Speaker 1: Welcome to Inside the Studio presented by I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: I'm your host, Joe Levy. All right, I'm not sure
Speaker 1: what the weather is like where you are, but here
Speaker 1: in New York City it is ice cold, it is December,
Speaker 1: and together those things mean it is time to heat
Speaker 1: up the coco and dig out the mini marshmallows, and
Speaker 1: also maybe listen to the new ep from this week's
Speaker 1: guests on the home edition of the show, Country singer
Speaker 1: Mitchell tan Fanny So. His new record is called Neon
Speaker 1: Christmas and the title track is about sipping some adult
Speaker 1: beverages by the warm glow of the lights in a
Speaker 1: dive bar when you can't get home for Christmas because
Speaker 1: you're snowed in. Of course, this year, if we're not
Speaker 1: home for the holidays, there really might be another reason
Speaker 1: besides the weather. And and that's why we started the
Speaker 1: home edition of Inside the Studio to let you know
Speaker 1: how the pandemic has impacted the lives of artists and
Speaker 1: how they're coping with life. During Lockdown, Mitchell told our
Speaker 1: Quarantine correspondent Jordan runt Dog that since he's stopped touring,
Speaker 1: he's returned to his roots as a songwriter. He's been
Speaker 1: writing more than he has in a long time, though
Speaker 1: with some socially distant differences. He also talked about what
Speaker 1: it was like to record Christmas music during the summer,
Speaker 1: and how a song he wrote in thirty minutes while
Speaker 1: having a couple of beers and waiting for a bachelor
Speaker 1: party to get going totally changed his approach to songwriting.
Speaker 1: As always, if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to
Speaker 1: check out the I Heart Radio podcast that Jordan's hosts.
Speaker 1: It's called Rivals Music's Greatest Feuds, and it is available
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts. Hello everyone, my name is
Speaker 1: Jordan runt Dog, but enough about me. My guest today
Speaker 1: is a Nashville native who shot up the country charts
Speaker 1: and team with his breakthrough breakup track drunk Meat. He's
Speaker 1: had an extremely productive quarantine this year. Really sing the
Speaker 1: songs here, Can't Go to Church, a cover of Louis
Speaker 1: CAPOLDI someone you loved and most recently broken up. Now,
Speaker 1: just in time for the festive season, he's here with
Speaker 1: a new holiday EP called Neon Christmas. It's a mix
Speaker 1: of your tied originals and old favorites, and I have
Speaker 1: to say his funky, slow jam arrangements and soulful voice
Speaker 1: have made this one of the smoothest Christmas collections I've
Speaker 1: ever heard. A commenter on Instagram wrote, have a very
Speaker 1: baby making Christmas, and that pretty much sums it up.
Speaker 1: I'm so happy to welcome Mitchell ton Penny. Thank you
Speaker 1: so much for taking the time today. So great to
Speaker 1: talk to you. Of course, brother, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1: Oh man, well, lord knows we all need a little
Speaker 1: extra holiday cheer after this year. What led you to
Speaker 1: decide to do a Christmas EP? Yeah, man, I'm I
Speaker 1: don't know what. I've always just loved Christmas music. I've
Speaker 1: always been obsessed with it. Um fall time in Christmas
Speaker 1: timer is my favorite time of the year. It just
Speaker 1: gives me like this piece of mind, no matter what's
Speaker 1: going on in the world, no matter what age. So
Speaker 1: I don't know when I hear Christmas songs and always
Speaker 1: does that. So I've always wanted to do that. When
Speaker 1: I got the opportunity, it was important. So the last
Speaker 1: couple of years we've been releasing a few songs, and
Speaker 1: then this year we got to do four new ones
Speaker 1: and U two that I wrote then too. Um original
Speaker 1: or two originals and then two covers. So yeah, man,
Speaker 1: I just I just love Christmas sus like I always happen.
Speaker 1: I'm a Christmas baby, so it's definitely like really oh nice, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's awesome. Neon Christmas iss schial evocative pair of words.
Speaker 1: Where did that? Where did that come from? Yeah? So
Speaker 1: Lindsay Rhymes and Matt Rogers I wrote that with him,
Speaker 1: and it was that we actually wrote it outside in
Speaker 1: the summer was pretty hot. But I told Matt and
Speaker 1: Lindsay I wanted to write an up tempo kind of
Speaker 1: Christmas song that you could see in a movie, essentially,
Speaker 1: like something that very like you've seen like Jingle all
Speaker 1: the Way or something with Arnold Swartzenegger or something weird
Speaker 1: but but but something that still was on brand for me.
