Today we’d like to introduce you to Brittney & Anthony Baxter
Brittney & Anthony, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Brittney: I just started really singing about two years ago. I’d been in a church choir as a kid, and I’d been singing to myself (when I was alone) for as long as I can remember, but I’d never put myself out there to sing in front of other people. We started singing together as something fun to do, and pretty quickly found out that we enjoyed writing songs together. I wasn’t sure what to expect when we first started performing together, but the response has been really warm and encouraging. Each time we’ve played in the last year, people have come up to us afterwards to find out more information about us, where they can follow us, and where they can hear our songs.
Anthony: We had just started writing songs together, not really ever knowing if we were going to play a show or perform them for anyone, but my friend Greg Fraser, who writes poetry and songs, convinced us to play a few for him. He really encouraged us to start playing shows and writing more. The three of us started collaborating on several songs, the earliest of which, “Lonely Alone,” will be out on streaming services soon. Up until now, we haven’t had any of our songs out anywhere where people can listen to them, but there are still people coming to our shows and singing along, especially with ones we love like “Sun and Moon” and “Arkansas.” We started with recording a few demos at home, playing them for friends and family, asking them not to play them for anyone else until we had mixes I was happy with, but they’d immediately send them to other friends or family. Then we’d get positive feedback from everyone.
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?
B: Singing in front of people was definitely my biggest obstacle. To really sing, you have to sort of drop a lot of pretense and just let your voice take over a room. It’s intimidating if you doubt your own voice even a little. I’m not sure if Anthony intended for us to be in a band together, but he tried to get me to sing the first couple of years we were married, and I wouldn’t. Or I couldn’t, I should say – I cried the first time I actually sang in front of him!
A: This right now is a real-time obstacle for me. Dealing with social media and things like that are challenging. Everything until now has been word of mouth and operating outside of social media. We wanted to make sure everything had a really rooted and organic feeling, and that we knew what we were getting ourselves into. I’m finding myself surrounded by great people who believe in what we’re doing, so my hesitancy is fading. Writing the songs comes easier than this part. I just keep reminding myself that it’s about getting the music out there.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
B: We want to make music that connects with people, and we’ve found that, for us, being authentic and focusing on what we’re naturally interested in draws people in. Lately, we’ve been writing and shaping songs that show off all the ways our voices can work together. I’ve found inspiration for lyrics in stuff I’ve been reading recently: Greek myths, family stories, and nature writing. I love to read, and songwriting has become, in a strange way, an outlet for my reading. It gives me a place to jumble up all the things I’ve taken in and use them to offer another picture of a character or a mood or whatever the song seems to be calling for. Writing and reading work hand-in-hand, so there’s sort of this continuous loop of taking in ideas and words and then shuffling them together to see how they look to me. We’ve also started writing a concept country album that tells the story of my great-great-grandparents, and some of the early songs from that project have connected us with family members and their friends in other states. It’s neat to think that our music that started in our living room is being played in other homes and shared with people we haven’t met. Those songs have also given me a way to look at the world that existed 100 years ago, when the family story took place, and see what it looks like next to my current perspective. Writing can be a therapeutic practice, and I’ve found that the addition of music in songwriting gives me a place to address or deal with things that are difficult to express directly.
A: We know the traditions and we practice hard, honoring the past while trying to explore what’s possible with this kind of instrumentation and arrangements. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid, constantly practicing, putting in work and I’m finally starting to come around to the idea that it was all worth it. I’m proud of what we’ve created so far and that such a great group of people have been gravitating to us and surrounding us. We are just entering the phase of knocking on doors, getting out there and maybe walking through ones that open. Soon, we will have our first few releases out on streaming services, and we keep getting more shows booked. We are looking to let the music take us as far as it can, but we only aspire to be a part of cool things, nothing more. I think this could all easily become too much for me but I’m enjoying seeing Brittney flourish. It’s taken some time to figure out what resonates with people, but we’ve been taking notes on what songs quiet a room. I’ve toured around and played thousands of shows before, and this is just different, and the reason it all works is chemistry. It’s a gift to sing with Brittney and to write with both her and Greg. I feel like I finally have material that I believe in and that I’m excited to give my best to.
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
B: I could probably tell you a few, but one of my favorites is when my grandpa made me a treasure map. We lived in Georgia, and he lived in Texas, and we were coming to visit him one summer. He sent all four of the grandkids a separate letter in code. We had to solve the code to read the letter, which ended up being a treasure map of his back yard. When we got there, each with our decoded letters, we got to track and dig up treasure he’d buried for each of us: an assortment of family members’ dog tags, fool’s gold, and some platinum coins from his coin collection. This one made it into one of our songs – it’s a song called, “Abilene” and it sort of references these sorts of memories.
A: When I was a kid and just learning how to play guitar, I would take it with me to all the holiday gatherings at my grandmother’s house. No matter what I played, I had an uncle who would, probably under the influence, freestyle whole songs, lyrics and melodies, over any music I could throw at him. All these years later, I’m still astonished with the ease and freedom he could tell stories through these songs he’d make up on the spot to music he’d never heard before. So that left a lasting impression – it seemed like magic, and I try to channel some of that into our music.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetiesthatbindmusic/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/the-ties-that-bind-100094063214896/
Image Credits
Steven Broome
