Header image credit: @schmorwin
There’s something refreshing about Patrick Stovall’s approach to making music. He’s not afraid to admit that sometimes he writes songs to make his friends laugh. Through his solo project, Kit McKay, Stovall has found freedom in embracing the ridiculous as well as the profound.
His recent release, The Dirt Candies, perfectly embodies this philosophy. What started as weekend jam sessions with his college roommate, Matt Southern, has become an unexpected calling card. These deliberately silly songs have caught the attention of college radio stations and audiences hungry for something real.
But don’t mistake Stovall’s humor for a lack of depth. Behind the laughs lies a songwriter still discovering his voice. Someone who didn’t start writing until his twenties and has only recently found confidence in his craft. His musical journey resonated with me, proving that the most successful art comes from being yourself.
We met for our conversation in the baking summer heat. Stovall opened up about the creative process, balancing artistry with playful expression, and why disrupting routine is essential for songwriting. As a fellow musician, it’s a great reminder to have fun, above all else.
What have you been listening to lately?
Patrick: On the way over, I was listening to Midnite, a reggae band from the 90s. Very political. I found that CD in some old stuff I was getting rid of; my dad made it for me in high school. So that was a pleasant surprise.
What is the first musician that you remember discovering on your own and obsessing over?
Patrick: I didn’t find this on my own, but me and two friends loved Green Day. We rode our bikes up to Target and bought American Idiot CDs when it came out. It was just something that me and these two guys bonded over really quickly. We stayed friends and played music together forever after that.
I discovered music local to Greensboro a little later. I was completely entranced by an afrobeat band called the Brand New Life at a coffee shop called the Green Bean. I went to all their local shows after that first one. That band certainly felt like my little secret.
How would you say your musical tastes have changed or shifted since then?
Patrick: Green Day was my beginning with rock music, which at that time was like All-American Rejects and pop rock.
I’m not sure if my tastes have changed all that much. The recurring trends in music and our culture’s love for nostalgia remind me that I still like some of the stuff I listened to in my early teens. I think my taste for good songwriting and rootsier things was always there. But, by now, I’ve been exposed to more and better examples of those things.
When did you start writing music and performing live?
Patrick: I played clarinet in the school orchestra and played in the praise band every Sunday in high school. I didn’t start writing until college, when I was about 20 or 21 years old. Only recently, like the past few years, have I felt any sort of confidence in writing. I’ve maybe had ideas and never bothered to try to write something. That’s still a very new thing for me.
I’ve heard a lot of artists say it’s a way of processing certain emotions or events that happen throughout life. And I agree with that to some extent. But I have written several things where I was trying to just make my friends laugh. I’m being ridiculous on purpose, I’m not really trying to express anything personal.
What I’ve found from playing live is that people are, most of the time, extremely nice. They want to hear something original and new. They appreciate the effort. There’s rarely any ridicule.
I was just listening to The Dirt Candies and I love your context for the humor of those songs. What was the process of writing that EP, collaborating with friends, and then also taking the time to record it?
Patrick: So my college roommate is a really funny motherfucker. I perform a song that he wrote that’s about LSD and it’s everyone’s favorite because it’s kind of funny. It’s another one where I’m not expressing any truth necessarily, it’s just trying to be funny.
The Dirt Candies was a revival of my roommate and I jamming and writing silly things. We thought it was too fun not to do and didn’t want to be so serious about songs being these precious things. Sometimes they are, but we just wanted to do something that was very not serious for our own benefit and enjoyment.
It was his idea to get together for a weekend and play these songs. He had a backlog of silly stuff; I had a silly song about sex robots that I never wanted to perform. I performed it for my band in a practice like, “Hey, what do you guys think about learning this?” And they were like, “No, we cannot say that. Even in the drunkest of bars.” But there was something relieving or funny about just doing it and putting it on the Internet. There’s no harm in that.
How has the reception been?
Patrick: Our broader group of friends thinks it’s funny. We haven’t been good about spreading the word. [laughs] We were joking during recording like, “What if these songs about rolling up joints become the thing that we take off on?” All of these serious art songs that we’re trying to do fizzle out.
I do feel like people are more receptive to the less serious tone of it. I send music to the college station in Raleigh, WKNC. I like that station a lot. They did not respond to Kit McKay‘s first album [The Holy Goat], but they were very complimentary of this. It might have been this self-fulfilling prophecy to joke about what if this is how our careers take off.
Have you played these songs live?
Patrick: We have, but it’s been without the full band because I couldn’t talk them into it. [laughs] Sometimes I play solo or as an acoustic trio, and we try to make the audience aware that this is silly. Like, “You’re not going to like this, but here we go,” and that goes over pretty well. The robot song is the one that we’ve performed. It usually goes well, and people remember it, for better or for worse.
What’s the latest with your Kit McKay solo project?
Patrick: A little bit of trying to go with the flow and not having such a tight grip on things. We will be releasing three songs. These are the first songs that I’ve recorded with this band. They’re all very close friends of mine, we’ve known each other for a long time, but this is the first recording with them. And then we’ve got another handful that we’re looking ahead to maybe recording some in the fall. A longer thing, maybe ten songs or something. Hopefully, we’ll see.
Are you all recording in the same spot at The Nest?
Patrick: Yeah, that’s my friend’s house. He’s rigged the walls up with XLR outputs. So it’s just like a full musical renovation. He’s got this loft, which is more or less the control room. He’s got a little talkback mic and stuff. He just needs a glass window so he can look down on us.
Getting holed up for a week to do the Dirt Candies project was fun and I want to do more stuff like that. These three songs have been one by one, piece by piece. I like the result we have right now, but I wouldn’t do it like that again. You start to lose steam. You have to build enthusiasm back up and get people’s schedules to align. It’s better to just be like, “here’s 48 hours, what we get is what we get.”
It doesn’t need to be so serious. If we hate the result after 48 hours, we can do it again. But this piece-by-piece approach turns into, “We’ve got to get it just right. This is take #32, we’ve got to get it.”
What are some of your goals for the rest of 2025 and beyond?
Patrick: I love doing this, especially Kit McKay. I’ve discovered that I love to sing, and I’m working on my voice still. I could probably take some professional lessons or something, but I just want to play live. There’s the cliche “connection with the audience” thing, which is really lovely. I want to play in new places, new bars, new rooms.
Schedules get in the way, jobs get in the way. But performing kind of forces you to engage with people. I am kind of shy, and I need to be forced to do that. And I miss that engagement with people if there’s no reason to.
I also want to record some new stuff, write some new stuff. But writing new stuff means engaging with people, getting out of a routine, disrupting the routine as much as possible. Going on hikes, breathing clean air, seeing new places. That all ends up making its way into some creative thing.
Who are your favorite local/North Carolina bands?
Patrick: All of the bands in the Honeyguide Collective. Matt Southern & Lost Gold. I play bass in this band called Fake Jr., with one of my best friends, Kevin. Rita Cascia from Wilmington; that’s my buddy Davis, he’s on Dirt Candies. I love Zack Mexico and Ameriglow. Chicken Ranch Road Show has great songs and a really great stage vibe.
My friend Matt records live sessions in his living room and John Howie Jr. just did one. I got to just watch and it was great. Really cool country, Honky Tonk stuff.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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