White Apple Tree

White Apple Tree was founded by Ryan Marshall Lawhon, whose musical adventure started when he was a freshman in high school and was talked into playing bass with his church band. "Apparantly they needed a bassist quickly," he says, "because just three days after renting my first bass -- [I] never played any instrument before -- they had me up on stage playing a full eight-song set."

As the modern electronic era made it possible for anyone to record music with modest home-based equipment, Lawhon became a one-man band. "My friend was selling a little Tascam 8-track recording system at an extremely low price, so, even though I did not know what I would do with it, or even how to start to use one, I just decided I would play around. I did not own a microphone, so my friend lent me his Nady mic that cost him a total of five dollars, and I tried to record. We had an old keyboard lying around, so I decided I could mess with that as well, and within two days I had learned to play decent synth and had fully recorded my first track, entitled 'Eyes,'"

After posting the song on MySpace, he says, "I soon found my groove and began my writing process, finding my own style and the best way for me to write, all on my own with no help from even my musical friends. I found a pride in making my own music, finding that even if I had no friends to collaborate or depend on, I could write a song that others enjoyed just by myself in my room, with the cheapest equipment anyone could ask for."

White Apple Tree's music on MySpace has earned over 2,220,000 plays, with around 42,000 people signing up to be on the band's "friends" list.
Currently in the studio on their first full CD produced by Steven McClintock and Ryan Lawhon - San Diego Reader