by Brett Leigh Dicks
Everybody’s favorite Facebook friend, Skyler Stonestreet, has been celebrating this Holiday season in a very special way – by performing with former Backstreet Boy, Kevin Richardson, at gala event in Los Angeles ballroom. Not that such extravagance is anything new to the Santa Barbara-raised singer-songwriter. After a record deal fell through, and the resulting album she had so painstakingly crafted was shelved, she didn’t sit around contemplating what could have been, she booked a series of shows and took to the road – for a year and half. Since then she has settled into life in Los Angeles and has been furiously writing and recording for both herself and film and television. While hers is a constant musical evolution that has seen her band continuous grow in size, she is also than happy to return to her roots as a solo singer-songwriter. While she is currently shifting through touring opportunities with other artists for the new year, rest assured that another Santa Barbara appearance will feature somewhere in the mix for January.
How are you? Are you feeling suitably festive?
I am! It’s been a crazy week. I just found out I’m doing a Holiday benefit show where I’m doing a duet with one of the Backstreet Boys!
Which Backstreet Boy is it exactly?
It’s Kevin! I was so excited to get the email! I was like ‘wow!’
How did the upcoming performance come about?
He heard my vocals on a demo that a friend of mine, who is a pretty big producer, recorded for me. He was just looking through stuff and listening and it was just by chance he heard me. He wrote a random email to him and said ‘hey, that girl you played me, I want her to come and sing at my show.’ Then he wrote me an email and I thought ‘I know that name!’ When I was in the 7th grade I was the biggest Backstreet Boys fan, but I’m not going to tell him that!
What song are you going to duet on?
We’re going to sing “Baby It’s Cold Outside” and then I’m going to sing “Santa Baby” by myself.
So talk me through the musical genesis that has led to you singing with a backstreet Boy …
It’s a pretty stereotypical story where an artist gets some sort of deal that comes to an end and it’s kind of a disaster. It’s sad, but just about every artist has a story like that. I did a record that has never been put out because it turned into a mess and ended up moving on by booking my own tour. I wasn’t just going to wait around for the next record to come to me, so I decided to go on tour and travel. I made my best friend go with me as an opening act, but really just because I wanted them there with me, and we ended up traveling around the States for a year and half playing shows.
Was there a plan?
Not really. And I think we ended up traveling for much longer than was actually necessary, but I didn’t really know what I was doing. I booked shows everywhere across the whole US. I spent a lot of time on the computer doing that. When we were out on the road that’s when I realized that it was a really long time to be out there!
It must have been quite an enlightening experience?
We saw some pretty crazy towns. We were in old mining towns. One of the towns we played wasn’t even on a map. We went to towns where there was just one bar and pretty much nothing else. It was super fun though. My favorite was dressing up for Halloween. We looked pretty outrageous, but we didn’t know that the place we were playing was a really nice black tie place. And we showed up with me dressed as mermaid and my friend was a baseball player with a weird wig and glitter on his face. They were not having it, but it was hilarious to me.
I believe your musical induction was through playing classical piano. How and when did songwriting enter the fray?
I was taking piano pretty seriously while growing up in Santa Barbara and really love it, but also swayed from it a little bit. I would write my own pieces. So it started out with me writing these little piano pieces that were kind of in the classical realm, but not exactly. I had a book of lyrics that I was writing separately and one day I decided to put them together. I guess it makes sense to most people to start like that, but I just wasn’t thinking like that. Once I put those lyrics to the music, something clicked for me. I then completely swayed, I kept the classic music there for fun and knowledge, but songwriting became my passion and what I really wanted to do.
Tell me about the first time you took your songs out into the world and performed them publicly …
I did my first show when I was about 17 and it was in Redondo Beach. I don’t know why I booked a show down there because I didn’t have a car! So I made a friend take me down there and it was at a little coffee shop and there were probably about five people there. But it was the biggest deal to me. It was like ‘oh my god, I have a show!’ It was a whole event. And you definitely don’t forget the first time you play a show.
What is your musical favorite incarnation in the live arena these days?
My set is changing and developing all the time because I keep adding to my band. I still play solo shows, which helps to bring me back to my roots as a songwriter, but I just playing with the full band and it was so much fun. I play less so I get to use the stage more, running around and getting my energy out that way. It’s a blast. I’ve always had an instrument with me because I have played a lot by myself, but when I have the chance to have supporting musicians I can do my stage thing.
It must be two very different musical experiences?
They are. When you are by yourself, if you make a mistake there’s no one else to blame! It is great to collaborate and create something with other people, but it is also important for me to keep playing solo because that’s how I started and I don’t ever want to lose that.
You alluded to playing remote small towns and in a few weeks time you are playing a grand Los Angeles ballroom with a Backstreet Boy. Have those early experiences helped prepared you for what has come since?
Yeah, I think so. It’s good to have the experience of playing in a crazy bar somewhere because you can then really appreciate a great sound system and a sound engineer who knows what he’s doing. It’s great to have that perspective. So it’s really important to have those experiences, but I’m also glad that I’m not playing as many of those bars anymore!
These days there are so many different ways to get your music out there and that seems to be something you are very adapt at. You can tour the country for a year and a half and perform with pop princes. Then there is music placement and social networking, I am wondering how you go about tying all that together?
The thing is that a lot of other careers or pursuits are really overwhelming to me, but music is very easy for me to organize. And that is very strange because I’m not very organized in any other realm of my life, like my house or car. But anything involving is easy for me to strategize and explore different avenues. I wrote a lot for film and television and that’s a different way to be creative. But you need to be organized. It is a challenge, but I like those sorts of challenges, they’re really fun.
What fuels that?
Seeing progress I think. That’s really rewarding.
You alluded to film and television. It must be very surreal to hear your song play as a soundtrack to a scene …
It’s pretty cool to see a song narrate a scene of a show or a movie. Now I realize how much music plays a part of what you watch. Whether it’s a romantic scene or a sad scene, the music can take it to a completely different place. It has been really cool to see where they have put my songs. People have made out in a park to my songs and the last show my song played in it was featured at the end and it played through the end credits. That was really cool. I was like ‘wait, it’s still going. And it’s still going. And it’s still going!’ I was super excited.
You grew up in Santa Barbara, but were born in Las Vegas. I have seen you perform with your band and it is always very vibrant. Does a little of Las Vegas stay with everyone that is born there?
I think it does, even when you’re somewhere different it’s with you. I love the glitz and glamour of all the big shows there. I love that and never want to lose the influence of that side of the place. In fact I should have it even more as a part of my show!
Skyler plays Soho December 20, 2011.
