We were lucky to catch up with Admiral Radio recently and have shared our conversation below.

Admiral , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

Coty and I have pretty different stories when it comes to our journey in music, playing instruments, and songwriting.

For me, music has always come naturally. I felt encouraged to sing, be on stage, and perform in my kitchen. I was introduced to the piano as a child, but would leave lessons in tears. Nevertheless, I wrote my first song around 8 years old and, laughably, the title was “Country Girl”. Shortly after, the acoustic guitar really resonated and very quickly, songwriting became a main vessel for my expression. As a rebellious middle schooler, I stopped practicing for lessons once music theory and soloing was introduced. All I wanted to do was “get by” so I could continue to sing and write. My stubbornness definitely stifled my ability to grow back then.

Coty’s story of learning the craft is a bit different. He grew up with influence from his Paw Paw, who played a ’69 Gibson guitar and had his own gospel radio show in Belmont, NC, but Coty didn’t really play an instrument himself until high school. He bought himself a guitar from Walmart and watched Myspace videos to study his favorite musician’s fingers while they played. That’s how he learned to play and since then, he’s far exceeded me as an instrumentalist. Coty wrote a song or two in college with a friend, but mostly stuck to himself when it came playing music. Over the years as a couple, Coty has become an outstanding songwriter and tends to write many of our songs as Admiral Radio.

I would consider us both to be self-taught in many ways. Neither of us have ever received a voice lesson, although I’m sure we could use it. By and large, we’ve taught ourselves how to play additional instruments like the harmonica, banjo, and ukulele. Like anything in life, it’s essential for a person to find the right learning style for themselves. The more we discover about the learning process, the more we realize how non-linear it is. By figuring out how you learn best, you’ll get farther in the skill you pursue a lot quicker.

Sometimes, the thing that can stand in our way of learning can be external forces. Sometimes, it could be an issue of access. Can a person afford a guitar or lessons? Maybe they can, but maybe they can’t. But if you can afford a teacher, it goes a long way to invest in a passionate one who can inspire you. Other times, I think it can be ourselves that stand in our own way. It takes effort, especially as an adult, to learn something new – whether that be a new instrument, a foreign language, a skillset for your new job, or something else. It takes diligence to keep going.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

We’re Admiral Radio, a husband and wife duo out of Columbia, South Carolina. Our genre can be difficult to pin down, but we’d consider ourselves to have a Americana/folk sound. We’re named after our ’41 radio that has a pretty serendipitous story, which you can read more about at admiralradiomusic.com. We love to write songs and weave storytelling into our performances and our favorite thing to do is sing harmonies together.

Coty and I were both working at a restaurant while studying at College of Charleston and that’s how we met. It was the summer of 2014 and we instantly bonded through music, but quickly realized we were both foreign language majors. We’d walk to class together that senior year and play our guitars together. After years of dating, it wasn’t until 2018 that we created Admiral Radio. For us, music was foundational for our relationship, but in terms of performing and writing together, that has been a very gradual thing.

We both have different musical backgrounds and influences that have slowly become intertwined over the years. I grew up with The Beatles and R.E.M. while Coty was raised on the 80’s. Neither of us knew Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, or any of the other greats that we now draw so much inspiration from. That music discovery happened in a very organic way for us both because we weren’t necessarily raised on the kinds of music we love and perform today.

When we think about the relentlessness of the outside world and how we might help solve problems as musicians, I think back to that famous quote that goes something like, “When words fail, music speaks.” The artists of the world are like the canaries in the coal mines. We feel deeply and share those emotions that are often to complex to speak by name. When our music resonates with people in an emotional way – whether that brings a sense of comfort, of joy, of inspiration, of solace – that’s about the best contribution we could make to this world.

Much like our name symbolizes, we’re most proud of the sense of community we feel when we perform and talk with folks who will listen. It is an incredible thing when you can be in a room full of strangers, bare your soul, and leave as genuine friends. I find people and their stories so fascinating and inspiring. That’s what we are most proud of – our human connection with other people that is brought about through our music.

