Speaker 1: Hello everyone, and welcome the inside the studio on I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio. My name is Jordan Runtog. But enough about me,
Speaker 1: let's talk about my guest today. He's a rising star
Speaker 1: in pretty much every medium. You probably first knew him
Speaker 1: from his lead role in the Disney series Bunked. More recently,
Speaker 1: he may have tugged at your heart strings in the
Speaker 1: Netflix drama A Week Away. But what you may not
Speaker 1: have known as it in between takes on the set,
Speaker 1: he was writing songs, like a lot of songs He's
Speaker 1: written close to a hundred and a few weeks back,
Speaker 1: as fans heard the results Wildfires, a name of his
Speaker 1: major label debut single in advance of a bigger collection
Speaker 1: to come shortly, I had a great time getting to
Speaker 1: know him, learning about his writing style, and generally acting
Speaker 1: like two record nerds. I'm so happy to welcome Kevin
Speaker 1: Quinn oh Man. So much talked to you about today.
Speaker 1: But first of all, tell me about your new single, Wildfire.
Speaker 1: How did the song begin for you? Tell me a
Speaker 1: little bit about the inspiration. Yeah, I think Wildfire for me,
Speaker 1: I just wanted to create something positive, uh, an introduction
Speaker 1: to the rest of the project, you know, like I
Speaker 1: just want all this music to be positive, uplifting, inspirational. Uh,
Speaker 1: I wanted to be clean. You know. These are just
Speaker 1: created choices that I've made for the project, and I
Speaker 1: feel like Wildfire crossed off every list for those things
Speaker 1: of of what I wanted the project to be. So,
Speaker 1: you know, we imagine it would be a great debut
Speaker 1: single and I'm glad we chose it. Um. I think
Speaker 1: the inspiration behind it was just like even through the
Speaker 1: worst of times and the darkness and uh, just total ship,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean, Like like you have that
Speaker 1: wildfire in your heart that just gets you going through
Speaker 1: you know, It's like it's it's a thing that's bigger
Speaker 1: than you, that will get you through the darkest of times,
Speaker 1: and it's a real thing. So I feel like that's
Speaker 1: where the wildfire metaphor spawn from for sure. Absolutely. I
Speaker 1: mean it's a beautiful message and especially one we need
Speaker 1: the last year and a half or so. It's definitely
Speaker 1: something to me that we need to tap into in ourselves. Yeah. Man,
Speaker 1: it's it's so it felt really timely too, you know,
Speaker 1: because a lot of this stuff I wrote during the pandemic,
Speaker 1: and I just wanted it to be like the perfect
Speaker 1: timing of the release considering just what the world's has
Speaker 1: been through. Um So, I felt like it was it
Speaker 1: was a godsend. You know that Wildfire checked off every
Speaker 1: box and uh it just it just felt very timely,
Speaker 1: and it felt like the timing was perfect. Absolutely in
Speaker 1: the video does such a great job of illustrating that.
Speaker 1: Talk a little bit more about the visuals for the song. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was. The video was directed by Roman White, who
Speaker 1: if anyone listening, Uh, there's a movie on Netflix called
Speaker 1: A week Away that I started. It's a musical movie.
Speaker 1: Have you seen it? You may not have. I I
Speaker 1: have not. I I was actually I was just about
Speaker 1: to ask you about that, but please, I got a
Speaker 1: lot more on that to come. No. No, it's definitely
Speaker 1: very younger crowd. I wouldn't expect you to watch it.
Speaker 1: Um but the director of that movie, Uh, we teamed
Speaker 1: up Roman I to create this music video, and I
Speaker 1: told him I wanted something energetic, you know, I wanted
Speaker 1: something very much in the pop lane, which he had
Speaker 1: done before with a lot of the artists he had
Speaker 1: collaborated with in the past. Uh So, we I remember
Speaker 1: we had like this forty five minute phone call just
Speaker 1: to discuss ideas. And it's so rare that a creative
Speaker 1: relationship is so synergistic and you bounced all these ideas
Speaker 1: off of each other. But that's how it is with
Speaker 1: Roman and I. It's like, you know, I I spit
Speaker 1: ball an idea and he immediately receives it and vice versa. Um.
