085: Jarrod Morris
On Episode 085, I'm joined by rising Texas songwriter Jarrod Morris. I caught up with Jarrod in early March at The Blue Light before Quarantine 2020 came our way. Jarrod released his promising debut album West of East a year ago this past March. Produced by Texas legend Lloyd Maines, West of East sprawls with bluegrass-tinged numbers like the infectious "Red Bandana," the soaring picturesque soundscapes of "Panoramic View," and the bustling dive-bar hustler "Coyote."
This episode's presenting partner is The Blue Light Live.
Interview Transcript
Note: Transcripts aren’t always accurate since they are computer automated and haven’t been edited for spelling, grammar, etc.
Thomas Mooney 0:02
Welcome to Episode 85 of new slang. I'm your host, Thomas Mooney. And this time around, I am joined by up and coming, Texas songwriter Jarrod Morris. This is one of those pre quarantine interviews that feels like it was a year ago. But actually was just the first week of March, I sat down with Jared at blue light here in Lubbock, is a Thursday night. And so I showed up around soundcheck and we sat down for a few minutes to record this. For those unfamiliar with Jared he released his debut record west of East last year. It's a little bit over a year old now Jared has a bit of a carefree and easygoing demeanor. He's a very easy conversationalist. It's a bit of an interesting upbringing and path into songwriting. So he comes from a family with some wealth. There's obviously nothing wrong with that. But he mentioned how, I guess it could have been easier, maybe not easier. But it would have been less surprising had he gone into medical or law school. But instead, of course, he became a songwriter. Now, I only mentioned that because jarrods really self aware, which that sounds kind of like a strange way to describe someone without it sounding like a backhanded compliment of sorts. You'd like to think everyone was self aware. But we all know that's not the case. But what I mean by that is that jarrods aware of how that can look, he's aware that, you know, it can look like rich kid playing dress up playing cowboy songs. But there's something really genuine and authentic about Jared is writing in his experience. For starters, he's not just a songwriter, he issues horses when working with animals. You know, there's a lot of patience that goes into any of those lines of work, you can't really show frustration that frustration is just fruitless. I'd like to think that even like the most pious and virtuous people, if they did shoe horses, it would be a humbling experience. In many ways. It's about respect. I think that's all helped Jarrett's music. He obviously has been informed by Western culture and has a deep appreciation for hard working folks and individuals who live out in rural areas. West of East really breeds that Western sprawl of nothingness. That open frontier brush and pasture you know, like that sweat that just gets on your brow and how it stings your eyes a little bit. You can hear those hints of early Ryan bingum and early red Shea Han early Shane Smith on here. If you haven't checked out Gerrards west of East do so. For quick Listen, go check out the album ending panoramic view. It's something that we could probably all use at the moment. Get out and lose yourself in a place that's far away from wherever you're isolated at the moment. As always, subscribe to new slang. If you are listening for your first time. do so on iTunes, Spotify, Google Play, etc. Leave an iTunes review. If you haven't before, tell me who I should try and get as a guest on a future episode. Follow me on twitter at underscore new slang. Go give us a like on Facebook. Okay, yeah, let's go ahead and go on to the episode here is Jared Morris
Jarrod Morris 3:09
mangum hat. Yeah, I think we might be on the same page.
Thomas Mooney 3:12
I think so.
Jarrod Morris 3:12
I think we're on the same page a little bit, as we were joking about earlier is like, you know, most these bands like friggin rock it out. And it's cool, man. It's like, and then I get up there and just continue doing what the kids want to hear, you know?
Thomas Mooney 3:28
Hey, I mean, the kids. I'm convinced the kids don't know what they want. They
Jarrod Morris 3:33
don't. So like the masses don't? Absolutely not. And kids don't even know. I didn't know what I wanted to hear. Yeah, most of it was just like, Oh, this
is cool.
Yeah, I mean, I'm into it, too. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like your friends make the decision for you almost. Yeah. Most people don't have a strong enough constitution be like, no, I like this. Yeah, you can see people if it's even kind of like an empty room. They're just like, looking around. Like, am I supposed to be here? Is this cool? Like, I don't know if I like this. Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 3:59
Well, like, you'll see it big time. Let's say like, in a place like this, where there's this big empty dance floor. Yeah. And like, who's gonna be the first one that can? Absolutely. But it's almost never like, I watched this. This is probably about 15 years ago, this video about how, like a movement isn't started by the first person who goes, it's the second person because like that second person who goes with, let's say, the first person comes up here and starts watching. right front row. Yeah. It's the second person who comes up because it's like, You're,
Jarrod Morris 4:33
you're validating,
Thomas Mooney 4:34
validating the first person, and then all of a sudden, it's like, so if you if you play
Jarrod Morris 4:39
an infinite digression Yeah. Like the 1,000th person that walks up now it gets a lot easier. Yeah, but you're spot on. Yeah, but I watch that all the time. You'll watch people like when I'm singing, and they'll just
Thomas Mooney 4:52
be like, it'll be like, Is he on the edges over there? Hell, yeah. Like, I don't know if I should get out here.
Jarrod Morris 4:58
Yeah, yeah. And I'm like, If I like it, I like it, dude. I'm just like, yeah, if anything if it was an empty room, I'd be like, Oh, yeah, man. That's good. I like that. You know,
Thomas Mooney 5:08
I don't ever like stand here in the middle anymore, though. Now I've never been like that. I've kind of been like soundbooth Yeah, I'm kind of around that area. Yeah. Mainly because the sound booths there for a reason, like in that spot for a reason. Don't I mean? Oh, for sure.
Jarrod Morris 5:23
Yeah, catch the best sound.
Thomas Mooney 5:25
That's very no doubt about it. That's how I've always kind of played it. Or over here on the corners. You know, just because Are you gonna hang
Jarrod Morris 5:30
out tonight or? Yeah, we got out. You will? Alright, cool. We're already rolling. So we are all right on. Yeah, that's why I like to do it, man. Yeah, this is. Oh, so now I have to turn on my stick. Yeah, you know, exactly. Just bring in. Just bring in the country music to the people.
Thomas Mooney 5:46
So what Yeah, what kind of grid are you? Got? Did you say what kind of grid?
Jarrod Morris 5:50
Yeah, you know, just that road grid? Yeah, we just got a greedy bunch, guys. Yeah, I can't even joke about it.
Thomas Mooney 5:57
At grit, just to
Jarrod Morris 5:59
say like, 90, you know, just 90 grit.
Are you saying grit?
Thomas Mooney 6:04
grit?
Yeah. Yeah. 80 grit.
Jarrod Morris 6:07
What does that mean?
Thomas Mooney 6:08
You never like sanded anything down before?
Unknown Speaker 6:11
Oh, okay.
Jarrod Morris 6:12
Yeah. All right. But yeah, I mean, I'm
not a big No, I mean, I guess I've seen a bunch of stuff that but you notice now that like,
Thomas Mooney 6:19
this band has a whole lot of grit, a lot of rusting guts and
Jarrod Morris 6:24
grind? Yeah. I don't even know if we do. It's pretty much like well, you know, Ben, so Ben has his bass player. And then Cody, Angel plays pedal steel. But all these dudes are like, so experienced. And, man, I was just like, super, super fortunate. There was like a domino effect. even putting the band together the same way what we were talking about with like, people liking music. Yeah. You know, it took me freakin forever, dude, I couldn't get a band together. Like could not get good players together until there was like one dude who people knew it was been, you know, and I was like, man, I dig it. And so I got him on board. And then it like, literally all fell into place in like, two months. Right? And but it's like a validation thing. So it even happens with people that know music and listen to music, there is an element of like, Oh, this is good. Like people like this. Yeah, you know, I think anyways, I can quit tomorrow as possibility. So
Thomas Mooney 7:18
I think there is something to it, because like here, I think in the last, like 1520 years or so, the being the singer songwriter is in Vogue, right? It's the the cool thing to do you want to be a songwriter? Sure. And so what ends up happening is like the lack of bass players and the lack of drummers and then so then if you're like in a smaller town, you end up all having the same drummer and the bass player, right. And everybody wants to be the songwriter everything. There's like 10 songwriters with the same air drummer bass. And then it all becomes a modernized, where everyone kind of sounds like that just because like absolutely the same gear. If you I mean, like, you know, you said you're putting this band together. Did you ever was there like a lot of like, trial runs of like, moving in people like, Oh, my
Jarrod Morris 8:11
gosh, it was Harrison de lievable. At guarantee, that's like, the hardest part of the whole thing was the band deal. It was insane. Like, I don't even know, how am I here? I mean, the amount of people that I went through is just absurd. I mean, shoot, I don't know, man, I used like for drummers and like, six months, you know, that kind of thing. And it wasn't even like, I've have my records only been out for over a year or so. Or it's coming up on a year like in April. So it's not like I've been I had anything to actually promote right. And that was that was one of the hard things too, is that for a long time I didn't have I just had my originals but they hadn't been produced yet. So to be able to walk in there and be like, let's play some of my originals was almost impossible. You know, because these most these guys couldn't just we were gonna have to self produce all of it. So at least now to I can just you know, you can hand somebody a record and be like, learn the parts. Yes, that simple. But even with that, like some of the sounds on there, you know, it's it may be is not I don't even know how to how to say it the right way. There's like, it was very like intentional with some sounds, not to like take myself too serious, but there was definitely some stuff that is not just like, oh, turn up the volume, you know? Yeah. And like Boyd mains produced it right there. It's
Thomas Mooney 9:30
like that's not like me that's Lloyd Well, I was wondering if how much of that was a where you walked in with the with like a little bit of like, an idea of what you wanted a song to sound like or if these were more fleshed out and before going in, you know what I mean? Yeah, where they built in the studio as far as like, a I don't really know the direction of what the song is. I know what the bones of the song Gosh, I
Jarrod Morris 9:56
don't know. I think it was like a Oh, A little, it was a confidence builder for me in the sense. And I'm not like, like trying to like stroke my ego or anything like that. But like I haven't, I have like not a bunch of experience with like actual musicians, real producers. So I've just been on my own writing songs and like, do my own research and just do my own thing. And I shoot horses. And so it's like, I just have this other world outside of music, and I don't have a bunch of musician friends. So when I went into the studio, it was actually kind of interesting and a huge confidence boost to where like, even a guy like Lloyd was like, Oh, so you like know, kind of what you want here, you know, and like, being able to chart out songs and being able to really like communicate and things like that. It was because I mean, obviously going in with a guy like that. I was like, a little bit nervous. And then so through the process, he was like, Wow, man, yeah. Like you actually have an idea of what's going on. And I didn't know that you could go in and just be like, I don't know, just do what you do. Here's the song I had, you know, there's people that go in and like, don't have a bridge, you know what I mean? And like, the producer has to be like, I think we need to put something in here. And there was like, still some of that, like moving some things around. But so that was like a huge confidence boost to be like, Alright, so I think I'm like, sort of on the right track here. I don't know. Did that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, like, it's,
Thomas Mooney 11:16
it's one of those things where maybe, since you've so new to this world, you didn't I don't know, like, a take a whole lot of things for granted. On like, how to do this is just the way it's done. You know, I mean, and didn't like pick up bad habits. Because I think maybe, sometimes, there is something to like, if you learn something from a young age, and you've been doing it since 10 years old. You can pick up a bad habit that that later on is like, becomes glaring. You know what I mean? Sure. That's interesting.
Jarrod Morris 11:54
Yeah, there might there might have been a little bit of that. Because like, even in the sense of songwriting, a lot of these people that are out in like Nashville and are doing like the nine to five staff writer thing. I mean, like, why do you think most of the music sounds the same? Why do you think they're writing about the same stuff? Yeah, they live in Nashville. They get up and they write in a cubicle with four other people every day. And they're trying to sing about Middle America like john Mellencamp does, yeah, it's like, dude, you're not there. You know, I guess Nashville, technically is you know what I mean? So you got to like, be there, you got to be doing it. And if you I think if you, I've always thought formal education in the creative space, always kind of stifles creative. Not always that's too strong word. But a lot of times stifles creativity, you know, when you're just on your own, you're like, I don't know, does this work? You know, the only time is just when you show up with one of your buddies, and you can show it to them, as opposed to having that constant like, well, that's weird that you didn't go to the to their you know, it's right, you know, just let it read and see what happens. There
Thomas Mooney 12:57
is that quote from Terry allander Lloyd Maines where there's this story where, like, Terry wasn't keeping time, right. And Lloyd, this is like, when they're cutting luck on everything. And he's like, no, need to go and keep on time and yada. And he kept on playing the song differently. And Terry was like, Lloyd, it's music, not algebra, you know, and there is like the other that other part of the brain for a lot of these guys who it is a it's an equation versus a piece of art, you know, and that's absolutely. Now granted, like, those guys are wise beyond their years and a lot of that kind of stuff and can think of things in an abstract way that Yeah, I can't even imagine, but there is a balance, you know? Yeah.
Jarrod Morris 13:47
I mean, there's some of those days. I think it's just, it's different. Like everybody has just sort of a different thing. Yeah. You know, there's a bunch of guitar players that I'll play with, like, I'm not technically the Greatest Guitar Player. But I can, I think I can come up with like, pretty cool stuff, right? melodically like interesting. Chord formations and things like that. And when I play with really, really talented guitarist, and there'll be like, what is that? What are you doing? And I'm like, I don't know. My guitar was like, in a weird tuning one day and I accidentally played this, you know what I mean? No, and they're like, Oh, that's odd, but they would have never done that, right? because everything's so like, structured for them. So sometimes that can be crippling, but then at the same time, that guy, you can call him two hours before a gig and he's gonna know stuff and he's gonna be able to kill it. I can't do that. Yeah, never, never could do that. You give me two weeks and I'm just gonna be like, Oh, well, yeah, I would just play it the way I want to play it right. So everybody has their their deal, right thing? Well, it's
Thomas Mooney 14:46
an if you're a songwriter, or like the the lead. It doesn't necessarily even have to be in like the lead lyricist, but like you. There's plenty of people who like lead bands are never saying rather than Just guitar players or whatever. If you're like that chief artists in a band, it's good to be able to be able to go into that other world and not have to paint by the colors and, or like be inside the lines and just run wild fish and then maybe have other guys be able to like rein you in, you know, to make sure you can. I hate to say it like this, but like, box it up and give it to the masses. You know what I mean? Because, like you were saying earlier, like, I'm convinced, like, the kids don't know what they want, like, you know what I mean? Like, you're kind of just, if one of your buddies knows this band, and then you go with him, and you're like, Oh, this is good. You know, it's, it's the opening of the door, and then you just kind of fall in line. And as always,
Jarrod Morris 15:52
yeah, so you just get the thumbs up from somebody who's like, considered the cool person. Yeah. And it spreads like wildfire. There's like that. I think it's a meme. Or it's a couple good looking girls, you know, and they're looking back at the camera, like all like with like, a stinky face, you know, like, like, they don't like it, you know? And it says underneath it, you know, when you play their favorite song two months before, it's their favorite song, right? What is your channel like this? Yeah, until everybody else. I think it's probably always been like that.
Thomas Mooney 16:22
But I always like the whoever this guy plays at bar, right? And there's like, 10 people there. And then he breaks. Right? And then all of a sudden, man, I was at that show, like, right now, there was probably 10 people there. And you were not one of those. But everyone, and it's it's, you hear stories about like that, especially like in the 70s and 80s about Oh, man, I saw whoever and whatever, Barney right.
Jarrod Morris 16:52
Well, you know, and then probably didn't.
Yeah, Yeah,
no kidding. Yeah, I have a bunch of family members like that. Yeah, those ones, man. I saw George Strait and I'm like, oh, gosh, here we go. My local coffee shop. Yeah, but there's a Africa.
Thomas Mooney 17:16
This episode is brought to you by the blue light live here in Lubbock, Texas. Obviously the coronavirus pandemic has had a massive impact on the music industry. And on our daily lives at large. The blue light has been closed for nearly two months now. And if you're like me, you're probably jonesing for some live music, perhaps a lone star beer or around a burn shots from your favorite bartender. If you're truly missing the place, there are two things you can do. For starters, loving songwriter Charlie stout and 49 other songwriters have come together for a 50 song compilation called Monday night lights. It's 50 demo style recordings for $50 where all the proceeds will be going to furloughed bar staff at blue light live. All you have to do is head over to Monday night lights.com you'll be getting songs from the likes of Josh Abbott and Wade Bowen and William Clark green to up and comers like Slade Coulter and Morgan Radford to blue light singer songwriter competition winners like Juliet McConkey, Isaac Hoskins and Kenneth O'Meara. You'll recognize a whole lot of people on this list. Just too many to name right here. Trust me when I say you will want to get money that lights it's just a incredible collection of incredible songwriters. There's also some pretty cool limited edition poster prints that Charlie has for sale on the site, where those proceeds will obviously be going to bar slaf as well. And we will probably end up having some other cool items listed on Monday night. lights.com as well, pretty soon. Again, Monday night lights calm. We've already raised a good chunk of money. So far, we're super proud of how this all came together and proud of how many people have shared the compilation and everything but as you know, more can always help. And of course, head over to blue light lubbock.com click on the merge tab. They have koozies and T shirts and caps. I swear if you put on a blue light cap and a T shirt, it almost feels like you're there if you close your eyes, especially if you've already thrown on the Monday night lights compilation. Okay, back to the episode.
Jarrod Morris 19:26
Yeah, I don't know what I was gonna say.
Thomas Mooney 19:27
Well, let's, you mentioned shoeing horses.
Jarrod Morris 19:30
Yeah. How'd you get into that? Yeah. My brother in law is a hoarder. Sure. And so like at the end of high school, I started working for him. And I didn't really grow up around it. So I'm from Decatur, which is like a big rodeo town. But it just never really was my thing. And then started shooting. And I guess I apprenticed with him for I don't know, like, total five, six years you know making like no money and Did a little stint down in Florida for a little bit. Those are the dark years. And yeah, then I came back and went back to working for him. And then went out on my own, you know, and started my own business. But like his dad's a horseshoe, and two of his brothers and his dad's actually, in the horseshoe Hall of Fame, they actually have like a hall of fame for it. So he's a journeyman. Those are some bad cats there. And it was such a good thing for me, because I had, I had a really great childhood and didn't really want for anything. And so there was an element, even though my parents were they made us work, and they made us do a lot of stuff. There seems to be something psychologically, that if you don't have a worry, really deep down about like, could money go away? Like, what if I don't have any money? What if I don't have any foodie, if you'd never have truly that worry, like, deep deep down, I think like, psychologically, it does something to you know, like, you just have a little bit of a sense of entitlement. And like, I never really had that my parents, I think, like, did a real good job, but me going and shooting and doing that type of manual labor, and then working for guys like that, where it was, like, if I was late one day, it's like, there was no Why are you late? Like there's no reason, right? It's just like, You're late. Like, this is unacceptable, right? Like, we're gonna fight. It was just like, so not. And I made excuses, kind of my whole life, right? And it was at most like, well, damn, and then even like working with an animal like that. And when you're by yourself working with a horse, and you get mucked out and stomped on, and like, you're so mad, and weapon on is not really going to do anything. It's just going to freak it out more, but it just jammed all of its shoes back and you're gonna have to reset all those shoes. And you just sit there in your by yourself and you're just like, well, getting mad is not going to do anything. I'm just gonna have to there's nobody to complain to Brian Oh, I'll just do it, you know, and suck it up. And it and a lot of ways it like completely changed my mentality on life. You could probably talk to a lot of people went to high school with and they're like, you know, Jared, what?
Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 22:09
There is something to the always like having that safety net. of like, just, I mean, like, That's why, like a guy like Townes Van Zandt, he came from money, frame from wealth, you know, and he, he was always trying to, like lose that image just to get some kind of authenticity, some kind of genuine. And I which is
Jarrod Morris 22:33
ironically unauthentic
Thomas Mooney 22:35
Yeah. I think like, you can go like, I don't think you have to do that right now. Great song. Yeah.
Jarrod Morris 22:42
I mean, yeah, for sure. Like the self sabotage thing.
Thomas Mooney 22:45
Yeah, you don't have to want it. Like the example Me and my friends always use is like, you don't have to go work in a coal mine for to get, like a sense of appreciation. You know what I mean, to get that experience. And it's a little bit of authenticity goes a long way,
you know what I mean?
But it is interesting to see a lot of these guys who kind of come from something like like God, Clark's, I think his dad was like a lawyer, you know, yeah. So he is not like he, you know, he came from nothing, you know, but like, you always kind of try and a lot of those guys try to find that sense of, of nothing. Yeah. You know,
Jarrod Morris 23:26
well, even like I've noticed, even for me, it's this way, or people that come from maybe like a successful family or an upbringing, where it's like, this is what you do with your life, right? The idea of like, going and being like singer songwriters, at least in my family, nobody did that. I don't come from a musical family. Everybody's like doctors and lawyers, and they own ranches. And, and now it's like in my song, like, there's a song called losing streak in the bridge, I say. They're all doctors, lawyers, ranchers, sons, but I'm a horseshoe, we're not doing too much.
Unknown Speaker 24:05
And,
Jarrod Morris 24:07
and I, you know, so in a certain sort of way. It there's like authenticity there, where it's like, there was a clear path that like, if I wanted to be a doctor, I could be one freaking like I could. There's so many of my family and I have so many connections, we could just make it happen tomorrow. Right? I could just go to medical school, and that's an absurd thing. But it's like what I'm a freakin horse. Sure, that just works his tail off and then tries to write songs and do this little thing.
Thomas Mooney 24:35
Well, I think like, just even the simple example. for, like, the average person is is when I was going to school, my freshman year, you know, fucked off kind of stuff, right? You don't say and it's one of those things where if somebody else is paying for it, and that's why whenever you see like 20 527 45 however old after your traditional freshmen, or sophomore, whatever, Junior, if they're paying for it, that's why those people were like fucking studying hard and like doing the words.
Jarrod Morris 25:15
And then like,
Thomas Mooney 25:16
if you're paying tuition, you know what
Jarrod Morris 25:19
it is, it is not any. Sometimes you don't even know psychologically that you're that person. Like you think like, wow, I'm not entitled. And you know, I do my thing until like, you I don't know, you hit a moment that like, even grown up for me like having a nice car, like having nice clothes or something like that and kind of being put together all the time. I wouldn't say it was like, super important to me. Like, I wasn't like obsessed with what people thought about me or something. But in relation to now, I would look at like my 19 year old self and be like, dude, can I can't cuss on here? Like, fucking get over yourself. Dude. You don't pay for shit. Yeah, what are you talking about? Like you have a nice car dad bought you that you little turd. So like now? I don't know, like, I'll go somewhere. And I'm just kind of wearing what I wear because I like it. And I just drive my little beater. And because it is I just login. And I don't know, it's like, I don't care. I care less now what people think with shittier stuff. You know what I mean? When when
Thomas Mooney 26:24
I had nicer things a lot of times with especially with closes you realize function over everything else. You know what I mean? Oh, practicality of like, just a pair of jeans or a comfortable pair of boots versus
Jarrod Morris 26:37
that's why i cardboard starts my jeans because it's so comfortable. That is one of those deals that I just cannot. Man, I just do it. I spend so much money every month on dry cleaning. My wife does it too. And I don't know why I understand that. It's incredibly uncomfortable. And it's ridiculous how much money I spend on it. And I still just like, all my jeans are just friggin stand up on their own.
Thomas Mooney 27:01
I don't know, my dad was like that growing up. And my mom would always like to get, you know, some my damn fucking pants down like that. And now we're just like, one day said, No, this is ridiculous. Like, cuz i would i would not wear him to like, first time you see him you're like, Oh, this is cool when you're going to share it and then you're like, Man, this is like rubbing my
legs raw.
I absolutely hate. There's this one.
Jarrod Morris 27:29
And I still like well, like, that's all that were. Yeah, and I 100% understand what you're saying. Yeah,
Thomas Mooney 27:36
it's a weird, man. I've not had like starch pants and I don't know. 15 years probably so yeah, just cuz now.
Jarrod Morris 27:48
A lot of money to man. It's like three bucks to get a pair of jeans starched. Yeah, I don't even do a good job. Yeah,
Thomas Mooney 27:54
I guess I was like, in high school. I found like a pair of like my dad's jeans from when he was in high school. And these things were still like, you could stand them up. But they had been like hanging on a fucking a hanger in the closet. Moved to like three different houses. You know what I mean? Like, in the back of the closet, pull them out and fucking still stand. This is from like, 81 you know, like,
Jarrod Morris 28:18
what starts? Well, you know, it gets harder with time,
Thomas Mooney 28:21
though, as you say, what's in this shit? Like?
Jarrod Morris 28:24
It's just lacquer. It's not even start. So just use lacquer. Yeah. But
yeah, that's what a What a weird regional thing to like most of the rest of the country is just like, we went on a bachelor party to up to New York. We went to the Belmont the horse race up there. And then we went to Atlantic City to the casino. And like we're walking, we stopped in Philly on the way too. And we're walking around and like, I got a cowboy hat on and start cheese. And people are just literally like a unicorn. Like, it's like, What are you? Yeah, I mean, they never seen anything like in their life.
Thomas Mooney 28:59
thing is is like you could do that with just like a pair of boots on and people would
Jarrod Morris 29:03
Oh yeah, they would still do it be like what is
Thomas Mooney 29:05
why are you wearing boots? Yeah, we're
Jarrod Morris 29:06
a has. Did you ride a horse here? Yeah, medic, we went to Hawaii when I was like a little kid. And there was a guy. So I like to serve. And we were out there and his kid from California. And he had heard I was from Texas. And he's like, man, do y'all ride horses everywhere? And that's like people's perception, which I think is funny like it, you know? And then like, I see one of those videos where like, somebody rides a horse into a bar. And I'm like, you know what I understand like, I understand what they're these people are coming from because that happens. Yeah, especially loving dude.
Thomas Mooney 29:41
I think it gets weird. There's I think there's been a horse in
Jarrod Morris 29:44
this bar before I think there really has like recently
Thomas Mooney 29:46
Yeah, in the like the last couple of years. And then of course, there's also I don't know if you've seen it, there's a there'll be a news interview, or this lady's interview, and a couple of Kids at Tech who were part of the rodeo team, and it'll go viral every couple years. But this is probably about 10 years ago, where some cattle had gotten loose out.
Jarrod Morris 30:09
They have to like rope on the squares, not like rope, steer, like 19th Street and stuff like yeah,
Thomas Mooney 30:14
just the way of course they talk about going out there and doing it. This is like, no one knows what the fuck they're talking about. If you're not from here, or you're not around like that kind of work. Right? This is this more the story? Yeah, the storytelling.
Jarrod Morris 30:29
Yeah. I can't imagine anywhere else in the country. They're just like, Why on earth? That's insane. Yeah, you know, what's interesting about we were talking about people being trendsetters, essentially is that's what we were talking about, right? Like, most most folks can't be the first one to make a decision on whether or not they love wood that goes for like fashion that goes for music, anything. And now what I've noticed is like the cowboy crowd, and the rodeo crowd, a lot of times are the trendsetters. So like a lot of the stuff that they like, wear fashion wise, like I can see, like one of those cats wear a hat. And two years later, everybody's wearing a hat. Yeah, right. Like that same hat, ball cap, whatever it is, like whatever it kind of shirt they're wearing. Two years later, everybody in like, the country bar, right? air quotes, is wearing the exact same thing. And then like music as well. You know, they'll be listening to something and it's cool with like, the rodeo crowd, at least I can kind of the Texas scene, you know, it's sort of filters out there everything else. Anyway, well, it's just kind of like an observation.
Thomas Mooney 31:28
Yeah, just some of them are kind of related to that I can see is if you ever see like any of these runways, right, like, people, whatever, in whatever Italian city have these these women wearing these just ridiculous dresses or outfits, right? And you go like, what is what was What's going on here? Like, who wears this? Yeah, but and I think what people don't understand about that is like that, whatever they're doing is not the practical version of that. It's like, somehow, that will trickle down to the practical version, or like the, the version that you can, or whatever, like, kind of something or another on there, you can see where it'll be on a shirt that you can buy from dillards. One day, you know what I mean? Yeah. And I think that's something to the same thing where you're talking about with the rodeo and cowboy stuff, because sometimes you'll see a photo of a girl and you go, What is going on? And like you go, there's nothing practical about any of them doing that. But then you'll see the, I don't wanna say watered down version, but like the more practical version later, yeah, someone wearing that. Yeah. So there is something to that. Yeah.
Jarrod Morris 32:44
Yeah, maybe so I've never thought about it like that. I mean, yeah, leave it to you to like make it way more sophisticated. Well, the
Thomas Mooney 32:52
reason I even do I say that is because I was I had looked up like why, like are the the runway models when they're wearing these ridiculous outfits? Like what? You don't see anybody now going anywhere, but
Jarrod Morris 33:06
somehow it's still so I set trends. Yeah, very interesting.
Thomas Mooney 33:10
It'll, but that's obviously more of an avant garde kinda. Yeah. Art thing. That's more of a
Jarrod Morris 33:17
I still haven't figured it out. Yeah. Like I think I'm starting to figure it out the the art drawing painting thing. I think it's so cool. And I got attracted to it through like the Western art and stuff. And like, like in you know, style, Charlie stuff. I still hadn't met him until like soundcheck today. But like, even some is photography, and that the photography thing, for sure, is one that I did not understand. I was like, really taking freakin pictures. Like, okay, take a picture of somebody else doing something cool. How is that art? Right? But I was coming at it from like, bitter, bitter about my wedding photos. And like, how did I spend that type of money on freaking wedding photos as Lady to annoy me the whole time? Yeah, how is this art? But then, you know, you get into some of this other stuff. And I'm like, wow, yeah, like the angles and understanding the light. And like, that's a whole other world that like I don't know anything about
Thomas Mooney 34:11
I can really appreciate that. There's a lot of stuff in the art world that I don't understand as far as like, you talking about like painting or like sculpting or photography or or even just other kinds of music. Like, there's a lot of jazz stuff that I don't fully understand it. All right. But I will say though, is like when it is good. You don't know why it's good, but
Jarrod Morris 34:33
you can't watch good.
Thomas Mooney 34:34
Yeah, but you're like, I
Jarrod Morris 34:36
have not studied this field at all. But like that is a good piece of art. But then there's times that it's supposed to be like this really high level art. And you're like, Dude, this is crap. Yeah. They're like, No, he's really trying to portray the struggle of the Native American culture and Eastern America. And you're like, no, that's a bean tape too. A freakin wall. Yeah, that's
Thomas Mooney 35:02
there is like the the banana taped to the wall thing. That's a real thing. Yeah. Yeah. And there was the, I thought I was going like way out there. There was like a banana taped to the wall. And I think what that was like, trying to prove a point,
Jarrod Morris 35:17
what point
Thomas Mooney 35:18
of like how ridiculous this is like that was it was more of like the r&d side of it. But there is this one. Like, if I was that guy, I wouldn't want to just sit there and watch people walk. Look at it, there is this one. There was an art gallery where somebody had set up a new exhibit. And the guy had like, taken his glasses off and set them on the floor for some reason and was like stepping back to make sure the photo was right or something like that. And then they started letting people in and he never got his glasses, and he looks back over. And people were like taking photos of the glasses. Like it was
Jarrod Morris 35:50
hard. Oh, my gosh, it's like,
Thomas Mooney 35:54
yeah, so
Jarrod Morris 35:58
it does the same thing in songwriting, where it's like, dude, if you're trying to be deep for the sake of being deep, you know what I mean? Like cuz simplicity a lot of times it's really freaking cool. into the IRA. Man, I you know, even as we sit here and kind of rag on like, you know, the, the, the general population in terms of how they choose what they like, the general population is actually pretty freakin smart in the sense of like, they can sniff out bullshit. Like, real quick.
Thomas Mooney 36:29
I think sometimes.
Jarrod Morris 36:30
I don't know. Yeah, you're right. Like, sometimes I do. Okay. The country scene is like a weird anomaly in like the even like, even in the pop world, like if somebody's inauthentic. I think they just like, I think they sniff it out pretty good. Yeah, no, and if you're trying to be deep for the sake of being deep, they'll sniff it out. And if you're trying to be catchy for the sake of being catchy, a lot of times they'll sniff it out. Yeah. Like, I
Thomas Mooney 36:56
think a lot of times, especially if you're being if you're trying to be really deep, and you're inexperienced in that, whatever the easiest thing is heartbreak, right? You're like, some 18 year old kid trying to tell us about it's like come on cocaine, or like, Mardi hard or like about having your heart broke, then you're like, maybe you don't know what you're talking about. Maybe you're gonna get over this. You just don't know what to pull through. But, but there's, you know, it's the repetition of it. That's what I you got to kind of remind yourself of like, Alright, you're gonna you're gonna get over this and you're gonna write a better song sometime.
Jarrod Morris 37:37
Yeah. I have a hard time writing about stuff I haven't done or gone through. But man, you got to live life like you got to go do some stuff, have something to write about?
Thomas Mooney 37:49
Yeah, I wholeheartedly agree that you have to have some life experience to be able now. I don't think
Jarrod Morris 37:57
you have to do that to be able to write good melodies. Okay, yeah, I think you can learn melody. Yeah, that I think, but in terms of the words that you're saying to the melody, I think you got to go live some life. Yeah. I do think that the melody is like a real elusive thing. It's wild. It didn't seem like that many people really, like focus on it that much. I mean, that's the number one that is what gives the words really impact and meaning and like how its communicated in the moment is the melody, or like any, like, most co writes that I have, like, we don't even like talk about melody, like, somebody starts singing something. And then they go here for the chorus. And it's like, Alright, that's what we're gonna do. And, you know, some of these, like, really good songwriters that I see. They don't do that. They sit there, like, why do we go here? Like, where are we building this thing? And the verse to the chorus, like, Where is this thing supposed to go? Where is it supposed to finish? Like, they're very, very, as specific as they are with their lyrics or that specific with their melodies? You know, it's not just like, throw away like all it's just saying something. Yeah, that happens a lot.
Thomas Mooney 39:04
I've seen some co writing done. And it is interesting, where you a lot of times, I think people think just, you know, it's like, oh, let's, let's, we're gonna write a song. And we just started on that first verse. And then we just go, Oh, that's good. And then you go on to a second verse, and you're like, Oh, that's good. And then you go to a court, and it's not like that a lot of times, you know, it's starting from the middle, we're starting from like, and then trying to figure out like a great songwriter is trying to, once you got some kind of rough estimate, trying to figure out what's wrong with the song What and pluck those things out. Like what makes it you know, a smooth break right between everything, you know? Yeah, I
Jarrod Morris 39:50
heard I think it would be in I think it was radney foster that talked about most of the first verses that he writes into being a second verse. Don't quote me on that. I don't know if That was specifically him, I think it was, which is like the prime example of like, not just sitting there and going now that's good. Like, come on, man. mull it over, you know, push it around. Yeah, figure out what's going to work. And then scrapping songs, who's, who's the person that said, like, they find creativity and destruction, like, whenever they would maybe it was like a painter or something. And he would always destroy all of his artwork. Because he thought he was going to be more creative if he destroyed the stuff in the past. Well, that's interesting. I don't know. Well, so. And like, I completely stumbled upon this just because I'm an idiot. But I always record like melodic ideas. And then any demos that I have, like of songs or anything, I always record them to my phone just in voice memos. But unlike awful I lose my phone, like every other day. And so I've gone through like five phones in the past five years, right. And I completely lose everything in my voice memos. Have you
Thomas Mooney 40:57
started like using like Evernote or something like that? Now where I would say that?
Jarrod Morris 41:01
Yeah, we probably should, because I've lost a ton of stuff. Yeah. And like a ton. And I'll get my new phone and it'll literally just be at one, like, the first one will be first recording. You know, I always have lyrics that's get saved in my notes, but like, the actual songs I lose. And then I've noticed now over like, the years, there'll be stuff that pops back up, and I'll be like, Man, that's like, awfully familiar. Right? Yeah. But it'll be in a different spot, like in a different song, like a different time, different melody. And I'll be like, Hmm, I feel like and I'll go like Google, and I'm like, is this a song? And then I'll be like, Oh, shit, I think that I
did that.
Yeah, I think I did that. And then it just popped back up. And so now that's just kind of been like a thing of mine where I don't really actually get that worried about writing it down or recording it or anything. If I wake up the next day, and I remember the melody or the lyrics. It's good. If I don't it shit.
Thomas Mooney 41:54
Yeah, that's interesting, too, on the because I've heard a lot of songwriters say that kind of thing where it's like, is this from another song?
Jarrod Morris 42:02
Yeah. And then you're
Thomas Mooney 42:04
trying to figure out where that's from. And then it ends up being a song that you've written? Or like, not, you didn't finish? And you're just kind of like, Oh, well, I wrote it. That's what, that's what, yeah, you know, or like that general idea, or that kind of phrasing or whatever. You know, that's, that's interesting. How you, you end up like just mentioning yourself, you know what I mean? Or like referencing yourself for,
Jarrod Morris 42:27
which is funny that in high school, I got accused by an English teacher of swear God accused me of plagiarizing myself. As I wrote a paper earlier that year with some other stuff that was like similar and she was like, Well, you can't plagiarize. So you can plagiarize yourself. And I'm like, how is that a
Thomas Mooney 42:47
thing? That? Yeah, what is that? Yeah. Well, I think they're about the turn on here, or they're about to open up.
Jarrod Morris 42:55
Alright, man. That's been good. Yeah, heck, yeah, man. I appreciate it. Yeah. Well,
Thomas Mooney 43:00
we'll see you down the road. We'll do this again, Jane on her own. Thanks for listening to Episode 85. with Jared Morris, be sure to check out episode sponsor the Boulet live. And be sure to check out Monday night lights. We'll see you next week.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai