“I grew up in a log cabin built by my father in Batesville, Va, studied music in Boston, started a band with friends from college based out of Charlottesville, Va, Trees on Fire in 2005, and now I live in a barn I converted to a home in which to raise my son. My debut solo album Skylights I composed and produced with Eric Heigle in New Orleans.”

Check Blake out at his official Website, Facebook, and SoundCloud. He has just released his debut single, ‘Every Single Piece‘ as a preview of his upcoming full-length, “Skylights” which will drop this October. I want to thank Blake for taking a few to participate in this edition of First/Last.

• The first album you ever bought?
• Genesis “We Can’t Dance”.
• Your last album bought?
• Lana Del Ray “Born to Die”.
• Favorite album of all time?
• How about top 3. Radiohead “Hail to the Thief, Gorillaz “Plastic Beach” and Daniel Lanois “Acadie”. It’s really hard to say this for real since I have gone through many phases of music style appreciation. I used to like classic rock a lot when I was young, and then got into the 90’s thing when I was a teenager, plus Dave Matthews was a big deal to me when I was first writing songs (he lived in Charlottesville, VA and played weekly gigs here).
• Least favorite/most disappointing album?
• Not sure, probably some album I don’t know the name of, but really most young teeny bopper country singers drive me crazy. I wish they were stranded in a 3rd world country for a year. Otherwise, I am pretty open minded.
• First concert attended?
• Do you really mean first? Because I was in attendance for my parents shows when I was a baby being passed around the audience because I would always wake up from the cradle side stage… but if you mean in grown up life, it was The Who’s ‘Quadrophenia’ tour, Nissan Pavilion. I was 15 and it was amazing.
• Last concert?
• Avett Bros., Intelos Wireless Pavilion in Charlottesville.
• Favorite concert ever?
• Radiohead headlining Bonnaroo ’06, from 60 feet away, blew my mind having about 100,000 people behind me. I had to really want it to keep my spot, I was there with my band though we stuck together, tight friends.
• Least favorite concert?
• Ryan Adams, Paradise Rock Club, Boston. He must have been super wasted because he was a total jerk to the crowd and he was in a grungy punk stage of his music when I was expecting something more along the lines of “Heartbreaker”.
• Any thoughts, experiences about Pittsburgh?
• It seems that you all have a really interesting undergroundy type of music scene. I have a hand full of friends from Pittsburgh who all have a similar vibe I find hard to put into words, but I dig it.
• Thanks, Blake. I love that you mentioned Lanois’ “Acadie”. That was the very first CD I ever bought and man, I still listen that album. Such an underrated gem.