Speaker 1: And Matt actually had the title Neon Christmas and that
Speaker 1: was I was like, I'm very immediately started going It's like,
Speaker 1: all right, it's perfect. We get snowed in. We can't
Speaker 1: end up going out to do what our normal plans are,
Speaker 1: but we'll just hit local dot bar down the street
Speaker 1: and uh, because I bet that's actually happened before. Not
Speaker 1: snowed in, but like the flop Flight's got canceled and
Speaker 1: was like, oh, we got nothing to do, let's just
Speaker 1: go down the road and drink. So kind of got
Speaker 1: to use some real life scenarios in that as well
Speaker 1: and then play, you know, kind of make some some
Speaker 1: Hollywood put in there as fire up that jukebox, right.
Speaker 1: It beats doing the planes, trains and automo automobiles thing
Speaker 1: of like, let's actually just enjoy ourselves here. It's all good. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: I gotta ask what was the process of choosing some
Speaker 1: of the covers. I mean, did you sit down with
Speaker 1: like the Time Life, Christmas Treasury and Pencil, or did
Speaker 1: you have songs in your mind that you knew for
Speaker 1: years that you really wanted to tackle and do your
Speaker 1: own spin on. Yeah, we all. Holy Night was definitely
Speaker 1: one of those that I knew I wanted to do
Speaker 1: um ever since. You know, that's just one of my
Speaker 1: favorite melodies of old times. It's so classic and and
Speaker 1: Rian Carey doing it back in the day. I was
Speaker 1: just obsessed with it and it's such a it's such
Speaker 1: a hard song just singing, so I definitely wanted one
Speaker 1: to challenge me on at and so that was a
Speaker 1: fun one to kind of dive into and do um.
Speaker 1: Same with Joy to the World. I just like it
Speaker 1: was such a such a simple song, but I wanted
Speaker 1: to give it like a groove and make it something
Speaker 1: kind of different than you've heard before. Because it's like
Speaker 1: these songs have been covered a million times and that's
Speaker 1: why they are classics. But it's like the hardest part
Speaker 1: is making it different, and so like giving it a
Speaker 1: little groove and singing it on a different beat was
Speaker 1: kind of fun to kind of dive into. These songs
Speaker 1: were just all songs that like I was, yeah, you're right.
Speaker 1: I was looking down the list of a bunch of
Speaker 1: Christmas songs and I started humming in my head and
Speaker 1: and I was writing down things and if if I
Speaker 1: was just like it just came to me immediately like
Speaker 1: a melody or like I was like, I'm I'm in,
Speaker 1: this is the one I want to do. And um,
Speaker 1: A bunch of those songs are just because I was
Speaker 1: singing them in cars and church as kids and as
Speaker 1: a kid just wanted to continue that. Yeah, those was
Speaker 1: gonna ask so many people, I know their first musical
Speaker 1: experiences were like in the Christmas choir at church or
Speaker 1: in the Nativity Player or something like that. Was that
Speaker 1: the case for you? Yeah? Absolutely, church and then uh,
Speaker 1: my school we did we did plays and um we
Speaker 1: saw Christmas songs every single year and it would be
Speaker 1: a Christmas before and so all the parents would come
Speaker 1: and the kids would do a bunch of carols. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it's been been a long time coming for sure. One
Speaker 1: of the original tracks on the album. I gotta say
Speaker 1: one of my my favorite Naughty List just Christmas said
Speaker 1: your your girlfriend's folks. Yeah, so it's funny. We were
Speaker 1: such a great idea for me. Jordan's Schmitt and Andy Albert,
Speaker 1: two of my best friends. We I told him this
Speaker 1: was last year I want to write a Christmas song.
Speaker 1: And it's actually a funny story because we went in
Speaker 1: to write take Me Home for Christmas. Um, and we
Speaker 1: started writing that song a little bit and ended up
Speaker 1: switching over. Someone said something about Naughty List and I
Speaker 1: was like, I want to do that. So that's how
Speaker 1: David SHA's Knew Christmas song got written that we're on.
Speaker 1: We started writing the take take Me Home for Christmas
Speaker 1: and then we didn't finish that song, did Naughty List
Speaker 1: in the middle of it. Then Andy gave it to
Speaker 1: them and we all finished that song. So I was like,
Speaker 1: that's just a side story of that. But Naughty List
Speaker 1: came from just kind of talking in between doing in
Speaker 1: that first song, and then I was like, no, hold on,
Speaker 1: let's trans this transition real quick. So we stopped writing
Speaker 1: that one and started writing Naughty List and yeah, man,
Speaker 1: it was just a fun one to do, and something
Speaker 1: about when we were just joking around and someone said that,
Speaker 1: I was like, man, there's a having an idea of
Speaker 1: go with me here, of like you know, the tape
Speaker 1: coming home for Christmas and having to change every single
Speaker 1: thing that you normally do in your real life because
Speaker 1: your parents are around right now. Uh, and just you know,
Speaker 1: again playing to what we like to do, not taking
Speaker 1: ourselves so seriously all the time, and and uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you know you love the girl so much you don't
Speaker 1: mind if you don't give presents this here It's okay.
