112: Jesse Dayton
New Slang kicks off the week with Episode 112 where I'm by singer-songwriter Jesse Dayton. Dayton right off the heels of releasing Gulf Coast Sessions, an East Texas Rust meets Louisiana Bayou porch-picking party. Dayton presses pause during The Pandemic for some good, honest fun and gives us a second away from the doldrums of 2020. It's the perfect blend of Gulf Coast Blues and rock & roll for a summer swim, evening grill, or afternoon county road stroll. During this episode, Dayton and I talk growing up on Interstate 10 in Beaumont, Texas, recording music & hanging out with the likes of Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson, finishing up a book of memoirs, vinyl album collecting, and finding the proper running shoes.
This episode's presenting partner is Desert Door Texas Sotol and 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
Everyone, you're listening to new slang, I'm music journalist Thomas Mooney. And we kick off the week with Episode 112, where I'm joined by singer songwriter Jesse Dayton. I caught up with Jesse Jesse the other day, he's been super busy these past few months, he just released Gulf Coast sessions, a project where he essentially plays every single instrument in self produced. It's a fun little escape type of EP album. That's a bit of a nice pause from the the seriousness and all of the dread that's, that's taking up our lives in 2020. It's perfect for summer hangs by the pool, their grill, go driving around by yourself with the windows rolled down, that kind of thing. He's also been finishing up a new book, it's memoir style. And he goes into these backstories of his career, he's always been one of these guys who has these encounters with these larger than life people or these musical heroes. And with this memoir, he's kind of giving you all the context of how you arrived at this spot. Now, obviously, part of the reason why Jesse has been able to brush shoulders with so many icons over the years, is in part due to his talent as a guitar player, and as a songwriter. And then also due to this really cool dynamic style that he's created. But he'd be also the first to admit as well, as so much of this has to do with just kind of being in the right place at the right time, and meeting the right person. And then what I think is probably the biggest thing, just always being up for whatever. During this interview, he talks about some of those encounters with people like Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, the great la punk band x, Kris Kristofferson, and a few others. It's always about these guys kind of hearing about him or coming across a record or sending him seeing him on TV or something. Of course, when someone's super famous, or a legend, if you will, reaches out, it's always important and meaningful event in your life. But before the age of dmws, cell phones and email and whatnot, they really had to kind of like work to get in touch with you. You know what I mean? Things were so much more intentional back then. And that's what I find so fascinating is like Waylon Jennings seeing Jessie on TV and being like, yeah, I need to know that guy. Anyway, I really love talking with Jesse about songwriting and writing in general. hearing those stories and then being able to see what he's been doing to keep himself busy in 2020. Today's presenting sponsor is desert door, Texas SoTL. If you know anything about me, it's probably that I'm from the heart of West Texas and absolutely love everything about West Texas. And that's really why I love desert door so much. You may be asking yourself what exactly Soto is. Well, it's a premium spirit that similar to a tequila or a Moscow, but for my money, it's a little bit more refined and smooth. There's a sweetness and faint hints of vanilla and citrus and it's also as versatile as your garden variety vodka. At its core desert door is authentically West Texas, they go out and harvest Soto plants from the wild and bring them back to their distillery over in driftwood, Texas. So next time you're at your local liquor store, get a bottle of desert door. For more info, check this episode's show notes. If this is your first time listening to new slang, I strongly suggest hitting that subscribe link. If you just did, I'm giving you a virtual High Five right now. New slang is over on iTunes, Spotify, Google podcast, Stitcher, radio, and basically any and everywhere you listen to podcasts. Go check out the new slang merch store. Grab a koozie some stickers, buttons and magnets. Any bit helps. I'll throw a link into the show notes. And if you're into playlists, go check out Tom mooneyes cup of coffee and the neon Eon playlist over on Spotify. The neon Neon is for all your nostalgic 90s country needs, which there's going to be more neon Eon related stuff coming your way pretty soon. And then Tom mooneyes cup of coffee is a regularly updated mix of new Americana and country music. It's also really great Hannah, who I have coming up on the podcast. So yeah, go follow those. Alright, enough rambling for this intro. Here's Jesse Dane. Yeah, man, you. You just released this Gulf Coast sessions. And it feels like it's kind of meant to be like a mood breaker for 2020 in a way. It's been so intense and so serious and stressful. And this feels kind of like an escape project in a way
Jesse Dayton 4:59
totally Totally, I mean, I even created a different character in the vocal booth, you know, which doesn't even sound like any of the vocals on any of our other records, but it was total escapism. And you know, it's kind of a love letter to where I grew up at Texas Louisiana border and Cajun influence in the East Texas blues and rhythm and blues and gospel and country and all that kind of stuff, you know, New Orleans and going there when I was a little kid in, you know, all those kind of shenanigans. But yeah, I think we could all use a party record right now, man.
Thomas Mooney 5:43
I know. Like, it's, it's a it's one of those things where we've all been inside so long, or some of us have. Some are not doing that. But it very much felt like, you know, Oh, I got to put this on just to escape the monotony of the day. Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, it's interesting how you grew up on iten. And I grew up on it and on the other side of the state, and like, we both get, like these totally different feelings out of it. And, like, I tend, for me was so much of a way to get out of town, you know, like, and that's all like three hours away, no matter where you're going. And you It feels like that was so much more of a where you're able to like just go down the road and pick up some some culture, some real obviously New Orleans and then and Sure. Is that what you felt like? So much for you?
