The Barricade Babes 10/26/22 The Barricade Babes 10/26/22

Coffee With The Criticals

The Barricade Babes had the opportunity to sit down with Parker Forbes and Cole Shugart, the duo behind Nashville-based band, The Criticals.

HANNAH LANEY

The Nashville music scene has gotten increasingly better in the past few years and is only continuing to do so. Natives of the city, Parker Forbes and Cole Shugart have been here to witness a big part of that evolution. I discovered their music pretty close to when I had first moved to town three years ago and absolutely fell in love with it. The sound, look, and feel of The Criticals really draws you in from all directions. What makes it even better? They’re regular dudes who just love making music. Better yet, rock ‘n’ roll music that makes audiences all over the country lose their fucking minds. In this interview, we discuss tour life, Nashville, songwriting, and everything in between.

BB’s: How was the tour that you guys just went on?

Cole: It was amazing.

Parker: It was good.

Cole: It was so fun, it was our first time out West with the band, which was really cool. And it was our first longer than four day run, so it was a little bit of a test of our endurance. But it was honestly very good and I’m very proud of everyone.

BB’s: Do you have any crazy Wild West experiences from when you were out there?

Parker: I mean usually being out West is just a different planet than here it feels like. Especially if you’re out in the desert. The people are so different and the cultures are so different, and even down to the places you eat, bars and stuff. It’s just a completely different vibe than here. A few of the guys in the band had never really been out there at all, so it was definitely like a culture shock for them for sure. I always love being out there. I love the people and everything about it, it’s so much more laid back. It feels very honest…I don’t know. I just love it every time we go.

Cole: We didn't really have a lot of “vacation” time, it wasn’t like we got to see a lot of things or it wasn't a lot of sightseeing. At this point, you kind of wake up, drive to the venue, you load the gear on, have like two hours to yourself and then you play the show and load out, and then find somewhere to crash. You don’t really get to “see” the cities per say, but it’s still fun. At least the weather is much nicer out there.

BB’s: How long have you had the lineup of the band members that you’ve been playing with?

Cole: This lineup is still pretty new, me and Parker have been doing this for about three years. And then Chewy has been with us for about three years as well. Michael Meadows, who is my roommate, is relatively new. He’s been with us since November of 2021 I believe. His story is pretty interesting. He had never played bass actually before. When I first started living with him, he had heard of our band but didn’t really care about it to be honest (laughs). Anyway, he saw us at The Basement East, and I remember three or four days later we were driving and he was like, “so what’s going on with the band?”. I was just giving him the low down and he was like, “so what’s going on with the members? Do you need anybody?”. I said, “ah, not really. The bass player right now is amazing, but I don’t know if he’s going to want to tour long-term”. So he said, “oh so you need a bass player?”, and I said “more or less”. And the next day, literally the next day, he Amazon-ed a bass to our front door step and was like “I’m going to be your bass player now.” He practiced for six months and finally auditioned and now he's in the band. And then Tyelen started playing with us in October.

Parker: He joined two weeks before the two Exit/In shows that we did in October last year. He joined in a very chaotic way. We had had the same drummer for a very long time and it just ended up working out that Tyelen came in and he knew all the parts. It’s Tyelen Gibbs by the way. And yeah, he’s just been laying it down ever since then.

BB’s: What made you guys decide to stay in Nashville opposed to moving to LA or New York? I know you’re from here, but I feel like a lot of people move around even though Nashville is awesome, so I totally get it.

Cole: I think when you’re born in Nashville and you’re a musician, it’s kind of like being born in Silicon Valley if you want to be in tech. There’s not really a huge reason to leave. At one point we were considering moving to LA or New York, but then the pandemic hit and the world changed in a way where you really didn’t have to be in a city to meet people. I feel like scenes are more global now honestly instead of just existing in a city. I don’t really know why we never left honestly. We have good people here and good friends. It’s becoming less and less affordable. I don’t know. I don’t know why we never left.

Parker: We might at some point, I mean we’re just finally able to tour now and sort of get our feet off the ground across the country. So who knows? We might fall in love with somewhere else and feel like it’s best to move there. For now we’re completely here. It’s also like we’ve tried so hard to build as much of a scene here in Nashville and make as many friends as we can and help each other out and do shows together. This is where we’ve been for most of our lives and all of our lives as musicians so it feels a little premature I guess to leave now, you know?

Cole: It feels very home-y here. Being here your whole life, it’s still a small town. No matter where we go we’re going to run into somebody we know. And I think that’s something that a lot of people take for granted here. And while that’s changing day by day as more people come in, it still feels very good here. There’s really no reason to leave right now.

BB’s: Where did the idea for the band come from? Was it something that organically came up or was it in the works for awhile?

Parker: So Cole and I had already played in a few projects together when we were teenagers. I had moved to Los Angeles when I was 17 to go to school for a little bit. I ended up doing two years out there and I just wanted to move back to Nashville. I was super, super inspired to get back from my time in LA and it felt like a really cool, fresh beginning. I felt like I learned a lot going to school out there and a couple of my roommates ended up being techs for some big artists. I was kind of exposed for the first time in my life to what that could be and I got really excited by that. I moved back here and I just wanted to start a frickin’ rock band. So I called him up and had a couple of other band members and a few songs that I wrote and had recorded on my own. We did one or two shows and everybody was kind of coming in and out of the band. I really wanted to step it up and keep doing it and really buckle down and start writing and playing shows. He came in and then Chewy came in right after that. Yeah. We just went from there.

BB’s: Who writes most of the lyrics for the band?

Parker: Usually I write most of all the lyrics, but then Cole, especially as we do more and more songs… I think in the beginning it was just pretty much mostly me doing it, but now it’s kind of like I’ll write something and then I’ll be like, “hey, what do you think of this?” and he’ll say “maybe change this melody here”. Once we’re actually in the studio recording it or doing a demo of it, so it’s nice having another set of ears. I’ll drive myself crazy sometimes thinking everything sucks and trying to do it all over again, so it’s nice having him. And we do that with each other on every part of the song, guitars or drums or bass, whatever it is. It’s always like “yeah, you’ve got the idea 90% there”. Either him or I will be like, “okay, let’s finish it out”.

Cole: No song is the same honestly, it’s just different every time. And I think we try to hold ourselves to that and try not to make it as formulaic as a lot of other people that we know in Nashville. I think that’s a really scary thing with Nashville itself is a lot of people get caught in this publishing route, which I know you’re familiar, where you end up writing a lot of songs for other people and become really, really focused on one niche. I think me and Parker have tried to navigate away from that, where it’s just like, whatever feels the best is probably what’s gonna happen.

BB’s: What band or artist first inspired your love for music?

Parker: I remember being really obsessed with…my dad was a big hair metal guy and we used to watch a bunch of the music videos and they all had massive drum kits and stuff. I thought that was really cool. That’s what got me into drums. But then I guess vocally, or once I started actually getting more into music, I mean The Doors were a huge one for me. U2 was a huge one for me, Elton John was a huge one for me, still is. I don’t know, there were so many…it’s hard to think back now, but at the time, you listen to it and just get so ingrained in it and you’re like, “I wanna do that”.

Cole: I’m trying to think of the catalyst that made me want to start playing music. Honestly, I don’t know if there was one. I remember seeing The Who on the Grammy’s or something and Pete Townshend was playing a red strat. My grandpa had played guitar and I was like “I want that guitar”. It was weird, my journey with music…I wanted to play guitar but my parents were like “you have to learn piano for two years before we’ll get you a guitar”. So I had this really grueling fucking process of learning piano with this guy who had a mullet. And at the time, 2005, having a mullet was not very cool (laughs). But he would teach me “Ode to Joy” and “Old MacDonald” at the Franklin Factory and I remember being like, “this is fucking bullshit, I don’t want to do this”. Then I started playing guitar and things changed. But there’s also different levels. When I started out I just wanted to be a guitar player. I wanted to be like a Joe Satriani or something, just hone the craft as best as I could and be the best at guitar. And then I remember there was this next jump start when I was probably 15 or 16. I was in this band, I was really into The 1975 at the time, and I got really fascinated with watching interviews of Matt Healy. I feel like he was one of the first people to really let the world know about how many different avenues being in a band is. It’s not just playing your instrument really well, it’s about creating a world, it’s about songwriting, and creating a cool ass fucking live show. There are so many different elements. And that made me more excited because it’s like, now, who gives a shit about Joe Satriani? Sorry, but I didn’t want to be Joe Satriani, I wanted to be in a band that writes cool music that I would wanna listen to and inspires people. So, there’s multiple points, you know?

BB’s: Who are some contemporary artists that you’re really into right now?

Parker: My favorite artist right now is Fontaines D.C. for sure. They have been for probably a year or two now. A buddy of ours played us their first record a month or two after it came out, like three years ago. And they had 12,000 monthly listeners or something. I don’t even know how he found out about that record so soon. It’s been awesome watching them blow up and playing all of the big festivals, selling out everywhere they go. That’s definitely my favorite band right now.

Cole: Yeah, Fontaines is sick. Recently I’ve been getting into a lot of older bands. I kind of repurposed my love for The Smashing Pumpkins and Jane’s Addiction and a lot of other 90’s bands. I know Parker’s gotten me back on Limp Bizkit recently, which is crazy (laughs). As far as bands, Inhaler is sick. There’s a lot of great bands coming out of Nashville that are super inspiring. I’ve been really into our friends Hank and Aksel’s project, Homes At Night. They’ve only put out two songs but they’ve been on repeat for the last month or so for me.

BB’s: Do you have any other creative outlets other than music that you’re really passionate about?

Parker: I don’t know if it’s creative…but I think it’s all a balance. At least for me personally…it’s like even if you want to go for the moon at the music thing or acting or whatever, you definitely have to have at least one other thing that you kind of like. That keeps you from going fully down a rabbit hole. I love producing pop music…trying to write a country song or write a hip-hop beat, or whatever. That inspires me more for what I’m pursuing right now with this band, because it kind of makes you work a muscle and challenge yourself a little bit more when you wouldn’t have done that anyways. If you’re just trying to always do the one thing…I’ve always grown up loving so many different types of music, like truly loving so many types of music. That’s fun for me. Outside of music, I’ve gotten into rock climbing recently, I’m doing that. I love hiking and camping, being outdoors. That really is a nice reset, especially after sitting in a van for a long time or playing a bunch of shows or being in the studio for a long time. But yeah. There’s lots of things.

Cole: I also love backpacking and camping, the outdoors. As far as other creative outlets, I used to paint all the time. And now as we’ve gotten more busy I have less time to paint, but honestly just the visual side of things. I always have a point and shoot by my side, so I take photos. I make posters for the band and do stuff like that. I dabble a lot in other visual elements.

BB’s: If you could go back in time, what concert would you go to and why?

Parker: Oh, I got one. You go first.

Cole: I would say, Led Zeppelin at Royal Albert Hall. I think it was ‘76 or ‘74. I don’t remember the year but I’ve watched that video so many times, it’s fucking amazing.

Parker: U2 Red Rocks, ‘83 I think or ‘84. I used to watch that concert religiously on DVD. My dad had it on DVD and I would just play the hell out of that thing.

Cole: I don’t remember what year it was but Mutemath has a DVD that I’ve watched a million fucking times. I think it happened after…shit, I don’t know. 2011 or something. But it’s all on YouTube and it’s phenomenal. I wish I was at that show really bad. What else? Because I’ve watched so many fucking shows. It’s hard for me to think about. You have everything at your own disposal, you know. Like you can watch any of these sets, but as far as going…the “oh my god, I wish I was there”.

BB’s: Do you guys like INXS?

Cole: INXS is sick.

BB’s: Have you seen the Live Baby Live performance?

Parker: Oh yeah!

Cole: I mean, being at Woodstock would have been pretty fucking sick.

Parker: Yeah. Probably would’ve sounded like shit though.

Cole: Yeah, it did sound like shit (laughs).

Parker: But I guess back then there were like no concerts so you wouldn’t have that in your head.

Cole: What was that Nine Inch Nails show where they all showed up covered in mud? I think that was Woodstock.

Parker: ‘92.

Cole: Yeah!

BB’s: Who do you think is the best front person of all time?

Parker: I mean, it’s not my personal favorite, but you gotta say Freddie I think. The best voice for sure.

Cole: As far as just captivating too, yeah he’s got all of it.

Parker: He’s got everything. I think he would have to be number one.

Cole: I agree.

BB’s: Cole, what was your first guitar and what’s the story behind that?

Cole: My grandpa played guitar and he had a couple of guitars but they were old. There were from the 60’s so he didn’t let me play them. When I was still in the piano phase I mentioned to my grandparents that I wanted to play guitar. Within a couple months my grandmother…they live in the country, really, on a highway where there’s nothing except for a country store like four miles away, and she showed up to the country store to get some chicken, and gas I guess, and there was a guitar behind the counter. And she said, “how much will you take for the guitar?” and Richie, the guy who owns the store, said “some guy just came in right before you and said, “I need ten dollars worth of gas, I’ll trade you this guitar.” He was like, “okay I’ll do it”, and obviously my grandmother was like “how much will you take for it? Does ten bucks work?”, and he said “yes, that’s fine”. So she bought a guitar for ten dollars and that was my first guitar. I don’t even know what the brand is honestly, it’s a piece of shit, with a baseball bat neck, classical. Honestly very much a ten dollar guitar, but I still have it. Three years after I got it, I stripped the paint and put gold flake down on it so now it smells really weird and it doesn’t play the same.

BB’s: That’s cool, I’m glad I asked. That’s an awesome story. So Parker, did you play drums before? What was your first kit?

Parker: Oh, I remember exactly. My first kit was I had Zildjian ZBT cymbals that I got from Best Buy and I don’t know where they got it, but I had sound percussion, I don’t know the name of it, I don’t think that company is still around, but it was like the lowest of the low, first act beginner kit from I guess Guitar Center or eBay or something. It was just a little tiny kit that had a 16-inch kick drum that was super tiny. But yeah, that was my first kit. I played that thing for probably two or three years before I got another kit.

Cole: Do you remember your first “big buy” in music? I had the classical guitar that my grandmother got and I played it for about a year, and I remember asking my parents for an electric guitar. I went to Nashville Used Music and I looked at all the guitars. They had this blood red B.C. Rich Warlock, are you familiar with what those look like? They’re like the pointiest guitars possible, super metal. It was a bronze series. And I remember being like, “that’s the guitar I want”. My dad said, “are you sure man?” (laughs). I was like, “yes, please”. And they got it for me for Christmas. It was one of the best days of my life. I’m going to show you a picture of it right now because it’s so brutal. Wait, I wanted to know what your first buy was.

Parker: I can’t remember…it was probably like a cymbal or something. I know it wasn't a kit though because I played that kit for like two or three years until it literally was non-existent.

Cole: Do you still have it?

Parker: No.

Cole: I still have the Warlock, it’s in a coffin case at my parents’ house.

Parker: I don’t have that kit anymore.

Cole: They’re going for $74 online right now. (laughs)

BB’s: What are some dream venues or festivals that you’d wanna play?

Parker: Dream festival for me is Glastonbury for sure, or Reading. And I would say, probably Red Rocks, dream venue for me. The Ryman obviously. I would love to play the El Rey in Los Angeles. I would love to play Madison Square Garden, kind of. That’s definitely fourth out of those. I think Red Rocks and the Ryman are my number one and two.

Cole: I would like to play Royal Albert Hall. I would like to play The Orange Peel in Asheville. Fucking amazing. I really wanna play The Riviera in Chicago. That is one of the coolest fucking venues on the planet. And then dream festival…I wanna play Lollapalooza, honestly. That would be a dream come true for me. And then Glastonbury, obviously, that’s the big one.

BB’s: What has been the best part of being in The Criticals?

Parker: I think we’ve, especially since we’ve gotten to play a lot of shows all over the place this year, I think we’ve definitely, the five of us at least in the band, realize that the live shows…it’s not only what kind of drives our ambition to do it, but also I think that that is just sort of…we do a lot of things live that aren’t on the studio versions. And even when we’re not actually playing the show, before the show, after the show, that three or four hours of the night, whatever it is, that summarizes everything we’ve always wanted for music and everything that we’re trying to do and continue to grow. Whether that’s bigger venues, bigger tours, festivals, or whatever it is. We never want to lose that feeling of the energy on stage that we have with each other and also that we get from the crowds, you know? That’s what drives this whole thing. And we can never do it without people coming to the shows and we just hope that they really have as much fun as we do. The best part, to me, of touring is hanging out with them and meeting them and talking to them. It gets difficult trying to remember a lot of people’s names and stuff. But it always feels like that’s why we started this whole thing in the first place. Just meeting people and hanging out with them. Whether they love our music or not, I don’t care about that. I just want them to show up and have a good time. I think that coming to see us live…that’s probably the experience, for sure. Versus, just because the studio stuff is…you go see so many bands and you love their studio stuff, but then you don’t like the live show. Or vice versa, you don’t really like the studio stuff, so you go to the live show. You don’t really know until you just go. So, yeah. It’s amazing.

The Criticals: EXIT/IN by Hannah Laney
July 6th, 2022

The Barricade Babes 10/15/21 The Barricade Babes 10/15/21

You’ve Been Warned

How Mexico’s hottest rock band The Warning is plotting world domination.

October 15, 2021

How Mexico’s hottest rock band The Warning is plotting world domination.

The Warning, a three-piece rock group consisting of sisters from Monterrey, Mexico are taking the rock scene by storm. With the oldest member of the band being just 21, it’s hard to believe all they have accomplished up to this point. It only seems to be going up from here. Their bubbling energy and excitement only made it all the more fun to ask them a few questions. At 21, Daniela is the vocalist and guitarist of the group, Paulina is on drums at 19, and on bass is the youngest at 16, Alejandra.

Their new EP Mayday recorded during the height of the pandemic was released just a week ago and is already gaining some traction. It’s every bit of gritty that the rock community craves with three fresh voices of the genre.

One of their latest massive achievements involves being featured on the new Metallica “Blacklist” album. This record consists of collaborations all across the board, The Warning’s being with singer Alessia Cara. Metallica has been a huge and early inspiration for the young women which made the experience even more special.

BB’s: It must have felt so full-circle that you all were featured on Metallica’s Blacklist Album since your cover of “Enter Sandman” gained so much attention on YouTube from when it was recorded in 2014. What was the process like getting this opportunity and recording the song?

Paulina: It was, as you said, such a full-circle thing that happened to us. When the news came to us that we had the opportunity to participate in such an incredible project, we were just floored. Not only that we had the opportunity to make our own version of such an iconic song, it is such a meaningful song for us, but also to be working with Alessia Cara. It was just a dream come true. So we started working on the song and it was pretty weird to be playing it again and having to make a new version of it.

Daniela: Because the last version that we did was 7 years ago!

Paulina: It’s insane.

Daniela: We were babies! So now taking on this song that means so much to us and our career in general was so significant. It was also a challenge ‘cause we had to take this legendary rock song and make it into another rock song along with Alessia’s style and just make the best of both worlds. Without trashing the iconicness of the song.

Paulina: We were really proud of what we were able to do. And also Alessia was incredible throughout the whole process and she’s such a cool artist. It was just such a cool project to be a part of. We’re so happy that it’s out now and people are liking it.

BB’s: Do you plan on being based in the US in order to further your music careers or would you rather stay in Mexico for now?

Paulina: Well, we haven’t really talked about moving. We travel a lot, between the US and Mexico.

Daniela & Alejandra: We do.

Paulina: Right now I think we’re pretty happy in Mexico. The food! We would really miss that. (All laugh). If we need to move for certain reasons I think…

Paulina: Yeah.

Daniela: We would definitely consider it.

BB’s: Especially right now it would probably be weird anyway with everything going on.

All: Yeah.

BB’s: It must have been a major setback in early 2020 when your first US tour was rescheduled due to COVID. What was your initial reaction and what did you do during the pandemic to further the band’s journey?

Daniela: Right.

Paulina: First reaction…(laughs).

Daniela: We were super shocked.

Alejandra: It was strange. It was a strange feeling because we were so prepared to go, like mentally prepared for this tour. It was our first tour…

Paulina: North American tour, yeah.

Alejandra: We were just kind of shocked because it all happened so fast.

Daniela: So fast.

Paulina: It was from one week to another where it was postponed.

Daniela: It was like, “hey, we might have to postpone” then is it…yes, no, yes, no.

Alejandra: We’re not going.

Paulina: It was just kind of weird that we were all in this weird stalemate. We couldn’t really do anything. Well we’re musicians so we obviously always play live, so having that be put to a stop completely was really strange. But thankfully we have a lot of support from our fans and social media! Social media is an incredible thing in which we can continue working and sharing our music.

Daniela: We did have to rack our brains though for new ways to create content, ways to be innovative and keep the people there.

Paulina: And bring new people! But thankfully, there was always something new to do.

Daniela: And we got to record our new album!

Paulina: Yes!

Daniela: It was a challenge, you know, mid-pandemic.

Paulina: Last year, apart from everything negative that happened, we had a pretty good year. We signed with Lava Records during 2020 and after we signed with them, we were like, “we have to start looking at our new album we’re going to record”. So, we went for three months to New Jersey to work on this new album. We worked with the producer David Bendeth, who’s worked with bands like Paramore, Bring Me The Horizon,…

Daniela: All Time Low.

Paulina: It was just an incredible experience and we worked really hard on this album. So I feel like that’s the most important thing we did in 2020.

Daniela: Yeah.

Paulina: An album!

BB’s: Yeah, for sure. It’s definitely something you can look back on and say, “I made the most of it anyway”.

Paulina: Exactly, yes.

BB’s: What are all of your favorite albums?

Daniela: A lot!

Paulina: We listen to so many different genres of music, but if I have to say one that really influenced me personally…

Daniela: Don’t steal mine!

Paulina: I’m gonna steal yours. It was mine first! The Black Parade by My Chemical Romance.

Alejandra: It’s a good album.

Daniela: I really like it.

Paulina: It was the peak of my emo phase in middle school but it was really influential on me as a musician especially.

Alejandra: I’d say The 2nd Law by Muse. It’s one of the few albums I love most of the songs.

