November 20, 2023 • 53 mins
This week on GET REAL Podcast... JESSE FRASURE a.k.a. DJ TELEMITRY!
DJ TELEMITRY is a Grammy-nominated Nashville songwriter, producer, DJ and music publisher with a running list of number one songs under his belt.
IN THIS EPISODE, we talk:• The true measure of success• Trusting your work ethic• His keys to achieving your goals• Staying driven in a creative world• Having and finding the freedom to pursue passions
Listen to DJ TELEMITRY on GET REAL Podcast...NOW!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Cary Lone. She's a queen of talking and you a song.
You know, she's getting really not.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Afraid to feed this episode, so just let it flow.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
No one can do we quiet. Carey Lone is sounding
care alone.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Jesse Frazier aka Lemontry. You are a legend. You are
crushing life. You are totally maximizing your potential. How is
your life feeling these days?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Jesse?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It's been good. It's been busy. It's it's hectic.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
This is uh.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I guess when you choose not to have kids, you
just fill it up with everything else in life.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, especially when you're a hit songwriter and you've written
twenty two number ones, which is unbelievable. We'll get into that.
You've been nominated for a Grammy a couple of times.
You've gotten like Songwriter of the Year a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
You.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean, there's so many accolades that you have going on.
You're producer, you produced so many hit artists, you have
real man, and it's just it's so funny. And your Telemetry,
which you just released your sequel album, Return to Calm Springs,
because you already put one out Calm Springs, which is
all about just like the most incredible background album playing
(01:28):
just music instrumental, and it's like, what is it like
your martini soap? Tell me the description of it, because
I've been listening to it all morning and I'm like,
this is the best like party chill music ever.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah. I mean it kind of looks like your wallpaper.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Back there basically, yeah, mixed with yours.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yes, exactly. Take Miami Tropical and your Cactus. We have
calm springs. Basically, during COVID, everyone was losing their minds
and we're all trying to figure things out. I was.
I was sending Casey must Craves a bunch of tracks
and just different vibes, and a lot of them were
(02:06):
very seventies and sixties influenced, and at some point she goes,
you should just put these out. They just like sound
kind of cool like that. So we're like, oh man,
maybe we should just do a project where it's just
kind of I don't know background music, because you know,
in my personal opinion, I have amazing, amazing songwriter peers,
but I don't think that most people want to hear
(02:28):
like a songwriter EP. So, like, I mean, I listen,
but you know, I don't know. I just thought, if
I'm going to put something out, it's going to be unique,
and I didn't want it to be something that they
thought I would do, like with like an EDM project
or house music or something. So I'm like, I'm gonna
put this out and just kind of floated out there,
(02:48):
and it kind of it didn't like, you know, track
a bunch of streams or you know, break any records
or anything. But every time we went somewhere, all of
our friends and artists and all everyone we interacted with,
we're playing it at dinner parties, and it kind of
dawned on me that people don't really have like a
lot of soundtracks.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
To talk for.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
No, there's like zero, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
So it's kind of music to be ignored. It definitely is.
I keep saying that it's like Frank Sinatra Marilyn Monroe's
pool party playlist. That's what I feel like if you
walked into his estate that's called Twin Palms and Palm
Springs back in the day he's making a drink. I
feel like, this is what it would sound like with
his living room opening up into the pool, and it
(03:33):
just kind of sets that vibe. So yes, Martini, sipping music,
music to be ignored, make memories to talk over, just
having the background.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Just set a vibe, which is kind of who you are.
You kind of just set the vibe, yes, literally, like
you make tracks, you produce, you songwrit you're coming up
with ideas, You're putting out vibes like you're kind of
a vibe master.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It's funny, uh, one of our friends calls us the
keeper of the vibe. It means just because that's that's
so integral for us, whether it's picking a restaurant or
our house or hotel. I mean everything for us has
to feel good. In fact, every writing room I've ever
had I don't really focus on like the sonics and
(04:21):
all the like technical. I just want it to look
really dope and feel really cool. So, yes, we definitely
like vibes for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
What does a vibe do for you?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Because I feel like a lot of people are understanding
how important vibes are, but some people are just like whatever,
you know, we just got to move through, get this done,
check this off of, get this room set up for
useful things, not pleasurable things. Tell me why a vibe
makes such a difference, Well, I.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Feel like it's almost like the you know, that Japanese
culture thing in the past where it's like, if it
feels good, it's going to produce energy. But for me,
you're instantly transported if you walk into that room you're
in right now. Yeah. I don't know if people can
see this video, but the cactus in the in the
cowboy boots, you're instantly transported to a mood, right and
the same thing here and any restaurants you go to
(05:08):
if you go into a room where it's bad lighting,
you know that kind of dental we call it dental
office lighting when it's like you know what I'm talking.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
About, fluorescent right beaming down on you.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, or it's you know, overly loud, or the music's
off sometimes. You know, we went to a tiki bar
the other day and they were playing like Link one
E two and it just didn't fit, you know. So
it's like there's these things that I think transport people.
And people have busy lives, people have even songwriters and creators.
(05:42):
They have a lot going on and family is going on.
So if they can walk in here at eleven am
and retransported for a few hours and feel comfortable and
feel like this place condones creativity. You know that that,
to me is really all it's about. I mean, you
could spend a lot more money and make it sound
technically better and all this stuff, but ultimately, you know,
(06:04):
if it sounds good to us, maybe our fans will
like it. So I just really want to create a
spot where people feel like whimsical and you know, cool
and viby and comfortable.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So you were talking about Stevie, and I love Stevie.
She's your wife. Y'all are actually one of my favorite
Nashville industry couples because you guys are.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
A true team. You know, there's a lot of great
couples out there, but.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You guys like our a true team like and y'all
see each other's value. You see each other's like all
the positive assets that each one has. You work together,
you lift each other up, You really utilize the best
out of each other. And I think that that is
so awesome and it's not always the case with couples.
And I just feel like you guys are a really
(06:49):
strong power couple and I just want to dive into
that a little bit because how has this marriage supported
your career? Because I feel like she has been your
biggest champion. Y'all started publishing company with jay Z.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I mean so cool.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But how has that support and this relationship with Steve
You've been such a foundation of who you are and
who you've been able to become.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I mean even back going back to when we were
both music publishers, which basically means I wasn't full time songwriting.
We were both in jobs where we were assisting other
songwriters in town and I was kind of writing on
the side. She was very encouraging. Then she introduced me
to Chris Stapleton when you know, he was still trying
(07:33):
to figure things out and him and I would write
at night, and that's awesome. Yeah, it's crazy. In fact,
my a song called Crash and Burn came from that,
like us fooling around.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Wait for Thomas Rhett, right, yeah, I remember that came
out and it was like, it's like it's got it's
way more like pop a little bit, and I was
like yeah, And then I saw that you and Chris
Stapleton wrote it, and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
That's a cool combination.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And the whole the whole creation and birth and then
how it came out to the world with all gaws ingredients.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's an awesome that was an awesome that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Stevie set that up, and but that was like not
us trying to write coachry music. In fact, we thought
we were going to pitch it to Bruno Mars really
making like because I'm from Detroit and he loves soul music.
So Stapleton and I would just get together and screw around.
And at the time, he hadn't blown up as an
artist yet, so he was just figuring it out and
writing songs for people. But the artist thing was not
(08:25):
the Chris Stapleton that we know today. I think people
in town knew his voice was sick, but the rest
of the world had not discovered him from that justin
Timberlake performance quite yet, you know. So just you know,
back on, Stevie introduced me to people like him or
believing in me and just kind of putting up with me.
I mean, I was traveling around and djaying a ton
(08:46):
and working as a music publisher and then writing songs
at night and doing all kinds of different things. But
she always was very supportive. I think we were. I
was mostly you know, a little timid about working together.
Early on, just because of like, what is this? This
is such a lifestyle career. So I was worried about
taking that home with us, but then at the end
(09:07):
of the day you kind of realize it is a
lifestyle career and we were taking it home. Anyways, She's
already in the music industry, so why not join forces
about the two things we're most passionate about, and that's
each other and kind of just you know, really combine
this and make it a dope thing. So it's amazing
to have someone kind of that is so passionate and
(09:29):
a critic. I mean, she'll tell me. She'd be like,
I don't really like that song straight up.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
You know, she's usually right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the funny thing about music
is it's all taste, right. I do think that the
female taste in songs is crucial. I've always kind of
surrounded myself with female ears.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Really tell me why.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I just think that specifically in country music, but in
all genres. I this is a this is kind of
an example, but up in my bar, there's a picture
of an audience. It's a screaming audience. You can't tell
who's on stage, but it's an audience full. I think
it's in the fifties, the audience full of females and
(10:12):
they're going ape shit crazy, and I mean, you could
put Justin Bieber on that stage or whoever, but it
happens to be a Frank Snatra show and you can't
find a single guy in that entire audience. And you're
talking about a guy that now we look back at
at being like the cool guy, right, the rap pack,
the Guy's guy. He had mostly female fans. And I
(10:33):
just think that in music in general, there is a
driving force of females that are the passionate, hungry ones.
There's guys that listen to Morgan Wallen, of course, but
the craziness of I'm gonna buy the merch, I'm going
to invest in every song. I do think that that
is driven by women. So I think it's very important
(10:54):
to kind of have the female expertise in ears. Not
to mention overall, most of the time, I feel like
females make really good leaders of companies, and they're they're
usually pretty good at nurturing songwriters and creative people in general.
So anyways, in my life, I just have always kind
of thought that was an important thing.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Why do you think that is a female. That's such
a good point. Why do females lean in harder?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I think they're just you know, they're they're passionate. They
like when they do like something, it's all it right.
But you know, I'm gonna buy a three sweatshirts, I'm
gonna listen to everything. I'm going to get to know
this guy's lifestyle brand completely. So the brands out there
that do that, that package up a lifestyle brand, whether
(11:42):
you're a Casey Musk Grays and it's kind of Landa
del Rey country music, or you're Morgan Walling and it's
kind of reddingeck this country, you know they're going to
lean into that brand really well. So, you know, I
think all genres, but specifically country music, it's very important
to kind of get a female opinion approach. A lot
of my songwriters or females, even when we're writing for
(12:03):
a Jelly Roll or Thomas Rhett. You know, there's it's
always nice to kind of have a female co writer
in the room kind of guiding things and kind of
calling you out and like that's stupid, you know, or
that's how it would be said, or you know, that's
just my personal opinion. But we've struggled to have a
lot of female voices on country radio over the last
(12:24):
decade or so. But I like to have them at
least in my professional life and in the writing room.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And you've written a couple of number ones for some females,
like you just had Miranda Lambert or I don't if
it went number one, but some big hits Miranda Lambert,
You've written who are Who are all the people that
you've had big hits with?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Like in general, like female Wise, Laurena, Leana, Miranda Lambert
in general. I've had a lot of hits with Thomas Rhett,
John Party, I've had his Blake Shelton, I've had Old Dominion.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Uh, so many, it's hard to remember of all, Jesse.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's crazy, it's crazy. It's been We've had a really
good run. And to think, you know, I came to
town in two thousand and one and came to be
a songwriter, and like gave up on it very quickly
because when did I meet you? What was the year
I met you?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Oh, Jesse, how we met? I was waiting for this
moment to interject this story. Okay, you you actually so
I moved to Nashville. When I was in two thousand
and eight, I was in college at Belmont and I
was looking for an internship. So it's either two thousand
and eight or two thousand and nine, Okay, looking for
an internship and somehow, Oh, I think I tried to
(13:42):
get an internship where you were working. You were just
like in the mail room or something at Bob Doyle's company.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, yeah, major Bob.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, you probably weren't in the mail room. You probably
had something more legit than.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
That, but like you weren't like Jesse Frasier yet, you
were just like I don't even think you had started
writing songs at that point.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I didn't get my first cut until twenty thirteen, like
my first hit song.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And you were like a surprise writer, you know, because
like you weren't doing songwriting.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Weren't you doing like publishing or something.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I was a publisher, but I would you know that
was that whole.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Era where you're just secretly writing with Christableton the midnight hours.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, or like you know Shane Mooney from Dan and shaehe.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, he was he was wait wait wait, Shae from
Dan and Shay was signed to what te Payne te
Pain as an R and B artist before he became
a country.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Star, and he would come up to Nashville and he
would write. And then Meghan Traynor was a seventeen year
old she lived in Nantucket at the time. She would
come to Nashville and write, would you this spit toys? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
How'd you find how'd y'all find each other?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Shye.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I was introduced to by the Hot Shell Array boys.
