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Just back from a European tour, Erin McKeown wowed the First Act Guitar Studio with her unique brand of folky, jazzy rock. McKeown is an outstanding guitarist, with a surprisingly strong voice, who continues to gather critical acclaim both at home and abroad. Accompanied on drums and keyboard by her current trio, McKeown played a First Act Delia on “To the Moon,” a stand-out from her current release, We Will Become Like Birds on Nettwerk Records.
FA: How did you get started playing?
Erin: I played piano when I was a kid. From age three up to age twelve. And then I started playing guitar. I took piano lessons, and then I taught myself to play guitar. And when I started playing guitar, I started writing songs. I eventually started performing songs that I had written down when I was a kid, before I ever did any performing.
FA: How old were you when you took went out in public and stood on stage, and was that relatively easy for you at that point?
Erin: I was eighteen. One of the hurdles I had to get over was performing. I’d get nervous. So once I was able to do that, I was fine. But that took a ong time.
FA: Do you play other instruments?
Erin: I do. I play guitar and bass, piano, drums. Once you can do things in each of those families, you can kind of play anything. The only thing I can’t play is trumpet, trombone, and I can’t play the violin family. Anything you bow, I can’t play.
FA: Can you sort of boil down your philosophy a little bit? If someone was first starting out, what would you say to them?
Erin: Hang out with your friends, and play music for fun. I learned everything that was useful from just hanging out with my friends. Just try playing music you like. I always liked to play songs that I liked to sing. I’d find great songs that I loved to sing over, and I’d want to be able to play them at home. I went to a summer camp where we sang songs every night, and when I wasn’t at camp, the other fifty weeks out of the year, I wanted to be able to sit down and play all the songs I learned from camp.
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FA: Do you remember who wrote some of those first songs you were figuring out with your friends?
Erin: A lot of them were folk songs - of course there were a ton of Indigo Girls songs. I also really enjoyed southern bar rock, like I loved that when I was in high school. I loved Jimi Hendrix. Stevie Ray Vaughn. So that kind of stuff. Michelle Shocked. Very eclectic.
FA: What do you like best about touring?
Erin: Being with my friends.
FA: What is the biggest challenge of what you do? How do you push yourself?
Erin: Staying positive. Because there’s lots of things that go wrong all the time, there’s plenty of things that go right, as well, you know the things that go wrong can seem so huge, so you kind of have to just try not to take things as the end all be all. I think that’s the challenge, to try to stay even-keeled.
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