Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:12 What's going on everyone? Welcome back to the In the Round podcast. You got Matt, Tyler, Koda, bear, the whole crew, and we are in a new spot today, recording at a buddy's apartment and whatnot until the studio gets ready. And we've got a great buddy of ours, a guy that we've been wanting to get on for a while. A guy I, I knew about you way back in New York before coming down here. It's a buddy named Jesse Lavelle. Jesse, how you doing?
Speaker 2 00:00:33 Good, man. Thanks for having me by dude.
Speaker 1 00:00:34 No problem. Thanks for taking time outta your busy schedule. Absolutely. And you were filling us in. So by the time this airs, this will be airing on Monday the 24th. Yeah. Uh, you'll be full into it what you were just telling us. Yeah. You got a lot of stuff going on. You're gonna be hitting the road a lot.
Speaker 2 00:00:48 Yeah. Uh, this Saturday, um, I get the days mixed up right now. Yeah. Cause we're doing so much this Saturday. We're opening for, uh, Jason Aldean. Uh, we're supporting Morgan Wallen in Kansas at Country Stampede. And uh, then next week we're out on the road to Michigan. We play with Big and Rich and Granger Smith. Geez. And, uh, that's a really cool festival, uh, in Midland, Michigan. And then we're back some rehearsals, and then we're out with Rodney Atkins. So we're playing a lot of festivals, a lot of cool gigs coming up, and I'm just planning every day, all day right now, building my guitar tones and, you know, all the, all the gearhead stuff.
Speaker 1 00:01:20 Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:01:20 What's, oh, yeah, dude, that's the fun stuff
Speaker 2 00:01:22 There. That's the fun stuff, right? Yeah. It's like, that's the, uh, that's the planning. It's all, it's the pre-party. It's like the pre-party,
Speaker 1 00:01:28 You know? Yeah. Now, is this like a first for you, like in the summer going out and doing a bunch of festivals? Or is this like regular summer kind of thing?
Speaker 2 00:01:34 Um, this is the first summer since moving to Nashville. I've been here about six years, and this is the first summer I've played any festivals. The, uh, I guess it's the Country Stampede in Topeka, Kansas. This Saturday is actually my first American festival ever. Dude,
Speaker 1 00:01:47 That's awesome.
Speaker 2 00:01:48 Congratulations. Yeah. Thank you. Congrat, man, that's a huge, that's very first one. Yeah. You know, I've played a lot in Nashville. I've played a lot of colleges, but I've never got on a festival bill. And this is the first one. So it's, and
Speaker 1 00:01:57 That's a pretty good festival for the first one. That country that, that's a national festival of people come in from all over the country, all over the world for, so yeah. That'll be awesome.
Speaker 2 00:02:06 I think they have, um, I think Old Dominion and Jake Owen our Friday nights. So we're gonna get there just in time to catch those sets. And then Nice. Gotta go to sleep, wake up early and you know, start the day. There's radio and there's, there's a whole bunch of stuff that I'm getting used to, so it's cool.
Speaker 1 00:02:18 Yeah. That's cool. So you say First American Festival, you're from Canada?
Speaker 2 00:02:22 Yes, I am.
Speaker 1 00:02:23 What part of Canada? I think I saw Toronto. Toronto,
Speaker 2 00:02:25 Ontario. Yeah. I know about the Raptors, huh?
Speaker 1 00:02:27 Yeah. Congrats on the rap man. I'm sure That's awesome.
Speaker 2 00:02:30 Oh man, I kind of wanted to be there today. I'm sort of glad I didn't drive up because there's like 3 million people, gosh, invading downtown Toronto, you know, like CMA Fest and like the draft here were kind of crazy. But that was like a couple hundred thousand. We're talking 3 million people in Toronto. I was
Speaker 3 00:02:44 In New York City when they visited the, uh, ticker tape parade for US Women's national team in 2015. Wow. And there was like a million people in the
Speaker 1 00:02:52 City there. Oh man. And that was insane. Now for, with the Raptors, they represent, not just Toronto, but the whole, the whole, the whole country.
Speaker 2 00:02:58 Exactly. People have flown in from all across Canada to be in Toronto today. Just they declared it a national holiday. So we, the North Day. Yeah. Um, it's the first time in franchise history. It's only the second time in my life that I've seen a sports team for my hometown win. Yeah. The other, in the nineties, it was a blue jet. Yeah, the blue Jay. Yeah. That was two years in a row. Yeah. But I was like a young kid when that happened. And now, um, the Raptors is just crazy. I mean, I was at a party here with like, must have been every Canadian that I knew was in one bar just jumping up and screaming and cheering. Yeah. There was like a couple Oakland fans, you know, and they kind of had it handed to him.
Speaker 3 00:03:34 I was at a bar at the time and there was nothing but Oakland fans and
Speaker 2 00:03:37 All ended
Speaker 3 00:03:38 Like, there was like literally
Speaker 2 00:03:39 What a horrible night.
Speaker 3 00:03:40 Oh dude. There's literally people crying. Oh man.
Speaker 1 00:03:42 Like they went all, they went all the time though. And that's what's so great to see a team from the East coast that doesn't have LeBron James on it. It went to beat Toronto. I'm happy for you.
Speaker 2 00:03:50 Yeah, man. We were crying tears of happiness when that happened. It was just crazy. Just
Speaker 1 00:03:54 Crazy. Now how would it be if the leaves won the Stanley Cup? Would that, how would that compare to,
Speaker 2 00:03:58 You know, that we're a hockey country, right? Yeah. Although basketball was created in Canada. Really? By a Canadian. Yeah. So, um, it was cool that they brought the trophy back to Canada the first time ever. The trophy for the, uh, the NBA has come to Canada, but, uh, I mean, if we won the Stanley Cup, that would just be a whole other, whole other deal. I mean, that's, uh, that's like Canada's native sport being one
Speaker 1 00:04:22 In Canada. Yeah. So coming from Canada down to here, I mean, Nashville, they got the Preds here. Yep. And I didn't realize coming from New York, I mean, obviously I grew a big Rangers fan and big hockey and all that stuff, but you come down here, you wouldn't expect Nashville to be as big of a hockey fan base.
