Meet Paige Byrd

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Paige Byrd a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Paige, thank you so much for joining us. You are such a positive person and it’s something we really admire and so we wanted to start by asking you where you think your optimism comes from?

When I do have optimism, which I think I do fairly often, it comes. from a place that tells me “this is going to be temporary” or “you are going to figure it out” or “you’ve got this – it’s only going to make you stronger and you are learning from it”. Things like that.

I feel I have a pretty strong sense of optimism. But I do think these things are true, and I have strong belief that I will be very successful one day, much more so than ever before.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

Well I play guitar and sing songs, mostly ones I write but just in general that’s what I do. I’m in a band called The Captain’s Son and I also have a solo career as myself (my real name), Paige Byrd. In 2024 I focused solely on my solo career and made a handful of releases. I plan to do even more in 2025 and already have a few done actually. But since a kid I always liked music and thought differently. I got a guitar when I was 12-13 years old. My mom bought me a Washburn from the pawn shop and it was actually a pretty nice guitar. My mom was just a waitress at the time, and she was very young when she had me. I love my mom to death but at that time we really didn’t have a lot of money. And she still went out of her way to buy me an instrument that was better than just the cheapest thing possible.

I always tell this story because I think it’s so cool, and I only actually learned this a few years ago, but…my mom told me the story of why she decided to buy me a guitar and she said it “was because I felt like you always had a song stuck in your head”. I mean that line alone just made so much sense and an observation like that from a very loving, open woman is just awesome I think. Not to mention she was absolutely right. It explains a lot about my personality but long story short, yes I do always have a song or melody or music stuck in my head.

So from there I got good pretty quickly. I never had lessons but learned from reading guitar tabs. By 14 I was playing Jimmy Page style guitar solos. That gave me a ton of confidence, because people were impressed, and it inspired me to just keep going that much more. At this point I was starting bands with anyone I could and found someone local to play drums.

So I’ve been in many bands technically, but I met my best friend at the time Craig Golubski when I was about 13-14 and all the bands I started were with him. Even The Captain’s Son (my current band) started with Craig, Jarred Rately and myself. by 19-20 I was living in Springfield, MO and playing gigs at bars without even being old enough to legally drink yet.

By the time I was 23 we went on our first tour. It stopped in Austin, TX but we go an offer to go play a show in Oceaside CA at Tonys Sports Bar & Grill. It paid 150 bucks. We were in, lol. We hopped in the Dodge Ram 350 and barely made it out there haha…we ended up stay in SoCal for 6 months living in the van. It was of the craziest, most exciting and happy times of my life. It absolutely made me want to live in SoCal for a very long time, which now I currently do and have no plans of leaving. You can find the details of this full story online somewhere if you really dig deep (or even on The Captain’s Son youtube), but basically out first days here were spent at the US Open of Surfing in Huntington Beach and from there we were just hooked.

To wrap it up, I finally decided to start a solo career in 2023. I’ve made many singles and have more on the way. I record, produce, mix, write and perform all the instruments and vocals on all the songs. I really enjoy it. I can’t wait to play with the band again, but I am happy to finally get my solo career going.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Consistency as cheesy as it sounds is just absolutely necessary. That’s where most will fail right away. You have to be releasing music consistently, posting, showing up, etc…don’t work on your songs for 8 months and never release them. Figure out whats wrong or just skip trying to be perfect and release that shit and move on.

Determination I think is another big one. Man you know how many times I/we (Jarred, Will, Craig…) got knocked down, were in a bad spot and wanted to quit? More times than I can count. You have to be determined to chase your goals NO MATTER WHAT. Dont let anything stop you. ——- That doesn’t mean be stubborn as hell though. Grow, learn, listen, change, morph and develop. Just don’t give up when the going gets tough. And it should get tough at some point. Just saying made me put “Going Gets Tough” by the Growlers by the way haha (great song).

Lastly you know I can’t forget to mention – practice. Be good at your craft. Whatever that means to you. Some people practice 12 hours a day. Just actually be talented at your craft. Practice, learn, get better. That’s obviously important. You want to be undeniably good/talented and some of it comes naturally for sure. But you want to be tight. On point. The best and prepared to perform your best at any give moment. Just practice your craft, as much as possible. Learn new things and get better at songwriting, playing, singing, take lessons, go network, whatever.

Okay, so before we go we always love to ask if you are looking for folks to partner or collaborate with?

Yes I am! It’s hard because of everybodys schedules and being “busy” but I’d like to find an engineer or someone whod be down to help me mix and produce my songs. I enjoy the process but feel like I could get a lot more done on the songwriting side if someone helped me with recording and mixing. It’d also be awesome to find someone to help me make content for social media, youtube and stuff. If you have a camera and you want to record/film be singing or doing some music promo then lets do it!! Im open to ideas, photoshoots, album artwork and all that. Album art would be cool but mostly social media content filming.

Lastly I’d be down to start producing some artists myself. If you’re a songwriter and have something unique let me know. I’d like to bring you to my recording studio and lay down some tracks for you. So If you fit any of these categories please contact me at my email [email protected] or just DM me on Instagram or TikTok: @paigebyrdmusic. Email might be best but it doesn’t matter.

Before I go, thanks again for the opportunity to share my story and interview and I also wanted to mention…

It was hard to pick this last question to answer for this interview. Because I would also like to thank the people that have helped me overcome challenges and build success for myself and the knowledge, skills, etc to do so.

I’d like to thank my Mom first and foremost for always supporting me and of course buying me my first guitar. For always believing in me and being my biggest fan and telling me to just go for it and that I could pursue my dreams and be successful.

Then I’d like to thank Jarred Ratley, my best friend. I probably wouldn’t have made it through without Jarred’s dedication, friendship and personality. He’s a great soul and was/is always there for me and if you ever need anything brother I’d be happy to help.

Then my girlfriend Courtney Colgan. She’s a hardass and talked me into starting my solo career and just going for it. She’s awesome and has helped me tremedously in so many ways. She’s the hardest working person I know and I always say that.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Credit: Courtney Colgan IG: @paintbox630

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