Although many people may not know Joe Purdy's name, they've probably heard his music featured on two of ABC's most popular shows: "Lost" and "Grey's Anatomy."
"I've been really lucky, I guess," said Purdy. "It's kind of like the new radio for people, especially when we're making records on the fly."
And for Purdy, making records on the fly means that he spends only about 4-5 days on each one, and that includes writing and recording.
"Taking a long process for me sucks a lot of the pure emotion out of it," he said. "The part that's special about the record may not be the superior audio quality."
But the raw emotion captured by recording most songs in a single take brings Purdy closer to the music he loves.
"I grew up listening to the old records and that's still what I listen to - that's what sounds good to me," he said. "I think it makes the records better because you capture this moment before it goes away."
The honesty Purdy exudes in his music transcends to his interviews as well, and although he has received some flack for nicknaming the likes of Jessica Simpson and James Blunt "The Pretenders," he said he's "not going to stop telling the truth."
"For me, it has to do with the major label system and how it's become - it has more to do with these pre-fabricated people," he said. "They take the money, which you can't really blame them for, and at some point they get told how to walk and talk and sing and then they're in front of everyone."
And of artists such as Britney Spears, who "needs a lot of digital tools to sound good on a record," Purdy said, "that's entertainment, but I don't think it's music."
Purdy, who grew up in Fayetteville, Ark., said his hometown still has a huge influence on his career today.
"The part of the country that I grew up in has more to do with some of the subject matter that I touch upon and the way I view city life," he said.
But Purdy adds, "what shaped me more than anything was my folks."
"My pops taught me how to listen to music and he put a record player in my room, and I just started listening to his old records," he said. "They definitely instilled in me to think on my own and figure out what I thought was right."
Although Purdy is unsure what he wants his music career to look like in the long run, he said, "for now, I'm happy."
"We get to travel, and I'm not working the four jobs a day that I was before we started doing this a lot," he said. "For right now I just want to make as much music as I can while I have it and while I'm still writing as much."
And while Purdy is quick to add, "you never know when you'll be gone and when your time's up," it's clear that he just wants to accomplish as much as he can in every day he has left.
"I just want to keep writing and making more records and living in between," he said.
Check out Joe Purdy this Sunday at The Gibson Lounge as part of the Hotel Café Tour. Doors open at 7 p.m., the show starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $20. For more information, call 544-7998.