Daniela: Oh my god, now I’m like…you stole mine!

Paulina: We shared the emo phase, it’s fine.

Daniela: We did. We went through our emo phase. Right now, there’s an album that I really liked throughout the pandemic, it’s called Content by Joywave. I really like that. It’s very different…we listen to a lot of music other than what we play.

Paulina: We listen to K-pop to rock…

Daniela: In like two seconds.

Paulina: It’s varied.

Daniela: Yeah, but I love that.

A special thank you to Universal Music Group and 1824 for setting this up!

Interview written & conducted by Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 9/20/21 The Barricade Babes 9/20/21

Aaron Lee Tasjan Brings Fresh Diversity to Americana

From James Brown to Drivin n’ Cryin’, Aaron Lee Tasjan has mastered his musical abilities down to the roots. Right beside Grimey’s in East Nashville, I sat down with ALT at Living Waters Brewing to dig into how his latest record Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! has been put into the world and what got him there.

September 20, 2021

From James Brown to Drivin n’ Cryin’, Aaron Lee Tasjan has mastered his musical abilities down to the roots.

**Aaron Lee Tasjan by Hannah Laney, OuttaSight Photos**

Right beside Grimey’s in East Nashville, I sat down with ALT at Living Waters Brewing to dig into how his latest record Tasjan! Tasjan! Tasjan! has been put into the world and what got him there.

BB’s: You said you just played a show recently, when was the first one back from COVID that you played?

ALT: The first one back from COVID, it was kind of a crazy weird thing to do. It was a private gig that we did at the Bobby Hotel downstairs in the bar for a group of self-storage facility entrepreneurs. So these are people who own facilities where people can go store their stuff there or whatever, if their apartment gets too overloaded. 1,500 of these people came from all over the country to Nashville to have a conference and the guy who was in charge of the whole thing was a big fan of our band (laughs). And asked us if we would play, and we were like “absolutely”.

BB’s: So who all is in your band? Do they switch out or anything or is it kind of a set gig that you have going?

ALT: These days, the main make-up of the band is Tommy Scifres on bass and harmony, and Erica Blinn on guitar. And then we have a couple of different drummers that we’ve been playing with, this fellow from Texas named Mason Ingram, a guy who I knew back from my New York days who moved to Nashville just before the pandemic. Aaron Steele, a really good drummer, and our other buddy Mark Stepro, who I’ve known for probably 15 or 20 years now or something like that. We’re both from Ohio. He’s one of Butch Walker’s main guys and he played drums on the new Wallflowers record.

BB’s: Wow, that’s awesome. A lot of diversity. You grew up in Ohio, what part did you grow up in and was it musical at all?

ALT: It was an interesting place to grow up. My town was traditionally a pretty small town. And then what happened was, this guy named Lex Wexner, who owns the Limited corporation, kind of moved into town and formed a real estate trust and bought the town, basically. It turned into one of those towns that kind of looks like a college campus, all the houses are sort of the same. It’s definitely grown into a much different thing even from when my family moved there when I was a kid. North of Columbus is where it is, so it’s central Ohio basically.

BB’s: Did you have a band or anything in high school or middle school or a solo kind of thing going on?

ALT: I did a couple of different things. Most of my music playing that I did as a kid was stuff that I did in my bedroom. I had a whole recording set up in there and I would just play all of the instruments myself and write songs. I would make entire albums and make artwork for them on the computer or whatever. Never showed or gave them to anybody, I just did it really for fun, but I got a lot of practice doing it. Doing it that way was informative so far as how a song is put together and what things about the song make it work and how to tune into that. Later on in my life when I became a side man, that sort of skill set was super helpful. I started off in a number of different bands, that were all different kinds of cover bands, really. Like a lot of people do when they’re in high school. I got coffee house gigs playing by myself and went through all of the various stages doing that. Starting off with just me and an acoustic guitar and then figuring out how to do looping, you know, getting my Ed Sheeran on (laughs). And then eventually getting bored with that, finding some guys who were much older than I was to play with. I basically went down to Guitar Center one day and said, “hey man, is there anyone here who plays bass?”, and this guy came from all the way over from the other side of the room and said, “I play bass, I’ll do it”. He was really stoked for some reason to play bass in somebody’s band and that was my buddy Mark. I was like 16 at that time and I think Mark was maybe 23 or 24. He knew a lot of other people who were musicians, so we all formed bands. Living close to Columbus, Ohio, the university was down there, they would book us bar gigs. I’d be playing at Scarlet & Gray Cafe or Little Brothers on a Wednesday night and be falling asleep in math class the next morning.

BB’s: That’s awesome that you had the experience early on and was able to learn from older musicians too.

ALT: I knew what I wanted to do and I was like, “I’m just gonna go do it”.

BB’s: Do you remember the first band or artist that really inspired you and were like, “okay, now I want to do that”?

ALT: Yeah. It was from when I was a really little kid. I think I was maybe 8 or 9 years old and it was the first concert I ever saw. My dad loves music so he loves to share his love of music with us and his favorite singer was James Brown. And James Brown came to town. My dad was like, “we’re gonna go see this guy James Brown”, he played me his records in the car, so I got into it. We went to see James Brown, and I was obsessed with capes at the time, you know, I was just a kid, into the Batman and Superman movies. I was always wearing a cape to school and stuff I think sometimes even. He closed the show out with a song, “Please, Please, Please” and in the middle of that song his handler dude, Mr. John Bird would come out and put this cape around him. I saw this guy put this cape on him and then everybody in the room clapped for him. I just thought, “oh, my god, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen, I need to figure out how to become a singer”. Because sometimes at school if you wear a cape, people will make fun of you for it, but this guy everybody applauded for when he did it, and I was like, “that seems like a cooler gig than the gig I currently have”.

BB’s: That’s super cool that you can go back to a certain moment and say, “yeah, that’s when everything went down”.

ALT: I started singing all the time after that. I had tapes, I had such a weird, wild collection. My tapes were M.C. Hammer, Boys II Men, and Green Day, were my three main tapes that I would listen to as a young kid. All three of those I would sing along out loud to, we would be on a family car trip, I’d have my headphones on and I’d be singing, full volume, outloud. God bless my parents for enduring that.

BB’s: You said that your family loved music and listened to it a lot, did they play any instruments or sing themselves?

ALT: My dad was a bass trombone player and he played with some jazz big bands, went to Ohio State University and played in the Ohio State jazz workshop there. My mom just came to it purely from a fun/pleasure standpoint. She was really into Dylan and The Byrds and The Beatles back in her day. She got really into poetry and I think bought a guitar on a whim, just for fun, and never really learned how to play it. And then weirdly, this was just before my family moved to California, so I must have been around 7 or 8, around the time I saw James Brown, she decided she wanted to learn how to play it. She took some guitar lessons and I came upstairs one day and she was sitting in her office and had written a song. She had her own business and had written a little song about her business. That was the first time it had ever occurred to me that anybody could write a song, “oh my mom wrote a song, maybe I should write some songs”. No one ever sat me down and said, “here’s how you can be a musician”, there were all these little cool, weird random moments that I remember as a kid that definitely pushed me in that direction even though I probably didn’t even realize it.

BB’s: So, you would stay in your room and play all of the instruments for the music that you made, what was the first one that you learned?

ALT: Guitar. I bought a guitar and brought it home and I didn’t know any chords or anything. I wrote a song. My family had just moved to California when I got the guitar. I was like 11 years old. My friend back in Delaware was having a really hard time in school and I wrote a song for him about it, not knowing anything. I recorded it on a tape and put it in the mail and sent it to him. As soon as you’ve written your first song, somebody should hear it of course. I’m sure it was terrible, but the reason behind it, my heart was in the right place.

BB’s: What other instruments do you play? I know you play piano very well, is that the second instrument that you learned?

ALT: Yeah, we had a piano at the house. It was my grandmother’s old piano and so I would funk around a lot on that as a kid. I taught myself to play a couple of songs but I never really got super serious about it until last year when everything was shut down. We have a piano at our house and I was like, “man, I better really try to figure out how to play this thing if I’m going to have one onstage”. I do a lot of stuff like this. I bought the piano and put it onstage in an effort to force myself how to do it. The learning curve was doing it in front of people before I was really prepared to. I got the gift of time this past year and I spent a lot of time buckled down on it. I play bass and drums and I can make sounds on the trombone and tuba. I had to play those in high school marching band. (laughs)

BB’s: When you were playing as a side man, were you playing guitar?

ALT: A mixed bag of things but I would say mainly guitar. That’s what I was mostly hired for.

BB’s: Did you move to New York to learn the music scene there because you were interested in that part of the city or-?

ALT: You know what, when I think about it now, really it just felt familiar. Nashville was closer to Ohio where I graduated from high school, so it would have been easier to move to Nashville, and probably for what I do musically it would have been a better fit anyway. But I went to New York because my high school jazz band had played in a competition there and I had spent some time there already and I felt familiar with it. Lots of people probably think that moving from a small town in Ohio to New York is a bold move, but weirdly for me it was kind of a safe move.

BB’s: I heard that Lady Gaga had opened up for your band in New York, at what point in your career were you in and for her?

ALT: I remember very well, yeah. She opened for us a few times. Our band was called Semi Precious Weapons. It was hard to find rock and roll bands that didn’t feel like an advertisement for a Harley Davidson commercial or something like that. In the New York scene, it was a lot of bravado with bravado (laughs). But very little substance if you know what I mean. They had the right outfits but there were no songs, you were like, “what are they singing about?”. Partying and having a good time, I think KISS has covered that territory sufficiently. Give us something else. It was just tough to track down. Our manager BP heard about Lady Gaga and at the time, she was performing as a duo with her friend, who was called Lady Starlight. She would play some synth behind Gaga who was just doing her thing. That was maybe 2007. Then 2008 rolls around, we went up to Canada for something and we’re driving around Toronto and there’s an enormous billboard of her. We were like, “oh wow, some things are about to change”. We had this song that was named after our band and the opening line of the song was, “I can’t pay my rent but I’m fucking gorgeous”. I think it was Vanity Fair or Vogue magazine, it might have even been the same trip. We’re on our way back to New York, our singer has a copy of the magazine and is reading her interview, and at one point the interviewer says, “I love your style, where do you get your style from?”, and she holds up her handbag in the interview and says, “I can’t pay my rent but I’m fucking gorgeous”, the line of our song. Which of course, in the interview they totally left out that it was our song and just attributed the quote to her. I just remember she was very cool about it, and then later on in the band’s career, I wasn’t there for this, but she did a lot for them. She got them a deal at Interscope Records and took them all on the Monster Ball tour as the opening act. In a lot of ways, we’re a vehicle for our singer Justin Tranter to become the songwriter that he is today, which he’s writing hit after hit after hit for everybody from Gwen Stefani to Selena Gomez. It’s been really cool to see the promise of that band fulfilled in a lot of different ways. Semi Precious Weapons was a band that I think a lot of people thought was going to be a game-changer because our band was ahead of its time. Justin had this amazing femininity to his presentation onstage. We were all very open about what our sexuality was and stuff like that. There wasn’t any precedent, this was pre Adam Lambert even. I think it was a band that ended up being very polarizing instead but has gone on to where the members have all gone on to contribute to the landscape in an important way.

BB’s: Were you there from the beginning of the band?

ALT: Yeah, me, Justin, Dan, and Cole started the band together.

BB’s: Do you still keep up with them? Like you said, you know their whereabouts, but do you still collaborate at all?

ALT: No, we don’t collaborate, but I’m a huge fan of all of their work and I love checking it out when I see something pop up on the Internet that they’ve worked on. I immediately go listen to it. I just have so much respect for them, what they’ve accomplished. What we accomplished together as a band and what they accomplished as a band without me, and what they’ve done on their own. I think it’s really important. You just don’t see a lot of men like Justin push to the forefront of “here’s the ideal man” or whatever, whether it’s in the media or in film. That representation is crucial. There are future stars that are going to see him occupying those spaces and be like, “he got there, I can get there”. Somewhere right now there’s some 8-year-old kid that’s gonna write some song that’s gonna blow everything I’ve ever done out of the water and we need that to happen. We need these spaces where they’re seeing these artists to feel like it’s possible for anybody to occupy them.

BB’s: Very true. So, New York is definitely very different from Nashville, but from a musician’s standpoint, what are the huge differences that you’ve noticed and similarities?

ALT: I would say that the sense of community in Nashville is 180 degrees of what it is in New York. Not that there isn’t community there, there is. I lived in New York just shy of 10 years. I would say probably the first six years or so that I lived there it felt like it was really hard to break into the scene. It took me that much time to be able to consider myself a part of it in a lot of ways. Whereas here in Nashville, I came to town and what was immediately apparent to me was, oh wow, there’s all these musicians here, they genuinely seem to be rooting for each other and finding ways to support each other and finding ways to be the tide that raises all of the ships. I’ve spent time in Texas, I’ve spent time in California as well. Obviously I’ve spent time in the midwest in the music scene there in Ohio. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like what’s here in Nashville as far as that element is concerned. The rest of it is taste, really. I can think of musicians in New York where I’ve been like, “wow, I’ve never heard anybody play like that”. But I can say the same thing about certain musicians here in Nashville. I just think the idea of comparing talent is sort of silly anyways. Everybody’s talent is based on this unique skill set they possess.

BB’s: I do think Nashville too is really good about embracing everything. Like you said, I’ve noticed that, just a huge sense of community. Was there a certain band or artist that embraced you first when you came to town?

ALT: A couple of them. I got really lucky. I would say the people that helped me the most right when I came to town would be Todd Snider and Elizabeth Cook. To me, they’re sort of outsiders- they’re not underdogs, they’re champions in their own way, through and through. They’re sort of outside of what the straight ahead version of anything is. I think that connection exists and I think they sensed that in my work and it drew all of us together. By that time I was already a fan of their work anyway. Honestly, at that time just playing at the 5 Spot, Derek Hoke’s Two Dollar Tuesdays, I met so many people there. That’s another thing that’s kind of interesting about the Nashville music community that doesn’t exist anywhere else. People just play here all the time. There are so many tribute shows every year in this town. Only because people just genuinely love these bands and just want to play the music. It’s so cool. They’re just enthusiastic about playing and want to put on a show for their friends. I think that’s one of the most beautiful ways you could possibly approach it.

BB’s: What year was it when you moved to Nashville?

ALT: 2013.

BB’s: And you were signed to your label pretty soon after that?

ALT: Yeah, almost. I kicked around for a couple of years. I basically moved to town to play guitar in another band, this band called Everest. Then that band decided to just take a little break and I needed something to do. I was trying to figure out what it was gonna be. I basically made my first record thinking maybe it could be a business card of sorts for me to be like, “here’s some examples of what I can do”, hire me! Like a resume, almost (laughs). And instead, what ended up happening was, all these people started writing about it. Anne Powers wrote about it and Marissa Moss in Rolling Stone. I was blown away. It wasn’t the original intention and I suddenly found myself- I almost had to invent a character initially. I was like, “I don’t understand what’s happening, but I’m just gonna roll with this I guess”. I kind of became this neighborhood slacker or something, which is hilarious because I do try really hard at music, pretty much nothing else in life (laughs).

BB’s: Well, it worked out. The stars kind of aligned.

ALT: I guess so!

BB’s: From the interview I was telling you about earlier I helped with at the Musicians Hall of Fame with BR-549, there was some kind of writing convention in town one night when they were playing Robert’s and they were all at their show, and they all wrote about it…and so, the right thing just happens at the right time.

ALT: Isn’t that crazy? There’s still real magic. It exists! It’s hard to point it out sometimes when it does happen. In retrospect, I can always see little moments like that and be like, “magic is real. There’s no other way that would happen!”.

BB’s: Are there any other instances that have happened where it’s the same kind of thing, where you’ve seen things click together in your career?

ALT: Absolutely. When I was in Semi Precious Weapons, we had these two friends of ours named Tommy and Roy, who own a very cool chain of fashion stores called Altar. They have stores in Brooklyn and Los Angeles. At the time, they were making their own clothes under the name This Old Thing. They would make a lot of the stage outfits that we would wear in Semi Precious Weapons. So, we’re standing around their apartment one day and they’re tailoring something for Justin for a big show we got coming up, some sort of tutu meets bullfighter incredible outfit, and I’m looking at their record collection and they’ve got a Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ record. I’m just thinking, “these guys are from Massachusetts, they’re a little older than I am, but they’re certainly not- they didn’t grow up in the 80’s, Drivin’ n’ Cryin’, what in the world are they doing with this Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ record?”. And so I asked them, I was just like, “how did you get that?” or whatever, and Tommy says, “oh,” he was working at G-Star at the time, “my boss at G-Star is the singer of that band’s girlfriend”. I was like, “are you kidding me? I love Kevn Kinney”. And he goes, “well, I’ll tell ya what. It’s my boss’ birthday next week and they’re gonna have a private party for her in the basement of this pizza restaurant and Kevn is gonna sing some songs. If you wanna come to the party, I’ll introduce you to him.” I’m losing my mind at this point. I’m like, “okay, deal. I’ll see you there.” We go to the party and as it turns out, not only is Kevn playing, but this cavalcade of 90’s stars ‘cause his girlfriend used to own this club in Orlando called Sapphire Supper Club, which everybody played at. The other people at the party are like Edwin McCain, the singer of Seven Mary Three, the singer of Sister Hazel maybe. Anyway, all of these people and Kevn, and somebody says, “Aaron and Justin sing, they’re in this band”, so we got up and did one song. Then Kevn, somebody at the party brought a bunch of hash candy, and was just dolling it out. I don’t know if he was telling people it had hash in it. Kevn eats a bunch of it and watches me and Justin play, and then decides, I’ve never met him in my entire life, he just randomly decides that he and I should play together that night. He’s like, “hey man, would you sit in with me on guitar on my set? I’m gonna play here in a couple minutes, like 5 or 6 songs”. I was like, “absolutely”. And lo and behold, a couple of the songs he played were Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ songs that I already knew. I think he thought that I was just winging it, but I knew all of the songs, I knew all of the parts and stuff like that. Also, he’s high on hash. Anyways, I meet my hero and play with him at this dinner party type of thing. Two weeks later, Semi Precious Weapons are playing a bar gig in midtown Manhattan and he shows up and he says, “hey man, I really had fun playing with you and you seem like a really cool guy, I’m going to Holland in two weeks. What would you think about coming with me and playing guitar with me on my tour of Holland?”. I said, “yes, I’ll do whatever, absolutely”. I flew to Amsterdam and they picked me up at the airport and he decided we were gonna take the train, so we just took the train to every single gig that we did in Holland, just three of us. Me and Kevn and his girlfriend at the time. It was one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life. It all happened because this guy randomly had one of Kevn’s records, the last person you would expect to have a Drivin’ n’ Cryin’ record. This incredible gay man from Massachussets who’s handmaking clothing and was just all about some Drivin’ n’ Cryin’, and that happened to know the singer (laughs).

BB’s: Not a coincidence for sure.

ALT: Pretty crazy.

BB’s: That’s a really cool experience. I always tell people about my favorite things and express that. You know, if you go over to someone’s house and you’re like, “hey, I love that record”, because you never know what could align or good conversation could at least come out of it. I think that’s important.

ALT: I feel like the art of appreciating- to truly appreciate something and enough so that you can receive it and transmit it on an intellectual level and a spiritual level. That’s a really profound thing that I’m not sure people even really always get anymore. You know what I mean? Because the idea now is that everybody is supposed to be the celebrity. But being a fan- any great celebrity we’ve ever seen started by being a fan.

BB’s: Exactly.

ALT: Like Joan Jett.

BB’s: Ah, I’m seeing her at the Ryman! Just had to throw that in there.

ALT: Yeah! Like Suzi Quatro, also wanted to push it a bit more even and have this very intense blend of the masculine and femininity in her look. It was so cool. And effortlessly cool. That’s what you want. Or at least that’s what I tend to appreciate about artists is people who know how to appreciate something to begin with. It seems to add a layer of value to the work that they’re doing for me.

BB’s: It matters, yeah. It has to be genuine.

ALT: Yeah!

BB’s: I can usually tell when people are genuine, even though I’m not really a musician myself, I can see that and appreciate it, which is really important I think in anything, but especially creative fields.

ALT: Agreed.

BB’s: Like Prince, I think he was really great at that.

ALT: They were just playing his new song on WNXP when I was coming over here. You know, they released all of his unreleased stuff or whatever. Something about “Hot Summer” I think it’s called or something.

BB’s: I don’t think I’ve heard that one yet.

ALT: It’s a trip. I don’t know what time period it’s from, it sounds maybe 90’s to me, kind of, just based on the sounds. But that’s the thing about Prince, everything he ever did is timeless. Who knows what era it came from?

BB’s: He released a Versace Experience record, have you heard that one?

ALT: Yes!

BB’s: It’s so cool.

ALT: That one and the solo piano one, did you hear that one?

BB’s: Is it the one with “17 Days” on it? My boyfriend actually covered that song and turned it into an acoustic song. He really loves Prince, I do too, but he took my appreciation to another level.

ALT: (laughs) That’s awesome.

BB’s: He told me about the Versace Experience record where Prince had handed out cassettes to everyone that came to the runway show and those were the only people who had heard it.

ALT: Isn’t that amazing? I guess Wu-Tang kind of did that a little bit, like they made that one record and then that really skeezy pharmaceutical rich guy bought the one copy of it and then he got in trouble with the government for something terrible. And they seized the record, when they took all of his property they took the Wu-Tang record and then sold the record to some private buyer to pay the legal fees he owed from his trial.

BB’s: Oh my god. That’s a whole other level.

ALT: Even the guys in the Wu-Tang Clan couldn’t buy it, they tried to buy it and couldn’t get it.

BB’s: Wow. So…back to Drivin’ n’ Cryin’, are they playing at The Basement East?

ALT: They are!

BB’s: I hadn’t really listened to them that much, but one of my friends really likes them and was like, “oh my god, I didn’t know they were playing at The Basement East!”. There are a lot of great bands coming through there recently.

ALT: I know. I love that place. I’m so happy to see it back up and running.

