Tag: Q&A

Categories
Festivals

Jason Reeves Talks SXSW

Definitely one of the most humble and down-to-earth musicians I’ve interviewed, Jason Reeves took some time out to chat with me when first arriving in Texas. His modesty is truly a testament to his character (sample quote: “I have a hard time coming up with things to say about myself. I’m just lucky that people want to ask because if they didn’t ask then I’d just be silent.”)

Perhaps most known for his co-writing efforts on Colbie Caillat’s debut album, Coco, Reeves’ latest release, The Magnificent Adventures of Heartache (and other frightening tales) is an impressive album, most notable for his strong, wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve lyrics. Read below for Jason’s take on South By Southwest and be sure to give him a listen on MySpace and if you’re at SXSW, check out his showcases listed below.

Is this your first time at South By Southwest?
This is my third time. I came three years ago and then the year after that and I skipped last year, but I was never playing my own music I was just watching for the most part.

So this is your first year playing?
Yeah.

What is it about SXSW that attracts you as a musician?
Just the circus-like insanity of it all. Everybody comes here. The point to come is to play for people that you wouldn’t normally get to play with. For some reason, the fact that you’re playing at Southwest makes them more interested in you than they were before.

What would you tell people going to the festival to catch your showcase?
I’m a horrible salesman; I’m never going to sell anybody on myself. I feel like if they want to come watch me play, then my music is the reason they should come see it. I’m not trying to trick them into anything. I’m not a rock star; I’m just a boy that plays songs. If they like my songs then they can come watch.

What do you feel sets you apart from the hundreds of other bands that are showcased here?
I don’t know. You have to ask that question as to what sets yourself apart from the millions and billions of other people in the world. It seems like if I had to answer that I couldn’t get around the fact that I would feel like I was being an asshole by trying to separate myself in terms of, “Well I’m better than all the other bands because I do this.” I hope there’s something different in the way that I write or in the way that I sing that sets me apart in someway. Not in a better or worse scale, but just in a different scale.

Do you go about preparing for a festival differently than your own tour?
No. Actually, we’re at the end of the last leg of our own tour so it just feels the same. It’s still driving around in our van and unloading our stuff at a building and playing music. It’s weird being able to stay in the same city for more than a night though, so that’s what’s different.

What are you looking forward to most at SXSW?
Well, I was looking forward to seeing a bunch of my friends play, but I don’t think that’s going to happen now because I have to do so much. What I’m looking forward to is jumping in the river and eating BBQ. Those are two reasons I really wanted to be here.

You have so many interviews and showcases lined up. Do you get to enjoy the festival as a musician?
I have no idea what this is going to be like because we just got here about 10 minutes ago. I assume it will be more like a whirlwind where I don’t even get to notice what’s going on most of the time. I don’t think that it’s different from being at SXSW in general because it’s just crazy here. I have yet to see, so we’ll find out tomorrow or the next day.

What’s your advice to festivalgoers?
Be prepared to stand in infinite lines. Have patience. Get drunk to deal with the lines and eat as much BBQ as you can before you leave. Also, jump in rivers to escape the heat.

Where are these rivers that you’re talking about?
You have to go out of town. It’s not very far; it’s sort of out on the edges of town. There are a few rivers. One in particular that’s sort of turquoise that just looks like a magical turquoise lagoon that I remember jumping in last time we were here, so I’ll have to try to find that.

Do you have a favorite song you like to play during your set?
I like “New Hampshire” and “Gasoline.” Those are my two favorites.

Do you ever hold back in songwriting because you don’t want to reveal too much?
Well, that’s the exact opposite of what I’m trying to do. I’m trying not to hold back. That’s the reason I write. I feel holding back would only muddy it down and that would leave it less pure. I think that’s what I’m choosing to do. Being a songwriter is letting people know what’s up, which is a very weird idea. It’s not what normal people do. Everybody is so guarded and secretive with their problems and emotions and joys, but I think that’s also what causes all the wars inside of them. That’s the reason I started writing in the first place — to put that all outside of me rather than let it rage within.

Have you always wanted to be a musician?
I wanted to be Michael Jackson when I was a little kid for as long as I could remember. It wasn’t until I was 17 that I realized that I wanted to do this. When I started playing guitar and writing music I understood that that’s what I needed to do for now. I plan on doing other things, but for now its pretty much all I can handle.

Jason Reeves SXSW Showcases:
Thursday at the Sheraton lobby (701 E 11th St) at 7 p.m.
Friday at Live.Create Lounge (503 Neches St) at 8 p.m.
Friday at The Victorian Room at The Driskill (504 Brazos St) at 10 p.m.

You can read this interview on MarieClaire.com here.

Categories
Q&A

Q&A with Bernard Baur

An active member in the music industry for over 20 years as a journalist, A&R; reporter, creative consultant and instructor, Bernard Baur has watched the growth and demise of many bands. Whether it was working with Guns N’ Roses or appearing in documentaries, he has seen enough to know what works for bands and what doesn’t.

Baur was nice enough to talk at great lengths to me about his love of music and how he has made a career out of it. “Music has always affected me in a very strong way. I just found a way to make money with what I’m passionate about.” Read below for my interview with Baur as he discusses the constantly changing industry, innovative ideas that have created success for some musicians as well as his advice for up-and-coming bands and those looking for a career in the music business.

You’re a man of many hats; you’re involved in A&R;, a writer, photographer, and consultant for bands as well as teach music business. How did you get involved in each position and how do you manage to balance everything?
The best way to really learn how to do something and be effective in it is to try to do and get involved with as many aspects as you can. So, I tried to get myself involved with as many areas in the music industry as possible and I’ve been fortunate enough to do that. Once you start in one area, if you manage to get a good and solid reputation in that you do get other opportunities. That’s one thing about the entertainment business in general and music in specific, is that once you are somewhat known other people want to work with you on different things and so you start going into different areas. And one thing I’ve always done in my career is I rarely say no when someone asks me to do something and that just led me to one thing after another.

You’ve been in the industry over 20 years. How do you feel it’s changed since when you started?
Years ago, it used to be that the only way an artist was going to be successful was to be signed to a deal on a label. They needed a label to market them, develop them and get them out there. Nowadays that’s not so anymore. In fact, the independent area of both independent artists, artist run labels and indie labels, have come on very strong and in the last few years that trend has really taken hold in the market place. So, being signed to a label is not necessarily required or even an advisable goal for some acts.

Secondly, the other thing involved and this one may not be as positive, is that it used to be simply about the music and musical skills. If you had great songs and really strong musicianship you could probably do very well. But that’s not enough anymore. If just having great songs and being a great player were enough, all we would hear would be great music and that’s not so. There are other factors that come into play. Nowadays artists and managers both have to be pretty business savvy in order to accomplish anything.

Is it necessary for bands to hire publicists? What can they do for themselves?
You should only hire a publicist when you have something to publicize. In fact, I advise artists to work backwards, to first figure out what it is they want to accomplish with that publicity. There is a first phase and that is just simply establishing name recognition. That’s getting your name out there as much as possible so when people hear the name they go, “Oh yeah, I’ve heard of that or I saw that somewhere.” But that doesn’t really result in much other than name recognition. Most of the time artists can do that themselves by asking for reviews. Reviews of albums, reviews of live shows. There are a lot of people you can approach in that regard.

