Rising Stars: Meet Eric Welty of Denver Colorado

Today we’d like to introduce you to Eric Welty

Hi Eric, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My name is Eric Welty and I am a multi instrumentalist, producer, and composer currently residing in Denver Colorado.

I was born in Bloomington IL to a family of my mom, dad, and older brother Alex who is 10 years older than me. At the young age of about 7 or 8, my mother found someone to give me piano lessons. I don’t remember who she was but I do remember playing small recitals and practicing here and there at home. After about two years I stopped taking lessons and tried other things like sports and just being lazy at home from time to time.

Around the age of 10 years old, my family moved to the middle of the woods about 45 minutes from St. Louis Missouri. We moved so my mom could take a teaching job as she was College professor. It was while I was in Missouri that I started taking guitar lessons using my brother’s guitars. All I can remember is that it did not take me long to get the hang of it and my teacher was shocked at how fast I was picking it up. Eventually learning how to play Stairway To Heaven all the way through (poorly) as my first song. From then on there was always a guitar in my room. As time went on I strayed away from guitar and music. Once I got to high school I found out they had a guitar class. I was already far beyond the curriculum they were teaching. However the guitar teacher was a band director who had to learn how to play guitar over the course of one summer to teach the class. Once she saw how I played, she offered to let me pass the class if I would help the other students. I did this for a while until I eventually just started skipping classes and school all together. When I was at school, I would often go and play guitar in the music hallway whenever I had the chance (or didn’t want to go to class).

After high school, my mom moved to Denver Colorado to be the dean at a local community college. I was able to come out here and while I was figuring out what I wanted to do post high school, I could take classes at the college. One opportunity the college had was private lessons. My mom suggested I take guitar lessons with one of her teachers. His name is Hill Baker, and he would be the person who inspired me to take on music past just a hobby and as a full career path. He showed me that if you put in the work and really go for it, you can make music your life just as much as anything else. From then on the rest is history. I got multiple degrees in music and arts, played dozens of shows with awesome musicians, traveled to different countries, all from the force of music.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Not at all!

In fact, the majority of this creative road has been what most people would define as struggles and hardships. However I believe that perspective comes a long way in shaping how you let these thing affect you while your on your own path.

I would suggest to most folks embarking on a creative endeavor that you must be able to appreciate and find beauty in all parts of the experience. Do not embrace only the “fun” things or your spectacular results. Fully embrace all parts as an equal contribution to your success. Once you are able to lean in the direction of this perspective, these struggles stop looking pot holes in the road.

For example, before I went to university for my jazz guitar degree, I thought there would be no way I would be able to hang musically. I had played blues a lot but never full on jazz tunes. On top of that, most everyone who was in the program had a jazz band at their high school and sometimes even middle school. In Missouri, they valued sports far beyond arts. No school I ever went to had a jazz band. Thinking I was at a huge disadvantage, it would make me pretty nervous about the idea of going to school to just play music with other folks. However once I got there, I realized there was a huge distinction from my perceived reality to what the actual case was. While I had never played in a “jazz band” before, I realized I had been improvising over songs for almost my whole life playing guitar. Once I figured out some “call signs” for the music, I could break away from the formula sound everyone else was taught to just be myself. While I was not always successful and had to learn as I went, I’m still thankful that I walked into that situation as a “blank slate”. My perspective helps me see it was a valuable thing in my journey to studying music at a college level.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My creative endeavors span over many different styles, backgrounds, and genres. From collaborative work to my own projects, I try to have variety in what I’m working on. My start of live music, performance, and recording was with more popular styles of music like Neo-Soul, RnB, and Indie rock. As time has gone on, I have found my way into more niche styles like psych rock, free improvised music, and electronic music. No matter the style I’m always fascinated by nuances and choices made in each style. It all influences my own music which commonly combines many different genres.

For instance, my last two albums were electronic albums. Mostly just things I thought sounded cool or fit to a certain vibe when put in an album together. The next album will be extremely detailed and focused towards my own personal life an expressions. Rather than electronic focused, I will have a full band playing my compositions.

Overall I’m most proud of the kick ass shows that I have played with many different groups. The best nights are when everything is tighter, the music is on, and the audience is loving it. This has happened on many tours, and local shows and every time it’s a reminder of what it means to be creative.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
As mentioned prior, my old guitar teacher Hill Baker is a huge reason why I am pursuing a creative life.

As always. I always want to give a shoutout to my mother Dorothy Welty. She is the number one reason why I am here today and able to really take this music and artistic life head on. From her outlook she has given to me to her constant support and help, there is no one I would like to thank more than her. She is the reason why I go by Eric Welty on and now off stage. Thank you mom

Contact Info:

• Website: https://ericweltyrodriguez.bandzoogle.com/home
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ericandmusic/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeNW2lL2tUMjeE_GOdJHHKA
• Other: https://ericwelty.bandcamp.com

Image Credits
Shante Clair

Laura Studley

Fuya Fuya