Do you remember that band, Hot Shell Ray? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yes, The fall ass a son to Adrian and A
and Keith Follisy are two huge hit songwriters back in
the day. I can't believe I'd stay back in the
day now, but like and their son was in a band,
Hot Shell Ray.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes. Brian Falise and Paul over Street's son, Nash over Street.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Nash introduced me to Shay and said, Hey, there's this
guy with this incredible voice. He's an R and B artist.
He's coming up a bunch. And then Carla Wallace called
me and said, Hey, there's this super shy girl. She's
from Nantucket. I saw her when I went to a
you know, songwriter festival, and I signed her. She's gonna
be taking some trips to Nashville, and.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Carla was your publisher or was a publisher. She's just
a friend, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
In fact, Carla, you know, went on to publish Megan
Trainer and Maren Morris and a lot of another great
female set of ears in town. But she said you
should write with this Megan girl, and me and Meghan
and Shay ended up writing and again writing pop songs.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Stop that you Meghan and Shaye wrote together. Y'all write
a hit that made it.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, there's a song called I Like the Sound of
That by Rascal Flats that went number one.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Wait, Meghan or Shade and even recorded, y'all got an
outside cut. That's even harder. I mean, that's like a perfect,
perfect moment right there.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We've got to remember back then he wasn't in Dana
Shay and she it's when I see her now as
like this like personality, Like I wish you could see
Megan Trader back then because she was so quiet and
shy and different. It was different. She had an amazing voice,
but very different.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well she was so green, I mean she was just
seventeen years old, like diving into the industry. I mean,
that's so overwhelming. How that's so cool. It's so cool
to like hear.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
The stories before they were, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And there was this whole crew I keep calling the
misfit Toys because we were we were like, we're all
intimidated by what was happening country music, but we all
grew up listening to everything from Tupac to Daft punk
to you know, the Keith Urban Golden Road record. So
we all were moving to town and everyone was like
kind of being creative and working but intimidated still.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Well, and everybody was really good, but nobody knew where
they belonged exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And the town needed to change, the lanes needed to change,
and things just kind of needed to happen. So, you know,
I was I was at the time djaying on the weekends.
I would go work for Cash Money Records and just
DJ parties, And I told my boss, hey, look, this
is my creative outlet. So I'm gonna fly on Fridays.
I'll be back Sunday, but I have to do this.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
So you're working all week as a publisher and then
your secret songwriting at night, and then you're flying to
do DJ stuff on the weekends. Yeah, okay, you're really
see you are really fueling the flames your passionate desires.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
I love that, Jesse. You're like, yeah, I'm making these
dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, got to. And you know, the funny thing is
when people say pick a lane, Like, every single aspect
of my life, whether it was djaying or making, being
a music publisher or a producer, it's all helped each other.
So I don't believe in that. I feel like, yes,
if I was like chasing my dreams of being a
(18:10):
master painter while I was doing all this, maybe, but
as long as everything's.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, know, because you probably would paint music, paint art
that would pair well with the album that.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You created, and you could sell it or.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Put it on the walls and the rooms that you
doj I mean you can't, no, you cant or it.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Could be your album cover. So I think painting art
would actually pair well with all of us.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Maybe so that it's always helped me. I mean, you know,
it was kind of at the time too, where DJing
was the sexy thing for artists, so they would take
me out on the road here and that led to
more the songwriting and you know, so yes, I've always
kind of done a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, So when you were at Major Bob, I guess
you had just started the you know, the songwriting or
you were I didn't know you as a songwriter because.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Like your day job was a publisher.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, it's kind of a taboo thing to like be
a You don't want your songwriters that you're helping know
that you're trying to be a songwriter too.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right, because they're like, are you going to pitch your
song over my song? You're gonna be working for me, man.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I love that your secret songwriting with Chris Ableton, Shaye Mooney,
Megan Trainer. I mean that's just amazing. And y'all were
the misfit toys. But see, just for everyone listening, just
note to self. If you are a misfit toy, but
you know you're passionate and talented, just stay the course
because you will find your place. All of you guys
have totally seen your passion and talent through and it's
(19:39):
down materialized into so many accolades and life experiences that
are amazing.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
But you stuck with it even though you didn't know
where you belonged for a long time. I feel like
that's a very common theme. Do you agree with that? Jesse?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Absolutely. I think sometimes you need to let the world
shift instead of shifting yourself, you know, especially in any
creative worlds where you can start chasing things and it
gets real. One thing I can say is that I
was never chasing country music. I was just writing songs
(20:11):
with talented people to have fun. And I mean I
wanted to put Chris Staepilton's voice on as many motown
sounding songs as I could because he sounded amazing, and
I'm from Detroit and I love that style of music.
At no point where we're like this would be awesome
in country music, and then those kind of situations lead
to Thomas Rhett call and going hey, will you produce
(20:31):
this record on me? And then six albums later, you
know you're producing country music. So like it. I think
that it's important for people to understand that, you know,
you have to be driven. I always felt like I
wasn't the most talented person in town, but I felt
like I could outwork pretty much anybody.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Does that work? Have it come from your upbringing?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I guess so, you know, I you know, some of
it's probably from insecurities of like I'm not the best musician.
I failed music theory at Michigan State. The only class
I've ever failed was a music class, which is classic. Yea,
though yeah it's perfect, So some of it's you know,
I don't know. I think that I saw, I was intimidated,
(21:18):
so I, you know, put it on the shelf for
a second, chasing it, and maybe that made me appreciate
it more when I saw, oh, this could work, so
I'm gonna go hard. And you know, I do think
there is a you know, most creative people, I think
have a heroin addiction. You know, the goods and the
bads of We would probably be doing this under a
(21:39):
bridge somewhere if we weren't getting it paid, just kind
of you know, for fun.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, you have to.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
It's like who you are, Yes, it's in your blood.
I really believe that. I believe that anyone who's pursuing anything,
I mean, it could be in any genre. But since
for in the industry, music industry and artists are talking
about an artistic gift, it's like when you have that,
it's a gift and it will curse your life if
you don't follow it, because it's like hello, knock knock,
Like I'm still here and you're never getting rid of me.
(22:08):
So I know you're trying to run away from me
or avoid me, but like I'm gonna hunt you down.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So you just have to become obsessed with it. I mean,
you really do. Like people who are true.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Musicians and true artists, like you can have boundaries in
a healthy relationship with it, but it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, you do have to be obsessed. And for the
people that are not in creative jobs out there, I
do think my business side of publishing mostly helped me.
There was times where I have a lot of like
co writers that are very free spirited and just kind
of blowing the wind, And sometimes I envy that because
my mind's like not working that way. It's usually has
(22:44):
some sort of tied to business. But that definitely helped
me kind of figure things out in the creative landscape too,
going okay, well, what if we rented our own bus
and followed this tour and asked these guys to write,
maybe we can find it that way. Or if I
pitch the song this way, or if I go to
this event and shake the cands with this person, you know,
what is the business angle? I like working the.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Angles like strategy tricks.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yes, I feel like when you kind of like can
go all right this person. One of my favorite things
in music or in life is when people say no and.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
You're like that's not You're like, no, it's not a no,
Like I like.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The sound of that. Actually they passed on that. Rescal
Flats passed on that song, and then we just went
back through a different route and ended up a number
one song. So there's a lot of those stories in
life where you know someone with some perseverance, we get
told no most of the time. Like, if you get
ten percent of your songs recorded, you are like a
(23:44):
superstar songwriter. Yeah, two hundred and thirty songs a year.
And when I won Writer the Year, it was with
six songs.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
So that's what that means is the general public heard
six of those two hundred something songs every year. That's crazy.
So when you think about it like that, you have
to get used to the word no, and you have
to get used to the nowadays we sometimes you don't
even get nos. It's just silence, you know. So I
(24:15):
think in life it's a matter of like stay the course,
try not to chase. It's hard not to write We
don't live in a vacuum, right, We're all kind of
aware of things. So whether it's a business or it's
a you know, a song, it's hard not to have influences.
But I do think that people that can figure out
a brand that's them, that they're passionate about and unique,
(24:38):
then the world kind of just goes like this, right,
And sometimes it will hit this brand that you're in
and it's gonna be cool, and other times it's gonna
dip out and it's going to come back. And you know,
there's been times over the course of the last ten years,
you know where it's like, there's stuff I'm doing where
fits really well and in on radio, and there's other
(24:58):
times it doesn't. And it's just a matter of kind
of staying the course and not going, oh, you know
what I'm gonna try to do is But I also
like to kind of be that chameleon too. I'd love
to get in a room with Randa Lambert and go
very very country, or get in a room with someone
like a Thomas Rhett and go very very not country.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
You know, you have it, it's all inside of you.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I love that you said it's like weeds and then
sometimes you hit because that's really how it goes. Because
it's like Chris Stapleton, you know, so many people will
wonder this all the time, but it's like, was he's
so frustrated for so long because here he was this
incredible singer, this incredible songwriter. I think he'd already had
a lot of number ones, he'd probably had multiple record
deals at this time, and nobody he could not get
(25:39):
received on radio, he could not pop.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
It would just not It just didn't happen forever, and
everyone's like, what in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Then all of a sudden, it did, you know, And
so it's like and then it popped huge and it
all connected. So I wonder what you're saying is sometimes
all the timing has to align, and sometimes you just
have to hit away where that's what a certain group
of people really want to hear, or that's what another
creative is doing, and you combine forces and it's like
time for that moment to happen, you know. But it's
(26:07):
like you can't rush the moment, which is so frustrating
with being an artist because you're just like, I'm so ready,
but the moment has to happen.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
You have to have belief in patience.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's like, you really have to have faith in it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
It's so crucial. I mean people have asked me the
same kind of thing, are like, were you frustrated that
it took you twelve years to actually become what you
came here to become? But Stapleton's a great metaphor. If
it wasn't for the Florida Georgia lines, it wasn't for
a lot of these kind of crossover things happening, then
maybe justin Timberlake's not going on to the CMA Awards,
(26:46):
you know and doing these kind of collaborations. If it's
not for Thomas Rhett coming to town and starting to
get some cuts, who grew up listening to everything from
hip hop to country music, maybe he doesn't hear crash
and burn, you know. So it has to be a
timing thing, especially in anything creative, but also very much
(27:06):
in business. I mean, sometimes you've got to be careful,
like is this the right time to pitch this project?
Is this you know? And a lot of times we
don't know. So when you look back and go, man,
they must have been so frustrated. I don't think he
really knew any different. We all were just like angry,
and he had a classic rock band that he was
playing out with and writing songs. He was getting some
Luke Bryan Kuttz and stuff like that, but it just
(27:28):
didn't become the brand that it is today until later
on and the world needed to change. So I think
that's such a it's such a hard thing to hear
when people like I remember being younger and hearing those
kind of things and it goes in one year out
the other, because you're like, just that doesn't really do
much to help me. I'm waiting on the world to change,
(27:50):
basically like a John Mayer song or something. But there
is something to be said about you know, we can't
be like I could not go back and change any
part of my story. It would have ended completely different.
