m-r.c: Lets start off with this: how did you start your involvement with music?

BK: I had a band in high school called Radish, and we were together for five years. Then I moved to New York after we broke up and started playing songs by myself acoustically. I would just book shows, and I met a bunch of really cool people like Juliana Hatfield and Evan Dando. Juliana Hatfield is an awesome female rocker, she's amazing…and Evan Dando from the Lemonheads is a great band as well. A lot of cool bands took me under their wing and would let me open up for them.

m-r.c: Did you go on tour when you were with Radish?

BK: Yeah. We played Lollapalooza '97 and we toured with Fastball, the Eels and a bunch of cool bands.

m-r.c: How has it been touring with a complete band?

BK: It has been amazing. I grew up always wanting to have a band. I love playing by myself acoustically, but I hear the drums and everything when I'm up there by myself, so finally I was like lets get the real drums involved and lets really do it. So then while I was in New York a few of my friends and I got together, and here we are today.

m-r.c: Were any of the guys in your current band ever a part of Radish?

BK: No. But Josh, our bass player, played with Radish towards the end of us being a band, but he wasn't an original member.

m-r.c: Did it take some time adjusting to a complete band, after playing solo for awhile?

BK: It's a totally a natural progression. For me it's all music, whether I'm playing by myself, with a band, with one person, on piano, guitar, or drums.

m-r.c: You play drums? Is there anything that you don't play?

BK: Well, I don't play the flute. I play the rock instruments like bass, drums, guitar, piano and a little harmonica.

m-r.c: Do you think you'll ever go back to doing solo shows?

BK: I probably won't do it for a while now since the album came out. Since the album is a full band if it starts getting played on the radio, or if a kid buys the record, they'll want to go to the show and hear the song the way it is on the album. I'm sure I'll do a solo tour just to change it up once in a while, and maybe before the new album that we make. Maybe in a year I'll do a solo tour and play all new songs to see what the reaction is.

m-r.c: Did you ask the guys just to tour with you or are they consistently involved with you?

BK: Josh played on the record, and this is the first time on this tour for me and Fred (the drummer) to play together, but he'll play on the next record. And hopefully this will just be the band.

m-r.c: Do you write songs on your own, or do you ever turn to the guys in the band?

BK: I pretty much write them, and then we'll get together and rehearse. I'll play them new songs and then they'll make up their own parts.

m-r.c: Did you have a musical family growing up?

BK: Yeah. We always had a drum set in the living room because my father played drums. We had a guitar amp and a piano, and my parents were always listening to The Beatles. I grew up listening to The Beatles, Hendrix and a lot of stuff that my parents would play around in the house. Then as I got older I discovered my own bands like Nirvana and Sonic Youth.

m-r.c: Did you ever see Nirvana live?

BK: I always wanted to but I never got to.

m-r.c: Did your dad play in a band?

BK: He played in bands in high school and college. When I was growing up he would have his friends over and they would jam out and I'd always watch them.

m-r.c: Did you ever take any vocal or guitar lessons?

BK: I took mostly piano lessons, and then I took a few months of guitar lessons but mainly self-taught. I took one vocal lesson and I really didn't like the teacher so I have never done it since, but friends have told me different tricks that have gone. I've learned some exercises. I started playing piano around five or six, and I got my first guitar when I was ten and started taking lessons. I went out and bought a book at a music store on how to play guitar.

m-r.c: Those Learn How To Play Guitar books actually helped?

BK: It did for me because I was so determined to learn. My dad also showed me some chords because he plays a little. 

m-r.c: What label are you signed onto now?

BK: ATO Records. Letter A, letter T and letter 0. That goes through RCA, which is a big major company. As far as the big labels they're a great label, and ATO is amazing because they're an indie label. I get complete attention and it's family. ATO is a small label that is all about creativity and letting me be involved with the art work, but then RCA has the power to get everything on the radio, so it's the best of both worlds. Everyone they sign they really care about and really push it.

m-r.c: Do you find that people support you more in your hometown now that you have a CD out and are on ATO Records?

BK: It's weird because I feel like I have two homes because I grew up in Texas and Radish was from Dallas, but then I moved to New York to start my solo thing. When I'm in Dallas I still have the old Radish fans that support me, and in New York I'm still getting the same support. One thing I'm noticing is the fact that ATO goes through RCA and can put out a record in Des Moines, Iowa or Chicago, Illinois. There are kids in each town that know my songs now.

m-r.c: Every musician adopts a certain kind of sound, is there anybody that you're trying to be similar to?

BK: As a songwriter, when you first start listening to music, the stuff that you like, you are obviously drawn to that type of sound. I love the Beatles, but I wouldn't say I ever tried to blatantly copy people. There's only twelve notes in music, so everyone has to figure out to make their own thing.

m-r.c: When you write your lyrics is there anything that you like to write about or stay away from?

BK: There's nothing that I like to stay away from. I'm really open to singing about everything, even if it's just about girl and boy love. Sometimes I like to make a different spin on it and make it a little different then a normal love song. I talk about everything from junk culture to watching TV, but I try not to get too political in my songs. If I really feel like there's an issue that I want to talk about, I'll talk about it. I feel that music, at least for me, is something to listen to to get away from reality. I definitely philosophize sometimes and I like to talk about spirituality, but I don't like to get too involved with heavy topics.

m-r.c: Are you involved with the artwork on your CD covers?

