Derrick McKee

I grew up in Wheeling, WV. It’s a small city in the northern panhandle of WV and is about 55 miles from Pittsburgh, PA. I was raised to love the Pirates, Steelers, and the Penguins.



I started playing guitar around age 14. Initially, I just learned a bunch of covers but eventually started writing my own material in hopes of winning over girls, which (sadly) didn’t work. The good news is that by the time I graduated from high school I had released an album called Live From the Living-room, which showcased thirteen or fourteen original songs recorded on an incredibly crappy computer microphone. Despite the poor quality, it is my understanding that Living-room is still the best selling album in the history of Wheeling Central Catholic High School.



After high school I moved down to Morgantown, WV and attended West Virginia University. Throughout college I stayed musically active. At the end of my freshman year I spent the summer at a music production school in Chillicothe, OH where I learned the in’s and out’s of running a recording studio. During my sophomore year I spent Christmas break at Studio L in Weirton, WV recording five tracks. Those tracks eventually became The Blue Skies Mourning EP which I later used to recruit a band under the same name. Blue Skies Mourning rocked Morgantown, Wheeling, and Pittsburgh until 2005.



After Blue Skies Mourning called it a day I decided to revisit some of my earlier work. I re-wrote a bunch of old songs and hit the recording studio again. I eventually released Ticket to Somewhere and started performing live as much as possible. I even got to fulfill a personal goal when I opened up for The Clarks at 123 Pleasant Street.



Right after I released Ticket to Somewhere I found out that I was accepted into WVU’s Master of Science in Industrial Relations & Human Resources program. It was a tough call: should I pursue music or should I top off my education. I knew I wouldn’t go back to school down the line so I decided to go ahead and get my masters. I figured I could still play gigs on the weekends but the coursework ended up demanding a ton of my time. I pretty much took a hiatus from performing for about a year and focused on other aspects of my music career, like songwriting and marketing.



As a graduate student I competed in and won the West Virginia Business Plan Competition. I had this crazy idea called “Navway Records” which basically served as the foundation for my music career. The general gist was that original musicians could compete and earn a decent living in the music industry (also known as “making it”) by harnessing the power of the Internet, New Marketing principals, and Social Media Networks such as MySpace, Facebook, etc.



So, now that I've got the product, the plan, and the passion it's time to put my money where my mouth is and see if I can make a go of this whole dream of mine. Hopefully, you'll come along for the ride!