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NYCS Swag Spotlight Featuring Sundance Head

Sundance Head

Photo Credit: Tara Bone Photography

You may recall our next Swag Spotlight, Sundance Head as the winner of season 11 of The Voice back in 2016. Growing up in Porter, Texas about twenty miles north of Houston, his father was in the music business so he grew up around musicians, never really knowing that people had other jobs other than playing music. “It was more of like a lifestyle, I wrote songs because everyone I knew wrote songs, played guitar because everyone around me playing guitar,” Head says. In order to pay the bills, he took a job in construction which allowed him the freedom to work outside, listening to the radio all while keeping his musical dreams on the back burner.   When his girlfriend at the time suggested he try out for American Idol. Making it to the top 13, he learned a lot about the television competition process during that time. “I didn’t know myself as an artist and I wasn’t a great vocalist at the time. I didn’t realize that you needed to have a strategy,” Head explains.

After working an office job for five years after American Idol, he got sick of sitting at a desk and decided to try his hand once again in the music industry. He started up a band and they played every bar and venue they could in Texas, cutting their teeth and honing their craft.  When that same girlfriend who now was his wife suggested that he try out for another television competition, he was skeptical. “I said that’s the last thing I want to do is do that, it’s taken us four-five years to prove ourselves to Texas Radio, if we go do that and it doesn’t work out, I can’t come back to Texas,” he explains. “They look at that like you are selling out, they don’t always understand that you are just trying to do what it takes to pay your bills.” He does think that that mentality is changing, however, with the help of artists like Cody Johnson and Aaron Watson. “We’ve cultivated this great sound down here, why should we just keep it here”.

Taking one more chance, with more experience under his belt he tried out for The Voice, making it on to Team Blake and eventually going all the way to win the season. Since then, he has been on tour, performing over 280 dates last year alone, especially opening for Blake Shelton for his arena tour. When discussing what he learned from touring with Shelton he explains that the main takeaway is, always be yourself, be true to who you are and people will respect you for that. “Blake is so good at singing to 80 thousand people but he makes each individual there think that he is performing the show for them personally,” he says.

He then comments about rising superstar Luke Combs and how his genuine nature and incredible songs are making waves in the genre and how that will affect the path he takes to the industry. “He is singing great songs about real stuff and he is a real dude…This is a dude that’s lived it, people can feel that. That’s super exciting for me too, other than me being in incredible shape and very tall and handsome, we have a lot in common,” he laughs.

Looking ahead, Head has worked with and befriended legendary songwriter Dean Dillon (“The Chair”, “Tennesee Whiskey”) to pick the right songs and produce his album that has become highly anticipated since winning The Voice. Some of the greatest songwriters in Nashville has contributed songs to the record, slated for release very soon he tells us. Lori McKenna (“Girl Crush”, “Humble and Kind”) and JT Harding (“Sangria”, “Somewhere With You”) collaborated on the debut single from the record, “Leave Her Wild”. He comments about the song and how he knew it was the right single for him explaining, “I fell in love with it, it has that sexy kind of rock n roll backbeat on the kick drum but then it’s got these hip lyrics, it talks about this amazing woman, I can visualize her being smoking hot, free, goes around being happy and being sweet to everyone, lives as hard as she loves. I know who that girl is, that’s my wife.”

Anticipating his album, Stained Glass and Neon to be released in early 2019, Head can’t wait to release his own brand of soulful country to the world. For all news and updates be sure to follow Sundance Head on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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