We recently connected with Tristan McGee and have shared our conversation below.

Tristan, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?

The album my band, Old Brier, is working on currently has been the most meaningful project I’ve worked on so far. This was essentially an EP of songs that I wrote over the past 10 years since I moved to North Carolina. It focuses heavily on a friendship/realationship that revolved around a misleadnig moral and religous ethic. Often times the protagonist in these songs finds himself teaching and preaching things he activly acted out against in his day to day life. This mixes with the internal strugle of truly believing the things preached, but being discouraged in how to live them out practically and effectvly. This EP of similar conceptual songs turned into a concept album over the course of recording the oringinal songs. I found that so many of the songs still resonate with me heavily now, but don’t quite have the resolotion (and the unanswered questions) that I see now 10 years later. Being married and having a child have opened up a world of prospective that this album needs to take to heart, so now many of the songs are refelctive of that as well. They are also refelctive of the void of uncertainty that comes with the added responsibility of being a huband and a father.

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?

I got into music by seeing my dad play guitar at home and in church. I wanted to learn and play like he did and so he tought me how. Playing in many diifferent kinds of churches and with many different kinds of bands has been the most effective music teacher for me and still continues to be. I’ve always been in bands since in was in high school and now am in two bands – Old Brier and The Jonah Project.

My main band Old Brier, is a rock band that focuses heavily on dynamics and introspective lyrics. The lyrical goal is to be clear enough that the listener can know the story, but vauge enough that the listner can be present in the story – as any of the characters (especially for our new album I mentioned preveously). A lot of people have said we “got the quiet / loud thing down” and that has been the best complement I’ve received so far.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Though streaming music is a great tool for spreading new music and getting your name out there, I think it’s important that if you like an artist, you buy the art. Artists do not see any of the revenue created by streamng our music (our band would have generated thousands of dollars by now… we haven’t seen more than $50…). The point of buying our music is to suport us and so you can say “I own a piece of this art now”. Even if you don’t use the CD or mp3 that you bought, you have still suported us and can say I own it, so should feel free to continue listening on your prefered streaming method.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

Some people think that this is for fun… which makes me laugh. I would like to tell them if I didnt have to make music I wouldn’t. The things we create as artists are not just for your viewing and listening pleasure, they are how we comunicate with the world and express things on our hearts and minds that words smiply don’t suffice for.  

Contact Info:

• Website: oldbrier.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/oldbrier
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oldbrier
• Twitter: https://www.threads.net/@oldbrier
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMHmpvB35fE
• Other: https://linktr.ee/oldbrier

Image Credits
Black and White and Feature Photo: Courtney Breen Greenish tinted Photo: Thomas Filbert Recording Photo: Aaron Allred Foggy Photo: Ryan Pham