BB’s: Back to Nashville, who are some of your favorite artists that are currently playing in town that you really like?

ALT: Gosh. A lot. Yola, Tristen, Allison Russell, Erica Blinn, Tayls…is Briston from here?

BB’s: He lives here, yeah!

ALT: Good. I’m glad he’s in the neighborhood. Briston for sure. Creature Comfort, Lilly Hiatt is really great, Jason Isbell, Katie Pruitt, I like those Greta Van Fleet kids, man. I think they’re great. Sadler Vaden is really cool. I think Carl Broemel lives here from My Morning Jacket and I saw that he just made a record with that band Future Birds. I’m really looking forward to checking that out. Todd Snider, Elizabeth Cook, Chuck Mead, for sure. Love that dude. His solo records are so cool. Tim Carroll is a really great songwriter and has been doing it here for a long time. There’s a lot of those. Kevin Gordon. I mean, gosh. At this point we have Lucinda Williams in town. Tim Easton. Obviously, too many to count (laughs).

BB’s: I mean, the list is really endless, honestly.

ALT: Yeah. It’s an amazing town to live in because there really is so much talent at a very high level. And it’s all different and all really cool. What I like about this town, too, is that it’s really rare that anything happens here where it’s like Nirvana. Where this one band takes over everything. You know what I mean? Like, if you come over here, you might see a mural of Lilly Hiatt or Margo Price.

BB’s: Or Aaron Lee Tasjan!

ALT: (laughs). And if you go downtown, there’s a big Spotify billboard down there. I’ve seen Langhorne Slim on there, who I love. Everybody gets their own…

BB’s: Credit where credit is due.

ALT: Yeah! It’s kinda cool I think in a lot of ways. We share it more rather than giving it all to this person or that person, which I really dig.

BB’s: It feels better, it feels more open wherever you go.

ALT: And it feels more realistic, too. I think there are a lot of really great records out there.

BB’s: Taking it to a different perspective, I’ve talked to some artists since the pandemic just about what they’ve gone through creatively, mentally, etc., but what was your silver lining would you say? It doesn’t have to be about music, just anything that you experienced that really hit home.

ALT: For me there were a couple of really bright moments. I would say the main ones were really getting to watch Erica Blinn record her new album, which she played every instrument on and recorded herself. That was very inspiring. It’s really, really good. I don’t know when it’s gonna come out but it’s a mindblowing record. That was really amazing. Getting to put out my record was an incredible thing. A lot of people I think are kind of like, “oh, it’s too bad you had to put out a record during the pandemic”, but the truth is I got to have these moments where I felt this tremendous amount of love and reaching out from people all over the place. In that moment, where you were so disconnected from everybody and everything, what an incredible gift. Really, really felt lucky to do that. The last one I would say is just getting to be home. I haven’t been home for like 15 years (laughs). Before I did this, I played in other people’s bands and toured a whole lot doing that as well. Getting to spend a year at home was a pretty special thing. It’s definitely helped me to realize the importance of having a balanced life.

BB’s: I’ve heard that from some artists, just saying “I’ve toured forever and now I actually get to sit down and make music where I actually have freedom to do so”.

ALT: I love that. More records need to be made like that I think. Give people the time to make it as amazing as they want to.

BB’s: I think that’s kind of the same thing with huge artists, like Harry Styles, he would fly to a different country or somewhere to go and have a second to chill out and actually make music, which is really important.

ALT: Totally. It informs the art for sure. I’m sure in his case it does.

BB’s: While we were all at home, you were interviewed by Elton John, how did that happen?

ALT: I think somebody that we knew sent him the record just out of the goodness of their heart before it came out and never heard anything back, so never mentioned it. Then all of a sudden one day, I’m getting a text message from someday saying, “hey, I’m listening to Elton John’s radio show and I’m pretty sure he just played your song on the show”. And my first thought was, “that can’t be…”. You know, because people sometimes are like, “I heard your song in the background of this TV show”, and I’m like, “I would know, thank you but that’s not me.” People get confused sometimes. Sure enough, he finally got around listening to the record and liked it and was playing a song off of it once a week for months and then eventually decided he liked it enough that he wanted to have me as a guest on the show. Pretty story book moment. Especially for a guy like me. My sister was like, “do you remember just non-stop from the time you were 5 until the time you were 10 just running around the house singing ‘Bennie And The Jets’?”, which is totally true. He’s been a hero since I was a little kid. It was special in a lot of ways, but if nothing else, I try to take those things as a sign that I’m headed in the right direction and obviously it’s amazing talking to someone like Elton John, but don’t allow myself to focus on that more than the whole reason I got there to begin with which was making music that I really believed in and was passionate about.

BB’s: What does the future hold for Aaron Lee Tasjan?

ALT: My hope and intention is that it holds a more diverse, loving, accepting, kind, and compassionate world. Where young kids are able to see great queer artists, black artists, artists who are women, artists who are natives, the whole truth of what America is reflected in its music and in its culture. I’d love to see America revered around the world for being what it actually is, which is this enormous melting pot of people and cultures from all over the place. I think we have an opportunity to show everybody how there is a place for everyone and scarcity mentality is nonexistent because things that are beautiful and inspiring to people are always gonna find a way to get through. For me personally, I just hope to be a part of that and to push those doors open as much as I possibly can into a world where that’s gonna be the new standard. I’m in the process of finishing producing a record for a trans artist named Mia Burn who has written an absolutely remarkable collection of songs and I don’t think traditionally there has been a lot of trans representation in Americana, so I think this record is hopefully going to play a pivotal role in changing some of that. Opening up the door for more people to come in and be themselves. That’s what we need, the full picture of what’s out there. Showing people that music still brings people together.

Interview written & conducted by Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 9/10/21 The Barricade Babes 9/10/21

Don’t Forget Your Inhaler

Inhaler is taking the music industry by storm. Four young men from Dublin, Ireland are soon to be declared your new favorite alt-rock band. With their strong background in the world of music and drive to succeed, the band has quickly taken the path of their heroes.

September 10, 2021

Inhaler is taking the music industry by storm.

Four young men from Dublin, Ireland are soon to be declared your new favorite alt-rock band. With their strong background in the world of music and drive to succeed, the band has quickly taken the path of their heroes.

Influences can come from many different places, but when it’s your own family, it’s almost a given. Vocalist/guitarist Elijah Hewson, bassist Robert Keating, guitarist Josh Jenkinson, and drummer Ryan McMahon have a wide variety of influences everywhere from The Stone Roses to Bob Dylan. It’s hard not to mention Hewson’s lineage involving such an enormous icon in the business, Bono, who happens to be his father. It’s humbling to see how he has taken his gift and made it into his own. For Hewson, Inhaler is an impressive project that seems to say, “I know my history, but this is who I am”, which obviously garners respect. What seems to matter the most to the band is working harder every day in order to be the best they can be amidst a global pandemic. Seems simple right? Not entirely.

Having announced an international tour earlier this year, the future looked somewhat normal. US dates were booked for September, but unfortunately due to VISAs not arriving on time, the shows have been moved to November. Fans don’t seem to be bothered, as long as they get to see this exciting up-and-coming group at some point. I know I’ll be sure to make it to the Nashville show at The High Watt.

I’ve been following Inhaler for about two years now. The first time I heard their music, I knew I would be a long time fan. Each member gives their all to the music that is being made and it’s recognizable within any of their songs. It’s been fun watching them grow into themselves as a band in the current industry. It seems like everyone is handling it differently, and they’ve done a fantastic job with keeping their content alive as well as their determination.

Recently, I had the opportunity to ask them a few questions about their musical background and what sort of journey they’re on today.

BB’s: I discovered you guys about 2 years ago and the first song I heard was “My Honest Face”. What was the inspiration behind that song?

Eli: I think around that time we were just starting to play gigs and just starting to be performers. We were trying to figure out what we were wanting to say, how we wanted to dress, and all that kind of stuff. I think that song was about that. Getting up and putting your stage clothes on and realizing people are there actually wanting to listen to you. And we were all pretty young, it was kind of an intense experience. Yeah, that’s what that song’s about.

BB’s: If you could have written any song throughout history, what would it have been?

Robert: Probably “Happy Birthday”.

Ryan: Whoever wrote “Old McDonald” was a genius (laughs). Nah, I’m messing. Oh god, any song…“Life on Mars” maybe. That’s pretty good.

Eli: Probably like “Love Me Do” or something by The Beatles.

Robert: Sticking with “Happy Birthday”.

BB’s: Who are some current artists/bands from Europe & the UK you think deserve more recognition?

Eli: Fontaines D.C. I think they’re great.

Robert: Sam Fender. He’s great. He’s one that’s pushing rock music to the forefront. I think, for us, we’d all agree that he seems to be one of the people who changed the amount we saw guitar music being listened to with his album. We heard some of his second album and it’s gonna probably be just as good. It’s exciting stuff.

Ryan: He just put a new single out from his second album today so everyone go listen. I’m an A&R man.

A special thank you to Universal Music Group and 1824 for setting this up!

Interview written & conducted by Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 1/23/21 The Barricade Babes 1/23/21

Nordista Freeze: Nashville’s Very Own

Back in August I sat down with Nashville’s very own, Nordista Freeze. We chatted about Freeze festivals, Music City, and everything in between.

January 23, 2021

Back in August I sat down with Nashville’s very own, Nordista Freeze. We chatted about Freeze festivals, Music City, and everything in between.

**Nordista Freeze / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

It didn’t take long for me to find out about the infamous Freeze. In fact, in December of 2019 I was attending a Twin Peaks show at the Basement East when I first met him. The entire crowd was moshing around like crazy in the small venue (something that seems entirely out-of-this-world today) when I recognized him. I introduced myself and I’m happy to say I’ve known Freeze ever since.

My first time seeing him perform live just so happened to be at the Basement East as well. January 25th, 2020. Space Prom 3. It was a sold out show and rightfully so. Almost everyone there seemed to know the man behind the whole night on a personal level. Even if they didn’t, it still felt like we were all there in a celebration that would forever be remembered as such. On top of it all, he was gracious enough to let my friend Brittany and I capture the night with our cameras, something that I had never done before. We were able to walk around backstage and take everything in that would soon unfold for the audience to see.

His energy is unmatched and anyone who knows him can tell you just how genuine and charismatic he is. When it comes to the Nashville music business, those are the best kind of people to surround yourself with. Seeing Freeze and friends perform that night at Space Prom will always be a memory that I cherish. Right before the world turning upside down without even knowing it, simply living in the moment and being happy for it.

For the interview, we met up at a beloved East Nashville spot outside of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams and Five Daughters Bakery. It was that time of year when the summer heat starts to fade away and the coolness of fall slowly settles in. I set up a couple of socially distanced chairs under a nice shady tree to host my guest of the hour.

What first drew you into the world of music?

I would say my earliest memories of music would be listening to the oldies station on the way to school with my dad and also just singing in church. I grew up going to a church that doesn’t use instruments so it’s all acapella, everybody sings. And my dad would lead the children’s worship so I grew up just watching my dad lead singing. Listening to a lot of music with vocal harmonies. Before I could play any instruments I was already writing and just singing all the time.

Yeah. Having a background like that, too, really develops singers. A lot of soulful singers come from that sort of background.

Yeah, right, that’s true.

Do you remember when you first wanted to be a performer? When you knew you wanted to be “Freeze”?

Hmm. Yeah, I mean, I feel like I’ve always known that. I never wanted to be anything else. Like, I’ve never…since I can remember, I’ve always just kind of…I just remember playing air guitar in the backseat of the minivan, you know? Since those days. I’ve always wanted to be a performer. I did theater in high school, so maybe there were other types of performance that I thought I might be interested in, and I still am. I like to act. But, I’ve always known music. Music has been my main. It’s my main, you know? I like a lot of stuff but music’s the most fun to me. Music…everything about it. The culture of it, the whole process of writing and then playing and then performing it and traveling and touring, it’s just…from the moment of creation to the stage. The whole process is just so special in so many ways. It works perfectly for me.

So I first met you at a Twin Peaks show and I instantly recognized you…

That’s true!

…just from the Internet, social media and stuff. You were just really energetic and I could obviously tell who you were. How do you omit that energy? What do you draw back to to put that out?

I do have a lot of energy and it comes to me pretty powerfully. I’ve always felt like it’s my superpower. I don’t know, I just feed off of the energy. I think a lot of it just comes from a spiritual place. Before every show I just spend time alone and actually get really calm and pray and just get focused. The more focused I get, the more I feel energy swelling. Even thinking about it now just gets me so excited. I don’t know, I just feel like I have limitless energy. Some nights, you know, every night. Like we played in Columbia, South Carolina right before quarantine started, right before the pandemic hit and they turned off all the mics, like the show was over but I just kept performing onstage for like another hour, just running in circles. Just running (laughs). I just love it, yeah.

At a show, being in the audience, what’s your favorite part about that?

To me, my favorite part of going to a show would definitely be the social aspect. I felt like at that Twin Peaks show we were at, it was like we were a community. It wasn’t that we weren’t paying attention to the music, because we were all there to see it and we were all…the music was feeding us. It felt like we were all there together. The crowd, it just felt like I made a bunch of friends that night. We were all in it together and we were like, crowd surfing and moshing and jumping onstage. So, whether it’s that or I’m like, going to the Ryman to see a really good show, I want to go with a couple friends if I can, you know? Just be there, have people that you cherish it with. I go to shows alone sometimes too, just because I love the music so much. Like I just saw the Beach Boys at the Ryman before all this, I was alone. And it was okay because it was just like, “I love this music so much”.

I saw Kacey Musgraves there alone. I was front row. It was, like, spiritual. I would rather do that than have somewhere there who doesn’t really wanna be there, you know?

Yeah, right. Yeah I guess that’s true. If it has to come between someone who doesn’t really care, or being alone, it might be better to be alone sometimes. But I feel like if you can find some homies who are like, they get it, like the song starts and they’re like “oh, it’s this song”.

Sing the lyrics back.

Yeah. You know, Barricade Babes!

Everyone’s a Barricade Babe, it’s not just me.

Exactly. You’re not just “The Barricade Babe”, right? Isn’t it “Barricade Babes” with an “s”?

Yeah. Well, it has kind of a weird origin story. It used to be a bunch of girls and then it was only three of us who followed a band on tour last summer. And now it’s just me because I just wanted to write and no one else really wanted to. I just wanna be Cameron Crowe.

But you call it “The Babes”, because it is!

It’s like a community.

Exactly! ‘Cause that’s what those shows are about. To me. It’s like, when you go see a band at the barricade you wanna be with all the other babes. All the other homies.

Yeah! What’s your favorite place to visit on tour?

Ooh…man. I’m always hesitant to answer that. But, no. Just because I don’t want one city to hate me. There are certain cities that I feel like, for me, with touring still being pretty DIY, it’s a lot about every time. Every city I have a different relationship with. Maybe it’s like that even when you’re a big band but, to me, still in the ground it’s like because of the way that I build fans from touring and build friends from touring it’s like more city by city specific. So, cities that I’ve had really good relationships with would be, I always think about…there’s several in Tennessee, especially Knoxville and Chattanooga. Athens, Georgia, Charleston, South Carolina are a few. Really, all throughout the Carolinas in the last year have been really good to us. Raleigh, Boone, Rockhill, Charlotte, Sumter, Columbia, Anderson/Clemson, yeah.

Yeah, that’s where Brittany lives, around there.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Brit and Jen. Hypnotic Bolt. Squad.

Shoutout! They inspire me a lot too. We met through my blog. And then we met at Briston’s show in line. I was like, “are you Brittany?” because I only knew them through Instagram.

They’re coming back, they’re on the come up too, they’re working on some stuff.

How many tours have you been on, do you know?

Ohhh. Lots now. Because it used to be more like I would give them all names, they’d be really specific but then it became, ‘cause they’d be like two or three weeks long but now I’ve done so many weekend runs and stuff. I’ve played 500 shows.

500? Wow.

Since 2016, yeah. It is a lot. I wish I could’ve…I should have a 100 more that I played this year already but…so I’m pretty heartbroken.

It’ll come though. It’ll come.

Ahh, will it? I don’t know. I’m devastated.

It’ll be back and better than ever.

I think it will. I know, no, it will be back and better than ever, I just want it to be back and better than ever by September or October. I just got done meeting with Lee and he said that people in the industry are talking about March. As maybe, you know. Even that I think is unlikely but I would just love to go on tour forever.

How did your band come together to form the Nordista Freeze sound?

That’s interesting. So…I mean, the origin is that I met S. Grant Parker and Sam Hearn playing little league baseball. Even the Future Crib guys were kind of around. I don’t think I played specifically against them, they’re a couple of years younger. We call ourselves the “West Nashville Sports League”, it’s kind of like the phrase we have for if we had a band. We’re all doing it together, that’s the team. We all met in south Nashville just playing sports really, just growing up and being kids. None of us have parents that did music, specifically professionally but we all have just kind of gotten into it. But I take pride in that because we are from Nashville and Nashville’s Music City, but even growing up here, there’s a lot of kids whose parents do music, which is sick. But for us, it was more of a creative endeavor that we kind of had to stumble into. Does that make sense? As opposed to having any understanding of the industry, which I still have no understanding of…

You’re killing it though. Just as yourself. You could be your whole team.

I appreciate that. I appreciate you saying that, that’s very encouraging, it means a lot. The band, the sound, doing music with those guys in high school, Grant and Sam. Then meeting more homies, some homies stay longer in the project than others. Like Trevor on bass and Johnny and Noah and Bryce and really Julia and George too, Future Crib. There’s been about 50 different people who have played in my band since I really started playing, which was late 2016. But some of them have played more, some of them have played once or twice maybe. Others stay longer. Yeah, Zach’s one too. Shoutout to Zach. What’s interesting about the sound is that it is collaborative and the members continue to change. So, it’s just interesting. It’s built a lot off of just everyone coming together. At this point in my career, I give my band a lot of liberty because I just think it feels better that way.

Are you the main songwriter then?

Yeah, I write the songs. It’s by project. Like, everyone else comes in and out as they so choose but I write the songs and I give the band direction. But, I do give them a lot of liberty too. It’s just a lot of people making music together, really.

If you weren’t a frontman, what would you wanna do? Would you wanna be a drummer or a bass player, have you thought about that?

Ooh. That’s a good question. I would love to be a drummer. I think drumming sounds like a really cool gig. Sweatin’ and working hard back there, ya know? Putting all of your energy, all of your will, into bangin’ on these drums.

I feel like you would be like Keith Moon or something.

Yeah, I would love that. I would eat that up. I would love to be a lead guitar player too because it has so much expression to it. And as a lead guitar player you can kind of be like a second frontman, like you’re over there just doing your own show.

Jimmy Page.

Yeah, right, Jimmy Page. Stuff like that. I don’t know. But, really, I have to be the frontman. I can’t not (laughs). I love it too much.

Can you share a story from one of your favorite shows of all time?

Hmm…we’ve had some wild stories, I must say. I’ll have to write them down. Let’s see…maybe one from Charleston. My most wild story is definitely the one where we played at a venue in Houston and I ran offstage and I jumped, I was trying to do this wall kick off a brick wall, and it turned out that it was brick wallpaper. And I went through the wall. And then when the venue was trying to make me pay for it and I ran away. We ran to the car and then when we got to the car, we saw that somebody had busted our van open and stolen some of our gear.

What? Because of that?

No, just coincidentally. So the venue was following us to our van and when they got there they saw that we had been broken into and they left us alone. It was kind of a blessing because we got off scotch free. We drove from Houston, where that was, to Corpus Christi and my cousin took me to a window repair store and the guy recognized my cousin, the owner, and was like, “no charge, no charge for them”. So we got away totally free with a broken window and breaking a wall.

That’s like a rock ‘n’ roll story right there.

That was one of the most insane— the long version also includes driving in the pouring rain without a window and it was the front driver window. And playing at a puppy event (laughs) during the day in between those two things. The next morning we played another show in Houston, we played an event where it was like a floral company teamed up with a dog company and an outdoor bar/beer garden. So the beer garden hosted, everyone brought their dogs, and the flower company would make crowns for the dogs to wear. And then there was another company who would take pictures of you with your dog. We played that.

Oh my god. That sounds better than Coachella.

It was pretty sick.

That’s a good idea.

Yeah, it was a really good idea (laughs). Pretty awesome.

So, you typically give your cell phone number out at your shows, right?

Yeah, that’s right.

What made you want to do that? How did that idea come about?

I’m glad you asked that. I’m always trying to convince people that I genuinely care. And the reality is, I care more than them, I do. I’m in the moment, care more than anyone else. Obviously someone could challenge me on that, but that’s how it feels. I think a lot of times you get this rockstar persona, just like, “oh, just going wherever our manager sends us, playing these shows, then going back to the green room and party”, it’s like this self-serving lifestyle. But for me, and I mean this, I want to meet everyone in the crowd. You’ll also notice, if you come to one of my shows, you’ll almost always catch me at the exit door, trying to catch as many people as I can before they leave. Like Space Prom or whatever, I was standing there. Because I want to meet everyone and they don’t think that I want that, or they’re like, “oh, he’s busy”. And it’s like, I will stay all night and meet every single person if I can. I think the cell phone number thing is just really…not a lot of people take me up on it, not a lot of people write it down, but it’s my way of just being like, “look, I’m serious, you can text me, I’ll text you back, this isn’t a joke, I’m not—”…I really do care, you know? It’s hard to convince someone of that. You roll into town, the one thing you do in town is get up onstage and perform, it can seem like you wouldn’t care about the people you’re interacting with. But, I do.

I can tell.

Thank you. I appreciate you saying that.

Have you received any weird messages or anything? Or a heartfelt message?

Yeah. Some people will text me immediately and they might be really sweet like, “oh, you’re doing great”, which is really encouraging to see afterwards. I do get some dank memes. There was one person who yelled out onstage “come to my potluck tonight” a few months back and I always remembered it because I never learned who that was, like they left and I never got to talk to them…until like a week ago. They messaged me on Instagram and they had my number too, they texted me. And I was just like, that’s what it’s all about.

