"Brian, where have YOU been?"

Buffalo can give rise to talented musicians like yeast does to bread. Hometown singer-songwriter Brian Wheat may just be the next big thing to hit the local music scene.

In an interview with The Spectrum, Wheat gives us a peek at the recipe behind his subtle yet rich music, and a look inside the man himself.

With the March 7 release of his debut record "Where You Have Been" just behind us, one cannot help but wonder where Wheat himself has been.

"I slept in a cave somewhere in northern Spain, with vultures flying around it," Wheat said. "That's where I've been."

After the thick cloud of sarcasm cleared, Wheat got down to business. Seeing that "Where Have You Been" is his debut record and not many people have yet heard his music, he took the time to explain it himself.

"It's a pretty mellow record. It's very traditional in the instrumentation," Wheat said. "It's similar to early Neil Young. It's layered, not just singer songwriter acoustic. There are a lot of different parts and melodies."

Though Wheat's voice and words are clearly the most important aspect of his sound, he has a band, "Groggy Darlin'," that adds another dimension to the music.

"They add to the subtlety of the songs," Wheat said. "When we need to pick up, they pick up. They add taste, zest to the music. We're not a rock band but were not just singer songwriter acoustic."

After explaining his music to novice ears, Wheat was more than willing to dish out who his musical influences were.

"I listened to oldies all the time when I was younger," Wheat said. "I immediately started playing guitar because of Creedence Clearwater Revival. I listened to Neil Young and the slightly more edgy folk music of that era."

Surprisingly, Wheat doesn't like much of today's folk music. It seems to him that as the generations pass, the emotion and richness of folk music dies with it.

"I'm not really into a lot of the new folk music," he said. "I am into some indie rock. Cake is my favorite band of all time."

Doing his best to revive the quality of the folk song, Wheat has immersed his music in lyrics that not only hit home, but also return to the aforementioned cave.

"There's some poetry on the record about caves and Spain," Wheat said. "Basically the albums about home and travel and growing up."

Wheat's expectations for his debut remain humble.

"('Where Have You Been') was an accomplishment in itself," Wheat said. "To finish compiling music and putting it on a CD that was professionally done. We'd like to take our music on the road, and I'd like to sell some records."

Though everything seems to be looking up for Mr. Wheat, he knows that "making it" is anything but a piece of cake.

"There's a lot of rock clubs and it's difficult to play where the cool music is when you're by yourself," Wheat said. "But making it, I don't know how to do that and I'm not sure that I know what that really is."

And as time with "the bearded one" reached its end, Wheat made it a point to issue his gratitude towards his friends and those who have supported him.

"Thank you for continually coming to shows, even when they're in weird places," said Wheat. "Your friends can say you're good all the time but it's those random people that hear my music and continually come to shows that mean a lot."

Wheat's music is only surpassed in quality of the man himself. His album release show is this Saturday, March 10 at the Big Orbit Soundlab.