Speaker 1: I was gonna say this, spects the question, are you
Speaker 1: understand this? Naughty listeners? I think I'm on his undecided
Speaker 1: at this moment. List. I got we got, we got,
Speaker 1: we got like six weeks. I've got some I've got
Speaker 1: some doing. Yeah, I've got some deeds I need to
Speaker 1: get done, some good deeds. I guess what is the
Speaker 1: coolest Christmas present you've ever received? Uh? My less Paul Man,
Speaker 1: my less Paul, my my very first my parents and
Speaker 1: my parents put payments on that that guitar. Very. I
Speaker 1: was thirteen years old, man, when I was really getting
Speaker 1: into it, and they knew I wanted it. And it
Speaker 1: was so funny, like my parents, you know, we already
Speaker 1: opened up presents to me and my brother and my
Speaker 1: dad looks at me, It's like, did you get everything
Speaker 1: you wanted? I say, of course, Dad, this is an
Speaker 1: amazing Christmas and he's like, you're lying at me. I
Speaker 1: can tell, and I'm like, no, I'm not. Like it
Speaker 1: was amazing because go check under our bed. And I
Speaker 1: went in there and pulled it out and it was
Speaker 1: that Gibson you know case gives in USA, and I
Speaker 1: just started freaking out open it up and man for
Speaker 1: for months after, I was just wanting to get home
Speaker 1: from school in this run and open that case. And uh,
Speaker 1: I still got the guitar back there. Today. It's uh
Speaker 1: something that means more to me than almost anything. And
Speaker 1: I'm sure gold top flame top I've got a gold
Speaker 1: top back there as well, but it's a it's a
Speaker 1: classic sun vintage Sunburst. It's one of my favorite music.
Speaker 1: Has been such a huge role in your life with
Speaker 1: with your family. I know your your grandmother was a
Speaker 1: huge legend in Nashville community. I know your your brother
Speaker 1: plays based with you, your mother's in the industry. Was
Speaker 1: never a moment when you didn't think music would be
Speaker 1: your future? Yeah, I mean, I mean I always thought
Speaker 1: I was gonna play sports, especially football. The death the
Speaker 1: doctor told me I was gonna be like six three.
Speaker 1: Completely missed that, and missed that by long shot. I
Speaker 1: ended up being five tin on a good day. Um
Speaker 1: maybe yeah, on a good day with my back's not hurting.
Speaker 1: But no, I thought I was gonna play football. I
Speaker 1: went to college originally thinking I was gonna do that
Speaker 1: and just didn't want to get up at five in
Speaker 1: the morning after playing music and drinking until three in
Speaker 1: the morning to go work out anymore. And and my body,
Speaker 1: my body just was like over And I was really
Speaker 1: like really getting into writing songs more and more. I've
Speaker 1: been a lot of bands before, but really getting into
Speaker 1: ruind my own stuff. And I don't know, I just
Speaker 1: really something switched in college freshman year and said this
Speaker 1: is really what I want to do. Um and I
Speaker 1: never you know, I never turned back from it since then.
Speaker 1: Although I've seen you on Instagram. I saw you like
Speaker 1: way beyond the half court just sink basketball and like
Speaker 1: skeet shooting and like getting a bull zay and you're
Speaker 1: still pretty formidable sports talent. I gotta say thanks. I tried, man,
Speaker 1: and this, Uh there's just no nothing to do right now,
Speaker 1: so it's so boring. I'm just I'm just out, you know,
Speaker 1: trying to be a productive and I don't know, you
Speaker 1: get you just you find a basketball on the ground
Speaker 1: and you throw it. That's what you do. And have
Speaker 1: you been staying productive musically throughout quarantine? You're feeling good? Yeah? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: been writing a been writing a lot and down here
Speaker 1: kind of a lot myself in and then writing a
Speaker 1: lot of songs. Like before we you know, signed a
Speaker 1: record deal and started doing the full time artist thing.
Speaker 1: I was writing full time for years, songs every single day,
Speaker 1: and so when I was on the road, I kind
Speaker 1: of got away from that. It's hard to write every
Speaker 1: day on the road. So it's it's been an easy
Speaker 1: transition getting all the road, even though I miss it
Speaker 1: like crazy to get back to this lifestyle writing every
Speaker 1: day because I did it for so long and I
Speaker 1: did kind of miss it. It has been fun to
Speaker 1: reconnect with a bunch of my writer friends and and
Speaker 1: right every day and try to come up with something
Speaker 1: new every day. That was a challenge. Um, but I'm
Speaker 1: definitely missing being on the old and being my friends
Speaker 1: and my brother and my band and yeah, man, it's
Speaker 1: it's a balance. But you have being productive as possible
Speaker 1: writting a lot of songs. You know, Nashville such a
Speaker 1: collaborative place. Says as the lockdown and quarantine really impacted
Speaker 1: your songwriting style or a zoom been been pretty good
Speaker 1: for that, man. Zoom. I've done a few zooms. It's
Speaker 1: it's hard for me to zoom right because I play
Speaker 1: off the room and you know, as a as a
Speaker 1: guitar player, I can see a guitar in your room.