Wow, a week ago? Did they say, “hey, I’m the potluck guy”?

Yeah! And I was like, “sick, I really wanted to come to that and I didn’t know how to”. I was sitting afterwards like, “how do I get to this potluck?” and I didn’t know how.

You should have a potlucking concert. That could be your next tour theme.

Yeah, potlucks are cool. Everyone brings a little bit of food. You know, in theory, that could be really cool (laughs).

About your influences, we’ve talked about Jan and Dean before, The Beach Boys, how did you get into that specific little niche of the surf 60’s sound?

I don’t know, it just sounds so…good. I mean, The Beach Boys are my favorite band and really digging into that. From that, discovering that I like Jan and Dean too. Jan and Dean, they’re even a step further than The Beach Boys, into that ridiculous…I don’t know. Their approach to music back then is just so interesting to me, their structure, just the way they view what a song is…is so different than people do now. And it’s fun. It’s got some novelty to it. The early Beach Boys and Jan and Dean have got this sunshine spirit to it where it’s just like…you forget you can just write songs about being happy. Like being at the beach and just driving around in a car. It’s a lifestyle and I just think it’s cool. It’s fun. And I think for the longest time I thought music had to be dark and serious and I do still write dark and serious songs, but I don’t know. I didn’t grow up thinking that I could write happy music and have fun. And I don’t think a lot of people do. I think it’s why a lot of teenagers write music that’s darker. It’s easier to go to “people take me seriously if I write darker music”, it’s just…it takes a lot of guts to write a happy song. Looking at those guys and being like, “wow, they’re having so much fun”. It’s just so sick, it’s just so cool. I want to make fun music and I want people to have fun. I think they just kind of re-introduced me to that. There’s a ton of other reasons why I like that music. The way it’s recorded on tape, I love the harmonies, I love the attitude.

Brian Wilson is a genius.

Brian Wilson is a genius, he is a genius.

The way he writes…or he did, whenever he had the sand in the living room. Have you heard about that?

Yeah. Oh yeah.

Do you have anything like that? Like a weird little thing that you have to have when you’re writing?

Not…particularly. But I will say I try to draw from a lot of different influences. You know Brad Oberhofer? You know the band Oberhofer?

I don’t think so.

Oh. Well he’s just a really cool dude who lives in LA. He’s one of my favorites. He’s someone who I saw, like in every interview, back when I got into him in high school, he would just say, you know, “anything’s your influence”, and I think that’s true. So I try now to be more like…my influence is birthday cake. You know what I mean? It’s not always just like, “this song” or “this guitar” or you know, you get into the world of music and people just start talking about all of this stuff and it’s like…no, your influence is the yoga class you go to or…

Birthday cake.

Yeah, birthday cake.

You should put that on a shirt.

What?

“My Influence is Birthday Cake”.

(laughs) Yeah, right.

I would buy that.

Kind of reminds me of that twentyonepilots line that I always cringe at, but maybe…when he says, “my taste in music is your face”.

Yeah. Whenever I first heard that I was like, “wow, he’s so dreamy”, but now looking back on it I’m like, “oh god”.

(laughs) That band conflicts me because sometimes I feel like they do things that are really cheesy but then I’m also like “dang, I don’t know, that’s a really good song”. They’re really fun.

They are. I guess they had been putting out music for a really long time, but it feels like they had a fast-track to the top.

They’re one of those bands that everybody feels like they knew them before they got big but then you’re like, “how did we all feel this?”.

I did. You know why? Because they opened for Panic! At The Disco in 2014 when I saw them. And…that was a long time ago.

That was a long time ago. My sister saw them, yeah it was a small crowd, her and her friend said they were the only ones who liked them. It’s cool when a band can pull that off. They must’ve just been touring like crazy for a long time and then when they put out that album…whatever it’s called…the black one. With the black and red album cover.

“Blurryface”?

Mhm.

My boyfriend in high school got me that on vinyl so I remember.

Well, in conclusion, maybe the line, “my taste in music is your face” is actually brilliant. (laughs)

It’s poetic…it’s like the staple of this generation.

Yeah, maybe.

So, if you could collaborate with anyone dead or alive, who would it be?

Honestly…ooh okay, well…I mean, Brian Wilson. Can I name more than one?

Yeah.

I would say my influences would be Brian Wilson, NRBQ, that would be like Terry Adams or Big Al Anderson. In terms of modern artists, A$AP Rocky…

Yes! He would love that. He would. His collab with Tame Impala was really cool.

Oh gosh. Tame Impala, I would wanna do that, but I feel like I don’t know, I couldn’t…I won’t even go there. Let’s say A$AP and…maybe like Daft Punk. Dude, honestly Nathaniel Banks, we’ve been getting to write together about once a week. That’s a dream come true. Do you listen to Nathaniel’s music? Arlie?

Yes! Are you serious? That’s so cool.

Yeah, he is cool.

Are you just co-writing or-?

We’ve been making stuff together for fun. Like painting or making songs.

He lives here?

Yeah. You should hit him up.

Yeah! That would be awesome.

That would be awesome.

Where did the idea for Space Prom come from?

I wanted to reclaim prom. ‘Cause I felt like there was a lot of cool things about prom that genuinely excited me and my friend group, everyone really. Everyone goes to prom. Almost everyone. It is cool. You dress up nice, you dance, you’re with your friends, it’s fun. But there’s also this connotation that prom sucks. Like everyone kind of thinks it sucks. And it does kinda suck. But once you get out of high school, maybe you go to a college and you have “functions” or whatever, but once you become an adult you don’t really get the chance to…or maybe you’re in high school and your prom stinks, ya know? It’s just like, reclaim that in kind of a retro-futuristic way. Meaning, let’s take the 80’s retro-futurism…meaning like, which you may know, but in case someone doesn’t, taking a past perspective of the future. Which the 80’s had so strong. Like late 70’s to 80’s, through like Star Wars, just through the music, the land of synthesizers coming…it all sounds like it was their take on the future. The space age. So I think there’s something really cool about that time period and disco and us as kids and young people can…it just evokes this interesting, retro…just this really solid retro classic thing where we sing songs that our parents raised us on but we’re also creating the prom of now. And it’s all based on the future. So, Space Prom. It’s outer space. It’s the 80’s. It’s 2020. If that makes any sense. It’s hard to explain because it’s a vision that, maybe part of me sounds pretentious, but it’s just a vision that made so much sense in such a far back part of my brain that it’s hard to even explain why it works. But I really believe in it. I wasn’t sure if people would dig it, so when I did it the first year, we did it at the Lucky Bamboo chinese restaurant two years ago. This was the third one, the one that happened this year. And I thought like a hundred people would come. It’s a pretty crazy idea. Like dress up as you’re going to prom or maybe going to prom in the 80’s or maybe you’re an alien, you can pick whatever you want. Any of those three directions. We’ve consistently all three years had like 500 plus people show up and it’s just…crazy. I mean, people just dig it. It makes me happy that they do, you know?

It’s super fun.

It is fun. It really is just fun. I have so much fun. The band, we have fun learning the songs, it just feels good.

**Nordista Freeze: Space Prom 3 / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

Have you guys dressed up every year?

This was our most ambitious year, this year, with the Star Wars. That was crazy. Trevor and Sam went off making those outfits.

What about the second year? What did you guys do?

Last year we were the Village People. You know, like YMCA and all that. Yeah.

What about the first year?

First year we all just did our own things, we all were just kind of—I was this crazy flamboyant Elton John. With really tall heels and this mad top hat.

You had heels? How did you run?

I couldn’t. I just danced around a little bit. I couldn’t move as much, I wasn’t as active. (laughs)

Do you have a favorite moment from all of them?

Oh, man. Really, I mean, just being onstage during Space Prom is one of the best moments of my entire year every year because it’s the biggest show I play and people come from everywhere. My homies come from all the different states to be there. Looking out, it’s like “this is the community that I…”, it makes me cry, you know? These are my people. This is my tribe. I’m hesitant to take too much ownership in it but it is something that I’ve been able to lead. Host this event. And I call it “stone soup” a lot. There’s this old fable about these people who come into town and they put a stone in hot water and one by one they convince people of the town to bring ingredients to make a soup. Like a kid’s book. Anyway, that’s how it feels to me. I’m lucky to be the leader but I know that I can’t do it on my own. I’m so blessed to know so many amazing people. It’s amazing what can happen when you have a dream and that dream keeps getting…

Just then, Freeze saw someone that he knew, quickly exchanging “hello’s” and ending with, “you inspire me, bro” which really just goes to show what kind of community he has been talking about.

…yeah I don’t know, it’s just amazing what can happen in this world when you have a dream and you ask for help and people come together and it’s just…beautiful. It’s beyond me. Beyond any of us. And that’s what Space Prom has become. I guess that’s why it’s so special.

**Space Prom 3 / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

Besides the projects that you have with Nathaniel (Arlie), have you been working on anything else recently in the past couple of months?

Yeah. I think really my first phase of quarantine has just been working on myself. Exercising and I’ve been reading. Painting. Watching a lot of films. I have been writing and I’m working on some different projects. I’ve got “FREEZE TV” that I’m working on, which I’m pretty excited about. It’s gonna be one of the coolest things that’s coming soon. Maybe by the time this interview is out it’ll already be out. The thing with Nathaniel, it’s really we’re just hanging out. I don’t know if it’s anything that will be released. I’ve just been getting to see him and just kind of painting or writing a song or whatever. The last two days I’ve been recording with my guys. We have been recording new songs. And I have a song coming out next week. It’s called “Fight Song”. It’s the one we’ve closed every set with, or have been.

Where do you record at?

This single that’s coming out and the last five, all of the singles since “Cosmic Haus”, were recorded in Johnny’s parents’ basement, which is called the “Cuda” in Brentwood. And now we’ve moved to Johnny and Bryce’s house, which is called the “Chateau Villaria”. (laughs). Yeah. We track to tape, which is fun. It’s been exciting to get to do because all of these songs are, ya know, getting to record how our heroes did. It’s a completely different process than it is tracking digitally.

So you produce and mix and everything?

I don’t even know if there’s technically been a producer on the last singles. It’s pretty collaborative. I will say what I want and try to be open and get what I want across. But I’m also down to listen to the band. So, in some ways we are in a room together saying “oh, this would sound good” or “we should do this or that”, but we do it in-house. All of my past singles have been mixed by a guy named Damon Moon in Atlanta. He mixed Vanosdale and DINNER TIME, if you know them, out of Atlanta. Best DIY bands.

I think I’ve actually heard of them.

They’re amazing. You would dig them.

Who would you love to tour with, if you could tour with anyone? Like anyone, ever.

Oh, man. If one day I get to tour…oh my goodness. Brian Wilson. (laughs). That would be sick. To name some bands that are more modern that I think would be sick would be like Twin Peaks…would be insane. The Nude Party. Foxygen. Dr. Dog. Those would all be so sick.

The Lemon Twigs, do you listen to them?

The Lemon Twigs, yeah that would be awesome.

I bet you could. You have the same kind of thing goin’ on.

I hope so, that would be such a one-up, that would be amazing.

Freezefest is obviously a really big deal in the Nashville underground music scene, how would you best describe it for those who don’t know?

Freezefest is…my fest, ya know? Everyone can throw a fest, this one is mine. I bring the bands I like that are my friends and all of my friends I encourage to come. It’s changed over the years, it started out being more of a house show, then it has now transformed into more of a camping festival. It’s the place to come. Come for the whole thing. You hear your new favorite band from all of these different cities who are on the grind touring, all of these DIY bands. And everyone that comes you become friends with each other and sit around the campfire till the sun comes up. To me, it’s my biggest community point every year. Really, you know what? I would describe it as an end of the year party. That’s what I always wanted it to be. Once a year we should all come together and celebrate. We’re all touring, we’re all spread far apart all year, we’re out in the fields. (laughs). Everybody should come to my place, my fest, for one weekend, all just commit, come to the whole thing. That’s what I encourage bands and fans to do. And just be together.

How many bands do you usually have?

It’s varied pretty drastically. Year three I had 120.

120 bands?

It’s less now because I try to pay the bands from out of town, I try to pay them enough gas money. I think this past year maybe it was like 30…I don’t know, that’s a total guesstimate.

Still, that’s a lot. That’s really impressive.

Thank you! It’s fun.

The way that you interact— with your fans, your friends, is really knit together and it’s really humbling and inspiring to see. How has that impacted your career so far?

To me, it’s everything. To me that’s the whole thing. Touring and performing and then making friends. Building relationships. I don’t know. It would be…I don’t really know what the point would be without that. Which isn’t to say that everybody has to do it that way, like maybe some people are more shy or maybe they don’t really need new relationships in their life. They’re like, “I have my significant other or my family” or something. “I tour so that my fans can hear my music”, you know, they view it more like that. Still good intentions, but it’s different. To me, I wanna be on the road. I’m alive. Like that is…the road isn’t what I’m doing to make money and come home and provide. It’s like…the road is my home. When I’m out there it just feels great. Home is home too but the road is a home and I just love everyone. If I can encourage someone out there then that’s what gives me purpose. That’s what makes me wanna do it. It’s hard to explain because I don’t really know how to see it the other way. I try to, but it’s just…that’s been such an imperative part of it, a fundamental part of it for me since the beginning. I’ve never really understood seeing people as not equal to each other. I’m not saying I’m perfect at it, I’m sure I am selfish but just generally speaking, we gotta always be working towards that.

What do bands like Wilco mean to you and what are some other groups that have influenced your music-making?

Wilco…they’re a pretty big band to me. I think Jeff Tweedy has a really cool perspective on the songwriting and creative process. Dawes are another band. I’d say Dawes and Wilco, although they are very different bands, they both have taught me a lot about what it means to be a songwriter and to make music with a group of people in a room together. And always just be working on getting better and trusting each other collaboratively.

Have you met any of those guys?

I’ve met Dawes, I think I’ve shaken all of their hands but it was very much just like, “hey, yeah, thank you, thanks for coming”. But it was cool. I— oh my goodness, you just reminded me of the most heartbreaking thing. I almost got to meet them. I was at the Ryman, posted a picture on my story, then I was driving home and my friend DM’d me and she was like, “you’re here too? We’re backstage, come hang”. She had the hookup. By the time I got back the band had gotten in their van and left.

Wilco?

No, Dawes. Wilco…Wilco I think are even bigger. Because Dawes played the Ryman, Wilco they played like War Memorial when they came which is like…huge. No, no it wasn’t War Memorial, it was Grand Ole Opry. It’s even bigger. Yeah, the Opry House. I don’t know if I’d ever get to meet…but I feel like after reading Jeff’s book, I feel like if I did meet him he would be really nice. He seems really, really humble. And kind of shy. I’d probably just say something quick, I’d just be like, “thank you, man, you’re awesome”.

“I love you”.

“I love you”. And I’m sure he’d say, “thank you”. Same with Brian Wilson. You know, I actually woke up in an airport one time and I looked Brian Wilson in the…I looked at him.

What?!

I was in Colorado and I woke up, because my flight was delayed, so I took a nap and I woke up and the whole Brian Wilson crew…Brian Wilson, Al Jardine, and his whole band were sitting there waiting to board a plane. And I said hi to Al Jardine.

You didn’t say anything to Brian?

No, I was too nervous.

Nooo.

I don’t know, he looked really tired and I didn’t wanna bother him. In retrospect, I think I could’ve been like, “thank you, Brian”.

It’s understandable though.

Yeah.

It’s still really cool. It’s like fate. He was right there, that’s pretty wild.

Yeah, it is wild, it is very wild.

Who would you want to cast to play you in a movie about your life if you had to choose anyone? It doesn’t necessarily have to be an actor.

…I don’t know, Timothée Chalamet. Then everyone would think I was cool. (laughs)

(laughs) I could see that.

They’d be like, “oh…”, no, then that’d be so depressing because then they’d be like, “wait, Freeze is a real person?”. Then they’d look me up and be like, “oh…we like Timothée Chalamet more”.

He’s gonna play Bob Dylan.

That’s true. Maybe Bob Dylan could play me.

Yeah! It’s a circle. Then you could play Timothée.

Yeah! That’d be cool.

Then it would be complete.

Maybe Michael Cera. I don’t know. (laughs). I do like him a lot. Maybe a girl could play me. April from Parks and Rec, what’s her name?

Aubrey Plaza.

Maybe Aubrey Plaza could play me. I’ve always thought she seems pretty cool. (laughs)

One of my favorite tracks of yours is “Wysteria”, so how did that come about? What was the idea for that song?

Wysteria is a music festival that Arlie put on. Or has put on once and hopefully will again. So I wrote that song after going to Wysteria. I drove out west, it was two hours west of Tennessee, and the song is just about Wysteria and my experience at Wysteria. (laughs)

That’s cool. Very unique.

Thank you.

When can we expect the next Freeze album? Do you have it in the works or—?

No, I don’t. Sometimes I think I do but…I don’t know, I might just keep putting out singles forever. It’s weird because I love albums so much, like I listen to so many albums, but I just don’t know how to make an album anymore in the modern world and have it be worth…we just live in a singles world now.

It’s weird too because concept albums are also a thing…

Yeah. Maybe I would make a concept album but maybe it would just be shorter, you know? Maybe a concept four-track piece. I mean, “Dolphin”, “Wysteria”, “First Time”, “Fight Song”, and the new “Hey Gigi”, that kind of felt like a set of five songs. I’ve thought about re-patching it as a five-song set. Maybe I will. But then these singles, I’m now working on more songs. I might just keep putting them out song by song. For now. Maybe a year from now I’ll have a different perspective but right now, I feel healthiest when I think about just making a song. When I wake up and I’m like, “oh, I’m gonna make a new song”. As opposed to an album because albums are just so heavy, they take up so much time. I want to make a masterpiece album. But that, it drives me crazy when I try to think about doing that. But can I make one song that’s fun and that’s my next statement? I can do that. So, I don’t know, I just do that now. I’ve been focusing on songs.

Do you have a bunch of songs that you’ve recorded but you haven’t put out yet?

Yeah, I mean I’ve got a ton of demos. They’re going down the conveyor belt I guess is how I’d put it. From demo to recording it and polishing it and getting them ready. I’d say…if all goes according to plan I’ll have plenty of singles coming out the rest of the year. And I think they’re all slowly gonna push me. I hope that every song that I put out people are gonna hear and they’re like, “wow, that’s a cool new step”. Because I’m definitely pushing myself every time.

Yeah. That’s a story in itself, too. Like you don’t have to have an album. I was just curious.

Well, no, that’s a good question. Sometimes I do think I have an album but I don’t know. Honestly I just think music has become pre-1963. The Beatles really pioneered what it meant to make an album. For an album to be a cohesive idea more so than just a group of singles. Obviously people have been doing that but in terms of pop music, not just being like, “oh, here’s ten new songs by Elvis”, but being like, “here’s Rubbersoul”, you know? And even past Rubbersoul, like Sgt. Pepper. And we’ve kind of just used that model for fifty years. Albums are statements. And it made sense ‘cause then you would work on it and then you would put it out and then people would buy it at the store. That money would fund your next…it was a cycle that made sense but now that music is blip, your music comes out on the internet. You work on an album and if somebody drops a single and if somebody drops an album, they almost feel like the same thing. It’s almost like…sometimes if you make an album nowadays it can feel pretty underwhelming. It can feel like you put all of this work into it and then it doesn’t get any attention. Does that make any sense at all?

Yeah, I understand.

It’s demoralizing. That being said, maybe I’ll release an album later this year. It just depends on what feels right. I just wanna keep making music though, that’s what’s most important to me.

My last question is, if you were running for political office, what would be your slogan?

I’ve thought about running for president. I might one day. I really might, for real, I’m not kidding.

I would vote for you!

I study politics, I don’t really publicly talk about it much, like my political opinions…yet. But I’m involved behind the scenes and it’s hard because politics are divisive. But also they are helpful. It’s just hard to find a voice. If I had a slogan it would be…”revolution is coming”. That’s what it would be. And everybody would be like, “whoa”. (laughs)

I like it.

If I become president I will create a total revolution. I’d move into a hut, first off. So nobody would think that I was in it for the money. I would have no money. I would just eat bananas and fruits and vegetables and just study it. I would become like a monk. I’d be like, “it would be in the best interest of our country if we do this…”

I do have one more question that I forgot to mention. You said that you had been reading a lot, what are your favorite books that you’ve read during quarantine?

Ooh, let me get my list. Hmm. Favorite books of quarantine. Let’s see. I’m gonna say, The Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac, Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger, Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back) by Jeff Tweedy, and I’m currently reading Pride and Prejudice.

Really?

Yeah. So, there you go.

Have you seen Pride and Prejudice and Zombies?

No.

Well, you should. It’s great. I saw it like…twenty years ago.

Is it a movie?

Well, not twenty years ago but…

I will watch that when I finish this book.

Do it!

I guess I should watch Pride and Prejudice. I’ve never read or seen it, so it’s all new to me.

I think I might’ve read it but I’ve definitely seen the zombie movie. And I have one more question I just thought of.

You’re good!

Okay, so you know those scholastic book fairs?

Mhm.

What was your favorite part about those?

About the scholastic book fair?

Yeah. Did you ever go to one?

Yes! They were so much fun. It was just so exciting to walk around and see all of these books. I think that it— that’s the best part. The same feeling that you get when you first get a library card. I remember being a kid and having a library card and I think I checked out like twenty books. I was like, “I’m gonna read all of these books”. Such a good feeling of just, “oh, I can’t wait to read this book”. Sometimes people say the best part about a meal is looking at the meal before you eat it. It’s kinda like that. The best part of the book fair is the part before you dig into reading a book. You just get to look at the books. (laughs)

Did you ever get the books that had the quizzes and stuff in them? Were you one of those or no?

No!

No?!

I wish.

Those were so fun.

What? Quizzes?

Yeah! They had the “get to know you”, you would pass them around at recess.

Oh, no. That sounds sick. I missed out on that.

You should make one, like a Freeze one.

Yeah! That would be sick. A Freeze-zine. I’ve been working on some zine ideas.

That would be cool.

Maybe I’ll add a quiz.

Online?

Physical.

That’s the best. There’s one in Murfreesboro, I forgot what it’s called but it’s pretty neat. They just put in a bunch of art and pieces about music.

Cool. I love that.

Interview written & conducted by Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 11/9/20 The Barricade Babes 11/9/20

Brasko: Glam Rock Meets Power Pop

“A man in heels, what’s up dad and mom?” are lyrics from Brasko’s newest single, “The Standard For Kids in the USA”, which prompts the question…what is it really? If you listen to his message, I think you may just find the answer.

November 9, 2020

**Brasko / Nashville, Tennessee / October 2020 / OuttaSight Photos**

From the first guitar note, I could sense the retro rock ‘n’ roll energy that Brasko embodies. Each part of his song, “True Paradise”, takes the listener into a new dimension. Heavy drums, vocals that would make even Bolan proud, and a killer attitude sum up everything this new rock ‘n’ roller brings to the table.

Sitting down with Brasko on a chilly evening in the middle of East Nashville, I was excited to get to know the man behind the lyrics. His persona is everything you would expect it to be. Bright, warm, and definitely rock ‘n’ roll.

The interview worked out perfectly, he was visiting for a couple of weeks in order to work on some new tracks set to be released…well, you’ll have to read on to find out.

Originally from Ohio, spending some time in Nashville, and ending up in the City of Angels has given Brasko a unique perspective on the music industry. We talk about the nature of the business, his biggest influences, and the next move in a world of kings, pawns, and everything in between.

What are you hoping to communicate with this song?/ & your new music in general?

Well, the new song comes across a little differently than the first record I put out. So I would say for this song, it’s mostly that we’re all in this together essentially. I don’t know, I’ve never really talked about as many insecurities that I do have. And I think artists are inherently insecure people. We just kind of peacock to put up a shield so we don’t have to talk about it. Pretty much since the beginning of the project the thing has been: do everything I’m afraid of. I’m afraid of being perceived this way, doing this, failing on stage. So I purposely set out to do these things in front of audiences. But the one thing I didn’t do was be honest in a song about insecurities. As we were talking about it, as we were writing the songs, we were just like, “it’s all pretty standard”. Then that’s what we kinda came across, ya know? There’s anxiety, depression, body dysmorphia, all these things that our youth is collectively agreeing on that we’re grabbing onto this consciousness in the air. I think it’s this collective thing that we’re all going through together. So I think that mostly, we’re just in it together is the main thing.

Yeah, it’s definitely like an anthem song. And it’s perfect timing for that too. It’s awesome. Did you record here or are you working on any new music in Nashville?

No, I’m recording everything in Los Angeles. Specifically Eagle Rock. With Chris Greatti who plays with Sam (Palombo), actually. Him and I are writing and tackling everything together. But I’m writing a bunch of songs in Nashville right now and then taking them back to Los Angeles and I’ll record there. I recorded my first record here. With Gabe Simon and Cason Cooley, a couple producers. Pretty much Chris and I have our system down when working.

Do you have a live band that plays with you permanently or is it kind of switching around?

It kind of rotates a little bit. Just because I can’t afford to, ya know if someone gets a bigger gig, I can’t afford to say “no, you can’t do that”. So I kind of have an East coast band and a West coast band. ‘Cause I can’t afford to be flying people around and I can’t pull that well on too many in between states, but I pull well in Los Angeles, Nashville, and then up the East coast a little bit. Yeah, so I have a band here and a band there.

That makes sense. Smart. What have you been listening to lately?

There’s a band that came out, specifically in ‘92, but I think this record came out in ‘94. They’re called Jellyfish. Oh my god. They’re the best rock band of all time that didn’t get the notoriety that they deserve because it came out at the wrong time. But specifically the record “Spilt Milk”. I think it’s so bold and so crazy and the arrangements are so beautiful and perfect. So Jellyfish, I really love Andy Sturmer’s voice. And speaking of the 90’s, there’s a 90’s grunge group, they were called Silverchair-

Silverchair? Oh my god, I love them so much.

You like them? Yeah, I think it was in 2005…could be 2008. But I’m gonna say 2005 because that sounds more right to me. They put out a record called “Young Modern”, have you heard that one?

I think a couple songs off of it, yeah.

It’s a lot more…you can tell that they were listening to Jellyfish. I don’t even need to ask Daniel Johns if he likes Jellyfish because I know for sure. “Young Modern” is a lot of crazy string arrangements and the lyrical content is pretty crazy. I’ve been listening to a lot of Silverchair, Jellyfish, and then there’s a whole Australian rock scene I’m into right now. So I really like Demob Happy, there’s a band called Big Spring I like a lot. They tour with Royal Blood and those groups and stuff like that.

I could definitely see you playing with them at some point.

That would be amazing.

When did you move to Nashville?

I moved here in 2011, a week after high school.

Wow.

I didn’t really have much going for me in Ohio and I was making teen pop at the time. I was in a metal band when I was 15. Then I started writing songs in my house with my acoustic and songs for my girlfriend, I put them up on my MySpace and that was doing okay. I made a record with, I think he toured with Cute Is What We Aim For and stuff like that, and that was like a big deal for me. Back in the day. So I went to Buffalo, New York and recorded with a guy named Chris Flurry, and then eventually I moved, I had the opportunity to come work here with a guy named Frank Kowalski who was the music director for Alex Chilton from Big Star. That was my introduction to the power pop scene. I didn’t really know how to effectively communicate it yet, ‘cause I was a new writer, I was a baby version of that. I was just trying to write pop songs but I guess put like 12-string Rickebackers and thumpy drums, it was pretty bad. By 23 I pretty much quit and I thought music was done for me. Dated a girl for a little bit, and when I was 25 I was kind of bored with going to shows. And I was like, “man, I feel like it’s just a bunch of dudes wearing all black that think they’re important”. I wanted someone to do some crazy stuff. Then I started going to Broadway shows to watch cabaret and MC, Chicago. Seeing acts like that, I was like “man, it would be so cool if there was a rock vocalist who embodied that kind of energy onstage. I feel like someone who has extreme ADHD, that would draw me in. I started pulling a little bit from that and started using the first couple months of the project to trial and error. Like I’ll try this version of the show, take it way too far, I’m gonna get drunk, I’m gonna moon the audience. Things that I had no business doing, ‘cause I just wanted to see how far I could push it. It was all out of curiosity. I did a whole show in drag and it was really, really fun. It was really, really good for as you know, dealing with men. Men are pretty insecure all the time. It was really, really good to free me as a frontman to all of the stipulations that people had towards men and me, what I grew up about what a man’s supposed to be, attacking that on myself before progressing the project.

That’s beautiful, yeah.

Thank you.

How would you describe growing up in Ohio?

There wasn’t much to do. I was really bad at every sport and I literally played every sport. And I was the worst at every single one. I remember I asked my dad for a drum set one year and he was like, “yeah, wait until Christmas”, and he had a guitar there already. I picked it up and within three months I had already taught myself the guitar, so then I just got a new guitar. He got me a little four-track recording thing and I was doing like Beatles harmonies and stuff like that. I was like 14. I was 11 when I started learning guitar but I was 14 when I started writing songs. There wasn’t anything to do, so that was very good for me. I didn’t have anything to do but try to attempt to get good.

So you wanted to be a drummer first?

Mhm. I really regret that I didn’t ever take drum lessons or anything. I’ve tracked things on my songs before but it’s very minimal.

You should ask Sam (Palombo) for help!

Yeah sure. You know what? Actually, I will!

So what was the transition like moving from Nashville to LA?

Pretty smooth. I’ve actually been flying to LA for co-writes since I was like 22. I think it was January of February 2018 when I played my first Brasko show in LA. And more people came to it than any of my shows in Nashville. I was like, “oh, there’s a glam rock scene here”. I didn’t know many people that well. Then I got to meet everybody in the scene and was like, “I’m gonna go for three months”. I went for three months and I sold out my first show on the West coast, like “fuck, I have to be here now”. It was way more comfortable in Nashville and I did not have the money to move to LA. I was like, I’m just gonna suck it up and make it work for a year. I went negative so many times in my bank account. Nightmare. Every other week I would wake up with a notification in the morning and would try to just sleep it off because there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Luckily, within about five months I met enough people around me, I already kinda had a base there so that helped me.

Who are your top three biggest influences?

It’s weird because I feel like musically and visually it’s pretty different. Visually, it’s Marc Bolan, T. Rex all day. I think that was the guy that hit it on the head, no doubt. He knew how to be a superhero onstage. Also I really like Brian Molko, visually, from the band Placebo. I think he’s super cute and I love his whole thing. But sonically, I think the biggest introduction into writing for me was Elvis Costello. The melodies sound like a little kid wrote them but they’re very, very mature and the lyrics are like poetry. I think sonically, I think Elvis Costello is probably the guy that made writing melodies make sense to me. Band-wise, still gonna go back to Jellyfish but as a singer, Elvis Costello because the melodies were so gorgeous but, I don’t know if I’ll get crucified for saying this, he’s not the best vocalist. There are so many people who can run circles around him, as far as a vocalist goes, but he can out-write any of them. So you’re so drawn in.

Yeah. Same with like, Dylan too.

Bob Dylan? Oh yeah, for sure. Totally, one hundred percent.

I really loved your take on “20th Century Boy” and was wanting to talk about that. What made you want to do it?

There actually is a specific reason, ‘cause I didn’t really believe in doing covers because obviously it would have made more sense to do something that was a hit already. Like if it was to do “Rebel Rebel”, but when I started this project a lot of people were pretty confused. I didn’t have bangs, they just saw a guy that was wearing makeup and kind of doing pop music. And I was like, “I don’t think they get that I’m tipping my hat to something old and attempting to make it fresh”. It made sense being like, “alright I’m gonna get a shag, I’m gonna do a Bolan song but I’m gonna re-imagine it with trap hats and 808’s”. Because we could have done it exactly like he did it, but that’s been done a billion times, especially that song. Every cover of that song is the same, besides Powerman 5000. Rob Zombie’s brother’s band. They did a cover of it that was pretty interesting but not my thing. So that’s why we did it. I think a lot of people were like, “who is he? Is he trying to express his sexuality?” and it was very much a musical thing and an exciting live show. The fact that I did T. Rex, like “hey, we’re trying to reinvent what a show should be, what a frontman should be, and how to involve the audience in that”. Doing something like a Marc Bolan song made sense in that context.

I definitely see a new wave of glam rock, with, like, you, Blame Candy.

Yeah. There’s a guy named BONAVEGA that’s fantastic too. Have you heard of him?

I haven’t, no.

He has a mullet and a mustache and he’s a bodybuilder onstage and he does guitar solos. He was just on America’s Got Talent, it’s one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.

I’ll have to check it out. From your first single, “Take Me”, to now, how do you think you’ve grown as an artist?

I think, well, the thing didn’t create itself when I started. When I originally wrote “Take Me” I was trying to pitch it to other artists actually. It wasn’t really making sense because everyone was kind of chasing down like the Charlie Puth pitch-shifted vocals pop and I was like “ah, maybe I’ll just put it out”. So then I did the picture wearing mascara and a big fur coat, since then my audience told me what they wanted. “Take Me”, I liked a little bit of Michael Jackson, Prince, I like T. Rex, I like fuzzy guitars, I like androgynous styles. I don’t like putting things in boxes, like men have to wear this, women have to wear this. I didn’t like any of that. At the beginning, it was very much a baby stage of that. Since then, since playing live shows I’ve gotten to see, one, I’ve gotten to find my audience, two, I’ve gotten to see what they wanted. For example, I put t-shirts on my website and I didn’t sell one. I was like, “how do I have all these new fans and they don’t want shirts?” I put on underwear, they sold out. Instantly. I was like, “oh, I have a bunch of weirdos that like me. That’s great. I’m a weirdo too”. When I would be playing shows both on the East coast and the West coast I would do “Take Me”, “Lipstick Stains”, and some of these other songs and I’d see what they’d do to the room. And when I did “20th Century Boy” the room really lights up with that. Bummer, ‘cause that’s not even my song. So when I wrote “Dirty Shiny Rock ‘n’ Roll”, that was me getting competitive in my head with Marc Bolan as a writer. Like, “I need one of those songs”. Marc Bolan’s lyrics don’t say anything, to me. They’re very visually stimulating. I decided to try to write my own “20th Century Boy” and that’s what “Dirty Shiny Rock ‘n’ Roll” is. I was like “let’s dive a little deeper” and that’s when Chris and I got meticulous about the influences and all of that. Since then, I think the biggest thing is I know my audience now. And I’m a little more confident, I don’t feel like I’m just dipping my toes into the water anymore. I feel like I’m in the deep end at this point.

In one sentence, why would you say that you make music?

Because I have to. I don’t want to. In fact, I would choose anything else but it chose me, and I have to.

I noticed that you’ve released singles towards the beginning of quarantine, the middle, to now. What’s it been like putting out music in 2020?

Well it’s been weird because a lot of my validation, as a person still, I feel like has come from live shows. When that was ripped away I had to be like, alright I kind of scared off every label with my actions onstage and my persona, I don’t know how I’m going to make money, is this thing doable? Then I realized that’s not really an artistic way to think. There are people that want stuff and are really hurting and scared and they’re bored in their house but they’re also not sure where their next check is coming from. Entering that mindset, fuck it. They need music and I’m gonna give it to them. I was already working on about 300 songs and I actually have that side project I put out, it’s called Princesss. It was literally just because I was writing too many songs. Now that I can’t play shows I’m just writing all day. That’s the main thing, I can’t play shows so I’m writing more, fuck it. If this year is a flop, I can put out a record and I can start another one right after that. I’m pretty comfortable in my ability to at least grow in that.

Has LA started opening up venues to limited capacity or anything?

No, I think there have been some live outdoor things. I know the comedy scene has, because I’m a fan of the underground comedy scene. But musically, not a chance.

Have you done live-streams?

I did. I didn’t really like it. And I don’t think people give a fuck. I did it and I think it was just a little underwhelming. That being said, I’m going to do another one with the Bourbon Room, so that’s fun. We can have a light show and all that. That’ll be fun. I’m a big fan of music and I know that kind of annoys me…

Around this time last year you released your debut album, “SEXDREAMSUPERSTAR”, reflecting on that, what kind of success did you see and how do you want to continue that during these uncertain times?

I did the run around with labels at the beginning of this project and I wasn’t doing anything, they were reaching out to me. They would be like, “oh, we think it may be not palpable for the general public”, so they would pass on it. And it’s just like, I’m not gonna turn 30 and not put out a record. I’m gonna build this little world that I’m creating, and it’s all very hypersexual. And the reason I was writing so many sexual songs at the time specifically was because I was kind of going through a breakup and I felt like people didn’t need another white guy playing victim. I feel like there are enough people who are saying, “it’s your fault” or they try to overdo it, “it’s all my fault”. I just didn’t think it was interesting. Sexuality is something that’s very near and dear and private to us, it kind of opens up that imagination aspect to it. So, I wrote all of those songs and I think putting out the record was a good first step of being like, “alright, there’s a catalog coming in place right now”. I wanna put out 50 records before I die. Doing that, putting that to bed, that’s cool, I don’t expect anything from it. Going to a city and even if there weren’t that many people there, the fact that people came dressed like me and they knew the words already when the record only came out like three days prior, I mean that gave me a lot of hope. I used to be that kid. It made me be like, “there could be a thing here”. It’s interesting.

Have you seen the picture of Sid Vicious wearing a David Bowie shirt at one of his shows? Before he became famous.

That’s amazing. I love that.

Like you said, seeing that is so fun and inspiring.

It’s kind of interesting because these are not artists who are, in any way, related to what I’m doing now. Same I guess with Sid and Bowie. There was a band when I was 15 I would travel to go see and I was trying to figure out songwriting myself, but I really annoyed them. They were in their 20’s, I was 15. It’s a band called House of Heroes, but I really liked them when I was a kid. Since then I’ve gotten to play with the drummer, the lead singer and I will send songs back and forth which has been cool. I was super involved in the MySpace scene when I was younger, there was a guy who was pretty big on it named Christopher Drew, who put out music as NeverShoutNever. He emailed me and he’s been helping me promote my stuff and he’s become a friend which is really cool. Musically, and even brand wise, we have nothing to do with each other. But it is cool with someone who I was like, “man, how did they do that?” when I was a kid, they’re trying to reach out and help me in a completely different way.

That’s how it should be really, a big community.

Yeah, totally.

All of your music seems very original to me, but especially your latest single, “The Standard for Kids in the USA”. I can honestly say I’ve never really heard anything like it before. Where did the inspiration come for this new era of Brasko?

I’m gonna say this as a fan first. Power pop is my favorite genre and it always has been. You have bands like Big Star, Jellyfish. There’s smaller bands like The Nines, Bleu, and Mike Viola. I loved these guys and I thought it was the best music ever. I never really got why I couldn’t pass over. I guess there were a few bands, Fountains of Wayne, The Click Five a little bit. They called themselves power pop, maybe just because they were from Boston, I don’t really get sonically how that title made sense. I really, really have faith in the genre still and maybe I’m on a dying ship because people have tried reviving it. The idea going into this new era was I realized that my audience didn’t want just up the middle pop songs from me and also now in 2020, opposed to 2011, most of the time we’re leading up to the next 7 years after that. The rules kinda changed. There are really no rules anymore. If you write something that connects to an audience and you’re a good frontman, you can draw them in. All bets are off. Going into this, it was my last roll of the dice, being like, “can I slip a couple power pop things into my audience’s ears?”. Big seven part harmonies, doing suss chords, tipping the hat to Rubber Soul harmonies on the Beatles. If I’m gonna do rock, it’s already a theatrical show, if I could slip a little bit of power pop in there that would be my dream. And who knows? Maybe it will just be a couple of songs on the record and then like, he at least knows about power pop, he’s not a power pop artist. That was the main thing. I really, really believe in that genre a lot and I love the glam scene but I really love how sonically it sounds in the power pop world, so I think I wanted to give it a shot.

I love that. I feel like it’s very original. Kind of like the YUNGBLUD vibe and how original he is.

Thanks! Yeah, it helps that we have the same producer (laughs).

Oh, you do? Wow, that’s awesome! Is there anything else that you would like to say or promote?

I mean, I don’t wanna plug my merch right now, but if you need crazy t-shirts, I have a shirt with my nudes.

You know where to get ‘em!

Exactly. No, I think the main thing is, if anybody is reading this that has already been a fan and because I’ve posted about it and you went to it, I just want to thank them. It’s not an easy time to be an artist and the fact that anyone is being supportive means a lot to me. And I’m definitely really, really humbled and grateful to be able to keep doing it for right now.

Thank you so much to Brasko for taking the time to sit down with me and chat about his music! Keep an eye out for new music to be released in the future!

Interview written & conducted by Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 9/14/20 The Barricade Babes 9/14/20

The Season of the Planet Witch with Nathan Gill

With Halloween creeping slowly upon us, I felt that it was no better time to share the conversation I had with the frontman of a band with an incredibly original (and seasonally appropriate) band name and an even more incredibly original musician, Nathan Gill.

**Nathan Gill / Plaza Records, Carbondale, Illinois / August 2020 / OuttaSight Photos**

Gathering my Canon camera bag and my notes for that day’s interview, I shut my car door and opened another into a world of nostalgia and fresh air. Walking into a record store is a very religious type experience for many, but for me, here in the place I grew up, Plaza Records still holds a special place in my heart. It combines everything I love about the Carbondale music scene: that certain kind of quirkiness that only presents itself in a place such as this, a unique collection of records and other music memorabilia that was one of the first to expose itself to me, and the familiarity of seeing a face at the counter after digging through records upon records. Ultimately coming up with not only what you were looking for, but many from the dollar bin as well. A month or so earlier, I had the idea to interview a musician from my hometown circle.

**Plaza Records, Carbondale, Illinois / August 2020 / OuttaSight Photos**

Although he grew up in the neighboring community of Carterville, Nathan Gill was a name that I knew well not only from mutual friends, but from the underground music scene of Carbondale, Illinois that I had grown up loving so dearly. The store was closed until the weekend but being an employee there had its perks and Nathan arrived shortly before me to open up shop. Pictures came first. We walked around the record store and I snapped an equal amount of candids and posed shots on my film camera (which didn’t end up turning out by the way, so I had to make another trip back home a month later to get the final shots). The interview was held in the back office and the faint sound of probably the most eclectic music I’ve ever heard played in the background. Nathan’s musical background ranges everywhere from the blues, even playing with Buddy Guy when he was just 11 years old, to the 60’s psychedelia scene that was Captain Beefheart, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine, and so much more.

What was your first experience with music? And what made you want to be in a band?

The movie School of Rock. That’s my honest answer. It really- I don’t know, I just really like Jack Black. And my uncle bought me a guitar when I was a child and I started taking guitar lessons when I was 6. And I just never stopped. And I like being in bands because I don’t have enough self-confidence to do the solo act.

When were you in your first band?

I was in my first band…well I had a lot of bands that I made up in my head as a child. My first band was called The Egyptian Journals when I was in the second grade. And no one who was in it wanted to be in it and we never practiced or played. But I was always very adamant about- at least always pretending like I was in a band, but my first real band was just like a cover band. I don’t even remember what it’s called but we would just play at block parties and stuff. And I did the cover band thing for a long time and I grew tired of covering songs and since then it’s been important to me to try to put out original content.

One of your earlier bands, Mr. Swamp Fox, when did that start?

I was in the eighth grade. So it had to have been…2012.

**Nathan Gill & me! / Plaza Records, Carbondale, Illinois / August 2020 / OuttaSight Photos**

What was that like?

It was cool. I’m fortunate for it ‘cause I think it definitely helped, you know with just learning how to perform and playing- with it being a cover band, all these different styles of music that I’m now able to play. But it’s also nice, ya know, it was great. But I’m glad to be doing other things as well.

How did those past experiences shape that musician that you are today?

I don’t know…it was just my entrance into playing shows and performing live so I just think I learned a lot about stage presence and you know, since it was a cover band with all different styles of music I learned a lot about arranging and chord structures in songs and scales and just sort of like the organization of music. And being the one learning the songs and teaching them to other people, it was really helpful ‘cause then I think it helped me form a musical dialogue with other people and it’s just something you keep getting better at.

Who would you say are your biggest influences?

That’s a tough one, there’s a lot. Originally, what got me interested in guitar was blues music and people like Howlin’ Wolf, Blind Willie McTell. But lately, and with projects I’m working on now, Bowie’s a huge one. And people like Scott Walker. But also like with my original music it’s not always musicians that I find inspiring, it’s really like a lot of film makers too all in the world of art. And authors who kind of help me establish a mood. People like David Lynch or reading books by Carl Jung. But as far as music goes, I don’t know. It’s a lot. I like a lot of things. I would say “Heroes”. It would be like David Bowie, Danny Brown, Andre 3000, Yoko Ono, Erika Badhu, Ornette Coleman. Yeah.

How did your journey begin with Hans Predator?

I’ve known Evan Neuman since I was 15 years old because of Plaza Records. That was kind of my entrance into Carbondale and yeah, he just asked me to be in the band one day. I suppose he’s been grooming me for years.

**Nathan Gill & Evan Neuman / Plaza Records, Carbondale, Illinois / August 2020 / OuttaSight Photos**

And you play lead guitar?

I guess. We both- I don’t know, it’s hard to tell. We both do leads. Yeah, I guess so.

What’s the origin story of Planet Witch? How did you think of that and when did it start?

Well, it started…I was in a band called The Characters and it ended. And ya know, the lead singer departed so it was me and then the drummer Max Martini and the keyboard player, Dalton Rothchild. The idea was kind of to counter that band that we had been in previously. ‘Cause we love playing music together and that band kind of imploded in a weird awkward way. That band was very slow and sentimental and we wanted to make just like harsh, dance-y, fast music. Just ‘cause. It just came about very naturally. But the idea is to just be a brash, sort of cold…thing.

What are you wanting to get out of both projects?

Um…a good time.

A good time, okay.

(laughs) I enjoy…I don’t know. I don’t know how to do anything else.

Have you ever thought about moving from Southern Illinois to pursue a music career?

Yes.

Where would you go?

Well, I was supposed to move to Portland this month. And then COVID happened. So, I’m not. I still have intentions to move there. I already know a handful of musicians out there, I think it would be cool.

Yeah, Nashville too would probably be really cool for your bands and everything.

I like Nashville a lot. Hans Predator has played there a few times. Yeah, I played at Soft Junk and Far Out Fest.

Okay, I know what that is. Cool. What is your favorite era of music and why?

I don’t know if I really have a favorite era. I just like a lot of music. ‘Cause I think all of the eras need each other ‘cause it’s linear, but if I had to- currently, what I’ve been listening to the most is, it’s called the “Canterbury scene”. It’s from the late 60’s, early 70’s and it’s like progressive rock bands and this guy, Robert Wyatt and Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett was sort of an acquaintance of that scene. But overall, it’s hard for me to choose because I just have an appreciation for a lot of different kinds of music.

That was beautifully put. When do you feel most creative and what inspires you?

I get inspired by…I don’t know, just kind of dark shit. I really enjoy chaotic music and I think when I’m in situations like that that’s kind of how my brain works when everything’s like jumbled and fast. And so when I’m in sort of a kinetic environment, it kind of gets my brain going. So it kind of happens at random and if I don’t do something about it I’ll lose it really quick. So I have a bunch of crazy person notes everywhere. And usually…¾’s of them are terrible in hindsight.

If you could’ve written any song throughout history what would it have been?

…I don’t know. Oh! I know. “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”.

That’s a good one. What was the first concert you went to?

I can’t remember. My uncle took me to a lot of concerts, he put on charity shows and I think the first concert I went to was the guitar player…I forgot his name. The guitarist from UFO. Which, I don’t know if you know who UFO is-

I’ve heard of them…maybe.

Yeah, it’s like a weird 70’s hard rock band, who I’m not particularly fond of, they’re good at what they do. But I was just like, it was awesome. But the first big concert I went to, it was the same uncle, he took me to see Styx and Boston at some amphitheater outside of St. Louis.

What’s the best concert you’ve been to?

My favorite…I saw Deerhunter in Nashville and I really admire Bradford Cox and I really like his stage presence and I like his onstage banter and I don’t know. He’s just like- the way he performs is really inspiring.

Where was that at?

Cannery?

Yeah, okay. That’s a really good venue.

Yeah.

How many instruments do you play?

I play a lot of instruments but I only am good at the guitar (laughs).

Is that your favorite then?

Yeah, totally. I was immediately very taken with it as a child. And I never really stopped.

Are there any others that you’d wanna learn that you haven’t?

I would like to get better at piano and the drums. I can fake both of those decently but it’s thinly veiled.

Who is your favorite Beatle?

John Lennon.

Why?

‘Cause he’s kind of an asshole. I can’t deny that I like that. And I think he just had a really good sense of humor and I like how dark he could be. Especially like, “Happiness Is a Warm Gun”. That’s some really sinister shit.

How would you describe the Southern Illinois music scene?

Uh…interesting. No. I take that back. Unique. No. I don’t know. I don’t think about it a lot. I just kind of am a part of it. It’s a hard thing to define ‘cause it’s eclectic in a sense but then there’s a lot of small pockets, like there’s the Americana people and the basement kids…yeah.

Who are some musicians from Southern Illinois that people should check out?

Well, there’s a bunch. There’s a bunch of people I love and admire like Diamond Soul, The Flowers of Evil- they’re one of my favorites, ever. There’s a band, not all of the guys live here anymore but one of the first local bands that I really liked. I’d say the first two are the Flowers of Evil and Secondary Modern, were big inspirations. But yeah, Cave Futures, The Jewels, those are my friend Kevin Ohlau’s bands that are great. I don’t know, there’s a bunch. Buzzard. That’s a really great band. Moon Buds. I don’t know if that’s a band anymore. There’s too many to name. I’m anxious I’ll forget someone and one of my friends will get mad at me.

Okay, so this next one. I was high when I was watching your performance and I was like “Oh my god, I have to write this down” because I thought it sounded good when I was writing it but…so, I said that Hans Predator reminds me of discovering a cool 60’s or 70’s band for the first time, you know what I mean? And then that Planet Witch was kind of like Jack White and King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard. Do you listen to them at all?

No.

Really?

Yeah.

Oh my god, okay. They’re super good. And if Jim Morrison were a co-writer. So that, all kind of jumbled up, is what it reminded me of.

(Laughs)

So where can people go to listen to both bands?

You cannot listen to Planet Witch. You just can’t. But you can soon. We’re gonna put out an album. It’ll be online and we’re gonna put it on Spotify and stuff. And Hans Predator’s on Spotify. But there’s also tapes here. Ya know. I don’t know. And then Toy Cowboy is about to get the last album pressed and there will be a picture of Dylan on the cover.

Aw, that’s awesome.

Yeah! The Internet.

Yeah, I knew Hans Predator was on Spotify but didn’t know about the other one. Are you currently working on new music or about to release any?

Yes! The Toy Cowboy album is gonna come out. Yeah, actually. The Planet Witch album is about to come out. Hans is about to come out with an album. I’m in another band with a guy from St. Louis called Berb. We want to start recording soon. And I’m gonna start recording an EP of, I guess it’s technically a solo project, with just some wack ass songs that I wrote.

Is it just gonna be self-titled, like under your name?

I don’t know yet. Probably not. I might make up a fake name.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received? Musically or otherwise that you wanna pass along.

The best advice I’ve ever received…was my friend Chris Wittman told me “don’t get lost in the rock”. And he’s in The Flowers of Evil. And he works here. And our birthdays are two days apart.

Nice. Do you wanna end on that?

Yeah.

Thank you so much to Nathan for taking the time to share! I’m so looking forward to that Planet Witch album and all of the other music that will be made.

Interview written & conducted by Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 8/31/20 The Barricade Babes 8/31/20

The Secondhand Sound Remains the Same

What do you get when you mix a band whose influences are the likes of Jimmy Page and The Cure? A fresh new sound with a whole lot of guitar riff. That’s exactly what Secondhand Sound has managed to bring to the table.

August 31, 2020

**Secondhand Sound / July 2020 / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

A few weeks ago I sat down with one half of Secondhand Sound and was able to dive into their influences with them. Sawyer, on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Collin “Plank” on drums, both come with unique upbringings into the world of music.

Half of the band growing up near Baltimore has definitely left some major impact. The other half hailing from California brings in the perfect amount of that surf rock ‘n’ roll vibe that is so treasured.

Their songwriting is honest and pure- straight to the point with lyrics like, “You’ve got your problems, line them in a row, I’ve got mine but I don’t really show” (“Cam’s Song”).

With their latest single, “Heart Heavy”, a powerful rock ballad that brings together the best elements of the band, they lay out their message for the masses. Heavy guitar riffs surrounding intertwining vocals, there’s no denying the heart put into this song.

How did Secondhand Sound come together?

Sawyer: Me and (Collin) Plank met in high school. At that point I did not know that he knew how to play drums and I did not sing yet, ever, so. I just wanted to be like Jimmy Page growing up, so I decided I was gonna get a high school band together and I was gonna be the lead guitarist. Then I figured, I’m just gonna ask anybody else who knows how to play an instrument to play in our band. And Plank saw a video of me playing a John Mayer song on my Instagram and he was like “Dude, do you like John Mayer?” And I was like, “I do like John Mayer”, and he was like, “Me too”.

Plank: Yeah (laughs).

S: And then, he came over- actually, we had sat next to each other at lunch for like a month and just didn’t talk to each other at all, we just had mutual friends. And then I invited him to my house and I was like, “Alright, you play rhythm guitar and then we’re gonna start a band and it’s gonna be sick”. And then, long story short nobody else wanted to play with us in the whole school. And we were just like sitting in his dad’s jam room, ‘cause his dad is a drummer, and there’s all this equipment set up with a mic, the drum set, and my guitar was in there ‘cause we were trying to figure out what we were gonna do and I was just like, “Let’s just try some Black Keys shit” and then we…did it. Like for the first month and a half I just screamed into the mic because- (laughs) – Plank was like, “Yeah, that’s sick. Do that” (both laugh). And I had tried to sing a little more normal and then he’d be like, “No. Scream. That’s sick.” The first like two months of the band was just us as a two-piece in his dad’s basement, screaming. GarageBand. Demos.

P: Putting demos on SoundCloud.

S: Um, and then, we- high school ended and stuff, and we worked together at a golf course and then we’d go practice after the job. And then we decided- I was like, I had this hunch in the back of my head that I was gonna find the band I was supposed to be in in Nashville. This super romanticized thing. And I was like, “I’m gonna go to Nashville”, but I had to deal with my parents, I had to try school first, so I was like “Are there schools in Nashville?”. So I found Belmont and I told Plank I was gonna apply to Belmont, then I got into Belmont and then Plank didn’t get into Belmont but then he went to MTSU.

P: Yeah, like it was a plan B, super last minute, didn’t even tour the school or anything, just showed up (laughs).

S: Then I moved into Belmont and Cam and Teag, the guitar player and bass player, they’ve grown up together. I think Teagan was in the room when Cameron was born, like they’re family friends.

Oh wow.

S: So, they’re basically siblings. And they lived across the hall from me. And first day, I walked into my suitemate’s room and they were playing MarioKart with my suitemate. And I was like, “What’s up?” and then like the casual Nashville conversation, “You play any instruments?” and they’re like, “Bass” “Guitar” and I was like-

P: “That’s perfect”.

Where are you guys from?

Both: Maryland.

P: So yeah, we met in Maryland and then moved down here.

S: Then we asked them to help us play a show, uh, at Two Boots.

P: But then we had to drive back to Maryland to get my drums (both laugh).

S: So we had never played together until we had drove back to Maryland with Cam and Teagan. And initiated them through the jam room in his dad’s house. And then, yeah, we played that first show…Cameron actually played the whole thing out of tune it was so bad. But afterwards we walked in the room and asked them to join the band. We’ve been goin’ since then.

When did you first start playing music?

P: So, my dad is a drummer and he had like, in my basement a drum set set up and a bunch of musical equipment. And in my living room we just had like, a drum set set up instead of furniture, so when my parents would go to work I would play drums without them knowing. And sit and like watch my driveway to make sure they didn’t come in, ‘cause I was afraid to play the drums. So I was like playing on and off and then I really wanted to play the guitar because I was big into John Mayer, I was like, “That’s awesome”. Then I met Sawyer and we were playing, but he was a lot better than I was. And he already had written songs and stuff so he showed them to me and I was like, “Well, I have a drum set in my basement”. Um, so I guess pretty much in high school, so like junior/senior year I started playing the drums. So that’s been like three or four years, I would say.

**Secondhand Sound / Plank / July 2020 / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

S: I grew up- my dad and my older cousins kinda- I grew up with them showing me, my dad was a big 80’s thrash metal fan, so I grew up with Metallica and Iron Maiden and stuff. And then my cousins would download stuff on my iPod Nano with stuff like The Strokes and Paramore when they were starting. And like Phoenix, um, just all those bands that were like The Killers, Kings of Leon, and I just kinda really wanted to start playing music with them. And then in sixth grade I saw Song Remains the Same, the Led Zeppelin movie. Jimmy Page was so badass. And I was like, “That’s what I wanna do”. So, I was in a history class and my teacher was really into music and would always play the guitar for us and stuff and I stood up, I announced to the class I was like, “First song I’m gonna learn is ‘Stairway to Heaven’”, and they’re like, “You can’t do that”. And then I grinded for three months and performed “Stairway to Heaven” for ‘em. That was…what started it. So I was 11.

**Secondhand Sound / Sawyer / July 2020 / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

How long have you guys been in Nashville? I guess you kind of answered that before…

P: Two years.

S: Yeah since…2018.

What shows have you been to that have inspired you as a musician?

P: John Mayer a couple times. Pretty much every one of ‘em, yeah.

S: Every single one of them. The first show I ever went to was Rush in 2010.

Are you serious? That was your first show? Oh my god.

S: Yeah (laughs). I was on my dad’s shoulders and Neil Peart started his drum solo. And the dude next to us smoking a cigarette looked up at me and was like, “Son, this is what your dad brought you here for”. And I was like, “Yeah, this is sick”. I love every show I go to basically. I think the last one, we were talking about this the other day, like the last show you genuinely connected to. That wasn’t like you’re just going to a show, like you’re listening to the music and then you go- like how it was for the Arctic Monkeys when we saw them.

P: Yeah, that was a big one.

S: But I think the last time I was blown away was Faye Webster, I saw her last summer.

Oh, yeah. She’s really good.

S: So freaking good. Yeah.

Okay, who would you say gave you Secondhand Sound? Like who inspires you, who are your main inspirations?

P: I mean I would say The Black Keys, The White Stripes.

S: Yeah, that’s what kinda started it. The four of us, we all have like completely different tastes in music. Some places overlap like bands that we all agree on are like Cage the Elephant, Arctic Monkeys, um…

P: The Strokes.

S: The Strokes. Kings of Leon. But then there’s no way Cameron would ever listen to Jane’s Addiction and that’s like one of my favorite bands. And then Plank will listen to like The Cure, Teagan will listen to Bad Suns, it’s just a super eclectic mix. So those are kinda the bands that get us goin’.

Do you guys like Inhaler? Have you heard of them?

Both: We love Inhaler.

Yeah, you sound a little bit like them.

S: Dude, I have a story about Teagan and Inhaler.

P: (laughs)

S: So, I found them probably in January. And Teagan, I had played them in the car and I was like, “Don’t they sound like U2?” and Teagan was like, “Yeaaah”.

Yeah, yep.

S: And then Teagan read into them and he was like, “They’re our age”. And then he was like, “Why aren’t we on the same level as them?” And everyday we’d go to class all day and then we’d drive and we’d go to practice and he’d get in the car and he’d be like, “Inhaler! Like- we’ve gotta match all their shit, like what are they doing that we’re not doing?” And I’m like, “Teagan, you can’t just compare us to other bands like that, it’s just not gonna work”. And then like two months later we found out that it was Bono’s son. It just made sense.

P: It’s so wild.

Yeah, that blew my mind.

S: It’s like the coach’s son. Like, in a band. In the band world I guess.

P: Inhaler is very good.

S: They are sick. Their new Mazzy Star cover is so good.

I haven’t heard it yet!

S: It’s sick.

P: It is sick.

For the first record, will it be all new material or are you planning on including any previous songs?

P: I’d say new material.

S: It’s all new material.

Can you dish anything out about it? Do you have any details?

P: It’s very early on in the process (laughs).

S: I’ve been writing. I’m probably twenty songs into it. Teagan probably has a couple songs. Cameron has a couple songs.

P: Yeah.

S: We’re just kinda- I don’t think we’re gonna start it until like December, like recording. So we’re just kinda stockpiling songs and we’ll pick from the best.

P: The issue is we’re across the country right now with half our band.

S: They live in California right now. So-

P: It’s kinda tough to record and write and be a band when half your band is across the country.

S: But they’re coming back in like a month or two. Um, yeah. But all of the- I’ve got a pretty strong idea about what the concept behind it is and everything. So, looking good.

Do you have any idea of when you would want to release it? Or is it just kind of up in the air?

S: Well, we’d probably release it- I kinda want it to be a summer album. So we’d probably do it next summer. But before that we’re probably gonna release a bunch of singles.

P: It’d be cool to release it in 2021, like right before summer and then tour off that.

S: Yeah, if we can tour.

P: But, if that’s even a possibility…we don’t know what the future holds for…anything. I guess, I don’t know (laughs).

The post the band made about the four new singles was really funny, the “unsigned, undiscovered” thing, that was really cool. What has it been like creating music during quarantine with everything going on?

P: I guess those were almost finished before quarantine.

S: We recorded those in…February, we did those. So, yeah. Those were-

P: We’d just been slowly finishing like small details before we released them.

S: Like literally the week before we’re like making it and then we just release it.

P: But it is cool to have those singles to kind of buy us some time while we can’t record or play shows or anything like that. So it’s been nice to have those.

S: Yeah. I think the only song we recorded in quarantine was we did like an acoustic version of “Kayla Klein” with our friend Alex Paige when we were in California a couple weeks ago.

What has it been like writing the new material for the album then? Have you pulled obviously from like what’s going on?

S: Um…that’s a good question. I’ve kinda refrained from really mentioning- like I don’t wanna hear a song that has the word “coronavirus” in it, ya know?

Well, yeah. I mean just like depressed songs or are they more kind of upbeat?

S: Yeah. The conversation that I’ve had with Teagan, the most about it, is I want- like I’ve been writing songs that are kind of in the could be categorized in the “coming of age” I guess. And Teagan was like, “Dude, it doesn’t matter if you sit down and say you’re gonna write a coming of age song”, he’s like, “You’re 20. Like, it’s just gonna turn out to be like that”. So I guess everything that I’ve been writing kind of, I don’t know. I just try to be as honest as I can about my situation in the present. And then hope that somebody connects to it. So that’s kinda the lines that I’ve been riding on.

Are the lyrics typically a group effort or do you all bring something separate to the table?

S: Usually the best way we work is somebody just brings a full song to the jam room and then we arrange it and stuff.

P: Just go from there. Pick it apart. Add to it.

S: Then that’s when everybody puts their fingerprint on it. For the most part, I don’t like playing songs that can’t be played on acoustic guitar so I kinda just- we just go into our own corners and write our song. And then bring it to the band and then we arrange the music around it.

P: It’s kinda tough to start from nothing with four people trying to-

S: Like four dudes in a room trying to come up with lyrics is not a pretty sight (laughs).

P: The song just doesn’t go anywhere (laughs).

Is your goal to ultimately be signed or would you rather go the independent route?

S: We would like to be signed. Just so we can have means to create things, ya know?

P: A little funding.

S: A little bit of money isn’t gonna hurt anybody.

P: Yeah. It’d be cool to be signed.

S: (laughs) Yeah.

P: Put us on some cool shows, some cool bills. Let us tour the world. Travel. Get outside of Nashville.

S: Sign us!

Are there any specific aspects about the band that you’ve re-evaluated during this time, that you’re trying to work on?

S: We’re always kinda evaluating. I mean, we’re always talking about how we can be better and stuff. We kinda take this pretty seriously, so, it’s like our livelihood at this point. So we’re trying to, I don’t know. We’re always trying to be better band mates to each other and friends so a lot of it is along those lines.

Which venue would mean the most to play for you guys?

P: Ah, I have like so many. Like I have so many dream venues.

S: I mean there’s like the- I think for me, the Ryman would mean a lot.

P: The Ryman would be cool.

S: Then there’s places like The Baltimore SoundStage that I would like. Like we could play that now but like, I would shit my pants if we played there. ‘Cause I’ve seen so many bands I look up to there.

P: I think like a major milestone landmark venue would be like headlining a festival in the UK, like Glastonbury.

S: I think that’s always been- I talked about this with Cam, I was like, “What is like the farthest you would ever wanna go in music?” When I was a kid, I would listen to music in the back of my mom’s Honda Odyssey and I’d always picture playing in front of a sea of people. I think my life would be complete.

P: I think it’s more special when you’re not from there, like to headline something like Glastonbury. ‘Cause when you look at all the headliners they’re like English bands. Like last year it was the Foo Fighters and they’re from here. So we’ve gotta get on their level to headline something like that.

S: (laughs) It’s gonna take awhile.

P: I think it makes it more special ‘cause you’re not from there but you also have that big of an audience, that is so cool. But also like I don’t know, Red Rocks (laughs). Or like Madison Square Garden. Hollywood Bowl.

S: Yeah, basically like all of the big ones. The Forum.

P: The Forum. Yeah, there’s so many big ones.

S: I love playing the small places. I like the stage we’re at. Just gotta enjoy it while you got it.

Where was your last show?

S: The High Watt. It was our first ever headline show in Nashville.

P: That was in February.

S: It was like a big step for us. We didn’t think anybody was gonna come. And they kinda packed it.

P: It was packed, yeah.

S: It was a really fun show. And we had some of our favorite local artists open. Do you know Joelton Mayfield?

I don’t think so.

S: He’s really good. And we had Annie Dirusso. She’s sick too. That was a really fun show. And then the world exploded.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

P: Oh, man.

S: There’s a video somewhere of me, Cam, and Teagan doing “Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked”. At like Lonnie’s or something. It was when we first got here. Screw Lonnie’s. But that was like the only time we’ve done karaoke.

P: I mean, the first thing that came to mind was “Edge of Desire” by John Mayer (laughs).

S: Oh, yeah. “Edge of Desire” is a big one in our friend group.

P: Yeah.

I honestly haven’t listened to John Mayer that much but I know that he’s such a staple for bands your age to look up to.

P: I mean, he’s…

He’s so good, but-

S: He’s like the guy that you wanted to be when you were 10. Just like, guitar wizard.

P: Just like a rockstar.

His stuff with the Dead is so cool. I would have loved to see that when they were at the Ryman. But I didn’t go. Sawyer, how does your artwork coincide with the music? Like with the singles, do they inspire each other?

S: They’re kind of separated. Before we do something I kind of think of like, “Okay, what does this feel like?” or “What do we want it to feel like to people?” Like the visuals are kind of a big deal to us ‘cause there’s so many songs that we skip because we don’t like the cover or we don’t like the art direction behind it. So like with the “Burnout” EP we wanted to- ‘cause the first one, we were like “alright, this EP was just us getting our shit together”. And like figuring each other out. And then the second one, “Burnout”, was like “Alright, we kind of are in the position where we need to like get people’s attention”. So we wanted to be like loud, fast, kinda in your face for like listening to with the windows down in your car. The phrase “windows down in your car” kinda jogged my mind to “Okay, cars are cool, I guess”. And then, there was this kid who drove around Belmont, Colton, who has like this sick ass ‘69 Chevelle and it had “SS” on the side. And like, I remembered that car because I had always seen it going around and I always thought “SS” would be sick to like, take a picture of that for the band. So he was in a class with me and I just asked him if we could use his car and we did a photoshoot of his car and stuff. And that was like the cover. I kinda- I listen to what the lyrics are, what the feeling of the songs are and then I kinda brainstorm like, “What would this look like visually?” And then that’s- we just follow those guidelines. Like, the summer singles we wanted color and like, different colors. And we just wanted to show the four members of the band on the covers. Just like, we didn’t want it to mean too much, like these are completely different songs and they’re not really related in any way.

P: They don’t group together really.

S: We just thought colors with that I guess.

When did you start painting?

S: Um, when I was about six. Like you know when you’re in elementary school and if you’re kinda good at something that becomes your thing? I’d be drawing monster trucks and kids would be like, “You’re an artist, Sawyer, can you draw me a monster truck?” and I’d be like, “Yeah, that’s me”. Then I’d draw like Star Wars pictures and shit. So that’s always been like what I wanted to do.

**Secondhand Sound / Sawyer & some of his artwork / July 2020 / Nashville, TN / @outtasightphotos_**

Well my next question is about what other career paths you would have chosen, would that be yours?

S: My major at school was graphic design. But I just don’t wanna be in an office with people who tell me what to draw all day. That’s just me though. So, yeah. I mean, that’s still something I wanna pursue but for myself, not really like a toothpaste company.

P: Man, before the band I was playing hockey and I was doing everything I could to be in the NHL (laughs) but, I’m not that big and everyone in high school just got a lot bigger and taller than I was so I stopped that and started the band. So that’s out of the question, being in the NHL. Man, I don’t know. I’d do something cool, something with cars or I’d probably still stick with music, I don’t even know. Like manage a band. Go in an office.

Yeah, that’s kinda what I wanna do, I guess. A&R.

P: A&R would be cool.

Or like work for Rolling Stone.

S: That’s sick.

P: Yeah, music publishing. Something like that.

What is the best part about being in a band in Music City?

P: There’s so many cool venues you get to play. Like Nashville has so many.

S: I think the scene is really important here now. I’ve said this to so many people, like just the phrase “I’m reading a book” just sounds so not me but I am reading a book and it’s about um, it’s called “Meet Me in the Bathroom” and it’s about the scene in the early 2000s in New York. With like The Killers, LCD Soundsystem, The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and it’s like a series of interviews. And it just kind of paints a picture of the scene and when I read that I just can’t help but think about Nashville right now too. There’s just so many good bands. And it’s not- like the big thing is community, like there’s an artist- what’s his name? Anyway, -at Belmont. Like his thing is “community, not competition”. And that kind of is a picture of what Nashville is to me.

P: Everyone’s on the same team.

S: Everybody is here for each other. And support each other. Rather than, in other cities I’ve just heard about how toxic it is and against- and then you hear like the 80’s in LA, every band was out to kill each other. That’s just not how it is. I don’t think it’s how it should be. I mean, that could breed some sick bands like Van Halen and stuff but, I mean-

P: It definitely makes it easier when like everyone comes to your shows, you can go to everybody else’s shows…

S: And when it comes down to writing and stuff and I’m unsure of myself-

P: You can ask people for advice.

S: Like I’ll send Briston (Maroney) ten songs and then he’ll tell me to just calm down, just stuff like that I think is really important. Um, yeah. Nashville.

Yeah, definitely being able to share with other musicians is a big part of it. Well, that was my last question.

S: Cool. Are you-? I don’t know, sometimes people are like “and that was Secondhand Sound!”

Okay, and that was Secondhand Sound!

With a drive like this, Secondhand Sound is a band that’s bound to stick around for a while.

“Gotta break apart to be set free…” (“Heart Heavy”)

Thank you to Sawyer & Plank of Secondhand Sound for talking with The Barricade Babes! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them.

Interview written & conducted by: Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 5/20/20 The Barricade Babes 5/20/20

The Past Life of Sierra Ferrell

Sierra Ferrell is a free spirit with a captivating voice whom thousands have come to adore. In this interview, we talk about avocados, all things Nashville, and the life of a songwriter in quarantine.

May 20, 2020

Sierra Ferrell
November 24th, 2019
Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes/OuttaSight Photos

So many artists strive to be what Sierra Ferrell simply, is. Nothing about her is inauthentic. Every note is filled with passion that is unparalleled to any other out there today.

Growing up in West Virginia, Ferrell dug deep into her roots and planted something beautiful. After re-locating to Nashville in around 2014, she admits it hasn’t always felt like home, but that she’s feeling better about Music City now.

Paired with a gorgeous retro-style voice, her lyrics will take listeners back in time to a place much more simple than those we’re living in.

The first time I heard her sing we were at a wedding reception held in the heart of Nashville somewhere that supposedly Bob Dylan had written a few hits in. I was at a loss for words. I had never witnessed such a raw, naturally beautiful voice in that kind of setting. It was a really special night and I can’t wait to see her up on stage someday. (Hopefully sooner rather than later).

She was kind enough to give me a CD copy of her record, Pretty Magic Spell, with an adorable drawing of an avocado by hers truly on the cover. More on that later. I’ve listened to it many times driving into the city but feeling like I’m a part of the countryside.

Her album, Washington By The Sea, released last year, conjures up stories that remind me of fantasies I’ve only dreamed of. With lyrics like, “So it’s another day I’m beside the oceanside, finding all the treasures in the tides. Oh, please let me call you mine.” It’s a journey between memories of love and self-discovery that you’ll want to listen to over and over again.

Acting as co-producer for both of these records, Ferrell cares deeply about all aspects that it takes to make a record, like a true artist should.

She’ll always leave you guessing and never fails to surprise and delight her audiences. Her style is timeless mixed with a graceless sense of modernism, complete with prom dresses and a unique face tattoo that make her even more of a rockstar.

What’s your favorite thing about music?

My favorite thing about music is making people feel emotions of any sort. Sometimes after I finish a gig, someone will approach me and say, “Thank you! You gave me goosebumps!” or “You made me cry!”. That’s when I know my magic is working.

Who/what inspired you to become a musician?

I always saw, you know, growing up listening to artists, seeing like pop stars and stuff, because that was more of the mainstream stuff that we’re all exposed to as kids. And I never thought I would be something like that, because I just don’t- I don’t have that sort of in me, just the way they do it, but I always loved music and I wanted to do music my whole life. And uh, it was a long process but then finally, at 32, I’ve kind of somehow made a career out of it even though sadly, this pandemic’s happening so it’s kind of put a damper on everything, but- and like every other musician really, ‘cause musicians make their living off of touring. And it’s just not a thing right now.

Do you remember the first time you ever got up on a stage and performed?

I guess whenever I was a little girl, because my mother loved hearing me sing. She would encourage me to sing a lot, but then it got to the point where she wanted me to stop because I just wanted to sing all the time. [laughs]

What’s it been like touring with Nate Leath and also playing festivals like The Avett Brothers at The Beach?

Touring with Nate Leath is amazing. He is my music partner for life and I wanna play music with him until I’m not on this earth anymore and I’m pretty sure he feels the same way. And playing with The Avett Brothers at the Dominican Republic was actually really kind of the last hurrah because of everything that’s happening. It was an amazing experience and I got to meet so many wonderful musicians and people who will stay with me forever. I got to see Emmylou Harris play live and meet her, she’s wonderful and sweet. I mean, I literally heard her sing one sentence and I was just like, waterworks, ya know?

How long have you been playing with Nate? Did you know him previously or did you guys just kind of meet up-?

We met in Nashville, Tennessee whenever I was fronting The Cowpokes for awhile because Kevin Martin moved away for a bit and then he ended up moving back to town and he got back in because, you know, he’s been in it since like the beginning of it. And I was doing Western Wednesdays at The Cobra with Brendan Malone and like Andy Gibson, and then Johnny Bargo would play drums a lot of the time. It would normally just be four of us there and he came to dance and he loved my music. He came on really strong though, ‘cause he’s just a really intense person, so he’s just a gentle giant ya know? And we just hit it off as friends and it took us about…I think about a year before we actually got to start playing music together regularly because he was playing gigs a lot. I wasn’t really gigging as much because I just hadn’t built my team yet to help support me and my career. It really is about making a team to be a musician anymore because you know, you need to have your manager, your bookers, your- you don’t necessarily need a record label, unless you’re the type of person who can do it all, but I’m definitely not.

What year was that when you guys met?

I would say…probably 2018.

Have you had any crazy experiences or anything you remember from touring, just in general?

Well, if you don’t have a driver or anything you have to do all the driving. And that’s pretty insane. Like, thinking about being a musician is also pretty insane because you literally travel so much to a place and you always show up early and you have to do soundcheck, which is usually like, hours before you play. And then you do soundcheck and you’re just waiting around for hours. Usually by the time you’re there everything is closed in the city, it’s like the evening time, it’s after five. Then, you figure out something to do and then you play for like 45 minutes to an hour and you’re done. And then you have to wait until the whole show is over because there’s usually another band if you’re opening and you have to wait until the very end. Or, you know, you go sell your merch and it’s just pretty crazy. You just pack up and go somewhere to sleep that night that might even be hours away or not even have a hotel room at this point if you don’t have the bookers yet. And you’re just starting it all over again the next day, you’ve gotta drive a long distance and then go to the venue, load in, soundcheck, wait around for hours [laughs], I don’t know.

Do you have a dream venue or location that you would love to play someday that you haven’t yet?

Um, probably more beaches. [laughs] It was pretty amazing playing the Dominican Republic and probably scarred me for life in the sense that I want to play at all the beaches!

What made you decide to sign to such a legendary label like Rounder Records?

Honestly, to be completely 100% honest, I didn’t even really know who Rounder was. Because, you know, I’m guilty for it but now that I’m getting older I do more research and, I mean, whenever I met Gary Paczosa, he started coming to a lot of my gigs all the time with my own music and he had always been on my team and rooted for me. It was probably about a good year that he was coming to my shows and then he finally was like, “We’re gonna sign you to Rounder”. And then it was probably even more like another six months later that actually happened because there’s a whole process. I had to get a lawyer, I had to have him look at the papers, then sign them. Now I’m looking at the roster and you know, like Gary Paczosa did Dolly Parton’s stuff, he did Alison Krauss’ stuff. I mean, just to name a couple of the ladies, I’m sure he’s done lots more, but those are the ones that I can just pick off the top of my head. And there’s so many records that you can just go, especially with bluegrass and country, where you look at the back and you see where it says “Rounder Records” on it. Or cassette tapes and stuff. I’m pretty happy to be a part of the team.

It seems like a perfect fit too, just from what I know about them. How would you describe your style of music to someone who’s never listened to you before?

Umm, past life. [laughs]

Oh, that’s cool. I like that a lot. I can see that.

But it’s kind of all over the place, you know?

What was the first concert you went to and did you take anything away from that experience?

Okay [laughs]. This is gonna be hilarious. I was probably a teenager and the very first concert I ever went to was a Kenny Chesney concert.

Really?

Is that not hilarious? [laughs]

It’s pretty cool though.

Honestly, I was like, “Kenny Chesney is awesome”. And I think Rascal Flatts played that night and a few other- I don’t know, it’s just like, I really appreciated it and I knew a lot of the songs, which was cool.

Do you have any other shows that you’ve been to that have influenced you?

Oh, absolutely. I wanna say, some of the ones recently at the Dominican Republic was Shakey Graves-

Ooh, yeah.

Blew my mind.

That would be a cool show.

And of course The Avett Brothers are amazing. I love The Avett Brothers. Um, The Wood Brothers. Phenomenal. I love them. Mandolin Orange.

I like them a lot.

Those are the ones recently and then I luckily got to see John Prine play at The Troubadour in January. Which I’m so thankful I finally got to see him. It was for a Willie Nelson tribute party. And I met his son, I think his name is Lukas. Yeah, which was really cool because he came up to me ‘cause he heard me after soundcheck and he was very sweet and complemented me. I didn’t really know who he was, I was like “Oh, thank you!”. And then he walked away and I heard him playing later and I was just like, [mind blown gesture] “Why didn’t I talk to him more?!” [laughs]

Yeah. Well, I’m sure you’ll run into him sometime!

Yeah. Well, if it wasn’t for all of this stuff I would’ve been hanging out at the farm. I had the date set. Willie Nelson’s farm.

Ohh, yeah. Oh man. Do you know Ida Mae? Have you heard of them?

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah!

I kinda know them a little bit. They opened for a band that I followed on tour over the summer. So I just kept seeing them and they live in Nashville now, so I’ve run into them a couple times. And they were supposed to play. But that is so cool.

Yeah, that’s the cool thing about Nashville man, you’re always running into someone who’s talented, amazing, has something to bring to the table. And then sometimes you don’t even realize it until later and you realize that you just met that person.

Yeah, exactly. Where does the inspiration for your music usually come from? Do you have any specific writing rituals?

Well, sometimes it takes a minute to get started. Uh, I’ll just start with a hook or something. Maybe singing a hook or maybe a hook on the guitar that I just kind of- because I’ve been writing, I have actually have like four new songs I’ve been working on since all the madness. And I’m actually pretty happy with them and they keep growing and that’s the thing about when I write a song sometimes. Although there have been songs where I sat down and said, “I’m gonna write a song” and then it happened within a day, or maybe like, less than a week. But I feel like some of my favorite songs have been ones that have taken time to build, ‘cause I’ll even sometimes write a song and then I’ll write another song and then I combine them. It just really depends and I feel like it depends on my inspiration at the time. Who I’m listening to or just what- recently I’ve been listening to a lot more country things and these past new songs that I’ve been doing, a couple of them are pretty country but I’m also doing more of like a jazzy type one as well. And I’ve been co-writing a little bit more and that’s exciting and new to me and I really enjoy it.

That was actually my next question, that’s awesome. Can you reveal who you’ve co-written with recently, or-?

Yeah! There’s this really awesome jazzy song that I hadn’t recorded or anything that I’ve recorded with Parker Millsap and he’s really cool, I like him a lot. And he’s got great songs, we’ve toured together and that was a lot of fun. And then also, some of my favorite new country songs that I’ve written are with Oliver Craven.

Is he from Nashville?

He lives in Nashville and I think he was in a band called TheStraybirds. But they broke up.

What was the reason behind the name of your record Pretty Magic Spell and how did you come up with the awesome cover that you drew?

Uh, honestly, a lot of those songs are from my early 20’s, and I think I recorded it maybe mid-20’s. And I’m 32 now. When I drew the cover of that album, I didn’t know what an avocado was until my early 20’s. Okay?

Wait, I think I remember you telling me that!

I didn’t know what an avocado was until my early 20’s and I was eating avocados religiously then, I was like “What are these delicious green things? Why wasn’t I ever told about these??” And I have these experiences where when I experience something that I really love I just cry. I remember just eating an avocado and there’s a tear just like, rolling down my face and I’m like “What?!” It’s almost like a past life experience, like I must’ve eaten a lot of avocados in my past life or something. ‘Cause I was just like, “Yes, finally! Again!” And then, I sat down and honestly, um, I was street performing all the time and I needed to sell my CDs. So, I needed a cover to put on so the CDs wouldn’t get scratched up. So I drew that and I went to like, a Kinko’s and I printed out all these sheets and I would fold them and then I would put my CDs inside of them and sell them on the streets.

Oh, wow. That’s super cool! How important is it for you to be in control of the whole process that goes into creating a record with being on a label instead being on your own? Is there a big difference that you’ve noticed or are you really still in control of everything?

Um, I feel like if you’re not the producer you’re not as much in control. ‘Cause like a lot of producers will have ideas and, I mean you’re still pretty much in control because they’re your songs, but uh, a lot of times, you know, people have a vision and they have you in that vision, so they want to follow through with that vision and sometimes you might wanna use like, different people to record or someone else but they’re like, “No, I’m with the record label and this is what’s happening”, or whatever. And, someone like me, who’s kind of a brat and wants to be in control, it took me a minute to warm up to it. But then whenever we went and recorded, I was really happy about the outcome. So I guess it just depends on what your mental intake is on what you expect and what your vision is in general, on like what you want.

Yeah, it’s nice too when a label has your back in a way, more so than trying to like, “oversee” ya know?

Oh yeah.

I’m absolutely in awe with how powerful a musician you are as well as vocalist. They seem like they’re both up there. What instruments do you play and which are your favorite?

Aww. Well, um, I am a vocalist and I play guitar. I used to play washtub bass in a ragtime band called Ladies On The Rag.

Wow.

In New Orleans. It was an all girl ragtime band.

That’s awesome!

And then, I played washboard a bunch and I used to play, and I’d sit in with this band called the Pretty Shady Stringband. And that was in Seattle whenever I busked a lot. It was like a four-piece band and we did four-part harmonies in a lot of really old songs. And some original stuff too, it was really a lot of fun. And I played saw on some stuff, and I’ve even played saw on some of my records. I’m probably gonna play saw on my new record too. My favorite thing is probably to sing because you don’t really need an instrument to sing, you can just do it. Although instruments are nice, but you know, if it’s an apocalypse and you don’t have a guitar or an instrument, I can always sing.

In your opinion, what is the best way to listen to a record? What’s your favorite way?

My favorite way? I love vinyl. ‘Cause I love touching it. And I just got a record player finally.

What kind is it?

I got it at Grimey’s, I don’t know what kind it is but it’s all white. I’ll find a picture and send it to you. It was a little pricey, but from where I’ve actually had money for once in my lifetime, I was like, “I’m just gonna break down and finally get a record player ‘cause I’ve always wanted one!” And now I’m one of those people.

It’s definitely worth it. I have a Victrola and a Crosley, so they’re kinda different.

Ooh!

Who are some other Nashville-based musicians that you’re a fan of and think deserve more recognition?

Ohh, TimBo (@timbo_lo)! TimBo is my favorite. He’s a singer-songwriter. He’s born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee. He’s never been out of the state, really. Well, I think he’s been out of state, but he’s never really been on a plane.

And he’s a musician? That’s wild.

Well, he’s stuck in the city vortex where you go out and play those gigs for like four hours and you have a regular gig a week at all these venues, ya know? So he’s kinda just stuck in the Nashville downtown vortex. But he deserves more. Not that there’s anything wrong with down there but like, he deserves more recognition.

Where did you meet him at?

I met him actually at the American Legion, I had just played a gig with The Cowpokes. I was fronting them and he came and he was there with Becca Raye Cope. So, I met him there and then I didn’t hear him play for like another week or so and then I just loved his voice. I can send you a few of his links of some stuff he’s finally released.

Okay, yeah, that would be awesome! I’m always looking for new people to discover, too, just ya know, in general because Nashville is like, there’s so much happening. And sometimes it’s right under your nose and you don’t see it. How has living in Nashville shaped who you are as a musician?

It got me more used to being on stages because for the longest time I was street performing and busking. And you know, I wasn’t a band before, it was like, I don’t really talk about it much because those were different times. I was actually in this band and they were a Grateful Dead cover band. And I just played like, tambourine and sang. And I didn’t play an instrument or anything.

That is so cool, oh my gosh. I would tell everyone that.

You should look it up, we have stuff on SoundCloud. It’s called 600lbs of Sin.

Okay! I’m gonna listen.

It’s ridiculous.

When was that?

That was like right when I turned 18. No, I’m lying. Right when I turned 21 because I started going to the bars.

Oh okay.

And then I met the guy who was leading that band and then he was like, “Do you wanna be in this band?” and it was really the best band that was in town. At least in my opinion. Because there’s really not that much going on in Charlestown, West Virginia, ya know?

How was that, growing up there? Was there like a big music scene, or?

Uhh, there was, I mean there’s always the downtown little stretch and that’s just where, ya know, people gravitated to hang out. Just to get out of the house and go somewhere and drink and be by the river, ‘cause the river’s right there. I guess it depends on what you’re looking for. And I’m really glad that I ended up leaving that town and I had a lot of baggage there. And every time I go back I kind of like, get really bummed out and down a little bit because just how things folded out in my life. But I’m really glad things did happen they way they did because I wouldn’t be where I am now. And uh, yeah.

What made you decide to move to Nashville specifically?

Well, I didn’t really- I was coming and going from Nashville for about six years now and I never really saw myself ever living in Nashville. I just like didn’t- I was a little more wild then, and Nashville was too weird and tame for me. And everyone was kinda caught up in like, uh, just the honky tonk thing. Which is fine, I love honky tonk music, but like I’m kind of a lot of things and I feel like a lot of places, especially like country people, they’re really judgmental with anyone who wants to be slightly different and so I just felt like I didn’t fit in. I just kept coming and going, you know, and then I slowly started building up friends and started feeling more accepted. And people started remembering my name and actually be like “Oh hey, it’s good to see you again!” ya know? Then they finally heard me sing, ya know, ‘cause I started playing with The Cowpokes and then it was all downhill from there, ‘cause then they were like, “Oh, she’s a good honky tonk singer, so we love her more now”. [laughs] And then, ya know, like I’ve been watching East Nashville build up because it used to be so different just then. Even just like six years ago. It was so much more different. They’re just building it up and there’re more and more things that are coming and it’s amazing. I think it’s special.

It’s really progressive, I feel like it’s the “new LA” almost.

Yeah.

In a weird way, not so much. But there’s definitely like, a big city feel. And everyone’s nice, so that’s good.

Yeah, LA people are a little more different. [laughs]

It’s so crazy how many people wanna move to Nashville now. Just like how everyone would be like “I wanna go to Hollywood” or something. It’s just crazy.

The traffic there is insane.

LA or Nashville?

In LA.

Yeah. I’ve only been like twice and it was so stressful.

It’s so stressful. It’s like that all times of the day. There’re no sweet spots. ‘Cause everyone’s thinking, like, “Oh yeah, I should go at this time because it will be better” and then in reality it just turns into this whole cluster-fuck of people going. And it’s so funny to think about, are they part of the solution or part of the problem? ‘Cause everyone’s just out there living their own lives and you just wonder, what are they doing?

Did you ever live there?

I’ve never lived there but I have friends there and I’ve went and stayed for like a month. I’ve had gigs there and I have the option to go there soon but I just don’t really see myself getting on a plane or anything at the moment.

Okay, last question. Where do you see yourself in the next couple of years as an artist?

Well, hopefully they have a vaccine! For COVID. And I can get back on the road.

I have been watching your live videos and everything though, and so many people are so happy that you’re doing all of that. I mean, obviously but it’s super cool seeing, you know, like people commenting.

I’m definitely out of my element when I’m on the Internet recording ‘cause I literally didn’t have an Instagram until 2016. And if you look at my posts, I literally posted nothing for like a whole year. There was maybe ten posts. And then, I came to Nashville and my friend Becca showed me how to start doing stories. Which was only, just like a few years ago. Then I just started doing stories constantly because it’s fun. I just started posting more about music and it’s just kind of led me to where I am now. I feel like definitely having an Internet presence is really important, even though I fought it for many, many, many years. By just living on the streets and doing that sort of thing. I don’t know why, maybe past life? [laughs] I don’t know.

It’s definitely weird-ish. I can see where a musician would kind of struggle with that. But I think it’s pretty cool how everyone’s coming together. Well, thank you so much! I really appreciate it.

Yeah! This has been a lot fun!

Sierra Ferrell
November 23rd, 2019
Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes

Thank you so much to Sierra for answering these questions for us in these crazy times!

Interview written & conducted by: Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 4/21/20 The Barricade Babes 4/21/20

The Briston Maroney Experience

Are you experienced? Well, Briston Maroney is. With his career taking off at full speed, the Tennessee native opens up about past ventures, bugs crawling into his mouth (once), and new music.

April 21, 2020

Are you experienced? Well, Briston Maroney is. With his career taking off at full speed, the Tennessee native opens up about past ventures, bugs crawling into his mouth (once), and new music.

As I’m writing this, I’m also attempting to simultaneously read an interview by Rolling Stone on Jim Morrison to get some inspiration. I’ve found that Briston reminds me of a lot of eclectic things, including this rockstar legend. For starters, their stage presences’ both hold something captivating. A feeling that you’re here, witnessing an incredible event unfold.

Briston Maroney
November 23rd, 2019
Exit/In, Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes

Rocking back and forth on his heels, Briston typically dances with his guitar onstage, and allows the audience to see a part of him that makes his music the magic that it is. Whether he’s singing one of his originals or a soulful cover of “Ohio” by CSN, the audience never takes their eyes off the stage. There’s no denying that Morrison and Maroney resemble each other, but their creative powers, such as putting poetry on paper, fight the same demons as well.

He’s a deeply impressive singer-songwriter and to make it even better, the way he plays his white and black Fender telecaster makes listeners feel like they’re on top of the world. The music leaves you feeling inspired; longing for more answers but satisfied with those you’re left with. Coming from Knoxville, Tennessee he’s bound to have all of the roots and spirit from the mountains surrounding him.

At only 22, he’s managed to make Top 30 on American Idol, become signed to Atlantic Records, and now he’s even playing Bonnaroo. And with 3 EP’s under his belt, his fans are anticipating his first full-length album, especially after he teases the making of new tunes on his Instagram live every so often (@bristonmaroney).

Briston Maroney
January 25th, 2020
The Basement East, Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes/OuttaSight Photos

From what I’ve learned after moving to Nashville, there’s a lot of truth and a sense of freedom that comes from a musician, you just have to determine for yourself which ones are real, and Briston definitely has the realness everyone is searching for.

Lyrically, the songs make you feel like he’s letting you in on his most personal secrets. Anyone can hear in his voice that they’re his words and he’s ready for the world to listen. I distinctly remember the first time one of the lyrics really struck me, “got a ticket back to Nashville on a plane, but I think that I would rather drive” (“St. Augustine”). Maybe it was because I had just moved to Nashville, but nonetheless in that moment I felt instantly connected to the song that I was listening to.

So you just got off tour, how was it?

It was really fun. It was my favorite experience we’ve had touring by far.

Any really memorable moments from it?

I think the back half of the tour, like coming back from Europe and touring with Covey, and just like hitting a lot of cities that we had never been to before, but I don’t know. There wasn’t one specific moment maybe, but just being really pleasantly surprised by how many people were there every day. That whole collective experience was just crazy.

Do you have a favorite part about live performances?

I don’t think there’s one particular moment. I mean, I love the moment of walking out and like, immediately knowing what kind of night it’s gonna be. Just like, seeing the people that are there, it’s just so different every night. It’s such a rush to be walking into a room, and sometimes people just need more energy or it’s a quieter crowd- that moment of seeing the cards being put up in front of you, you’re like, “okay, this is what we have to work with”.

Your band is really talented, how did you guys all meet?

They will appreciate that, Noah very much. Jack and I met at another show that he was playing bass at and I had asked him if he ever wanted to play music together, I had ended up joining that band with him and then we got kicked out of that band. And then, we kept playing together and met Noah through school basically. Uh, just in our circle. And then he and Johnny play in a band, Future Crib, together.

Was there a particular moment when you knew that you wanted to be an artist or have you always known?

Well, I definitely wasn’t like, never looked in the mirror, a Freddie Mercury moment where I was like, “this is my destiny”, I just liked making decisions that took me away from a pretty normal routine, just every time I trusted my gut it put me into different situations; like being creative is what I was supposed to do.

Who were/are your biggest influences and how have they shaped your own work?

Great question. I think my grandfather as a person, is still my biggest influence in life in general. He’s just a total badass. Yeah, just doing whatever he wanted to do all the time, and that’s really like, the simplest and most inspiring thing. Someone who didn’t really give a fuck, but care about people and tried to make life really fun.

Your guitar has a really beautiful tone to it and perfectly matches your lyrics if that makes sense, how did you find your sound and what does the songwriting process look like for you?

Aw, thank you. Dude, I can take zero credit for any of the sound, and stuff like, basically I just plugged up a guitar to whatever my dad has bought from Guitar Center when I was 12 and hoped it sounded okay. The boys have helped me a ton with finding those tones and stuff like that. Um, I don’t know. I’ve always tried to match a lot of guitar playing to the lyrics and stuff, to actually playing along with the vocal melody. They definitely go hand-in-hand, so they’re very influenced by each other.

You’re very much a visual artist as well, which is obvious to anyone who’s watched your music videos, each one is really unique and seems well thought out. How do you usually go about coming up with those ideas?

I just hang out with Joey, the director, and let him get really stoned and tell me what to do. Thanks for watching, that’s sick.

Dead or alive: Dream musicians that you would love to work with?

What are yours?

Mine? Well, since I can only pretty much play the basic chords on guitar…I don’t know, probably like Kurt Cobain.

Really? That’s cool.

He’s the love of my life.

Fair.

Lana. (Del Rey).

Lana? Damn.

Yeah, she’s amazing. Her lyrics are awe-inspiring.

She’s awesome.

And Gram Parsons, probably.

No fucking way. Damn. You went around the world on that one. That’s awesome, that’s sick. Great combo. Those are three really good ones. Yeah, I would probably say Kurt Cobain, too, that would be cool. Probably John Prine. Neil Young. He’s super fucking good.

What are three albums that changed your life or just your perspective on the music world?

Fuck. I should’ve brought my CD bag. No, I’m just kidding. I always say White album is really big for me. That was one of the first really important records for me. Sha-Sha by Ben Kweller. Do you know that record? I’ll send it to you, it’s so good. That record is huge for me, and probably Live at the Old Quarter, a Townes Van Zandt record. It’s like a twenty song record of him playing to like twenty people. Start to finish, him walking into the club and the person introducing him and just like everyone not really clapping at the end of songs and stuff and it’s a super historical thing happening and no one fucking cares, but it’s just so good. Like, it’s so good.

There’s a lot of talent within the Nashville scene right now, are there any bands or artists that you are especially fond of?

Future Crib, for sure. My friend’s band, Vanosdale. It’s my childhood best friend, so good. A band called Tummyache that’s really cool. I just know my friends’ music.

Who are your style icons?

Style icons? Like clothes wise? Wu-Tang Clan. I love late 90’s bands and early 2000’s. Shit, I don’t know. I used to wanna dress like a cowboy so I wore southern things. But super baggy clothes. Thrift stores. Yeah, I’m obsessed with the early Wu-Tang records, and the way they just show up in these giant ass hockey jerseys and stuff.

First band you fell in love with/favorite band now?

First band I fell in love with, umm, John Mayer. The John Mayor trio, haha. Uh, definitely not my favorite band though. No offense to anyone who likes John Mayer. Probably a good guy. Favorite band right now? Slaughter Beach, Dog. Do you know those guys? I’m gonna send you that record too. It’s really good.

Do you like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard? Have you heard of them? That reminded me, it’s a weird name.

That is a very strange name, yeah. Jack adores them. Like, he loves them so much. I haven’t gotten into it yet. But I think I will eventually.

Who/what inspires you the most in life?

People that are kind to me and take the time to talk to me are really inspiring to me. Just, my friends. Yeah. My friends.

If you could go back in time and see any show, what would it be?

Probably the Nirvana show where Kurt beats that guy up, have you seen that? I don’t remember where it was. Dude, my dad saw them at this show, and apparently this guy, there was, like, a female crowd surfing and some guy tried to touch her or something weird. And Kurt jumped into the crowd and kicked his ass. And I thought that was so fucking awesome. I thought it was so cool. So, yeah, I wish I could’ve seen that.

Any advice for new musicians trying to make it?

Just fucking do it. Don’t let anyone tell you what to do or how to do anything. As soon as you know what you wanna do, trust that. If it doesn’t work, try something else, and then don’t stop doing those things. You’re very organized, by the way.

Oh, thank you.

Like, stapled, three sheets of paper. That’s fucking thoughtful as hell. That’s awesome.

What should your fans expect from you in the new year?

My fans?

All of your fans, all of them, everywhere.

All my crazy fans! What’s up fans? We’re definitely trying to put out a lot of music, we’re working on the full-length record right now. We’re recording at the end of January, so hopefully record’s done by the summer, but I don’t know. I shouldn’t make any promises because this stuff always gets fucking ridiculous, but yeah. Hopefully new record, a bunch of new videos, Joey and I are trying to make a movie.

A movie? With your music, or-?

Um, maybe. I would do the music for that, but like, yeah. He’s gonna let me act in it too. We’ll see what happens.

That’s really cool. Where do you guys record at?

Different places. It’s been different studios for everything, but we’ll record in LA for this one. I don’t know where yet though.

And lastly, what kind of bug crawled into your mouth once? (Check his Instagram page, again, @bristonmaroney).

A fucking grasshopper! Haha, that’s an awesome question. Dude, I stayed with my friend, so I went to LA awhile back to start working on some stuff for the record and one of the days, the producer set me up with this guy to go out to Joshua Tree and go into the middle of the desert and just try to make music. It was cool, but, really fucking weird being in there with a bunch of bugs. And so we stayed in his girlfriend’s house that she hadn’t stayed in in a really long time, so there was like so many mice and bugs. So, I woke up in the middle of the night and felt something on my head and then I sat up and tried to shake it out of my hair and it jumped as I was hitting it, and it jumped in my mouth.

Oh, so, it jumped into your mouth once.

Yeah. Well, I mean, he crawled once he was like on there, but it was mostly a jump.

You just let him?

It happened so fast. It really did, it was out of my control. I was not happy about that.

Did you kill him?

I fuckin’ murdered that thing. I got up, there were like five other bugs in the room too, and I just went on a rampage.

They were watching?

Yeah, they saw it all happen. And then I just destroyed them all, at the same time. I took my shoe-

Oh my god, I was not expecting this.

-and yeah, it’s a crazy story. I’m super proud of it.

Okay, I’m glad I asked.

Yeah, thank you for asking.

This is only the beginning for Briston Maroney, whose lyrics and ambitions would make even the late John Prine proud. His talent without a doubt will take him far especially if he keeps picking up his guitar to tell us why he’s so frustrated.

“Sometimes the air is toxic. Sometimes your last option is your only option. The reasoning resides in the looked over luster. So command your senses and feel, feel, feel; for dreamworlds fall apart upon inspection.”- from the “Fool’s Gold” music video, (6:00).

Big thank you to Briston for being the best around and answering all of these questions for us.

Interview written & conducted by: Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES

The Barricade Babes 3/26/20 The Barricade Babes 3/26/20

IDA MAE, IDA MAE

We had the opportunity to ask one half of IDA MAE, the incredibly talented Stephanie Kid, about influences, life on the road, & just how far their dreams have taken them.

March 26, 2020

We had the opportunity to ask one half of IDA MAE, the incredibly talented Stephanie Kid, about influences, life on the road, & just how far their dreams have taken them.

IDA MAE
December 12, 2019
Mercy Lounge, Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes

IDA MAE. A band with a deep-rooted blues name, one who I’ve seen many, many times and have never once grown tired of.

Made up of husband & wife Chris Turpin and Stephanie Kid, their music takes listeners back in time while simultaneously opening up doors into the future for a new generation.

Having previously been a part of the rock band, “Kill It Kid” in the years between 2008-2015, Turpin & Kid are no strangers to what it takes to be part of a successful band and make real music at the same time.

Braver than most, they decided to abandon this initial project and branch out to what their hearts really desire: the blues. Being a fan of this powerful genre already, it wasn’t difficult for me to instantly fall in love. After hearing their songs for the first time in Detroit at the Fox Theatre in December of 2018 opening up for Greta Van Fleet, my heart was set.

What really struck me about this duo is how talented and extremely appreciative they are to their audience. Refreshing. One of my favorite parts of their set, although never exactly the same, is when Chris will refer to us as “real music fans.” They know it. We know it. And that’s what makes it all the more magical. Establishing that kind of connection with an audience from the start is something they’ll never forget. I know I haven’t.

Naturally, interviewing them to gain more insight into their world was something I knew I wanted to do as soon as I started this blog. Here is that interview:

BB’s: Ida Mae just had their first US headlining tour. How was it and did you learn anything new from the experience?

SK: We did indeed! We have been lucky enough to open up for quite a few bands across the US over the last year and we were keen to revisit as many of the cities as we could to play our own small shows and see if we had any of our own fans out there! We have only been touring here for a year so it was a little early for a headline run but we were so pleasantly surprised at the small but dedicated following we seem to be building over here.

BB’s: Who inspired you to start a career in music and who were your early influences?

SK: Chris and I were in a Rock N Roll band in the UK from the ages of nineteen and signed within a few months of being in that band! Weirdly I never really planned on beginning a touring career in music but now we’ve been touring for over ten years! I was studying classical music and doing jazz recitals, being obsessed with Dinah Washington and Ella Fitzgerald and Chris was playing open mic nights and listening to 1920s country blues!

IDA MAE
December 30, 2018
Fox Theatre, Detroit, MI
Credit: The Barricade Babes

BB’s: What were your first concerts you attended and do you remember it having an impact on you? Are there any other live shows that have impacted you?

SK: I remember seeing Joan Baez with my mother in my early teens and being mesmerised. I grew up going to a lot of classical recitals and local folky shows so didn’t actually see a real rock show until I was at university! I saw BRMC and thought it was the coolest shit I’d ever seen. You could barely see the band for smoke and lights and there was some insane mosh pit action at the front! Ohh, I was also lucky enough to see Etta James before she passed away. To see a legendary diva perform in the flesh like that was unforgettable.

IDA MAE
June 10, 2019
Eastside Music Supply, Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes

BB’s: How and when did you two meet?

SK: We met at college in Bath in the UK! We were in a few terrible bands together and then Chris started his own band and asked me to sing and play keys in it. Then we got signed and I quit school hahaha.

BB’s: Starting in 2008, you were in a band called Kill It Kid before separating yourselves to form Ida Mae. What was the influence behind that band and what was the influence to leave?

SK: That band initially started as Chris had been listening to tapes of Blind Willie McTell singing with his wife and wanted to start a band with a female and male lead vocal. We were named after a Blind Willie McTell song. Then the music gradually got heavier and more grunge and our last record was pretty much heavy rock. That is part of the reason we started IDA MAE. We had been pushed into this much heavier sound by the label and wanted to start a project that gave us more creative freedom to write and play as we initially always wanted to.

IDA MAE
May 10, 2019
Orlando Amphitheater, Orlando, FL
Credit: The Barricade Babes

BB’s: I know that you’ve said traveling and being on tour in the US has played a big role in influencing your recent music. What have been your favorite places to play and have the reactions from audiences been positive?

SK: We have been so lucky to play in about 42 states now so have really covered some ground over here! Every show and city has been special and memorable in its own way, especially as this is all brand new territory for us. Driving across this country is incredibly inspiring. We like to open up a little on stage as with only two of us up there, there isn’t a lot to hide behind! With a band you can switch off a little more from the audience but with us so much of the show depends on the crowd reaction as we can hear and feel everything so much more with just two voices and a guitar! So far no one has thrown anything at us so that must be good!

IDA MAE
June 4, 2019
Breese Stevens Field, Madison, WI
Credit: The Barricade Babes

BB’s: What are your favorite parts about live performances and how do you keep yourselves entertained on stage?

SK: It’s funny because no matter how tired you are as soon as you walk out on stage the adrenaline really kicks in. I don’t remember a lot of the intricacies of the shows we do, just more of feeling of how well it went or what the vibe was. We love the freedom of playing a duo as we can adapt what we do so quickly to suit the energy of the room. We are very intuitive together on stage and when a crowd is really enjoying the show you can really feel it.

BB’s: Moving to Nashville seems like the perfect fit for your overall sound and aesthetic. Has the community been welcoming and what’s it like being immersed in the Nashville music scene?

SK: It has been a fantastic move for us. Musicians are really respected here. People appreciate songwriting and creativity on a level we have never experienced before. It is also the only city I know that has such big industry but still has a small town feel. When you are on the road all the time it is so nice to come back to the slow Nashville pace but still have the people you work with round the corner! You just have to be prepared for everyone around you to be a better singer/guitar player/writer/musician than you! The talent here is unreal!

BB’s: Chris’ guitar playing style is obviously very deep-rooted in the blues but also has a unique, fresh way of emphasizing that. What kind of guitars does he usually play with and why did he choose those in particular?

SK: Chris plays National resonators for the main part. He also plays Gretsch guitars and has a Fender telecaster which he absolutely loves. As well as the early blues playing ( Bukkah White, Robert Johnson, Lightning Hopkins) he is also very influenced by players like Ry Cooder and Rory Gallagher.

IDA MAE
June 10, 2019
Grimey’s New & Preloved Music, Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes

BB’s: What I and many other of your fans love about your music is how real and beautiful the lyrics are and the different perspectives the songs are told from. What does the writing process look like for you?

SK: Thank you so much for saying that. It’s changed a little as we are on the road so much. Chris writes all the main bulk of the lyrics and I do a lot of proof reading and editing etc. The melodies and songs come quite naturally and we always try to be honest with what we are saying. Chris has a guitar in his hands all the time so we record a lot of melodies/ideas on the road and then bring all the pieces back and try to finish the process at home anytime we have some time off. We have enough of a recording set up at home so try to write and record tracks as much as we can in our down time.

BB’s: Steph, I’ve noticed that you play quite a few instruments including the keys and often use different forms of percussion in your live shows. What’s your favourite instrument to play in the studio and on stage?

SK: I love playing piano in the studio. It’s one of my favourite things. I have a digital on the road now but it just doesn’t compare to a beautiful acoustic piano.

IDA MAE
May 25, 2019
Forest Hills Stadium, Forest Hills, NY
Credit: The Barricade Babes

BB’s: If you could work with any musician, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

SK: I would like to have just heard Aretha Franklin sing in a room.

BB’s: You’ve recently posted that you’re currently working on a new album. What can your fans expect in 2020?

SK: We have just begun writing some new songs. We will be touring a lot in 2020 so you should be able to catch us on the road and then hopefully releasing new material later in the year.

IDA MAE
February 14, 2020
imogene + willie, Nashville, TN
Credit: The Barricade Babes

If you haven’t already, light a candle, turn on IDA MAE’s new record “Chasing Lights”, and be prepared to dance around like no one’s watching. Their music is bound to set you free and ignite your soul.

Huge thank you to IDA MAE and Stephanie Kid for taking the time to answer these questions for us.

Interview written & conducted by: Hannah Laney, THE BARRICADE BABES