If they’re looking to hire a publicist where they are actually going to spend money they need to know what they hope to achieve. Also, a lot of times starting out you may not know who you are as an artist or as a band, what your identity is, what your image is. By image I mean things that are much more than visual. Image encompasses everything you do, from your visual appearance to your music, to your message, to your package — it’s everything. It’s helpful if you have identified that and the publicist doesn’t have to do that for you. So before a band hires a publicist I think they should have developed themselves to a point where the publicist has something to work with and a goal to shoot for.

What do you look for in an up-and-coming band as an A&R; person?
Everybody in this industry has a wish list, some are longer than others. In fact, most people that I know who are in A&R; or in management, have a list that’s anywhere from three to six points long.

If you’re talking about major labels they want pretty much all of it. They want a complete package, they don’t want any weaknesses in any areas, they want an accomplished, already developed act because they don’t do much development. If you’re looking at indies, they will take an act a little bit earlier. But even at indies, not so much. They want acts that are somewhat developed, have accomplished at least a couple of things. At an indie, the biggest difference is that they’ll give the act more time to be successful. At a major you have very little time to be successful.

As far as me and acts I work with, it depends on a couple things. I will take on what a lot of people call baby bands just starting out if I think there is potential that they could achieve something. I’m not talking about giant success and making millions of dollars and being all over MTV, although that would be wonderful. As long as I think they can achieve something and I can help them do that, I will take them on. The acts I really like and get excited about are ones that I hear great songs, I know that I can tweak their live performance if it needs any help and they have the right attitude. Attitude with an artist is very important because artists can no longer rely on one person or couple people to do everything for them. In fact, artists should not expect anyone to make them, break them or shape them. They are going to have to contribute themselves to that result. It’s important that the artist have the right attitude, the right work ethic and also have the talent and the material to back them up.

I was reading your blog and on one of your posts you said:
“The most successful acts work on their careers EVERY SINGLE DAY. They’ll come home, after hours of menial labor, and spend 2 to 4 hours on their computer, contacting people, updating their websites, and generally taking care of business. No matter what… Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to do whatever it takes? If so, you’ll get a jump on 90% of the wannabes.”
For some artists that’s very difficult to do and some artists don’t like to get involved with that. But they certainly have to have somebody involved with it. Also, it is important that artists have communication and contact with their fans or potential fans. Fans don’t want to talk to me, they don’t want to talk to management, they want to talk to the artist. Artists have to take some time to do that and if they’re not willing to do that, they shouldn’t complain about what lack of results they’re get
ting. It is important that everyone
work together and they be a team. In fact, I just did an article speaking with people at labels, both indie and major, and across board they expect everyone to work like a team. They don’t want acts or management that expect them, at a label, to do it all for them anymore, it’s just too much.

The plus is that artists and independent acts have been empowered. They have a lot more tools available to them, a lot more options they can take in order to achieve success. The downside is that the empowerment requires responsibility. They’re actually going to have to do something. They’re going to have to exert time, effort and money into their career. One person can’t do it all anymore. If you were to try to upload your music to every music site on the Internet, you would be uploading music until the day you die. One person can’t do that and you have to decide what’s important for you. Who’s going to take care of MySpace and all the friends on there, who is going to deal with the email, who is going to promote the shows properly? There is so much to do now that it’s impossible for any one person or even a couple people to do it alone. I have coined a new term. Because there used to be a movement, called DIY, Do It Yourself. I now call it DIT – Do It Together because I don’t think one person can do it themselves anymore.

Do you feel it’s easier for bands to breakout today?
Today there are very few rules. In fact, we all know a lot of the old rules don’t apply anymore; they don’t get the results they used to. You can practically make up your own rules. I encourage my students at the Musicians Institute to be as creative and innovative as possible. It’s the people who are going to think of a new way to do things that are going to get attention.

I would really recommend any artist [to] be as creative in their promotions and marketing as they are with their music. Don’t just follow the same old template. If you can think of something unique and new and exciting, you might get the attention and actually break out. Some of the bands I’ve seen break out have had opportunities presented to them because they created those opportunities. They’ve done something unique and different that stands out enough and sets them apart from everything else.

Is there an act that has stood out to you over the years with their creativity?
Radiohead comes to mind immediately. Not because of their music, but their approach to what they did less than a year ago — offering an album to their fans and their fans could pay anything they wanted, including nothing. That’s one of those innovative creative things.

Trent Reznor and Lil Wayne especially, who offered tracks to their fans to remix on their own. Lil Wayne was particularly interesting in that he offered, over a process of one year, almost 77 songs online for free before he ever put out an album. When he finally put out an album, his fans rewarded him for that. They were so devoted and loyal by that time that he had the biggest and fastest selling album of last year. But before he had that biggest and fastest selling album, he had given fans 77 songs for free. That’s the sort of thing that impresses me. These are acts that are thinking outside of the box. When you treat your fans right they will respond and reward you for it.

What advice would you give to writers, label executives and people wanting to work in the music industry when everyone says the music industry is dead?
For anyone wanting to get into it, there are various ways you could do it. Before I get into that, I want to tell you about an interesting observation we discovered at the Musicians Institute.

The Musicians Institute is two different schools. One is a creative school that deals with musicianship and vocals and engineering and all of that stuff. The other one is the school that I am part of, and that is the music business program. We discovered that almost 30-40% of students that graduate from the creative part of the school then take the music business program. They have the skills, now they want to learn how to make a living with those skills. So you have to know business to a certain extent.

Anyone who wants to break in has to decide if they’re breaking in on the creative side or if they’re breaking in on the business side or if they want to know about both sides. The way you do that is you acquire some knowledge initially. However you’re going to do that — reading a book, going to school, whatever you need to do. Going to conferences, workshops. Then you start networking and meeting people and seeing if you can work under someone who may be more experienced. Get yourself a mentor if possible. Or, you could just jump in and try to be a manager and learn by trial and error. A lot of people start out that way, managing up-and-coming acts that are local and are brand new. What you have is to actually do it and get out there. Networking is so very important. This whole business is about relationships. You have to deal with other people, no one does it alone. It’s a very collaborative business, there are always other people involved in success so it’s important that you nurture and establish as many relationships as you can.

Is there any more advice you have?
I just wrote a large article about the music business today and where it’s going and if it’s turning the corner. I think there are a lot of opportunities right now. I think artists should certainly look at them seriously. I do believe that artists should set up their own labels. Once you have music and you are playing a show and you’re trying to promote yourself and sell something, you’re already doing what a label does. So, don’t be afraid to call yourself a label and give yourself a label name.

Additionally, it has a benefit because in this business perception means a lot. If somebody thinks you’re on a label, even if it’s just you on a label, they will treat you in a more professional manner. What artists have to get over is the fact that they may be the only act on the label; it’s still the real deal if they want to have a career. There is nothing wrong; I have no problems with artists who are just doing it for fun. I think for the love of the music is the purest reason to do it in the world. But we’re in LA, and in LA almost every artist wants some sort of a career, some sort of success.

