We recently connected with Crooked Ways and have shared our conversation below.

Crooked Ways, 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?

Being in a band can present plenty of unforeseen issues since you are working closely with multiple other people on literally everything. The variables of things that can go wrong or that you need to work through increase with each person that may be in a band because it is four different lives working towards the same initiative.

We are lucky enough that our current lineup doesn’t really have a ton of unexpected issues – there will always be conflicting schedules and whatnot that needs to be worked through – but more substantial issues definitely needed to be worked through in the past to get us to the much more enjoyable place that we’re in now.

We did have a few previous members that were very difficult to work with due to some combination of lack of communication, creative preferences, and just having “it” together in general, which naturally would make any operation much more difficult than it needs to be. In our particular case, it was often making sure that the correct gear was brought to shows, that they would even show up for shows, and things of that nature. There was never one large issue we needed to overcome by having members that weren’t on the same page. It was always a lot of these smaller things that just generally made everything much more tumultuous than it needed to be. It required us to always be on our feet and to always have a plan B no matter what. But, as they say, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, and we are more cohesive than ever after working through those issues (and eventually getting the perfect members/lineup that we needed).

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 each have our own different stories on how we got into playing music, but we became a band over 5 years ago when our guitarist and singer decided to take their acoustic act and build it up into something larger. We had turned an acoustic act that primarily performed covers into a full four-piece hard rock band that started opening for regional and national acts within a year or two of coming together.

We also have written and recorded two all-original records that can be found on any digital streaming platform. So ultimately, what we provide for people is music that runs the gamut of different sound within the rock genre that can make them feel a variety of different ways. The one thing we do that we feel like sets us apart from a lot of other acts is that each song on our records can have a very different sound from the one you hear before/after it. Some sound more like classic rock, some are more modern metal, and some are in-between. We don’t like to have one cohesive sound, and really that just hopefully gives everyone the opportunity to find something they like within our catalog.

At the end of the day, the music that we’ve been able to write together is probably what we our most proud of. Creating music is why anyone would start a band in the first place!

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The gratification and intrinsic happiness that comes to doing what you truly love. The closest way to describe that feeling is the way you feel after a really good workout. Where you feel productive, fresh, and that you’re doing something that is just overall good for you. It’s like having that feeling every time we play our instruments together, work on a song, play a show, etc. It’s just a high that can’t be beat!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Like anything else that you want to grow – it requires patience! We don’t have a massive following like many other bigger bands do, but it really just comes by 1) actually doing and sharing what you do (as opposed to just creating memes/generic content for clout) and hashtagging/tagging other accounts that you’re working with! For us, we always tag other bands, venues, and post in relevant Facebook groups. It’s a slow burn, but once you have some of a “portfolio” of content that prospective new followers can easily see, it makes it a lot easier for them to want to jump on board.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: instagram.com/crookedwaysband
• Facebook: facebook.com/crookedwaysband
• Twitter: twitter.com/crookedwaysband
• Youtube: youtube.com/@crookedwaysband
• Other: Our most recent single on all streaming platforms https://songwhip.com/crooked-ways/izzit Our second record on all streaming platforms https://songwhip.com/crooked-ways/totality Our first record on all streaming platforms https://songwhip.com/crooked-ways/time-to-panic

Image Credits
Frank Thai Ted Colegrove Chris McGinnis