The way that it happened allowed me to have a
life where I'm able to DJ and do all these
things everything I always dreamed of, as opposed to maybe
(28:13):
if I went back and made it happen faster, something
in my life doesn't occur. You know.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Oh, like, maybe you needed the space of what the dream,
the prominent dream you're focusing on. Maybe you needed a
little space of that not to happen right away, so
you could have some other space made room to work
on these other parts of you that probably would have
been ignored.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Right absolutely, because in twenty sixteen when we did the
venture with rock Nation, our companies called.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Rhythm House and Brognation with jay Z what.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, And their question was what do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Then you're like, how do you answer that correctly?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
For James, it's a weird question in life, like if
you actually sit down as a human being and go,
what do you want?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Okay, what do you want? Tell me? I need to
know what you answered.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
My answer was everything. I want to do everything I'm
doing now but bigger. And that was just a if
that would have happened sooner, I wouldn't have known, but
I knew that, okay. I don't want to stop teaching.
I don't want to stop doing multiple genres. I like
working with songwriters. I'm obviously writing and doing okay with it.
(29:20):
I want to still produce. I don't want to be
tied down to anything. I want to just have a
ton of freedom. I don't want anyone telling me what
to do. I will work hard. I need someone to
trust that my work ethic will be there. I'm going
to show up to work, but I don't need anyone
like breathing down my neck. And one of my biggest
fears was, Okay, this is a company that's not in
(29:43):
country music. They wanted to plan a flag and country,
but I didn't want them to be sending people down
and going, hey, sign this person, sign that person. And
they said, look, we need you, you don't need us,
and they said everything I wanted to hear. Obviously, I
was ginormous. Still to this day, he's he's a business
(30:04):
hero of mine, not just a music hero. So yeah, yeah,
there another guy there. So jay Z is one of
the obviously the the main owner, and then there's a
guy that runs a company called Jay Brown who manages
Rihanna and Shakira and a bunch of people. But he
was kind of like our point person day to day
(30:25):
and he was amazing and just kind of gave us space.
And you know, I remember when we went backstage at
the Beyonce's show when we just signed the deal and
I'm like shaking, like you know, I'm having champagne with
Jay and toasting the signing of this project, and just
like deer in Headlights and then all the different years
(30:48):
later we've gone to so many different events have been
around them, and my wife's better. She can likew man.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
So I've had Stevie on the podcast. She told me
her we can't say sorry it is.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's the same.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I think she like total on the podcast too, where
she like had too much to drink or something, and
she kept going back up to Beyonce because she like
knew they were best friends or something.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I'm just like Steve Stevie for the wind.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And then she says that y'all have this saying where
are like, Okay, you're wearing it out.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
You're wearing it out. You need to slow your role
because you're wearing it out.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm like thinking about having a good partner to call you.
I'm like, hey, come on it back a little bit.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
That's Beyonce. You've had your moment. We need to step
back from Beyonce.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I usually freeze up though with you know, it's hard
when people are disarming. One thing I like about him
is that a lot of celebrities will be like and man,
shake your hand and walk. He always stops, and sometimes
you're not prepared to say anymore, so you like, I
start panicking, freeze out.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You were prepared for Hello, but that was it. And
then it's like, oh gosh, now we're having a conversation.
What do you how do you launch into a conversation
with jay Z? Like, what's your go to?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Well, one of my terrible things that I did for
years is reintroduce myself, and every single time he'd be like, hell,
I know, I know who you are also going with
so and so. And you know when I did win
Right of the Year, that was sick because we signed
with them in twenty sixteen. I won Right of the
Year in twenty eighteen for the first time and he
sent this amazing video that they played at BMI and
(32:17):
it was super sweet. So he always you know, we
got their first country number one, and we got them
you know, Grammy nominations and awards, So it was a
cool little thing for them. They liked the aspect of,
you know, knowing that they had rock Nation on the
country charts basically, so that was a pretty cool experience.
(32:38):
And they've been amazing to us and invite us to
all the events and it's never going to quite be
normal for me, but that's something that was like a
childhood dream of going well.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Also like good for them that it worked with you guys.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
So many people from rock and pop and other genres
always try to come in to Nashville and partner up
with a local Nashville company, and a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Of times it really doesn't work at all.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Like I would say, eighty five to ninety percent of
the time, it's a giant fail and they just leave
and go back and do what they did and just
pretend like it never happened. So the fact that rock
Nation was able to partner with you guys and you
were able to align so well and create hits and
like a mutual partnership of a win win, that's like,
that's like kind of a big deal.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, I think that it is rare to You're right,
you know enough about all this to know that a
lot of joint ventures. Honestly, opening up a publishing company
and for the people that don't know, publishing is like
I always thought it was like magazines and books, but
it also can be copyrights in other words, the song
So we'll signs songwriters and publish them. So opening up
(33:45):
publishing companies like opening up a restaurant. It's a terrible idea.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
So you Jesse you and see we just said let's.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Do it well again. Heroin addicts like, yeah, you know,
there's not much of a choice. But if you were,
you know, like, if anyone ever came to me for advice,
you'd be like, I'm thinking about either opening up a
restaurant or a publishing company, I'd say, dude, just be
a plumber.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Like yeah, yeah, just walk away while you can't know.
But then you're like, but also, it's the best thing
you're ever gonna do with your life.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's gonna break your heart a million pieces, and it's
also going to give you all the joy you could
ever dream of.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
That's it. Yeah, that basically sums it up. Yes, good luck. Yeah,
and it makes you really proud when you go to
an event knowing we're making money, we're not money because
I was surrounded by all these moments and you're looking
around the room going, oh my god, that so and
so and so and so and so, and you're like,
you know what, it's Christmas time. We're here at this
(34:40):
Christmas party. We're here. It's a very VIP group and
we're supposed to be here, and we're making them money
and they're proud of this, and so that was that's
always been a really cool achievement that you know, without Stevie,
without ban, without bj Hill at the time was there,
that stuff doesn't occur, So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, a good point there. And I talk about mindset
all the time on my podcast and like just you know,
rewiring the brain, learning you're worth, walking and worth And
you said you're looking around at a Christmas party thrown
by j Z and rock Nation and all that and
tons of VIPs in the room, and you're telling yourself, Okay,
(35:19):
we're supposed to be here, but even if you weren't
making money, you were still supposed to be there because
they believed in you to partner with you.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
But I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
It's just like you feel so relieved that it's like,
oh my god, we did it. But then it's also
like reminding ourselves and I have to do this all
the time. It's like, Okay, you know you're good, you
know you're great. You know you're showing up, you know
you're doing the work. You know it's as good as
quality as anybody else's. You know, it's awesome, But it's
like just to believe that when it hasn't fully hopped yet,
(35:50):
you know, or whatever, or to prove yourself or to
prove that you're validated. I mean, I had so many
years of just trying to prove that I was validated
to myself. But it's likely that you're worthy. But it's
so hard to get that mindset right, so hard.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And for me, it's a practice. Like I've learned enough
now to know I'm never going to perfect this. I've
had all more accolades than I could ever dream of.
I've done things that I never thought were possible. And
yet that thing that I'm always kind of looking forward,
(36:25):
like that that uber respect or it's going to get easier,
that just doesn't happen. Like you get to the top
of the mountain and you're like, oh, where's the party,
and they're like, oh, we moved the party to this
mountain over there. That's basically what the music industry is.
And I think in general most of the world, like
we all think that just over that mountain, it's going
(36:47):
to be cruise control, and it just isn't. Especially in
the world of entertainment in arts, it's just it's constantly shifting.
It's constantly evolving, more so in the last two three
years than ever. You know, especially as a songwriter, there's
so many things that you're dealing with on a regular basis.
So I feel some days as insecure as before I
(37:12):
had a single number one.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Really that's hard to believe.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Absolutely, Like, I know, I know that I what I like,
I know that I can. I trust my gut, and
there's certain people that I'm more comfortable with than others.
But you know, if I go on a bus trip,
you know, I've got my tracks prepped and my ideas
and my hooks prepped and all that stuff, and we
get on the bus, I'm still a nervous wreck. Until
we get that first song in the can. That can
(37:36):
relax a little bit. But you know, I write at
eleven today or whatever we do. At any point, I'm
as nervous as the first song I ever wrote.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
So well, that makes you really care, though, and that
means they're really not just dialing it in.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
This really really matters to you.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It does matter to me, and I don't think we know,
like I don't believe otherwise, no one has a flop
in the jet in the history of the world, whether
you're Marvin Gay or what you Houston or Max Martin
or Quincy Jones or Michael Jackson. No one ever puts
out a flop doesn't exist. So what that tells me
(38:13):
is that the biggest, you know, my idols, the people
that I think are genius musicians, didn't always get it right.
And I do think that there's comfort in that, going, Okay,
if I could just kind of go with, we're going
to do the best we can in the room, We're
going to try to like it, and that's it. All
we can control is what we do today. So but yeah,
(38:35):
you know, I've I thought for a while that I
was going to get to like the zen state of
pure confidence, give zero folks, take on life as it comes,
whatever it is. And now I kind of just feel
like it for practice. Some days I'm good at it
and other days I'm not. But it's constantly kind of
just going it's all right or whatever that mantra is going,
(38:58):
it's going to be fine or in real city is
it changes all the time.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
I think that's why it goes back to like four principles,
you know, like showing up, working hard, being your best,
doing the work to be your best, you know, it's
like when you trusting your instincts, staying in alignment, when
you do those things over and over again, it's like
you can look back on your day every situation you're like, Okay,
I did the best I could. I literally did the
best I could in the situation I had, So whatever happens,
(39:28):
I mean, that's recally, you have to believe in something
higher too, Like I feel like, more than ever, I
have been leaning on my relationship with God, like in
a new way than I used to. And I know
you work a lot with Thomas Rhett and I just
posted a video of him. I reposted it because I
thought it was so cool he stopped his show in
the middle of an arena to pray for someone who
(39:48):
had a serious health issue happen in the middle of
the show and he just stopped the music instead of prayer.
And I'm like, man, if anything that's happened to me,
and I just turned forty, that's like a landmark year.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's like I just fe I feel like I cannot
lean on myself anymore. Like I have leaned on myself
and my ego and my you know, chasing things because
I was insecure or need a validation or whatever. And
it's like that kind of works for a while, but
like ultimately the long game, like you've got to have
a spiritual practice. I feel like I just don't. I
(40:21):
just feel like I can't make it with that one.
How do you feel about God in relationship to the
gift of songs coming through you? And you know, like
you said, you never know what's gonna happen, it's so
much bigger than yourself. How does the spiritual side play
into that for you?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
You know, just as you grow older, you start to
learn how to have your own spirituality and not your parents' religion.
So through my life, it's funny because the more I
moved away from religion, I got closer to my own
personal relationship with God. And going through things and going
(40:55):
through Stebee had breast cancer and going through those kinds
of struggles kind of taught me, you know, what my
relationship was in my conversations. And also, you know, going
through different situations where I thought, I you know, or
I saw quote unquote Christians handling things a certain way,
(41:16):
and one thing I thought was missing a lot was
just being human to each other. When I was going
through those times with Stevie dealing with all her surgeries,
people were just sending scriptures a lot, and really I
just wanted someone to like, go, dude, that fucking sucks.