Speaker 1: Like It's it's hard to it's hard to hear through
Speaker 1: zoom man, Like, especially if you're like getting melodies and
Speaker 1: stuff and talking over each other, like in a room
Speaker 1: you're supposed to talk over each other. You pull from it.
Speaker 1: Zooms tough so we've we've we did We've done a
Speaker 1: lot of very safe you know rights in person where
Speaker 1: we're apart from each other but you can still hear
Speaker 1: everything in the room. UM, and been really productive like that,
Speaker 1: kind of honed in our group of people where it's
Speaker 1: you know, we just write with these people mostly and
Speaker 1: we know where each other's been. It's it's been really
Speaker 1: easy to do that. And um, I've been pretty safe
Speaker 1: and so far, so good. We've made a lot of
Speaker 1: great music. Recently on Instagram, you showed off this really
Speaker 1: complicated riff that you were saying you were going to
Speaker 1: start developing into a song. Are you a riff based
Speaker 1: writer or do you use words as a jumping off
Speaker 1: point or a melody what gets you hooked and going
Speaker 1: into a song or is it different every time? Um? Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'd say it's different every time. But I love I
Speaker 1: love riffs. I mean so many things on my UM
Speaker 1: especially my first record, were me coming in with a
Speaker 1: riff and then you know, you write so many songs
Speaker 1: like I don't have any I'm out of riffs, and
Speaker 1: then I'm out of all this stuff. So then it's
Speaker 1: like coming in with the hook for me. If someone
Speaker 1: has some idea that I've never heard, or if I've
Speaker 1: heard someone say something, then we'll start from there and
Speaker 1: build the chords around it, and then I'll try to
Speaker 1: come up with a riff later. But I just love
Speaker 1: interesting guitar parts, interesting chords. Uh. It always inspires me
Speaker 1: so much when I hear something cool that I haven't
Speaker 1: heard of in a while and melodies start coming to
Speaker 1: me way way easier than if I'm just hearing the
Speaker 1: same chords over and over again. So yeah, I definitely
Speaker 1: I love a good riff. Um. You know, as a
Speaker 1: guitar player, if it once you can, once you hit
Speaker 1: that one and you're like, oh, this is cool, you
Speaker 1: kind of put it in your book and you kind
Speaker 1: of save it for those those writers you know that
Speaker 1: will that can kind of run with it. When you
Speaker 1: were a kid, you met uh Bobby Braddock, legendary songwriter.
Speaker 1: Did he or any other legendary songwriters in the Nashville
Speaker 1: community that you meant when when you were just starting out,
Speaker 1: did any of those folks give you any advice that
Speaker 1: He's still treasure to this day when you're when you're composing. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: The Warren Brothers were a huge, huge, um influence on me.
Speaker 1: They were the first big writers that ever wrote with
Speaker 1: me before I had a deal or anything. Um. They
Speaker 1: were so kind and we actually they actually co signed
Speaker 1: me with Sony as my very first publishing deal UM
Speaker 1: because of a song we wrote, the first song we
Speaker 1: ever wrote. Keith Urban took and put it on hold
Speaker 1: at the time, and it actually got me my deal.
Speaker 1: And I did the demo for them and I sent
Speaker 1: it out and they were like, man, I want to
Speaker 1: keep writing. It was just one of those weird moments
Speaker 1: where I just look at lucky. Something they got canceled on,
Speaker 1: and they they'd always promised me if that happened, they
Speaker 1: would let me ride. And they called me that day
Speaker 1: and whatever I did, I canceled and we went in
Speaker 1: the studio and did it. And so they've they've given
Speaker 1: me so much, you know, just value beyond just writing music,
Speaker 1: just the industry itself. You know, how to take care
Speaker 1: of yourself. You know, they lost their father to like
Speaker 1: how to deal with that. And I mean they're they're
Speaker 1: basically like big brothers to me. And I'll never take
Speaker 1: that for granted. They're amazing talent, but also just they've
Speaker 1: lived a lot of life, and they had a lot
Speaker 1: of advice for me through this entire time. And um,
Speaker 1: I love those guys. You've said that broken up. Your
Speaker 1: recent single came and something like thirty minutes. Tell me
Speaker 1: a little bit of that, because as someone who doesn't
Speaker 1: write music like me, that seems like sorcery or something.
Speaker 1: How does that happen? Yeah, I mean I think you know,
Speaker 1: sometimes we overwrite songs. We you get a bunch of
Speaker 1: songwriters in the rooms, like you get a bunch of
Speaker 1: English teachers in the room, you're gonna write a book
Speaker 1: that like no one can read because you know, because
Speaker 1: the words are just too profound or they're too perfect.
