At just 30 years old, Noah Gundersen has already managed to accomplish more than most musicians do in a lifetime. The Seattle-based singer and songwriter has put out more than a dozen albums and EPs, which have been heard millions upon millions of times. His music has been features on popular TV shows like Sons Of Anarchy, The Vampire Diaries, The Following, and Nashville. He’s roved the planet to play concerts to passionate audiences everywhere. Long before he was an accomplished artist, though, Gundersen was a homeschooled kid from a religious family who tried to combat his loneliness and boredom by teaching himself to play guitar.

Recently, prior to a show at The Back Room @ Colectivo, Gundersen met My First Band host Tyler Maas backstage for a fun and informative discussion about his formative musical endeavors. After talking about accidentally releasing a record called Lover the exact same day Taylor Swift dropped an album with the same name, Gundersen opened up about self-recording a batch of cringe-inducing songs when he was 13, finding early inspiration from bands like Pedro The Lion and Dashboard Confessional, forming “terrible” emo bands in his teens, playing shows in a friend’s garage in his small Washington hometown, and making the decision to fully commit to a solo project.

My First Band is sponsored by Boulevard Brewing. The show is edited by Jared Blohm. You can listen to My First Band on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and wherever else you get podcasts. Music used in this show comes courtesy of Devils Teeth (“The Junction Street Eight Tigers”) and Noah Gundersen (“Lover”).