I see a lot of acts and talk to a lot of artists and 99% of them have a very simple wish, which is to make a living with their music so they don’t have to have another sucky job. That, today is very possible. Artists need to look at that. The ones that want to be superstars and on MTV and an international success, yeah they’ll probably have to hook up with a bigger company because that’s very difficult to do on your own. But if what they’re simply looking for is to play their music, do something they love, and make a living doing it, today is the best time for doing that. They couldn’t have done that in the past, but today you can do that.

For more on Bernard Baur, be sure to check out The Composers Corner and Music Connection and read his articles. You can also follow his blog here.

Categories
Q&A

Stay Tuned: Interview with Bernard Baur

A few weeks ago I spoke with Bernard Baur, a journalist, A&R; reporter, creative consultant and instructor for the Music Business Program at the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, CA. Having worked in the music industry for over 25 years, Baur’s client list includes Guns N’ Roses, System of a Down, Butterfly Boucher, Matchbox Twenty, Rob Zombie, P Diddy, Lil Kim and many, many more.

Additionally, Baur was named one of the “Top Music Business Journalists” in the country by the National Association of Record Industry Professionals. Pretty impressive.

Bernard was nice enough to talk to me at great lengths about the constantly changing music industry as well as advice for up-and-coming bands and those looking for a career in the music business. Here’s just one of his answers:

Do you feel it’s easier for bands to breakout today?
If there was a blueprint or a simple map everyone could follow then everyone would be successful. Obviously there isn’t one because everyone isn’t successful. The beauty of it is that today there are very few rules. In fact, we all know a lot of the old rules don’t apply anymore; they don’t get results they used to. You can practically make up your own rules. I encourage my students at the Musicians Institute to be as creative and innovative as possible. It’s the people who are going to think of a new way to do things that are going to get attention.

I would really recommend any artist that they be as creative in their promotions and marketing as they are with their music. Don’t just follow same old template. If you can think of something unique and new and exciting you might get the attention and actually do break out. Some of the bands I’ve seen break out have had opportunities presented to them because they created those opportunities. They’ve done something unique and different that stands out enough and sets them apart from everything else. That’s another problem nowadays, there are so many other artists and you have to make yourself stand out somehow and the only way you can do that is to find what’s unique about you and think of some creative and imaginative way to let the public know you exist and hopefully once they know that and take a look at you, that you have goods to back it up.

For more of my in-depth interview with Bernard, be sure to check back next Tuesday!

Categories
Interviews

The Canon Logic

With the craziness of CMJ week back in October, I just realized I never posted my full Q&A; with the guys of the Canon Logic. Originally, I intertwined my show review and interview for my CMJ festival write-up, (which you can read here) but thought fans might want to read the interview in its entirety. Be sure to check TCL out on MySpace and if you like what you hear, catch their show this Friday at Southpaw in Brooklyn!

The Canon Logic are:
Mark Alu
Sean Enright
Josh Greenfield
Tim Kiely
Michael Mignano

To hear more about their upcoming album, live show and how they define their music (at one point, jokingly as “a mint-scented breath of fresh air”) read below.

Is this your first time at CMJ?
Tim: It’s our first time playing at CMJ, yeah.

I loved your set, how was it for your first CMJ performance?
Tim: It was unbelievable. The fans were great. We had a blast; we always have a blast onstage. We felt pretty tight.

Josh: I could only really see the first two rows of people. It wasn’t until the very end that I went up front and realized there was a pretty packed house, so that was cool. Our fans are great.

Mike: It’s pretty cool to know that we can get a good group of people out at 7 p.m. on a Tuesday night and they’re acting like its 11 p.m. on a Saturday; dancing, screaming, singing along. So, it was cool, it was a good feeling.

Is this what you expected CMJ to be?
Tim: I think it was everything we expected and more.

Josh: It was really a great show; a lot of people were there. It was really nice to have our fans come out and support us. It felt like an awesome Saturday night show at a bar.

Tim: It’s fun to be a part of the madness, it’s exciting

You just released another EP and you’re working on an album also, right?
Mark: We just released our EP. It’s a collection of unreleased material just to give people a little something until we’re finished.

Josh: It’s sort of showcasing some of our other stuff. We have a live sound going, but we have some other music that we write that probably won’t make the album, but we still want people to hear it.

What should fans expect from your full-length album out in 2009?
Tim: We’ve dwindled the list from a couple hundred songs down to hopefully 10 to 12 songs.

Mark: It’s the best of the best that we’ve got.

Josh: We’ve finished instrumentals on four tracks and the production is ridiculous.

Tim: It’s the best sound we’ve had.

Mike: Expect a refreshing kick in the face.

How do you feel you stand out at CMJ vs. all the other bands around?
Tim: I think something that we do, which is the toughest aspect of our music, is having five people singing while also being able to handle the rock attitude. I don’t see many bands do it. I don’t know if I’ve seen a band do it and pull it off well. We’re really confident in what we’ve got going and I think that’s what separates us. And we’ve got great songs.

Josh: You can also expect a little bit of everything; some dancing, some singing along. We have a lot of songs that our fans come to shows to see and they’ve been learning the lyrics; they’re really easy to sing along to so they really enjoy getting into the songs and dancing and also head banging and rocking out too.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
Mike: Our corny catch phrase is a mint-scented breath of fresh air. Realistically, I’d say it’s a gritty blend of harmony driven pop.

Josh: I think that it hits on anyone from your grandparents to your parents, to my sister who’s in high school, she really likes it. I think we have a wide range of fans. We like to try and bring everybody together. We’re trying to pull from so many different influences. We really like the classic rock stuff and we also like what’s going on now. I think we have a good balance of the two, which allows everyone to really get into the music. We enjoy that aspect of it.

What else do you want fans to know about you?
Tim: Our blog, thecanonlogic.com. If you want to be up-to-date about what’s going on with the album. We post pretty much everyday. We’re writing songs every day. There is so much music to show people, we want them to hear it. That’s why we released this EP.

Mike: Can we tell a funny story? We definitely want everyone to visit our blog, we post very regularly to our blog multiple times a day. A quick funny story about that blog is, this morning I was picking up my badge for CMJ. I took a picture of the CMJ thing and I immediately uploaded it to our blog and I titled the post, “CMJ Badge Pick-up.” Well, somehow throughout the day anybody that ended up Googling CMJ Badge Pick-up was directed immediately to our site over CMJ.com. So, our site trumped theirs.

How did you pick your set-list?
Tim: We wanted to start off quick and really give everybody a kick to the face while also trying to show our versatility. But really, we were just trying to rock people out for 45 minutes to an hour. We like everyone dancing.

Mike: We like to keep people moving.

How do you react on nights when the crowd isn’t moving or interested in your performance?
Tim: We’ve been together long enough where there’s no one standing there. We try not to let whatever the audience is doing affect us. We’re always trying to be the best we can be. The audience definitely motivates us, but if they’re not kicking it, we still will.

Mike: The bottom line is, whether or not there is one person in the room or 100, we’re still going to give everybody that came the best performance we can give. We don??
?t get bummed b
y low numbers if we ever have them. We just rock out.

Did you prepare for your CMJ showcase differently than other shows?
Tim: Not too much differently than our normal shows, other than the fact that we’re giving out a lot of free stuff. We’re giving out our EP and hopefully you’ll see people around Manhattan wearing The Canon Logic sunglasses. Otherwise, no. Same kind of thing, coming out and playing our best.

