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Clay Howard, musician and writer of Kernersville
www.clayhoward.com

Playing rock ’n’ roll

I am in a band called Stratocruiser. I play guitar and sing. I like playing with the band. It is a lot of fun. The band doesn’t play any covers; we play all original music. We have five CDs out, and we just released an album called “The Spark” in October. We are an old-school rock band, which is not the cool thing to be in anymore, evidently. Folk music, the Avett Brothers and Mumford and Sons, that’s the whole cool thing right now. I do think my younger kids think it’s cool that I am in a rock band, although I don’t know if my 16-year-old does.

A concept album

The new album is a concept album, which means it tells a story from beginning to end. It is the story of a young guy who’s in love, and his love is unrequited. He’s schizophrenic, so there is a voice leading him down a certain path that doesn’t end well. It isn’t an unhappy album, though.

I came up with the story. We were writing an album at the same time, and I never finished the story. I put it all into the album.

Going solo

I have been playing solo shows for the past 10 years, too, and I play some original songs, but I do play some covers, too. I fought playing covers for years and years, but it’s fine now. They pay some of the bills.

Rock star hair

I cut it all off when I was 30. I cut it off when I would sit on it. But yeah, I have pretty much had long hair all my life.

His writing process

I will have a little kernel of a story, and it takes me where it is going to go. I don’t necessarily plot the whole thing out. Sometimes they will surprise me, the directions they go in. I don’t struggle over revisions. I will revise the grammar, and that’s all. I tell my kids little made-up stories all the time. They like them. Growing up, I remember I would write little short stories and stupid poems in high school. But for most of the last 20 years, it was just songwriting. Then about two years ago, I had a story idea that was a song called “No Snow at Christmas.” It is the free song on my website, and I have written pretty consistently since then.

Recently, I have been writing about where I grew up. It’s a collection of stories called “Tupelo Stories.” It’s me and my brother and the stories of what would happen if …. My brother and I were very close growing up. We are not even a year apart. These are fictional stories with real characters and settings.

The inspiration behind 'Tupelo Stories’

I think I am just getting old, and my kids are the ages of me and my brother when we lived there (in Tupelo, Mich.). We were always playing in the woods or walking a mile away to the store to get something for our mother. I haven’t been back (home) since 1994.

I used to be on Facebook, and I would see people pop up from elementary school. I hadn’t thought about them in 30 years. One of the people who popped up was this kid, Lindsey Leake, and I was thinking about how his father owned a hardware store. Well, that became my last story. It was about his father’s store having a meteorite out in front of it.

Juggling creativity

I think I have to be busy, keep my brain occupied. I work here (The Nussbaum Center) 55 hours a week. I am an adjunct teacher at GTCC. I teach Photoshop or Illustrator. I do marketing work for Waterstone Guitars out of Nashville, Tenn. Sometimes I write on my lunch break or after the kids have gone to sleep. I write songs whenever it happens. I don’t smoke or drink — and I used to do both — so maybe all of this is to fill that gap.

His children’s book

I wrote a children’s book this past September called “The Energy Thief.” It is short, about 20 pages, and I will probably self-publish it. It’s about how children get all of their energy from their parents, and that’s why their parents are tired. It’s kind of a bedtime story. I think it is funny for kids or adults.

As told to Erin McClanahan Rainwater. Contact her at eringrey718@yahoo.com.