Singer/songwriter Dustin Price landed here by way of Mobile, Alabama, roughly a year ago ready to explore a new city and make his musical mark.
Having released some EPs and songs prior to moving, as well as lending his talents to bands like God Bless Relative, Price was a seasoned writer and performer upon arrival. Having lived in Savannah for a year now, though, he feels that his writing has been impacted by the city.
“It’s definitely changed my perspective on everything,” Price, who headlines El Rocko Lounge on Fri., June 21, tells Connect.
“Getting out of the hometown climate is always nice. But it’s similar enough to where it felt familiar when I showed up. Savannah’s my favorite town that I’ve found so far, so that’s made it a lot easier to try and find myself. That’s the whole shtick, I guess. Self discovery through a bunch of introspective, sad [songs].”
Price’s songs are introspective, and often emotionally honest. He started writing songs several years ago, inspired by a Bruce Springsteen concert he attended.
“I was a sleepy little sad boy,” he jokes when recalling his initial musical influences, which include Bon Iver and Coheed and Cambria. “I went to a Springsteen show in 2014 and kind of got reborn into what I’m doing now.”
After that show, he wrote and recorded a few EPs that he says he’s been keeping “secret from everybody, because there’s a bunch of made up songs about girls and being sad.”
Price admits he’s not a very “rigid” songwriter in terms of discipline, but says that he works at his craft when he does sit down to write.
“It feels like work, but in a good way,” he explains. “Folks think, ‘Oh, it’s just going to show up. I don’t have to do any work!’ You can have a great idea out of nowhere, and it’ll come to you from the ether. But you have to work to get the best [results] you can.”
Whereas in the past he’d let a stalled song idea or slow-moving lyric get the best of him, these days Price says he’s able to recognize the importance of letting things happen as they’re meant to.
“I freak out, but then I take it easy and realize, ‘Oh wow, I’m holding a good thing but I’m gripping it too tightly.’”
Price says he experienced an “‘Oh shit, I’m going to die’ moment,” which pushed him to write deeper and address subjects like mortality.
“It’s all, kind of wrestling with mortality. Diving in there, seeing it, and calling it out for what it is,” he says. “But hopefully, at the end of the day, there’s some hope in there.”