Speaker 1: So I feel like it was very much a collaborative process,
Speaker 1: even from the treatment to the filming to the final product. Um.
Speaker 1: But I gotta give it up to Roman because he
Speaker 1: had this vision for the the kind of like Kevin
Speaker 1: Bacon foot loose dancing around the you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: like in the protament. Uh. And it turned out great.
Speaker 1: So I was I was super pleased. I mean I
Speaker 1: was gonna ask. I know, obviously you were extremely involved
Speaker 1: in the soundtrack to the movie. I think I think
Speaker 1: it was eleven out of thirteen songs something like that.
Speaker 1: Uh yeah, Did that in any way influence your sort
Speaker 1: of decision to to take this time to really focus
Speaker 1: in on your music career after all the the acting
Speaker 1: have been involved with. It wasn't the movie soundtrack that
Speaker 1: was a catalyst, believe it or not. I had been
Speaker 1: writing music for four years up to that point, I
Speaker 1: released some music, uh you know that I thought was
Speaker 1: representative of where I was at at the time, only
Speaker 1: to realize later, no, this is this isn't the direction
Speaker 1: I want to go. But you know, I'm young enough
Speaker 1: still figuring out my sound at this point where I
Speaker 1: want to go. Um, So I scrapped those songs and
Speaker 1: I started a completely new project with some new creative choices.
Speaker 1: But just you know, recording the soundtrack, we actually recorded
Speaker 1: it on sets that we built, like this makeshift studio,
Speaker 1: and the philoph producer was, yeah, like he created this
Speaker 1: vocal booth in in the camp summer camp that we
Speaker 1: were shooting is really cool cool, Yeah, yeah, But we
Speaker 1: would just spend our days in there and gove around
Speaker 1: and and it just felt so comfortable. And Adam Watts
Speaker 1: was the film's music producer. He had worked on like
Speaker 1: High School Musical and some of the other Disney musicals.
Speaker 1: But yeah, like I said, just so comfortable. And although
Speaker 1: that process wasn't the catalyst for me, like writing music,
Speaker 1: I had already been doing it it definitely. It was
Speaker 1: just experience that continued to help me grow, and I
Speaker 1: think that enough made the experience worth it and you
Speaker 1: touched on this a little bit earlier. You've had something
Speaker 1: like a hundred songs in your reserves right when when
Speaker 1: you started? I mean, that's that's incredible to me. When
Speaker 1: did you first start writing? Um? When I was on
Speaker 1: a Disney a Disney Channel show called Bunked. I had
Speaker 1: a two year tenure on that show. And yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: Like I think I mentioned to some of the cash
Speaker 1: and crew that I had this, you know, dream of
Speaker 1: pursuing music. UM, But I don't know if they realized
Speaker 1: quite the extent of how hard I was working at
Speaker 1: it at the time. It was just kind of something
Speaker 1: I did on side when I wasn't on set. But yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean four years worth of writing. Um. I definitely
Speaker 1: did have, you know, a hundred songs in my pocket
Speaker 1: before I decided to release Wildfire at least, you know,
Speaker 1: like just writing for four years. But that's how particular
Speaker 1: I was. I was like, I don't want to release
Speaker 1: stuff just for the sake of releasing it. And I
Speaker 1: had done that before and I didn't like the results.
Speaker 1: So I just was like, Nope, I'm not gonna release anything.
Speaker 1: And it worked out. Where Where did this come from?
Speaker 1: For you? Like? Who are some of the people that
Speaker 1: made you want to pick up an instrument and express
Speaker 1: yourself in this way. I can't explain it. I can't
Speaker 1: explain it. It was just something I was always drawn to.
Speaker 1: I think, I don't know. You ask any creative and
Speaker 1: and any performer in this business, it's like where can
Speaker 1: you really pinpoint their passion and when they wanted to
Speaker 1: decide to do it or what was the catalyst? But
Speaker 1: for me, it was just always something bigger than myself.
Speaker 1: It was like I couldn't imagine myself doing anything other
Speaker 1: than performing. So I don't know. It was that carried
Speaker 1: on through my childhood. Like I remember that feeling in
Speaker 1: my childhood listening to some great music like the Beatles
Speaker 1: or the Rolling Stones or you know, just like a
Speaker 1: lot of rock bands, a lot of eighties and nineties music.
Speaker 1: I just absorbed myself in music as a young kid, uh,
Speaker 1: and that followed me as I got older, and I
Speaker 1: just knew what I wanted to hear in like the
Speaker 1: track and the harmonies, and I got pretty good at
Speaker 1: theory at one point, and so I just started making
Speaker 1: my own music. Wow, that's really cool. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: someone who loves music. I I mess around on instruments,
Speaker 1: I've taken music theory classes. I have never been able
Speaker 1: to write a song in my entire life. So when
Speaker 1: I when I talked to someone like you who said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I've written a hundred, that's just to me, that's like magic.
Speaker 1: I mean, how does the theory factor into your your
Speaker 1: writing process? Because that's always such an interesting line because
Speaker 1: I know there's people like Paul McCartney who can't read
Speaker 1: me is it. I mean, it's just totally something that
Speaker 1: they do by ear, and so the the the line
Speaker 1: between wanting to know what you're doing with theory but
Speaker 1: wanting to keep some magic and spontaneity in it is
Speaker 1: so interesting to me. Totally. Yeah, it's weird because you
Speaker 1: don't want to go too far in one direction on
Speaker 1: either side. If you're too focused on the theory, you
Speaker 1: can't let the creative flow. If you're too focused on
Speaker 1: just writing a song and not focused on any theory,
Speaker 1: then chances are you probably won't write a great song
Speaker 1: at the end of the session. Um So I always
Speaker 1: found there's like a middle ground between what is proven
Speaker 1: to sound good based on music theory, but then letting
Speaker 1: the creative energy flow and not being too merry to
Speaker 1: any idea. Uh. For me, it's like in the writing room,
Speaker 1: I just love having conversations with my co writers. I
Speaker 1: feel like that's what spawns all the great ideas, is
Speaker 1: not necessarily looking for the lyrics or the melody, but
Speaker 1: just conversing with the co writers. You know, like how
Speaker 1: is your week or what popped into your head that
Speaker 1: you know you want to tell everyone about. Like, those
Speaker 1: are the kind of things that make a writing session
Speaker 1: great because they just become this there. They start as
Speaker 1: an organic idea and they become like the passageway to
Speaker 1: a great song in my mind. Oh totally. I mean
Speaker 1: that's where where the human element comes in, is from
Speaker 1: that that real interaction. Yeah, it's it's such a human element.
Speaker 1: You're absolutely right. It's like I don't even know how
Speaker 1: you explain it. Like, and if we could all write
Speaker 1: great songs and every song we write as a hit,
Speaker 1: then everyone would be a superstar and super successful. But
Speaker 1: we all know, like my heart, to write a good song,
Speaker 1: it's virtually impossible. Like if if you're lucky, you'll get
Speaker 1: a few a year so and they'll make it on
Speaker 1: the project. That's kind of been my mentality. Judging from
Speaker 1: the Jimmie Hendrick's post Racy behind You, I know you're
Speaker 1: and what you mentioned earlier, a guy who knows Oh yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't even know, Like, how do you explain some
Speaker 1: of his lyrics, Like, I mean, the team just has
Speaker 1: a far out mind. Uh, what's that song? No? It
Speaker 1: is Boldest Love? Yeah, yeah, the way he personifies colors
Speaker 1: like that, and and it's just so weird because a
Speaker 1: lot of the song doesn't even rhyme. You know, It's
Speaker 1: like I don't know how he does it, but yet
Speaker 1: it works so perfectly. He's always been an inspiration to me,
Speaker 1: oh totally, and a massively underrated lyricist. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you watch some of his interviews that he gave and
Speaker 1: the you know, the short time that he was alive,
Speaker 1: it's so interesting to hear. Like you said, he is
Speaker 1: far out, Like his take on everything is just like
Speaker 1: totally a slightly different angle than than everyone else around him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he had like a weird way of speaking to
Speaker 1: you know, like and I feel like it translated into
Speaker 1: it not only his personality but his songs as well.
Speaker 1: And just for the listener, what we're referring to the
Speaker 1: giant Jimi Hendrix poster behind my back and my house
Speaker 1: right here. Um yeah, I have another one in the
Speaker 1: living room too. At some point in order are you
Speaker 1: into uh, just from some of the things you were saying,
Speaker 1: I feel like you would dig it if if if
Speaker 1: you're not, Are you went to the Beach Boys Pet
Speaker 1: Sounds album at all? Yes? I I'm not like absolutely
Speaker 1: in love with it. I realize everyone says it's like
Speaker 1: the greatest album of all time. They're not wrong. Um,
Speaker 1: I just feel like my it's a very specific kind
Speaker 1: of sound. That's true. Yeah, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: And I just like to I never stick on one,
Speaker 1: Like if I'm listening to something, I never stick on
Speaker 1: it for a long time. I'd very much have music
Speaker 1: a D d UM. I realized it's brilliantly written, it's
Speaker 1: brilliantly produced. I've heard it many times. Um, but is
Speaker 1: it my absolute favorite? I don't know. I don't have like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I have an absolute favorite album. Um,
Speaker 1: but I do like it. Are you big fan of
Speaker 1: that one? I'm a big fan of it. I mean
Speaker 1: just he would start all of his songwriting sessions having
Speaker 1: these long conversations about life and love with this lyricists,
Speaker 1: and I was just made me think of what you
Speaker 1: were saying about how that's where the best songs come from,
Speaker 1: when you have that shared connection that's born out of
Speaker 1: a conversation, and it's not just sitting down to you know,
Speaker 1: write Moon in June lyrics that are just kind of
Speaker 1: feel fil the melody, but something that actually has some
Speaker 1: some meaning to the two of you that are making
Speaker 1: the song. I didn't realize that that was his approach,
Speaker 1: so so he did have a similar approach. I have
Speaker 1: to is there any like YouTube videos or anything? Oh,
Speaker 1: I can send you some. I'm a huge Brian Wilson nerd.
Speaker 1: I can send you some session tapes and stuff. But
Speaker 1: uh I I meant to say earlier, I I loved
Speaker 1: your cover of Exile Taylor Swift track that is like gray.
Speaker 1: I saw it on social I was a beautiful version
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, you know it's funny. I have a
Speaker 1: twin sister and she is obsessed with Taylor Swift. Man,
Speaker 1: I can't even explain it, Like it's so weird because
Speaker 1: of my sister has friends over who are similar in age,
Speaker 1: Like they'll just spend an hour debating on which song
Speaker 1: is better on every single album, Like, well, I kind
Speaker 1: of like my tears Ricochet because both La Thelah, but
Speaker 1: I would agree with you like that it's not quite
Speaker 1: as good as this and both. And I'm like, who
Speaker 1: does this? Like who debates uh, like every track on
Speaker 1: an album and has an hour long conversation about what
Speaker 1: they like and don't like. Um And I never understood that.
Speaker 1: But yeah, my my twin sister is obsessed and by
Speaker 1: the transitive property. I've got her music as well. UM,
Speaker 1: but I will say, out of all the stuff that
Speaker 1: she's done, my favorite has been uh this recent the
Speaker 1: recent album what is um? The one with Exile on it?
Speaker 1: I can't remember? Folklore? I think that yeah and evermore Yeah,
Speaker 1: so those two, um and I think Aaron Dessner is
Speaker 1: a pretty big piece of that project. And for me,
Speaker 1: it's like I love the kind of folk thing that
Speaker 1: she ventured into with those two albums. Especially Dude. I
Speaker 1: am such a big fan of Justin Vernon and Bonnaber,
Speaker 1: one of my favorite bands of all time, and I'm
Speaker 1: lucky to be alive to watch them. I saw him
Speaker 1: at the Hollywood Bowl and oh nice. So but The
Speaker 1: way that she kind of ventured into that sound with
Speaker 1: them at the Helm is my favorite thing she's done
Speaker 1: so far by far. Oh, it's super unexpected. I didn't
Speaker 1: you know. I guess I should have maybe expected it
Speaker 1: given her sort of country, slightly more folky beginnings, but
Speaker 1: still did not see that comment after you know, lover
Speaker 1: her and everything that was before that. Yeah, And I
Speaker 1: feel like that's what a good artist does, and she's
Speaker 1: a great artist in that way. It's like you reinvent
Speaker 1: yourself with every album. I mean, that's what it should
Speaker 1: be in my mind. Um, even like justin Timberlake Man
Speaker 1: of the Woods, something totally different than what he was
Speaker 1: doing before. Um. So, you know, like as far as
Speaker 1: my own personal music, I definitely have an idea of
Speaker 1: what I want this first project to be. But I
Speaker 1: already have ideas like what's the sophomore album gonna look like?
Speaker 1: What's it? You know what I mean? So I have
Speaker 1: these ideas in my head that I want to execute,
Speaker 1: but I just gotta finish reporting the debut album first. Yeah.
Speaker 1: How far along are you with that? Uh? I would
Speaker 1: say like half of the songs are written at this point. Um,
Speaker 1: I think we've produced three. We're just about to produce
Speaker 1: three here, so Wildfire is one of them. There's a
Speaker 1: second single, um, and then I have the surprise Spanish
Speaker 1: version of Wildfire, which by this point of the podcast
Speaker 1: being aired on I think we'll be out by then
Speaker 1: septembery is that what'll be out by then? I'm not
Speaker 1: sure what I think this is me? You're catching me
Speaker 1: not knowing what day it actually is today. I think
Speaker 1: it might be right, I think it's it's I think
Speaker 1: it might be this Friday, um, so slightly before it,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, call it very close. Then they have
Speaker 1: the Spanish version of Wildfire to look forward to that,
Speaker 1: and then I was gonna say a third and fourth song. Uh.
Speaker 1: Then we got to record the rest of the like
Speaker 1: six or seven there um. But recording the Spanish wildfire,
Speaker 1: uh was a lot more difficult than I expected. I
Speaker 1: should just say that for the record. How's that just
Speaker 1: with with getting the sounds out of your mouth that
Speaker 1: maybe aren't aren't ordinarily something that you're saying or yeah,
Speaker 1: because here's the thing, like I'm not fluent fluent, but
Speaker 1: I'm more than conversational and I'm but I'm less than fluent.
Speaker 1: So I felt pretty confident when we had this idea
Speaker 1: to give, you know, the Latin American markets something they
Speaker 1: could listen to. Um, and we were even gonna do
Speaker 1: like Portuguese version. And I'm not sure if that changed
Speaker 1: when we realized how difficult it was to get the
Speaker 1: Spanish one done. UM. But we recorded it at the
Speaker 1: Capital Tower very yeah, dude, we had like this crazy
Speaker 1: nice mike we're in studio A whoa. I was super
Speaker 1: stoked about it, um, and our engineer was like, just
Speaker 1: you know, this is Snastra's mic so it makes something great.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, UM. But it was just like the delivery
Speaker 1: of of the Spanish words within the context of the
Speaker 1: melody was a lot more difficult than I thought it
Speaker 1: would be, because you know, when you sing in your
Speaker 1: native language. When I when I'm singing in English, I
Speaker 1: can hear how the melody and the pitch and everything
Speaker 1: I want in the vocal performance how it should be
Speaker 1: in English because I hear it back as I'm doing it.
Speaker 1: But with Spanish, it's like that element of hearing yourself
Speaker 1: back in the microphere in the headphones wasn't as prominent,
Speaker 1: so I felt like I was shooting blind. A lot
Speaker 1: of the time. That's really interesting. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: how to explain it, but overall, I'm very pleased with
Speaker 1: how it turned out. I know the label is pleased.
Speaker 1: I think the fans are gonna be pleased. But it
Speaker 1: was definitely a more difficult idea to execute, and I'd
Speaker 1: expect you. Oh wow, I can't wait to hear it.
Speaker 1: I mean, all power to you. I took eight years
Speaker 1: of French and my teacher used to make me read
Speaker 1: at the end of class for her amusement because my
Speaker 1: pronunciation was so bad. She was just roll and of
Speaker 1: course now totally gave me a complex and I won't
Speaker 1: you know, all the language teachers have a fuel day
Speaker 1: with their students. Oh yeah, big time. Oh man. I
Speaker 1: mean you, you know, speaking of all the different influences
Speaker 1: you have and something I want to ask you about.
Speaker 1: I know you have a obviously a very big musical
Speaker 1: theater background. I did musicals in high school. I love it.
Speaker 1: I miss it every day thinking of the songs that
Speaker 1: are in musicals. I mean just the song craft there,
Speaker 1: I mean from people like Sondheim and Rodgers and Hammerstime.
Speaker 1: It's it's so impressive and people kind of forget the
Speaker 1: quality of those songs. What did your background in musical
Speaker 1: theater do for you as a songwriter, you think, I, I,
Speaker 1: that's actually a great question. Um, I definitely. I I
Speaker 1: never wanted my music to be like, you know, Becausicus,
Speaker 1: across the line of uncool er jes yeah, the showy
Speaker 1: um And I never wanted it to quite cross that line.
Speaker 1: But at the same time, anyone who's been to a musical,
Speaker 1: you can't deny that by the time you finish watching
Speaker 1: the musical and you walk out of the theater, at
Speaker 1: least one song is stuck in your head. It's like
Speaker 1: every single musical has that song. It's powerful. It's totally powerful. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and with like an ensemble of actors backing them up,
Speaker 1: and and it's a it really is a produced song
Speaker 1: on stage, happening live. And I feel like these musical
Speaker 1: theater songwriters are just so good with finding these super
Speaker 1: catchy melodies. Um. But they're also trying to push the
Speaker 1: bar a little bit, Like they may throw in a
Speaker 1: natural note to surprise you off guard, or they may
Speaker 1: have a key change. Right, everyone knows the key change
Speaker 1: in musical theater. Um. And while I've never been so
Speaker 1: bold that's to include a key change like that. Yet, um,
Speaker 1: those melodies stick with you, you can't deny um. So
Speaker 1: I definitely feel like I took some of that from
Speaker 1: just my experience in musical theater and and finding those
Speaker 1: super hooky melodies. And if you find a melody and
Speaker 1: it's not super hooky and you're not in love with it,
Speaker 1: then you better find a hu melody. That's how I've
Speaker 1: always approached it. In the in the room, I always
Speaker 1: thought it was interesting how the Beatles when they started out,
Speaker 1: they didn't have tape recorders, and so they were writing
Speaker 1: melodies just that were good enough. And they figured, if
Speaker 1: we can't remember it the next day, how can we
Speaker 1: expect fans too, you know. And I had this built
Speaker 1: in sort of system of like, well, it's gonna be
Speaker 1: good enough for it to get stuck in our head first.
Speaker 1: And it was just a sort of a funny way
Speaker 1: to like, you know, their own sort of litmus test,
Speaker 1: their own uh you know, way to weed out the
Speaker 1: ideas that weren't that good. So did they like if
Speaker 1: they did have a melody? Because I'm always interested in
Speaker 1: learning more about the Beatles. I'm not sure if you
Speaker 1: know a lot about them. I'm a gigantic beetle nerd.
Speaker 1: So if they came up with a melody right and
Speaker 1: they weren't in love with it, would they change the
Speaker 1: melody or would they just you know, stick with it,
Speaker 1: you know, hail Maren Hope that it you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like in the early days, when they were
Speaker 1: really just trying to knock out two Wish albums a
Speaker 1: year plus four singles or something like that, they would
Speaker 1: kind of like, Okay, well, we don't have that much
Speaker 1: time and we're touring on top of all this, we
Speaker 1: gotta just do it. But then when they stopped touring
Speaker 1: in sixty six, they would kind of massage it more
Speaker 1: and really like wait for it to be. They wouldn't
Speaker 1: waste time on something they didn't think was which was interesting. Uh.
Speaker 1: And that's where I feel like instincts come to play. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Because if you're if you think you're not in love
Speaker 1: with the melody, but it showed up somehow in your
Speaker 1: session included on the demo um and I feel like
Speaker 1: that's just good instincts. And I John Lennon, Paul McCartney,
Speaker 1: I'm sure it had amazing instincts. George Harrison. Um, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's that's kind of how I would imagine that to go.
Speaker 1: I get demo watiss sometimes too, Like I'm like, I'm
Speaker 1: a huge demo lover, you know what I mean. Like
Speaker 1: if I write a song and I hear a certain
Speaker 1: production attempt on the demo or you know, a certain melody,
Speaker 1: I get really married to the demo. And I think
Speaker 1: part of it is that I try to perfect the
Speaker 1: demos before they go into production. I'm like, I didn't
Speaker 1: want to change this because I've fallen in love with
Speaker 1: this as I continue to listen. But you know, it's
Speaker 1: just one of those things with artists. Do you find
Speaker 1: that your favorite songs or maybe the songs that are
Speaker 1: most fulfilling to that they they come faster, almost fully formed,
Speaker 1: versus the ones that you really have to kind of
Speaker 1: like find your way a little bit more. Yeah, um not,
Speaker 1: this is Sarahly. I will say I get like, not
Speaker 1: even in the studio, in just my daily life. I'll
Speaker 1: get this kind of manic creative energy and I'll hear
Speaker 1: these melodies in my head and I'll pull out my
Speaker 1: voice memos and try to lay something down and then
Speaker 1: I'll stop that voice memo, I'll start a new one,
Speaker 1: record a harmony for that line. I just recorded it.
Speaker 1: And I remember I did this one song, uh that
Speaker 1: I recorded the whole thing in voice memos atven PM
Speaker 1: the previous night of a morning session, and it ended
Speaker 1: up being a great song. Um. And I had all
Speaker 1: these ideas for like strings and an orchestra parts, so
Speaker 1: I was mimicking those sounds with my with my voice
Speaker 1: and I we ended up including them in the track.
Speaker 1: And just like there are those spurs of energy where
Speaker 1: it's something bigger than you and and you lay it
Speaker 1: down and it turns into something. Um, all songs just
Speaker 1: start with like the bare billons and I have those
Speaker 1: moments a lot, right, I just recorded the bare bones
Speaker 1: and it becomes something great. So I don't know if
Speaker 1: the answers your question, but that's been my experience. Oh absolutely,
Speaker 1: Then I know. I know faith is a big part
Speaker 1: of your life, and I was gonna ask you how
Speaker 1: that comes through in your music, but it sounds like
Speaker 1: you just answered it. I mean, those moments of inspiration,
Speaker 1: we're just there. It is. That's that's kind of I
Speaker 1: don't want to put words in your mouth, but no,
Speaker 1: it's weird man with the faith. Like. I never would
Speaker 1: have imagined that I was making this kind of music. UM. Like,
Speaker 1: it's it's not straight up Christian music, but it's not
Speaker 1: straight up hoop. It's very much crossover between the two
Speaker 1: with these subtle faith undertones. And and I like that
Speaker 1: because it's actually really representative of who I am as
Speaker 1: a person and where I am in my faith journey.
Speaker 1: But if you told me that I'd be making music
Speaker 1: with any faith undertones, I probably would have been pretty surprised.
Speaker 1: But it's weird, man. I went through this really, really
Speaker 1: difficult rough patch in my life. UM before this project
Speaker 1: came online, and I needed something to turn to. UM,
Speaker 1: I needed like something bigger than me. Two stop where
Speaker 1: I was at, take a complete left turn and start over. Um.
Speaker 1: It was some health issues and I, yeah, dude, I stopped.
Speaker 1: I never had an alcohol problem, but I stopped drinking.
Speaker 1: I haven't had a drinking and almost fourteen months. Um.
Speaker 1: I don't mess around with any drugs or anything. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like I went through this horrible rough patch and
Speaker 1: in that rough patch, and the in the midst of it,
Speaker 1: when I was at my lowest low, I started getting
Speaker 1: these like synchronicities or these signals from like a higher power. Uh.
Speaker 1: And I'm super accepted to that stuff. You know, I
Speaker 1: kind of have that creative energy and UM. But I
Speaker 1: listened to that higher power and call that God if
Speaker 1: you will, will like it just took me down this
Speaker 1: turn that I was so desperately seeking um to make
Speaker 1: things better. And that's when like this project came online.
Speaker 1: That's when I did the Christian musical a week away.
Speaker 1: So it's just all always felt very meant to be.
Speaker 1: And when I was doubting God the most, that's when
Speaker 1: I realized, like damn, like God has been leading this
Speaker 1: the whole time, and I'm in the best place I've
Speaker 1: been in years. Uh and I'm stable. But yeah, I
Speaker 1: can't deny. We'll have to go into detail into it
Speaker 1: another time and that might shock the listener here, but
Speaker 1: it was pretty bad. I was in a bad place,
Speaker 1: but I'm better. I'm I'm so glad to hear that.
Speaker 1: And also thank you for for sharing that with with
Speaker 1: me with listeners. I I really I appreciate your your
Speaker 1: trust and and your music as well. I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: I think that you know people who are receptive to
Speaker 1: art and music are receptive to all kinds of different
Speaker 1: energies too. And I personally believe that tall related and
Speaker 1: and and sink. I mean, as you said, you call it, God,
Speaker 1: call it whatever you want. There's something else that we
Speaker 1: maybe can't necessarily see or touch, but it definitely is there.
Speaker 1: I could not agree with you more. And yeah, just
Speaker 1: to the listeners, thank you for for listening, you know.
Speaker 1: And and that's what this whole project has been. It's
Speaker 1: been me funneling all that energy and all that experience
Speaker 1: and everything I went through to turn it into something positive.
Speaker 1: One of my friends told me after I released Wildfire,
Speaker 1: They're like, do you realize you're because I did this
Speaker 1: EP while back? And uh, she said, do you realize
Speaker 1: that out of the Cold, that single from the EP
Speaker 1: that you did, it was a pretty pretty dark, depressing
Speaker 1: song in retrospect compared to what this is. And you
Speaker 1: went from out of the Cold to Wildfire, And I
Speaker 1: was like that that is so representative of the journey
Speaker 1: that I went through in a nutshell. So that's why
Speaker 1: I like, I'm so excited about this music that's coming up,
Speaker 1: because it's taking all of the stuff that I've learned,
Speaker 1: all the really heavy ship and just making something great
Speaker 1: out of it. And I'm so excited for it. You know,
Speaker 1: I think fans are gonna love it. I can't wait
Speaker 1: for for folks to hear Kevin. This has been a
Speaker 1: true pleasure. Thank you so much for your time today
Speaker 1: and your music and just opening yourself up. You are
Speaker 1: the best. I really really appreciate it. Thank you so much. Well.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, and I'm so grateful that we
Speaker 1: really have this conversation. I'm stoked, so it's a great
Speaker 1: meeting you. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside
Speaker 1: the Studio, a production of I Heart Radio. For more
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Speaker 1: out the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite podcast. W