Josh: We have enough loyal fans that every show, even though not everyone can make it to every show, the amount of people we’re pulling from ends up giving us a pretty packed house. A lot of our shows are similar in the sense that people are there, really getting into the music and enjoying themselves. We try not to change it too much.

What is the writing process like between all of you?
Josh: We all like to write. Generally Tim will bring a song in or someone will bring a piece to him and we’ll just throw out ideas. It’s rare that we ever have a finished song that one person brings and does. Maybe we’ll have a bridge and a chorus or a verse and a bridge and then we’ll expand and we’ll try different things. Our songs are rarely ever complete. We’ve been playing this one song, “The Run” for three or four years. It’s probably one of our first songs and we’re still changing it and trying to make it better. Nothing is ever really finished. We’re always trying to change and stay ahead of the curve and keep things fresh.

You were on Warped Tour and MTV2 recently. So your music is definitely getting out there.
Sean: Both of those were great because we rarely get to touch upon the teenage demographic. Usually we’re playing at bars so we’re lucky if we can sneak some 18+ in on a good night. That’s a huge crowd playing 13 through 18. We really take advantage of those; we either have give-a-ways or practice extra hard. I think the MTV2 thing was the perfect example. We made a point to be on point and grab as many fans as we could when we had a chance because those opportunities are, at the current time, few and far between.

Do you feel like a band can survive being independent or are you looking for that record deal?
Sean: We don’t feel any immediate pressure for our careers to get a record deal. We know plenty of bands who have gotten low-level indie with major distribution who have just gotten screwed over and they’re on the shelf for three years. We know better than to make a stupid move, but we can sustain ourselves if we put out a really good CD just on MySpace and grassroots. We’re smart guys; we have plans all the time, different marketing schemes.

Josh: The Internet has really been a great tool. We all work and during the day, probably about a few hundred emails in a given day might go back and forth so we’re always in contact. Sure, we have our jobs, but this is what we want to do. We try to do as much as we can on the Internet. I think we’ve gotten a lot of younger fans from the Internet because they’re the ones that go on the Web sites, comment and check things out. That’s why we like to try and get a few all-age shows, 18+. Sullivan Hall is a great venue because it’s 18+, so a lot of the kids from NYU come, a lot of college kids. In the end, that’s the loyal, dedicated people that come out. Once you’re out of college it definitely gets harder to come to shows. The Internet’s been wonderful to us.

Be sure to give the Canon Logic’s MySpace a listen and check out their Web site as well. Watch a live performance of fan favorite, “Avenue of Criminals” from their performance during MTV2’s “Battle of the Bands” below.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAlz30OGPc0]

Categories
Interviews

Baby Jay

Last year Tammy, my friend and editor of Misquincemag.com, was launching a Web site that focused on teens and preparing for their quinceañera. She asked if I’d be willing to help out and interview a 16-year-old rapper who has been making a major impact in the rap world. Truly an inspiration to others, I couldn’t say no! Read below for my interview with Baby Jay.

Have you been to many quinces?
I’ve been to and performed at a few. Once I was the chambelán of honor for my cousin’s quinceañera. At first, I was nervous — all eyes are on you and the quinceañera. But once we started dancing, the nerves went away. It’s kind of the same feeling I get when I perform in front of large crowds.

Has anything funny every happened at a quinceañera you went to?
I think it’s funny and cute to look at pictures of the quinceañera that are shown on the projector, ’cause some of the photos are from when she was a baby and the guests laugh.

Is it true that you answer all your MySpace messages?
Yes, I do it every day. I gotta keep the fans. If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here. I love my fans.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?
I would describe it as positive. It’s good music but it’s not cheesy. We have different songs about non-violence, saying no to drugs, and anti-bullying. I just want to change rap by proving we can still be good rappers by keeping it real, and keeping it clean. People will see rap a whole different way.

In five years, where do you see yourself?
I do want to give back to the community a lot. I still want to rap positive. Five years down the road I still want to be the same way I am now. I know it’ll be different, I’ll be traveling. But I still want to be good with the fans.

You turned 15 only a year ago and your debut album will be released in stores later this year. It seems like all your dreams from 15 are coming true. What message do you want to send your fans about dreaming big?
I thought everything would go wrong with me. I just want to make a difference in this world, send a positive message. Show the kids, “look at me, my parents are divorced, I thought I’d be another teenager out there on the streets. I keep my mind straight, I’m not gonna quit.” Don’t give up on your dreams. You have time. When you’re down, you can’t let that keep you from your dreams.

For more on Baby Jay, be sure to check him out on MySpace. Feel free to read the original article here.

Categories
News

Third Eye Blind Interview Featured on Marie Claire!

Head over to MarieClaire.com to read part of my interview with Stephan Jenkins of Third Eye Blind! I’d love to know what you think. If you haven’t yet, be sure to read (or listen) to the full transcription with Stephan here. You can also hear “Non-Dairy Creamer,” one of the songs off their upcoming release Ursa Major here.

Categories
Interviews

Third Eye Blind

Releasing their first full-length album in over five years, Ursa Major (due out later this year) promises Third Eye Blind fans the music and undeniably unforgettable lyrics they are known for. Take already released track, “Non-Dairy Creamer” which begs the question, “Whose side are you on? Are you real or fake?” Listen to “Non-Dairy Creamer” here.

Jenkins took some time out to discuss at great length the ever changing music industry and ways the band is adapting, including Indaba Music’s interactive web program “Studio Access” where fans can create their own mixes of new 3eb tracks before the album is released. Read below for the exclusive interview including Jenkins’ take on the industry, his band (“Third Eye Blind was this band that was marketed and processed and packaged in a way that we didn’t really recognize”) as well as the upcoming release. You can listen to the MP3 of my interview with Stephan Jenkins here.

What have you been up to the past few years since you released Out of the Vein?
Well, I produced Vanessa Carlton’s album Harmonium. That was a real process. I’m so proud of that album; I think it’s a really beautiful album. That album is on the old record company model. I just don’t think it’s the right model for her at all because we’ve become so much smaller and closer a music community and we can’t tolerate as listeners that sort of layers of obfuscation that I think record companies bring. What I’ve done in the last two years was founded my own label, that’s called Assembly. It’s distributed through RED, which is a very tight, focused, dedicated group of music fans. So I’ve really changed my whole structure. Then I built a studio in this incredible Victorian mansion in San Francisco. It’s got these 30-foot glass ceilings. It was a house that was built for music at the turn of the century so it’s an amazing place.

Finally, the third thing is that we went out and played and toured this year and we had more people come to our shows this year than had ever come before. I think the same thing happened with Weezer where there was this real sort of rediscovery of the band. Third Eye Blind was this band that was marketed and processed and packaged in a way that we didn’t really recognize. After all that marketing wore off, what you have left is a playlist. And fans discovered that in the ways that they do, which was very personal for them and then they share it with each other. And that’s what has been happening and it’s been so great! It’s really this honest and direct exchange between our music and the people who engage it. So we toured and we’ve been writing this album and have been working on this album and I think it’s an album that is very much inspired by our fans.

It sounds like it. You’re partnering with Indaba Music for “Studio Access,” which basically allows fans to compete in mixing your songs.
Aren’t they great? They are so talented! They’re amazing. A lot of it is just like, “Darn, why didn’t I think of that?” I love to see our music go in and see someone else’s creativity and content. We want to use the technology that’s available to get closer to people, to actually make the community tighter and not have the sense of people being isolated and kept by themselves through technology and instead, find out what’s going on that’s specific to them. To find their people and their groups through coming together through music and each other and finding problems that they care about and ways that they can express themselves creatively through music. The creative expression part of that is definitely something that’s happening through Indaba. It really helps us as well because we are fueled by it. We wrote this album on the road in front of audiences, we tried songs out in front of them. I think the sound of this album has a big reverberant confident sound that comes from that feeling that we’ve had on the road. We always want to maintain that as part of the sound of making the record.

How much of a play are the fan’s remixes a part of the recording process?
Well, it hasn’t affected the recording process. But, one guy took these marching drums that Brad plays and he put them at the beginning of the song and I said, “You know what, that’s how we are going to opening our tour next year,” which would be super cool. So, that’s a way in which somebody else’s idea sparks an idea in us.

What can fans expect from this album?
Well, you probably got to hear one song, “Non-Dairy Creamer” and got some sense of it. I think “Non-Dairy Creamer,” the song itself – the arrangement keeps building and growing. We love the sense of unstoppable momentum for one. Two, I think that lyrically, I don’t know if we are an architect of emocore. But that’s what some of these magazines have said. I thought we were just fighting the Smashing Pumpkins, but I think that’s a sense of internal politics and really trying to speak to those was our contribution to emo. Me, I have no idea because I had never heard of the phrase until years after we made the record so I had nothing to do with it in trying to design something. Lyrically the difference is, on this record, instead of internal politics, this is more extroverted, it’s more external politics.

I think that’s very reflective of the times we’re in. I think that we’ve been stupefied and dumbfounded by a criminal and negligent administration over the last eight years. I think that the generation that really embraces the music is beginning to get its voice back and we’re beginning to say, “Wow, rebellion is American and we need to begin to speak up the way we know we should.” That’s been my sense in finding an outward voice. “Non-Dairy Creamer” is really just about being real versus being fake. There are all these phrases like, “Threat level orange.” What the fuck is that? All it is is asking you to be afraid. I think that being afraid is a particularly un-American concept that George Bush wants to ram down our throats. And so does John McCain and all his off-takes. “Oh be scared of Barack Obama because I have nothing to offer” crap. I think it is shameless and we are now able to call it for what it is. The song is saying, “Whose side are you on? Are you real or fake?”

Is “Non-Dairy Creamer” your first single?
Well, I think that’s a song we just put out first. But, the concept of a single is like, “Is it gonna get banged 40 times a week on MTV?” doesn’t really exist anymore. There’s really no such thing. I don’t even know what a single is, you know? Is it the track that we pay a marketing guy to go push on the radio? No, no it’s not. It’s just a song. They’re all singles.

You were huge in the 90s during the MTV era. How different is the music industry for you now? Do you think it would be easier if you started today?
I think it was very difficult in the 90s. It took a very long time and one of the reasons why was because music needed to be funneled. The outlets for music were so tightly controlled by a few people who had pretty much no interest in music or understanding or sensitivity to music. They were interested in one thing. They were interested in power and they were interested in competing with each other and egos. And they were interested in smashing that model into the ground, which in essence is what they did. They were these big, powerful dinosaurs that were hit by the comets of digital music. So now what’s happened is it’s become totally democratized. What I’m saying is, the jury is no longer rigged. I think that people with good music can go out and get it put out and it’s eligible to find audiences in ways that it wasn’t before. So I think in a lot of ways, it probably would have been easier for us to come out now. It’s really more exciting because we always have the answer for somebody else. In the end we’re still in some way working for the man, which I never wanted to do.

What is your writing process like? Is it any different on this album than previous albums since I know you said you wrote most of these songs while on the road?
What I do is I tend to write down ideas that occur to me. Then they often times take on some cohesion. The other thing I’ll do is I’ll have an idea and that idea will come in a rhythm. I’m a drummer by training so a lot of what I do is rhythmically based. That’s my primary mode of organizing some kind of emotion or provocation into a piece that makes that emotion travel. That’s the best I could put it.

I read that for this album you had more trouble thinking of lyrics than in the past.
Yeah. I still have trouble with some of the songs and the lyrics because I think that the reason for our shocking longevity is the lyrics. If I don’t feel the idea, the governing ghost of that concept inside the lyrics, it can really, really stump me. I have songs I’ve worked on for three years and I can’t get the lyrics right. Then another song like “Non-Dairy Creamer” just kind of comes together pretty fast.

Do you have any ways that you work on your writer’s block?
No. I just engage in a lot of self-hate and then I procrastinate. I do other things instead of working on music and put it off. That’s why we’re so slow at making records.

Do you have a tentative release date for Ursa Major?
Yeah. March. We’re going to put out “Non-Dairy Creamer” sometime in November digitally. So it will be a digitally release of that and a duet with Kimya Dawson. Kimya’s a friend of mine; she and I did a song on the last album. It will be a song called “Why Can’t You Be.” It’s a back and forth. One thing I love about her voice is its extremely distinctive and totally authentic and that’s a very rare combination plus she’s a really good lyricist. She’s very musical. One thing that’s great about Kimya is she’s got great pitch. I like our voices put together.

You’re also planning to release a follow up, Ursa Minor?
Ursa Minor, yeah. Ursa Major is the constellation of the bear. It’s good for us because we’ve been hibernating and now we’ve awakened and we are hungry for spring and we want to feed and we want to thrive.

Everyone on the boards seems to be curious about your old bassist, Arion. Is he playing on the next album and touring with you?
We love Arion and he’s just had a lot of personal struggles. So the band is not a working place for him right now, but he did play bass and actually co-wrote a song called “Red Star” with me and I love that song. I think he’s very talented, but we’ll be having other people play bass with us. But it’s not because we don’t love Arion, because we really do.

Be sure to check out Third Eye Blind’s latest EP release, Red Star and their latest tour dates on MySpace and watch out for their new Web site, coming soon at www.thirdeyeblind.com.

Categories
Interviews

Ace Enders

“Me and Sergio were in this band called the Early November back when dinosaurs roamed the earth,” Ace Enders told a packed crowd at New York’s Blender Theatre in November. “When I started, I said I wanted to make music that changed the world . . . eventually [the desire] only to make money drove our band to break up.”

Despite previous obstacles with the Early November, Enders’ hasn’t give up his hope to change the world just yet. His current band, Ace Enders and a Million Different People have been keeping busy. Whether it’s releasing albums as free downloads for fans or recording “Bittersweet Symphony” where all proceeds go to the Save the Music Foundation, Enders is fulfilling his dream one step at a time.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Enders while he was on tour with Hellogoodbye in the fall. Throughout 2008 he has toured continuously as well as recorded an album, which fans can download for free on fuze.tv. Enders talked to me about the pros and cons of being a musician, his upcoming album (due out early this year), and his advice to aspiring musicians. Before you decide to download a record from that next up-and-coming band illegally for free read the interview below for some insight on how bands can (or can’t) survive the craziness that is the music industry.

The last time I saw you was at Rutgers in 2006 just as your last album with the Early November was released. What have you been up to since then?
Doing a lot of recording. Lots of new stuff. This last year we’ve toured over eight months. Just trying to get a record out. Hopefully one of these days. It’s been non-stop really.

You just put out a record not too long ago.
Yeah, a free thing for everybody. I’m going to put another one out in December, for free for the holidays and I’m going to have another regular record coming out in February.

So how do you make money if everything is free?
You don’t. I don’t make money anyway; it’s as simple as that.

How do you live and survive then?
I don’t know. It’s hard. Usually it’s a lot of panicking around the end of the month [when] we’ve got to pay our bills and somehow we scrape it together. It’s been a rough year though, I’ll be honest. But, I feel that it will all pay off as long as my head and all our hearts stay in it for the right reason we’ll be alright. Hopefully, anyway.

You also have a record label. How’s that going? I read that it’s located in a grocery store basement.
Yes. That’s where my recording studio is. It’s in a basement of a video store. The label, I just wanted to help out bands that I felt shared the same reason and the same goals and had the same type of inspiration and whatnot. But that’s on hold right now just because of the money thing that we were just talking about. So, once we get a little bit more money again we’ll start that up, but right now that’s just hard to do without any income.

You’re making money from touring at least right now. In the past was it better with the Early November?
It was much easier because people still bought records then. Now, everybody just downloads everything and that’s kind of difficult. Back then we still made some money from that and made some money from other things where it was a little easier to survive. Now it’s like you’ve gotta be hot and if you’re not hot, you’re just floating around with everybody else.

How do you get hot?
I don’t know. Some people are very lucky and just fall into it. Some people are just doing the right thing at the right time. But also nowadays, bands that are hot are out quicker than ever. If you don’t want to be one of those bands ’cause you don’t want everybody to forget about you, [and instead] you want to be the type of band that is just steady and create a really devoted fan base, [that] takes years. It’s hard because you don’t make money, but you have to be able to find a balance until you are at a place where you can have a good living. That’s where I’m trying to get. I’ve been doing it for a long time, trying to not be hot but just be in people’s minds a little bit until the day when it all makes sense.

So tell me about Ace Enders and a Million Different People. Where’d you get the name?
Well, Ace Enders is my name – that’s why I chose that part of it [laughs]. The Million Different People part, I’ve always been a huge fan of the “Bitter Sweet Symphony” song and what it means and everything. I was listening to it one day and was like, “I’m a million different people.” I feel like I change. Sometimes when you’re in that mood where your head is just like, “What am I doing?” Basically, that song says it all for me. You look at it and it makes you look at things differently. Which brings me to my next thing; I actually just covered that song with a bunch of people from bands like Mark Hoppus from Blink 182, he sings on it, and Aaron from Copeland, Kenny from the Starting Line. Just a ton of people got together and it’s all for charity. We covered the song and it’s all going to be for Save the Music to get music in the schools so kids are aware. Should be pretty awesome. I’m psyched about that. It will be available for download December 2.

What can fans expect from your show tonight?
Fire, lots of dragons, a huge light show, lots of pyrotechnics, a lot of fireworks probably. You know, stuff along the lines of that [laughs]. Really, what we try and do is keep it real. We have a thing where it’s like, a lot of bands nowadays want you to dance as much as you can or sing along to whatever, this weird trendy stuff. We just try and keep it old school so it’s just like rock ‘n’ roll. And we just try and rock it as hard as we can, that’s all. That’s what you can expect.

On your MySpace you have a tour video and you’re at a show basically telling the audience, “Do what you want with your life, no matter who says no to you.” As a musician it’s hard to convince people that you’re going to make it as a singer-songwriter or a band. Have you had people hold you back and tell you that you’re crazy for being a musician?
Yeah, of course. I like to try and tell people that because life is too short. Especially the way things are now, everybody’s like you have to be safe and do all this stuff, but that’s going to make you miserable your whole life. You can try something and fail miserably, but if you never try it at all you’re going to go through your whole life wishing you at least tried it. It’s weird because you need to have that security but at the same time, what do you really need to have? Everybody always says to me [they have] a backup plan, they want to do this but they have a backup plan. It’s like; if you’re married do you have a backup plan, if you get a divorce, if something happens? You don’t work on your backup plan while you’re trying your main plan. If you never put what you
dream as a first priority, it’s never going to be a first priority unless you luckily fall into it and for some people that works. But for most average people that’s not how it works — it’s a lot of work. What I’m saying is, yeah you can do whatever you want to do – just do it.

What is your advice to musicians who want to tour and make music for a living?
I would say to any musician who wants to do that, if it’s in your heart that that’s what you want to do, nothing’s going to stop you. It is really hard right now. It’s a really awkward time in the music business, but if you know that you can do it then nothing can stop you. Just do it. It’s going to be really hard, but make it work. That would be my advice because everybody is crazy right now and nobody knows what’s going on. Nothing is guaranteed anymore.

It seems like there’s more of an opportunity for independent bands right now.
Yeah, but all the other bands that are on labels are stuck. And right now it is mostly bands that are on labels, but it is definitely changing. For independent bands it is way easier. It’s a lot more freedom and you can get your name out there way easier then you ever could before.

What is your ultimate goal?
When I feel like I’ve actually done something right is when somebody comes up to me and is like, “You’ve helped me get through something.” That’s pretty much all you can ask for, unless you’re the type of person who’s like, “I’m just going to do this for money and that’s it.” Which is great, if you can make money, then you can make money. But it doesn’t work like that for everybody. I believe that there needs to be more people trying to be artists in this business rather than just making it a business. My ultimate goal would be to help that happen, to bring respect back and make it a place where people can come to forget about their everyday horrible days or great days or make your day even better.

What can fans expect from your next album?
I actually recorded three records this year. The first one was a little too slow so I did another one and I just did another one. There’s definitely a concept in it. I think it’s the frustration of the past year or couple years that I’ve been going through. It’s hard to wrap up; it’s one of those things you just have to hear to get it. I really can’t put it into words yet. I haven’t thought about it enough. I actually just finished recording the day that we left for this tour. Pretty crazy.

Do you have a special writing process? Do you carry a pen and paper everywhere?
I try to as much as I can, just in case anything comes to me. My process is just do what feels right. It’s different. It always changes with me. I could be banging on the table and come up with something or I’ll actually sit there and write it. It’s always different.

Do you have a favorite song you’ve ever written?
I don’t know. People always ask that question but it’s kind of hard for me because whenever I write a song it’s usually my favorite song as soon as I write it and then I’ll write another one and that’ll be my favorite song. It changes at all times If I wrote a song right now it would probably be my favorite one.

Do you have a song you like to perform most?
On this tour I definitely enjoy performing a song called “Body Like Mind” that I just released on that free album I did. It pretty much walks through the past year of my life and I just enjoy playing that one.

Be sure to check out Ace Enders and A Million Different People on MySpace and download his free album here.

Categories
Interviews

Hellogoodbye

I spoke with Hellogoodbye frontman Forrest Kline a few weeks ago while their national BBQ tour was at it’s height. The tour, aptly titled “The BBQ Tour” involves, well you guessed it, BBQing before each concert. Forrest explained that the band tries to set up a potluck before each show (depending on the weather, venue location, etc.) where they invite fans to come hang out, grill, and eat some veggie dogs while he plays an acoustic set. Not your typical pre-show ritual, it gives fans the chance to meet the band in a different setting before each show.

Forrest was nice enough to take some time out from driving with the rest of the band (and playing what sounded like a hilarious, but painful slapping game) to chat with me about the tour, their next album and the history behind their name. Having an energetic, albeit quirky set at times, Hellogoodbye kept the crowd at Blender Theatre alive at their recent performance in New York. From taking, what sounded like, a painful stage dive at the show to playing his ukulele, Kline is definitely an entertaining frontman. Read below for my exclusive interview with Hellogoodbye and be sure to check out their MySpace to listen to their tunes.

How’s the tour going so far?
The tour is going great. We’re getting some great responses. We’re playing some great shows, they’re filling up. We just got done with Florida and they were all really, really good shows. We’re actually playing a game right now where if you ask a question and someone can answer it they get to slap you so the morale is at an ultimate high because we’re all just really enjoying ourselves. I think this might be the first tour where the band feels really connected. We’ve always had a connection, but we’re at a place where we all just feel like best friends. So, whether we’re jamming together or eating at Panera Bread (which happens to be our favorite stop), or slapping each other in the van, we’re just all having a great time. The tour couldn’t go better. We had a couple of van problems in the beginning, but sometimes if you want the dog you’re going to have to deal with the fleas, am I right? And if you want to tour, you’re going to have to say, “Maybe the van’s going to bust.” That’s just part of the job.

What can fans expect on this tour?
The band is tight and things are going good. We’re playing three new songs on this tour which is good, so we’re switching the set up. We haven’t played new songs in over a year, and those are getting a good response. We’re selling an EP at the shows; a limited edition three-song EP. We sell 25 per show and they go like hotcakes. So, if anyone reads this before they get to the next show, they better run over and get those EP fast. And if they say they know Jon Cheese, they get a mustache kiss. A little mustache rub on the cheek, make the kids happy.

Is this tour any different from previous tours?
Our tour manager Duncan has really stepped it up in being more part of the act, instead of tour managing and that’s changed a lot. He’ll jump on the drum kit, he’ll grab a guitar, he’ll dress up as Batman and sing in the microphone and that’s really been awesome. There’s been a lot more stage dives than normal. Luckily, Travis, the bass player, is always there to catch Forrest, which is me, on the stage dives so it’s good.

So tell me about your new EP.
It’s our new EP with three of our new songs, but ukulele versions. It’s not the actual album version, so it really is a limited edition. These things are going to be extinct soon

Are you working on a follow up to your debut full-length, Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! album?
Oh yeah, we’ve been working on new things all year. As soon as this tour is over we’re going to finish recording them, hopefully have it done real soon. So, watch out America ’cause Hellogoodbye is coming to town!

Do you have a favorite song you like to play on tour?
Probably “Shimmy Shimmy.” Just because it was one of the first songs I wrote, and it’s nice that people can still be rocking out to it since it was written six years ago or so. That’s a lot fun; real simple song.

Does there seem to be a crowd favorite?
I think “Here (In Your Arms)” is probably the crowd favorite right now.

“Here (In Your Arms)” was huge for you guys. It was on the Top 40 and Billboard charts. Do you feel any pressure to make another hit and surpass the single?
You know, the same way I was feeling when I wrote “Here (In Your Arms)” I’m feeling that again. And I think the hits are going to start pouring out to tell you the truth. I don’t really feel pressured. I have been blessed with the gift of music and it just comes natural.

What is your typical writing process like?
It usually involves a little Pete and Pete, some veggie dogs and an Italian soda. And then I’m usually accompanied by Winnie and Gordie who are kind of my co-producers and Chelsea, my girlfriend, is my main inspiration as you know most of the songs are love songs.

You started out playing in high school.
Yes. I started in high school. I went to Huntington Beach High School. We played the talent show, me and my friend Aaron Flora. We played the talent show and our band was called A Colorful Symphony and we won first place. We were the closing act. And after that we were like, “We should start a band!” So we grabbed a couple of other friends and we started playing locally and things just started to go from there.

Did you ever imagine you’d be touring the US and Europe?
It was always a dream of mine, so to be doing it is a real privilege.

I read that the band name was originally inspired in part by popular TV show “Saved By the Bell” and a Beatles song. Is that true?
“Saved By the Bell” is just a real big inspiration, Zack Morris and the gang. I got beat up a lot in high school. I was skinny and had kind of a high voice so I would run home as fast as I could and what always got me through the day was quesadillas and “Saved By the Bell.” I felt like “Saved By the Bell” was a high school that I always wanted to be in because mine was so brutal.

I read in a past interview that you didn’t shop your music around at all before signing with Drive Thru records, how did that come about?
We had been playing local venues and just been getting a good response. I used to work at Drive Thru as a Web designer so I kind of had a relationship with them already and when they heard I was playing music again they contacted us and brought us in there and we signed to Drive Thru.

Do you still design all your T-Shirts and Web sites?
We still design the Web site. This last batch of T-shirts
was designed by an artist th
at I really like, but usually we do all of our own designing and arts.

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it?
I don’t know. I think we’re just really excited about what we do. That’s a tough one. It’s unique to our surroundings and growing up in California and drinking smoothies and running on the beach.

If your life was a book, what would the title be?
It would be I listen to country music.

Really? Does that inspire any of your music?
Yeah, I think that’s kind of the underlining theme of it all. Well, the fact that I listen to country music. It goes much deeper than that itself.

Watch a brief tour recap from the BBQ Tour below and check out their MySpace for more.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCzZq1_FaeM]

Feel free to watch Billboard hit, “Here (In Your Arms)” below as well.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-KQ1tp_qOQ]

Categories
Interviews

Joshua Radin

The first time I came across Joshua Radin was last spring when I caught the Hotel Cafe tour as it passed through New York. The night had some amazing performances by Ingrid Michaelson, Cary Brothers, Meiko and Priscilla Ahn, but Radin was one performer that left an impact on me. His soft voice and light guitar strumming seemed to put everyone in a trance and the lyrics to many of his songs stuck with me long after his performance was over.

Recently, I had the pleasure of speaking with Joshua as his second album, Simple Times, was released. Not only has his album received rave reviews as well as graced No. 1 on iTunes, but Ellen DeGeneres has been an avid fan, even having Radin perform at her wedding. He spoke candidly to me about the album, as well as his break from Columbia and the state of the music industry today. You can listen to an MP3 of my exclusive interview with Joshua Radin here and read it below as well.

Congratulations with all the success of your new album, Simple Times. It recently shot to No. 1 on iTunes. Did you ever imagine that happening?
Thank you so much. No, I didn’t. That was really cool. It’s one of those things [that] are so fleeting. You don’t want to give it too much credit, things like that or any monetary success. It’s basically like how a good review and a bad review are the same to me. If you take the good review to heart you have to take the bad review to heart. I just try to basically keep writing songs and do what I do and do it for the fans. The only reason to make a record really, is to be able to make another record. If you play a show in a city, you play the show so you can play a show in that city again. And if you keep your head up about it and keep that mentality, then I think it’s much healthier.

This is your second full-length album. How was the recording process different for you this time around?
We definitely did it in less time. The first record I made with a buddy of mine in his bedroom. It took about six months because I didn’t have any money and he was just doing it whenever he had time, which was so rare. So, this one was the first record I ever made with a label and got to hire the producer I wanted. We took six weeks at my favorite studio and I hired these amazing musicians. It was quite the experience.

Did you go into the studio with a specific concept for this album?
I don’t think so. I don’t know if I had a concept in mind for the record. It was more just like, this was really just the last two years of my life. I guess that would be the concept.

I wanted to ask you about your first single off the album, “I’d Rather Be With You.” That’s my favorite song on the album and I was just wondering what inspired it, it’s such a beautiful song. (You can listen to “I’d Rather Be With You” here.)
Thank you very much. Every song I write is true. The feelings I go through, they’re like journal entries. Really the record itself is about falling in love, falling out of love, it’s about my friends, it’s about my family, it’s about the world I live in. It’s a little more expansive, I think, than the first record, which was pretty much a breakup record. They were all songs that I had ever written that came out of a pretty gnarly breakup. I kind of got my life back together and started thinking, “I want to do something a little different.”

I think “I’d Rather Be With You” is a song that maybe has more of a grove to it. I wanted it to be a full-band on this record, I actually have drums on it. There are quite a few songs on the record, like “We Are Okay,” which is a lot of percussion from Lenny Castro, who is Stevie Wonder’s percussionist, who is just an incredible guy. I just wanted to make every song, production-wise, sound a little different on this record. Because, the first record every song, production-wise sounds very similar.

Do you have a favorite song on the album?
I think my favorite would probably be “You Got Growin’ Up To Do.” It’s one of those songs that came out in 15 minutes, which is pretty rare for me. And also, that I got to record it as a duet with one of my favorite songwriters in the world, Patty Griffin, which is just a complete and utter dream with just about the coolest person ever.

How did that come about?
I just sent her the song. I had never met her before, I’m just a huge fan and she loved the song and she didn’t even want to get paid or anything for it which is so cool.

What’s your typical writing process like? I know you said a lot of it comes out of breakups.
Well, the first record at least. The second record really is not much of a breakup record; it’s really about everything I have gone through in the last two years. I would say my writing process is, I usually have melody or something floating around in my head as I’m trying to fall asleep. Once I’ve got that melody that sort of comes to me, then I wait around until I have something to say about something I really need to express and then I put lyrics to it.

I know you said writing songs is like writing journal entries. Are you ever scared to write too much in a song or be too personal?
Yeah, I was when I first started writing. I started writing songs about four years ago, but I realized really quickly what people respond to is brutal honesty. That’s what people relate to. I’m as honest as I can possibly be when I write.

I read that you were on Columbia for your first album and then you basically bought out your contract to put out this album.
Yeah. Well, essentially what happened was I made that first record, We Were Here, on my own. Then Columbia signed me after hearing that record to a five record deal and re-released that record under their name as is. This was the first record I made with Columbia. I turned it in and they wanted it more poppy sounding and I said no, so I bought myself out of the remaining four record deal contract and put this out independently.

For a lot of artists, it’s their dream to sign a record deal.
Well, it’s much different now a days. The major record companies are dinosaurs, it’s impossible to get anything done with them. It’s just too much bureaucracy. One day someone’s telling you they love something and then the next day they’re fired and someone new comes in with a completely new set of criteria. When I signed with them originally it was to my understanding that I would have full creative control of what I released. And they were by no means dropping me, they just said, “We want a single on here that’s gonna make Top 40 radio.” And I said, “I don’t do Top 40 radio.” I don’t listen to anything that’s on Top 40 radio. There’s nothing about Top 40 radio that I want to be. It’d be fine if they played what I wrote and what I believe in on Top 40, that’s fine. I just don’t think that’s going to happen. At the end of the day you have to be able to sleep and be able to look yourself in the mirror and say, “I did what I believed in rather than what some guy in a suit in some office in New York believes in.”

Do you think artists have to be on a major label to be successful today?
No, not at all. In fact, there are so many that are hindered by being on major labels. It’s one thing if you’re like Beyonce or someone like that, if you’re a cash cow for Columbia, then you have the machine and you’re this big pop machine. But, they don’t have the money to develop artists anymore. They’ve lost so much money by piracy that there’s just no money to develop artists. So they make you sit around and make you write and write and write and write and try to fit you into a little formula that has worked with them before, like a movie studio that only has time to make sequels because they know that it’s something that has succeeded before and they don’t take chances. If you’re a huge pop act or you’re in hip-hop that’s one thing, or country music, those genres in our country sell like crazy. But, for my genre, which I deem whisper rock, it’s not going to see millions and millions of record sales. The only way for me to keep creative control for what I put out is to do it independently.

A huge platform are television shows and movies, which your songs have been featured in. I’m sure that has helped you a lot.
Yeah, for sure. But, I didn’t get any radio play on the first record and now this record actually “I’d Rather Be With You” has started to pop up all over the radio without a major label. It’s really cool to see that we’re able to do this and have a number one record on iTunes, something like that that’s commercially successful, but also do it my own way, the way in which I believe.

And you have Ellen DeGeneres backing you too. I saw a clip of your performance on her show and she said you performed at her wedding.
Yeah. She’s really cool. I played on her show in January and she came running up to me and said, “I would love it if you would play at my wedding.” And I said, “Okay, sure.” So a couple days before the wedding she called my manager, or someone from her show called and said, “She’d love to fly you in and you play her wedding at her house.” She’s been such an incredible support and she’s been talking about me on her show. She couldn’t be a more down to earth, mean what she says type of person.

How is it performing a TV show vs. your own concert vs. a wedding? Do you prepare a certain way or do you do something different?
No, not at all. I just get up and bring my guitar and play songs. I try to keep it as simple as possible. Which is why I called the record Simple Times because as much as we were arguing with the label about the record and everything like that, I just wanted to go back to how life started four years ago, just as honest and organic as possible and as simple as possible.

You’ve been called this generation’s Simon and Garfunkel. How do you feel about that?
I don’t think that’s it at all. If anyone wants to make comparisons, they do what they do. People always want to put you in some sort of box to make other people understand what you’re doing creatively and other things and I understand that. I just think I’m just trying to sound as much like Joshua Radin as I possibly can. I mean, I’m influenced by some of the songwriters; of course Simon and Garfunkel are a major influence on anyone that plays music I’m sure. But there are also tons of other musicians I’ve been influenced on and other features and novelists, my parents and my friends and my teachers. It’s pretty ridiculous, this generation’s Simon and Garfunkel. First of all, I’m only one person. Second of all, they’re incredibly prolific and music icons. I just started.

I read on Amazon that Rolling Stone called me this generation’s Bob Dylan and that’s absolutely ludicrous. It’s ludicrous! Bob Dylan invented music. I just feel like that’s putting a bull’s eye on the back of my head for everyone to be like, “No you’re not. You’re not really as good.” And I’m like, “Of course I’m not as good, I wrote my first song four years ago!” And I probably never will be as good. But, I bet you I’ll be much better at being Joshua Radin than Bob Dylan is. That’s all I can hope for.