A Conversation With Artist Ender Bowen

Ender Bowen is a rock/pop artist from Nashville, TN. A singer/songwriter, producer and writer, he has released 3 albums, several Singles and EPs, and a compilation album of his own music. We recently interviewed him about his music career and upcoming releases.

Twist Online : First of all please introduce yourself to our readers?
Ender Bowen : My name is Ender Bowen. I’m a Nashville Indietronica and SynthPop/Rock artist. I’m also a husband, father, blogger and dreamer.

Twist Online : You started your music at very young age. What was the inspiration to get into music?
Ender Bowen : I was five years old and I happened to see the music video for “Jump” by Van Halen. I thought to myself, “that looks fun! I want to do that!” and though it’s taken many many different forms and functions over the years that’s pretty much where it first started.

Twist Online : You are releasing 15th Anniversary reissue of your debut 00. Tell us about that?
Ender Bowen : This record consists of songs written around the ages of 16-19 (1996-1999) and was recorded at my alma mater St. Lawrence University in Canton, NY while I went to school there. It was a process that took two years to complete, finally seeing its release in 2001 during my senior year on MP3.com. This reissue serves as a means to not only reintroduce the album but to clean it up and properly release it on modern digital platforms like iTunes and Spotify.

Twist Online : What’s your expectations from the release, better response than what you received on debut?
Ender Bowen : Well, on its original release, there were not a lot of indie musicians putting music out – no one really knew how to do that or what the platforms were. But that also meant that no one was looking for it or knew how to find it. Now, ironically, EVERYONE can do it, and it almost seems like everyone DOES, so it’s harder to find any given artist. But I’m going to put it out, do whatever I can to spread the word and just see what happens. It’s a good collection of songs, so I think if it gets in front of someone it will catch an ear.

Twist Online : Do you need any certain environment or inspiration for songwriting?
Ender Bowen : Not typically. Often-times I’ll just be going about my day and the words or the basic melodies will hit me and I’ll jot them down. It’s when I sit down to record and find the actual sonic sounds and play the parts – that’s when it takes a long time and I end up needing my own space to really hone it in.

Twist Online : Do you write songs for other artists as well ?
Ender Bowen : I never have. That’s not to say I wouldn’t or that I don’t want to. I just have never really had any opportunities. I’d love to produce some artists. But not in the more current way of engineering them, too. I want to be more like a guide that plays along and helps shape things. More like a Brian Eno type.

Twist Online : What’s your favorite music genre?
Ender Bowen : That’s really hard to say because there are things I absolutely LOVE in just about every genre. I like something with color, sonic texture and more often than not a good beat that I can dance to. I’m partial to good pop songs. But I listen to everything. It’s odd because at any given moment I could be tapping my foot to Johnny Cash, and the next I’m dancing to Charli XCX.

Twist Online : What’s you goal you want to achieve as music artist?
Ender Bowen : If you’d have asked me this at 16 I would have said “to be a huge rich famous rock star”. LOL. Mind you, I wanted to change the world too. But at 36, though I still want to change the world, it’s more like I want to change one person at a time. I’m more interested in having a group of fans and followers that I can communicate with personally. My website, though it features my music, is very much focused on the dreamer’s journey – being 36, having a mortgage, a family, and trying to make it work. Even in the smallest form. There are a lot of people going through that or who have given up on that and I want my website to be a place that reminds them that they aren’t alone, and lets them know that they can do this.

Twist Online : Are you working on any future projects?
Ender Bowen : I’m working on a new album due next year as well as a short book called THE DREAM DIVIDE that shows you how to reconsider what it is that is keeping you from reaching your dreams – mainly the disparity between what resources your dreams require, and the resources you actually have – and what to do about it.