Have you ever had to pivot?

There’s no way we can avoid talking about Covid with this one, honestly! It was quite the re-route for us, though.

I’ll give our background some context. Since we are so DIY, we were giving music a full-time swing in 2019. We were playing cover gigs, weddings, and other events to afford recording time for our first album. We were gaining momentum and playing in some amazing spaces that I never thought possible for us – the Charleston Bluegrass Festival, Fall For Greenville, The Georgia Theatre Rooftop, Rockwood Music Hall in NYC, and so many more.

The plan was for us to get married in early 2020 (which still happened – yay!) and release our album in the spring, then tour regionally in promotion of that album and see what kinds of opportunities might be out there – be it management, an agent, or the highly-coveted record deal. We were living on a show string budget and things were often very stressful for us, but our hopes were so high in connection to our first album.

Obviously, none of that happened. Our honeymoon phase was spent in a silent spring of confusion and doubt as our gigs got cancelled and the world shut down. There was a point in time when we realized that going forward with our music as a means of survival just wasn’t possible for us anymore. Thankfully, we were both able to find jobs to support ourselves and we both began working as teachers. We sat on our album for months then and wondered what to do. Downtrodden, we did decide to release it in August of 2020 and celebrated with a full band performance at the Sumter Opera House, which was recorded by the Pierson Collective in a completely empty theatre.

Not only were were dealing with a global pandemic, but we were also seriously affected by the killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Breonna Taylor. It was almost like being frozen in time as we witnessed such a pivotal moment in our country’s history. There are so many names we are leaving out here, but the summer of 2020 caused us to seriously contemplate our place and contributions to the world and caused us to go quiet for quite some time as we grew in learning and reflection.

Very few musicians were able to stick with music full time over the past few years. The ones who did have had a significant level of support. My heart goes out to every creative who was hurt and affected by these past few years. It’s been such a powerful and significant time for so many. We were all transformed in some way and I think that’s an incredible thing to say for every human on planet earth. If anyone reading this has been struggling to put yourself back out there, we encourage you to just start. There is never a right or wrong time to follow your heart and share something that comes from your soul. If it’s the way we deal with the world and make sense of it all, it’s important for you to keep making art, keep creating, and keep sharing, if that’s something you feel compelled to do.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There are quite a few things that have inspired me over the years and have most definitely helped us continue on as Admiral Radio in a creative sense.

First, there is a booked called The Creative Habit by Twyla Tharpe, who is a world-renowned choreographer. She shares the technicalities of creating, which you’d think should have nothing to do with each other. As it turns out, living a creative life does in fact take discipline. This book explores the habits and exercises that can keep you creative in a long-lasting way. After all, any creative adult is one who never let the the child inside of them die.

Next, there’s a great Ted Talk by Elizabeth Gilbert titled “Your Elusive Creative Genius” that was fundamental in my thinking of the creative process. We often view some talented people as being born with their creative genius and don’t give ourselves enough credit. Rather than devaluing our own capabilities, we can in fact step into our own creative genius if we just give ourselves a shot.

Last but not least, I’d say follow along with people who inspire you. Making your bed in the morning and sticking to a schedule are some of the best things you can do to be successful. Self-discipline is key and much harder than it looks. Structure is everything. Set realistic goals for yourself and just focus on taking the first step rather than climbing the entire staircase. Know that Rome wasn’t build in a day, but stone by stone.

Contact Info:

• Website: admiralradiomusic.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/admiral.radio
• Facebook: facebook.com/admiralradio
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY50lJhsESVdnLocSt1oaYw
• Other: We hope you’ll come and see us for a show sometime! Follow along with us on BandsInTown for our upcoming show list and follow along with us by receiving an e-Newsletter on our website.

Image Credits
Photo of on-stage performance by Ross Jones. All other photos by Wright Media.