIg
2 – https://www.uaudio.com/blog/apollo-artist-sessions-iii-vance-powell/
3 – https://open.spotify.com/artist/4s98vDusMHSSk5GtrdtLZp?si=jQBQm_N-RoupDig9HayZmw
4 – https://open.spotify.com/album/4EM0hnKrAuSb5cJ6yXnoy9?si=CnfNpnLnTRmkeWZxu8dcjQ
5 – https://www.ryanrado.com/2020

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The band breaking up was definitely a setback.

At one point I wasn’t even sure I wanted to make music anymore. Thankfully that was short-lived. If anything, now my biggest challenge is myself.

I tend to overthink things, to be my own harshest critic, but it makes me strive to be better.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://circuitsaga.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/circuitsaga/
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/circuitsaga
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/circuitsaga
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnXlfcJM9u60Z4Anub19WYQ
• Sun Records: http://sunrecords.com

Image Credits:
Seiji Itaru Inouye – https://www.seiji.pro