ION INDIE MAGAZINE November 2014, Volume 6 | Page 89

I Won't Give Up By Kiki Plesha One might call singer-songwriter EDDY FAULKNER a “late bloomer”, but the truth is, he has loved music for as long as he can remember. Describing himself as “self-taught”, Faulkner credits an unlikely source for inspiring his delve into music. “In 2008, I played a video game called ‘Rock Band’. This game really introduced me to a whole new realm of music I never experienced before. This led to me convincing my parents to buy me a drum set, which then eventually led to me writing songs a couple months later which completely came out of the blue. This eventually led to me picking up the guitar, piano, bass guitar, and soon after, singing.” And once he caught “the bug”, he wasted no time and jumped in with both feet--becoming part of the short-lived Virginia band THE REMEDY in 2009. Eddy struck out on his own in 2010, posting solo music videos of his original music and his covers of popular artists on YouTube, Facebook and other social media. These were well-received and he began gaining momentum with a fan base and developing himself as an artist. But things really began to take off when he signed with a label, Star 1 Records, and before he knew it, his debut single “I Won’t Give Up” was on the National Airplay Charts. And, he is now following up with the worldwide release of his accompanying video to the single “I Won’t Give Up”. Says Faulkner, “When the label released the single for this song and distributed it to radio stations, we never thought it thought it would be topping the National Airplay Top 50 Independent Chart.” Faulkner anticipates the same enthusiastic reception with the global release of the video “I Won’t Give Up”. Faulkner states, “I can’t wait to see what happens next!” All the songs he writes are drawn from personal experiences. Sometimes, there is a certain message to impart, others can have multiple meanings and still others are just very direct and simple. Says Faulkner about the songwriting process, “That's the amazing thing about a song…it can tell a story, or many different stories in just a few minutes, and in return, can relate to so many people around the world. I chose this song to be my first single for 2014 and I was very surprised at the response. People said it changed their lives, inspired them, and even saved their lives in some cases. It shocks me how I even have the power to do that with a song I wrote in around ten minutes about a girl I liked. The power of music is really amazing.” www.facebook.com/eddyfaulknermusic