Alt-country trio Cypress Spring, consisting of friends Paul Roche, Kalan Miller and Tyler Ackerman, are known for taking their influences of country and rap and creating music resulting in an interesting fusion of the two genres. Their music represents the fun in the sun atmosphere that their Floridian town is known for. Following their most recent single “Whiskey’s Always Strong,” the threesome is ready to release their sophomore album, American White Trash, today, October 12.
We recently caught up with the trio to talk about their friendship, influences and their new album.
For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourselves?
Tyler Ackerman: My name’s Tyler Ackerman. I’m blessed to be apart of our group Cypress Spring. I love God, my Family and Football. Ohio Native and I’m 26. I feel like I’m writing an about me on MySpace!!
Kalan Miller: I’m 28 and got the best 6-year-old son you could have. When we’re not on the road I’m a lineman for a private company. If it’s hunting season you can hang up seeing me lol. I’m either in a tree stand or a duck blind. During the summer I’m probably bass fishing. And every Friday night I’m not on the road I’m in the bar singing karaoke more then likely at southern junction lol.
Paul Roche: I’m just an average person that comes from a small town in Florida. I have a lot of tattoos and have 3 awesome kids, and the woman of my dreams to share this life with. I started playing music when I was 15 and haven’t stopped yet–
Kalan and Paul – you guys went to high school together. Were you friends before you discovered your mutual love for music? When did you decide to work together?
KM: We started hanging out a lot during high school but I did rap and Paul did more of the country southern rock.
PR: Kalan and I have known each other for 28 years. While we didn’t hang out together until we were in High School we became pretty good friends. Shortly after graduation I decide to join a band made up of some other Vernon High School Alumni, but we needed a Bass player. Kalan’s name got brought up and he showed up for practice one night, and we kinda showed him the ropes when it came to playing bass. Not long after that meeting I got a call from Kalan asking if I could come over and lay some guitar tracks down for a song he was recording, maybe you’ve heard it…Denim. We started experimenting with Colt and Brantley’s Dirt Road Anthem, we liked the way it sounded, next thing you know we spent every bit of free time together, fishing, hunting, and countless hours on the phone trying to figure out how to make this dream possible, and here we are 6 years later.
How did your paths cross with Tyler?
KM: Paul will have to explain this lol.
PR: So, one day while I was on my way back home from work I saw a car on the side of the road. I stopped to make sure they didn’t need any help, and lo and behold it was Tyler Ackerman. I didn’t know him very well at the time, but I knew of him and that he played guitar. At the time we were looking for a bass player (starting to seem like Deja’ Vu all over again) and like I said before, I knew he could play guitar. So I asked him if he would be interested in giving it a shot and he agreed and showed up that weekend for practice.
Which musicians, country or not, have influenced you all both personally and as an artist?
TA: I grew up listening to Rock mostly, so I would have to say my dad influenced me the most. He played music in bands for years and taught me how to play as well.
KM: Mine where Nelly, T.I., Tupac, Will Smith and now Lecrae.
PR: I grew up in a Blues and Southern Rock/80’s Hair Band type of back ground, so some of my idols were Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Guns N Roses, Skid Row, Lynyrd Skynyrd .38 Special and Vince Gill to name a few.
Can you take us through your song writing process? Do you guys draw mostly from personal experiences, or from those around you?
PR: Yes we do, all 3 of us like to get together and collectively come up with topics to write about, whether it be personal experience, work related, patriotism, Etc. We spend hours writing and reminiscing about what we’ve been though in life or people that have been close to us.
TA: I do personal experiences and also experiences of others, that way what I’m writing is more relate able. Meaning someone else may have done something I haven’t done but our listeners have.
KM: A majority of what we write comes from every day real experience. We’re just some good ole boys that love god, our country, family and friends.
American White Trash is set for release on October 12 and it’s been said to be an album with something for everyone from patriotism to heart wrenching ballads. How did you choose the 12 songs for the album? Was it important for you to vary the styles of songs and subject matter?
TA: We went in the studio and basically recorded 2 albums for this one album. We picked the songs that we wanted because we felt they were the best for this time.
KM: We just wanted to give the fans everything they deserve.
PR: Wow, picking these 12 songs was very difficult to chose from, because we had 15 more songs that were just as good that we had to hold off on. We definitely wanted to have a various amount of material and subjects that we wanted to share with the world. Ultimately we wanted to put out songs and subjects that most artist in the genre wasn’t touching, we don’t want to blend in, we are trying to build an Empire and I think this album is the statement we want to make.
Kalan, you wrote the current single “Whiskey’s Always Strong.” The lyrics have a lonely feel to them as the person of interest in the song overstays their welcome at a bar. What is the backstory to the song?
KM: I can’t speak for everyone but I’ve certainly spent many of nights in a bar or with a bottle to help over come the loss of someone. Rather it’s a loved family member or a past relationship. Regardless the situation the Whiskeys Always Strong. Everyone has there own ways to cope and at that point it was the liquor lol.
There is a song on the album dedicated to one of your fans who lost their life. How important was it
for you to pay tribute with “If Heaven’s Got A Dirt Road”?
TA: Very important because without our fans and their love and support we couldn’t do what we do. Joey was a good kid and loved our music. Prayers are still being asked for his family.
KM: If it weren’t for our fans we would not be where we are today. So for us to finally have the opportunity to be able to give back to the fans as much as they have gave to us was a honor.
PR: Ultimately we wrote this song to pay tribute to all of our fans who has ever lost a loved one in their life. We got the news of Joey passing shortly after we decided to put this song on the album, it affected us deeply and we knew the type of person he was based on the few times we met him, we knew it would mean a lot to his family to know that we care deeply about our fans and a song like this could carry his memory on.
“Needle Junkie” is a great play on words. What was the inspiration behind that song?
Are you all vinyl collectors?
KM: I actually co-wrote this with a friend of mine Cody Boyett. We just wanted to use such a negative term in a positive way. Cody killed it on this one and I have to give her a lot of credit. My grandfather used to sing and I have several of his vinyl. So personally that’s where my inspiration came from.
PR: I’ve always thought it would be cool to own vinyl, but do not personally own any. Probably should start though.
TA: I agree 100% and I am not a vinyl collector at the moment but I’d like to be.
Any plans on releasing American White Trash on wax?
KM: I’m not exactly sure, but if we have enough demand, we might have to make it happen.
PR: I think it would be awesome if we did, vinyl is making a comeback. It would definitely be a great conversation starter when you have friends over.
Do you have a dream collaboration in mind?
TA: If I could do a song with anyone I would want it to be Post Malone at this time. That may change next week but for now him.
KM: LUKE COMBS LOL
PR: Travis Tritt, I think he is one of the most under-rated voices of all time.
If you could describe yourselves in one word, what would it be and why?
TA: Funny! I’m always trying to make people laugh and smile ☺
KM: Dedicated. We have sacrificed several relationships, jobs, and time with family to get where we are now and we will not give up until we get to the top.
PR: I think Kalan said it best, dedicated. We have all sacrificed a lot when it came to chasing this dream: Families, jobs, sleep, etc.
New single, new album. What’s next?
TA: Working on the next album after the 12th of October. We have a Tour kicking off so shows out west are on the books.
KM: TOUR!!!!! Actually go get in front of our fans.
PR: American White Trash Tour!!! We finally are able to get out to the west coast, and we’re all super stoked about it!!
For more information on Cypress Spring, visit their website at https://cypressspringmusic.com/ and follow the guys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Editor’s Note: Parts of this conversation have been edited for length and clarity.