Some of the most beautiful music that I’ve heard recently has come from the sensational folk-rock faction Highbeams and their new release entitled: “Keep Meaning It”, released October 1, 2018. The band consists of Adam Pendlington on vocals, guitar and bass, Stephen Quinn on vocals, bass and guitar, and Ian Pendlington on backing vocals, Cajon and piano.
“Keep Meaning It is about continuing to pursue something even after it becomes challenging. Whether it be in a relationship, career, or a dream. Finding who you are and what you want, and remaining steadfast in your pursuit.”
I spoke with Ian regarding the Georgia based trio’s inspirations, their new music and their future plans….
So Ian what is your job regarding Highbeams?
I’m not really the manager, but sort of the manager. I book our shows and do our social media…so I’m as close to a manager as we have. There’s my brother Adam who is probably the main songwriter, and the there’s Stephen who is the other song writer. Stephen plays the bass primarily, and Adam plays the guitar primarily. All three of us sing, but Adam will sing the songs that he’s written, and Stephen sings the songs he writes. It’s kind of a trade off situation.
What do you hope to do with your music if you could have your wish? What would you wish for?
It’s already sort of happening. We want people to hear it and connect with it. Hopefully it makes them happy in the way musicians made us happy and inspired.
Who inspires you?
For me, Adam inspires me. He never runs out of ideas. That is something that makes me sincerely believe we will never stop doing this because he always has another song that was written then I somehow think it’s better than what we have done before.
Who thought of the name of the band?
Adam did actually. We get asked a lot what it means, but it doesn’t mean anything really. We started off as just the two of us. We tried to think of names that where duos, that would work as just one blocky word. There’s no space in it and it just felt solid.
Do you guys perform live?
Yeah, we play live a lot. We play about 200 shows a year usually.
What do you like best about playing live?
I think the thing we like most is when it seems like the entire room gets it together. We often in our stage banter, in between songs, will kind of be goofy. When people understand that and laugh with us, and then when we play songs take it seriously, it feels right. It feels like everyone’s in the experience together. They get our vibe.
Talk a little about your new release.
Well, I’m pretty sure I thought of the name of the record, it all felt like a theme of starting something exciting, whether it be like for us, music, or relationships. The excitement of doing that is one thing to get you started but holding onto the excitement, letting it keep going, and continue meeting the thing that you thought was so exciting throughout the entire journey… that’s what the theme feels like to me. It feels good as a record because we made it at home in our parent’s basement. It’s the third one we made by ourselves and we feel confident that sonically it stands up with other people that have recorded in actual studios.
Is there a message that you are trying to get out there?
The message probably is just like the theme of the album. Just stick to what you were doing. The one thing that we’ve always realized comes true, you don’t fail if you don’t give up. Some people get other circumstances than we’ve have but as long as we have not given up there hasn’t been anything that came our way that stopped us from pursuing what we wanted to do. I think other people can take from that. A lot of people never even tried.
If you could say anything to your fans and followers what would you say?
Thank you for staying with us, because we’ve been doing this for about six years now. It feels pretty amazing that we don’t have to do any other part-time jobs because of it. So I guess there is a huge, enormous thank you. We really mean it.
Website: http://www.highbeamsmusic.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/highbeamsmusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highbeamsmusic/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/highbeamsmusic
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2q2o2GvSj70DPEJv3ob2S5?si=6rHsSe9LTgKPaysmKmRAwA
You must be logged in to post a comment.