Alex Woodard

How did a surfer from San Diego write a record that sounds like it came from the middle of America, crossing county lines between country music, rock, and Americana? Hard to say, but it could have something to do with his dad’s record collection and his own love of storytelling. In his words, “Stories don’t care where you’re from.”

Alex Woodard grew up surfing in Southern California with an after-school childhood acting gig. He appeared in shows like The Love Boat and Battlestar Galactica, as well as commercials for Coca Cola, McDonalds, Skippy Peanut Butter and countless others. But he lost his big shot at a feature film role to an unknown kid just starting out in the business, and the disappointment subsequently ended Alex’s acting career and pushed him to find other creative outlets. He discovered music by writing silly songs and performing in elementary school talent shows with his then-neighbor and current bass player, Patrick. “We used empty Sparkletts water bottles for drums, and I made a guitar out of a two by four with rubber band strings… I think my mom was hoping it was a phase,” Woodard remembers. He was introduced to his influences by his older sister, who inaugurated his education with an old cassette tape of Tom Petty and the Heartbreaker’s ‘Damn the Torpedos’, and Alex filled in the gaps from there with his dad’s collection of Bruce Springsteen, Willie Nelson, Neil Diamond, and Bob Seger.

He taught himself to play piano and guitar through high school (and performed in the obligatory ill-fated garage bands), went to UCLA, got a degree in Business Economics, and worked a short stint in Boston for a mutual fundscompany after he graduated. He quickly found that the daily coat and tie was not for him, and soon landed in Seattle, working in aPioneer Square loft for a small internet software company. “I started as a temp and had no idea what the company did, let alone what the internet was,” Woodard says, “but it turned out I was working for the folks who created the compression technology for streaming media over the internet, RealNetworks. And alot of musicians worked there because the focus was on music and technology.” Alex befriended one of those fellow musician workers,put a band together through a newspaper ad (including current drummer Brian Young, from the Posies and Grammy-nominated Fountains of Wayne) and started playing shows around the vibrant Seattle scene.

After recording a couple of independent albums, Alex enlisted the Northwest’s legendary singer-songwriter Pete Droge to produce Mile High in 2004. The album was produced at Droge’s house, in between his tour stops with Matthew Sweet and Shawn Mullins as the Thorns. Picked up by the now-defunct 33rd Street Records and released to critical acclaim, Mile High highlighted Alex’s middle-of America vocal delivery and honest, story-driven songwriting, andput Woodard on several ‘best of’ lists. A move back to Southern California ensued (“I just missed surfing”), where he met utility player Ike Marr and got back on the road. He produced last year’s Up With The Sunhimself, featuring Marr’s mandolin and string arrangements. The record earned him a Singer/Songwriter of the Year nod at the LA Music Awardsand inspired him to continue evolving his sound towards country and Americana music. He credits the struggle of recording and releasing records on his own for helping him grow as a songwriter. “I had to develop myself as a writer, because no one else was going to do it for me… long gone were the days when you got a deal and could hit your stride by the third record,” Alex explains, “so I tried to learn from my heroes and focused on getting better.”

Woodard will release his new self-titled album in August of 2008 on Woodshack/Adrenaline/Warner Music Group. In writing the record, Alex says he focused on a central message that everyone celebrates and struggles with, regardless of age: getting older. “No matter what road you travel, you’re getting older,” Woodard says, “and there’s no way around it. You may be 10 years old, wishing you were 16, or you could be 45 wishing the same thing. I really tried to look at the love, loss, hope, and struggles we all face as the seasons start running together, and it seemed to me to be about how hard it is to live in the moment when the moments are passing by so fast. Maybe getting older should be celebrated with wisdom and grace, not with an empty attempt to turn back the clock.” When asked about the single “Beautiful Now,” Alex responds, “Having kids is about getting older too, and that song revolves around the struggle I think a lot of women go through after they’ve had children… who am I now, what am I about, what happened? ‘Beautiful Now’ says embrace that moment you’re in, because you’re more beautiful now that you’re a mother. And since I don’t have kids, I just imagined what I’d say someday to the woman in my life.”

The record was mixed by Grammy-winning mixe