180: Jonathan Clay of Jamestown Revival
On Episode 180, I'm joined by Jonathan Clay of Jamestown Revival. During this episode, we talk about their latest EP, Fireside With Louis L'Amour - A Collection of Songs Inspired by Tales From the American West, character development, story arcs, continually progressing as a band & songwriters, working with Josh Block & Robert Ellis, and what's next for the Americana outfit.
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 0:01
everyone welcome back to New slang on music journalist Thomas Mooney. And on this episode I'm joined by Jonathan clay of Jamestown revival. I caught up with Jonathan last week to talk about their latest EP fireside with Louis L'Amour, a collection of songs inspired by Tales of the American West. Long story short, these six songs were written and based off the first six short stories in looing, the Moore's first volume of short stories, the storytelling is rich, and the characters, they all feel familiar in some form, or fashion. There are all those like classic prototypes that we've come across with the great westerns of our life, whether that's film TV novels, or even just hearing stories from old timers around that proverbial campfire. Like most I have that shelf on my bookshelf that's dominated by Louis L'Amour books. Again, there's just something really really classic and comforting about a Louis L'Amour book. And I've often used them as a palate cleanser of sorts, between longer novels, since they are these nice, quick and brief stories. And as Jonathan mentions, they too are longtime fans. You'll even see that in the title of their second album. Since it does share the same title as Lamar, his autobiography, the education of a wandering man, I do want to note that there are a couple of times when Jonathan's phone, it drops out just a little bit. I typically try and take all those things out, but I left them this time around because they're really that brief. And even when I did cut them out, like it just doesn't make sense or sound any better without them there. So at least when they're there, they're providing a little bit of context. Today's presenting partner is our pals over at Desert door, Texas SoTL. If you've been listening to new slang for really any amount of time, you'll know that desert door is one of my all time favorite premium, high quality spirits. If you haven't, or aren't sure what exactly a sotol is. I'm going to let you in on a little secret that's going to up the game on your liquor cabinet. For starters, the best reference point that I can point you to is to think about a tequila or a Moscow. Do you feel that Western desert that text is ruggedness? Okay, Soto is like that, but a little bit more refined, smooth and fragrant. It intrigues the palate and offers these hints of vanilla, and citrus, there's an earthiness that often sends me right back to my trans Pecos some Far West Texas roots. There's plenty to love about desert door. For me, it all starts right there. a close second is just how versatile desert door really is. You can go full highbrow and experiment with concocting a variety of cocktails that call for muddling fresh fruit sprigs of time sticks of cinnamon, it's perfect for that world. If you're a little bit more down home, if you've just rolled up the sleeves of your denim Wrangler button up, it's perfect for that as well. If you're just designing something that's short and sweet, it hits the mark every time does adore is genuine and authentically West Texan. It's inherently West Texan. They harvest Soto plants out in the wild and our knowledgeable conservationists at heart. That's obviously something incredibly important to me. They shine a light on what makes West Texas special and unique and worth preserving and keeping it safe from exploitation. Right now, you can find desert door all over Texas, Colorado, Tennessee, and there's budding numbers in places like New Mexico, Arizona, California and Georgia. Best thing you can do is to check out desert door.com to find where desert door is locally. Again, that's a desert door.com All right, by now you guys probably know the drill. But if this is your first time listening to new slang, and you haven't hit that subscribe button, go ahead and do so if you're listening on Apple podcasts, leave one of those five star reviews. And of course new slang is super grassroots. So you just spreading the word to your friends and family and sharing on Facebook and Twitter and whatnot. That all goes a super long way. Be sure to check out the merch store while you're at it. That would be new slang podcast dot big cartel.com. We have T shirts koozies mugs all that kind of stuff over there. So yeah, go order some stuff. And of course all the links they will be in the show notes. Anyway, this episode right here is pretty short. So I'm gonna go in and just leave this intro on the short end as well. Here's Jonathan clay of Jamestown revival. Yeah,
so I guess let's just start off with what you guys have out right now. Two weeks ago, you guys released the fireside with Louis L'Amour, EP. And of course, like those are all inspired by, you know, like, some moving the more songs or stories short stories. Yes. So like, how does a How does a concept EP project get started like that what was kind of like the the inception of that what sparked the idea, essentially,
Jonathan Clay 5:27
