Your name:
Jesse
Crawford.
Where are you
from?
Magna, Utah. I grew up and was raised in Magna on the west side of
Salt Lake. I could easily say I'm from Salt Lake yet I tell everyone I'm from
Magna because it's a small town that rocks has a lot of great music.
Name of band:
Sodacon
Who else is
in your band?
Currently I'm
a solo artist and 95 per cent of the Sodacon project has been solo. We have
performed live with Sodacon back in 2007 and toured solo too. Other than the
second Sodacon album, all successive albums have been solo.
How would you
describe yourselves and your music?
I would just say a lot of hard work and elbow grease over the years to
create this sound. Currently I perform using Logic Mainstage
and sometimes stream online using Stageit playing acoustic guitar. These
days I try to live stream if possible, regardless of the venue if there's
online access. Playing solo has helped to develop a unique style. Sodacon
is like a space ship of electronic space rock journeying into progressive
themes. I sing about a about broad range of things, it could be current events,
space satellites, portals to other galaxies. Generally I stick to space rock
sci-fi themes and create characters I can perform on stage with story albums. I
wrote and recorded an album Electro-Magnet, never got the chance to play it
live yet planning to this year. I continually discover new themes to sing about
and look to explore topics that aren't mainstream. I've loved making music all
these years and found my own niche.
Who are your
main influences musically?
I grew up with vinyl and cassettes and early cable days with MTV rock bands and
the alternative
wave. I'd play my guitar and riff out to many different bands. I was fortunate
enough to have great teachers growing up for piano, clarinet, and guitar
playing jazz band in high school. I was always inspired by my musical peers and
the same is true today. I was able to perform with and hang out with different
groups around Salt Lake and also see large concerts that came to town. As time
went on I got into vinyl, listened to jazz, folk, class rock. A broad range of
guitar music, to drop some names James Brown to Michael Hedges to Kaiser Chiefs
to the Temples. I also love riding my exercise bike and listening to Iron
Maiden Book of Souls. Sometimes I'll throw on something like Bill Withers or
ELO. I know I'm leaving a lot out that I listen to and my playlist varies yet I
dig finding new bands.
What do you
hope to achieve in music?
I'm hoping to make music that brings joy to people, and inspires new ideas that
are remembered for a long time. In the short term focused on another album
possibly live shows this summer hopefully some festivals. More so than ever
trying to professionalize everything that I do. I hope we can keep
the momentum going as we're currently #1 locally and regionally on
Reverbnation for Alternative Rock. This morning we made it into the top 10 and
hit #8 nationally for alternative and #9 global. I always hope to
be collaborating to. I just finished a new song and released it last
weekend featuring David Namerow on percussion. The song is called Lightning
Maze and is available on reverbnation.com/sodacon. I've been marveling at how the last few years not too many projects with other
artists due to time constraints. Yet things have opened up and now in the span
of a week have worked on two new collaboration tracks.
What has been
the highlight of your career so far, and why?
Biggest highlight so far was being able to finish the last album
SpaceArtRock and the positive response after everything that happened the last
few years. For a long time I didn't think I was going to finish the project. I
had just became a dad and had finished school in looking for work. Over time I was
able to resolve these things, find work again and got right back at my tunes
and then it got better. Somehow we found a way through lately I enjoy making
tracks and my son chills with me in studio sometimes while I mix. It's been a
blast being a dad and for sure the best of year of my life. There is always a
lot of work to be done. I'd say a moment that comes close to this yet doesn't
exceed it that was when won battle of bands performing Sodacon solo in
November 2011. We also raised 1300 cans of food for the homeless that night so
all in all a great memory.
And what’s
the moment you want to forget?
I'd
like to forget last year in May when our dog of 12 years AnnaBelle passed away
from cancer. I try not to repeat it in my mind and remember when we'd go on
hikes and play frisbee. It was tough having to get so many operations for her
and that was financially difficult. Our efforts were ultimately fruitless yet
she was brave and fought through it all. Even on her last day she was running I
will miss that dog yet now that a little time has passed it makes me have hope
for the future and maybe a new pet. I know it's just a dog yet was a big part
of the family. Despite all the trouble we had in our lives economically because
of the recession and everything else horrible that happened, all of it was a
drop in the bucket compared to losing Belle. It also brought up memories of
losing my grandpa in 2009 when he passed although ultimately I'm glad we got to
spend time together.
There was also a moment a
few years back when I was completely without any resource trying to work on
songs, distribute records, tour, web design, social media and more. I
ended up burning out and had too much responsibility that I didn't need to take
on my own. Yet it could have been worse and I learned
to re-balance my life in recent years. Now I try to just keep
things simple . I'll continue to surround myself with great people like my
better half Alicia and my son. I've had great friends over the years help me
out in a lot of areas. 'm grateful for that and I want to forget the times I
tried to overdo every aspect of the process on my own. If I can continue to
write songs well then the rest will take care of itself.
If you had to
pick just one of your songs to represent your music, what would it be and why?
Now You're On Track from the album
Electro-Magnet. This particular song is one of my favorite compositions just
for it's grit and intensity. It has more of an electronic rock feel and is
currently one of the most played Sodacon tracks. It was the first Sodacon music
video filmed a video for it back in 2009 riding around on the San Francisco
Bart and walking around the city. If you'd like to check it out it's available
at http://bit.ly/nowontrack.
Where can we
listen to it?
Where can we
find out more about your music?
bit.ly/sodaconmusic (Give
us some love here if possible is our brand new YouTube)
bit.ly/spaceartrockitunes (latest album)
bit.ly/spaceartrockspotify (latest
album)
bit.ly/spaceartrockamazon (latest album)
Anything else
you’d like to say about your music that I forgot to ask?
We just created a brand new YouTube
channel and have been uploading new music video there. Please subscribe if
possible http://youtube.com/sodaconmusic
Booking and info sodacon@gmail.com