Speaker 2 00:04:36 It's amazing. It's a hockey city. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's crazy how that's happened so far. And you know
Speaker 3 00:04:40 What, like that's the thing is like, we were talking about it, like there's only two sports series. There's NFL and hockey. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the NFL team ain't good. <laugh>. So everybody's like a hockey fan.
Speaker 2 00:04:49 Well, they're doing better, right? Yeah. They're,
Speaker 3 00:04:51 They're
Speaker 2 00:04:51 Doing better, but like better they're
Speaker 3 00:04:52 Getting, but like, it's not like 99, you know? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. Yeah. It's not that team.
Speaker 2 00:04:57 So, no, the pres are great though. Mean they're, it's super cool coming down here. Cause I grew up surrounded by hockey. Yeah. And you know, hockey being the main sport, um, kind of switched to basketball when the Raptors came in. Cuz you know, we love our raptors. But, uh, coming down here and seeing how supportive they are of hockey, it's like, where'd this come from? We're in the South <laugh>, you know? Yeah. It's like boiling hot all the time. There's no ice, there's no snow. But they love the hockey, so
Speaker 3 00:05:20 It's cool. Of course, being a, uh, Braves fan, I have to thank you for aa S r gm, you know? There
Speaker 2 00:05:24 You go. Yep. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:05:25 He's a good thing. <laugh>,
Speaker 2 00:05:26 Uh, are you from Atlanta?
Speaker 3 00:05:28 I'm originally from Atlanta, yeah. Cool. So big bras fan here. Nice. Unfortunately he's the Yankees fan. I'm,
Speaker 1 00:05:35 I'm a New York. Well, well
Speaker 2 00:05:35 You New York. It makes, it makes sense.
Speaker 1 00:05:37 Yankees, giants, rangers. Unfortunately. The next like
Speaker 2 00:05:39 I would love Nashville to get a basketball team. I
Speaker 1 00:05:42 Would too.
Speaker 2 00:05:42 Come on. It's like we got the Bridgestone, we've got the population, we've got the people that are excited, but they, Tennessee's just got the Grizzlies. I guess that's,
Speaker 1 00:05:50 That's so far out west. Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:05:52 They do well out there though. Like I know a lot of friends will drive out to Memphis to see a Grizzlies game. Yep. You
Speaker 2 00:05:57 Know, when the raps come next year, I'm going Yeah. Because it's a lot closer for me to go to Memphis than just back up to Canada <laugh>. Oh
Speaker 1 00:06:03 Yeah. Yeah. Now speaking of Canada, something that we love in America, I'm, you see a lot of people love Canadian TV shows. Yes. Particularly too for, I mean Trailer Park Boys, I used to watch a lot. Yep. Letter Kenny. We got into this year. Okay. Letter Kenny, is that a, is that as popular a show in Canada as it seems to be?
Speaker 2 00:06:18 I have, you know, I'm gonna be honest, I haven't been in Canada for a long time. Okay. Like, I haven't spent any time up there. I mean I was, I think the last time I went back was December, but it was only for like a week. And before that I haven't been back for three years. Oh wow. So, and I wish that I'd go back more often, but it's just you have to work so hard here Yeah. To kind of even just try and crack the egg just a little bit. Yeah. You know, it's like, yeah. If you leave for a week, it's like someone else is gonna be cracking it harder than you and you come back and it's like you're behind. Absolutely. So, um, I don't know too much about what's popular up there. I've heard that Shit's Creek is doing really well. Dude, that is years now. But that's a Canadian thing that's been around for like, really it's been around there forever. I mean that's been, people are telling me, you gotta watch this. I'm like, man, that was in Canada like eight years ago. <laugh>. Yeah. Like, that's been out there
Speaker 1 00:07:00 Forever. I sounds funny. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:07:01 I found that last year, I think. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. It was on Netflix. It came on Netflix. Yep. But yeah, no, Hulu picked up and now, so Crave TV's still doing it in Canada, but in America they're calling it now a Hulu original series.
Speaker 2 00:07:15 Okay. So people don't realize it. It's been out for it for
Speaker 1 00:07:17 Letter.
Speaker 2 00:07:17 Oh. For, for, for Letterkenny. For
Speaker 3 00:07:18 Letterkenny. Cuz they're about to release season seven.
Speaker 2 00:07:21 Okay. So,
Speaker 3 00:07:22 Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:07:22 Yeah. So coming from Canada. Yeah. The country's scene up there. So you're, you're coming up doing that stuff and obviously big Canadian country artists that are out there. I mean you got,
Speaker 2 00:07:31 There are lots.
Speaker 1 00:07:32 Yeah. Yeah. You got people like, like Shana, you got, it seems like a lot of the girls doing a lot of stuff, right? Yep. Now you got Meg Patrick. Yep. You've got, well Lindsay Ls doing all that stuff. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, what was your take on country music in Canada when you were like, I want to do this style of music.
Speaker 2 00:07:45 Um, country music in Canada is typically been a little bit behind where country music is here. Um, so it, the change, you know, when country kind of went a little more pop based that didn't, wasn't really happening up in Canada. It kinda happening now. It's like we're kind of a couple years behind Yeah. Up in Canada. But, um, you know, I made a bunch of records up in Canada and I got the opportunity to go on tour with some great artists. Like I toured with Keith Urban up in Canada. Oh shit. And I toured with, um, fgl and uh, Eric Church and I opened for Brad Paisley. And I really realized when I was playing those shows, like, if I'm really gonna do this, if I'm ever gonna get to that level, I have to get outta Canada. I have to. And I hate to say that, but if you, um, if you have a career in Canada, you have to spend all of your time up in Canada.
Speaker 2 00:08:30 And like I was saying, you have to work so hard here just to get noticed just to, to crack it. I realize I'm like, if I ever want to play the concert as the headliner, I have to move to Nashville and I have to just stop playing in Canada all the time. Um, and focus on making it in Music City. So when I moved down here, um, I kind of left my whole Canadian career behind and it was a hard thing to do and it took a couple years to like even land on my feet. But, um, I came down here and I've been playing and writing and it's like, it's just starting with these festivals to kind of come back full circle. Cause when I left Canada, I was just starting to get festival dates there. Yeah. And I just gave that up and it was, it was a tough thing to do cuz it put me behind a couple years. But again, I think that, um, focusing on the hub of country music being Nashville was the right decision to make.
Speaker 1 00:09:16 So. Yeah. And you, you said you've been here for about six years. About six. Yeah. So you coming here about that 20 13, 20 14 range. Yep. That's when that kind of, that that pop country bro country kind of came in. So that's when Nashville really started becoming what it, what it is today
Speaker 2 00:09:29 Was now that's when I
Speaker 1 00:09:30 Moved to Nashville. So it was
Speaker 2 00:09:31 2013. Well, the wild thing is, is that I actually came, my first trip to Nashville was like 13 years ago. Oh wow. And it was when the Gulch wasn't even a thing. Like I remember we went, they took me to dinner near the Gulch and I was like, what is this area? They're like, you don't go there. You know, for anyone listening that's outside of Nashville, that's like the most built up area in Nashville
Speaker 1 00:09:48 Now. Yeah. That
Speaker 2 00:09:49 Is tour. It's like the W Hotel, the Thompson Hotel. People line up to take pictures with wings for three hours. That's
Speaker 3 00:09:54 Where uh, Taylor Swift had her at. Yeah. You know, a lot
Speaker 1 00:09:57 Of people.
Speaker 2 00:09:57 Yeah. And I just remember coming here and think like, not really understanding the city that much. I didn't even go to Broadway the first time I was in Nashville. Really? I was put up at a hotel on West End. I was living in New York at the time. Okay. Actually, I was writing music and producing music in New York City for an artist who had a, a major label deal. Um, and I was just working as a songwriter and a producer and they're like, you know, if you really want to song write, you gotta go to Nashville. And I came down here and it just, it, I didn't get it. And everyone here was saying to me, you need to move to Nashville. It was like this, this tribal thing. It was like, move to Nashville. Move to Nashville. And I, I felt uncomfortable with it at first, but I, what I realized as I came back, because I was like, well this is the hub of songwriting.
Speaker 2 00:10:34 I gotta come back. And I came back at least once a year and for the next six years before I moved here, I'd come back once or twice a year. And I slowly realized that the reason they were saying, you gotta move, you gotta move. It wasn't because they were trying to like get me to join a cult. They actually realized back then, and I wish I had too, that if I wanted my career as a songwriter and my skill, if I wanted to up my game, I had to be here. Yeah. You know, like it's the only place in the world you can go where you're writing with and against the best in the entire game. Yeah. So it's like if you wanna play pro basketball, you better be playing with people getting drafted into the nba. Right. Yeah. You need, you need to keep your game right up there. So, um, yeah, Nashville's an incredible, incredible city. I love being here and I don't think I'll ever leave.
Speaker 1 00:11:14 Yeah. No. That's how I feel coming from New York. And New York is huge. City Toronto, huge city. New York's incredible. Yeah. And they're, they're great cities. And they're big cities. But when I come down here, it's, I mean, it, I it is a bigger city. It's growing. It's, it's still got that small feel to it where it does, it seems like everybody knows everybody. Yeah. You go out, you go out for a drink at losers and you don't know who you're gonna bump into kind of thing. Yeah. Or you can bump into somebody and that can be a huge connection for you. Well
Speaker 2 00:11:37 That's the beauty of it. You know, all of my friends, I have so many friends that are moving here. It's like, who isn't moving to Nashville right now? And everyone who, who moves here, they're like, what do I do when I move here? I'm like, I hate to say this. It's like, go out every night. You know, like go out meet people because it's so insular here. You know, there's just, there's midtown. You go to Midtown, you will meet people that will change your life. Yeah. For the better. Yeah. You know, every single night. I used to, it's funny, when I moved down here, I used to go out and I would, I would say to my friends, I'd be like, every time I go out I meet someone. Amazing. Yeah. You know, whether it's a writer or a publisher or a someone that knows somebody at, at a who knows someone at a booking agency or you know, you just make friends and it's uh, it's like summer camp here. It's like,
Speaker 1 00:12:18 Oh honestly, I say that is high in high school. It feels like high
Speaker 2 00:12:20 School. It's like summer camp and high school. Yeah. It really is. And um, I mean, I, I encourage people to move down here all the time. I think there's so much opportunity you just have to come down and embrace it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:12:29 And then there's places like Whiskey Jam, like events like that and big writers rounds, like revival. Oh yeah. What was your first experience going to something like that where you were like, this is cool, I dig this.
Speaker 2 00:12:38 Um, I went to Whiskey Jam probably right around the time that it was, it was really fresh. I mean, cuz that was probably eight years ago maybe. Yeah. You know, around, around that time. And it was pretty small back then. But I remember, like I saw, I think I saw Brett Eldridge play it at Whiskey Jam way back when, and he was like, and I, I think even Old Dominion was playing it back then, like, but Matt had long hair <laugh>. It was like a whole other world. Um, so I've always really loved the fact that there is that musical community here. And that's one of the main reasons I moved. I'm like, if I can go somewhere where every night you can go on a midtown, like a four block radius and there's just music and people supporting the music and trying to push it out to the
Speaker 1 00:13:18 Public. And it's original music. And it's original music. Yes. Which is really hard. You can, you have people playing cupboards and, and downtown is downtown and it's great for what it is and great for the tourist community and stuff. But as a, as a musical guy yourself, that's gotta be such a cool feeling to walk through and see new art come out and
Speaker 2 00:13:33 Things like that. It is, you know, like I, I came up in Toronto in the open mic scene cause it was the only way I could ever get out and play. And I did that for a little while. But, you know, there was only like two bars in Toronto or three bars on any given night you can go and do an open mic and each of them was probably 30 minutes away from the other ones. So it's just so spread out. Yeah. And that's kind of, that's why I decided to leave was that the opportunity is is too few and far between.
Speaker 1 00:13:56 Yeah. No ab absolutely. His coat of bear comes There you go, comes stroll, comes strolling him with his, with his flannel and his mustache and his, uh, taco Bell smashing. There you go. But so for songwriting stuff, how old were you when you were at your first song?
Speaker 2 00:14:08 Um, you were like, I can do this. I was, I was probably like 14, 13 or or 14, maybe a little younger. I was in, um, I was in a band in junior school.
Speaker 1 00:14:19 What kind of music were you guys in? Were you like one of those rock bands? Rock in like rock in like your parents' garage rock and
Speaker 2 00:14:23 You were just full on out? We were just, we had a Stratocaster, you know, the bass player and we had a drummer. It was a three piece and we were just like, we're gonna do Black Sabbath <laugh>, you know, hell we're just gonna crush classic rock riffs and just make as much noise as we possibly could. And then I guess when I was in, I think like grade, God, what's been like grade six, maybe earlier than that even, uh, we had a, a music class and my vocal teacher said, guys, there's this, um, there's a contest called Ytv was Young Television. And they, and they were doing like a original music contest. And he, he came up to me and he said, look, you know, I know that you sing in like the choir class or whatever it's Yeah. And he said, if you write songs, I'll I'll produce it for you and we'll enter it.
Speaker 2 00:15:04 Oh God. And we entered and we got like top 10. That's awesome. On this contest. Yeah. And that was like the first kind of idea I had. I was probably 14 cause I'm remembering now. When I was 13, I got my first draft outta caster. It was a year later and we did this talent show and we played it and we submitted this song and we actually, we didn't win the contest. We got really, really close. And uh, at that point, me and my buddies were like, no, you know, we should like do this band thing. We should continue it. And from that moment forward, from the time I was probably 14 up until the time I was 18, I was just in bands, you know, all
Speaker 1 00:15:32 The time. What was the name? What was the name of that initial band? Do you remember?
Speaker 2 00:15:35 Oh my God. I think it was, that's really bad. I think the first band was actually called Flower. Flower, yeah. And it was a guitar turned upside down, planted in the ground, you know, like we had the head stalk underneath the ground and the guitar itself, like
Speaker 1 00:15:49 That's pretty dope.
Speaker 2 00:15:50 It was pretty cool, man. I mean, the name was kinda lame, but the logo was cool, man. It was like
Speaker 3 00:15:55 He gets a brand named Daisy makes
Speaker 2 00:15:57 An actual, they do that guitar.
Speaker 1 00:15:59 He should have gotten you the copyright on that
Speaker 2 00:16:01 One. You know, I think at the time my dad was telling me stories about how he had gone to Woodstock. Cause it was actually at Woodstock. My, my dad was one of those like original hippies who was
Speaker 1 00:16:08 Actually Oh shit. That's
Speaker 2 00:16:09 Awesome. Yeah. And uh, I think at the time I was like, yeah, flower Power man. It's like we're we're Rock man, you know, like we're gonna do this cool thing and put a flower in the ground. Now I'm like, I'll never call my band Flour <laugh>. That's just, and then it changed and we were, we were label at one point or simple complexity at one point. Just bad names, like really bad band names. Um,
Speaker 1 00:16:30 And you're playing like the bar scene when you're going out and playing gigs kinda
Speaker 2 00:16:32 Thing? Yeah, we were doing a lot of colleges in, uh, in Canada then we were called Canal Street. The reason we were called Canal Street, that was probably the only half cool name we had was because Canal Street is the, uh, the street in New York City. Yeah. As you know, with, with all of the, the rip, uh, ripoffs you wanna call it. And we were doing cover songs only covers. Yeah. But we spent like a good four years doing the entire Canadian college circuit or Ontario. So we would just hit the 4 0 1, which is the highway up there. And we would go from town to town playing all of the college gigs. And it was really like, it is on Broadway here. You know, like there was that kind of vibe cuz college kids like to party and Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:17:08 What's, what's the college scene of as far as playing music up in Canada? Like, cause that's a huge thing here. I mean people Yeah. Guys get, especially with the Georgia Boys, they get their start really playing colleges Athens and playing down near like Georgia State and Georgia Southern. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:17:23 Same with Alabama. You know, it's University of Alabama,
Speaker 1 00:17:25 All the, but just the Southeast in general. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:17:28 Yeah. The scene in, uh, in Ontario, I can't speak for the rest of Canada. Canada's a huge country. Oh yeah. That's one of the issues with tour in Canada is that it takes sometimes two days to get from one city to the next city. Like there's so much just empty land. Yeah. There's just, it's, it's farmed. It's so, Canada has more country than probably any other country in the entire world. I mean there's like, you drive for days and it's just cornfields and it's just flat land and it's farms. Um, and then you get from small city to big city, but like Toronto to Winnipeg, which is the next, uh, large city, you know, really, it's like a two day drive. That's insane. It's nuts. Um, so I only know the Ontario, the province that I was in, it's like Canada has provinces instead of states.
Speaker 2 00:18:08 Yeah. So Ontario is like the state quote unquote, that I grew up in. And I only know the Ontario scene. Uh, cuz we had to get there by car. I mean, you don't fly to college gigs. No. You know, it's like, that's, that's not a luxury you can really afford. So we would just drive. But the, the scene up there is great. I mean, I can only imagine it's like being down in Georgia or being in, uh, in Mississippi or you know, anywhere or Alabama where, you know, some of the college crowds are just great big, you know, there's a lot of fraternities, a lot of parties. Um, yeah. So we did a lot of
Speaker 1 00:18:36 That. Yeah. And with the social media now too, people Yeah. Getting, I mean, you know, how important that, that Instagram following can be and stuff like that. Like that's, I
Speaker 2 00:18:44 Mean, Instagram wasn't even, I mean, I don't want to like date my band or my, or anything, but I don't even think Instagram was arounds
Speaker 1 00:18:50 My, was it MySpace at that point? Or not even?
Speaker 2 00:18:52 Probably. I don't even know. Like when we did these college gigs, I don't think social media was even like much of like Facebook was around, but there was no like Instagram or stories or like live feeds or any of that stuff like
Speaker 1 00:19:03 That. It was just playing for playing for kids, having fun, making some money doing
Speaker 2 00:19:07 The kids. Yeah. It was like you put up posters in the college and you said like, go to Frankenstein's on a Friday night and we've got this band called Canal Street. And people would just show up because people wanna party on a Friday and Saturday night we'd play two nights in a row, you know, crash in a dorm somewhere. And
Speaker 1 00:19:21 Yeah. What kind of covers were you doing? What were, what were some of your go-tos?
Speaker 2 00:19:24 Oh, everything. Like, we were playing some Allen Jackson. We were playing, um, ac dc we were playing, uh, Alabama. We were playing, uh, Leonard Skynyrd, you know, like everything,
Speaker 1 00:19:35 Throwing it all over the place. We're
Speaker 2 00:19:37 All over the place. You know, it was a little bit of country, little bit of southern rock, a little bit of classic rock. Um, it's kind of all over the place. Just really guitar music. I've always been a guitar guy first and foremost. So it's like, I actually open my show now with like a three minute guitar mashup where it's just, you know, riffs that bleed into one another for like three minutes straight. And, you know, it kind of gets the crowd going. Like, oh, okay, okay. So he can play and I know these songs and then we play our originals after cause Yeah. You know, as a new artist you gotta gotta give the crowd something that they know.
Speaker 1 00:20:05 Yeah, no, and you gotta, that's a great way to win 'em over. Now as far as the guitar with your, with your writing and stuff, does that make you want to go more towards melodies? Are you thinking, are you playing melodies in your head or words coming into your mind first?
Speaker 2 00:20:18 It's kind of both at the same time. I, I need to, uh, like I would say that the songs that I'm the most proud of, one of them being, Hey Rachel, one of them being another song called Two Hearts and a Diamond. Um, they kind of just come out not fully formed. Cuz I co-write. Obviously we all co-write here. Yeah. It's, it's the thing, but you know, the basis for it sort of, it bleeds out at once, like the melody and some of the words come out, but not all the words are there. Yeah. So it's, it's sort of like an an all in one thing and if it doesn't happen that way, it's funny, I have a friend in town right now who's writing and he's had like some four and five hour writing sessions and I'm, I'm like, dude, if I feel like if it doesn't happen in like an hour or two, you're beating your head up against something that, you know, probably is not meant to be happening at that moment. And I mean, I know there's a lot of writers who probably say I'm crazy for saying that, but I think that inspiration comes from a divine place and either it's happening or it isn't. Yeah. You know, like there's, there's a moment or there's not. And if, you know, it's not a bad thing if the moment's not there cuz no one's Right. Can be great all the time. No,
Speaker 1 00:21:20 Absolutely not. It's like, yeah, no,
Speaker 3 00:21:21 And like every writer has, you know, the book and it's all the stuff that's not finished yet. Yeah. And like you always go back and thumb through it and you know, I've done that before and some days you finish a song off of that. Yeah. You know, some days you don't need the new fresh Id idea. Sometimes you're in a head space that's different. Yeah. And you can go back and finish a song that maybe two years ago you started.
Speaker 2 00:21:42 Yeah. I wish I had a book. I'm on voice notes now. I hate that it's so digital, you know. Yeah. I used to have books. Yeah. I wanna bring that
Speaker 1 00:21:48 Back. So you do, so you're like, so for like co-writing is, would there be, would would say a situation happened where you would send the voice memo to somebody else and be like, Hey, this is what I got right now, let's work with it. Or do you prefer to get in the room? Do
Speaker 2 00:22:01 I, I'm forgetting in the room. I very rarely send anything until I'm in the room with them. Okay. You know, I'll say like, and I have the, you know, the group of people, um, that I write with and that I really trust with, with certain ideas. You know, like there's, um, sorry. There's one co-writer, um, that I wrote Hey Rachel with, and I wrote a whole bunch of stuff with her name's Ava. And she's, I implicitly trust her with anything. We actually wrote a song for, you know, it's Austin Burke. Yeah. So we wrote with him, we wrote the song Slower. Oh no way. It's done really, really well for him. Nice. And uh, she's one of those people that I just, I trust her in a 50 50. Right. And I trust very few people in, in a 50 50 co-writer. Like if she comes in, I reserve ideas for her cuz it's like I know that we finish each other's sentences, so to speak, um, when we're writing and it just works and, you know, then other rights, I'll go in and I'll bring nothing. If I'm writing with an artist and we're writing for them, I never provide the idea. I'm always like, if it's your artist project and you're doing this, you should come up with the idea and we'll mold it and kind of, you know, see where, where that takes you.
Speaker 1 00:22:59 How, how did you meet Ava?
Speaker 2 00:23:01 Um, I was playing around at, uh, Bel Court. Taps
Speaker 1 00:23:05 Love that place.
Speaker 2 00:23:06 Yeah. Yeah. And I think Ava was playing after me and Ava's really young and she's new to, she's only been here probably a year or two and I think she's, she's 22, um, Berkeley student. But she went up there and she started playing songs, uh, by herself and, or that she'd written by herself. And she said that, she said, I wrote this by myself and I, you know, Ava will hear this so I'll, I'll, I've told her this, the songs were good, but there's, you know, I don't think any of them were like life-changing, you know, smash hit radio. They were just really, really good. And I was like, oh my God, if she's really good writing on her own, I'd love to see what it would be like to put two brains together. Yeah. Because not a lot of people here, you don't ha I don't see a lot of people at the um, at the rounds that go out and say, I wrote this by myself. No,
Speaker 1 00:23:53 It's so much
Speaker 2 00:23:53 Cowriting. It's always, it's always co-writing. Yeah. So that's something that I've sort of started looking for after that. I'm like, if you can write on your own, that's, that's an awesome, it's an awesome time. It's how I started writing. You know, when I was 18 and 19 I was writing songs. I didn't even know co-writing existed. Yeah. I was like, what's a co-write? You know, don't you just do it in your, in your bedroom by yourself, <laugh>, you know, you come up with some words and that's where it comes from. Isn't that what songwriting is? But yeah, Nashville's amazing cuz it's the co-writing capital, you know?
Speaker 1 00:24:19 Yeah. What was your first experience co-writing? Like?
Speaker 2 00:24:21 Um, my first experience co-writing was not here, it wasn't in Nashville. I think it was, it was in Canada. But it was, uh, there was a dude in a band. We were actually dating, um, twin sisters at the time. Oh Nice. Was a high school and he was in a big popular famous band in Canada. And I was just a high school student. He was quite a bit older than I was. Um, so I was dating someone my age and he was just like, really? He was like, uh, there was a large age gap. Yeah. But he used to show up in his fancy car at the high school and pick us up and take us out for lunch. And I was like, this guy's like famous, you know, he isn't, he's in a big band. And he, we started writing together and I realized how much I had to learn about writing cuz I was like, wow, this guy really knows what he's doing.
Speaker 2 00:25:01 He's making a lot of money doing it. Um, so he kind of taught me everything I know about songwriting and about co-writing, but I still, when I got here, it completely taught me a hundred percent all the way over again. You know, it's like you, I don't think it's a songwriter. You can ever stop growing. I think there's so much to learn, so much room to grow. And it's, uh, it's just a really inspiring thing to do because I don't think you can ever reach the, the pinnacle. Even some of the greats, I think they still have their best songs in them. Yeah. I,
Speaker 3 00:25:28 Uh, I heard of Things said today and the guy kind of said it, um, really haphazardly, but like, it stuck with me. And he's like, we were talking about touring and all. Um, I was out this weekend with a band and he was like, uh, you know, we're all kind of like sarks like as soon as we stop swimming, like we're done. Yeah. Like, we sit to the bottom. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:25:49 That's great. That's absolutely great. I love that. Yeah.
Speaker 1 00:25:52 Yeah. That's so real with, with being in this city and stuff is, is you gotta be out and be on the ground and stuff.
Speaker 2 00:25:59 Absolutely.
Speaker 1 00:25:59 Yeah. Now, in terms of influences and stuff for you, I was looking on your, um, on your Facebook profile, your bio, and I saw on there a little bit like all kinds different influences thrown in there on there. Yeah. Literally everything. So for you, what, what kind of influences?
Speaker 2 00:26:13 I grew up listening to a lot of classic, classic country and classic rock. You know, I was listening to, um, a lot of The Beatles, I was listening to a lot of Willie Nelson listening to Merle Haggard. I was listening to James Taylor, I was listening to, um, Kat Stevens. Really just a lot of singer songwriters in a lot of country artists that
Speaker 1 00:26:33 A lot of those are lyrical, lyrical artists.
Speaker 2 00:26:35 Yeah. Yeah. So for me it's like the lyrics have always been paramount to being there. It's like, I will go
Speaker 1 00:26:41 You a big Jason is bull guy. Yes.
Speaker 2 00:26:43 Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Fantastic. Do
Speaker 3 00:26:44 You see he just announced his, uh, tour for October for Nashville. The Ryman run.
Speaker 2 00:26:48 I I didn't see that yet. It's
Speaker 3 00:26:50 Uh, it's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday. I think it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and then Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Wow. Yeah, it's like eight shows
Speaker 1 00:26:59 And you know, those are all gonna sell out. That's what's crazy. Oh yeah. That's what's so cool is seeing how popular Yeah,
Speaker 3 00:27:04 I'm setting up for
Speaker 2 00:27:04 All of them. It's amazing. I mean, yeah. So lyrics 100%. I'm, I'm a lyric guy. That's sort of, I got lost for a while up in Canada. I was, I had a record deal and um, they were so focused on just melodies. Melodies. They didn't even care about lyrics. And I would turn things in and they'd be like, no, the melody needs to be better. I'm like, who cares? The ly lyric isn't there. There's nothing there. It's like you're just throwing a ball at a wall. Like there's, it's not sticking, it's just That's so for me, lyrics are everything. It's
Speaker 3 00:27:30 For America. That's how like LA is like, they're more about, it's all melody and the melody. Well,
Speaker 2 00:27:34 It's, it's crazy. I actually went out to LA and I wrote with one of my, one of my heroes, which is Richard Marks actually.
Speaker 1 00:27:39 Oh, no way. Oh, that's
Speaker 2 00:27:40 Awesome. And Richard has written tons of stuff. I mean, he's written, he wrote, um, long hot summer and, uh, who wouldn't Want To Be Me or Better Life, maybe like two of Keith's biggest early number one hits. And, uh, and I, I love Richard on his own. Nevermind the stuff that he's written for other artists. I mean, he's had hits with like everyone from NSYNC to <laugh>, you know, to Keith. And, and above and beyond that and himself. I mean, he's won Grammy's and I got to write with him last year. And the wildest thing was I got there and I had all these words and he's like, nah, you know, like I think we should write something, you know, that sounds like this. And he just sing these like random words, but this great melody and I, it took me such a long time to wrap my mind around like, yeah, but the words aren't right.
Speaker 2 00:28:23 And he's like, don't worry about it. It doesn't matter. We'll get the words. The words will come. And I'm like, I, that's not how I write. Yeah. You know, like it's gotta be the words first. And it was really cool to see that someone as successful and as great and as legendary of a songwriter as he is can go about it the other way and it can still actually work. You know how I was also writing with, there was, um, Matt Scan from Vertical Horizon. Oh, nice. Oh wow. Yeah. So that was, I I was a little nervous that that day, needless to say I was sitting in a room with like two, you know, the vertical horizon for me was a huge band in high school. Yeah. I was like, these guys rock. And there's Richard Marks and I'm just like, I I I'm, I get really nervous when I'm in rights with people of that pedigree cuz it's like, you guys have done so much and I'm just sitting here trying to have my first hit. And you've had like, you know, 20 of pc. Yeah. So,
Speaker 1 00:29:06 Yeah. That's awesome, man. Now where can people find you with, with, um, social media stuff? Especially with all these big trips coming up? Yeah. So people are gonna wanna follow along.
Speaker 2 00:29:16 Uh, Instagram and Facebook first and foremost. Uh, I'd like to be more active on Twitter, but I don't get on it
Speaker 1 00:29:21 Enough. That's how I am too. I have, it's,
Speaker 3 00:29:23 I love Twitter. I have like five accounts. All mine are troll accounts.
Speaker 1 00:29:26 You just messes with fans.
Speaker 2 00:29:27 You got fake Twitter accounts. Oh yeah. Many of them. What, what does a fake Twitter can't call? I know on Instagram it's a Finsta. What?
Speaker 3 00:29:33 I, I don't know.
Speaker 1 00:29:34 He's a troll. He just goes and
Speaker 2 00:29:36 Just go and troll people.
Speaker 3 00:29:37 Like, somebody like really, really like, mad about something and just like poke the bear a little
Speaker 2 00:29:42 Water. Wow. But that's what like, Twitter's an ongoing conversation. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. That's, that's what's cool about that. Instagram is more like, you know, here's my advertisement. It's like an advertising side. I guess Twitter's like to talk
Speaker 3 00:29:53 To me. Like Twitter has less of an algorithm too. Okay. Because like with Instagram, you know, like there's the algorithm now of like,
Speaker 2 00:29:59 You get sold everything you're looking at on his phone. Well,
Speaker 1 00:30:02 Oh yeah, those ads pop up too.
Speaker 3 00:30:03 But like, uh, you know, like I'll see like code Bears post from an hour ago and Matt will post 10 minutes ago, and if I haven't looked at Matt's in a certain amount of time, it'll hide that. Yeah. I'm sitting up further than the timeline. Like there's that whole,
Speaker 2 00:30:16 You know, the timeline is weird. I've noticed that I'm seeing things like two days later that are from four days ago. Yeah. Or you're seeing things like the day, uh, it's just, it's not like in real time anymore. It's
Speaker 3 00:30:26 All your algorithm, man, uhhuh. And that's,
Speaker 2 00:30:28 That's really, everything's an algorithm. Isn't that messed up? Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:30:30 Yeah. Same with Facebook. I mean, whole world
Speaker 2 00:30:32 Is like a big old algorithm, right? It is.
Speaker 1 00:30:33 It is right now. Absolutely, man. Now before you get outta here, you got that guitar next to you. Yes. Uh, hey Rachel, that song. Yeah. What went into that song for you?
Speaker 2 00:30:42 That it's a really important song to me. Um, I it's, it's a long story. I can tell you the whole whole thing. Go
Speaker 1 00:30:47 For it. Whole. Yeah. I like hearing stories,
Speaker 2 00:30:49 Man. So back when I was, uh, recording in releasing records up in Canada, um, you know, the Toronto International Film Festival is a huge festival, right. Um, for movies up in Toronto. So I was invited to this really swanky party and uh, it was like the Thompson, or where was it? The Soho House, I don't know, something. I went there and uh, Rachel McAdams was in the room and she was like standing there. And I got in and I kind of caught her eye from across the bar and I was like, I'm gonna go and talk to Rachel McAdams. You know, like we all had a couple drinks, but I was like, this was my like, uh, it was my notebook moment, you know, it's like, I'm gonna go over and I'm gonna talk to Rachel McAdams, I'm gonna see, see where this goes. And she, she started talking to me. We talked for like a good 20 minutes. I was like, Rachel McAdams is talking to me right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1 00:31:27 Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 00:31:28 Is crazy. She's a huge movie star. And uh, she's actually in a band and she plays music and she's like, uh, she plays some jazz music. And we got to talking. And she said to me, um, well the way I started the conversation was by saying, Hey Rachel, can we, you know, talk? And that's where the whole song, that's like the seed, the early seed of where that song came from. Um, and she asked me to send her some music and I, she gave me her email and I sent her an email and I said, Hey Rachel, this is my music. I still have the email. And I sent it to her. And, uh, I'm still waiting for a response to it. <laugh>, I still haven't heard back, but, um, I kind of dabbled with the title, you know, I was like, okay, I'm gonna write Rachel McAdams a song.
Speaker 2 00:32:05 And I didn't really write her a song, but as fate would have it, I moved to Nashville and I met another Rachel. And that Rachel and I started dating for a while. Um, and I wrote the song after like the second date. I mean, it came really, really, really fast. I just, at the time she, there's a line in the song that people asked me about. They're like, what does it mean? I don't care if the coast is clear. She kind of had like a, a situation that she was getting out of and um, she was also dating me at the time. And, uh, I played it for her. And, uh, I mean I, I guess I, people must like it better than she does cuz she is not here anymore. She's uh, she's not part of my life, but Okay. Um, she always used to ask me what the hell rhymes with Rachel?
Speaker 2 00:32:46 And I was like, there's tons of things that rhyme with with Rachel. So that's kind of the way I always intro when I'm playing. But, um, yeah, that, that was a really personal song. I was in a really dark space when that happened. I was going out on Broadway, I was out of a relationship. I was drinking every night, you know, kind of thinking I am never going to find love ever. Yeah. You know, like I've been out of a four year relationship at that point and I was just getting silly in Music City like doing the Broadway thing way too often. And
Speaker 1 00:33:12 That, that happens. Yeah. That happens a
Speaker 2 00:33:14 Lot. It happens. And I fell into this spiral and I'm like, I'm never gonna find love. And then Rachel came along and all of a sudden I felt that feeling for her. Now she never felt it for me, but there's a cool lesson in that for me, it's like, you can love someone who doesn't love you. It doesn't mean the love isn't real, it just means it's not reciprocal. Okay. But, uh, I definitely fell for her and I didn't work out, but I got the song and it's cool cuz you know, it was pretty bad relationship when I look back on it, it really wasn't a great spot in my life. But you can have something bad like that and you can leave with a beautiful song and it's all worth it. So
Speaker 1 00:33:41 Yeah. It is, it is a, it is a great song. And it's been out now for, it's been out now for a little while. It's three
Speaker 2 00:33:45 Days man <laugh> or four days eternity. It's crazy. But you know, next week there's gonna be, I like 50,000 new songs that come out. So it's, it's just crazy how much music comes out now and how hard it is to keep, uh, to keep people's ears on something, you know? So
Speaker 1 00:34:00 Well now that you're going out on the road, you got, you got, you got a badass song along with all your, with a lot of your other originals and Thank you. We
Speaker 2 00:34:06 Got a lot more music too. I mean, there, there's an EP that I'm producing the whole thing, so That's awesome. Yeah. Hey, Rachel's, the first song I actually produced by, by myself.
Speaker 1 00:34:14 That's, that'd be such a cool feeling. It is. As the writer, you, you're single writer,
Speaker 2 00:34:17 Artist and producer. It's like the first time wearing all those hats and I didn't believe I could do it. Now that I know that I can, my, my whole team is like, well because you can and because it's a whole lot cheaper. They're like, yeah, you are producing everything. So I have this EP that is just, if if I could get to it, it would be out right now, but I think it's gonna take like a couple months of work.
Speaker 1 00:34:36 Yeah man. Well hey man, it'd be great to have you back on once that's out to Go song by song. Do it man. We love going in depth with songs and Yeah man and all that stuff, dude. And uh, we'll thank you so much for having popping by. We'll let you grab that guitar out. Cool. So housekeeping episode 16, right Tyler? Yep. Episode 16, man, it's crazy. Still going. You guys make sure you follow us in the Round podcast on Instagram in the round, on Facebook. You can also see the cool videos on YouTube. The Coda Bear, the Mustache man himself. He's still got that bet going with Tyler, our internet guy Jacob and our uh, our good buddy Dave Hangley with their mustaches. We'll definitely post some pictures, some updates on the story with the mustaches and whatnot. I know we've had people bugging us about that. Now, without further ado, gonna let Mr. Jesse LaBelle take it away with, Hey Rachel, y'all been listening to the In the Round podcast.
Speaker 4 00:35:29 Hey, I hope
Speaker 5 00:35:33 Away I haven't smiled like this in while I haven't felt this kinda, so this is how heart's supposed to feel and I don't wanna be careful. I don't care if the is clear. I fallen in some time, but you showing me that I'm still
Speaker 6 00:36:17 In drown down.
Speaker 5 00:36:28 Never
Speaker 6 00:36:28 Thought that I would say I be be saved. I swear to God. You must be an angel. Hey,
Speaker 5 00:36:47 The wise man said only fools rush in. But I know this is one you can now all my walls are breaking down. You got them crumbling the ground.
Speaker 6 00:37:08 I've been so in this neon, drank so much that almost drown. Scared I just to settle down. Never thought that I would be, I swear to God you must be an angel for the first time in long time. I'm glad I get holy
Speaker 5 00:37:49 For
Speaker 6 00:37:49 You. I know I'll always be thankful
Speaker 5 00:38:00 I lost so long this town, I drank so much that I almost drown, scared I'd just settle down.
Speaker 6 00:38:19 God.
Speaker 5 00:38:30 Hey.