you know, we've been a fan of Louis L'Amour for a long time we read his autobiography, the education of a wandering man. And if you're familiar with our music, then then you're going to be some bells are going to go off and recognize that song title of the song title was actually lifted from the title of his autobiography is a hat to him. And the guy's just, he's an incredible author, he's sort of he's a national treasure of sorts, and his writing is incredible. And you know, what's cool about his short stories is in such a short amount of time, he manages to build characters really bring you into the story, and then oftentimes hit you with an unexpected ending, or bring the story full circle in a way that you didn't expect. And I think it's cool to pull some of those techniques and elements into songwriting, you see it a lot in Old Country music, you see, especially in high 90s, country music. And it's a it's a cool songwriting technique, where some songs are kind of moods, or more ethereal or atmospheric, some songs are very much story. And we've always had a real appreciation and fondness for those for those songs that are written in that fashion. So it was cool to have the inspiration, and sort of let the stories be our truenorth. And really just musical eyes, the stories.
Thomas Mooney 7:00
Right, I think like, if you if you've been listening to you guys, since the beginning, you can really see that what I would call kind of like that pioneer or frontier spirit. And, you know, that's kind of always been in there as far as the, you know, go west young man type of thing, right? The trying to like, find whatever that American spirit is. And it's so interesting, because obviously, we live in 2021, where there really isn't like the same frontier as it was back in the 1800s or anything. But it's interesting how you guys have been able to parallel that, even with, you know, the, the growing of a person of an individual and trying to find themselves is still kind of the same thing. There's some commonality there.
Jonathan Clay 7:49
Yeah, I mean, there's a not so much a physical frontier so much as a proverbial frontier these days. But it I think, the idea of Expedition or journeying to pushing yourself into a place unknown. And just exploring, and I think exploring takes on a new meaning now, because humans have explored every inch of this incredible planet at this point. But as an individual, there's still a lot to explore. And, and, personally, there's still a lot to explore. So I think kind of going out in those leaps of faith and, and pushing your own boundaries, experiences. And, you know, I think it's always something we found really inspirational. It was, yeah, that was the inspiration behind our entire first album, when we headed west out to California, it was, you know, it felt like we were exploring a new frontier. And then just, you know, creatively, like doing this project is just, it's not typical, it's outside the realm of what we normally do. But it's, it's cool to get yourself out of these boxes that you know, that these boxes of comfort and push yourself into, into new different places.
Thomas Mooney 9:18
Right, you mentioned how obviously, like Louis L'Amour was able to have so much character development in such a short amount of time, sort of amount of time as far as like, even obviously, like these, this set of songs are inspired by short stories, but even his novels are very, very short. They're in that very, very much like that Pulp Fiction kind of way of telling a story where let's get as much done as possible. But yeah, I find that incredible as far as like you guys, you know, taking these hints from that kind of development. Was there any challenges do you feel like For this EP specifically when it came to picking these six songs, because from what I gather, I guess it's like the first six songs of that first volume of short stories, was there any idea of like, Oh, we may need to, like skip one or anything like that, or
Jonathan Clay 10:15
was there was a desire, there was a desire to skip one, but we didn't let ourselves do it, we wanted to take it, it was important for us for it to be for the listener to be able to follow along chronologically. So to be able to read the first short story, and that coincides directly with the first song, and the second short story and so on. And so we didn't let ourselves skip, we wanted to stay disciplined in that sense, and keep, you know, keep everything in order. And there were some songs that lend themselves better to it than others. There were some songs, where we felt like there were a lot of critical details. And it's, and we had to really sort of, we had to make cuts where we felt like it was absolutely necessary. And we had to maintain things one way or another, that we felt like we're critical. You know, one story was, you know, killing type. And that's a story about, you know, someone who's accused of murder. But as the story develops, they realize maybe this guy actually didn't do it, and maybe we got swept up in sort of this mob mentality. And, and then, towards the end, this guy actually lets them in, they find his house, he lets the man he feeds them dinner. And, you know, in their minds, they start to really believe that, you know, what, maybe we jumped to some conclusions here. But how do you put that in a song, that's a lot of detail, it's a lot of development to put into a song. So what we did was, at the end, we just sort of left it open ended. And we did it musically, as well as lyrically, and left it up to the listener to sort of make their interpretation of what was going on inside these guys minds.
