Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Carnes.
Hi Michael, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My name is Michael Carnes. I’m 28 years old, and I am a singer/songwriter based in Athens, GA. I had moved from Knoxville, TN to Athens, GA to be closer to my fiance, who then became my wife back in 2018. I had been playing music and writing songs since I was 16 years old and the first time I recorded a song, I showed everyone I knew in high school from my old Philips MP3 player (talk about a throwback device!). After that happened, I knew I loved songwriting! I started a punk rock band in Tennessee with a few of my close friends, and we were together for about four years and we broke up because just like most bands do – because life just happens! But thankfully, we all still keep in touch and even have become part of each others’ wedding parties as we’ve all gotten older. After the band broke up, I wasn’t sure what to do in regards to music, because I was so used to doing it with other people and one day, my sister just looked at me and said, “Why don’t you just do solo stuff? Because everyone knows you’re not going to give music up.” And that’s exactly what I did!
I had written a song titled “Beautiful” as my first solo venture in 2016. It was your standard indie-folk song and I recorded it in Johnson City, TN, with a friend in his small apartment. Having no idea what to do next, in the winter of 2016, another friend reached out to me to perform music at a fundraiser and not only did that become my first solo gig, that very same fundraiser ended up being the place where my wife and I met for the first time and we happened to be wearing matching outfits on accident (black skinny jeans, black leather jackets, combat boots, and a red shirt).
My solo music career, in so many ways, has grown in tandem with my relationship with my wife, Kayla. I remembered, before meeting her, that the thought of being in a committed relationship would also be the beginning of the end of any creative avenue I would want to explore. After all, it wasn’t uncommon that artists would stop releasing stuff after they got into a relationship. But Kayla has proven to be the complete opposite of the metaphoric ball and chain that marriage is so often compared to. In so many ways, she’s given me wings, and she pushes me to better a songwriter and artist every day. After we got married, she encouraged me to launch a Kickstarter Campaign for my debut album “Coyote” which ended up getting overfunded and released on all platforms in 2019. And writing that record was so therapeutic as well because it was about the transition from leaving and grieving how I had become disenchanted with my hometown only to find something to look forward to in this new life I was starting with my wife.
Now it’s 2021 and I’m trying to figure out what a world of performing live music looks like as everyone is trying to navigate Covid-19. The last show I played in Athens also happened to be the night before the first stay-at-home order went into effect, so it has been a solid year and a half since I had played music in front of people that wasn’t some sort of live stream event. But I am hopeful for the future because I’m also released my sophomore album “Paper Beach,” that will be released this winter on all platforms.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has definitely had its challenges, for sure. The biggest one is moving to a new city and starting completely over in regards to networking and trying to be part of a music community that I feel out of touch with. It was easier in my hometown in Knoxville, TN, because everyone knew me from high school, college, or work. And this pandemic hasn’t necessarily made things easier either because a lot of creative friends I had started to make here ended up losing their jobs and had to move out of Athens because of it.
But there have been some blessings, too! During the pandemic, so many of my TN friends had tried to stay super connected during pandemic and we all would organize virtual events and that was certainly a bright spot during this really hard season for everyone.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
What has inspired my music the most is how I believe that there can be a way to talk about my experience as a progressive Christian here in the south when most of the demographic is not that. God is a big part of my life, and I feel like the idea of what is considered “Christian Music” has unfortunately just become synonymous with worship music – and that kind of bums me out. I think Christians are just like everyone else and have the same experiences of people who don’t subscribe to the same faith, like having doubts, anxiety, depression, and sometimes feeling aimless, as well as being inspired by the things we don’t know yet.
Because what I hope to tackle with my music isn’t that I want Christianity to get more clout at all. All I want to do is to talk about my experience being one, and that includes my battles with my own mental health or how my wife has done a better job at helping me redefine what “manhood” means better than any other man in a church that has tried to mentor me. I like to give myself at least one day a week or so to just say, “You know, I’m not sure I believe in this Bible thing right now, and that’s okay.”
While I do have a punk rock background, I think it’s interesting how the genre I’ve arrived at in my solo stuff leans more towards an indie rock/acoustic thing. Which, at first, I wasn’t sure if I’d like that, but it is funny how that is what comes naturally when I sit at home writing music in Pro Tools. What’s funny right now, that the thing I’m most known for is my first EP titled “Parking Lot Talk” that’s available on Spotify. Even though I don’t write about unrequited love anymore and I feel like the newer songs I’ve written are better, it’s so funny to see how an EP that came out back in 2017 is still killing all of the other songs I’ve released since then in terms of streams.
As far as the thing I’m most proud of. I would say whatever happens to be the latest project I release. After I got married, unrequited love, as easy as a topic to write about and popular as it is, stopped becoming an actual presence in my life. My wife loves me very well, and that has forced me to look more inward to write about the things about myself that I haven’t quite processed yet. And almost every song that I’ve written since being married has mostly been about how I’ve either changed spiritually, ideologically, how the state of my mental health is doing, a personal negotiation with God, and how that all stacks up to/against cornerstones of a foundation of values I was raised with and figuring out whether those same values need to change or be reinforced. So each song I write always feels like I’m inching one step closer to discovering who I am more and more each day and I find that to be the coolest thing.
In terms of what sets me apart from other artists, I would say that I’m talking about my own experience and if the things I write songs about resonates with someone, that’s only a bonus. Because what I hope to accomplish with my music is to truly humanize and redefine what it means to be a Christian artist.
How do you think about happiness?
It has to be laughter 100%. Nothing makes me happier than when someone tells a really funny joke or does something hilarious.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @michaelcarnesmusic
- Other: @michaelcarnesmusic on TikTok
Image Credits
Kayla Carnes
