Interview with Landon Pigg from TheMusicEdge.com

This interview was definitely in the top 5 favorites from my time at The Music Edge. It published August 17, 2006. Enjoy!!

Landon Pigg: Even Better Yet

It’s late afternoon, and my conversation with Landon Pigg from earlier this morning is still lingering on my mind. My mind itself is like a tape recorder sometimes. Rewind. Stop. Replay. Almost ironic, well not quite, but definitely fascinating how a writer’s brain works, much like the device I use to record my interviews. At times it’s too easy to get swept away in a conversation. It’s difficult being a writer sometimes. The so-called concept of “writer’s block” actually exists, and it takes a sincere bout of inspiration to break free from its grasp. Well, my current bout of inspiration’s name is Landon Pigg.

I’ve discovered that each time I write a feature, I divulge more and more of myself, revealing more of who I am and what I am about, but what I reveal about myself is only a fraction of what artists and celebrities sacrifice of their own identity to appeal to the masses; the latest artist to tell all to The Music Edge? Landon Pigg. A 23-year-old pop/rock heartthrob whose new RCA debut, LP, is a musical exposé into the inner workings of said musical poet.

Emerging out of Nashville, Tenn., Landon discovered his knack for composition and talent for playing the guitar at a very young age. Relying on the support of family and friends growing up, he credits his father with encouraging his musical talents and his mother for inspiring his sensitive nature. Drawing insight from a deeper pool of artists, dabbling in a mix of genres, from Rufus Wainwright and David Mead, to Led Zeppelin, Radiohead and The Beatles, Landon’s style is a cheerful shade of pop rock. For his latest release, Landon had the opportunity to collaborate with a multitude of producers across the country, allowing his good fortune and passionate devotion to gleam throughout the 12 carefully crafted tracks.

Only too willing to divulge much more, the following are highlights from themusicedge.com’s recent interview with Landon.

Landon: Tell me, what do you want from me Amanda? What do I want from you, more importantly?
The Music Edge: A good interview.
Landon: For sure. So what’s going to happen with the interview?
TME: Questions.
Landon: Question away.

TME: What’s your songwriting process like?
Landon: Something that I’ve been working on recently is to be willing to let an amazing experience come and go without documenting it. I’m kind of over trying to steal from my personal life to write songs. Sometimes you take an experience that is raw and emotional to you, and you turn it into a song a lot of people will hear, and I just don’t feel good about writing like that, that’s all.

TME: What do you hope listeners take away from your music?
Landon: I’m really unaware of that whole concept at this point. I played last night to a room full of, well it felt like nobody, but maybe there were 20 people there. But this guy was saying to me that my music was going to inspire a lot of people, and I’m really surprised when I hear people say things like that. So I’m just like a little kid asking, “Really?” just wanting to talk more about it, and find out what it means. It made me feel really good. So, for now, when I play my music, hopefully people are tapping their feet and bobbing their heads and maybe getting a little insight as to what my life’s been looking like for the past two years. I would love to make an impact on people. I know! I would love to give people goosebumps. That’s my absolute favorite thing that music does for me right now. I used to care about other things; I used to care about—ah! I don’t know what I used to care about, but these days I care about things that move me emotionally and make me sad but hopeful at the same time and give me goosebumps. So that’s what I want people to take away from my music.

TME: What does making music mean to you?
Landon: I like the way music makes me feel. I like the way it makes me feel when I sing a melody that fits the chorus perfectly. People have told me when you sing that you’re really serving them, and that’s kind of just something I could never relate with, it’s not something I ever thought had to do with it at all. I just did it because I felt like it was fun and because it made my insides feel good.

TME: So in a previous interview you had said that you were just coming to terms with the fact that you were in the music industry. What does it mean to you to be in the music industry? Is it a positive thing? A goal you had when you were younger?
Landon: No, it’s not a goal I really ever had. It’s an assumption I had made. Ever since I was a kid I never thought I was going to have to get a real job. I never thought I was going to be doing anything other than music. I didn’t know what that would mean exactly, but I just figured that it’s what I would be doing for the rest of my life. Being in the industry, man, it’s been almost only a positive experience for me, which I’m very happy about. I think money kind of acts as a weight on your shoulders though. That’s the big deal about being in the music industry; you have to learn how to be completely aware of the money, but also at the same time completely unaware of it—and that’s been a little tricky.

TME: What other artists are you listening to from the current music scene?
Landon: Current music scene … sometimes I’m current. Most of the time I’m not … it doesn’t really come naturally to me to dig and find out what is current; some people get energized by doing that, but I don’t really have that gene. I think there are a few currents that we’ve been enjoying though, one being Wolfmother. Elliott Smith, we’ve done a lot of him. Oh! Interpol has really been ticking our whistle. And I think we’ve listened to some American Idol people, because I got some free CDs from the label recently, so you might want to document that one too—just to create some variety.

TME: What can you tell me about your new full-length, LP, which came out in July? How is the new full-length different from your previously released EP?
Landon: I’d say that there’s only one really black sheep song out of both of those when you compare them, and it’s called “Dressed to Kill.” The EP gave me a little more room and freedom to be a little less concerned about trying to win people over. “Dressed to Kill” just doesn’t sound like any of the other songs I’ve ever written, and we got to throw it on the EP. But generally, the styles on the two albums are very similar. And there are two songs that are on the EP that are on the actual album.

TME: Awesome. So, being born and mostly raised in Nashville, Tenn., did the prominent country scene there influence you or your musical tastes at all?
Landon: No, not at all.

TME: Not into country music?
Landon: No. I mean, the only experience me or any of my friends in Nashville had with country music was, say, walking down Broadway where all of the country bars are and hearing some of the crazy things coming out of those places, but it’s not really a big part of my musical makeup.

TME: Just looking at your MySpace page and Web site, and other features on you, it seems like you play a lot on your last name. Is there a reason for that?
Landon: I can’t really remember any examples about how I do that off-hand. Help me out…

TME: Well, like the title of your last EP, This is a Pig…
Landon: Yeah, the last EP, that was a good concept there. That was fun for me because it was a little passing thought that I wondered if I could … actually it all started from the movie The Village. They lived in the woods in a certain lifestyle, or so they thought … have you seen the movie?

TME: Yeah I have…
Landon: Okay, great! So, eventually they come to believe all of these things about their lives, and they come to have an understanding about the truth of things that are as real to them as anything in the world could be. And, of course, the part of the movie, the reason why the movie was made, was the end, when they all found out it wasn’t real. It was something that they had been trained to believe. So, that concept made me fish inside of myself, and made me wonder about what things I know and what things I believe based on only because I’m familiar with them. Like are things true because they actually are, or because you grow so familiar with them? That’s what This is a Pig was about for me.

Rolling through the mountains of the beautiful Aspen, Colo., Landon and I wrap up the interview as he explains, “I love Aspen. I’ve never been here before, but I’m kind of amazed; it’s a little like Disneyworld, without all the rides.”

Rides or no rides, I get the feeling Landon’s the kind of person that could turn any place into his own Disneyworld. Intrigued? Get lost in Landon’s new tunes here: www.myspace.com/landonpiggmusic

Thanks Landon!

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For my latest interviews with Bushwalla, Rob Deez and Tristan Prettyman, check out www.thecsusmpride.com