Meet Bill Talley | Musician/Songwriter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Bill Talley and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Bill, let’s talk legacy – what do you want yours to be?
I want people to remember me as someone who produced honest, reflective music. Ultimately, if I am able to inspire just one other human being to pursue music as a creative outlet, and hopefully as a career, I think I’ve met my goals for a legacy. I just hope that if I inspire anyone, I’ve inspired them to pursue music as a means of communication of true feelings and emotions.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I started playing music at 8 years old. My elementary school had a band program, and my parents enrolled me the first year it was available. From 3rd grade until 8th grade, I played alto saxophone (as well as oboe for a short stretch).

As I got older, I was enrolled in schools that did not have band programs, so I shifted my focus from jazz & marching band to rock & alternative. My parents bought me an acoustic guitar for my 15th birthday, and in my sophomore year of high school, I sold my saxophone (without permission!) to buy a Mexican Stratocaster and a small practice amp.

In 2005, I was very actively seeing live music in South Florida, but not playing out. I’d made friends with a few musicians, including Corey Dwyer from Crazy Fingers and all of the original lineup of The Heavy Pets. Corey and I jammed a few times at get togethers on the beach, and he started encouraging me to begin putting a band together. It was something that I resisted pretty strongly at first. Through a group of random occurrences, I ended up meeting Jack Shealy from Ochopee, Florida, and he a drummer friend of his started pushing me to start a band with them. Eventually, we started a project called Cypress and got to work learning covers and writing originals. The boys from The Heavy Pets gave us an opportunity to open up for them, and so began my first band.

After a while, Jack was joined, and eventually replaced, by another Jack, Jack Schueler. Jack the 2nd brought a lot of new original music to the project, and added a different, but complimentary element to our sound that really helped us build the band into something very unique. The lineup of Cypress changed a few times over the years, but the one constant was the songwriting team of me & Jack, and the fanbase grew considerably over the years. After 5 years, I decided to leave the project and move to Colorado.

First in Durango, then in Colorado’s Front Range, I went back & forth about whether I wanted to continue performing live music. I played a bunch of solo acoustic shows, sat in with some more established projects, and eventually had a short-lived original project in Durango called The 4th Floor that never really got on it’s feet. When I moved to The Front Range, I was suffering from a major back injury that sidelined my music and work careers for quite some time.

After having back surgery and some time to get back on my feet physically, emotionally, & financially, I settled into a life of working during the day, and spending quite a bit of time playing guitar at night. I had no aspirations of ever playing live again for a few years. But then, a set of unexpected events unfolded again that would point me toward putting together a live band and writing new music and reviving old originals for performance in front of others.

In 2022, friend from Durango, Ryan McCurry, a very accomplished keyboardist whom I’d never played music with, but really respected moved to Loveland while I was living in Fort Collins. We talked about getting together and messing around a little while he was getting himself established in town. I needed a smaller & lighter amp if I was going to be able to play anywhere but my own house again, so I stopped into the Fort Collins Music-Go-Round and stumbled upon a very well used, but still fully functional Mesa Boogie Mark V for a very reasonable price. I traded in some old gear to pay for some of the amp, and paid for the rest of it out of pocket. The Mark V is a very nice sounding and versatile amp, but also is a notoriously difficult amp to get dialed in. It proved to be quite a challenge, but in spending time tweaking the amp to find my sound with it, I also was playing more than I had in years. Getting together for jam sessions with Ryan, as well as rekindling a friendship with Charlie Milo in Colorado Springs and driving down there to sit in with a few of the projects he was involved in reawakened my desire to be playing music on stage. Especially with Charlie’s projects, I was able to put a lot of the technical learning I’d been doing to practice, and also exercise my love of improvisation in a group setting.

I started looking for musicians to join me & Ryan in an original project. I met Nik Wojo (bass) through an online ad (actually, he answered 2 of them) and we got together a few times with a few different drummers but couldn’t find a good fit. Wojo attended an open jam at 830 North in Fort Collins and played with a drummer named Kieran McClay, and the two of them made an immediate connection. When I played with the 2 of them, I knew we were on to something good.

We started working on my originals and a few covers with Ryan joining us when he could, and on March 22nd, 2024 we played our first show as Scoop. We have since played quite a few more shows, doubled our catalog of original compositions, and developed what I believe is a truly unique sound both in our composed passages and our improvisation. Ryan has moved on to pursue other opportunities, but we are all still great friends, and he joins us when he can as we’re on the hunt for a full-time keyboardist.

I think the main constant, for me, is that there are great friends to be made in music. We all speak a very specialized language that brings us closer than verbal languages, and when we find others we connect with, we do what we can to keep those connections alive. In times when I’ve doubted myself, or felt like it was too difficult to keep creating and performing live music while having a full-time job, it has been other musicians who’ve talked sense into me, or sometimes just popped up at the right time to remind me that music is something I must continue to pursue, It’s a language that I MUST speak to be fully myself.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I have a minor obsession with the food from a variety of Asian cultures, so first, I would plan a few dinners at a few of my favorite spots. We’d get some Thai food at Ros Siam in Denver, hit up some Hot Pot at Hot Pot Spot in Thornton, and probably get some Dim Sum at The Empress Seafood Restaurant in Denver.

Then, I’d make sure we hit up some of the Front Range’s amazing live music venues. There’s the big venues that everyone knows, like Red Rocks & The Mission Ballroom. We’d also have to drive down to Manitou Springs to see a band at Armadillo Ranch, for sure. We’d head up to Laporte to go to Swing Station. Lastly, we’d HAVE TO go to a show at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Early on, my 7th grade band teacher, Dean Calmer, was a huge inspiration for me. He taught me that music is a language, and the more that I learn, the more I can communicate with others who also speak that language.

Corey Dwyer of the South Florida band Crazy Fingers was my main inspiration to start playing music in front of people. The memories of his words of encouragement are a constant driver for me to keep going, and while I was only ever somewhere between an acquaintance and a friend to him, I loved him more than I can put into words. He’s been gone for over ten years, and I still think about him every day.

In recent years, my wife has encouraged and supported me in my musical life, reminding me regularly that the sacrifices I make are because music is something that I absolutely have to do in order to be a happy & productive human being.

Website: https://www.scooptheband.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scoop.officialbandpage/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scooptheband1

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ScooptheBand1

Image Credits
Leisha Talley & Otto Bebber