Photo by: Flickr.com

Backyard Tire Fire’s Ed Anderson provided insight to the motivations and inspirations leading up to, as well as resulting from, his music career with the band. He admitted to being “one dimensional” and that music is his main focus, even when he’s just getting into writing and recording at home. He enjoys traveling and seeing places he may have never seen otherwise. The music he is making and his experiences have provided him with an opportunity he is grateful for. Backyard Tire Fire will be playing at the Walnut Room in Denver on Feb. 27.

How did the band get started?

I guess it was almost nine years ago. We started off down in Asheville, N.C., and eventually we made our way back to the Midwest. I guess it started off as a basement in North Carolina. From the get go, the idea was to be more a song-oriented band and write songs with hooks and harmonies was more of what I wanted to do as opposed to a kind of jamming thing.

What would you classify yourself as, in terms of a genre?

It’s hard to. Ultimately, we’re a rock and roll band.

Thats a pretty broad umbrella, but there’s a lot of diverse things that can fall under that classification.

What are some of your inspirations for your music?

I think all of us have a commonality and like bands like the Beatles, the Stones, Neil Young, that kind of stuff. 

Tom Petty and Bob Dylan, too. Not everything we listen to necessarily makes it into a song, but everything we listen to does make up who we are as musicians. 

Is there a certain type of band you generally play with?

We can kind of adapt to different situations if we need to.

That’s one of the things I enjoy about this band is that we’re able to play with different kinds of musicians and pull it off and appeal to their crowd. 

Most people can find something in the lyrics and the music that they can identify with.

What has been your greatest challenge as a band?

The greatest challenge has been keeping this diesel engine in our van healthy.  

To be honest that’s been the biggest thorn in my side over the last few years. 

Other than that, everybody’s on the same page. We all enjoy what we do and we feel lucky to do it.