With a natural, beguiling style, the 25-year-old songwriter and violinist has been a fixture on the Austin roots scene for nearly a decade, carrying on the legacy of his late father, Champ, of Uncle Walt’s Band. He has just released his eponymous solo debut.
Why a solo album now?
It took me two years to make the thing. It should have come out a long time ago. The album was a chance for me to experiment with ideas that do not exactly fit with the ensembles I’ve played with.
Do you get as much satisfaction from songwriting as you do from playing the violin?
Yes, but it is a little different. Songwriting—finding the right words to fit the music—offers up a whole new set of challenges.
With your expressive sound, people might be surprised to hear you’re a graduate of the Berklee School of Music.
When I got out of Berklee, I tried to fit everything I knew into every solo I played and sounded worse than before I went. [Austin guitarist] Rich Brotherton once told me, “It takes five years once you’ve left music school to decompress so you can really start playing.” Their job is to fill your brain with every possibility, and your job is to sift through it until you find your sound. It takes a lifetime. Read an extended interview with Warren Hood.
