The IMC Magazine Issue 19 / September 2016 | Page 44

Anti Hero days with adding some grit and a bit of growl to my voice to but I always tried to be careful about pushing my voice to far because I didn't want to damage my vocal chords.

So I would say with the new album I'm releasing this fall I've really been able to amalgamate my classical training, that background with my rock sensability and find a happy medium between the two. But it's taken me a long time to figure out how badly I want to sing rock but still incorporate the fact that I am a legitimate singer. I'm not just somebody who screams all the time.

What's the biggest crowd you've ever performed in front of?

About 500,000 people, actually, as a solo artist in 2010 at Pittsburgh's Three River Regatta. I was up there just with my acoustic guitar and it was as intimidating as hell. It was awesome to be able to say I did that and that you know I did as a solo artist too. Part of me really wishes I could have celebrated something so awesome with my former band because we really did deserve that kind of thing. But as I said, it fell apart really badly and so, I went solo still picking up pieces of my broken heart from all those experiences and I needed to just go for it.

Were you nervous at all?

I was. It's because I had been performing with a band for so long to this point I honestly forgot how it felt to be up there by myself. So I started getting that crazy wobbly leg syndrome where you're getting more bravado out of your voice then you intended because your legs are shaking tremendously and you have no control over them.

Besides your very impressive resume, what I really like is the tireless and unselfish work you do with young people. Bck in 2010 you launched your critically acclaimed solo album 'Off The Pages' along with MusicSaves, a non profit foundation. Can you please tell us about the album and what MusicSaves is all about?

Sure. So, like I said, on 2010 I was still very much recovering from my band experiences which weren't ideal in terms of how they all fell apart. I was going through a real emotional time and I was fairly convinced that was probably going to be the last album I that I would ever make. It was very experimental, it was very,very wierd. I played everything just live off the floor and I decided that all the proceeds I raised from the sale that I wanted to put into somethong good because I wanted to be able to give back and show my appreciation for all the great successes that I've had. Even though it didn't end that great with my band I'm still very proud of what we were able to accomplish.