Speaker 1: So some times you need to go with your first gut,
Speaker 1: your first answer. And that's kind of what we did
Speaker 1: on that song. We were waiting for my buddy Andy Albert,
Speaker 1: who we wrote Naughty List with and a few other songs.
Speaker 1: It was his bachelor party and so a bunch of
Speaker 1: us were getting together. We were gonna go to Jeff
Speaker 1: Rubies downtown to eat some steak and then go out afterwards.
Speaker 1: Um and so we downtown play again music Dallas Davidson's place.
Speaker 1: Um My buddy Kyle has a studio there and it's
Speaker 1: right next door. So we're all let's meet up there first,
Speaker 1: and we were surprising Andy he had no idea. So
Speaker 1: we met up there about an hour early. We were
Speaker 1: just waiting in the studio and having a couple of
Speaker 1: beers and I just sat down by the piano and
Speaker 1: Kyle was as computer. I was like, I just recorded
Speaker 1: in something real quick, A loop looped it and then
Speaker 1: I was like, here, hand me the mic and it's
Speaker 1: me him Devin Dawson and Ernest Kay was in the
Speaker 1: room or Ernest now sorry Keith, and we just I
Speaker 1: was like, let's the first thing we say. I'm singing
Speaker 1: in right now. So each line by line we write
Speaker 1: in line, I just singing in on s M seven
Speaker 1: like you're using right there and um, and I just
Speaker 1: I just sunk it in. Uh done, did the song
Speaker 1: about thirty minutes, shut the geter down, and went out
Speaker 1: in Nate stake. And about a week later, I was like, dude,
Speaker 1: what do we what do we do that? Now? Do
Speaker 1: you remember when we sent it to me? And I
Speaker 1: just really kind of dug it. It was. It was
Speaker 1: one of those things that just kind of felt right.
Speaker 1: I ended up using the vocal that we sung that
Speaker 1: night for the record. Man, it was just just k yeah,
Speaker 1: just have vocal song and just like that, one by one,
Speaker 1: and and I think it came down to, like our
Speaker 1: first guest, what we wanted to say there was probably right,
Speaker 1: instead of overwriting a song and making sure everything is
Speaker 1: so perfect, how would you have said it in conversation?
Speaker 1: And that was kind of a an eye opening thing
Speaker 1: for us. How we how we right? We all started
Speaker 1: doing that a little bit more and written a lot
Speaker 1: of songs since that way, and like kind of go
Speaker 1: with your first gut, maybe edit a little bit after
Speaker 1: the end, but like your first guts, probably right. There's
Speaker 1: something you said to interview you have to be vulnerable
Speaker 1: to stand a chance in this industry. I thought that
Speaker 1: was such a really interesting and great sentiment. I wanted
Speaker 1: to ask you more about that. Why do you think
Speaker 1: that that's the case? Because people people will call your
Speaker 1: bluff real quick. I've found that out. Like they know
Speaker 1: for a fact if you're lying to them on stage,
Speaker 1: they know they know in your performance. And if you're
Speaker 1: honest and vulnerable with what you do, I think he
Speaker 1: gardners more authentic attention because people have been there people
Speaker 1: understand that or they can put themselves in that story.
Speaker 1: I know personally me as a listener and the songs
Speaker 1: I fell in love with growing up, UM, I fell
Speaker 1: in love with artists that were very vulnerable, very authentic.
Speaker 1: I mean even from Usher to his Confessions down to
Speaker 1: Render Road from from Brooks and Dunn telling that whole story.
Speaker 1: You know, her Daddy didn't light me up my shackle
Speaker 1: up g t O like I had to. I worked
Speaker 1: on a GTO as a kid, and like those little
Speaker 1: moments that were like you could put yourself in is
Speaker 1: what I always wanted to do. And I think it
Speaker 1: takes a vulnerability of being honest to um to make
Speaker 1: people believe you when you're singing it to him. I
Speaker 1: noticed that something of a theme running through a lot
Speaker 1: of your songs that you h You teased the new
Speaker 1: songs Sleeping Alone on on Instagram and your new single
Speaker 1: broken Up Drunk Me about Breakup Can't Grow to Church
Speaker 1: from earlier this year's another incredible breakup song as well.
Speaker 1: What is it that attracts you to break up songs?
Speaker 1: What is that that you think that goes over so
Speaker 1: well with people? Yeah, it's tough and it's I don't
Speaker 1: want to just write breakup songs. I have a lot,
Speaker 1: but for some reason, those have been the ones that
Speaker 1: my um you know, that my fans have gravitated towards.
