The feedback from the video we shared of a hot new country duo by the name of Whiskey + Wine was intense! We had readers going all out to find out any tid bit of information they could. So, we took matters into our own hands and scheduled an interview to find out just how the magic happened.
We were excited to learn more about the story behind these beautiful voices that blend together in ways you can only hope and are infused with pure authenticity and raw talent.
Upon first impression of the two you can’t help but notice their hollywood good looks. But what I was immediately impressed with was their humbleness and likability. Oh and passion. Hey….that stuff matters. Especially when you find out both where both their backgrounds stem from.
Justin Gaston, the male half of the duo, got bite by the guitar bug at 15. He quotes the likes of John Mayer, Cat Stevens and Jackson Browne as strong musical influences encouraging him to pursue the guitar. He joined his youth band at church and had zero intentions of taking his place in front of a microphone. But as fate would have it, he DID end up behind the microphone. And that helped land him on quite the journey. Including auditioning and landing a place on the hit reality singing show, Nashville Star. Not too shabby of a musical start. Following his dreams landed him LA where he was an actor on a well known soap opera and as luck would have it, married actress Melissa Ordway, which then hooked them up with a mutual friend that would help define the next chapter in his musical career.
The next chapter? Yes, this is where Emily Reeves comes in, the female half of Whiskey + Wine, and her story is nothing short of amazing. Her parents are well known soap opera stars, Melissa and Scott Reeves . Emily ‘s younger life was spent being musically influenced by the talents of Sheryl Crow, Jewel and James Taylor. But, it wasn’t until Emily was 19 that she decided to pursue it full time. That meant dropping everything and moving Nashville to on a whim. Let’s a take moment to talk about hot utterly inspirational that is. To just follow your heart. No questions asked. And we are so glad she did.
Justin and Emily’s paths crossed when Justin was asked to attend a performance where Emily was singing. Through mutual friends they were able to connect and a little over a year later, here we are. Connect is a powerful word when it comes to these two.
What connects the two is their die hard passion for song writing. While one lives in LA and the other in Nashville, the way they keep connected is often through Skype messages and voice memos shooting song ideas back and forth. But the crazy thing is within seconds of being around them you can tell they have some serious musical chemistry despite the distance. Of course finding out it only took them an hour to pen a while song titled “After You” was all the confirmation I needed to know these two are the real deal.
And of course they both share a passion for some of the music industry’s best, so I wouldn’t expect anything less. But they both LIVE the song writing lifestyle. Truly using their own experiences to help keep that connective-ness strong.
“It’s important for us to stay involved emotionally,” Justin says. Emily was quick to add “We want to keep that authenticity alive and relatable.”
And there is an album in the works that will showcase all their own songs. One of which, “Good Time Feeling” both were excited about because of the “feel good vibes” it sends off. Although having them narrow down their favorite song that will be not the upcoming album was a chore which tells us we will be in for multiple treats.
Their career is truly just taking off and we are excited to share them with you on the ground floor!
But we did have one unanswered question….Which one is Whiskey and which one is Wine?
Check out their message to our readers below:
And make sure to check out their latest cover video for Maroon 5’s ‘Unkiss Me’ and hear the folky/country vibe they bring to it!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2_QedKWcyg