Thomas Mooney 11:51
Right? Obviously, like a huge aspect of this is the fireside aspect the, you want to put the listener into this, this campfire setting. Obviously, when it when it came to the the sonic quality of the record, you keep it very, very minimal as well. Was there you know, was there anything like where you're like, oh, maybe these songs? Was there any like, I guess temptation to add anything else to the, to the sonic aspects? Or was it also just another thing where we have to kind of keep within this box that we've set ourselves up for?
Jonathan Clay 12:32
You know, there's, there's a temptation to cherish these up and make them big and add a lot of stuff. But I think, you know, for us, we work best when we set out to make a record and we have limits and we have a rule for and a rule for this record because we want it to feel incredibly personal. And we recorded this whole thing at my house. We self produced it self recorded it and so I really tried to stay true to what we set out to do in the first place, which was make something that felt like you were sitting around listening to songwriters finger songs right in front of you.
Thomas Mooney 13:05
This episode of new slang is brought to you by the blue light live here in Lubbock, Texas. Blue Light has long been the heart and soul of the Lubbock singer songwriter scene, and has been a home away from home for some of Texas Americana, country and rock and roll's finest over the years. Talk with 99.9% of the Songwriters who have come out of Lubbock and the panhandle at large over the past 20 years. And they'll point to just how integral and necessary the blue light is. with live music and touring slowly but surely coming back spots like the blue light are getting back to their usual ways as well. That means music every night of the week. Do you want to see that schedule? Well, I've got a few options for you. One, go to their socials and give them a follow that is at blue light live on Twitter, at the blue light live on Instagram. And of course by just searching the blue light live on Facebook. They're consistently posting that week's lineup of shows as well as those heavy hitters that ought to be on your calendar that are coming up on the horizon. To check out blue light lubbock.com as well. There they have the full schedule, the cover charges time, any of those specials that may be happening while they're go check out their merge page. They have a wide range of hats, koozies, hoodies, sweaters, beanies, jackets, and so much more. You can of course get all of your merchant age, when you go see your favorite band, take the stage at blue light, just ask the bartender and they will get you all set. Speaking of which, that's another great way of seeing who's playing there. Just go to the blue light. It's at 1806 Buddy Holly Avenue here in Lubbock, Texas. And of course, again, that is blue light, loving, calm. I'll throw a link into the show notes to maybe I'll see you there. Okay. Let's get back to the show
was obviously like this past year, it really just made everyone's plans just go out the window put on hold, was this like born out of the pandemic? Or was this something that like you guys kind of had in the back pocket, regardless of time and situation?
Jonathan Clay 15:28
You know, to be honest with this, this was a, I gotta say it was kind of born out of the pandemic, what the pandemic did was give us time to do something like this. Because typically, you know, where we're touring so much that we don't have time to do. It's more musical exploration, we don't have time to do to do explorations like this. And it's allowed us to have that time in the midst of writing another full length album. And so, you know, we just got, we're in the studio last week in Fort Worth, recording our next falling down, which, you know, was an awesome experience when incredibly well. But we were able to write that album in the midst of recording, you know, this, this, this EP, so we've missed playing live, but we've tried to make the best of it and utilize our time and, and really be able to set ourselves up to be able to come back to live and to touring with a lot of new songs to share with people and be able to play completely unique shows and play songs with people a lot of songs that people never heard before live songs that we've never played before live to be frank.
