Everett Young is the mastermind of Kicklighter, who has recently released an energetic, up-beat, fun album entitled “Paper Planes Vol 1. Everett has been chasing his musical dream since age nine, and now he has decided to live it.
“I’m turning a page on my life’s musical adventure. I’ve always wanted to write for the orchestra, and for films, like my hero John Williams-but this is a fact I seem to have hidden it from myself between fifth grade in now, at 48 years old. But before I walk that walk, I have some pop songs I need to get out of my system, over 20 of them. And here are the first 11″…Kicklighter
Although his dream is to write for the Orchestra, Everett did an awesome job with “Paper Planes Vol. 1”. He is a multi- instrumentalist with a lot of lyrical insight. Although he considers his music to be adult contemporary, I think it stretches far beyond that…I spoke to him regarding music, life and future endeavors…
What made a guy from Florida who went to school on Long Island want to try the music industry?
I’ve always been a musician but the more immediate thing is the fact that after I got my PhD from Stony Brook, I didn’t get any jobs. I didn’t get hired. Everybody else got hired but I didn’t. My wife and I moved back to Tallahassee which is our hometown. We had roots here and the roots quickly reconnected. I did teach for one semester at a University in St. Louis but that didn’t turn into anything. It was just a visiting professor job. So it looked like my political science career was going nowhere. It wasn’t the first time in my life that I tried something other than music. So I went back to music one more time. I’m not leaving again though.
Well your songs are really good so I hope you don’t. I think they are very radio friendly.
Well, I don’t listen to the radio much lately. Interesting that you say that, but I would’ve guessed that they aren’t. It would be great if they did get on the radio. I doubt that I’ll ever write another pop song. I really am enjoying writing for the orchestra. I’m really enjoying that it’s really amazing to do. The orchestra is such an amazing instrument and it’s something I always wanted to do. You’d have to psychoanalyze me pretty deeply to figure out why I’m only now getting around to doing it.
That’s fair.
Yeah….when I was a kid I was into movie music. I mean John Williams was my hero. How many nine-year-olds have a film score composer as a hero. And for some reason I didn’t pursue it. I had some music teachers I think that didn’t exactly inspire me to really work on my craft. By the end of high school I thought I’m never going to be a real accomplished musician so I was thinking maybe I could do pop music and I would get girls that way. Which didn’t work by the way. Every other person besides me that was into pop music seems to have gotten the girls, but not me.
What’s that about….you didn’t get the job or the girls?
What’s wrong with me, I don’t know? But I feel like that’s what “Paper Planes”, which is a double album, the second one hasn’t come out yet, but I feel like it’s an exploration of that a little bit. It’s a hard look at me saying “what the hell happened”? I don’t think that makes me really unique. I think a lot of people that are middle-age look in the mirror and say what happened. So I don’t think that that’s necessarily unique. Maybe that will help the album connect with people. I think it’s an album written for other members of my age group, although all can enjoy it. Nobody really makes music for 50-year-olds do they?
There is actually a huge adult contemporary market. All these 80 rockers are coming back like Adam Ant and Billy Idol..
Now you’re singing my song, Billy Idol…fantastic songs.
They are all on tour now.
Yeah that is true. I love that music. Well you know the thing is though that I don’t know that people go to see Billy Idol’s new songs. So I wonder if there is a lot of really good new music that is targeting a 50-year-old? I suppose there could be some but the music business has shrunk so hardly anybody is becoming a big star in the making new music at all, let alone making new music for middle-aged people.
Well I really think your music is good.
I really try to do something special and good. It’s pretty intensively crafted. I’m really patient and I take a long time. I don’t just throw anything out there. There is a lot of stuff that gets left on the cutting room floor. There are a lot of songs that I write that doesn’t ever make it. I’m going through a lot of the older stuff to get to the good stuff.
Website – https://www.EverettYoungScoring.com
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/kicklightermusic/
Twitter – @ComposerEverett
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