Speaker 1: For me, is is breakup songs, because maybe that's that's
Speaker 1: when you're the most vulnerable. Maybe maybe back to the questions,
Speaker 1: when you can actually admit some things in your life
Speaker 1: that happen and people have been there. You know, when
Speaker 1: you're happy, it's like anything, you don't really think why
Speaker 1: you're happy. When you're happy, you just wonder why you're
Speaker 1: sad and when you're sad. Uh And And I think
Speaker 1: that is a big part of like writers, it's always
Speaker 1: it's easier to write a a sad song than a
Speaker 1: than a happy song because you just have so many
Speaker 1: emotions going at the same time. And so I think
Speaker 1: for breakups, it's like it's happening so many different parts
Speaker 1: of my life in every different part is completely different breakup,
Speaker 1: and so you have so much to live through. Uh
Speaker 1: that that that you have so much to pool through
Speaker 1: when you're when you're doing a song, that to me,
Speaker 1: it's very interesting, um when writing is trying to dive
Speaker 1: into that emotion. That can actually grab someone real quick
Speaker 1: and pull them in. Whereas you know, up tempo, happy
Speaker 1: songs all the time, which I do love. You know,
Speaker 1: they give you a kind of instant emotion, they put
Speaker 1: you somewhere like that where these songs can grab you
Speaker 1: and pulley back in time sometimes, you know, these other
Speaker 1: songs are just background music for what you're doing right now,
Speaker 1: if that makes any sense. Yeah, there's something that we
Speaker 1: all learned something when we're going through a breakup, and
Speaker 1: it always sticks with us. Where it's happen is You're right,
Speaker 1: it's very ephemeral. It's just like you feel it and
Speaker 1: then it's great. Word, that's that's absolutely right. Well, on
Speaker 1: the flip side, you're dating Megan Patrick, another brilliant artists.
Speaker 1: You're both usually on the road. It must be so
Speaker 1: nice to be able to actually spend a lot of
Speaker 1: time with one another now and in lockdown. How is
Speaker 1: that it's been. It's honestly been great. We got to
Speaker 1: learn more about each other than we probably would in
Speaker 1: the next five years if we were living normal life,
Speaker 1: and um, it's been awesome. It's definitely made us closer
Speaker 1: and and solidified everything that we we thought we had
Speaker 1: going into this, um, but we're both ready to get
Speaker 1: on the road. We both already, Man, we want to
Speaker 1: We want to be out playing shows, doing what we love.
Speaker 1: I know her too, especially. I mean her family is
Speaker 1: in Canada too and completely locked down and she hasn't
Speaker 1: been able to see her family at all, and I
Speaker 1: know that's tough for her, and so music is always
Speaker 1: her escape in the world, you know, getting away from that.
Speaker 1: And so she can't see her family and she can't
Speaker 1: play music. It's tough right now. So we're just you know,
Speaker 1: we're praying and hoping and being hopeful that soon we
Speaker 1: can figure something out to where we can get back
Speaker 1: out and take our minds off everything and play on
Speaker 1: stage again. Yeah, do you have the UH? I know
Speaker 1: you were set to play the rhyme and UH in
Speaker 1: October and that that fell through. I know that's you know,
Speaker 1: legendary venue. That would have been really cool. Is that uh?
Speaker 1: That on the books anytime in the in the foreseeable
Speaker 1: future and not yet. Yeah, I mean we're definitely gonna
Speaker 1: do it. That'll be where we start our next headlining
Speaker 1: tour when we can do it. Um. It's just yeah,
Speaker 1: it was that can maybe do half capacity and it
Speaker 1: was just to me that was such a special moment
Speaker 1: for us in our group to play the Roeme, and
Speaker 1: we wanted to do it right. We wanted to be
Speaker 1: completely full when we play it, and if we couldn't
Speaker 1: do it then then we wanted to wait for it
Speaker 1: because that's a moment since a kid, I've been wanting
Speaker 1: to do being born and raised in Nashville, going Royman shows,
Speaker 1: to have my own headlining show there. We wanted to
Speaker 1: do it right and so we will do it the
Speaker 1: second week and the second it's safe. Um oh, we
Speaker 1: don't know exactly what that is yet. What are you
Speaker 1: doing when when you're you're not writing music and thinking
Speaker 1: about music? How do you like to to unwind at
Speaker 1: home with the with the dogs or bins watching those
Speaker 1: or what do you want? Yeah? Love love Ben's watching shows.
Speaker 1: We we got really into Ship's Creek and Megan loves
Speaker 1: anything to do with murder. I mean, she's just a
Speaker 1: lot and so lots of that stuff. I'm a comedy guy.
Speaker 1: I like to go to it with an ease ease
Speaker 1: in my heart, but she loves all these murder ducks.
