We recently connected with Carl Scogland and have shared our conversation below.

Carl, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

One of the most unexpected problems I encountered in my journey so far was during the recording of my second album. I found myself having to move from Baton Rouge to Austin before it was completed.This meant i had to travel back and forth between both cities to finish the recordings. It also meant I had to find new bandmates to play shows in which they had to learn all the parts that were played by the previous bandmates.

Carl, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi, my name is Carl Scogland and I’m releasing my third album “Identity” on October 16th. The album’s theme is very self-reflective and focuses heavily on personal growth. Whether you are in the mood for happy, sad, energetic, or reflective songs, i think i have little bit of everything on there. Identity is a summation of my experiences and life happenings over the past 5 years or so. I’m so thankful to finally be able to share my art and creativeness with everyone. I’m also super thankful of the people who helped me bring it to life, especially local artist Clint Manning who helped engineer and produce it.

About myself –

I started playing music at a very young age after being inspired by my best friend’s father playing guitar. I’d go over my friends house to play video games and i would always hear his dad in the other room practicing. One day I just told my friend “hey lets start a band like your dad” – Then over the next few months his dad helped us secure our very first guitars. it wasn’t too long after that we started playing talent shows etc. in the Shreveport area. I was also in and out of rock bands in my early teenage years.

Fast forward to college, and I found myself forming a moderately successful hip/hop r&b group called Melomania with some friends. We played many shows around the LSU Baton Rouge area before I parted ways to begin work on my debut album “Simplicity”. In November and December of 2009 I kicked off a southeastern tour to begin promotion for the album. The tour included stops across the southeast – playing at established venues such as the well known Eddies Attic in Atlanta.

Between 2010 and 2012, I became involved in multiple musical projects, including a new rap/rock band known as The Revery by teaming up with local Baton Rouge rap artist Young Gage. I also briefly reunited with Melomania playing numerous shows with the band in the summer of 2011. It was not too long after this that I began work on my sophomore Album “Complexity” with Baton Rouge engineer and producer Jon Scholl.

In 2013 we released an EP called “All on Red” that included the song “Lemonade” , which became a favorite amongst fans. I decided to release my first music video for the single later that year.

Then in early 2014, in the midst of recording “Complexity” I relocated to Austin, Texas. The move provided difficulty as I had to travel back and forth between both cities to finish the album. It would take nearly two more years before Complexity was finally finished and released on September 16, 2016. In spring 2017, I embarked on yet another southeastern tour. The second single from the album “The Otherside” sparked another music video filmed by photographer Nathan Rocky.

During 2018-2019 i experienced numerous family losses. During these times is when the creative energy started following for what would eventually be the songs on Identity. It wasn’t until early 2020 that i would team up with Austin producer and Engineer Clint manning to begin work on the album.

Inspirations.

Id like to say i have many musical inspirations, but two definite ones to note. I recall one of my first CDs as a child to be the band “Live”. Id be over my aunts house and my cousin use to love watching MTV in the early 90s. I remember seeing “lightning crashes” for the first time and being so blown away not by just the song and video, but the raw emotion Ed Kowalczyk poured into the song. I can still hear my aunt yelling from the kitchen “Don’t stand that close to the tv!”. Never would i imagine that just a few years ago id actually have the chance to meet ed and the band who inspired me at such a young age.

My teenage years i really owe my inspirations to Linkin Park. I wore the crap out of that Hybrid Theory CD and it saw me through very difficult times as a teenager. I can recall before the band was big, id go into these music AOL chat rooms and just blast the songs to some of the friends i made in there. Sadly i was also greatly affected by Chester Bennington’s death in 2017 – it was literally like i had lost my own brother and i was depressed for weeks.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is when someone comes to me and tells me how a particular song has impacted their life or how much they thoroughly enjoy it. It’s very meaningful to know that a song i wrote to help me through a difficult or happy moment resonates with someone else in a similar manner. To think that my art can be therapeutic to some degree and relatable is one of the best rewards I think any artist would appreciate.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

Ohh NFTS, you know in the early part of this year i was actually fairly successful in my NFT journey- and then well crypto crashed again. I do believe there is a future with NFTs, but currently i think it relies heavily on the utility aspect of them (that includes music NFTs as well!). However, I will say that there are a lot of meaningless nfts out there, esepcially involving creators with the get rich mentality – so the market is flooded atm. I think its hard for anyone to predict where they will truly be in the coming years.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.carlscogland.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/carlscogalnd
• Facebook: facebook.com/carlscogland
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/carlscogland
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/carlscogland
• Other: https://linktr.ee/carlscogland

Image Credits
Photos by Liss Scogland