The love for music began at a very young age for Shawn. Growing up with classic country sounds in the house, such as Jim Reeves, Roger Miller, and Crystal Gayle. Of course growing up with these sounds in the house as a child, it was hard to classify the music as "country" . It was just music. "I never really thought about what genre the music was when I was young. It was just good music" says Shawn.

Shawn's teenage years brought Rock'n'Roll into the picture. At the age of 15, music appreciation had hit hard enough that he decided to pick up the electric guitar and learn to play. Hours and Hours of tedious practice until late hours in the night quickly accelerated his learning of the instrument. "I remember playing songs over and over until they were absolutely perfect" Shawn recalls. "I would play late into the night. I can only imagine what I put the rest of the family through"!


The fondness for music then grew into writing original material which he wrote, performed and recorded. "Writing songs just came naturally to me. I never thought of it as something different or difficult. I just sat down, and wrote it." Even though Shawn was still involved in playing Rock'n'Roll with High School bands, it was clear in the songs that he was writing that the early influences were shining through. "Looking back, I can really hear the country influences in the songs that I was writing". "I was a Rock',n'Roller writing country songs, and at the time, I didn't know it"! Shawn jokes.