Black Frame Color Polaroid by Cassidy Rose

Cassidy Rose: You have played some of the world’s largest stages and arenas how do those experiences compare to these intimate venues you’re doing this round of touring?

Quinn Sullivan: Well in some ways it’s kind of the same. I think of it as the same because you know it’s all about just having a connection with the audience, but I do feel like intimate venues make it a lot easier to make a connection versus those large venues because when you’re playing those huge places you can’t really see, I mean you can see people but you can’t make that same connection that you’d be able to have. Like tonight I’m playing for, you know, one hundred people or something like that so it’s easier to have that connection. I mean I don’t really have a preference. I like them both, there’s always a push to play to larger amounts of people, I like them both, I definitely do but the intimate stuff you can’t really beat at the end of the day.

CR: And what are the rest of your plans for the summer as far as touring goes?

QS: So, I’m going to Minneapolis for a couple of, actually like a whole week and doing some stuff out there. We actually haven’t announced those shows yet but we’re going to probably announce them next week and I’m doing some stuff out there and then probably coming back and doing another like southeast run, um, hopefully soon. Things are slowly getting back, you know, with the whole Covid thing, it’s definitely been a lot slower getting back into things, so this is like my first time I’m out playing these songs and playing this new stuff off the new album but it feels really nice to be back.

CR: And would you say the Covid pandemic and quarantine period helped or hindered your creative process?

QS: Ha! Well luckily I had the whole album done at the end of 2019, early 2020 so it was like before everything started to happen so I think it obviously sucked because I couldn’t put it out when I wanted to put it out but I think delaying it a year was a good idea just because, you know, it just wasn’t the right time to put it out in the summer of 2020 because no one was really doing anything and it was just a rough time so I think waiting the year definitely paid off in the long run.

CR: You have been making a name for yourself in the industry since you were a literal child how do you think that effects how you approach music?

QS: I don’t know if that affects my creative process or not, I mean, I think because I started so young I think that I had experienced so much and I have experienced a lot of life probably more life than a lot of kids my age might have experienced at like twelve or thirteen, I mean at that point I was touring with Buddy Guy for a long time and I was playing a lot of incredible venues around the world and being thrown in to all of this stuff. So, I think the life experience has definitely helped my creative process, I mean some of the songs even on the new album are taking from life experiences and just normal experience too, you know, relationships and love and all that stuff.

CR: Speaking of love, there’s a lot of heartbreak on the record, some love songs maybe but mostly heartbreak, what’s the story there?

QS: Ha! - well *laughing* - a lot of relationships, no not a lot of relationships, but a couple different relationships I was in over the course of maybe three or four years, and you know like for instance a song “She’s Gone” is for someone specifically, well never name names, you know, we’ll leave that for a mystery right! But I think yea, I mean, everybody goes through things like that and everybody goes through relationships and I think my way of dealing with that, especially at that time because I think I wrote that in 2018 it was right after I’d gotten out of a relationship so I tend to have a lot of creativity, you know, in my head when that stuff happens and the way I get it out is through writing music and coming up with songs.

CR: All your song lyrics seem very personal, when writing a song which generally comes first for you - the guitar part or lyrics?

QS: Most of the time it’s always with the guitar, I always seem to sit down and a lot of times for me it’s late at night when I’m coming up with my songs. I think a lot at night like we all do and for me I think with playing the guitar I’m a night guy anyways. I kind of go to sleep pretty late so I tend to just have these ideas pop into my head at like eleven or twelve at night and I always have my phone with me and I always have my voice memos on so I am always recording stuff and you know coming up with stuff in my head and making sure that if I do have an idea I am right there and I am putting that down. A lot of the songs on the new album started off as those kinds of ideas and then I brought them in the studio to Oliver Leiber who is the producer of the album and together we co-wrote a lot of the new songs together, besides a couple, but yea a lot of long conversations about love and life. You know Oliver and I just kind of got along right away and I had never met him before and the first writing session that we had together we wrote “She’s Gone” which is one of my personal favorite songs on the album so I kind of knew right then and there that this is definitely going to be a thing that is going to work out, so he ended up producing it. Yea, but as far as the writing process, I think the majority of the time it’s guitar first and then a melody, I’ll start singing melodies in my head and then I start singing them into a recorder and then lyrics kind of come after that, you know, after I’ve heard it a million times it’s like: “Okay what does this melody make me feel like, what do I want to say here, what’s the story and what am I saying?” So, it definitely seems to be that order for the most part.

CR: I often see you listed as a blues musician, does that resonate with you? How would you categorize your music?

QS: No, I wouldn’t call myself a blues musician, I love the blues and that’s how I got to where I am at now for sure I mean it’s definitely a huge part of me as an artist. You know being affiliated with Buddy Guy for so long, he’s been so generous to me over the years and has given me this platform that I have now, but I think as an artist it’s important to grow and to be your own person and have your own influences. You know the influences that Buddy had in his life may not be the same influences I have. I listen to a lot of different kinds of music, you know I’m always listening to new music coming out, so I’m influenced by a lot of different things. The music that I make it’s kind of hard to put it into one box and I was surprised to see some of the praise that this album did get because of how I was in that world for so long and I wasn’t sure how people would respond. It was kind of nerve wracking to put something like this out because I wasn’t sure how people were going to resonate with it or if they were going to like it or if people were going to get it, but I only had a couple of odd comments like “oh he’s forgotten about the blues…” But I think with my guitar playing and just my overall being I’m always going to love the blues and incorporate it into what I do.

CR: Speaking of Buddy Guy do you want to talk about the iconic moment he brought you onstage to play as a kid!?

QS: Yea! I’ll talk about it! Yea so Buddy came to a theater in my hometown of New Bedford Massachusetts, and I had first seen Buddy at this thing called Crossroads, it’s a guitar festival, Eric Clapton puts it on and it’s an amazing festival- I actually got to play it in 2013 at Madison Square Garden. So anyways me and my dad we went to the show, and we got to go backstage because knew a couple of people who worked at the theater, so we went backstage to meet Buddy and he was so nice. Right off the bat just such a nice guy, he really didn’t have to be as nice as he was, I mean I was only eight years old at the time but I had my guitar with me and I remember I had a polka dotted suit on because I knew he loved polka dots so I wanted to kind of pay tribute to that a bit and so we talked for a minute, I probably only said maybe three or four words I mean I was just a kid so I was like; “what do I say to this guy? *laughing* – I love your stuff!? Ha”. Then I think I remember him asking me to play a little bit on the guitar to see if I could play because like – who is this eight year old kid? – and then he ended up bringing me out on stage that night, yea he ended up calling me out, I was in the crowd and he pulled me out and I walked up on the stage and I played the last half hour of the show. I mean it was one of the greatest moments of my life you know playing with someone like that and I always say now it’s like being twenty-three I don’t think I realized how cool that was when I was that age it took me a long time to really understand how amazing and important that was for my career and just me overall.

CR: What is your dream festival line up and where does it take place?

QS: Oh, that’s a good one! Ha, hopefully I’m on the lineup! *laughing* Um, I’ve been really loving the new Black Keys album a lot, I really love those guys. That would be cool to do a festival with them if they were on the bill. I’m a big fan of the Tedeschi Trucks Band, I really love them a lot. I have become pretty close with them over the last few years they have been really nice to me. I love Gary Clark Jr a lot, I think he’s incredible, he’s a great musician, songwriter, just an amazing guitar player. Paul McCartney, we were just talking about Paul! – he would be insane! Maybe I don’t know, Tame Impala is another one that I love a lot, they’re a cool band. So those are a couple I would say off the top of my head! And I gotta say it would be in Boston, my hometown!

CR: You seem to be making the transition from child prodigy guitar player to accomplished singer songwriter pretty naturally, where do you hope your career takes you?

QS: I hope my career takes me to place where I can just make whatever music that I want to make without anyone telling me what I have to do and make a living doing it. You know, I think, sometimes I have these outlandish goals that I wish to accomplish one day but my biggest thing and my biggest mantra is trying to stay in the moment as much as I can because you can really get far out in your head like: “where do I wanna be in ten years?” And the music industry is such a funny unpredictable industry to be in, I think a lot of people would probably agree and say the same. The people that are doing the same thing I’m doing, it’s like you never really know what tomorrow may bring or next week may bring and it’s always just going up and then it’s going down and then it’s up and down so it’s *laughing* uh, you just have to get used to it and try to make the best of every situation and that’s what I’ve been trying to do lately is just appreciate that I’m still able to, you know, walk out tonight for a hundred something people. I just played a show in my hometown, New Bedford, Fall River Mass, for about four hundred and twenty people, so just building an audience, building the numbers and hopefully every year it just gets progressively better!

CR: Any plans to get back in the studio soon or will you be touring the new record for a while?

QS: I wanna tour this one definitely for the summer, I mean, I am always writing, I’m always coming up with stuff. I see myself probably getting back in the studio I’d say late fall and the winter for hopefully a 2023 release or something!

CR: Anything else you wanna share with the fans!?

QS: I think we’ve covered everything just thank you to everybody that has listened to the music so far and I really appreciate it and everybody that’s followed me for so long. I have a lot of fans that have been following me since I was a little kid probably farther back than I can even remember so it’s pretty cool to see them still coming out and still telling stories of the first time they saw me when I was like ten or eleven. It’s trippy you know because you kind of forget that because you are always living from moment to moment but yea just very appreciative for everyone that’s come along for the ride!

Setlist:

Intro

Strawberry Rain

All Around the World

Real Thing

Baby Please

She’s Gone [She Ain’t Coming Back]

How Many Tears

Why Does Love Got to Be So Sad

Wide Awake

Keep Up

Little Wing

You’re The One / I Wanna Dance With Somebody

Dear Prudence

Let Me Have it All

She’s so Irresistible / Had to Cry

Encore:

In a World

Quinn Sullivan Interview

Ava Della Pietra Interview

Casey Baer Interview