Speaker 1: We love to be outside, We love to We love
Speaker 1: to hunt, fish, golf. We I love golf. We got
Speaker 1: megan into golfing this year a lot um and we
Speaker 1: just got mountain bikes, so we're starting to do a
Speaker 1: little bit of that. Um. But yeah, anything outdoors. We
Speaker 1: just love being outside. And it's the perfect weather in
Speaker 1: Nashville right now. It's autumn. The leaves are beautiful and
Speaker 1: the weather is just kind of perfect. So we're just
Speaker 1: enjoying time being outside. Do you play music together a
Speaker 1: lot around the house or or when you is that
Speaker 1: is that work? Is that kind of like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: that's yeah, we we aren't. We have it. We that's
Speaker 1: just so I don't know, it's we show each other
Speaker 1: songs and like she'll write a song, she'll come and play,
Speaker 1: uh in acoustic in the room and I'll be and
Speaker 1: you know, I love that, but we we normally just
Speaker 1: don't we we do other stuff when we're together. I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's not it's just not our first instinct
Speaker 1: to pick up and play. I know people that it's like,
Speaker 1: but like we're home and it's just I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's just a different, different vibe. Oh yeah, no, I
Speaker 1: totally get that. That's that's that's the SETI siete of you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I gotta say I've been loving your Your Quarantine cover
Speaker 1: is Kings of Leon somebody, It's great stuff. Any any
Speaker 1: others on the way, Yeah, But I mean whatever, I
Speaker 1: just like, if I hear a song driving around that
Speaker 1: day and it's just been stuck in my head all day,
Speaker 1: and I get down here in the studio to edit,
Speaker 1: I'll be like, askret I want to do something real.
Speaker 1: Qually can do a cover. So I don't know, there's
Speaker 1: a bunch. There's so many cool songs coming out right
Speaker 1: now because everyone's you know, everyone's so creative right now.
Speaker 1: There's just so much time. So I've been discovering more
Speaker 1: music than I ever have and trying to be inspired
Speaker 1: and writing really different stuff, you know, a little scared
Speaker 1: because you know, we're in this we're in this country
Speaker 1: market and and I love country music. But like I've
Speaker 1: been exploring with all different kinds of sounds and and um,
Speaker 1: just different things, different things to keep us inspired. So
Speaker 1: we'll see what happens. Yeah, it was it was I
Speaker 1: said earlier. You you teased sleeping alone on on Instagram?
Speaker 1: Is this sign of a of a new new full
Speaker 1: length on this way or is that still still ways on? No? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: I mean it's a little ways off because we definitely
Speaker 1: want to be tour be able to tour this record.
Speaker 1: But we we've got a lot of songs, and we've
Speaker 1: been cutting a lot of songs. I'm thinking we've already
Speaker 1: cut eleven so far and and we'll overcut a little bit.
Speaker 1: But I want to record with fourteen sixteen songs on it.
Speaker 1: I want to when we come out with this next record,
Speaker 1: I want a lot of songs on it. So we're
Speaker 1: cutting a lot, we're writing a lot, and uh, Sleeping
Speaker 1: Alone will definitely be on It's one of my favorite
Speaker 1: songs in a while. And and the way we did
Speaker 1: the production on it's gonna be really cool. It's uh
Speaker 1: it's rock and roll with We did a big big drums,
Speaker 1: big drums, which I love because I come from that
Speaker 1: rock and roll hardcore emos seeing Warped tour days, so
Speaker 1: I kind of incorporated that a little bit on this song. Um,
Speaker 1: it's pretty cool. We'll see. I was gonna ask you
Speaker 1: about that. Yeah, you're early days, you were like hardcore
Speaker 1: punk guy, Like what brought you back, uh into the
Speaker 1: into the Nashville You know, you're a teenager, you run
Speaker 1: away from a little big you come back home with
Speaker 1: the prodigal son. Right. I think a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of people in Nashville did that. I call it
Speaker 1: far memo because so many kids from Warp Tour now
Speaker 1: in here in Nashville writing country songs, um and and
Speaker 1: it's awesome and honest, they're all amazing writers and all
Speaker 1: having lots of success because it was it was great
Speaker 1: melodies back then. They really were. These are rock songs,
Speaker 1: but these melodies are incredible, and now it's just incorporating
Speaker 1: that with a more country lyric and uh, it's it's
Speaker 1: pretty cool to see, man, a bunch of my friends
Speaker 1: that that. I all, I had the jet black swish
Speaker 1: share and the tight jeans just like me. Um, we're
Speaker 1: all running country songs together now, so it's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, I had, I had all the taking back Sundays,
Speaker 1: So absolutely love that. Man, you said you're listening to
Speaker 1: two different kinds of stuff. Now, what what are you
Speaker 1: listening to right now? Yeah? More? I mean just got
Speaker 1: back to listening to a lot of rock and a
Speaker 1: lot of syncopated drum based stuff, you know, and even
Speaker 1: stuff like the nineteen seventy five just weird ambient tones.
Speaker 1: You know, they do a lot of drop back to
Speaker 1: the eighties stuff, but a lot of a lot of
Speaker 1: scent stuff that's really cool. Um, there's so much technology, man,
Speaker 1: and so many new plug ins that you can play
Speaker 1: with sound wise, like on your keyboard that it's just
Speaker 1: so interesting like that we didn't have growing up. They're
Speaker 1: just unlimited and so and so it's so cool to
Speaker 1: sit down every day play something on your keyboard that's
Speaker 1: completely different from what you've heard. And I don't know,
Speaker 1: there's something aspiring about that where you know, you hear
Speaker 1: something new and you just kind of run with it
Speaker 1: and whether you know if it's good or not, you
Speaker 1: just gotta kind of take off and see what happens
Speaker 1: at the end. Oh man, that's that's so exciting. It.
Speaker 1: Wait when you finish your track, when you got it
Speaker 1: mixed down, and do you is there a way that
Speaker 1: you like to audition it, Like you get in the
Speaker 1: car and like trying get up a drive and just
Speaker 1: to hear what it sounds like? Is that's what you do? That?
Speaker 1: That's that's my play every time when I get a
Speaker 1: mixed back. I get in my truck and I drove
Speaker 1: and I listened to it five times. Uh, that's my office.
Speaker 1: I crank it. Yeah, that's it because that's where people
Speaker 1: listen to music. You know, they listen to in their
Speaker 1: headphones with their cars and and so I want to
Speaker 1: make sure that the vibes right when you're driving with
Speaker 1: a noise on the road with the windows down. What
Speaker 1: is it sounding like? Because I can make it sound
Speaker 1: awesome in the studio or in a bigger studio with monitors,
Speaker 1: what's it sound like they're And then I always listen
Speaker 1: to on headphones, a little cheap headphones, because you know,
Speaker 1: that's what people listen to. It. You spend you know,
Speaker 1: so much money in the studio and all this stuff,
Speaker 1: and it's gonna be listening to on tindall our headphones.
Speaker 1: So you gotta you gotta play for that as well. Um,
Speaker 1: but yeah, it's my My go to is getting in
Speaker 1: my truck the second I get it, driving around, crank
Speaker 1: it up. I think it's what Brian Wilson used to
Speaker 1: do with all the Beach Boys tracks. He knew all
Speaker 1: those songs, you know, especially the car songs. We're gonna
Speaker 1: be played in teenagers cars. So we brought a car
Speaker 1: speaker into the studio and that was his last tense.
Speaker 1: It was just to play that. Yeah, I got a
Speaker 1: boom box up here that runs too that. I'll like,
Speaker 1: I have the studio speakers here, but I'll I can
Speaker 1: switch over the monitors and just hear the mix on
Speaker 1: a boom box, so it takes away all the lows,
Speaker 1: a bunch of them. It's just it's it sounds like crap,
Speaker 1: is what it sounds like. And that's what you gotta
Speaker 1: want because it kind of gives you a completely perspective.
Speaker 1: You got this really good monitors and then it sounds
Speaker 1: like craps. You're like, okay, I can adjust a few
Speaker 1: things here that I'm not hearing and the really good monitors,
Speaker 1: because you know, that's how most people listen to music,
Speaker 1: including myself listening to the car speakers and the headphones. Um,
Speaker 1: and it's we can't wait to hear more of what's coming. Uh.
Speaker 1: My last question. I've been asking everybody this and it's
Speaker 1: so interesting to hear all the people's different responses. If
Speaker 1: you can snap your fingers and have everything go back
Speaker 1: to normal, whatever your definition of normal, is say, this
Speaker 1: time last year, what would be the first thing that
Speaker 1: that you would do? Uh? Really, so kid, being on stage,
Speaker 1: really soaking in what's happening when people are singing back
Speaker 1: your song, um, and engaging with you, when you're leaning
Speaker 1: down and touch a hand walking down the catwalk. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, those are things that you dream of as
Speaker 1: a kid, while you put posters on your wall, while
Speaker 1: you fall in love and music, and when it happens.
Speaker 1: It happened so fast when drump Me came out and
Speaker 1: we kind of took off. You know, these things were
Speaker 1: so out of the normal for us, but it was
Speaker 1: happening so fast, we weren't really soaking it in as
Speaker 1: much as I as I thought I was. Until it's
Speaker 1: taken away from you. Thinking about meet and greets, thinking
Speaker 1: about touching someone's hand again, thinking about seeing a crowd
Speaker 1: singing back to you is something I never realized how
Speaker 1: much I missed, even though I wanted that more than
Speaker 1: anything in the world. Does that make sense at all? Absolutely,
Speaker 1: it's such a crazy thing to think of. Um, you
Speaker 1: got everything you wanted, but when you got it, you
Speaker 1: you weren't aware. And now I'm fully aware that I
Speaker 1: got everything I wanted and I wanted back. That's great answer, Mitchell,
Speaker 1: Tim Penny, thank you so much for your time and
Speaker 1: your music. It's been such a pleasure. Thank you joining
Speaker 1: the man. I appreciate it. Thank you, cheers. We hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio Home Edition,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio. For more episodes of
Speaker 1: Inside the Studio and other shows from I heart Radio,
Speaker 1: check out the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or
Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcasts.