Today we’d like to introduce you to Southwind.
Hi Southwind, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
In January of 2024, lead singer, Christian Shaffer, set out to start a band. After putting out an ad in search of musicians at Kansas State University, he soon found guitarist Cody Sundquist. After teaming up with writer and childhood friend of Christian, Dylan Sample, the trio wrote their first handful of songs. Cody would soon meet guitarist Jonathan Cantrell, bassist Logan Burr, and drummer Stephen Peterson at a jam that would quickly become the beginning of Southwind as we know it. We pride ourselves on writing engaging music that invokes an array of emotions. As of right now we have four songs recorded and released and plan on recording more over the winter for release in 2026. Consistent writing, gigging, and releases have fueled our momentum and maintained our fan base so we can keep doing what we love.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Definitely not. Shortly after forming, Stephen graduated from Kansas State University and moved to Omaha, NE, Christian and Jonathan went back to KC for the summer, and Logan and Cody stayed in Manhattan. This made practicing and writing music as a unit almost impossible. Gigs were few and far between and promoting our music became difficult. Summers are typically a slow time for bands of our size anyway as a lot of live music lovers turn to large festivals, vacations, and outdoor activities. However, once the school year picked up, so did our gigging. House parties at K-State have significantly grown our college student fan base while the persistent booking at bars and live music venues has opened our horizons to other age groups and demographics. While Stephen is still in Omaha and Christian in KC, consistent writing and practicing is still very difficult. We try to book enough gigs so we can still play together regularly but that in and of itself is a tough beast to tackle. Booking shows as a new band, especially at our age, is very difficult. Not many venues see the potential in younger, hungrier bands like they used to. We’ve truly had to earn each and every listener through our performance, songwriting, and chemistry.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Southwind is an Americana band, playing original music and some covers. Our covers vary, playing everything from Turnpike Troubadours to The Backseat Lovers and everything in between. Our style blends indie rock and country into a sound of its own. It’s not traditional country, but its not quite headbanging rock. And it’s not a chill indie style, but it’s definitely not “pop”. It’s just “Southwind”. At our shows we’ve seen cowboys dancing with hippies and they all still sing along. We don’t try to pander to a certain audience, we just hope that everyone can find something in our music that speaks to them on a personal level and keeps them coming back for more. We love our listeners and audience, when we play a show, it’s like having a show of our own. Our favorite thing is to watch people dance, laugh, and sing along. We’re having just as much fun as they are. We’re proud to have music released and engaged with. Lots of people can write music, not a lot can get a band together, even fewer can get them on the same page to record and release music, and even fewer can keep people coming back for more. We are in between the last two points. We are extremely grateful for the people that like our music and thrilled to have created something that they love.
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
Some influential genres for all of us are grunge (Alice in Chains, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam), folk rock (America, Allman Brothers, Marshall Tucker Band, Bob Dylan), red dirt country (Turnpike Troubadours, Randy Rogers, Wyatt Flores), and indie rock (The Backseat Lovers, Pinegrove). More specifically, Logan loves and is heavily influenced by jazz and fusion rock (helpful as he is also pursuing a jazz minor at K-State), and Stephen is influenced heavily by some dad rock favorites (Creed, 3 Doors Down, while not exactly dad rock, Treaty Oak Revival.)
Pricing:
- 2 hours – $500
- 3 hours – $600
- Far travel could increase cost
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thesouthwindband/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheSouthwindBandOfficial
- Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/3DrOBGgEwUHF2JtnMxU60T?si=e0Owh5HuQ5Gx9RRmLYXb9A
