Manitoban: What's your musical philosophy?

Romi Mayes: I don't really have a cut and framed philosophy on music. It is just too subjective and open ended to put in a box and title. I think for the most part, when I’m listening to someone's music, I just want to believe them. You could be 15 with a puberty curse-stricken crackle in your voice and shaky nervous hands along your fret board, but if you can emote something from your audience, you're good as gold in my books.

M: What's your musical style?

Mayes: Bluegrass-country with some classic rock-blues elements.

M: What are your influences?

Mayes: Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band, Led Zeppelin, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Robert Johnson, The D.Rangers, The Perpetrators, Andrew Neville and the Poor Choices, Scott Nolan, Hayes Carll, Dustin Bentall, Sam Baker, and the list goes on. I think I listen to more of my friends' music than anything else.

M: What inspires you?

Mayes: Besides my seven-year-old daughter Ashley and my supportive family of friends, I can't think of what else one would need for inspiration. I love the highway and touring is a sickness for me. The road, family, and music, that's all I seem to need.

M: Who's in the band?

Mayes: These days I've been playing solo quite a bit. On my last album: Chris Carmichael on guitar (and drums for the recording) and Dan Walsh, Scott Nolan, and Gurf Morlix back me up. This past summer I called upon some of The D.Rangers to back me up – Chris Saywell on electric guitar, Tom Fodey on bass, and Jaxon Haldane on mandolin.

M: Does easy access to all forms of music via Internet downloading result in a watered-down experience of music?

Mayes: I think the typical answer, in the world of marketing and record sales, would be “Yes.” I have tried to use the mass networking opportunities of the Internet world to my advantage. At the end of the day, if you “free download” a song of mine, or burn a CD instead of buying the disc, I am just stoked you wanted to listen to it in the first place. Hopefully the actual experience of listening to the music isn't lost too much by not having a picture of me on the cover of the album in front of you. If the listener tries to make it out to a show and I've made a fan without making money off them, I should be more than satisfied. Gillian Welch said it in her song “Everything Is Free.” (Of course, ask me that in 10 years when CD sales are completely obsolete and I may have a different opinion!)

Manitoban: What's your musical philosophy?

Nicole Byblow: If you're going to make music, respect music. Put your heart and yourself in it. There's nothing I hate more than an actress who decides one day, "I can carry a tune, I think I'll record an album just to make some more money off my celebrity." To me, that's the biggest disrespect of music.

M: What's your musical style?

Nicole Byblow: Classically influenced, lyric-driven pop, with substance.

M: What are your influences?

Nicole Byblow: Sarah Slean’s poetic lyrics and musical innovation. Chopin’s pain and beauty, the Beatles’ creativity and diversity, The Rolling Stones’s verve and lyrics, most female artists and singer-songwriters (especially those in charge of their music and careers), jazz’s rawness, passion, and dissonance, the list goes on.

M: What inspires you?

Nicole Byblow: Visual art – painters like Dali, Van Gogh, [and] Munch. I love anything that makes me think and feel, even if it makes me feel – be it a book, a painting, a photo, or someone else's passionate opinion. I know I was born in the wrong time period, because so many historical periods inspire me – the ’30s and ’40s Golden Age of Hollywood, and pop culture of the late ’60s – the music, fashion, culture, and everything that was going on during that time.

M: Who's in your band and what instruments do they play?

Nicole Byblow: A lot of the time I play solo, but often I am accompanied by my guitar player, Adam Mlodzinski. He accompanies me mostly on acoustic, but sometimes electric guitar. Every once in a while, he'll throw in some back-up vocals, too.

M: Does easy access to all forms of music via Internet downloading result in a watered-down experience of music?

Nicole Byblow: I don't think so, not at all. I think it allows for a wider and broader appreciation and experience of music because nowadays you have easy and cheap access to virtually any style of music and artist you can think of. You can look up or get into styles you probably would have never heard of without all of this technology and appreciate someone that's making music on the other side of the globe or someone that was making music 60 years ago.