Stephen Carey Chats About "On The Water" and Appearing in Stranger Things

Country singer-songwriter Stephen Carey doesn't have the typical country music origin story. His parents got divorced when he was a kid and although the situation was unfortunate, it lead the Jacksonville, Florida native down the path he's on today. "My dad moved to Atlanta. He was going through a midlife crisis situation and decided that he was gonna start playing guitar in his 30s and long distance, we started playing guitar together. He bought me a guitar when I was 11 and we started learning over the phone," he told The Nash News. "That's sort of oddly how I started playing guitar. If he hadn't moved or if they hadn't split up, I don't know where I would be in my life."

And although he makes country music, he wasn't raised on it by any means. In his mom's car, he listened to Mariah Carey and Phil Collins, and with his dad, he listened to classic and southern rock. When he first started playing guitar, he was drawn to angsty contemporary rock artists like blink-182 and Green Day. "I knew that I liked being on stage. I played bass in a bunch of bands, I played drums in a bunch of bands, but I was never the lead singer," he stated. "I didn't really find my way to country music till I found my voice as a singer. I think it took me maturing to a place in my life when I could relate to the stories of some of the lyrics in country music to fall in love with it." After getting into country music and hearing the stories found in the genre, he became super inspired to start writing stories of his own.

Carey made the move to Nashville and started releasing original music in 2018. His latest release, "On The Water" is a summery and youthful anthem inspired by boating. Co-written by Carey alongside Lukas Klingensmith, Taylor Bialy, and Matt Ferranti, the group was enamored with a beachy track that Bialy presented; their gears started to turn when thinking of the lakes and rivers surrounding Nashville and how many people find solace in those places. During their talks, the phrase "on the water" popped up from Klingensmith who happens to be an owner of a boat. "I was like, that's a really cool concept. If you're on the water you're not reachable by any kind of responsibility," Carey exclaims. The song currently has over 100,000 streams on Spotify.

Although the lyricism seems to encompass a specific experience, one of Carey's goals with the tune was to make it feel inclusive. "My family doesn't come from money. Having a boat, you can't really do unless you're financially able to," he shares, "It doesn't necessarily have to mean being out on a boat to have that feeling. It was, to me, more about the mindset of being on the water, being unreachable by anything that could distract you from having a moment of peace. I think now, more than ever, people need those disconnected moments."

Besides music, during the pandemic, Carey tried to make some extra cash by doing voice-over work. The company he signed up through, also gave him an opportunity to be an extra in Netflix's Cobra Kai and Stranger Things. While filming Cobra Kai, he was in the very first row of the audience during the tournament scenes featured in the last two episodes of the past season. "Honestly, the hardest part of shooting any of this stuff was not talking about any of the details or not giving anything away," Carey explains.

When shooting Stranger Things, arguably one of the biggest shows in the world, he was also in the very last episode, but when he was on set, he didn't know that. They wouldn't tell the extras what episode it was or what was going on, keeping the plot under major wraps. It wasn't until he saw the finale of season 4 that he saw himself.

For the rest of 2022, Carey has plans to play at the first-ever Cowboy Luau festival in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. He is also playing a show at Eddie's Attic in Decatur, Georgia for a "Stephen Carey & Friends" event. He's also working on new music that will show a different side of himself to his audience. "The exciting thing about the landscape of being an independent artist is that I can see what people are reacting to. You know you can test stuff out by leaking it on TikTok on Instagram and see what people react to," he says. "I think the kind of music that is blowing up are things that are a little more personal because the experience you have on your phone alone at night, that's what people relate to more. I'm excited about these next couple of songs."

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