Geoff Byrd Interview

by Rick Landers

Singer-songwriter-guitarist Geoff Byrd has been called "the first Internet pop star". His use of the Internet to gain a global audience will no doubt encourage other aspiring artists seeking stardom while grinding out great music behind garage doors in middle America or at the local rock joint around the corner.

Ranked the #1 song on Radiowave Monitor, Byrd's "Silver Plated" was the first song from an unsigned artist to hit the top 10 in the history of Internet spins.

With four songs in the top 10 at Garageband.com, Geoff was named Artist of the Year by Live 365. And he's gathered sponsors supporting his rise to fame such as Microsoft, Motorola, Chipotle, Elixir Strings, MSN Music, and Conrad Amps, and has been covered by Wired, Billboard (cover), CNET, Goldmine, CNN, Forbes, and a host of others.

Here's what people have been saying about this newcomer.

These tracks (Shrinking Violet CD) literally storm the castle, displaying desperate yet unshakeable confidence, shotgun wed to world class song craft. - Daylight Assassin

Geoff Byrd is the first pop star truly born on the internet! 472,600 Internet listeners can't be wrong - Garageband.com.

Geoff Byrd is a goldmine and the band is tighter than a condom! - Isaac Hayes

Geoff Byrd is the real deal, he is Elton John, the Beatles and the Bee Gees all wrapped up into one charismatic package. He will soon be his own institution in this business mark my words! - Norman Ratner, (#1 hit producer, Co-Founder of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, millions sold)

Modern Guitars met with Geoff when the Geoff Byrd Band stopped in Washington, D.C. to meet with XM Satellite and a local radio station. Byrd and his band mates were on a 50-city tour promoting their CD Shrinking Violets as it ran up the charts. XM execs were captured by Geoff's talents and immediately invited him back to shoot a video.

Although intially leery of signing with any record company, Byrd now works with Granite Records. Granite distributes its CDs through Fontana, a Universal Music Group Company. With his reputation as the first artist to break using the power of the Internet, Byrd wanted to keep controlling his own destiny. He gave the nod to Granite Records partners Dave Austin (Marketing and Sales) and Phil Ehart (Drummer, Kansas), when he found them to have exceptional music backgrounds, as well as sharing his passion for music, along with their willingness to take risks.

Interviewing Geoff was like catching up on old times with a good friend. Even at 6' 5", he's an unassuming guy, friendly and always up for some humorous bantering and angling for huge laughs. And he loves to entertain, rolling out song after song during our conversation.

We hear you being called the "first Internet pop star" and "an unscratched lottery ticket" among other things by some in the media. Who's helping you on this road?

Geoff Byrd: Earlier we talked about people who are passionate and being in the music business. I think whether you're a carpenter or a mechanic, it doesn't really matter. If people are behind you, they're passionate, and believe in what you're doing, you have a better chance of succeeding than if you go out and assemble a team that's just sort of interested.

You need people who are really into it, know what I mean? I'm very lucky to have a great band, lucky enough to have a great team and they believe in what we're doing. They believe in the music. That's why we have so much forward momentum and that's why I don't think we're not going to fail. So, whatever the press may write about us is up to them. I'm not about to over-inflate my status or my ego.

I'm not a household name and we're definitely David and not Goliath. I appreciate things like that. For those people who have been in the industry for some time who have said nice things about me, I take that as a huge compliment.

We've been fortunate to have MSN make an exclusive demo. They put us on the cover of MSN, got us a bunch of interviews and included our name on press releases. Then Microsoft decided to get involved too. Now they're getting us talk shows and radio, including some time with Katie Couric and if I didn't believe in what they were doing, I wouldn't do it.

Where were you last year compared with today and where do you want to be next year?

GB: Last year was the toughest year for me. It was also the best year for me. It was when all our work and pushing came together, came to fruition. I was working all the time, non-stop.

I believe in the work ethic and the good old American dream. I know that sounds pretty old fashioned, but I'm also a new kind of thinker in terms of technology. I think it can even up the score between people, where some have friends and relatives at record labels and those that don't. It just makes it more even when you can leverage technology, like an on-line magazine like yours. And hopefully the good things will rise to the top.

And longevity is more important to me than being a flash in the pan. There are a lot of artists out there that have had a good song, but people don't remember them. I would rather be remembered over a long time for writing good material.

Do you write more for yourself or are you crafting songs to broaden their appeal?

GB: I don't care about being thought of as being cool, but I'm just who I am and to be comfortable in your own skin, I think, is a very hard endeavor. I think it's really tough. And, I feel pretty good about who I am and who my friends are.

So, I just write the material I feel in my heart and if people don't like it, that's okay. It's about choices. I feel good about putting my stamp out there.

Your new CD release Shrinking Violets is a smartly executed album for a new artist with some cuts from your earlier CD Candy Shell.

GB: Thanks. Candy Shell is like the independent version of what is now Shrinking Violets. It's just part of the refinement process. Candy Shell was released on-line and it sold quite well. I owe a lot to the production of my producer, Steve Sundholm, who is the best of Rick Ruben and Mutt Lang.

The CD's thorough, lush, layered and very melodic. So, it went well with my style of songwriting. I think melody is king!

Paul Simon was one of my favorites until he announced to the world that rhythm was king and melody was not. I don't think he's made a good record since. Sorry Paul, because I love you. I do. But, I like your old stuff a lot better.

I think Rhythm of the Saints was the last good album he made. It's great to experiment with rhythm, urban and rap. All have taken off! But for me, great songs are about the melody, as well as chord combinations and the overall musicianship.

For me it's about real musicianship, real songs, and real passion. It's not about what other people are consuming or not. Whether they consume Pepsi or Coke or rhythm or urban or country or otherwise, I don't care much. I'm just putting out what I think is good music. And I listen to a lot of old music, because it's so good.

We've heard that Candy Shell was made for less than the cost of a good haircut -- well maybe not your haircut.

GB: I take a razor to my head! (laughs)

The reason I even mention the cost of the album to anyone because our band is competing with Rob Thomas, Maroon 5 and John Mayer. Candy Shell is a recording that was made for less than sixty bucks!

We didn't put in a ton of money into it, but Steve (Sundholm) and I put in a lot of time and heart.

Tell us about Shrinking Violets.

GB: We kept seven songs from Candy Shell and added five new songs. We remixed or re-mastered the seven from Candy Shell to make the album more even and to make Shrinking Violets more guitar-driven.

I wanted it to rock a little more, like our live shows. We got a comment that the people loved our first album but it wasn't quite like our live show that takes things to a different place, where we rock harder. I wanted to reflect that. So, we made the new CD a bit edgier and added the five songs.

I think it's a good combination that reflects the latest songs I've been writing and of our new direction. And it has the songs that have held up with our fans. The CD is the thing I'm most proud of artistically and in life.

I've been really lucky to have the drummer for Kansas work with me to produce my CDs, he's got a lot of great experience and we work together going over each song until we get it right. So each song says what it wants to say.

It's funny, there are some songs that I wrote as ballads and then he and others added more beat or tempo. Some have more rock and others just the opposite. Working with others really helped me get different ideas. Everyone's been great!

Some great music has emerged from your part of the country, Nirvana, the Kingsmen, Soundgarden, Jimi Hendrix -- what music influences you?

GB: Yeah, even Elliot Smith. I listen to the Beatles, Elton John, Elvis Costello, Peter Gabriel, Prince, Al Green, and Smokey Robinson. It's like intellectual rock. It's catchy and accessible, and yet at the same time thoughtful. That's really hard to do -- simplicity and complication. People think it's easy, but it's the hardest thing to do.

I was really into gospel and soul music. I loved it, while my friends thought I was crazy. They were listening to grunge. I listened to music that had great melodies and real soul. Not that what they liked was bad, we just had different personal preferences. I was a choir guy.

It's easy for me to write a singer-songwriter downtrodden tune. You know, there's a lone cloud above me, my life is miserable type of song. That's suppose to be cool!

That's the easy part for me, the hard part is to make things a combination of this really difficult conceptual intellectual thing of emotion and making it into something accessible and simple. That's what the greats do, not that I consider myself among them, but that's what I strive to do. And that's what I'm trying to do with Shrinking Violets, like a Beatles record where every song is listenable.

It's like trying for different styles, yet having a melodic thread throughout hte whole thing. There's a certain accessibility and simplicity that makes you want to listen to those types of songs. That's what I love. I'm hoping that Shrinking Violets is the type of record where people want to listen to every song and not skip over some to get others.

You're music has been called a mixture of the Beatles, Sir Elton, Al Green and others -- there seems to be a bit of Seal there too. What and who's involved in adding orchestration and vocal arrangements/layering?

GB: Yes, all of those musicians have influenced me. I've been called the Great White Seal (laughs).

I'm 6 feet 5.

Steve Sundholm is my studio guy and his father Conrad was the maker of SUNN amplifiers and now hand builds Conrad amps. Both of them are audiophiles, complete audio nerds.

They're both great guys and Steve and I have this chemistry. Sometimes we do get pissed off at each other, like anyone with definite opinions. But we work well together and are able to go to the basement studio and decide which songs we're going to pick for the record, which kind of instrumentation they should have and which direction these things should go. The guy is just fabulous.

Some songs I intended as a ballad end up as rocking songs. And some I wrote to be completely rock tunes are now ballads. It's really a matter of making the right choice. And how I work as an artist and with the band is yet another element that's important to this whole thing.

What guitars are you using on tour?

GB: I'm using mostly a nice limited edition tobacco burst Martin that sounds sweet and a Gibson. My main guitar for recording is the Martin. I think there were only about 250 of them made. It's a great warm guitar and really dark. It has a very songwriter quality to it, a feel to it, very lonely but also very lush and warm.

That's your favorite?

GB: My favorite guitar is the Gibson Hummingbird, but it's not like you can go wrong with a Martin. I've been playing Martins for ten years. I also bought a pretty cheap Ibanez for around $700. It has a pickup. It's not solid wood and doesn't sound that good acoustically, but plug it in and it's got a big lush sound. They really made it a performance thing. They make good guitars too.

Play electric?

GB: Right now I play a Gretsch. It's lime green or maybe mint green. It's like a Country Gentleman with a little more overdrive, more rock. It has more depth and is just an amazing guitar. I think it's a full hollow-body. This one seems to do pretty well and I don't get a lot of feedback. It roars like a lion!

We're using Conrad amps. Conrad Sundholm is making some of the best amps in the world right now. He hand builds them and he's really behind the band. Right now, he's making something for our bass guitarist, for our guitar player and one for me.

He's using all the finest wiring from Tokyo and hand wiring the amps, a little trial and error to make them custom for each of us. And he's just now beginning to sell them out of some of the high end amp places in New York and LA. Conrad is one of those old school craftsmen, like a master craftsmen genius and one of the most humble and nice guys you'll ever meet and just a great amp maker.

Do you stick to rhythm guitar or have you experience taking the lead?

GB: I play lead on a couple of tracks on the new CD, but for the most part, I leave that to the master guitar player in the band, Skillet. His name's Steve Killen, we call him Skillet because he puts in a little of that pepper and a little bit of that salt, then cooks!

I love rhythm guitar and like to play a driving rhythm and getting in the pocket, just nailing it -almost percussively. I'm mostly a strummer and not really a picker. I also play a little piano and write most of my songs playing piano.

How did you find your band mates and other members of your team?

GB: A lot of it was on the internet, our publicist Rhonda Boudreaux found us on the internet. It's all about passion for me. It's like, do they totally get you as a person and do they get your music? If so, are they qualified? I believe everybody on the team, everybody in the band has a combination of those things.

The band? I met three years ago in Portland and they're all incredible classical or jazz players or both. The piano player is a great classic musician. And everybody else is a jazz, blues or soul guy. In the Northwest there's a pretty good jazz or session player contingency. So, basically I hand picked them through word of mouth or through listening. The chemistry has been great and we've all become best friends. It's something I never planned.

I did plan on having a great band. I don't really care for the hired gun thing or approach to making music because there's a certain part of the heart that's closed off no matter how good the session player.

When we play together, it's like an extension of our relationship, as cheesy as that sounds. My bass player breaks out in tears during almost every show and it's a reflection of where he is with the music, I don't know, but it's like that in general. I think that's one of the differences here.

Yes, I'm the singer-songwriter and yes, my name is the band's name. But that's really more for marketing than for my ego. I don't really care. It use to be Geoff Byrd and the Sentinels.

Have you been strumming for a long time?

GB: Yes. My grandpa bought me an Ovation when I was seven, some cowboy boots and a Stetson. He really didn't chintz out on the quality did he? The cowboy thing's not my thing anymore. It's weird isn't it, that my grandpa saw the singer-songwriter in me? And he thought country and I don't think I'm that far from country.

What we play is basically blues by white guy and some rockabilly. Some of that stuff is great! People like Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly, I love it!

On our way here, we went to Sun Studios and I sang through the same mic that Elvis sang through. It's cool to tie yourself to the old guard. And I think it's good for any musician to respect the people who came before. I found out that recently Coldplay did the same thing there, as well as a couple other bands.

Are you self-taught?

GB: I took some lessons, then got caught up in adolescence and forgot about the guitar for a while. Then in high school I was always singing a lot of melodies. I was such a choir nerd, always singing. I was into black music, the Dixie Hummingbirds and Mahalia Jackson. My friends were listening to Ozzy and stuff like that. They thought I was nuts!

But, I just loved that other music. It's so spiritual, so soulful that it kicks your ass. Then I was singing melody after melody, singing these things in my head and I started looking for a guitar. It came fairly easily since I played guitar when I was younger, chords and structuring songs. That's where the love of the acoustic came from, it's so portable. It's not like a piano. I could take it to the park, anywhere, take it in the car, take it to the girls! And hopefully they'd like it!

That's been more of a motivation to me than money!

"Silver Plated" and "Before Kings" seem to be getting the most airplay at the moment -- what inspired you to write them?

GB: "Silver Plated" is the record that broke us in the Internet. It was sort of our first single, although not our official first single, we weren't signed. I was the one calling the radio stations asking "Will you play this?" and sending the MP3. I was on-line marketing my stuff 12 hours a day. Trying to come up with a way the world could hear it. Just making a good record is not good enough anymore. You need to find a way to get it to the people. And that's always the hard part.

If you don't have a multi-million dollar corporation behind you, you have to figure out a way to do it if you're going to make a living. And that was my goal, to make a living making CD sales and trying to do this full-time.

I quit my teaching my job. I'd been teaching for two years and I was a big proponent of "Follow Your Dream, Follow Your Passion" type of thing, and one girl who was particularly smart came up to me and asked me, "Well, what are you doing?"

Well, I'm being a hypocrite! (laughs)

So, I went to the principal's office and said at the end of the contract year that I was moving on to live my passion. Because I figure the students had enough talking heads in their lives, the press, their parents, and their teachers. They needed someone to go out and show them that it is actually possible. And, I figured that if I failed, no one would care. But, if I succeed then it'll might a difference.

It wasn't just about me, it was about them too. Now, I still keep in contact with some of them. So, that's been really cool.

Tell us about the refining process of writing your songs.

GB: It really depends on the song. I look at songs like an archeologist. In fact, I wanted to be an archeologist when I was younger, for four or five years and I guess a single analogy stuck with me. Songwriting, to me, is like digging up bones. They're already buried underneath the earth, they're already there.

I'm not overtly any one religion, but I really think of myself as spiritual and connected with God. I think the songs are already there. I think you have to be more of an instrument than being the creator. Like an archeologist, first you get a crane, then you get a shovel and finally you're there with a little brush trying to refine the process. For me the refining process is the most rewarding.

That editing process, not just being satisfied with a good melody, but taking it to a different level is where it's really refined. Sometimes to really craft a song, it may take seven or eight times refining it. It becomes an obsession. I can't stop until it's done.

Sometimes it may come to me in one night. And occasionally it shows up in dreams. Like "Before Kings" came from a dream and "Parasol" came from a dream. "Parasol" is about a woman holding an umbrella over a guy's head and she's just getting poured on, but protecting him from the rain. That's a good analogy about how some women feel.

I've been that guy. I think we all have. Although I've held the umbrella too and then the thunderstorms come down and you can get struck by lightning! (laughs) !

So, some of them come from dreams and in two or three a few hours I'm done. Some are so vibrant and visual and with others I may just remember some image.

"Before Kings" was like that.

It was about Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. I had this weird insight into their relationship and I don't know if it's true or not. But I didn't care and it created this song. Basically, the first verse is sung to Tom and it's about Nicole Kidman.

What a random thing, that's both cheesy and it's so random. But at the same time I think it created what I think is a really good song. So you don't really know where the inspiration is going to come from. And you don't want to limit it; you don't want to edit it too early. You don't want to go, "No, that's not cool."

You don't want to do that. Besides, what is cool anyway? People like a certain style or genre of music, or they think this is cool or that's not cool. To me, good music is good music whether it's country, hard rock, rockabilly, punk or pop -- music is music.

You saw the movie Ray right? Ray said, "Music is music, why are you trying to categorize it?"

In other words, "Shut the fuck up!" [LAUGHS]is what he was saying and I loved him for that because he spoke his mind, he was real. And being real and comfortable in your own skin is a lot harder than writing a good song. That's where you get a good song, by trying to understand yourself and trying to understand the people around you.

Gandhi and Martin Luther King weren't any different than a great song writer like Paul McCartney. They understood themselves and didn't care about criticism, in spite of the danger. It's not like they were amazing, they simply held on to their convictions and they believed what they were doing.

Written any new lyrics today?

GB: No, today was all about surviving! The fifty city tour thing, we're in our sixth week, there are thunderstorms, and we're almost ready to go home and it's like 100 degrees today, right?

Hopefully our tour bus doesn't get stuck. We went to XM Satellite radio today and those guys were awesome! We're going back to do a performance, a whole band performance and they're going to air it and film it for DirecTV.

Any tough times with the press?

GB: We've been lucky with the press, but in the face of some criticism from one hometown indie publication that doesn't like anything else and don't like anything melodic, I wrote a song. They wrote that I was this and not that and it hurt, so I wrote a song called "Insignificant Others" [SINGS] Insignificant others will fall, though they won't hurt you at all, why do you work so hard to impress, all those simpleminded people that you'll never miss.

Sounds soulful.

GB: Yeah, it's like a "Hey Jude", but it's basically about if you don't like it, fine, I don't have any problem with you, but fuck off! [LAUGHS]

There's another song called "Chinatown" that's an upbeat hip hop tune. I'm really into Chinese art and mysticism. My tattoos are the Phoenix and the dragon, and one that's about "clarity." Because I don't often have it!

I tattooed it on my arm because confusion is more of an enemy than evil. I mean you're confused, if you don't go at something with a total focus. You need to go with a laser focuws and really go hard. When you do, it's amazing what one person can accomplish.

But then again, one person can only do so much. But if you have a team behind you, it's so much more exponential as far as results. And it's easier.

You need clarity with your business plan with your band, but you also need to be creative to be able to focus. You have to lock yourself in the basement to have that clarity. So, I just did the tattoo to remind myself.

I understand you already have another project mentally in production that you think of as your Sergeant Pepper's or Pet Sounds album.

GB: Exactly, it's my Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road, same thing. It's like Elton John's song "Harmony." I can't get that song out of my mind!

My favorite song of all time though - you and I were together at that Gibson thing in LA when Brian Wilson was there. My favorite song is "God Only Knows" [SINGS] I may not always love you, but long as there are stars above you, you never need to doubt it, I'll make you sure about it, God only Knows What I'd be without you!

You can't make a more perfect pop song than that! It changes keys left and right, the musicianship that goes into the simplicity of something like that, if people knew how hard it was to come up with a melody like that [SINGS] I'll make you so sure about it!

One of these days I'll write a song like that! It blows your mind. I'm working on an album with a bunch of different styles. But , like I mentioned earlier, the Shrinking Violets CD is the thing I'm most proud of to date.

Please, tell us about the current cross-country excursion you're on at the moment. What's the basic strategy you're working with and how are you measuring its level of success?

GB: Well, I think that we're definitely the underdog. And we've gotten fifteen adds in about three weeks. Good for a holiday season. Some play lists are frozen or really short. And on all of them are huge acts like Maroon 5, John Mayer and Sheryl Crow or whatever, known quantities and established acts. And in this day and age, it's what mainstream radio is all about. It's all about research and ratings.

We've gotten fifteen add lists, meaning we're being added to radio station CD rotations. Places like Seattle and Portland, important markets, have added us and a hometown station in Portland has already played us about 200 times within the last few weeks. So, it's not just about rotation, being added, but heavy spins. And we're close to being in the Top 40 around the country and nobody even knows who I am!

It's pretty cool. It feels cool to me! It's like, "Hey, You don't know me, but I'm kicking your ass right now!" [LAUGHS] Or, "Oh, that's the guy we turned down!"

I'm not that vindictive, it's just fun. Because you work your ass off and although no one said I wasn't good enough, they may have said that I wasn't young enough, being twenty-nine. I'm also not knocking someone over with a two-by-four in terms of I'm not a rock band wearing a clown mask or a rapper who's been shot twenty-four times.

We're a band that likes to make good music. And it's about the musicianship and about the vocals. We're a band that likes to make memorable songs. And it's about people who are hurting out there who can relate to it. We've had a great public response.

So, I'm like, let's not be inhibited by the gatekeepers. Let's not get stopped by them. And so I'm looking to destroy all the walls or go around them, over them or through them. I'm a sports guy, a competitor. So, I will not stop until I win! [LAUGHS]

At the same time, if the public wasn't into it, my career would be flat. So, I give my fans all the credit in the world for giving that spark, that word of mouth thing. I think word of mouth rules. I think it's the most important thing out there. So I personally respond to every e-mail I get and I'll keep doing that until I can't do it anymore.

I really believe that my fans are as important as anyone else on our team, or any gatekeeper out there like a program director or an A&R person. The fans buy the records, allowing me to make a living without doing anything else. They e-mail you saying that either you or a song made a difference in their lives. That's why you write songs, not to be famous and rich [PAUSES]; you write songs for the girls damn it! [LAUGHS].

Have you met any artists of longevity that have inspired you or offered you some advice that you have taken to heart?

GB: Yes. Our manager is a founding member of Kansas and the drummer. That's Phil Ehart and he's one of the great rock drummers. "Carry on Our Wayward Son" was all recorded in one take, not sure if it was the first take, but still one take and it's like seven minutes long! The guy's got a meter in his head! And when Kansas plays now, they may be older, but it's an act that slays, better than most new acts, all across the board. And Phil's a guy who's been a good mentor for me.

And Bennie Mardones who did [SINGS] If I could fly, I would pick you up and take you to show you the night and show you love!

