Interview with Country Singer, Carver Louis

Let’s start with a quick bio:

My Name is Carver Louis, and I’m from the small town Tooele Utah. I’ve been traveling around the United States playing country music for the last six years now. It’s funny because everyone always thinks that a new artist is only a year into it, two years into it… usually, though, a “new artist” has usually been doing their art for a while. 

When did you notice you love music and start singing?

It didn’t happen until I was about 16 or so, for my 15th birthday my grandma bought me a guitar, and from there it took me about a year to get really comfortable playing it and trying to sing with it. I wasn’t very good at all. There are still some YouTube videos, buried deep, of me singing… and it sounds awful!, But yeah, I’d say around that time I played at my first little outing at a campsite up Settlement Canyon (Tooele). After that first little go-around, it’s like I was hooked, like “This is fun” and it prospered into my love for it today. We started out doing Friday nights on Vine, playing at the local arts festival, the County Fair, Grantsville days just about everything within Tooele County, which we did for about a good year-and-a-half to two years.

How did you get into the music industry?

I ended up entering a competition about five years ago called Nash Next with K-Bull93 here in Salt Lake City and we ended up winning the Utah Segment. It was a national thing… and the Top 10 finalists got to go to Nashville and do a whole show case out there. The winner won “x amount” of prize money. We entered that and won Utah and because of that I got introduced to the owner of Country Fan Fest and through that loop I was able to make those connections in that organization which then allowed me to meet other artists, management, booking agents … things just kind of snowballed from there.

Who’s your favorite artist?

Goodness gracious, that's a hard one! I’d have to say the band Midland… They’re super nice. We actually played at the same festival as them up in Idaho. We sat down and had lunch with them. It was a great time with some of the most down to earth guys for sure!

What made you decide to do country music?

I always joke that if I had the voice for anything else, I’d probably do something like The Band Camino, or The 1975, because that’s the kind of music I listen to. Which is kind of odd because I play country music and a lot of people on those sides of the spectrum don’t usually mix genres as much. But country music is the voice that I’ve kind of found for myself. I grew up and always listened to George Strait, Allen Jackson… so country music has always been in my family. I definitely think that it's something that's been ingrained in me so that's what I’ve been striving for. I love that in country music there are always stories being told. Other genres can tell a story, but personally I don’t think they can do it quite like country can. Like Jason Isbell and his song “Elephant” is so in-depth that it can really hit your heart strings.

Would you ever cross over to do other genres of songs?

Absolutely! If I could I would definitely love to do something like the Band Camino. I know that there is an artist Josh Kerr, also like Russel Dickerson, that has this cross between Indie rock and that country area that I think if I could ever make a song like that. I would be completely happy with that – just because I am a fan of that Indie rock genre. One of my favorites is Sam Hunt, because he integrated R&B with country. He was one of those staple artists that I liked and I want to kind of be like him.

Who inspires your music?

That’s so hard because I feel like to really get a good song that impacts others is to just tell a part of your truth, something that you’ve experienced and it's like the saying “Real recognizes real.” I feel that to be able to accomplish that, you have to be real. Either it's just yourself writing, or its in a room with two other writers…  and that’s a really interesting dynamic that happens in the writing room. Like you sit down and open up to your co-writers, and say “Alright I’m feeling like this today.”

Out of all your songs, what's your most favorite and why?

I would have to say it’s “Back to you” and that’s because of two factors. When I started writing that song I was in an interesting place in my life… kind of just floating. Didn’t really have a “real” relationship connection as far as that goes… and I kind of felt a little lonely. So, I wrote the first verse and the chorus then had it stowed away for about a year-and-a-half to two years… and then I finally reached out to my friend Hunter Girl and asked if she could help me finish it. She said “absolutely” and the second verse is all her. I think it's one of my favorites because in the first verse and the chorus itself I felt like I really captured that essence of wanting someone to be there with you. During that time we were playing three shows a week and I was gone all the time, so I always missed just hanging out and being around my friends and family. I was glad I got to really capture that. I also enjoyed it because I got to write it with one of my really good friends.

“Nashville is a 10-year town…”

Who are your favorite artists and who do you look up to?

Gotta give it up to George Strait. I hear a lot of artists go back and reference Willie and all them, but I am not that old. I’m 25 and I don’t listen to them, but the guys I listen to are Florida Georgia Line Sam Hunt, Rascal Flatts… I think those people are some of my favorites. Sam Hunt is also probably one of my most favorite artists from all the way back when I first heard him in 2014 and realized I like his style of country a lot.

Who are your biggest supporters?

My biggest supporters are definitely my Mom and Dad, my Sisters all the way to my Grandparents, Uncles, Aunts. It’s really cool because I don’t know how I got so lucky to have such a supportive family. I mean my Dad has practically been my manager for a long time. They were so supportive while I was attending Weber State University, trying to be a walk-on for their football team. I remember telling my mom that I was going to take a break from football and focus on the music. We were booking a lot of shows at the time, and she said “Yeah, okay go for it, if that’s what makes you happy, go for it, and after that year we started getting bigger shows.” It was nice because I never really got the pressure from them like “Hey are you gonna go back to school?” or anything like that. It was always “Go after what you want.”

What challenges do you have as a country music artist?

A big blockade for me would be not having a label or a publishing deal or anything like that. Those are some of the hardest things to do when you’re going up against all these other artists, especially in Nashville – that’s the hardest community. I wouldn’t say you’re really competing against anyone, but if you are trying to get a song cut by another artist or just trying to get your song promoted in any sort of way I feel like that is really one of the hardest things to do as an independent artist. That said, I know for a fact that there are ways around it because I’ve seen so many artists who have completely sky rocketed and have just taken off without any label help or anything like that.

What is your next goal?

To get a publishing deal. It’s said that Nashville is a 10-year town… and that it takes 10 years to do anything before you can actually crack the egg shell.

What would you tell your younger self if you could do something over?

Move to Nashville sooner! I think for sure that I wish I would have done it sooner – but I wouldn’t say I regret it. I always say that it takes time, and that everyone has their own timeline. I feel that if I would have moved out their when I wanted, around 2020 right as Covid was coming around, I probably would have ended up moving back. The whole music world was shut down. I wasn’t on a label, so I really wouldn’t have had any way to do anything. It would have been a real struggle. I know a lot of people who went out there at that time and did end up coming back away from Nashville… they never went back. So I would say “coulda, shoulda or woulda” but I’m glad that I didn’t.

Do you have any upcoming shows?

I have one at the Soundwell in Salt Lake City on December 2nd [doors open at 7:00 PM]. We are also working up to get to Toronto soon… And we’ll be playing in Nashville and then Kentucky, Georgia and North Carolina for the rest of the year.