BK: I am. I really get involved with the visual aspect because I feel like it represents me. I love doing art, painting and photography because I think it goes well with music. It further represents what the music sounds like, and I try to make everything match and make it fun.

m-r.c: Why did you title your CD Sha-Sha?

BK: There's a song on the CD titled "How It Should Be (Sha-Sha)", and I think it's fun to say Sha-Sha, so it sounded like a good album title to me.

m-r.c: What is your favorite song off the album?

BK: I'd say "Falling" and "Family Tree." "Falling" was one of the first songs where I wrote the music and the words all in one day. "Lizzy" was like that too. I was just so inspired that it all came out, and I was like whoa it's done. With "Falling," I felt like the words matched exactly what I wanted to say. When you first start writing songs you want to try to rhyme, and you also want to say things that mean something to you. But this time I didn't have to worry about the rhymes, everything just came so naturally. That's one thing that I love about Bob Dylan. If every verse had four lines, and he wrote a verse with five lines, he wouldn't take off the last line just to make it all fit. He would add an extra line just to get out what he wanted to say, and I think that's really important when you're singing about your feelings. You shouldn't edit it as much as you can. In the song "Falling" I really felt like I fit everything I wanted to say in the bridge. "Falling" is just about when you're in love with someone and you might break up, it's just the whole thing about you love things more when they're gone. It can even be with a relative passing away. It's just so important to cherish the time you spend with your loved ones so you don't have any regrets when you're not with those people anymore.

m-r.c: Anything in the works about getting your songs on the radio?

BK: Actually, we just found out that Q101 in Chicago just added "Wasted and Ready", which is the first single from the record. So stations are going to start playing it.

m-r.c: If you could pick another single off the record what would it be? 

BK: I think "No Reason" would be a good one.

m-r.c: What about your favorite song that didn't make the album?

BK: I would still say "Falling" is my favorite song even if it wasn't on the album. When I was making the album I wanted to put my favorite songs on the album. I have some new songs that I really like that I haven't recorded yet, so we'll see how that goes. I have a song called "Different But The Same," which I really love, which will be on the next album.

m-r.c: When will your next album be coming out?

BK: Hopefully in a year, a year in a half.

m-r.c: What is your all time favorite song?

BK: Right now I've been listening to a lot of Neil Young, and he has this album called Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere, and I would say that the title track, "Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere," is one of my favorite songs right now. It's so amazing.

m-r.c: After the tour are you going to head home and start working on the next album?

BK: After this tour we are doing The Conan O'Brien Show, and then I just found out on April 22nd, we're doing six shows opening for Dave Matthews Band in Detroit, Chicago, Cleveland, Minneapolis, and Des Moines, Iowa. So that's going to be like 18,000 people a night, the biggest shows I've ever done, so it's crazy.

m-r.c: I just saw you in a picture with The Strokes and Phantom Planet, what was that about?

BK: I'm friends with both those bands, but I'm really close with Phantom Planet. They played a show at Bowery Ballroom and I was out there, and so was Fab from The Strokes and Albert. Rolling Stone was there too and wanted to take a photo of all of us hanging out.

m-r.c: Do you think you'll be playing a show with Phantom Planet?

BK: Me and Jason from Phantom Planet always talk about playing shows together, so after the Dave Matthews stuff maybe we'll do a tour together. And there's talk of playing with The Strokes in Europe.

m-r.c: Will that be your first time in Europe?

BK: No. I was just over there playing some solo shows. The record comes out there in May, and the band is going to go over during the summer time. 

m-r.c: If you weren't a musician what do you think you would be doing?

BK: Well, I'd like to be in some science field. I love archaeology, astronomy, studying evolution and the history of the world. The problem is I'm not a math guy. With astronomy I love philosophizing about the stars and planets and everything like that, but since I'm not good at math I feel like it would be hard because I'm really abstract thinking. I'm not good with rigid stuff.

m-r.c: So you're a right-brained person?

BK: I'm a right-brained person that's left-handed. My mom would always say, "You're so right brained that you're left handed." Sometimes I wish I was more math oriented, but I definitely love being creative in art, so maybe I'd be a painter.

m-r.c: I know you're going to be touring for a long time, but are there any new song ideas that have popped into your head?

BK: Yeah, totally. I just started bringing my guitar to my hotel room each night because I want to start writing songs for the new album, and I have a few- like the song "Different But The Same." I'm definitely excited to start writing.

m-r.c: Were you anticipating sold out shows on this tour?

BK: Well Dashboard is so huge. I did a tour playing solo with them, and everything was sold out, so I figured this tour would be sold out too. That tour was done before I put together the band, and then Chris called me and invited me back with the band.

m-r.c: Next time you go on tour, do you think you'll be the headlining band?

BK: Yeah, I think so. Our plan in two months is to come to every town that we go to on this tour and headline like small one hundred to two hundred seat rooms.

m-r.c: If you were the headlining band who would you bring along to play with you?

BK: The problem is when I start headlining I won't be big enough to have my favorite bands come. I'd love to play with Weezer, the Violent Femmes (if they would ever play again) and Neil Young.