He's a white guy from Jersey and a consummate singer. He's been a good mentor. I e-mail him all the time. I'm also a Hall and Oats fan and some people think that's cheesy, but I think they're really good. Just like Kenny Loggins they can still find an audience. And if you've ever seen Kenny, his performance is flawless! I'm a big fan of him. And Isaac Hayes, I love his Shaft stuff and he's such a nice humble guy, a really nice guy. He took us out to dinner at his restaurant in Memphis. It was a big Southern feast, drinks, jalapeno corn bread, ribs, beef brisket, you name it. Really good stuff! There have been some people who have really supported us, some of the older cats.

What personal challenges do you face as you become better known in terms of personal space or privacy, friendships, managing your time, having some breathing space to write?

GB: I don't know if I'm dealing with that so much, other than some people like to jump on the train once that see it's rolling. That'll be a good question to ask me a year from now.

It's something that's starting to happen, but it's not anything prohibitive. The thing that I'm feeling though, and what is happening, is that I feel a lot more pressure. It's like the world is on my shoulders. I need to perform really well or I'll let my team down or my band mates. Can you impress that TV person or radio station programmer enough to play your record?

None of us are invulnerable to that. A lot of musicians will say they don't care, but they do because it matters. You have to be a businessman, as well as be a musician, and that's probably the toughest thing for me right now.

And you have to try to be a manager and a musician and you have to balance the right brain, left brain thing. The hardest thing is trying is categorize your time or just not having the time to work creatively. You get calls you just can't take anymore. It's like, hey, like I'm in the middle of an interview like this and I get a call. What am I suppose to do? People don't really understand. They think being a musician and being on tour is cool. But, it really is serious work. And it takes a lot of energy. So conserving energy is something I've had to learn.

The power of the Internet is working in your favor. Was this part of a plan or have you been surprised at its influence in your popularity?

GB: Both. It's been part of my plan from the beginning. Because it's one of the only options for an independent musician. And let's face it no one wants to take any chances anymore. The play lists are shorter and CD sales a little less. But I think you can always break through all that and find your niche and sell three or four million records if you touch peoples' hearts.

The internet thing came as a default mechanism for a lot of records. Some artists believe they can make a good record and think everything else gets magically done. If you don't have relatives with connections in the music business, then you have to do it on your own. And the Internet is your window to the world.

People in Sweden can buy your record and people in Japan can buy your record and people in your home town can buy your record. So, you can put it on cdbaby.com and put it on garageband.com to get as much exposure as you can.

Ours just happened to do really well. It became one of the top downloads and eventually went to #1 in the world with "Silver Plated." As an unsigned artist, I was really proud of that. We beat U2 and Green Day, two of my favorite bands. And I'd be humbled to play with them.

Have you been tracking the global Internet interest in your work?

GB: We get played in Sweden in Radio P-4, it's the biggest FM radio station in Stockholm that's relayed on the Internet and a government run thing. But, they have pretty good taste in pop music in Sweden and they have pretty women, so I pay attention. I pay attention (laughs)! So, that's pretty cool. And they're starting to play it in Mexico and South America, in Germany, Czechoslovakia, Russia, so it's definitely spreading.

Hopefully, we'll have a good career in Europe too. I've never been overseas and can't wait to go. I really want to play Tokyo and I want to play in the U.K. Those are two places I really want to go to first. I'm Welsh and they or I should say we have have a long singer-songwriter tradition. I don't mind being part of that.

Latest Album: Shrinking Violets
Label: Granite Records
Release Date: July 26, 2005

Tracks from Shrinking Violets

01. Shrinking Violets
02. Silver Plated
03. Before Kings
04. Parasol
05. Will You
06. That's How It Goes
07. Plasti-Queens
08. Elusive Butterfly
09. Frozen
10. I'm In Love
11. Wait For Me
12. I Will Be There

Related link

Geoff Byrd