Sydney Cash Works a Music Dream

Lilburn native Sydney Cash is one half of the acoustic-pop duo GibbsCash, and she's working hard expand the band's reach.

The other half of the band is J.D. (John David) Gibbs, Cash's boyfriend of several years. Together, the 26-year-olds have been an official band for the better part of two years. Both are graduates of , but then attended separate colleges before forming GibbsCash.

You can see them at the Atlanta Arts Festival this weekend. They will be playing Sunday, 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m. But, before you go, check out our Q&A with Sydney Cash:

Patch: So, how did everything start? You all parted Parkview for two different colleges.

Cash: We got back together through mutual friends. I was in a band, and he was in a band -- I think. And, we just decided to play together instead of with out other bands. We were tired of those.

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Patch: Why did you want to be in another band? What was the dynamic in the other groups?

Cash: All the guys I was with were older than me, and they all had families and real jobs. It was going to be a cover band, and that was it. There wasn't ever going to be any potential down the road. It was just time to move on. It was a good experience because it got me on stage every weekend for two years.

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Patch: What was it like in the early days of you and Gibbs deciding you wanted to be a group?

Cash: It was just kind of seeing if we could play together. We would just have random practices. I'd pick some songs. He'd pick some songs. And, we just kind of saw what came out of it.

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Patch: So, the name, GibbsCash. How did you decide? Did you go through a number of names before settling on that one?

Cash: No, not really. I don't know why we decided to just use our names. I guess we wanted to have that recognition of ourselves in it. And, we didn't want it to be just one of us because we wanted to be partners in... We went to the bookstore and we sat down, and we kind of thought about it: 'CashGibbs sounds weird. GibbsCash sounds better.' So that's how we came up with it. So I really don't know beyond that why. It just kind of happened.

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Patch: What's the music and writing process for you?

Cash: Sometimes, we'll just be talking and one of us will say something, and be like, 'that could be a song,' and we write it down. Or, sometimes we pull stuff that we wrote a long time ago, and we'll just start working on. Just, kind of random. A lot of times when you just sit down and you want to write something, it doesn't come out. It's like it just has to appear."

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Patch: What's the reception been like at your gigs?

Cash: Really good. That's one thing that really makes me feel good about us. Even though we're not super big time, yet, we do feel we have quite a good following. We've never had any bad comments, so that makes me feel good. It's always all positive comments.

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Patch: What's it like working with the person you are in a relationship with? Sounds difficult.

Cash: It can be. You don't want to be so business like that you hurt the other persons' feelings because if you do, it's not just your business relationship that's in jeopardy, it's your real -- you're actual -- relationship. We've gotten real good at it.

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Patch: Your mom is here in Lilburn. What's her take on your music career?

Cash: She's very encouraging. She comes to all of our shows. She loves it.

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Patch: In a perfect world, where would you want the band to be right now?

Cash: I would like us to have an album recorded of original music. Be signed with record label, even. Maybe not a big huge one. But to be doing something like that to where we could have the backing to get the recognition to do tours and different things where you really collect fans. But, what we're going to have to now because we don't have that. Really, today, you have to do it online. That's the best way besides just going out and playing shows locally for little to no money. You have to get online.

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Patch: What advice would you give to younger folks who are starting on the music career path?

Cash: I feel like I need advice. But, it's like any other job -- besides the whole being online, and going viral, and as many people seeing that as possible, which is great, you know. It is great. It's just different. It's another avenue, and that's what has kind of taken hold. But, you have to network. You have to get out and meet people. You have to go out and do shows. It's those two things these days that make performers.

To learn more about GibbsCash, check their website, or email the group at gibbscashmusic@gmail.com.