Thomas Mooney 16:50
Yeah, that must be like one of those things where it's exciting. It should be exciting for all parties, a little bit of that, like, oh, man, like, this is almost not necessary, like starting over, but like you guys are in for maybe like, as far as you guys speaking to this to an audience like, this is almost like, just just trust us on this journey of new songs and new material, even if like, you know, we have enough new material, because all these different various projects to fill up a whole show.
Jonathan Clay 17:22
Yeah, you know, we were actually talking about this in the studio, because we were, there was one song that we recorded this past week. And, you know, we were asking ourselves, do we feel like this is, you know, this fits with the others. And ultimately, the conclusion we came to is yes, we feel like it fits. If we put it on the record. Thank you, she's sorry. We do feel like we came to the conclusion, we did feel like a fit, we put it on the record. And what we talked about was the fact that our fans are willing to stick with us through through different projects on an album albums. And give us the freedom and the autonomy to make the music that we're inspired to make which, as an artist, as a writer, as a musician, that's the pinnacle, that's the that's to have a fan base that will stick with you through you know, different stylistic explorations and different creative endeavors. It feels incredibly empowering to know that your fans have got your back, and they're going to stick with you. And they're going to, as long as you are putting out quality music, and you're putting your heart into it. And you're not just you know, as long as you believe in what you're doing, which everything we're putting out, we believe in. We feel like our fans match that. And they believe in it as well. And it's been, it's a cool place to be.
Thomas Mooney 18:58
Yeah, I think like, you know, I can see it on both sides as far as being a fan because, you know, a lot of times I think the some fans just want you to do the exact same thing over and over again, in just a different form. Because of just like the, they loved whatever that was that were they bought in for the very beginning, whatever it was, and there's like, yeah,
Jonathan Clay 19:21
you make the same album for Yeah, they only make your first album four times in a row. But like, yeah,
Thomas Mooney 19:27
you know, a lot of my favorite bands are bands that you kind of look back and go, Oh, I like drew with this band at the same kind of rate that they were growing. And those are the ones that like are the timeless ones.
Jonathan Clay 19:39
Yeah. It's interesting because I look at our Spotify, demographics, and I look at different I look at different indicators that tell me you know, what is what does our fanbase really look like? Aside from I guess that's the only thing you have to go by when you can't play shows when you're playing shows he gets to look into people's faces, but when you're At home for a year and a half, all you have to go by is metrics. And so it's interesting because our fan base has definitely grown with us, not only creatively, but also physically, most of our fans are, you know, about our ages are in their 30s. And they're thinking about different things in their life as we are. A lot of our fans have kids now. And so it's been cool to write about things that we're going through, and things that we're experiencing, and changes that we're feeling. And, and, and be able to write about those things earnestly. As we're experiencing them for the first time and have our fans be right there with us and, and experiencing those things as well. And, you know, we, we let our first album, but we we couldn't write our first our first album was was, was something we're really proud of, it was a really cool moment, we were young, hungry, full of piss and vinegar. And we, you know, we didn't know what we were doing. And we couldn't make that album again, if we try it 100 times. But we have to appreciate that album and that moment in time for what it was. And we have to keep creating in a way that we believe in. And we have to trust that our fans are going to believe in it as well. So yeah, it's it's been an interesting journey, learning to trust ourselves creatively to not make the album we think we should make, and instead make the album were inspired to make and that was something we really struggled with on our second album. I feel like our third album, San Isabel, we started to find our truenorth again, and this next album, I feel like we've we've settled into a voice that is our own more than we ever have.
Thomas Mooney 21:52
Yeah, like that, that pressure of you know, and maybe it's not even necessarily like, pressure in the in this bad sense. But pressure of like, Okay, well, this this worked before. Is this exactly? Is this what they're wanting again? You know, yeah. And is it like, Do you follow your voice? Or do you? Do you listen to those other outside voices that you're thinking that may that you at least perceived that are there that are like, Well, I mean, do we try and recreate that, again, it's such an interesting thing, because I think a lot of artists, once you get in your 30s, you kind of realize, you know, you should approach records as like that snapshot of wherever you were in that point, and just letting it be there. Because even at that, like sometimes you try and like if you try and perfect something too much. You're gonna be working on it forever. And in a lot of ways.
Jonathan Clay 22:52
Yeah, it's, it's not only that, it's just for us, I think it's really been learning to trust ourselves. Because, you know, with our second record, it was like, Oh, we need we need another California. And California was our song that really gave us a career. And I was like, well, we got to run another California. And the more we tried to write another California and the more we wrote a bunch of songs that felt like you're just trying to write another California, which is a pitfall in and of itself. And instead of just writing purely from a place of inspiration, and trusting that, that we could create new songs, and trusting that people would like the new songs that we created. And that they didn't have to be just more of what was successful about the first album, because when you're writing your first album, no one's expecting any. So you have no pressure of time. And nobody has anything to compare it to. So there's no pressure in that way, either. And so it's it's a really special time, I think, in a writer's journey, that first album, there, because there really are writing from a place of blissful ignorance, zero and zero pressure. It's just you can never get that again.
Thomas Mooney 24:14
Yeah, as you mentioned, like you use the term that my dad would use a lot growing up, and that's the piss and vinegar, the the experience of it all right, the, there's some freedom in that and like, a lot of times, I think back about that time in my life and go like, man, just to have a little bit of that freedom again, just to
Jonathan Clay 24:35
Yeah, that's so our new album is called young man. And it's about it's about that, and it deals a lot with age and, and sort of the slow march towards wisdom, but also the steady march of way from youth. And that, that paradox, and the good and the bad sides about that, and just trying to trying to embody some of that youthful, haphazard guns blazing, just go for it mentality. And, you know, I think your 30s are a really interesting time because it, you know, having kids changes, you gives you a lot of perspectives, you know, there's changes you and maybe you own a house, maybe, you know, you got a lot more responsibility, you kind of, you know, your 20s, you get to have, you get to have experience a lack of responsibility, you know, not so much later on. And so that our new album is it talks about a lot of that, and a lot of those transitions, and thinking about our parents as they get older, and just really looking at, there is a theme throughout the album of age, and the passage of time, and how that affects all of us.
Thomas Mooney 26:16
Yeah, I think that's really great. I love that. Because it is very much I think, something that we all, obviously experience. This is talking from even a little bit of privilege, but I think like a lot of times through your 20s, you almost act as like, if there's a safety net, because like, you always kind of, at least for me, personally, I knew that like, if I fucked up in some way, you know, you had family as that safety net, your parents to help you out. But at 30, when you start a family, when you start transitioning into this point in your life, you kind of feel like, you have to you have to keep you have to pick up that responsibility of not necessarily being that person. And it's I don't know, it's an interesting time.
Jonathan Clay 27:06
Yeah, and you have a mental safety net, made completely woven of ignorance, because you just don't think about consequences the same way. And you still think you're invincible. And he's still think that, you know, things don't have repercussions and rampid ramifications like they do when you start when you started to experience some of that stuff. And so it's just everything's a little bit simpler when you're younger, just because you don't, you don't worry about stuff as much. And there can be some good that comes from that. Yeah, there can be, especially creatively. And so yeah, that was we that, that, that thought. And that idea of that inspired a lot of our writing over the last year or so.
Thomas Mooney 27:52
Yeah. Well, I'll get you out on this last one right here, because you've mentioned this new record. On Instagram, you guys, you guys posted about recording in now. Steady sound, Robert Ellis, Josh block? How did the Yeah. How did that get to that point, as far as working with Robert Ellis, who I think is just kind of a musical genius.
Jonathan Clay 28:12
Robert awesome. He's a, it's, we're, we're excited. I mean, that's, uh, gosh, incredibly excited. So we we went out to Huntsville, my family's ranch out there. It's been in my family since the 70s. It's a big plot of land. And we recorded a lot of the songs for the album out there as sort of demos and sort of an exploratory session. And we thought maybe we'll use some of these for the for the album, maybe we won't, and we wrote a couple songs, and we're out there. And what that eventually turned into was really the backbone for an album. And so we took those demos, and we sent them to Robert and Josh, and we've been fans of Josh's work, you know, with Leon bridges, and camp camp, and you know, he's done some great stuff out there. And we also thought it would be cool to we like the idea that the studio was in Texas and to try to form you know, to to to contribute artistically to to the Texas community of songwriters and musicians and people making legitimate music with you know, that are going out and touring around the country and with music that was born and bred in Texas and so Fort Worth has a really cool cultural scene happening and and you know, Niall city sound that studio out there is a real is a real kind of centerpiece of a lot of that. And so it was really cool to get into the studio. The studio is incredible, and we we've known Robert for a few years now. And I've always respected him as a guitar player and a musician. The guy's just incredible. And so it, you know, we talked to Robert, we said, Hey, you know, have you ever thought about producing records? And he was like, Yeah, I actually have been producing some stuff. And let's make a record. And we The rest is kind of history. We decided to make the record about two weeks before the first day of recording. So it happened pretty fast. He came down to Austin. The next week, we worked on a few songs together, we wrote one together and worked on some arrangement of some of the other songs, and headed up to Fort Worth a week after that, and recorded the whole album in about seven days. And it's going to be 10 songs. And it's, it's cool, the album's gonna be different. It's Roberts playing acoustic guitar playing additional acoustic guitar. We have a gentleman named Ross homes on the fiddle, and will Van Horn on the pedal steel and neck and add, you know, our, our drummer and bass player for the last 10 years, holding down the rhythm section. So the band's incredible and it's it's looking like Robert, this isn't for sure yet, but it's looking like Robert might be coming out on the road with us in January of next year to support his solo album and also play. Play with us helping to bring the song you know the songs to the stage. So we're excited about that possibility as well. It could be a really cool, fun show.
Thomas Mooney 31:40
Oh, absolutely. Yeah, that sounds amazing. You have to make a stop here in Lubbock, Texas. So absolutely. Would love to see that show. Robert, just phenomenal as is every thing you've just said there. Yeah, it's great. How you guys struck while they are it's hot, if you will, getting that together. Super quick.
Jonathan Clay 32:01
We do it. Yeah, we made it happen fast. And right now we're kind of albums in mixing but the first song for that comes out this September. And and the new album comes out in January along with you know, tour that basically takes us to every every market around the country, every city around the country, so I don't even know. I don't even know if I'm supposed to be saying all this stuff.
Thomas Mooney 32:34
Well, I've seen you brought it up. And then I obviously I saw the Instagram posts and I thought well, yeah, we can. Yeah, whatever. It'll be fine. It'll be fine. So yeah, you know, everybody wants to have all these strategic plans and stuff and yeah, it doesn't. I don't think it matters. But yeah, yeah,
I think give something to think about until September. So absolutely. Rumor and innuendo. So.
Yeah. Anyways, um, yeah, man. It's been really really great talking with you this morning and looking forward to to the new record and everything.
Jonathan Clay 33:15
Absolutely. The feeling is mutual. Really appreciate you having me on supporting the band. You know, helping to spread the word about what we do. You know, it's, it's awesome to have that support, so we surely do.
Thomas Mooney 33:30
Alright, that is it for this episode. Be sure to check out jamestowne revivals latest EP fireside with Louis L'Amour if you haven't just yet, stop on over and visit our presenting partners over at Desert door and the blue light live. Hit that subscribe button. And yeah, I'll see y'all next week for more episodes.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai