When this band reached out to me about interviewing them, I responded back asking for links to some of their music, so I could get a feel for their sound. I was impressed with how tight and clean their music sounded. I was even more surprised when I learned a little bit more about them prior to the interview in regards to how good they sound. I want to introduce everyone to the rock band from the Jacksonville, North Carolina area, To Begin Anew!
The quartet hails from North Carolina and consists of Cody Boyette (vocals, rhythm guitar), Casey Wagner (drums, vocals), Shane Noren (bass, vocals), and Josh Reid (lead guitar and who was not able to attend the interview). Cody formed the band in January 2020 and Shane joined them in July 2020. So the band has only been together for a little over a year and for the music I heard, they don’t sound like a young band at all. Cody explained, “Me and Casey are brothers so we grew up playing music together. Casey and I have been in projects years previous. But this particular project, it wasn’t supposed to be a band. I had gotten out of music. I got to a crossroads in my life where I had to make a couple of decisions and ultimately I had to step away from music for about 6 or 7 years. I got to a pretty steady spot where I could start exploring some old hobbies again and picked up a guitar and old things just come back and started noodling a lil bit. And before I knew it just started writing music again.” Cody went on to say how he didn’t know how to write drums, but Casey did. Soon enough they were in the studio writing music. Things started to become more serious so they brought in two others, who didn’t stay, and then they found Shane and Josh. Shane was supposed to be the original bassist, but was with another band at the time. Though Shane was new to the band, he’s known Cody and Casey for a long time. He went to school with the brothers and was in the same grade as Casey and graduated together. “I was, I guess you can call, a mega-fan of them. I loved their old band. And I was like ‘Fuck, I wanna do that!'” He ultimately got his wish.
As for the name To Begin Anew, Casey described it as “a new musical chapter for us,” to which Casey chimed in, “For ALL of us.” It was just a working name at the time when they were trying to decide on the band name, but ultimately it stuck as it described them perfectly. And then two months after the band formed, COVID struck hard in the U.S. and shut down live music. “I finally decided to start another band after 6 or 7 years,” Cody said laughing, “and the world just craps all over me!” He took the pause in live music as an opportunity. “It really gave us the opportunity to kind of get ahead of the curve and learn what we needed to do to be relevant in social media now.” The last time Cody and Casey were in a band, MySpace was considered social media, a vast difference from today’s multiple social media platforms. He also added, “I almost consider it a blessing in disguise. It really helped us. Whenever things finally got right, we were able to hit the ground running.” The others had mixed feelings. Shane said, “We were practicing and there were times when I thought, ‘Are we ever going to get to actually play a live show again?’ Don’t take shows for granted. I cherish every show we play as a band.” “It drove me crazy,” Casey added that had Cody laughing, “it went from playing every weekend to nothing.”
That time not playing shows absolutely made an impact in their music. The band took to writing songs and released three singles so far. And what threw me off for a band so young is how polished they sound. Cody attributes a lot of that to all of their collective experiences being in the music scene. “We’ve been in bands before, so we kind of knew what to expect from each other….We all come from musical backgrounds where we’ve been on the stage. So this no awkward like stage fright, stuff like that, trying to learn how to work the crowd. That’s all stuff that we brought already knowing how that stuff worked. So it kind of put us that much further ahead of the curve” Casey looked over at Cody saying, “Yeah, me and you going on, what, 15 years worth, roughly?” referring to their time in the music scene. “It’s in my system, I can’t quit!” Shane raved about his bandmates in support of why their music sounds so good. “Casey is an amazing drummer. I remember on “Break New Ground” he knocked it out in one try. The first time was the perfect time. Cody is a very amazing songwriter. He’ll downplay it, but he has a very, very natural talent for poetry and melodies. They get stuck in your head.”
To Begin Anew has released 3 singles so far, with their most current being “Awaken”. This song has such great blood pumping music and vocals that people will be immediately drawn to it. Cody told us more about the song. “With all the negativity going on in the world today, you can turn on the media and just see all the hate and all the bad stuff going on in the world. We wrote it as kind of like an anthem for you to stand up for what you believe in and don’t let anybody change the way that you feel or change what you believe in. Fight for what you believe in as a person and don’t be swayed by anything you see going on in the world. We all know it’s going to affect you in some way, but it shouldn’t change the way that you feel and what you believe in.” Shane added in, “And stay positive”. The other two tracks the band released are “Arise” and “Break New Ground”. The band has already been actively playing shows since live music has come back getting the opportunity to open for Adelita’s Way at the time we did this interview.
The band is an independent artist and the goal is to make music a full time career. Shane emphatically said, “I would love that for us!” Cody added, “I think we all would. Obviously, we all work day jobs, we all have families, so if it comes to that point we going to have to make some pretty major decisions to make.” With many of the artists we’ve spoken to about that switch to full time music career is definitely not an easy decision. “All three of us are married,” Cody said, “Casey and Shane both have children. I don’t have any children. But, I know our families are all 100% supportive of us. If something comes up and it’s like ‘Hey you wanna go on a leg [of a tour] for a little while?’, I feel fairly confident that all of our families would be supportive of that….I think we’d all like to make this something more than playing shows on the weekend.” Shane added in, “100%. We want this for the band. I know I do. We all do.”
Their story to get onto Blue Ridge Rock Festival was unique. Shane explained he was part of a band that was originally supposed to be part of the 2020 lineup but the festival was postponed. Then Shane joined To Begin Anew. Shane asked everyone he knew to tag their band on the post to get them added to the 2021 lineup and sent an email to the festival. They received an email back saying the wanted To Begin Anew as part of the festival lineup.
When they’re not practicing, writing, or recording music, all of them have their own things they like to do. Shane primarily loves spending time with his family. When he’s not doing that, he likes to spend time Twitching. He likes livestreaming both gaming and music. Shane likes playing story style games when he streams like The Last of Us and Kingdom Come: Deliverance. Casey also likes to spend time with his family and kids. Cody says he’s married to his best friend and they love to travel making memories. The North Carolina mountains are just heaven for him.
To Begin Anew plays Blue Ridge Rock Festival on Friday, September 10th and are looking forward to performing and meeting the attendees! So, go see their set, go meet them, and please help to support them by purchasing anything they have for sale because that is how they continue to do what they love to do; performing for the fans. Below you can find their social media links and the full video interview!
To Begin Anew Social Media Links
Be the first to comment