Jesse Dayton 6:46
I mean, absolutely. In you know, I have a lot of heroes from Lubbock. And I get the whole West Texas you know, you can see it San on a dime, see 1000 miles farther further. And people have you know, big broad landscape, cinema, cinema graphic type art out there. And it's, it's amazing. I get it, you know, I mean, I'm an old Texas family. So I know. But I grew up in a really weird little bubble in Texas. And you know, Beaumont is just nestled right there. Next to Galveston. So, you know, I'm 15 minutes from the beach. I'm 15 minutes from Louisiana border. I grew up with tonic Cajuns. Bunch of Catholics, which is kind of weird for Texas, unless you get out off into the, you know, Latino, you know, Valley. And, and it's just it was just a weird, that was an awesome place. I mean, to grow up. I couldn't wait to get out. I mean, when I was a kid, I just, I was like, if I can ever go move to Austin and make a living playing guitar, that'll be good enough for me. Which is what I did. But yeah, I mean, I was amazing. I mean, I grew up going to zydeco festivals. And, you know, I saw George Jones and Conway Twitty all the time, I saw every major country in western star would come to this place called the palace. And I mean, for like, 10 bucks, you could go see David Allan Coe, Johnny paycheck, and both seavus all on the same bill for $10. And, of course, I didn't want to wear my rock and roll shirt, because there's a lot of rednecks there. And you might get you know, you know, to my my Pull Up button, I fall on here something Yeah. But, you know, I had this old African American woman who lived with my family, they miss Victoria. And so I got turned down to a lot of cool blues and zydeco and gospel music when I was little bitty kid. So you know, that played a big part in everything.
Thomas Mooney 9:12
Yeah, you know, I I think one of the important things for I guess like for artists is that or for I guess storytelling we're so is you're around these people, these characters these stories, but it takes a certain kind of person to be able to translate those stories into into something that is digestible for the for the public, and it feels like you've done that so much in your career has you've been around these a lot of like, you know, just these characters, these hard working blue collar people, and you can either like translate their stories into obviously mostly in the song. What What do you think that have you ever thought About that, as far as like being a translator of sorts.
Jesse Dayton 10:05
Oh, yeah, I mean, I just finished a book and I wrote this book for, to Kappa publish, attach it to publishing. And it's a great publishing house. And then I was surprised that I got the deal. But it's full, you know, it's all the memoirs of my like, behind the scenes stuff. So it's not just about playing with Waylon Jennings, or Johnny Cash, or whoever it was, I was playing with x, or super suckers, or whoever it was, it was about what was going on in my life and all these characters that were coming and going in and out of my life, whether they were crazy uncle's or our, you know, some guy that I was renting a place from, or, you know, some broke ass guitar player who was brilliant that nobody knew about or cared about, which does happen more, more so than other other ones, you know?
Unknown Speaker 11:04
Yeah.
Jesse Dayton 11:05
But yeah, man. And I think, you know, if you look at a lot of the really cool songwriters, whether it's Springsteen or Willie Nelson, or Townes, Van Zandt or whoever it is, they always have these characters in their, in their songs. You know,
Thomas Mooney 11:23
I was gonna ask about you right, in that book. Obviously, it seems like right now, you know, being stuck at the house? Did, were you able to, like get so much of that work done? yet? last few months?
Jesse Dayton 11:36
Yeah, absolutely. I finished it, man. 75,000 word book. And they don't want me to write anymore. Because they're doing like, you know, editing and punching it up. And I'm sure I have a few rewrites to do, but I kind of miss it right now, I'll tell you the truth, because I could just go out to my studio in my backyard here in South Austin, and just go out there and write every day. And, you know, I'm pretty disciplined. Guy, I mean, I, you know, music and writing and film, and all the stuff that I do is just, you have to be a self starter. And you have to wake up every morning and just put on your tool belt. And in, either fill up a few pages, or write a song or do whatever you have to do, you know, people don't, you don't come up with ideas. And then somebody calls you at the very beginning and says, I want to give you every bit of money that you need to make that that's not the way it works,
Thomas Mooney 12:39
right.
Jesse Dayton 12:40
And when you if you write one script, and you go to LA, and you think it's the best thing ever. The first thing you're going to say is, yeah, it's okay. You got anything else?
Thomas Mooney 12:51
Yeah. Yeah. So I
Jesse Dayton 12:53
mean, it's a lot of self start, you know, a lot of self starting on this work and songs and writing and script stuff and all the stuff that I've done, you know?
Unknown Speaker 13:05
Yeah.
Thomas Mooney 13:07
It seems like what I've always told people on the journalist side, writing wise is, you know, you're not going to be good at the beginning. Obviously, that's, that should be the given, but you need to like, it's that whole 10,000 hour thing or 100,000, whatever that number is, is what? By Well, yeah, it's it's you have to what I've tried to tell the people is you have to it's just the practice aspect, you have to get into getting into the routine of it. So when you do have those stories, whenever you do have the opportunity, you don't have to worry about the the actual writing part, you can just get into it. And that's the whole deal.
Jesse Dayton 13:53
I mean, you know, one mediocre song gets you to a great song, one, not so great story gets you to another decent story possible, then you get great if you're lucky. And then, you know, all I do all day is I feel my phone, just I did. And I'm fixin to start writing another record, which will be like, kind of a big, you know, this record I just released was just a little small record that I played all the instruments on and made it at my buddy's house, and it was just fun and, and, you know, it was a little bridge record to keep me and my listeners sane, until I put out my next big record, but the next bigger record is, you know, I mean, I've got, you know, so many ideas that I need to sit down and start focusing on and it's a process and it's it's great, you know, used to make me nervous. I used to, you know, when I was younger me like what if I don't have anything? Well, if I don't have anything, I do Just get up and go do something else. Right? ride my motorcycle or, you know, it's not happening today, so I don't force it.
