West Coast Country is what Westward Sons’ crafts and brings to the world perfectly. Founded in Southern California the band prides themselves on the music they make and the ability to make instant fans after just one live show. In the past year the band has played many shows including 2019 Tailgate Fest in Norco, CA, Shipkicker Music Festival and the 2021 Hometown Country Fest.
Their most recent release, Song I Wanna Sing is a song for any country fan. The band is looking forward to writing and releasing more music in the near future and are eager to share it with their fans and new listeners.
Courtesy of Westward Sons
I got to sit down with lead singer and founder of Westward Sons, James Rensink to talk about the band, their unique name and the music they make.
Let’s talk you early background with music, how did this all start for you?
JR: “Dad named me after James Taylor. So, that was kind of always in the mix, grew up listening to music, I grew up in church, so I was around church music. Kind of a stereotypical country thing is Church music always kind of like bleeds over into it, but definitely got the experience of being able to sing in front of people very early on.” James says. “I would say writing music came more in my teenage years when I started picking up the guitar when I was around sixteen. I was in that whole like punk, rock, emo scene. During that time I was learning a lot of songwriting and bands, so I just ran with it.”
When did you think of music as a career?
JR: “I would say I was in my 20’s, there was a realization of things I want to do in my life. There were tons of things I wanted to experience, like have a family and do X, Y, Z but music…..if I could somehow make this I knew I wanted to do it my entire life.”
How did the formation of the band come to be?
JR: “I was doing solo stuff, won Battle of the Country Bands in Long Beach, CA in 2016 under my own name, I got to play a big festival opening up for Lee Brice. After awhile the bands and the country artists I started to gravitate towards were bands that were writing great songs together like Old Dominion was a huge inspiration.” James tells me. “I really wanted to have more of a collaborative type of effort and it was probably a few years after that, I decided I want to roll this into like an actual band.”
What a great story, where did the band name sprout from?
JR: “Part of it is a nod to the West Coast, where we’re from. This isn’t necessarily where all country music comes from so we wanted to give a nod to that and it’s kind of a tongue in cheek, ‘hey we’re a bunch of guys, in the band, from the West Coast’ without trying to be too literal - it sounds like a country band.”
What has changed for Westward Sons musically from when you first started versus now?
JR: “Since the release of Heartfelt I was way more in the mode of figuring out putting pop in country and now we’re leaning a bit more of a country sound as a band as opposed to what Heartfelt sounded like.”
While embracing the country music sound now why did you guys choose to go country in the first place?
JR: “It was baked into the folk Americana music I grew up with but the main reason is my parents. They were really into country for a long time and I just wanted to explore this other side of songwriting myself that country music started to fulfill.” James confesses. “I was writing other genres of music but there came a point where I was asking, ‘what do I want to write for myself? What has great storytelling? What makes sense with my life?’ and It fell into place.
What are some goals you have as a band?
JR: “I would love to open for an artist that we idolize, I would love to be on tour with Old Dominion or Luke Combs, play a stadium opening for them.” James says, “I would also just love to write a song for an artist or win a CMA for a song, even if we can be apart of writing a song that wins a CMA that’s a dream.”
Who is an artist that you guys would like to collaborate with?
JK: “Seaforth, I really love their songwriting, their melodies, their tones and the sound they use. I think they would be really fun to collaborate with.”
You guys just released your most recent song, Songs I Wanna Sing, what can you tell me about that song?
JK: “It is definitely a love song to music in a way, there’s a lot of music references. We were really exploring all these ideas and how they connect with falling in love. I, personally wrote it about my wife who I have been married to for almost fifteen years. When I’m writing a love song my wife is always going to be an influence writing it.
What is your favorite lyric from that song?
JK: “I would say the end of verse one, ‘drinking til’ the bottom hits like a kick drum in my soul’,”
For those who have not seen you guys perform a live show yet, what can they expect?
JK: “Everyone in the band is really good at drawing people in to participate in what we’re doing. If anyone is sitting down while we’re performing we want them to have a good time and be entertained. There’s something about people engaging with what we’re doing - singing, dancing. We want to make you apart of the experience.
What can fans be looking forward to from the band?
JK: “Fans can look forward to having fun with our music, the next two songs we have coming out are more like party songs. They are really going to represent what our live shows our like. I hope that when people hear them, they want to come see us perform.”
You guys love putting on a show for your fans, when a headlining tour comes around for you what do you want the tour to be like?
JK: “I would just go back to an experience, more than just coming to see a band play. I would hope that you’d show up, step foot on the property, in the venue and already be apart of the experience. And, wether that’s just in the branding, or the marketing, there’s so many elements of that rather than you just showing up, sitting in your seat and enjoying the show.”
If you could say one thing to the whole world and the whole world would listen, what would you say?
JK: “It’s not necessarily about music but we’re in a time where we need to all love each other. Let music be something that unites us, brings us together but ultimately that we would all be on the same page, love each other and have more unity than we have in the world.”