Alex Woodard: the interview

Who's athletic, tan, hot, has a voice of gold and a giant heart to boot? CGG had the pleasure of musicians Alex Woodard and his band mate Ike Marr visit our New York offices. This amazing duo serenaded our staff and wowed us over with what makes them move.

CelebsGoneGood: We read that you have a Finance degree. How did you get started with music?

Alex Woodard: Yeah, Business/Economics at UCLA. I worked at the financial district in Boston. I did that for 8 months. I quit my job and I drove across the country, and then I ended up in Portland, then Seattle and that’s where this music thing started for me and I put a band together.

CGG: And how long have you and Ike been working together?

AW: About 4 or 5 years. We just started doing house concerts, which are going great, but for normal touring, you know a lot of times he and I just go, because it’s just easy, he plays a lot of instruments and has a great voice, and we sing together well so touring is a lot easier, and you can get the songs across. It’s an easy way to tour. We can get one hotel room, just check the instruments in the suitcase and be good to go.

Ike Marr: The day before yesterday we flew from Seattle to Idaho. Then we drove an hour and half to a radio station for an interview. We had a contest on the air for a fan to have us go to their home for a show. When we got there, there were these two girls sitting on the driveway, apprehensive, probably wondering if we were going to show up. We played at their house, we made friends with some really amazingly cool people, and when we left they gave us a bag of food and wine. The whole point is that it’s about connecting with the audience, and it’s completely reciprocated by us.

CGG: Why the house concert?

AW: I’m not sure all artists feel this way, but a lot of it is about what you can do for somebody else and that’s kind of why we’re doing these house concerts; we’re not getting paid. It’s just one of those things where you see the people you play for light up. Its huge. It's unreal. When you show up and play in their living room, and you know they’re a fan, and you know they listen to you on their iPod all the time.

CGG: You recently did a show for Habitat for Humanity. How did you get involved with them?

AW: I got an email from the VP of Promotions for the San Diego chapter, because she was a fan, asking if we’d help out and I said of course and that’s how that relationship started. They just did a Home Builders Blitz where they built five homes in five days. We played the house blessing; basically it’s like Christening the house. We played under a tent, next to a house that was being built. It was super fun.

CGG: Did you actually help build the houses?

AW: Not this time, [because of the tour schedule]; that’s another thing I want to get involved in, the hands-on side of things. We get out to play shows and that’s really great, but I want to get out and do other stuff too. I gave a song called “Lift” to a group called Life Rolls On (LRO advocates on behalf of young people whose lives have been affected by spinal cord injury. It includes a program called They Will Surf Again – an adaptive surfing program.) I surf a couple times a day and it’s a perfect way that I can really get involved on a personal level.

CGG: Wow, Alex, you have a really hard life. You’re a musician and a surfer. Have you been a surfer all your life?

AW: Yeah I grew up in Long Beach, and when I moved to Boston, obviously that was a problem. Then I moved to Seattle and the water is three hours way. One of the reasons I left there was to get back to the ocean, so now I live in a little beach town, north of San Diego. I surf twice a day when I’m home. I created this life, it didn’t just happen. Since I was young, I had an idea of what I wanted my life to look like, and what I didn’t want it to look like, and usually "the didn’t" is what’s more important. As long as you know what you don’t want to do, even in the present, you can stop doing it.

CGG:So what's your favorite song on the new CD?

AW: I recorded the song “Table” in my house in a little town north of San Diego with a guy from Nashville who flew out and produced some stuff. The song is a story about losing someone to cancer. I had not lost anyone to cancer and I wasn’t really sure where the story came from but when it happens you just let it happen. We recorded it and a couple of days later I found out that my best friend Kona, was dying of cancer. I didn’t know that when I wrote the song. She was dying of bone cancer and was supposed to be gone before Christmas but she kept going, kept living, and she just died recently. It’s one of the strangest things that has happened to me in songwriting, so now it has a special place for me.

Alex’ new self titled CD is available now at amazon.com.
Check it out NOW!