Willie and I sat down recently for an early morning chat and we talked about lobster diving, and of course his music and debut album Cohgie Never Landed as well as everything else under the sun.
Why are you taking the music road when you are already a successful commercial actor?
Well, it’s kind of like, why do people like to have a glass of water when they eat? It’s just one of those things for me. I feel like I have to be diverse in what I do, in order to keep myself content and focused in life. I think acting is just great! I think music is great! I think that people always want to label entertainers as what they feel they should be.
So, you’re an actor, or a singer kind of thing.
Yeah. As an entertainer I just feel blessed to be able to do both. I don’t really consider myself to be one or the other. I don’t really pull my identity from what I do for a living. I think my identity is more who I am as person, and who my family are and who my friends are as opposed to what I do to make money.
You write all the lyrics and music that you play but you have put together a band to play with you, correct?
Yeah, uh-huh. I have been in bands before and it’s always been great until somebody’s life changes. And that’s just the way it is with bands. You play with people and then this or that happens, somebody has to move or somebody has to get a full time job or they get married and then the band is no longer what you formed. So when I decided to start doing music this time around, I decided “you know what, I’m going to be myself, I’m going to be Willie Herath, I’m going to be a solo artist. And then I’m going to find some really great guys that believe in me, who believe in my music.” I give them, obviously, a percentage or a portion of the licensing and the royalties to the album as well, like it is a real band but if some of the guys come and go through out the years there’s no confusion.
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