I'm so sorry that you're going through that. We're praying
(41:36):
for you, guys. Love y'all, because I feel like sometimes
we don't interact well as humans. And it's nothing against God.
It's not that God doesn't have this, but he also
put us here to interact as human beings. So the
more that I've found people in my life that are
(41:56):
spiritual people and believing God but interact on a real basis,
that's when I kind of felt the most you know,
at home and kind of leaning on something exactly. That
to me has been a big kind of epiphany in
(42:17):
my life later on where it's like it wasn't. So,
you know, anytime you insert human beings into a culture,
it can tend to like have a downside, whether that's
you know, a big church with laser lights and nothing
against the superchurch or whatever the politics are of a situation.
So for me, you know, being a creative person struggling
(42:39):
with you know, all the insecurities and figuring things out,
but then really looking back and going, man, everything kind
of fell into place exactly the way it's supposed to.
That becomes a comfort, and it's it's kind of like
God saying I got you. I don't want to hear
from somebody why Stevie battled breast cancer. He was teaching
you guys something I don't want to hear that. I
(43:02):
want them to go, I love you, I'm sorry you're
going through this. Stevie is an amazing ambassador for people
going through breast cancer, and she has learned a lot
from it. But I think that we need to do
a better job at kind of interacting as human beings.
And from seeing those people that I've met that do that,
it's helped me to be a better spiritual person. You know,
(43:24):
I found myself getting resentful towards in blaming God because
of the actions of religious people. So I've kind of
found peace with just kind of being a spiritual person
and surrounding myself with human beings that just are loving
and caring and wellness check. And you know that's when
(43:44):
I was like, wait a second, you know, I'm putting
this blame for what I think are kind of immature
actions of humans on.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
God and so silly, so well, and you know, we
live in a dualistic world. And that's something I've really
had to like understand lately because I have been very
frustrated with the state of the world and people, the
way people treat each other and just like all the things,
you know, abuse and it's just it's a really harsh
place that we live in. But I have really come
(44:15):
to realized, like we are in a dualistic world. Like
you're born into this world and you immediately have predators,
you know. It's like it's like the circle of life.
It's a very brutal, gruesome circle of life that we
live in, but it's how it all flows and it
works in harmony, and it's so it's just like I've
had to accept that this is a world that we
live in that does have pain and suffering and there
are that the people are taken advantage of and it's
(44:37):
been that way since the beginning of time. And so
I feel that it's just I find my comfort and
knowing that like all I can do is try to
be most aligned with myself and my highest and best version,
and that's when I feel like I have God like
guiding me because Otherwise, if I'm just trying to walk
through this world on my own accord, I just get
(44:58):
consumed with life like and it takes me down. It
will like ruin my days and like ruin my mindset,
and like ruin my it'll ruin my It'll still a
joy from my life. And so like I've realized I've
had to land on God so much more as I've
gotten older, because I'm like, I physically can't make it
through this world without something bigger guiding me.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
It's just too heavy. This world is so heavy.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
It is heavy, and it's and it's you know, we're
all still kind of recovering from a crazy few years,
and I think, you know, we'll look back in ten
years and go, wow, that was even crazier than we
all knew, and the trauma from a lot of that,
and it was a very polarizing time, and human beings
were at each other's throats, and you know, but I
think in general, what I've learned is like one of
(45:40):
the most Jesus like things I've seen in my life
is just when a human being isn't quoting anything, whether
it's poetry or scripture or prolific it's literally just going, hey,
how are you? Are you okay? That's all we really need,
you know, And to me, the more I saw that,
(46:00):
the more I was like repairing my kind of personal
feelings of you know, past religious traumas or anything else
in my life and kind of going, all right, that,
to me, that's that is very godly. And I see,
you know, spirituality and human beings when we're just good
to one another.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
And oh yeah, because give humans anything and they'll mess
it up. Of course they're gonna mess up religion. I mean,
come on, you know, I mean, humans mess everything up.
But okay, I'm going to wrap up.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
I know you have to go to a songwriting appointment,
but I just want to quickly circle back around to
how you got me my first internship because I had
applied the intern for you when you were a secret
songwriter working in a publishing company.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
Bob Doyle.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Yeah, and you guys didn't I apply. I somehow met
with you, applied with you, but y'all don't need an
intern and you were like.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Oh, you should meet with Victoria Shaw. She's this other
hit songwriter.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
She had written songs for John Michael Montgomery and Garth Brooks,
and she was a hot thing back in the nineties
and two thousands, and I.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Don't know what a long time.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
She had a lot of hits for a while, and
she's still an incredible songwriter and I love her so dearly.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
But you're like, you need.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
To intern for her, and so I was like, okay,
And that started my whole career. She mentored me, she
signed me to a publishing deal, She taught me how
to write songs. She gave me all my first experiences
in the studio and coaching me. And that was all
because of you, Jesse. You set me on the track.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Well, she's the best, she's a good mentor, and.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
She's still a great hit songwriter. I did not mean
to say that when I was talking about her.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
She just was.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Her streak was like she had a big street for
a while.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Absolutely another person with great ears and signing good talent,
like yourself.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
But you got me started, Jesse. So look at you.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Go, look at you now you've got your little empire going.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Oh yes, yes, I do.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I always wrap up with leave your Light, And basically
it's an open ended question, and it's what do you
want people to know?
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Hmmm? I think I think that circling tops slightly back
onto that. When you get to the top of the mountain,
they move the party to a different mountain. So we
have to kind of be careful that we're not attaching
our joy based on the other side of the mountain, right,
We have to like enjoy the climb and enjoy the
(48:20):
thing's going on. That's easier said than done when people say, oh, yeah,
it's hard. You know, when life's kicking in the butt,
it's hard to kind of be present and enjoy the experience.
But you know, I have found that when you do
achieve your wildest dreams, you'll figure out another reason to
be unhappy, So you don't you need to kind of
(48:42):
enjoy the process and the journey along the way or else.
You know, if you really kind of add up how
many summers are on this earth? Like it's kind of
a spooky thought, and I'm like, okay, how many summers
do we get here? How many summers am I already past?
So I may be, if I'm lucky, you know, forty
to fifty summers left in my entire life, and I'm
(49:06):
gonna like be grumpy over whatever situation's bothering this. It
doesn't mean that it's not relative. And I understand we
have to kind of be present and get things accomplished.
But if we can kind of just recalibrate and go, man,
I need to like wake up a little bit here
and realize what's important. So that was my life.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
And like you said, this too, show pass. And it's
like if you're like you know you said earlier, you've
written two hundred and fifty or however new songs a year,
and you know, six of them made it to the top,
which is great for the standards of Nashville songwriters.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
I mean, you're crushing it.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
But still it's like on the scope of you writing
all these songs that you're passionate and love, it's like
only six ended up getting totally.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Heard by the world.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
So yeah, you can't get so wrapped up in the
mountaintop because quickly the party is somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah. I fail most days. Like one time, my a
friend of mine named Busby who passed away, but he
was a hit songwriter and producer. He said this amazing
thing and it's always like stuck with me. But he said,
if we wrote, if we wrote one hit song a month,
that be twelve a year, and that you would be
the songwriter of the year every single year in any genre, because,
(50:19):
like I said, to be writer of the year in
pop or country takes about five or six songs. So
if you're doing twelve hit songs a year, that means
you're still failing twenty nine thirty days a month, which
is crazy, and none of us even achieved that. So
you know, you just kind of have to recalibrate, you know,
(50:42):
what it means to achieve and what it means to
be successful because we're just so used to hearing no.
So it is a unique career in that sense where
maybe we are good at being an optimistic because we
just get beat up so much.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Okay, you said one thing and then I'll wrap up.
You just said, we have to define what it means
it's successful. What doesn't mean to be successful?
Speaker 4 (51:02):
For you, I've gotten to do what I love every
single day since two thousand and one, you know, like
I literally have achieved every goal I've ever set.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Out to accomplish. I mean, so just that alone, like
a lot of our friends will be like, you already
won the game, like it's Nintendo, you know, so I
think that's it. So for me, it's going there's not
an accolade that's going to give me this kind of like,
oh my gosh, respect he's a Laurie McKenna, or he's
a Tom Douglas or Hillary Lindsay. You know, people are
(51:41):
going to look at you the way they look at you,
regardless of accolades. One person might think I've written ten
number ones next not is twenty two, whatever it is,
it doesn't change. I could get ten more and it's
going to be the same. I could win a Grammy
in January February, it doesn't matter. At the end of
the day, whatever you put up in the trophy closet,
(52:02):
no one cares. So we have to figure out other
ways to kind of feel like we're achieving. And to me,
it's just kind of nurturing friendships, you know, finding people
that you love and care about, checking on others and
celebrating others. That's something I think songwriters do a terrible
job at because we always feel so competitive. Text your friends,
(52:23):
whether it's in business or creativity, just say, man, that's amazing, congratulations.
That's so hard because in the back of your mind
maybe you're envious or you're a little bit like jealous,
or you worked hard to get that thing but you didn't,
so celebrate them. Maybe they celebrate you, maybe they don't.
But if we can kind of just share a little
bit of love, maybe it kind of lightens it all
(52:44):
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
And then while we're at it, let's have a dinner
party and put on a Return to Calm Springs and
all just live our best lives.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
SIPs of martinis, SIPs of martinis, you know, just parsonly
Frank and Marilyn are there.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
I love it, Jesse, so awesome chatting with you. You're
so great. Return to Calm Springs.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
Is out everywhere, and also you should just get both
of them, back to back Calm Springs and Return to
Calm Springs because it is the perfect party music.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
It's so great. You're so talented.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
It's so cool that you're fully expressing yourself creatively, and
your journey is wild and amazing.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
So thank you for sharing it, Thanks for having me.
Where can everybody find you? Just give me some links well.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
The Return to Calm Springs and com Springs are on Spotify, Pandora, Apple, Amazon, everywhere,
on Instagram, I'm at telemontry t E L E M
I t r Y.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
That's funny, okay, And listen to your country radio station
and probably every other song was written by Jess Frasier,
the hit songwriter.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
So thank you so much for joining me. This is awesome.
Have an amazing day and a great song. Co right,
maybe you're gonna write a number one right now today.
Vibes okay, Hi, Detsie
Cary Lone. She's a queen of talking and you a song.
You know, she's getting really not.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Afraid to feed this episode, so just let it flow.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
No one can do we quiet. Carey Lone is sounding
care alone.
Speaker 3 (00:27):
I'm here.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
Jesse Frazier aka Lemontry. You are a legend. You are
crushing life. You are totally maximizing your potential. How is
your life feeling these days?
Speaker 3 (00:40):
Jesse?
Speaker 1 (00:41):
It's been good. It's been busy. It's it's hectic.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
This is uh.
Speaker 1 (00:45):
I guess when you choose not to have kids, you
just fill it up with everything else in life.
Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, especially when you're a hit songwriter and you've written
twenty two number ones, which is unbelievable. We'll get into that.
You've been nominated for a Grammy a couple of times.
You've gotten like Songwriter of the Year a couple of times.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
You.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I mean, there's so many accolades that you have going on.
You're producer, you produced so many hit artists, you have
real man, and it's just it's so funny. And your Telemetry,
which you just released your sequel album, Return to Calm Springs,
because you already put one out Calm Springs, which is
all about just like the most incredible background album playing
(01:28):
just music instrumental, and it's like, what is it like
your martini soap? Tell me the description of it, because
I've been listening to it all morning and I'm like,
this is the best like party chill music ever.
Speaker 1 (01:40):
Yeah. I mean it kind of looks like your wallpaper.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Back there basically, yeah, mixed with yours.
Speaker 1 (01:45):
Yes, exactly. Take Miami Tropical and your Cactus. We have
calm springs. Basically, during COVID, everyone was losing their minds
and we're all trying to figure things out. I was.
I was sending Casey must Craves a bunch of tracks
and just different vibes, and a lot of them were
(02:06):
very seventies and sixties influenced, and at some point she goes,
you should just put these out. They just like sound
kind of cool like that. So we're like, oh man,
maybe we should just do a project where it's just
kind of I don't know background music, because you know,
in my personal opinion, I have amazing, amazing songwriter peers,
but I don't think that most people want to hear
(02:28):
like a songwriter EP. So, like, I mean, I listen,
but you know, I don't know. I just thought, if
I'm going to put something out, it's going to be unique,
and I didn't want it to be something that they
thought I would do, like with like an EDM project
or house music or something. So I'm like, I'm gonna
put this out and just kind of floated out there,
(02:48):
and it kind of it didn't like, you know, track
a bunch of streams or you know, break any records
or anything. But every time we went somewhere, all of
our friends and artists and all everyone we interacted with,
we're playing it at dinner parties, and it kind of
dawned on me that people don't really have like a
lot of soundtracks.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
To talk for.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
No, there's like zero, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
So it's kind of music to be ignored. It definitely is.
I keep saying that it's like Frank Sinatra Marilyn Monroe's
pool party playlist. That's what I feel like if you
walked into his estate that's called Twin Palms and Palm
Springs back in the day he's making a drink. I
feel like, this is what it would sound like with
his living room opening up into the pool, and it
(03:33):
just kind of sets that vibe. So yes, Martini, sipping music,
music to be ignored, make memories to talk over, just
having the background.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
Just set a vibe, which is kind of who you are.
You kind of just set the vibe, yes, literally, like
you make tracks, you produce, you songwrit you're coming up
with ideas, You're putting out vibes like you're kind of
a vibe master.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
It's funny, uh, one of our friends calls us the
keeper of the vibe. It means just because that's that's
so integral for us, whether it's picking a restaurant or
our house or hotel. I mean everything for us has
to feel good. In fact, every writing room I've ever
had I don't really focus on like the sonics and
(04:21):
all the like technical. I just want it to look
really dope and feel really cool. So, yes, we definitely
like vibes for sure.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
What does a vibe do for you?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Because I feel like a lot of people are understanding
how important vibes are, but some people are just like whatever,
you know, we just got to move through, get this done,
check this off of, get this room set up for
useful things, not pleasurable things. Tell me why a vibe
makes such a difference, Well, I.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Feel like it's almost like the you know, that Japanese
culture thing in the past where it's like, if it
feels good, it's going to produce energy. But for me,
you're instantly transported if you walk into that room you're
in right now. Yeah. I don't know if people can
see this video, but the cactus in the in the
cowboy boots, you're instantly transported to a mood, right and
the same thing here and any restaurants you go to
(05:08):
if you go into a room where it's bad lighting,
you know that kind of dental we call it dental
office lighting when it's like you know what I'm talking.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
About, fluorescent right beaming down on you.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
Yeah, or it's you know, overly loud, or the music's
off sometimes. You know, we went to a tiki bar
the other day and they were playing like Link one
E two and it just didn't fit, you know. So
it's like there's these things that I think transport people.
And people have busy lives, people have even songwriters and creators.
(05:42):
They have a lot going on and family is going on.
So if they can walk in here at eleven am
and retransported for a few hours and feel comfortable and
feel like this place condones creativity. You know that that,
to me is really all it's about. I mean, you
could spend a lot more money and make it sound
technically better and all this stuff, but ultimately, you know,
(06:04):
if it sounds good to us, maybe our fans will
like it. So I just really want to create a
spot where people feel like whimsical and you know, cool
and viby and comfortable.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
So you were talking about Stevie, and I love Stevie.
She's your wife. Y'all are actually one of my favorite
Nashville industry couples because you guys are.
Speaker 3 (06:26):
A true team. You know, there's a lot of great
couples out there, but.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
You guys like our a true team like and y'all
see each other's value. You see each other's like all
the positive assets that each one has. You work together,
you lift each other up, You really utilize the best
out of each other. And I think that that is
so awesome and it's not always the case with couples.
And I just feel like you guys are a really
(06:49):
strong power couple and I just want to dive into
that a little bit because how has this marriage supported
your career? Because I feel like she has been your
biggest champion. Y'all started publishing company with jay Z.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
I mean so cool.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
But how has that support and this relationship with Steve
You've been such a foundation of who you are and
who you've been able to become.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
I mean even back going back to when we were
both music publishers, which basically means I wasn't full time songwriting.
We were both in jobs where we were assisting other
songwriters in town and I was kind of writing on
the side. She was very encouraging. Then she introduced me
to Chris Stapleton when you know, he was still trying
(07:33):
to figure things out and him and I would write
at night, and that's awesome. Yeah, it's crazy. In fact,
my a song called Crash and Burn came from that,
like us fooling around.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
Wait for Thomas Rhett, right, yeah, I remember that came
out and it was like, it's like it's got it's
way more like pop a little bit, and I was
like yeah, And then I saw that you and Chris
Stapleton wrote it, and I'm like.
Speaker 3 (07:54):
That's a cool combination.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
And the whole the whole creation and birth and then
how it came out to the world with all gaws ingredients.
Speaker 3 (08:02):
That's an awesome that was an awesome that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
Stevie set that up, and but that was like not
us trying to write coachry music. In fact, we thought
we were going to pitch it to Bruno Mars really
making like because I'm from Detroit and he loves soul music.
So Stapleton and I would just get together and screw around.
And at the time, he hadn't blown up as an
artist yet, so he was just figuring it out and
writing songs for people. But the artist thing was not
(08:25):
the Chris Stapleton that we know today. I think people
in town knew his voice was sick, but the rest
of the world had not discovered him from that justin
Timberlake performance quite yet, you know. So just you know,
back on, Stevie introduced me to people like him or
believing in me and just kind of putting up with me.
I mean, I was traveling around and djaying a ton
(08:46):
and working as a music publisher and then writing songs
at night and doing all kinds of different things. But
she always was very supportive. I think we were. I
was mostly you know, a little timid about working together.
Early on, just because of like, what is this? This
is such a lifestyle career. So I was worried about
taking that home with us, but then at the end
(09:07):
of the day you kind of realize it is a
lifestyle career and we were taking it home. Anyways, She's
already in the music industry, so why not join forces
about the two things we're most passionate about, and that's
each other and kind of just you know, really combine
this and make it a dope thing. So it's amazing
to have someone kind of that is so passionate and
(09:29):
a critic. I mean, she'll tell me. She'd be like,
I don't really like that song straight up.
Speaker 3 (09:33):
You know, she's usually right.
Speaker 1 (09:35):
Yeah, I mean, you know, the funny thing about music
is it's all taste, right. I do think that the
female taste in songs is crucial. I've always kind of
surrounded myself with female ears.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Really tell me why.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
I just think that specifically in country music, but in
all genres. I this is a this is kind of
an example, but up in my bar, there's a picture
of an audience. It's a screaming audience. You can't tell
who's on stage, but it's an audience full. I think
it's in the fifties, the audience full of females and
(10:12):
they're going ape shit crazy, and I mean, you could
put Justin Bieber on that stage or whoever, but it
happens to be a Frank Snatra show and you can't
find a single guy in that entire audience. And you're
talking about a guy that now we look back at
at being like the cool guy, right, the rap pack,
the Guy's guy. He had mostly female fans. And I
(10:33):
just think that in music in general, there is a
driving force of females that are the passionate, hungry ones.
There's guys that listen to Morgan Wallen, of course, but
the craziness of I'm gonna buy the merch, I'm going
to invest in every song. I do think that that
is driven by women. So I think it's very important
(10:54):
to kind of have the female expertise in ears. Not
to mention overall, most of the time, I feel like
females make really good leaders of companies, and they're they're
usually pretty good at nurturing songwriters and creative people in general.
So anyways, in my life, I just have always kind
of thought that was an important thing.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
Why do you think that is a female. That's such
a good point. Why do females lean in harder?
Speaker 1 (11:21):
I think they're just you know, they're they're passionate. They
like when they do like something, it's all it right.
But you know, I'm gonna buy a three sweatshirts, I'm
gonna listen to everything. I'm going to get to know
this guy's lifestyle brand completely. So the brands out there
that do that, that package up a lifestyle brand, whether
(11:42):
you're a Casey Musk Grays and it's kind of Landa
del Rey country music, or you're Morgan Walling and it's
kind of reddingeck this country, you know they're going to
lean into that brand really well. So, you know, I
think all genres, but specifically country music, it's very important
to kind of get a female opinion approach. A lot
of my songwriters or females, even when we're writing for
(12:03):
a Jelly Roll or Thomas Rhett. You know, there's it's
always nice to kind of have a female co writer
in the room kind of guiding things and kind of
calling you out and like that's stupid, you know, or
that's how it would be said, or you know, that's
just my personal opinion. But we've struggled to have a
lot of female voices on country radio over the last
(12:24):
decade or so. But I like to have them at
least in my professional life and in the writing room.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And you've written a couple of number ones for some females,
like you just had Miranda Lambert or I don't if
it went number one, but some big hits Miranda Lambert,
You've written who are Who are all the people that
you've had big hits with?
Speaker 1 (12:42):
Like in general, like female Wise, Laurena, Leana, Miranda Lambert
in general. I've had a lot of hits with Thomas Rhett,
John Party, I've had his Blake Shelton, I've had Old Dominion.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Uh, so many, it's hard to remember of all, Jesse.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
It's crazy, it's crazy. It's been We've had a really
good run. And to think, you know, I came to
town in two thousand and one and came to be
a songwriter, and like gave up on it very quickly
because when did I meet you? What was the year
I met you?
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Oh, Jesse, how we met? I was waiting for this
moment to interject this story. Okay, you you actually so
I moved to Nashville. When I was in two thousand
and eight, I was in college at Belmont and I
was looking for an internship. So it's either two thousand
and eight or two thousand and nine, Okay, looking for
an internship and somehow, Oh, I think I tried to
(13:42):
get an internship where you were working. You were just
like in the mail room or something at Bob Doyle's company.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
Yeah, yeah, major Bob.
Speaker 3 (13:48):
Yeah, you probably weren't in the mail room. You probably
had something more legit than.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
That, but like you weren't like Jesse Frasier yet, you
were just like I don't even think you had started
writing songs at that point.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
I didn't get my first cut until twenty thirteen, like
my first hit song.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
And you were like a surprise writer, you know, because
like you weren't doing songwriting.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Weren't you doing like publishing or something.
Speaker 1 (14:11):
I was a publisher, but I would you know that
was that whole.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Era where you're just secretly writing with Christableton the midnight hours.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Yeah, or like you know Shane Mooney from Dan and shaehe.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Yeah, he was he was wait wait wait, Shae from
Dan and Shay was signed to what te Payne te
Pain as an R and B artist before he became
a country.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Star, and he would come up to Nashville and he
would write. And then Meghan Traynor was a seventeen year
old she lived in Nantucket at the time. She would
come to Nashville and write, would you this spit toys? Yeah?
Speaker 3 (14:46):
How'd you find how'd y'all find each other?
Speaker 1 (14:48):
Well?
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Shye.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
I was introduced to by the Hot Shell Array boys.
Do you remember that band, Hot Shell Ray? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (14:55):
Yes, The fall ass a son to Adrian and A
and Keith Follisy are two huge hit songwriters back in
the day. I can't believe I'd stay back in the
day now, but like and their son was in a band,
Hot Shell Ray.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Yes. Brian Falise and Paul over Street's son, Nash over Street.
Speaker 3 (15:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Nash introduced me to Shay and said, Hey, there's this
guy with this incredible voice. He's an R and B artist.
He's coming up a bunch. And then Carla Wallace called
me and said, Hey, there's this super shy girl. She's
from Nantucket. I saw her when I went to a
you know, songwriter festival, and I signed her. She's gonna
be taking some trips to Nashville, and.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
Carla was your publisher or was a publisher. She's just
a friend, okay.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
In fact, Carla, you know, went on to publish Megan
Trainer and Maren Morris and a lot of another great
female set of ears in town. But she said you
should write with this Megan girl, and me and Meghan
and Shay ended up writing and again writing pop songs.
Speaker 3 (15:49):
Stop that you Meghan and Shaye wrote together. Y'all write
a hit that made it.
Speaker 1 (15:54):
Yeah, there's a song called I Like the Sound of
That by Rascal Flats that went number one.
Speaker 2 (15:59):
Wait, Meghan or Shade and even recorded, y'all got an
outside cut. That's even harder. I mean, that's like a perfect,
perfect moment right there.
Speaker 1 (16:09):
We've got to remember back then he wasn't in Dana
Shay and she it's when I see her now as
like this like personality, Like I wish you could see
Megan Trader back then because she was so quiet and
shy and different. It was different. She had an amazing voice,
but very different.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
Well she was so green, I mean she was just
seventeen years old, like diving into the industry. I mean,
that's so overwhelming. How that's so cool. It's so cool
to like hear.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
The stories before they were, you know.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
And there was this whole crew I keep calling the
misfit Toys because we were we were like, we're all
intimidated by what was happening country music, but we all
grew up listening to everything from Tupac to Daft punk
to you know, the Keith Urban Golden Road record. So
we all were moving to town and everyone was like
kind of being creative and working but intimidated still.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Well, and everybody was really good, but nobody knew where
they belonged exactly.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
And the town needed to change, the lanes needed to change,
and things just kind of needed to happen. So, you know,
I was I was at the time djaying on the weekends.
I would go work for Cash Money Records and just
DJ parties, And I told my boss, hey, look, this
is my creative outlet. So I'm gonna fly on Fridays.
I'll be back Sunday, but I have to do this.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
So you're working all week as a publisher and then
your secret songwriting at night, and then you're flying to
do DJ stuff on the weekends. Yeah, okay, you're really
see you are really fueling the flames your passionate desires.
Speaker 3 (17:44):
I love that, Jesse. You're like, yeah, I'm making these
dreams come true.
Speaker 1 (17:48):
Yeah, got to. And you know, the funny thing is
when people say pick a lane, Like, every single aspect
of my life, whether it was djaying or making, being
a music publisher or a producer, it's all helped each other.
So I don't believe in that. I feel like, yes,
if I was like chasing my dreams of being a
(18:10):
master painter while I was doing all this, maybe, but
as long as everything's.
Speaker 2 (18:14):
Well, know, because you probably would paint music, paint art
that would pair well with the album that.
Speaker 3 (18:21):
You created, and you could sell it or.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
Put it on the walls and the rooms that you
doj I mean you can't, no, you cant or it.
Speaker 3 (18:28):
Could be your album cover. So I think painting art
would actually pair well with all of us.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Maybe so that it's always helped me. I mean, you know,
it was kind of at the time too, where DJing
was the sexy thing for artists, so they would take
me out on the road here and that led to
more the songwriting and you know, so yes, I've always
kind of done a lot of things.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
That's so cool.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Okay, So when you were at Major Bob, I guess
you had just started the you know, the songwriting or
you were I didn't know you as a songwriter because.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Like your day job was a publisher.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
Yeah, it's kind of a taboo thing to like be
a You don't want your songwriters that you're helping know
that you're trying to be a songwriter too.
Speaker 3 (19:10):
Right, because they're like, are you going to pitch your
song over my song? You're gonna be working for me, man.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
I love that your secret songwriting with Chris Ableton, Shaye Mooney,
Megan Trainer. I mean that's just amazing. And y'all were
the misfit toys. But see, just for everyone listening, just
note to self. If you are a misfit toy, but
you know you're passionate and talented, just stay the course
because you will find your place. All of you guys
have totally seen your passion and talent through and it's
(19:39):
down materialized into so many accolades and life experiences that
are amazing.
Speaker 3 (19:43):
But you stuck with it even though you didn't know
where you belonged for a long time. I feel like
that's a very common theme. Do you agree with that? Jesse?
Speaker 1 (19:50):
Absolutely. I think sometimes you need to let the world
shift instead of shifting yourself, you know, especially in any
creative worlds where you can start chasing things and it
gets real. One thing I can say is that I
was never chasing country music. I was just writing songs
(20:11):
with talented people to have fun. And I mean I
wanted to put Chris Staepilton's voice on as many motown
sounding songs as I could because he sounded amazing, and
I'm from Detroit and I love that style of music.
At no point where we're like this would be awesome
in country music, and then those kind of situations lead
to Thomas Rhett call and going hey, will you produce
(20:31):
this record on me? And then six albums later, you
know you're producing country music. So like it. I think
that it's important for people to understand that, you know,
you have to be driven. I always felt like I
wasn't the most talented person in town, but I felt
like I could outwork pretty much anybody.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Does that work? Have it come from your upbringing?
Speaker 1 (20:54):
I guess so, you know, I you know, some of
it's probably from insecurities of like I'm not the best musician.
I failed music theory at Michigan State. The only class
I've ever failed was a music class, which is classic. Yea,
though yeah it's perfect, So some of it's you know,
I don't know. I think that I saw, I was intimidated,
(21:18):
so I, you know, put it on the shelf for
a second, chasing it, and maybe that made me appreciate
it more when I saw, oh, this could work, so
I'm gonna go hard. And you know, I do think
there is a you know, most creative people, I think
have a heroin addiction. You know, the goods and the
bads of We would probably be doing this under a
(21:39):
bridge somewhere if we weren't getting it paid, just kind
of you know, for fun.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Yeah, you have to.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
It's like who you are, Yes, it's in your blood.
I really believe that. I believe that anyone who's pursuing anything,
I mean, it could be in any genre. But since
for in the industry, music industry and artists are talking
about an artistic gift, it's like when you have that,
it's a gift and it will curse your life if
you don't follow it, because it's like hello, knock knock,
Like I'm still here and you're never getting rid of me.
(22:08):
So I know you're trying to run away from me
or avoid me, but like I'm gonna hunt you down.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So you just have to become obsessed with it. I mean,
you really do. Like people who are true.
Speaker 2 (22:16):
Musicians and true artists, like you can have boundaries in
a healthy relationship with it, but it's not going anywhere.
Speaker 1 (22:23):
Yeah, you do have to be obsessed. And for the
people that are not in creative jobs out there, I
do think my business side of publishing mostly helped me.
There was times where I have a lot of like
co writers that are very free spirited and just kind
of blowing the wind, And sometimes I envy that because
my mind's like not working that way. It's usually has
(22:44):
some sort of tied to business. But that definitely helped
me kind of figure things out in the creative landscape too,
going okay, well, what if we rented our own bus
and followed this tour and asked these guys to write,
maybe we can find it that way. Or if I
pitch the song this way, or if I go to
this event and shake the cands with this person, you know,
what is the business angle? I like working the.
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Angles like strategy tricks.
Speaker 1 (23:09):
Yes, I feel like when you kind of like can
go all right this person. One of my favorite things
in music or in life is when people say no and.
Speaker 3 (23:18):
You're like that's not You're like, no, it's not a no,
Like I like.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The sound of that. Actually they passed on that. Rescal
Flats passed on that song, and then we just went
back through a different route and ended up a number
one song. So there's a lot of those stories in
life where you know someone with some perseverance, we get
told no most of the time. Like, if you get
ten percent of your songs recorded, you are like a
(23:44):
superstar songwriter. Yeah, two hundred and thirty songs a year.
And when I won Writer the Year, it was with
six songs.
Speaker 3 (23:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
So that's what that means is the general public heard
six of those two hundred something songs every year. That's crazy.
So when you think about it like that, you have
to get used to the word no, and you have
to get used to the nowadays we sometimes you don't
even get nos. It's just silence, you know. So I
(24:15):
think in life it's a matter of like stay the course,
try not to chase. It's hard not to write We
don't live in a vacuum, right, We're all kind of
aware of things. So whether it's a business or it's
a you know, a song, it's hard not to have influences.
But I do think that people that can figure out
a brand that's them, that they're passionate about and unique,
(24:38):
then the world kind of just goes like this, right,
And sometimes it will hit this brand that you're in
and it's gonna be cool, and other times it's gonna
dip out and it's going to come back. And you know,
there's been times over the course of the last ten years,
you know where it's like, there's stuff I'm doing where
fits really well and in on radio, and there's other
(24:58):
times it doesn't. And it's just a matter of kind
of staying the course and not going, oh, you know
what I'm gonna try to do is But I also
like to kind of be that chameleon too. I'd love
to get in a room with Randa Lambert and go
very very country, or get in a room with someone
like a Thomas Rhett and go very very not country.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
You know, you have it, it's all inside of you.
I love that.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
I love that you said it's like weeds and then
sometimes you hit because that's really how it goes. Because
it's like Chris Stapleton, you know, so many people will
wonder this all the time, but it's like, was he's
so frustrated for so long because here he was this
incredible singer, this incredible songwriter. I think he'd already had
a lot of number ones, he'd probably had multiple record
deals at this time, and nobody he could not get
(25:39):
received on radio, he could not pop.
Speaker 3 (25:41):
It would just not It just didn't happen forever, and
everyone's like, what in the world.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
Then all of a sudden, it did, you know, And
so it's like and then it popped huge and it
all connected. So I wonder what you're saying is sometimes
all the timing has to align, and sometimes you just
have to hit away where that's what a certain group
of people really want to hear, or that's what another
creative is doing, and you combine forces and it's like
time for that moment to happen, you know. But it's
(26:07):
like you can't rush the moment, which is so frustrating
with being an artist because you're just like, I'm so ready,
but the moment has to happen.
Speaker 3 (26:16):
You have to have belief in patience.
Speaker 2 (26:17):
It's like, you really have to have faith in it.
Speaker 1 (26:21):
It's so crucial. I mean people have asked me the
same kind of thing, are like, were you frustrated that
it took you twelve years to actually become what you
came here to become? But Stapleton's a great metaphor. If
it wasn't for the Florida Georgia lines, it wasn't for
a lot of these kind of crossover things happening, then
maybe justin Timberlake's not going on to the CMA Awards,
(26:46):
you know and doing these kind of collaborations. If it's
not for Thomas Rhett coming to town and starting to
get some cuts, who grew up listening to everything from
hip hop to country music, maybe he doesn't hear crash
and burn, you know. So it has to be a
timing thing, especially in anything creative, but also very much
(27:06):
in business. I mean, sometimes you've got to be careful,
like is this the right time to pitch this project?
Is this you know? And a lot of times we
don't know. So when you look back and go, man,
they must have been so frustrated. I don't think he
really knew any different. We all were just like angry,
and he had a classic rock band that he was
playing out with and writing songs. He was getting some
Luke Bryan Kuttz and stuff like that, but it just
(27:28):
didn't become the brand that it is today until later
on and the world needed to change. So I think
that's such a it's such a hard thing to hear
when people like I remember being younger and hearing those
kind of things and it goes in one year out
the other, because you're like, just that doesn't really do
much to help me. I'm waiting on the world to change,
(27:50):
basically like a John Mayer song or something. But there
is something to be said about you know, we can't
be like I could not go back and change any
part of my story. It would have ended completely different.
The way that it happened allowed me to have a
life where I'm able to DJ and do all these
things everything I always dreamed of, as opposed to maybe
(28:13):
if I went back and made it happen faster, something
in my life doesn't occur. You know.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Oh, like, maybe you needed the space of what the dream,
the prominent dream you're focusing on. Maybe you needed a
little space of that not to happen right away, so
you could have some other space made room to work
on these other parts of you that probably would have
been ignored.
Speaker 1 (28:34):
Right absolutely, because in twenty sixteen when we did the
venture with rock Nation, our companies called.
Speaker 3 (28:40):
Rhythm House and Brognation with jay Z what.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Yeah, And their question was what do you want to do?
Speaker 2 (28:47):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Then you're like, how do you answer that correctly?
Speaker 1 (28:51):
For James, it's a weird question in life, like if
you actually sit down as a human being and go,
what do you want?
Speaker 3 (28:57):
Okay, what do you want? Tell me? I need to
know what you answered.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
My answer was everything. I want to do everything I'm
doing now but bigger. And that was just a if
that would have happened sooner, I wouldn't have known, but
I knew that, okay. I don't want to stop teaching.
I don't want to stop doing multiple genres. I like
working with songwriters. I'm obviously writing and doing okay with it.
(29:20):
I want to still produce. I don't want to be
tied down to anything. I want to just have a
ton of freedom. I don't want anyone telling me what
to do. I will work hard. I need someone to
trust that my work ethic will be there. I'm going
to show up to work, but I don't need anyone
like breathing down my neck. And one of my biggest
fears was, Okay, this is a company that's not in
(29:43):
country music. They wanted to plan a flag and country,
but I didn't want them to be sending people down
and going, hey, sign this person, sign that person. And
they said, look, we need you, you don't need us,
and they said everything I wanted to hear. Obviously, I
was ginormous. Still to this day, he's he's a business
(30:04):
hero of mine, not just a music hero. So yeah, yeah,
there another guy there. So jay Z is one of
the obviously the the main owner, and then there's a
guy that runs a company called Jay Brown who manages
Rihanna and Shakira and a bunch of people. But he
was kind of like our point person day to day
(30:25):
and he was amazing and just kind of gave us space.
And you know, I remember when we went backstage at
the Beyonce's show when we just signed the deal and
I'm like shaking, like you know, I'm having champagne with
Jay and toasting the signing of this project, and just
like deer in Headlights and then all the different years
(30:48):
later we've gone to so many different events have been
around them, and my wife's better. She can likew man.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
So I've had Stevie on the podcast. She told me
her we can't say sorry it is.
Speaker 1 (30:56):
That's the same.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (30:58):
I think she like total on the podcast too, where
she like had too much to drink or something, and
she kept going back up to Beyonce because she like
knew they were best friends or something.
Speaker 3 (31:06):
I'm just like Steve Stevie for the wind.
Speaker 2 (31:08):
And then she says that y'all have this saying where
are like, Okay, you're wearing it out.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
You're wearing it out. You need to slow your role
because you're wearing it out.
Speaker 1 (31:15):
I'm like thinking about having a good partner to call you.
I'm like, hey, come on it back a little bit.
Speaker 3 (31:21):
That's Beyonce. You've had your moment. We need to step
back from Beyonce.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:25):
I usually freeze up though with you know, it's hard
when people are disarming. One thing I like about him
is that a lot of celebrities will be like and man,
shake your hand and walk. He always stops, and sometimes
you're not prepared to say anymore, so you like, I
start panicking, freeze out.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
You were prepared for Hello, but that was it. And
then it's like, oh gosh, now we're having a conversation.
What do you how do you launch into a conversation
with jay Z? Like, what's your go to?
Speaker 1 (31:55):
Well, one of my terrible things that I did for
years is reintroduce myself, and every single time he'd be like, hell,
I know, I know who you are also going with
so and so. And you know when I did win
Right of the Year, that was sick because we signed
with them in twenty sixteen. I won Right of the
Year in twenty eighteen for the first time and he
sent this amazing video that they played at BMI and
(32:17):
it was super sweet. So he always you know, we
got their first country number one, and we got them
you know, Grammy nominations and awards, So it was a
cool little thing for them. They liked the aspect of,
you know, knowing that they had rock Nation on the
country charts basically, so that was a pretty cool experience.
(32:38):
And they've been amazing to us and invite us to
all the events and it's never going to quite be
normal for me, but that's something that was like a
childhood dream of going well.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
Also like good for them that it worked with you guys.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
So many people from rock and pop and other genres
always try to come in to Nashville and partner up
with a local Nashville company, and a lot.
Speaker 3 (33:01):
Of times it really doesn't work at all.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
Like I would say, eighty five to ninety percent of
the time, it's a giant fail and they just leave
and go back and do what they did and just
pretend like it never happened. So the fact that rock
Nation was able to partner with you guys and you
were able to align so well and create hits and
like a mutual partnership of a win win, that's like,
that's like kind of a big deal.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, I think that it is rare to You're right,
you know enough about all this to know that a
lot of joint ventures. Honestly, opening up a publishing company
and for the people that don't know, publishing is like
I always thought it was like magazines and books, but
it also can be copyrights in other words, the song
So we'll signs songwriters and publish them. So opening up
(33:45):
publishing companies like opening up a restaurant. It's a terrible idea.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
So you Jesse you and see we just said let's.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
Do it well again. Heroin addicts like, yeah, you know,
there's not much of a choice. But if you were,
you know, like, if anyone ever came to me for advice,
you'd be like, I'm thinking about either opening up a
restaurant or a publishing company, I'd say, dude, just be
a plumber.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
Like yeah, yeah, just walk away while you can't know.
But then you're like, but also, it's the best thing
you're ever gonna do with your life.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
It's gonna break your heart a million pieces, and it's
also going to give you all the joy you could
ever dream of.
Speaker 1 (34:19):
That's it. Yeah, that basically sums it up. Yes, good luck. Yeah,
and it makes you really proud when you go to
an event knowing we're making money, we're not money because
I was surrounded by all these moments and you're looking
around the room going, oh my god, that so and
so and so and so and so, and you're like,
you know what, it's Christmas time. We're here at this
(34:40):
Christmas party. We're here. It's a very VIP group and
we're supposed to be here, and we're making them money
and they're proud of this, and so that was that's
always been a really cool achievement that you know, without Stevie,
without ban, without bj Hill at the time was there,
that stuff doesn't occur, So it was pretty cool.
Speaker 2 (34:59):
Yeah, a good point there. And I talk about mindset
all the time on my podcast and like just you know,
rewiring the brain, learning you're worth, walking and worth And
you said you're looking around at a Christmas party thrown
by j Z and rock Nation and all that and
tons of VIPs in the room, and you're telling yourself, Okay,
(35:19):
we're supposed to be here, but even if you weren't
making money, you were still supposed to be there because
they believed in you to partner with you.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
But I know what you mean.
Speaker 2 (35:27):
It's just like you feel so relieved that it's like,
oh my god, we did it. But then it's also
like reminding ourselves and I have to do this all
the time. It's like, Okay, you know you're good, you
know you're great. You know you're showing up, you know
you're doing the work. You know it's as good as
quality as anybody else's. You know, it's awesome, But it's
like just to believe that when it hasn't fully hopped yet,
(35:50):
you know, or whatever, or to prove yourself or to
prove that you're validated. I mean, I had so many
years of just trying to prove that I was validated
to myself. But it's likely that you're worthy. But it's
so hard to get that mindset right, so hard.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
And for me, it's a practice. Like I've learned enough
now to know I'm never going to perfect this. I've
had all more accolades than I could ever dream of.
I've done things that I never thought were possible. And
yet that thing that I'm always kind of looking forward,
(36:25):
like that that uber respect or it's going to get easier,
that just doesn't happen. Like you get to the top
of the mountain and you're like, oh, where's the party,
and they're like, oh, we moved the party to this
mountain over there. That's basically what the music industry is.
And I think in general most of the world, like
we all think that just over that mountain, it's going
(36:47):
to be cruise control, and it just isn't. Especially in
the world of entertainment in arts, it's just it's constantly shifting.
It's constantly evolving, more so in the last two three
years than ever. You know, especially as a songwriter, there's
so many things that you're dealing with on a regular basis.
So I feel some days as insecure as before I
(37:12):
had a single number one.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Really that's hard to believe.
Speaker 1 (37:15):
Absolutely, Like, I know, I know that I what I like,
I know that I can. I trust my gut, and
there's certain people that I'm more comfortable with than others.
But you know, if I go on a bus trip,
you know, I've got my tracks prepped and my ideas
and my hooks prepped and all that stuff, and we
get on the bus, I'm still a nervous wreck. Until
we get that first song in the can. That can
(37:36):
relax a little bit. But you know, I write at
eleven today or whatever we do. At any point, I'm
as nervous as the first song I ever wrote.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
So well, that makes you really care, though, and that
means they're really not just dialing it in.
Speaker 3 (37:50):
This really really matters to you.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
It does matter to me, and I don't think we know,
like I don't believe otherwise, no one has a flop
in the jet in the history of the world, whether
you're Marvin Gay or what you Houston or Max Martin
or Quincy Jones or Michael Jackson. No one ever puts
out a flop doesn't exist. So what that tells me
(38:13):
is that the biggest, you know, my idols, the people
that I think are genius musicians, didn't always get it right.
And I do think that there's comfort in that, going, Okay,
if I could just kind of go with, we're going
to do the best we can in the room, We're
going to try to like it, and that's it. All
we can control is what we do today. So but yeah,
(38:35):
you know, I've I thought for a while that I
was going to get to like the zen state of
pure confidence, give zero folks, take on life as it comes,
whatever it is. And now I kind of just feel
like it for practice. Some days I'm good at it
and other days I'm not. But it's constantly kind of
just going it's all right or whatever that mantra is going,
(38:58):
it's going to be fine or in real city is
it changes all the time.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
I think that's why it goes back to like four principles,
you know, like showing up, working hard, being your best,
doing the work to be your best, you know, it's
like when you trusting your instincts, staying in alignment, when
you do those things over and over again, it's like
you can look back on your day every situation you're like, Okay,
I did the best I could. I literally did the
best I could in the situation I had, So whatever happens,
(39:28):
I mean, that's recally, you have to believe in something
higher too, Like I feel like, more than ever, I
have been leaning on my relationship with God, like in
a new way than I used to. And I know
you work a lot with Thomas Rhett and I just
posted a video of him. I reposted it because I
thought it was so cool he stopped his show in
the middle of an arena to pray for someone who
(39:48):
had a serious health issue happen in the middle of
the show and he just stopped the music instead of prayer.
And I'm like, man, if anything that's happened to me,
and I just turned forty, that's like a landmark year.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:59):
It's like I just fe I feel like I cannot
lean on myself anymore. Like I have leaned on myself
and my ego and my you know, chasing things because
I was insecure or need a validation or whatever. And
it's like that kind of works for a while, but
like ultimately the long game, like you've got to have
a spiritual practice. I feel like I just don't. I
(40:21):
just feel like I can't make it with that one.
How do you feel about God in relationship to the
gift of songs coming through you? And you know, like
you said, you never know what's gonna happen, it's so
much bigger than yourself. How does the spiritual side play
into that for you?
Speaker 1 (40:33):
You know, just as you grow older, you start to
learn how to have your own spirituality and not your parents' religion.
So through my life, it's funny because the more I
moved away from religion, I got closer to my own
personal relationship with God. And going through things and going
(40:55):
through Stebee had breast cancer and going through those kinds
of struggles kind of taught me, you know, what my
relationship was in my conversations. And also, you know, going
through different situations where I thought, I you know, or
I saw quote unquote Christians handling things a certain way,
(41:16):
and one thing I thought was missing a lot was
just being human to each other. When I was going
through those times with Stevie dealing with all her surgeries,
people were just sending scriptures a lot, and really I
just wanted someone to like, go, dude, that fucking sucks.
I'm so sorry that you're going through that. We're praying
(41:36):
for you, guys. Love y'all, because I feel like sometimes
we don't interact well as humans. And it's nothing against God.
It's not that God doesn't have this, but he also
put us here to interact as human beings. So the
more that I've found people in my life that are
(41:56):
spiritual people and believing God but interact on a real basis,
that's when I kind of felt the most you know,
at home and kind of leaning on something exactly. That
to me has been a big kind of epiphany in
(42:17):
my life later on where it's like it wasn't. So,
you know, anytime you insert human beings into a culture,
it can tend to like have a downside, whether that's
you know, a big church with laser lights and nothing
against the superchurch or whatever the politics are of a situation.
So for me, you know, being a creative person struggling
(42:39):
with you know, all the insecurities and figuring things out,
but then really looking back and going, man, everything kind
of fell into place exactly the way it's supposed to.
That becomes a comfort, and it's it's kind of like
God saying I got you. I don't want to hear
from somebody why Stevie battled breast cancer. He was teaching
you guys something I don't want to hear that. I
(43:02):
want them to go, I love you, I'm sorry you're
going through this. Stevie is an amazing ambassador for people
going through breast cancer, and she has learned a lot
from it. But I think that we need to do
a better job at kind of interacting as human beings.
And from seeing those people that I've met that do that,
it's helped me to be a better spiritual person. You know,
(43:24):
I found myself getting resentful towards in blaming God because
of the actions of religious people. So I've kind of
found peace with just kind of being a spiritual person
and surrounding myself with human beings that just are loving
and caring and wellness check. And you know that's when
(43:44):
I was like, wait a second, you know, I'm putting
this blame for what I think are kind of immature
actions of humans on.
Speaker 2 (43:52):
God and so silly, so well, and you know, we
live in a dualistic world. And that's something I've really
had to like understand lately because I have been very
frustrated with the state of the world and people, the
way people treat each other and just like all the things,
you know, abuse and it's just it's a really harsh
place that we live in. But I have really come
(44:15):
to realized, like we are in a dualistic world. Like
you're born into this world and you immediately have predators,
you know. It's like it's like the circle of life.
It's a very brutal, gruesome circle of life that we
live in, but it's how it all flows and it
works in harmony, and it's so it's just like I've
had to accept that this is a world that we
live in that does have pain and suffering and there
are that the people are taken advantage of and it's
(44:37):
been that way since the beginning of time. And so
I feel that it's just I find my comfort and
knowing that like all I can do is try to
be most aligned with myself and my highest and best version,
and that's when I feel like I have God like
guiding me because Otherwise, if I'm just trying to walk
through this world on my own accord, I just get
(44:58):
consumed with life like and it takes me down. It
will like ruin my days and like ruin my mindset,
and like ruin my it'll ruin my It'll still a
joy from my life. And so like I've realized I've
had to land on God so much more as I've
gotten older, because I'm like, I physically can't make it
through this world without something bigger guiding me.
Speaker 3 (45:16):
It's just too heavy. This world is so heavy.
Speaker 1 (45:19):
It is heavy, and it's and it's you know, we're
all still kind of recovering from a crazy few years,
and I think, you know, we'll look back in ten
years and go, wow, that was even crazier than we
all knew, and the trauma from a lot of that,
and it was a very polarizing time, and human beings
were at each other's throats, and you know, but I
think in general, what I've learned is like one of
(45:40):
the most Jesus like things I've seen in my life
is just when a human being isn't quoting anything, whether
it's poetry or scripture or prolific it's literally just going, hey,
how are you? Are you okay? That's all we really need,
you know, And to me, the more I saw that,
(46:00):
the more I was like repairing my kind of personal
feelings of you know, past religious traumas or anything else
in my life and kind of going, all right, that,
to me, that's that is very godly. And I see,
you know, spirituality and human beings when we're just good
to one another.
Speaker 3 (46:17):
And oh yeah, because give humans anything and they'll mess
it up. Of course they're gonna mess up religion. I mean,
come on, you know, I mean, humans mess everything up.
But okay, I'm going to wrap up.
Speaker 2 (46:26):
I know you have to go to a songwriting appointment,
but I just want to quickly circle back around to
how you got me my first internship because I had
applied the intern for you when you were a secret
songwriter working in a publishing company.
Speaker 3 (46:38):
Bob Doyle.
Speaker 2 (46:40):
Yeah, and you guys didn't I apply. I somehow met
with you, applied with you, but y'all don't need an
intern and you were like.
Speaker 3 (46:48):
Oh, you should meet with Victoria Shaw. She's this other
hit songwriter.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
She had written songs for John Michael Montgomery and Garth Brooks,
and she was a hot thing back in the nineties
and two thousands, and I.
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Don't know what a long time.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
She had a lot of hits for a while, and
she's still an incredible songwriter and I love her so dearly.
Speaker 3 (47:06):
But you're like, you need.
Speaker 2 (47:07):
To intern for her, and so I was like, okay,
And that started my whole career. She mentored me, she
signed me to a publishing deal, She taught me how
to write songs. She gave me all my first experiences
in the studio and coaching me. And that was all
because of you, Jesse. You set me on the track.
Speaker 1 (47:26):
Well, she's the best, she's a good mentor, and.
Speaker 2 (47:29):
She's still a great hit songwriter. I did not mean
to say that when I was talking about her.
Speaker 1 (47:32):
She just was.
Speaker 3 (47:32):
Her streak was like she had a big street for
a while.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
Absolutely another person with great ears and signing good talent,
like yourself.
Speaker 3 (47:40):
But you got me started, Jesse. So look at you.
Speaker 1 (47:42):
Go, look at you now you've got your little empire going.
Speaker 3 (47:45):
Oh yes, yes, I do.
Speaker 2 (47:47):
I always wrap up with leave your Light, And basically
it's an open ended question, and it's what do you
want people to know?
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Hmmm? I think I think that circling tops slightly back
onto that. When you get to the top of the mountain,
they move the party to a different mountain. So we
have to kind of be careful that we're not attaching
our joy based on the other side of the mountain, right,
We have to like enjoy the climb and enjoy the
(48:20):
thing's going on. That's easier said than done when people say, oh, yeah,
it's hard. You know, when life's kicking in the butt,
it's hard to kind of be present and enjoy the experience.
But you know, I have found that when you do
achieve your wildest dreams, you'll figure out another reason to
be unhappy, So you don't you need to kind of
(48:42):
enjoy the process and the journey along the way or else.
You know, if you really kind of add up how
many summers are on this earth? Like it's kind of
a spooky thought, and I'm like, okay, how many summers
do we get here? How many summers am I already past?
So I may be, if I'm lucky, you know, forty
to fifty summers left in my entire life, and I'm
(49:06):
gonna like be grumpy over whatever situation's bothering this. It
doesn't mean that it's not relative. And I understand we
have to kind of be present and get things accomplished.
But if we can kind of just recalibrate and go, man,
I need to like wake up a little bit here
and realize what's important. So that was my life.
Speaker 3 (49:26):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (49:27):
And like you said, this too, show pass. And it's
like if you're like you know you said earlier, you've
written two hundred and fifty or however new songs a year,
and you know, six of them made it to the top,
which is great for the standards of Nashville songwriters.
Speaker 3 (49:40):
I mean, you're crushing it.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
But still it's like on the scope of you writing
all these songs that you're passionate and love, it's like
only six ended up getting totally.
Speaker 3 (49:47):
Heard by the world.
Speaker 2 (49:48):
So yeah, you can't get so wrapped up in the
mountaintop because quickly the party is somewhere else.
Speaker 1 (49:57):
Yeah. I fail most days. Like one time, my a
friend of mine named Busby who passed away, but he
was a hit songwriter and producer. He said this amazing
thing and it's always like stuck with me. But he said,
if we wrote, if we wrote one hit song a month,
that be twelve a year, and that you would be
the songwriter of the year every single year in any genre, because,
(50:19):
like I said, to be writer of the year in
pop or country takes about five or six songs. So
if you're doing twelve hit songs a year, that means
you're still failing twenty nine thirty days a month, which
is crazy, and none of us even achieved that. So
you know, you just kind of have to recalibrate, you know,
(50:42):
what it means to achieve and what it means to
be successful because we're just so used to hearing no.
So it is a unique career in that sense where
maybe we are good at being an optimistic because we
just get beat up so much.
Speaker 3 (50:56):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (50:56):
Okay, you said one thing and then I'll wrap up.
You just said, we have to define what it means
it's successful. What doesn't mean to be successful?
Speaker 4 (51:02):
For you, I've gotten to do what I love every
single day since two thousand and one, you know, like
I literally have achieved every goal I've ever set.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Out to accomplish. I mean, so just that alone, like
a lot of our friends will be like, you already
won the game, like it's Nintendo, you know, so I
think that's it. So for me, it's going there's not
an accolade that's going to give me this kind of like,
oh my gosh, respect he's a Laurie McKenna, or he's
a Tom Douglas or Hillary Lindsay. You know, people are
(51:41):
going to look at you the way they look at you,
regardless of accolades. One person might think I've written ten
number ones next not is twenty two, whatever it is,
it doesn't change. I could get ten more and it's
going to be the same. I could win a Grammy
in January February, it doesn't matter. At the end of
the day, whatever you put up in the trophy closet,
(52:02):
no one cares. So we have to figure out other
ways to kind of feel like we're achieving. And to me,
it's just kind of nurturing friendships, you know, finding people
that you love and care about, checking on others and
celebrating others. That's something I think songwriters do a terrible
job at because we always feel so competitive. Text your friends,
(52:23):
whether it's in business or creativity, just say, man, that's amazing, congratulations.
That's so hard because in the back of your mind
maybe you're envious or you're a little bit like jealous,
or you worked hard to get that thing but you didn't,
so celebrate them. Maybe they celebrate you, maybe they don't.
But if we can kind of just share a little
bit of love, maybe it kind of lightens it all
(52:44):
a little bit.
Speaker 3 (52:45):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (52:45):
And then while we're at it, let's have a dinner
party and put on a Return to Calm Springs and
all just live our best lives.
Speaker 1 (52:51):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (52:52):
SIPs of martinis, SIPs of martinis, you know, just parsonly
Frank and Marilyn are there.
Speaker 3 (52:57):
I love it, Jesse, so awesome chatting with you. You're
so great. Return to Calm Springs.
Speaker 2 (53:03):
Is out everywhere, and also you should just get both
of them, back to back Calm Springs and Return to
Calm Springs because it is the perfect party music.
Speaker 3 (53:09):
It's so great. You're so talented.
Speaker 2 (53:11):
It's so cool that you're fully expressing yourself creatively, and
your journey is wild and amazing.
Speaker 3 (53:16):
So thank you for sharing it, Thanks for having me.
Where can everybody find you? Just give me some links well.
Speaker 1 (53:23):
The Return to Calm Springs and com Springs are on Spotify, Pandora, Apple, Amazon, everywhere,
on Instagram, I'm at telemontry t E L E M
I t r Y.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
That's funny, okay, And listen to your country radio station
and probably every other song was written by Jess Frasier,
the hit songwriter.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
So thank you so much for joining me. This is awesome.
Have an amazing day and a great song. Co right,
maybe you're gonna write a number one right now today.
Vibes okay, Hi, Detsie
Host
Caroline Hobby
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