Thomas Mooney 15:09
Yeah. You know, going back to the book thing, how? How different is it from? Like, what are you using different parts of your brain part like different parts of your creative outlet? How different is it from sitting down to like start a record, write a record or write a screenplay? Was that was there a learning curve on that part?
Jesse Dayton 15:32
I mean, there kind of was, but I've always been a writer, like I almost screamed screen writer. I've written you know, about five screenplays and I licensed one and I sold another one. And just was kind of after we'd written a play before I met Rob Zombie, but when I met Rob Zombie, I started I made movies with him. And I had a lot of free time during the day. So I would just write, you know, two or three pages a day. And then, you know, in 40 days, I'd have 120 page script, which is about, you know, an hour and a half hour and a half movie. So, but, you know, there's all like, I have a really great editor, Ben Shafer, who's helping me with this book. But the books really like memoir stuff. So all these processes are different, because, you know, if it's a memoir thing, and it's memory, it's what's going on with me. What was happening in my career, what was happening personally, what was happening in the country, what was happening with my friends, what was happening in the world, there's a lot of questions you want to ask yourself, you know, when I'm, you know, in Los Angeles, recording with Glen Campbell, or whatever, well, you know, there's a lot of other stuff going on in the world that kind of can make that interesting. But when I write songs, songs, usually sometimes I get the melody first. And I don't have any words to it. And I'll there'll be something that I just stumble on to on my guitar or something I sing in my head, and I'll just record it in my phone. And then sometimes, you know, it'll be just a saying or, you know, I was in a bar one night outside of Houston and clear like Texas. It this place called the turtle bar is this is a total redneck dive. And there's two big old Bubba's you know, at the bar, just, you know, classic, Texas, Baron barbas, in a working class did and and i'm i just trying to get out house, I'm not even meeting anybody there. One, I guess they're both in construction. And one goes, What are you going to do tonight, and the other one goes, I'm gonna go stay at home getting hammered. And the other one goes while she's out getting nailed. And I was like, Oh, my God, that's just like some Shakespearean white trash. Like, right. So I ran out to my car, my truck, actually and I grabbed a water burger bag, and I put I'm at home getting hammered while she's out getting nailed. And then that song, which was a stupid little song that I wrote that it's about two and a half minutes long, has like two chords and the whole song ended up in a movie in hell, it helped me, you know, put a down payment on a house,
Thomas Mooney 18:55
right? Yeah, that's what I mean by the being able to be a translator being like, those guys right there. They've probably said a million things like that, but you being present and being having like, the self awareness or the where, or the awareness in general going out that I need that I need to take that and do something with it. You know, that's I think that's like the as much as like songwriters talk or saying it's, it's, it's almost more so how much y'all listen?
Jesse Dayton 19:34
Yeah, I mean, it's like the guys who don't write songs, but have the ear to find really hooky great songs like George Jones and Elvis Presley never wrote songs, right. But they could pick great songs. Yeah. You know, just being aware of your what people are saying. I mean, I went back in those two bubbles. Didn't say I didn't try to blame You need something else. The rest of the night was pretty much a bunch of stupid shit, but they knocked it out of the park, then, you know, they made it on the soundtrack for a movie that sold really well and but it's not always just what people say, you know, sometimes it's something that I think are right. You know, there's 1000 ways to get it, man. Sometimes it's in a book or something somebody said on TV or? I don't know, you know? Yeah, you have to be
Thomas Mooney 20:35
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Unknown Speaker 21:31
Alright, that's
Thomas Mooney 21:32
it for Thomas Mooney, his cocktail minute. Let's get back to the show. Yeah, you know, I had this written down for later. But I think like we're already kind of talking about it. That's one of the things that I think stick out sticks out most in your in your songwriting. Of course, like I always love the storytelling and, like the emotional expression of a song and everything. But I think like my favorite part is whatever you're able to, like, stretch language to fit something. Yeah. And I think like people don't really think about language that way. But like, the English language is very, very versatile. And very, like, there's a lot of ways you can say something. Yeah, very elastic. And yeah, very elastic. Yeah. And it's, you mix these like, idioms and these, like new expressions, and old slang and new slang and made up stuff and make it into I get, you know, like modern American language. And I think like that is so that's probably like, my favorite part of listening to songs is listening to how a storyteller tells the song or tells the story. Yeah.
Jesse Dayton 22:47
Yeah. Well, I've never met, you know, I mean, most songwriters kind of are poets. You know, and when you use words, like poets and artists, people, like, get a little weird, because it sounds pretentious, right? But the bottom line is do is it if you make shit up out of thin air, and you create it into a song or a piece of whatever. And then enough people buy it, to where you can pay your rent or your mortgage and not have a day job whatsoever, then you're an artist. That's what you do. Um, even if you're a pandering bullshit artists, you know, even if you're just like, well, I'm going to go over all these people who, you know, love Robert Earl Kane, and I'm going to write some songs sound just like Robert or Kane. And I'm going to dress like them, and they're gonna love me and you know what, they probably will. Yeah, but it won't be as awesome as Robert okay. You know what I'm saying? Right? Which is, you know, I always tell people all the time, be yourself because everyone else is taken. You know, like, one of the great things about getting older is for me is I just, I know who I am now. And I don't want to be these other people that I love. And I admire them. But, you know, everyone's journey is so unique.
Thomas Mooney 24:37
Yeah, it's it's one of those things where I think so many young songwriters are just when you're young in general, it doesn't even have to be a songwriter. So much of it is like you're trying to be cool. Yeah, like, at some point, you know, you start realizing, you know, being cool just being yourself, you know, like it's, and it's it's so hard to try and be cool all the time. Yeah.
Jesse Dayton 25:02
I mean, you know, that's a real loaded term being cool, right? And, you know, I'm proud of the stuff that I did when I was young, you know, in, you know, I got to learn more than just some Eagle song book chords, cowboy chords, you know, and I got to learn some sophisticated stuff. And you know, I didn't have the same style is a lot of the guys who were hitting it bigger. And they're hitting it quicker. You know. And I've had this real weird career where I'm just been a total outsider, on pretty much every genre, but I've gotten to play with a lot of great people because of that, right? And you know, I get to play country stuff and rock stuff and punk rock stuff and jazz music and Western swaying and rockabilly back into play, you know, reggae and all kinds of stuff. I mean, all on like real big recordings, you know what I mean? They were like up some note, you know, and I think that is kind of the payoff. Because I never felt just like a country guy even though I was from Belmont. And you know, I could say, George Jones you know, I could do that I could go I could I could have moved to Nashville and put a hat on and and been like those other guys from Beaumont but, and I just thought it was so Goofy, you know, and, and I just wanted to do what I wanted to do. But I think after a while, everybody kind of figures out their own path and yeah, first, you know, you do think about like, who you're going to, you're going to mimic and you know, George Jones used to mimic I Graham's? Yeah, Eastern mimic. lefty frizelle from Waxahachie, Texas, and my dad went to high school with George Jones in Boma and you know, it took him a while to figure out who he was but if you listen to lackey for sale the way he does those twirls in his voice, way he's lay all that stuff, and then you listen to Hank Williams away kind of breaks his voice. It's like Jones is like a perfect combination of those two, but nobody thinks about it because he turned out to be the greatest country singer of all time. So
Thomas Mooney 28:02
yeah, yeah, like the the it's not the same thing. It's like the the vocal runs, but it's kind of a like that little bit of kit and the similar like, like Buddy Holly kind of doing the hiccup II kind
Jesse Dayton 28:17
of thing. Yeah. That was a big deal, man. That's a really it's a really I'm a huge Buddy Holly fan. But, you know, he that's the way a young guy would see. And I think Joey Lee was telling me one time that he thought that Buddy Holly's whole entire recording career only lasted 18 months or plane went down. Yeah. But yeah, how many people started doing that hiccup voice You know, I was like,
Thomas Mooney 28:52
that's what's so like, all those people from the the 50s. Or the 40s are. What's amazing to me is like how innovative they were in the recording process. And like how they were like, if you think about with with buddy, they were trying they were like capturing natural reverb in the studio. They didn't really know that's what they were doing. But that's what they thought was cool. You know, we're like, huh?
Jesse Dayton 29:19
And so, you know, and it's still to this day, man. Like, there's nothing better than getting a bunch of guys in there. And just banging it out. Yeah, you might have to re cut some vocals or tweak some stuff or whatever, but you can really genuinely hear the difference. You know,
Thomas Mooney 29:41
right. Yeah. The one thing I was gonna ask you about going back to like the memoir stuff was obviously back in the day when you're getting the these calls from people even just like from Rob Zombie, which is not too far back. You You know, it's one of those people had to like call you on the phone, or like read it that way. Now like you can you can get be more verified, I guess today via Twitter. Yeah, sure. Or like email or what? Yeah. Um, what was that? Like, I guess back then not necessarily knowing if this is actually you know, Waylon Jennings on the phone or, or who, well, I
Jesse Dayton 30:30
mean, it's really different. Um, you know, all this stuff comes different ways. Like last year, I played on Duff McKagan, his record from Guns and Roses, right. And a lot of people don't know that Duff co wrote sweet child of mine, he co wrote like, all these huge hits. And he has always been the guy in the band who's saying one or two songs during the show so but I got in touch with you know, shooter Jennings called me about that. Because shooter was produced the record but like, I met shooter, this is what's so cool about shooter is I met shooter when he was in high school, and he had and I was playing with his dad in Nashville, and shooter had a Marilyn Manson t shirt on. And now shooter just produced the new Marilyn Manson record, right? Yeah. Which is crazy. Which he doesn't matter if you like Marilyn Manson or not, he sold a gazillion records. He's not losing any sleep other over whether you like him or not. Yeah, it's just cool that shooters been a fan his whole life. And now he's working with some guy that, you know, he used to listen to in high school. But back in the day, it would come usually from producers, our they would see me, you know, and I was on this real kind of square country show called crook and chase one time. And it was in Nashville, and it was real kind of it reminded me like Christian Broadcasting nation, you know, the woman had, they were super nice and whatever. And, you know, I was I wasn't the dance hall guy. I was hanging out the Continental club and I had a leather jacket. And you know, right, that I was part of that Austin scene, you know, and so I got there and I'm all Hey, man, I'm from Bama. You know, I'm nice to everybody. And, and but I was like, this is probably don't think they're gonna really get what I'm doing. And anyway, Christofferson was on the show that night, and we had the same publicist because this publicist had come in to Austin and see me and said, You sound too weak. You know, I can't get you on the radio, but I can get you on TV. So she got me on TV. I drove my truck up there, and so cliche. And I meet Chris. And Chris goes out on stage and goes, Hey, what about that kid from Boma and afterwards, we went out to this town car and he took me to the Gibson Guitar factory at like 11 o'clock at night, and we would burn one together. And we talked about books and and then he took off that night and I was like, Oh, great. You know, that was that was a big night. That was a big night Nashville for me. And I'll just wake up and go back home in the morning. So the next morning, my phone rang in my hotel in I said, Hey, house, I saw you on TV last night, Chris. And it was waveland. And he said you want to come over and pick some guitar for me? And I said absolutely. I drove over there and a lot of it's on YouTube because there was a film crew following him around but I knocked on the door and Johnny Cash opened the door and said you got to stand there with your mouth open or come in and play that thing and it was a whole thing you know. And so once I played with waylynn in I got passed around and played on a bunch of their tracks. Sometimes they were there sometimes they weren't. You know, I got to play on some Willie stuff. And just a bunch of people re price Johnny bush I mean a lot of old timers you know, which I thought was the coolest thing ever and but most people my age were like, trying to do this. Brent Mason tele pop and Brent Mason's brilliant guitar player. I don't mean that anything. But you know he was they were all thinking like that. hit songs of the day and people still think like that today, right.
But,
you know, it was cool man, it was it opened all kinds of doors for me. And you know, I got to go play with some big rock bands and do some different stuff. And they all kind of found out about me in different ways. So
and
you know, it's so different now. It's Yeah. You know, everything's you know, it's just a different it's a different things not worse. I will say, I don't think it's quite as cool. Because the markets kind of flooded with people who are just trying to be famous. Yeah. Instead of real, natural songwriter, natural guitar player, natural musicians who, you know, it's a calling, you know,
Thomas Mooney 36:02
right. Yeah, that's the, the thing about modern, I guess, modern, the ability to make music in the modern era, is that anyone can make it. But then also, at the same time, you know, you can make your own record, obviously, you can just put out a record yourself. Yeah, you can record it self recorded, all that kind of stuff. You can get the technology and do a record in your bedroom. Yeah. But also, yeah, you there is that oversaturation of just, anytime you my go to example, is is Netflix, like, whenever I opened up Netflix, I almost never watched anything, because I'm just over. It's just so much stuff. I don't know what route and you're like, Oh, my, like, what I okay, I just spent 30 minutes just looking through it, I'll just go turn it off.
Jesse Dayton 36:54
And I'm the same way. I mean, I'm just looking. I mean, it's just, you're overwhelmed with so much. And, you know, I mean, let's be honest, man. These business people, they all get in a room, and they're all marketing people. And they might have had some success, they might have found some guys who sound stone cold, original, and, you know, whatever. But it's just not as cool as it used to be. And there's nothing that's ever going to change my mind that there is like, like I said, Now, with the advent of social media, and these numbers that likes and all that kind of stuff. There's so much emphasis on becoming famous. That can mean I rarely see anybody who just knocks me out. I mean, I still do, there's still some young musicians who knock me out. But it's, it's, it's as rare as it always was, but that no matter how much the markets been flooded with mediocrity, and you know, and there's also seems to be a thing now to where like, you know, people want to circumvent, or sidestep the work.
Thomas Mooney 38:25
Right?
Jesse Dayton 38:26
You know, I hear that constantly. I'm like, do you have to go to Des Moines? 12 times and play for the fucking bartender? Yeah, till people start showing up. And then when 200 people show up on a Tuesday night, then you should just be happy that Yeah, you know, and if you get lucky, you win the lottery and you write you know, a song that everybody just freaks out and, you know, you get like, some movie or whatever it is to turn, you know, some vehicle to turn everybody on to it. Then you can count yourself lucky. But, you know, the one thing about going out and touring, and building your own audience is nobody can ever take that away.
Thomas Mooney 39:20
This episode is in part brought to you by the blue light live here in Lubbock, Texas. While blue light is still close due to the pandemic. There is a way to help a support blue light, and B get a sense of that normalcy by visiting blue light lubbock.com clicking on the merge tab, and getting some koozies a vast array of T shirts and caps and yes, even a blue light flag. While it is such a bummer that live music is still on hold right now. I'm telling you by getting some blue light live merge, we're gonna feel better. It just feels better wearing a T shirt in bulk. And helping support your favorite bar. Again, that's blue light. lubbock.com. Click on the merge tab, get some merge. All right, back to the episode. Yeah, that's, I feel like that's such a not only it's the it goes back to that 10,000 hour thing, but it's also it cuts the people who go, you don't actually I want to go do something else. This isn't for me, you know, and I think like the, the struggle of of anything helps cut the people who want in it wholeheartedly,
Jesse Dayton 40:39
right. It's the rejection.
Thomas Mooney 40:42
Yeah.
Jesse Dayton 40:44
I went through a lot of musicians. Early on, I knew I was alive for you know, I was gonna do it. I kind of had it figured out, you know, when I was pretty young, because I always kept my bills smaller than what I was making. I remember these guys that come in, like, I'm gonna be an actor. I'm like, Yeah, but you have, like, $400 a month car payment. And you live in a nice house? How? Like, the math doesn't work, dude. Yeah. Um, but you know, I, you know, that's a interesting time right now. Because you know, and the musicians are, I talked to Ray Wylie Hubbard on the phone the other day, and he really made me laugh. He's all said, how you doing? He goes, Oh, you know, I'm just out here doing that all free card money hustle. You know, playing the old shell game. And he was he was talking about, like, just doing what he could, you know, because we all had the rug pulled out from under us, you know?
Thomas Mooney 41:53
Yeah. It's, it's such a weird time right now, because it's everything's been put on pause, but also not put on pause, like, you know, like, no one's none of the bills have been put on pause, really, none of the, like, the live stuff like that. None of the adult stuff is put on pause. Even though we're all supposed to be.
Unknown Speaker 42:22
Yeah, you know.
Thomas Mooney 42:23
So it's, one thing I wanted to go back to is like you're talking about like, it feels like back then. And, you know, mid 90s, to even in the early 2000s. When you went to go find something when you when you like some something, you had to go out and like, actually dig for it, you had to go find it, whether it was a movie that you liked, or a book or, or an record or an artist. And now it's like at your fingertips. You know what I mean? And I think like so much of that, working for it, so much of the having to go find it made you cherish that cherish things a lot more? Oh, well.
Jesse Dayton 43:11
So when I left Beaumont, Texas when I was a kid, I started a little rockabilly band. And nobody in Texas had rockabilly bands. Sure, there was a couple in Austin, there was like two hoots and a holler. And Leroy brothers, and they were all older than me. But they just played around Austin. I mean, they would go to Europe play festival every once in a while. But there was a band, you know, it was a band called High Noon that actually turned into a really big rockabilly band. And there wasn't that many bands doing it, you know, there was only a few of us. And I did it because I was a hot dog guitar player. And for me, I didn't have to have a steel player. I could have a three piece band, I could play as much guitar as I wanted with this genre music and people could dance to it if they wanted to, you know, so we were obsessive record collectors. Like I have so many records. It blows people's mind like I have to keep them in storage in like air conditioned storage, because they won't all fit in my house but I used to go out and out of that rockabilly scene you know, I really got into country music early it because of my grandparents and play I'd heard it you know, growing up my whole life from Bama as everybody's big country town, you know, a lot of country music there. And, but you know, I met Clifford Anton when I was a kid alone and tones, blues claw home in the blues, you know, that he discovered Stevie Ray and the Thunderbirds And all those kinds of people. And so I got into collecting blues records and all kinds of stuff. But, you know, now, I mean, my son can just literally go on iTunes and cherry pick the most obscure, obscure stuff that we would look for for years, we would be been diving dude, we would be like, going through bands and records and I can remember to like, you know, I'm in this rockabilly band. I remember, like, I would buy the 70s country records, they do it. Oh, what do you what are you doing? That's, you know, what I'm like, Dude, this is cool. This is, you know, now, it's all here. You know, and I mean, everybody's outlaw country. And you know, I don't know, man, that's, you know, there's a lot of that stuff that it just doesn't go down that way anymore. And that's fine. You know? Like I said, Man, there's some new guys that are coming up who I really liked. But I don't know. It was a hell of a lot cooler, man, when we couldn't jump on Google. Yeah. You know what I mean? We really, we really had to have our ear to the street. And know what was going on to hear about gigs that were coming. You know, I mean, it was very punk rock very kind of street. Shit. You know what I mean?
Thomas Mooney 46:36
Yeah, it feels like you so much of like, right now. You're just you're glued to your phone in so many ways, where back then it felt like you had to be more aware, more in the moment to No thanks. Because like, I mean, I mean, even in I graduated high school in 2005, and it still felt like that, like that, like that, then, where I missed so many shows here, because I just I wasn't being aware. You know what I mean? And then of course, you do catch those shows, and then you're able to brag to your buddies. Like, you missed that great fucking show with you know, like that kind of stuff. I still love doing the the record, crate dive in digging through records. There's a couple of records, I still have that on my wish list that I'm like, I'm gonna have to I'm finding them in the wild. I'm not gonna order them on
Unknown Speaker 47:35
eBay or
Thomas Mooney 47:38
Yeah. I think like whenever the crate digging aspect, you also have that story. Whenever you find the record, like I, I can point to so many times like, Oh, I remember exactly where I was. When I found this record. Finally. Yeah, like there's like that part of it, too.
Jesse Dayton 47:57
I don't really do it anymore. I mean, I still have buddy and a buddy of mine in Los Angeles. Same deep Dickerson is this amazing guitar player, but he was like, doing it yesterday in like, the middle of nowhere. Yeah. And, you know, he probably walked out with 100 or 100 Records. Yeah. And he still does it, you know. You know, dude, I'm not gonna do that now. So, anyway, I want to hear obscure Western swing, Texas top hands record, I could probably go online and find it. Yeah. But we had to do it then. And it really sure did make you love everything a lot more, that's for sure.
Thomas Mooney 48:52
Yeah. You mentioned Joe elior there. Joe, obviously, like back in the day had he was kind of very much a, he could play Honky Tonk country music, but then he also you know, toured with the clash. You have very much a similar kind of playing, you know, the old rockabilly of playing old country, then obviously, playing with guys like, like x, right? What, uh, you know, like, what was that like playing with with those guys?
Jesse Dayton 49:26
Well, it's interesting. You bring up Joe ealy I have this new radio show on gimme countries gi MMA conjuring. If you go to your phone app store, you can download it for free. And they have a Jesse Dayton stations like 24 hours. And then my show airs on gimme country every Wednesday, but I just had Joe ealy on the show. And, you know, I couldn't I was getting all caught like what was it like? And he's like, Well, you know, we we went to these Western stores in Lubbock on Joe Strummer, bodily square dance bolo ties. And then I took them down. When we went to El Paso, they wanted to go to El Paso because of the Marty Robin song. And so I took them across the border to war as and I mean, dude, it's a pre romantic shit.
Thomas Mooney 50:24
Yeah.
Jesse Dayton 50:24
I mean, I'm sorry, I don't know what's going on today, maybe you, you know, jump on some site on your app, and you met your buddy and wherever. But this was like, really, like, you know, early, cool shit. And for me for a long time, people would always be like, well, I don't see how you could be into George Jones and be into the clash. You know, I mean, everything when I was younger, was very, like scenes dominated everything. Everything was, you know, now, you know, people your age, and you just cherry pick every day, you know, your playlist is all over the place. But my playlist was all over the place to back then to, but I would always run into the guardians of the seed. Traditional, you know, and gatekeepers? Yeah, yeah, the gatekeepers don't really matter anymore. But, you know, it's the same way. I mean, like, you know, x where they were a lot, you know, older than I was. But we did a whole US tour. Billy zoom, had got diagnosed with cancer, and he had to go into immediate treatment. And he couldn't do the tour. So it was me and john doe, Zayn and DJ bonebrake. And I had to learn all of Billy stuff and play it in. It was a lot of fun. Music was gray. And I really enjoyed it, man. I was like, running away with the circus, you know? Right.
Thomas Mooney 52:08
Yeah. You know, a lot of people don't know, but you know, john doe, he was in pure country. And you're, I'm always like, I always bring up that is like, Hey, I mean, like, you can be a punk rock guy and be in a George Strait movie.
Jesse Dayton 52:22
Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, he was in Roadhouse and Boogie Nights and a bunch of stuff. Your John's a great actor, john was in my film. That's how I met john. I actually sold one of my scripts. And the producer said, Look, we really can't afford a great director. Do you want to direct this? And I was like, well, I've only directed a few music videos. But I said, if you get the money, Yeah, I do. So I had been in this Rob Zombie movie with Malcolm McDowell for Clockwork Orange, and it's been in a million things in they got now coming down to attach to the script. So as soon as we got that we got the money for the movie. So I had this part that I written for the script in the script about this burlesque club owner in New Orleans, and I was going to get Mike ness from social distortion, because I wanted to kind of a hard guy with a bunch of tattoos wasn't a lot of lines is more vibe, and in anyway, I couldn't Mike couldn't do it Michaels on tour. Whatever was going on, it didn't, you know. So I ended up getting john doe. And that's how I met john doe as he played the part of this character in my movie, and he came in nailed it and we became friends. And he said, Hey, you want to sit in with me? And I was like, course. And that's how it started.
Thomas Mooney 53:59
Yeah. You mentioned music videos. I was going through different music videos earlier. And you have this little part in Hayes Carl's. He left me for Jesus and I completely forgot about that music video. That is such a I forgot that. It was like shows like that. Yeah. Listen up the cheaters.
Jesse Dayton 54:24
Yeah, that's hilarious. Yes, she left me for Jesus by Hayes. Carl, check it out on YouTube. It's well worth the rabbit hole to go down.
Thomas Mooney 54:34
Yeah. You mentioned the the gimme country stuff. I was gonna ask you about that. You've had obviously you mentioned Joe, you've had people like Jamie Wyatt on as well. What do you do to prepare for for your conversations with these people? Is there anything that you
Jesse Dayton 54:53
I mean, I do I usually do prepare. I mean, I don't want to be too prepared because I don't want it to be too rigid. Right, because we might end up going somewhere that I never realized. And I kind of want to, you know, they might have something they want to talk about that I'm not thinking about. And I don't like to control people or steer the cons, unless they're just rambling about ridiculous shit, which rarely, I mean, that doesn't really happen. It's never really happened for me, but I started the gimme Country radio show a year ago, I can do it from my house or for the tool or wherever. And it did really good man. And they ended up saying, hey, do you want your own station. And then that way, you can still have your Wednesday show at 4pm Central time here in Texas. And that'll air on the main gaming country station, and then we'll play out your back archives on your Jesse Nate channel, and then all the songs that you've curated, which is about 75 80% country music, and then the rest of its like, just any and everything you can imagine. I mean, everything from songwriters, to Jamaican music, Cajun music, to soul music to rockabilly to pop to old school hard rock to domain, you name it, man. You know, I'll play 30 guy Clark songs in a row, and then, you know, play a song by the clash, right? Whatever the hell I want. So, and it's awesome, man. It's, it's a lot of fun. It's actually been helping me like, not lose my mind during this whole pandemic thing?
Thomas Mooney 56:48
Yeah, yeah, it's, uh, it's always I feel like people have been finding these different outlets during this time to especially on the artist side doing other things that other than even songwriting obviously, you mentioned doing even working so hard in the book. This you know, but like other people I've talked with, have talked about, you know, even stuff from gardening to the painting, and it all kind of helps with the the artistic process, getting
Jesse Dayton 57:22
I think it all works. I think that's awesome, man. Yeah. I get up in the morning and go trail run, and, you know, hadn't even been drinking that much this year. I think I've drank like, three times, literally, in the last seven months. And just because I had such a good year, last year, I was like, okay, man, I need to get in really good shape. Like, you know, like, you know, rain, my diet rain, my kobir and taking a little bit I never had any trouble. I'm fine. You know, I never had never had a classic science. I don't really have the ISM in my family. So I'm lucky. But I was like, hell, man, you never he never really done it. So I started trail running. And I'm way into it. And in order to trail run in Texas, in the summertime, you got to get up early. Yeah, I've been going to bed like an old man day just like early as hell. Because, you know, if you run out in the heat, I don't care if you're 22 and long distance runner man, you know, you cannot run in triple digits.
Thomas Mooney 58:37
Right?
Jesse Dayton 58:40
Especially long, long, like yesterday I did 7.4 mile and but you know, do you there's something about being out in the woods out in the middle of nowhere. And that you'll get inspiration that you will not get when your feet are on concrete. In, you know, there's no trees around. And, you know, it's a completely different feeling. So I'm really into that right now. And it's like my mind every time I do it, my mind's like, thank you so much for just, you know, getting me off line away from people and away from all the bullshit, you know,
Thomas Mooney 59:29
right. At what point did you go? Oh, I got to get the proper shoes. Oh,
Jesse Dayton 59:35
man. That's a good question. Um, it was probably about three weeks into it. But my wife is like a real athlete. Okay, like I I, I don't live with somebody who just works out a lot. I live with a freak show. There's like, I mean, she's beating her tongue. And she's done all these marathons and ultra mans. And she's, you know, she rides 150 miles a week, our bike and she runs and all that kind of stuff. So I got it kind of easy in terms of having mental support,
Thomas Mooney 1:00:15
right?
Jesse Dayton 1:00:16
But yeah, man, she got me those new where they call boeken or hope boek or forgot the name of the shoes. They're like, unbelievable. Yeah. And I'll tell you, I'll tell you something funny. I've never in my life ever walked out of my hotel room on tour with anything other than some cool custom cowboy boots are my old broken motorcycle boots or something was just some real style. And I got those boots and I was I got those shoes. And I was in New York City. And I was like, Did if we're walking around New York City, I'm putting on an error by all the bad guys and the crew guys are like, oh, like, check him out, man. He's like, he's turned it into Willie. He's got his running shoes on. I was like, Yeah, man. This is like the greatest thing ever.
Thomas Mooney 1:01:13
Yeah.
Jesse Dayton 1:01:15
My feet felt amazing.
Thomas Mooney 1:01:17
Yeah, that's that's funny, man. Like, the when you when you go into something else are called Hocus Pocus.
Jesse Dayton 1:01:27
Ah, okay, a hoka. One.
Thomas Mooney 1:01:31
Yeah,
Jesse Dayton 1:01:32
if you look, look them up online. They're literally the best running shoe in the world.
Thomas Mooney 1:01:38
Yeah, that's good. Because I know like, once you once you start taking up something that you've not really done that much. Then you go, Oh, you know what, I don't have the proper equipment. I need to get fitted for something. And I just I figured you got some really good shoes. At some point.
Jesse Dayton 1:02:00
I got some kick ass shoes and just see, you know, as a longtime motorcycle enthusiast, owner rider the whole thing of they're just like tires, dude, you got to get named once every three months? Yeah. Because it depends on how much you run. If you look at the bottom of them, like, you know, I've seen I've talked to people and I was like, Hey, man, you you need to you're trans are blown out. It's a whole, it's a whole thing. But it keeps me lean. And more than anything, it just keeps me from going nuts. It's more from my mind. And it is any?
Thomas Mooney 1:02:41
Yeah, yeah, I think like, so much of what's been going on lately. And obviously, with the artistic process, too, is it's getting in that mindset. I think people think that. So often, y'all could just sit down and just write a song. And boom, an hour later, there's a song. Now granted, that happens, but so much more of it is getting into that mindset. And being even if it means going out and doing other things, getting into that mindset, that proper mindset to find whatever your main, say, that's so much of the work to or the process.
Jesse Dayton 1:03:25
Absolutely, man. And, you know, it's you know, another thing for me is as being somebody who's been assigned guy a bunch. I see people who get super protective of what it is that made them endearing to people and I get that, but they end up not taking any chances. And they get super comfortable. And they end up repeating themselves. And they end up pandering,
Unknown Speaker 1:04:05
right?
Jesse Dayton 1:04:07
really out of fear.
And
I you know, that's the thing I don't want to do and in but you know, I think it's important to like, you have to make some kind of moves to where, you know, I'm by no means like a wealthy guy. I'm not like set for life or anything. But I did do a few things with soundtrack and the movie thing that light was enough to put away to where I can actually say no, I don't want to do that. You know, I know. I know. It's good money and it you know, whatever. But I don't want to do that. I can say no. You know, it's kind of important, like at some point to be able to say like, that's true. True freedom, right? You know, to say no, I don't want to do that gig, I know it pays a lot of money and whatever, but just doesn't feel right. Or, you know, this guy wants me to do this song and it's some marketing guy's not cool and doesn't, you know, like, and so there's a real fine you know, high wire walking act that you do between protecting the brand and doing being yourself protecting your integrity, but also like, you know, not just doing the same shit over and over and over because you know that people like peanut butter sandwiches, so you're gonna make another peanut butter sandwich
Thomas Mooney 1:05:52
right now.
Jesse Dayton 1:05:55
You know, I've gotten to play with some guys that were, I never thought that I get to play with and I got to play with Lee scratch Perry. In January and Lee scratch Perry produced Bob Marley and Peter tie Shin like he's Oh, gee, in his late 70s, you know, Jamaican music legend. And, you know, just stuff like that makes me like, super appreciative that not like, you know, this one trick Johnny guy who does his thing,
Thomas Mooney 1:06:39
you know what I mean? Right? Yeah, that's, there's what I there's obviously so many artists where you go, Yeah, I got that one record of theirs. And that's the only record I only need to get one record because even though they got 12 Records, I got their record. You know, I mean, it's so important, what I think like the, the part where I love about some artists is that you can feel that they've grown with you, or they've matured, and those are always the bands. I feel that people go back and go. That's why that's my favorite band. That's why my that my favorite band is whoever at 20 and my favorite band at 33. You know, yeah. Whatever the case is?
Jesse Dayton 1:07:31
Yeah, I mean, um, you know, it's, uh, I mean, you obviously don't want to, you know, just totally ruin your career and throw you know, do some, you know, ridiculous record, but all my favorite bands, especially, you know, I listen to the Rolling Stones, you know, you listen to like, they just did all that country songs. They had reggae songs, it blues songs, it disco songs. He had folk songs they had, I mean, really just everything. Yeah. All sounded like the stuff. Yeah. And that's a beautiful thing for him. To me. That's exciting. You know, like, I don't know how they're gonna like this, but let's check it out. You know, and this is cool.
Thomas Mooney 1:08:32
Yeah. Yeah, man. It's been real great talking with you today.
Jesse Dayton 1:08:36
Thanks so much. Thanks for having me.
Thomas Mooney 1:08:39
Okay, folks, that's it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Be sure to check out Jesse Dayton's Gulf Coast sessions. Check out our buddies over at Desert door and the blue light live here in Lubbock, Texas. Alright, I'll see you all later this week for more news.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai