We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Paige Byrd. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Paige below.

Paige, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I remember the day quite well. I don’t know exactly what day it was – as in I couldn’t give you an exact date. But I was 15 years old, laying in my bunk bed in my bedroom in Pierce City, MO in a house off Myrtle St. I was probably grounded, I was grounded a lot in those days. But I was laying in bed looking up at the top bunk and remember thinking to myself “this is it. I know for sure that making music is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I know I want to pursue it hard and make a career out of it. I want to be a successful musician who makes a living just off of my music.”

I remember at that time that it was a pivotal point for me. I even thought to myself “you will remember this day forever as the day you have made up in your mind that you want to be a professional musician in this life, and nothing else.” Well, I don’t know about the nothing else part…I always wanted to be multi-faceted. But I did know for sure that I wanted to be a musician more than a baseball player, skateboarder or anything else in the world I ever dreamed of being.

Before that point I was really into sports. Admittedly, I was really good at sports. I had many MVP trophies and I genuinely enjoyed it. I particularly loved baseball, and played for many years. I was very good, always one of the best members of the team. Pitcher, catcher, 1st base, shortstop and catcher were typically my positions (probably catcher and 1st base the least).

Close second was basketball. I loved playing basketball and excelled at that as well. Always one of the best players on the team. In 7th grade we used to do these 5 am practices, in the dead cold of winter in Missouri…it was brutal. I don’t miss that at all. But I did it for the love of the game. At the same time, these things made me quite popular. I was the “cool guy”, haha….oh boy let me stop…

Anyway, slowly but surely my interests started to change as I became a teenager. At 13 I got my first electric guitar. A Washburn my mom saved up GOOD money to buy me at the time. I think she spent about $300 on that guitar. Which was a lot for us in the early 2000’s, being raised by a single mom no less. Everyone can directly thank my Mom for being the person to recognize I had an ear for music, and get me a instrument (guitar) to express it. I later found out that the reason she bought me a guitar was because “it seemed like I always had a song stuck in my head” – when I learned this I almost gasped. Truer words have never been spoken about me. My mom’s observation is to be thanked as the reason I got into music and songwriting.

Around this same time I also got into Skateboarding. Skateboarding was actually my first love before guitar and after baseball. Skateboarding is the sole reason I didn’t show up for football tryouts after my first year (in which I was starting tight end and 2nd string quarterback, first year ever playing). Instead, I went to the new skatepark that had just opened in Monett, the town that I grew up in. I made up an excuse to my mom that I didn’t really want to play football. That really wasn’t true, I actually kind of did want to play football. But I really just wanted to go to the new skatepark with my friends more.

This was the beginning of the end of me participating in sports. For the next couple years I continued to play basketball. And I did enjoy it, but was losing interest. I was obsessed with Skateboarding. It became my new “sport”, even though I didn’t really think of it that way…Every single second of every weekend was dedicated to street skating. We lived and breathed skateboarding. Getting hurt, being hoodlums, roaming all around town trying to find new spots to skate…we just loved everything about it. I would even go to say that I was obsessed with it. The culture of it too – I liked being an “outcast”, an underdog, a minority. I liked the extra attention. I thought it made me different, made me stand out. I got into rock music. Punk rock was first. I loved punk rock, bands like The Offspring. They were my favorite band for awhile. And then Nirvana, Led-Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Doors and stuff like that took over. Then it was like scuzzy street punk type of stuff. Like The Casualties, NoFX, Rancid, Anti-Flag, etc…

So this culmination of punk rock, classic rock, becoming a teenager and skateboarding just turned me into a totally different person. I didn’t want to follow societies rules anymore. I didn’t want to play it safe or “fit in”. I wanted to stand out, rebel, carve my own unique path. In hindsight I wish I would have been smart enough to see I could do both (play sports AND skateboard/be a musician) – but I always had a all or nothing mentality. Something I still carry with me today.

So after hurting myself more times than I could ever count trying to kickflip 5-stairs in the back of grocery stores, I started playing guitar more and more. I got really good for my age. But it wasn’t until I was 15 that I decided I didn’t want to take skateboarding, or anything else, as seriously as I wanted to take making music. This is what I wanted to do my whole life. And nothing would ever change it. And I knew it. That day when I was 15 years old, in my bedroom. That was the first time I knew I wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally.

Paige, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

Ha, well I think I answered a lot of these questions in the last answer, but I’ll sum it up…my mom bought me a guitar when I was 13 and within a year I was totally dedicated to it. I learned how to read tabs and that essentially taught me how to play. I also had a friend who was a drummer – he and his family had just moved to MO from Florida. I ended up starting my first band with him. His name was Arron Sharpe and he was a couple years older than me. He had an older brother named Chris who was probably 18 at the time and totally obsessed with Led Zeppelin. Chris taught me how to solo in the pentatonic scale like Jimmy Page. If I didn’t meet him I probably would have never learned how to do it so quickly. I still use that same solo technique/run today in almost all of my solos, haha…

But doing these Jimmy Page-esque solos at 14 was pretty impressive to a lot of people. So that made me feel good, and it really made me be able to just shred at an early age. So I started a band with Arron and a couple buddies (Ronny & Marc), but we never really did anything…It wasn’t until I met my buddy Craig Golubski, who was raised in Pierce City, the town next to Monett, that I really was in my first serious band. We would practice all the time and when I couldn’t make it to Arrons I would go over Craigs house and him and I would jam in his parents bedroom all day and night. His parents were super supportive of us playing. And Arron’s parents were the same way. Arron had his own garage dedicated to making music and I would play his drums a lot. That’s actually how I learned to play drums, basically teaching myself on his kit. Fun Fact: Arron was left handed, so I learned how to play drums left-handed and it just stuck. It’s the only thing I can do fluently left-handed til this day. Even though at the time I had no idea that technically I was playing “left-handed”.

So we would book shows and Craig’s mom Becky would take us all around to whichever place would let us play a show there. We played in Joplin a lot. We were so young haha, Craig was tall and I wasn’t even done with puberty yet so I was so short and had long blonde hair and just looked like a girl badly, haha…But yeah it all started there in Craig’s parents house basically. I remember being in the car with Arron and we were all so young, but no one really wanted to be the lead singer, not even me. Everyone was just too nervous. I knew I could sing though, and knew someone had to if we were gonna be in a band, so I offered myself up to be the singer. I remember being so scared to sing, even though I “knew” (or at least thought to myself) that I was a pretty good singer in my own mind/opinion. I sang a little bit in the car one night when we were in a Wal-Mart parking lot with Arron and Craig (I think, I know Arrons was there though), kinda trying to see what somebody would say. Arron was like “hey that was actually really good” and the rest is history. That was the first real compliment I ever got about my singing, and I think the fact that he sort of validated it out loud made it easier to step up and be the lead singer without much struggle.

So yeah, I started writing songs, mostly me and then Craig would help. It eventually grew into my main band The Captain’s Son, which was originally me, Craig and Jarred Ratley. That was when I was about 19 years old. By that time I was plenty used to writing all the songs and singing lead vocals.

I think the thing I am most proud of is just the ability to write songs, play multiple instruments and recording production. I love doing my own recording and running a studio. It’s like an instrument in itself. Eventually we would play these long 3-4 hour sets, so we started doing covers as well. To fill up the time but also because it was fun. Most places that didn’t know us wanted to know that we would play songs the audience would be familiar with. So it was a win-win. Still no matter what, we always mostly played our originals and people really liked them. We had so much fun playing shows everywhere, we had the best time on stage. Our energy was absolutely unmatched and we would just go completely crazy on stage. All sorts of extra antics and banter. It was just pure, raw, exciting fun and everyone loved it/us. I was playing in all sorts of bars before I ever turned 21.

So yeah we eventually moved to Springfield and back in those days we would just go around to the bars and hand the owners/door guy a CD. We would just keep bugging them until they gave us a show. The Outland in Springfield gave us our first “real” shows and helped us greatly to establish ourselves and build a fanbase. It was awesome, and very exciting.

Now I have successfully launched a solo career in music. I still love the band and honestly don’t think I could ever “quit”, but I’m really happy to have full control and just do whatever I want in my music. I really wish I would have started it sooner and split up my time a little differently, but emotionally I was too attached to The Captain’s Son. Jarred and Craig, and then Will, were my best friends and I didn’t ever want it to seem like I was leaving them. Especially Jarred cuz we’ve been through so much shit together and he’s just such a solid, nice guy.

But this year (2024) I basically dedicated solely to my solo career. And I’m really happy about that. I have new songs on the way, all I recorded/wrote/performed/mixed myself and it’s just exactly what I’ve been wanting to do for awhile. Eventually I would love some help in the recording process. Maybe even open to songwriting ideas or help too. I would def write a song with somebody without almost any hesitation. But yeah, I’ve been going hard on making music, creating content and building a brand for myself as a solo artist and it’s been really awesome! Got a long ways to go and it’s just a small part of my journey. New songs are on the way for sure so keep an eye out! Also I’ve been MIA from social media for about a month now haha, so you’ll see my pop back up very soon.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Oh boy, the first option to answer a question and it asks about sharing how “resilience” helped illustrate my journey, haha…

Like many artists/musicians there have been numerous times where I felt like I’m just dragging myself through the mud, and I know Jarred and Will felt the same way. Any, and in fact most because I’ve seen it personally, people would have quit or given up by now. It’s always (most of the time) a struggle when you first begin and no one really knows who you are. Especially when you move to a new place where you know no one and nobody knows you. Like when we moved to Southern California from Missouri.

Anyway I’ll share one good story with you, even though I could easily share multiple. When Jarred, Will and I first moved to California we each maybe had $1,000 to our name. I found us a place at this lady Maria’s house and she was gracious enough to let 3 young white kids live in her house for $900 a month. That in itself was wild enough, but we made a good impression on her – probably cuz we were just so excited and on fire to be alive and on the loose in California (finally).

The resilience part comes in here – dude Will, Jarred and I shared a bedroom for a year and half at this ladies house. LOL, I don’t think I could ever do it over again today…but we did it. No jobs, just playing shows, paying $300 a month to live in SoCal (Long Beach, CA). Will will (ha) probably hate me for telling this, but him and I straight shared a bed for over a year. Jarred slept on the floor. Then when we finally found our own apartment in DTLB, Will and I shared a bedroom for another what 2 years at least?? I mean if that’s not dedication and resilience, then I don’t know what is…we played so much music in that apartment. So many countless shows, some freaking awesome, some absolutely terrible and draining and a waste of time. Many wins, like Balcony TV, meeting Tyler the Creator at his store, some losses like playing terrible bars for no pay to literally 2-3 people. Coming back home to share a bed together. And still somehow not killing each other in the process. We knew it was crazy, but knew it wouldn’t have to last forever. But so many times worried about not making rent or not, having absolutely no space or privacy, eating garbage food, living by the rules of someone else’s house that we don’t even really know…absolute insanity. I guarantee there are not many people in this world who have the amount of resilience that I (or us 3) have from all the shit we endured. Stuff that no one in their right mind would put themselves through. I promise you that I put up with more shit and dealt with more than your average person would/could handle.

It absolutely made me a stronger/better person. But I’ll never have to go through anything like that again. Anyway, that’s my resilience story….

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Oh hell yeah. Most people would think I’m a total loon for the stuff I’ve put myself through in order to make a life for myself here in California as a complete nobody with no money. I mean who would even take that risk/put themselves in that position?

I think non-creatives, especially like driven entrepreneur types, can understand the reasoning behind it. Not that they themselves would ever go through such lengths, haha, but yeah everyone has their own individual struggles in their journey that others probably just can’t understand just because it’s not their life. What I will say is this – the path that I chose to take is clearly the road less traveled. Not many people do it, and most probably think it’s totally stupid. But I’ve met a lot of people, family included, who aren’t creative or musical at all and they totally get it. In fact, they envy it. I was 100% dedicated to making the most out of this wild ride and become a full-time musician. There was no way I was going to stay in Missouri forever, just never leave and not experience what the rest of the world (or at least the United States) was like to the fullest capacity. But some people don’t really want to do that, and I totally get it. They’ve probably lived a MUCH more comfortable life than me. A lot of my family talk about how they envy the guts I had to do what it takes to live your dreams, travel the US and basically not take the practical road. They’ve told me that the way I think about life is different than most people. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I think I understand it enough.

So if anyone struggles to understand my journey as a creative, all I can tell you is this: I wanted to get the absolute most I could get out of life and was not afraid to take risks for it at all. In fact I knew it was basically necessary. I’m sure looking back I or anyone else could say “oh well if they would have done it this way it would have been a lot easier…” – but sometimes you can’t just wait around staying in place to figure out what you’re going to do. You just have to go out and do it. I was lucky enough to have something I loved so much and felt so passionate about that I was willing to leave my home and everything I owned to pursue it 100%. Some people don’t even love a thing so much that they’re willing to do that. So that’s the first thing – I loved making music so much I knew I just had to go out and go for it. And I embraced it 100%. It was very exciting, loads of fun, tons of new opportunity I would have otherwise never had. It was a real typical kind of cliche mindsight – get the most out of life while you’re young (I still believe I’m young). Follow your dreams. Don’t let anything hold you back. Break the norm. Step out of your comfort zone. I just love music so much and the lifestyle and friendships I’ve made with my bandmates, that I just wouldn’t let anything stop me. The feeling of excitement I got from the things I did and am still doing – totally awesome to me. No regrets at all that I can really think of.

“Making it” in the music industry isn’t really a thing. It’s all about the journey. As cliche as it is, I have to remind myself of that all the time. I’ve been way up and way down. Currently I’m definitely going up. I definitely don’t expect anyone to understand it, but I’m sure most people can understand someone from a small town just wanted to break out and pursue their dreams to the fullest.

Aside from that I would like non-creatives to understand one more aspect of being a creative (musician). The work never stops. You are constantly working every single day, sometimes even when you don’t think you are. You are working at 3 am, when a song idea pops in your head that you know would be great if you recorded it right. So you hum it into your phone voice memos so you can translate it to instruments later. You’re working networking with people everywhere you go. You’re working all the time trying to identify that moment when a spark of creativity or a desire or feeling comes over you and you know it’s good and you must save it somewhere to remember for later. Whether it’s words, music, a melody, whatever…you are on the clock all the time. You just have to either choose to pay attention to it, or ignore it. Most of the time, I pay attention.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://beacons.ai/paigebyrd
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paigebyrdmusic/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paigebyrdmusic/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paige-byrd
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCacxF9v_iriu-YqU2HkMGjw
• Other: Tiktok: @paigebyrdmusic

Image Credits

Courtney Colgan, IG: @paintbox630, @photobox630_