Indie Ville TV #118 Karianne Jean: Carrying the Torch

Written by Alexis Chateau

                                                         

Karianne doesn’t remember ever making a conscious decision to become a musician. In fact, the dream first took root in her mother, who after setting it aside to enjoy married life and raise a family, passed the torch onto her daughter.

“My mom says she has videos of me singing before I was talking,” Karianne Jean says, while laughing. “I don’t know how true that is.”

For years, Karianne’s musical journey mostly involved her role as a vocalist. However, over the past four years, she began to take a more active interest in learning to play the keyboard, and the guitar. “Instruments make it easier to write music,” she shares, adding that it’s also much easier to come up with melodies when you have a guitar on hand.

Other influences on Karianne’s writing process include her relationships – both past and

present. Though she was happy to find a man who was supportive, and with whom she had

an easy and natural connection, Karianne jokingly admits she often worried about how on

earth she would come up with new content for her music.

“I had never really written a real love song until I met [him],” she says. In the past, she felt

like a real magnetic for toxic relationships; that though bad, made for pretty good writing

material.

Now, she finds herself getting more inspiration from other places. “I get it from everything,”

she says. “My writer-ears are always perked up, and [I’m] always ready to write something

down. My phone is full of grocery lists and song titles. If you go through my phone right

now, you would see ‘ketchup, pickles… Forever’.”

Karianne’s knack for turning experiences – good and bad – into catchy tunes, has earned

her shows around Georgia, Kentucky, and Tennessee. She also recently made it onto

Pandora, and iHeartRadio. Still, she’s working towards getting more conventional radio

airplay soon.

“I think that’s everybody’s dream: to hear themselves on the radio,” she points out. “I would

love to gain enough traction to have a charting single, and get the airplay, and have the

recognition.”

In the meantime, Karianne Jean is taking it all in stride and working on new projects. “I just

released my EP, July 29. Before I even had it out, I was already thinking about the next

thing,” she admits.

Karianne is open to booking new shows around the U.S., and hopes to catch the eyes of a

record label, sooner rather than later.

Check out her website at www.kariannejean.com for info on upcoming tour dates, and recent projects.

Indie Ville TV #117 Wesley Spangler: The Rocker in Country

Written by Alexis Chateau

Wesley Spangler began his music career in a two-man garage band in high school. His friend Brian had first learned to play drums, and approached him about joining. Wesley initially lied about playing guitar to get in, but then made good on his promise by learning.

Today he plays six other instruments; including keyboards, bass, drums, and the fiddle.

“We listen to everything,” Spangler says, “rap, rock, heavy metal – everything. We used to listen to heavy metal a lot – and then we started a country band.” He laughs as he adds, “I have no idea how that happened.”

As far as country music goes, Spangler loves the work of Keith Urban, and Brad Paisley. In

fact, Spangler has shared a stage with Paisley before, right alongside Blake Shelton. He

remembers it at his most memorable performance to-date.

After the show, he says Shelton got pretty drunk and sang karaoke with him. It was a night

to remember, for sure, with “Ebony and Ivory” belted from the side of the stage.

These opportunities and others have taken Wesley Spangler all along the south, and east

coast, and to many states in-between. He’s played shows in Pennsylvania, Virginia,

Alabama, and South Dakota, but has yet to land a show in the ever-elusive Kentucky.

“I have three friends that live in Kentucky, and they always say ‘You gotta play here’,” he

says. “But it never works out.”

Spangler has also shared a mobile stage with other big acts on the Country Cruise, which he

hopes to join again in 2017. Another memorable ‘gig’ was an impromptu performance near

Giza, just for the heck of it.

In spite of all this, Spangler still yearns for the true tour experience – in a bus going across

the United States, and other countries. “I don’t have to be a household name,” he concedes,

“but I’d love a legit tour, for one season or more. Just that and I’d be a happy camper.”

While he closes in on that goal, Spangler is also in the studio working on a brand new EP,

which will feature tracks like “Something I Ain’t” and “Ten Point Buck.” The latter has

achieved resounding indie-success; and fans who know the band well, even put together a

dance at the shows, every time they perform it.

When asked what advice he might pass on to other newcomers looking to reach and even

surpass his success, Spangler says, “Do every single thing as professionally as you can. Look

at your idols… investigate how they do things.”

He also advises performers to, “Play your A-Game every time – whether there’s 20 or 1000

people in the audience.”