Howie Day: The Perfect Time For Day by Nancy J Price from www.sheknows.com

When a teenager records and independently releases a self-financed album, that's cool. When the album goes on to sell 30,000 copies based on positive word of mouth, that's amazing. And then when, less than two years later, that same guy spends three months in southwest London's Olympic Studios, laying down tracks on the hallowed ground that legendary albums -- from Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones and The Who -- have been recorded… well, words like "incredible" and "extraordinary" just won't cut it.

All in all, not bad for a kid from Bangor, Maine. Especially for a kid from Maine named Howie.

But don't think for a moment that any of this has come easily for Howie Day, the aforementioned 23-year-old singer/musician/songwriter. In fact, his musical career has been 18 years in the making... though it all actually started quite by accident.

"My mom went to an auction or something, and brought a piano home one day when I was five. I just sort of started banging on it, like you do when you're five, 'cause it's fun," he says. "It was in the same room as the television, so when television commercials and jingles would come on, I figured out how to copy them. My mom went 'Hmm... hmm... interesting.' So she signed me up for piano lessons, and I did that right up until I was 12 or so."

Unlike most kids, though, Howie didn't have to be threatened with losing his Game Boy privileges to keep up with the lessons. "It was the opposite," he says. "Because [the piano] was in the same room as the television, I would have to stop playing for a little while so at least dad could watch the news… It was like, 'Stop banging on that damn piano!'"

The "cool" factors
But when puberty hit, so did the realization that -- Elton aside -- not too many rock stars were up there on stage tickling the ivories. "Somewhere around 13, you figure out that you want to play electric guitar, because that's rock and that's cool," he laughs. "I was very opposed to the idea of having an acoustic, because I thought that was just for country music. So dad got me a Fender Stratocaster, and I started learning how to play the guitar."

The only thing missing was a little vocal training. "The weirdest thing about that is I didn't really start singing until I was probably 15. I kind of decided that, hey, it would be really cool to write songs and be a performer and all that. It kind of seemed necessary, at least in sort of a pop world, to sing," he says. "So I just kind of started doing that on my own, like you do, you know -- starting out in my room when no one was home just to see if I was any good at it. Slowly I started doing it for family members or friends or whatever. And they went, 'Hey -- that's pretty good, actually.'" Within a year, Day was playing at bars around Bangor, and slowly started building up a following

More than just a stage
On his own, Day released his debut album, Australia, in the year 2000. Supported by an insanely busy touring schedule -- primarily concerts at universities and colleges -- his fan base multiplied. Opening slots for numerous well-known artists, including John Mayer, The Wallflowers and Sting, only helped that audience grow.

When he's performing live, Day says, there's a distinct difference between the big gigs and the little shows. "There's an intimacy lost on the big audiences, but there's also a sort of cool kind of buzz that you get from it too, like 'Wow -- there are 10,000 people here.' It tends to be a little more high energy, and you try to capture as many people as you can; whereas with a small show, you reveal a little bit more personality. I almost feel like I'm there hanging out with them or something," Day says. "We mix it up. I do little intimate shows just because if I go a long time without doing them, it gets kind of weird -- like I'm playing at people."

Regardless of the venue size, "Howie is a powerhouse of pure emotion and raw energy," says Chris Hickman, the Texas-based webmaster of fan site HowieFan.com. "When people see him perform, they become captivated -- tapping their feet, mouthing each word, and anticipating each layer of sound as Howie builds each song."