Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Drew Fish. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Drew, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My dad’s dad served in the US Air Force as a fighter pilot and then a flight instructor and my mom’s dad served in the Navy as a doctor and then the Air Force as a Flight Surgeon. I grew up in a family with a tremendous amount of respect for our armed forces. When the band originated, we all collectively wanted to give back to those who have given us the best gift that we could possibly ask for, freedom. From the inception of the band, we have worked with many charities and played many charity events in support of our country’s Heroes. We performed at the Red White and Bike annual fundraiser benefitting the families of purple heart recipients for 5 years and currently participate in Special Forces Charitable Trust’s annual “Great Americans Shoot” benefitting Special Forces veterans, active duty, and their families. I’ve written a bunch of military based songs over the years and about a year ago I had the idea for “Stories Left Untold”, which describes how our country’s Heroes come home from war with stories that they either can’t talk about because of confidentiality or because people wouldn’t understand. I wrote the song with David Banning and Kyle Level and when we released it, we agreed to send 100% of the revenue from the song for the first year to Special Forces Charitable Trust to benefit those who live with stories that they can’t vocalize. I played the song for a friend (Jimmy Welton – Three Rivers Coffee Company) who served, and he encouraged me to put a music video together. We made the video with six special operations veterans and their life post-service. We wanted to show how you never know who you are talking to and what their story is. People walk by these Heroes every day with out realizing the sacrifices they have made for our country. I was honored that they wanted to be a part of the project.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

I grew up in a musical family. Both of my grandmothers sang and played piano, my dad played piano in a band growing up, and most of my extended family plays instruments. Growing up, it was expected that you learned to play something. We would have talent shows with my cousins and everyone would get up to sing or play an instrument. In middle school, we were at a Christmas party with Lloyd Maines. My dad started playing piano and I began singing. Lloyd came up to me after and said that I should get a band together. I wasn’t old enough to realize how big of a compliment it was at the time. A couple of years later, our family friend, Cory Morrow, pulled me up on stage to sing a song with him at one of his shows. That was the moment that it clicked and I realized that I wanted to get a band together. I started playing with a couple of friends from high school and that turned into us playing for all of our friends fraternity parties in college. We have evolved over the years, but we have stayed true to who we are as a band. We like to have a good time and get a little rowdy. I think that shows in our music.

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

As a songwriter, you want to write something that means something to you and you would enjoy listening to. When someone sings along to one of your songs at a show or tags you in a video of them singing along to it on the radio, it is incredibly rewarding because someone likes your song enough to learn the words and they choose to take time out of their day to turn the song on and listen to it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The music industry has changed so much since we started playing. We have seen the major shift from CDs to streaming and we lived through COVID where live music was put on hold. While the industry will always be changing, something that will always be beneficial is people sharing your music. Whether you buy a friend a CD, send someone a link to your favorite band’s music video, or post one of their songs on your instagram story, every time that you share a band’s music, you are helping them spread the word and potentially gain a new fan.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drewfish.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/drewfishband
• Facebook: facebook.com/drewfishband
• Twitter: twitter.com/drewfishband
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/drewfishband

Image Credits
Andrew Fish, Larry Pena, Thomas Abowd, Amy Rankin and April Rankin