Interview with Drew, of Drew6!

What is it like to be playing so many great gigs right here in your own
stomping grounds?
I mostly enjoy doing it when the weather warms up. People are in a
much better mood as we head into the summer.
In a perfect world, I’d be on tour a lot more. That day will come, and I’m sure then, I’ll wish I was playing more in the city I live in.
Let’s just say playing in your home town a lot has it’s positives and its negatives.

At what point did you realize, “hey, I’m making it!” ??
I knew this is what I wanted to do at a very young age. I was singing before I could talk. As you accomplish one goal that seems great, you find something more that you want to accomplish.
This is living. Always moving forward. Your definition of “making it” is constantly changing.
I know I am already a big rock star, I just need for the rest of the world to find out about it!

Who do you love being compared to?
My dad. And myself in the past. Because I’m getting better.

Obviously I’m going to ask…who do you hate being compared to?
If you are getting at “who people think I look like and sound like,” well I’d mostly just like people to think of me as Drew. I work very hard to build an image and a sound that people will remember.
When you are in Kansas City and you don’t look like everyone else, people are always going to say, “you remind me of so and so… ” These comparisons vary wildly. I try to take them in stride, and sometimes I even take at as a compliment. I would like to be “incomparable” in the minds of my audience, but even huge celebrities are always being compared to someone.

What is in your CD/MP3 player right now?
I think most people would be surprised at the variety of music I listen to. Maybe not. My IPod has about 8000 songs in it. I buy the whole CD. I’m a fan first, if I like an artist, I’ll buy everything they put out.
I have lots of music for enjoyment, some to study the writing and the production.
By the way I don’t burn the songs, I buy them.
I listen to Robbie Williams and Kevin Max because that’s what I do. I listen to Kelly Clarkson because I want to see what Max Martin did with her production to make a hit.
I listen to Fall Out Boy because it’s current and I wonder what makes “This Ain’t A Scene” palatable to the same audience who thinks Backstreet Boys isn’t cool (when it’s written and produced in almost the exact same manner).
Then I’ll put on Leon Russell, Johnny Cash, some Motown, because these are my teachers. My guilty pleasure is George Michael.
My favorite hard rock band, The Cult.
Sheryl Crow, The Black Crowes, Counting Crowes, because I like the lyrics. Depeche Mode because I like the band. You get it, impossible to name them all…

So I hear a few of my friends are stalking you, in a good way…what is
it like to have so many fans as repeat guests at your gigs?
Unless you want to play music in your basement for your entire life, your fans make your career. I don’t have a basement in my current house, and I want to play to millions of people.
There’s a story I read in one of my motivational books. Something about if you took a normal city (and they actually used Kansas City as an example even though it was a national publication), and you did a show for a thousand people, and there was only one person that truly liked your music — that would translate to being a bona fide “star” in America.
If you multiplied that by all the cities and you won over just one person for every thousand. They did the math, not me. I’m not a math guy. But I know that every single person at my show matters, if I play to 18,000 at Verizon with Maroon 5 or I play to 3 on a weeknight at an acoustic show. You’d better be on, because the time you give “less” is the time that you will have had the chance to make that one big connection.
You can’t “make it” alone. All of my fans, and even “stalkers” as you say, matter to me.

What music do you really love to sing/play?
My own. It doesn’t mean I don’t love singing Chris Isaak. But I’m in this business to make myself known. A nd to move people with my music.

Thanks so much Drew! I loved seeing/listening to you and look forward to more.
You can catch Drew at several locations around the metro area. Check out his web site!