Updated: 12/08/02

The Lyndsay Diaries is actually musician Scott Windsor’s creation – an entity founded on tragedy proving that music is indeed part of any healing process. With his latest album The Tops Of Trees Are On Fire, the Lyndsay legacy continues. Read our interview with Scott to find out more on this singer/songwriter.

How long has the Lyndsay Diaries been together and how did everything get started?

It’s probably been close to two years now. It doesn’t seem that long. It was kind of weird how it all happened. I was in a bad car accident with my best friend and he’s paralyzed now. I kind of put on a benefit concert for that and ended up writing some songs and playing them. I ended up having a friend record the songs just to give out to some friends. And Chad at The Militia Group heard the songs and wanted to sign me. I wrote ten more songs for my first CD and it kind of happened from there. That was pretty lucky. I never expected to do any of this ever. It just fell into my lap. I’m really excited about it.

Prior to this project, were you in any other bands at all or did anything musically?

I’ve played drums my whole life. I was the drummer of a metal band for three years in high school. It was kind of crazy. It was called The Ruined. We were young kids in high school. It was a lot like Sepultura/Pantera kid of stuff. It was just fun. We just played around in my hometown.

Did you have long hair, flash the metal horns, and say “DUDE” all the time?

(Laughs) No, I didn’t. We had a lead singer who had long hair and wore leather pants and no shirt. It was kind of embarrassing but funny at the same time. All the people back home who used to come to the shows now see me doing this and say, “What happened?”

You must have some metal albums still in your collection.

Yeah, I still listen to some metal. I’ve gone softer, but yeah, I still have a lot of my old records.

Well back to the Lyndsay Diaries. What city do you live in and what is the music scene like there?

I live in St. Louis, Missouri. I actually went to school the past two years in Nashville, Tennessee. This all started while I was in Nashville, so that was my home base for doing shows. I just quit school and moved back home into a music scene that I wasn’t really familiar with. I haven’t really played much in St. Louis. It’s kind of weird – there’s just one guy who promotes every show. I do have a pretty good following now because it’s where I’m really from.

What about Nashville? That must have been really interesting being there in the country capitol of the world.

Yeah, it’s really big on country and the whole Christian scene is really big there. But it’s pretty good – there’s some good clubs there. A lot of shows come through Nashville. I guess I have a pretty good fan base in Nashville.

When writing your lyrics on the new record, where did you get some of your ideas from? And mention a few of the songs if you can.

It’s a big spectrum of different things. Basically everything I was going through in my life. The title track The Tops Of Trees Are On Fire – it kind of goes along with that song I wrote about my best friend. It’s kind of where we’re at now. Back then, the accident happened and we’re dealing with being paralyzed. And now it’s the ongoing trials of it not going away. It talks about our friendship and stuff like that. And there’s a couple of other songs that deal with friendship. I have a song called Cowboy, which is kind of different than what I normally write – it has a kind of country feel. It’s about Nashville. I’m a big fan of the ocean, and I love California and the West Coast. The song is just about wanting to leave the cowboy town and move out to California and be by the ocean. It looks like I’m going to be moving out to California – just for the winter for about four months – so I’m pretty excited about that. Out in Huntington Beach probably.

When you tour, do you play with a whole band or on your own?

Well right now, I’m on tour with The Beautiful Mistake and I have a friend with me from St. Louis playing extra guitar and bass. I do have the drummer from Beautiful Mistake playing on a few songs. For a few songs we have the full band sound and other songs it’s just me or another guitarist. But I’m always looking for other musicians to play with me. I definitely think it adds a lot. It’s just hard getting people to come on tour.

What do you think of bands like Bright Eyes and Dashboard Confessional? Do they inspire you at all?

I get that question all the time. I use to be really close friends with Chris from Dashboard. When I started doing this, we’d talk about it all the time. I used to be like, “Chris, everyone is gonna think I’m just ripping you off.” And he said, “Don’t worry about it. Whatever.” It’s like it’s helped me but it’s hurt me at the same time. I’m really trying to get away from anything that would sound like Dashboard lately just because I get lumped in with it so much. I do like Chris and I think his music is great. I’d say it was more influenced on the first CD. And on this CD, I was definitely trying to do more of a singer/songwriter feel instead of the whole indie rock/emo acoustic thing. But I do listen to Bright Eyes a lot. I know he’s the big thing right now – the big buzz or whatever. I think Conner is a great songwriter – he’s very creative and his lyrics are amazing. I’m sure it has influenced me. I think his new record is amazing.

If there was an album coming out called Emo Goes Metal and you were invited to contribute a song on it – what song would you contribute and why?

(Laughs) That would be awesome! I don’t know man. There’s so much metal that I like that I could do. I’d probably go back to my roots and try to cover something that I liked when I was younger. Maybe even like a Sepultura song or something like that. I think I would cover Cannibal Corpse – that’s who I would cover. I think it’s one of the farthest extremes in music that you can get. And that band just cracks me up just how gross and disgusting they are.

Do you have any messages for people who might be interested in checking out your CD or fans?

Basically I’m just super, super appreciative of anyone who gives my music a try. It means a lot to me when people listen to the CD and like it. I’m very thankful for anybody’s support.