Conversations with Cameron Poe

Today we’d like to introduce you to Cameron Poe.

Hi Cameron, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
It all started with a sound that shattered my entire world. To the average listener, “Sharp Dressed Man” by ZZ Top is another super catchy rock song written by one of the greatest bands to walk the Earth, but to my ten-year-old ears, it was the most groundbreaking song I’ve ever discovered. The raw and shiny tone of Billy Gibbon’s guitar rocked my eardrums and shocked the world I thought I knew. The energy screaming from his amplifier awoke this feeling that I’ve never had before.

I suddenly had this urge to do everything in my power to replicate that sound and one day write something as powerful as that song. I immediately ran to the guitar I left neglected in my closet for months and began playing until my fingers bled. My family and I ended up moving to California midway through my middle school career and at the time, it really messed me up because I established such an incredible group of friends, and leaving them was the hardest thing. Starting fresh at a new school for an eighth grade was the hardest thing for me because I don’t handle sudden change very well.

I was a very shy kid back then and it was hard for me to find the courage to want to branch out and make new friends and because of that, my six-string became my best friend. My entire California experience was spent in my room teaching myself how to play guitar. I discovered Eddie Van Halen in the middle of all of this and spent every living minute after school trying to be him. I would sit on my bed and just watch Eddie play live with my guitar in my hands trying to replicate what I saw him doing. I would watch and rewatch the same parts over and over again until I cracked the code on what he was doing.

The shyness I came to know suddenly began to fade away as I progressed on guitar. The power of music and sound slowly gave me confidence and the will to want to branch out and meet people as well as show the world what I’ve spent my time perfecting. Towards the end of eighth grade, I took a chance and signed up for the talent show and sang “Every Rose Has It’s Thorn” by Poison in front of all the kids I was too shy to even say “hello” in front of them. After I got off the stage, I knew that music was the only thing I wanted to do for the rest of my life.

The feeling I had playing on that stage is a feeling that cannot be beaten. I finally connected with people and was able to establish life-long friendships just by strumming a few chords on my guitar for three minutes. I was fascinated by how music had the power to bring a whole school together and allow everyone to feel welcomed and accepted. Since that day, my biggest goal has been to create music that can capture any feeling the listener has and can allow the listener to forget the world for a bit and just enjoy being in the present.

Playing guitar in my room taught me that there is no better feeling than being at peace with yourself while focusing on the one thing that allows your light to be seen. As of today, I’m still committed to capturing feelings sonically as well as trying to build an image that can be ever-evolving in hopes of one day inspiring a ten-year-old kid to not be afraid to paint the world around him.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Failure is a byproduct of happiness. In order to be happy, we have to do things that we may not like to do and sometimes those things are out of our league but if the end goal is to achieve happiness then it’s necessary to not always be good at everything. I’ve been humbled through the process of songwriting as I’ve discovered that I’m not as good at everything as I once thought.

Patience has always been one of my biggest strengths but songwriting requires a different level of patience that can only be obtained through trial and error. One of the biggest things I’ve been struggling with is to accept that trial and error is healthy. I’ve always been headstrong in that I want to do things to get them done and do them well and when they don’t go as planned the first or even second go around, I freak out because I feel like I’m falling behind. I’ve always had small anxiety about being left behind or even being left alone for too long and it really shows itself when I’m writing music.

Confidence has been something that I’ve struggled with for a very long time. As headstrong as I am about getting things done, I’ve never had the confidence to show people what I’ve done. I’ve always been comfortable with getting my work done behind the scenes and allowing the people I looked up to show how to do it. Accepting my own work has been a tough battle but I’m starting to come to peace with it.

Being able to meet and be around creative people in the music, art, and film world has helped me come to peace with accepting the things I make. It’s very encouraging and empowering to find like-minded people to feed and share energy off of. Everyone has the power and potential to change the world and because of that, we shouldn’t be scared to voice our passions.

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m an artist, producer, and instrumentalist based out of Aurora, Colorado, and go by the stage name “Wavesy.” I’ve been self-taught on guitar, bass and piano for twelve years and have been on the mission to acoustically blend modern hip-hop sounds with the roots of rock and roll. Growing up, I was obsessed with the raw power that rock bands possessed and did everything in my power to harness that sound.

I would stay up late at night watching live videos of Van Halen just mesmerized by how excited and full of magic the entire band was wishing I could be a part of it. The music they created enabled them and the audience to forget the world and just float on the ideas that they sonically and lyrically created. “Wavesy” was then created to hopefully capture that idea. When I write music, my hope is to enable the audience to find the “wave” in the song and just float on whatever emotion pops in their head. I started making music because I love the idea of making people happy and finding ways to bring people together.

Sound has a way of making memories, whether they’re good or bad, and turning them into stories that can have multiple endings depending on the mood you have going into the song. Since I grew up idolizing Eddie and Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, I mainly focused on their guitar tones and how they wrote songs and because of that, I turned into more of an instrumentalist. I spent the majority of my musical career learning how to tell stories through sound rather than through lyrics. I try my best to make sure that every song I write is sonically different so that it’s a new story for the listener to enjoy.

The thing I’m most proud of so far is being able to connect with new people through the process of writing music. After every song I write, I strive to find creative people to reach out to and bring on the song so they can put their name out there as well as adding a little of their own magic to the track. There are so many talented people on this planet and it’s amazing to have a platform where all the talents can shine as a collective.

Are there any books, apps, podcasts, or blogs that help you do your best?
I love podcasts. The art of conversation is one of the closest things to real-life magic as connections can be established just after a few words. Shooting ideas and connecting over common interests is the most powerful thing on this planet. I love listening to people talk and love being a part of the conversations even more. I’ll listen to anything but primarily favor comedic and educational podcasts.

As of right now, my top podcasts are: The Adam Corolla Show, Geology on The Rocks, The Universe Speaks Numbers, Going Deep with Chad and JT, and The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe. I also enjoy listening to Howard Stern when I can. I also really like books and audiobooks. I recently finished listening to “Supermarket” by Logic and “As A Man Thinketh” by James Allen. I’m currently reading “Pride and Prejudice,” “How Not to Die,” and “Dune.” Books will always fascinate me because it’s up to the reader to imagine what the story looks like and because of that, every page can have an endless amount of possibilities of what the story “looks” like.

Lastly, movies and TV shows will still be my all-time favorite forms of entertainment. When I’m feeling low and have no creative energy, my go-to movie is Batman Begins. I’ve been obsessed with Batman since I was a kid and being able to see him in a movie that makes him feel “real” was groundbreaking. The story Christopher Nolan told is so powerful and always breaks me free of any writer’s block. My top 5 favorite movies are: Batman Begins, Back to The Future, Superbad, The Peanut Butter Falcon, and Halloween.

I always have some movie or TV show on while I’m writing to keep my mind at peace and open to write. Seinfeld is one of my favorites to have on in the background because you don’t have to be fully engaged in order to get a laugh. The brilliance of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David is so radiant and is great for getting any form of creative juices flowing. My top 5 favorite TV shows are Seinfeld, Regular Show, Dexter, Archer, and Dirty Jobs.

Contact Info:

• Email: Wavesyband@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/w.avesy/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Dcu7jVLKT69cYW9POhg0g
• Other: https://vsco.co/campoeee/gallery

Image Credits:
James Parpal, CJ “Recet” Fankhauser, Adrian “TNDO” Velasquez, and Alexis Rose