- 2 days ago
Lennon Stella joins The Rolling Stone Studio at our New York office to discuss ‘Sleeping Lion,’ her first new album in six years. It was worth the wait: the record, out later this month, contains 12 autumnal folk gems best heard in your living room, with Stella delivering a raw and intimate perspective on relationships within her life. The 27-year-old songwriter takes us inside the new album, and explains how she scrapped an earlier version of it, before she linked up with producer Andy Shauf. She goes deep on the musicians who inspired it — from overlooked visionaries like Nick Drake and Connie Converse to contemporary indie stars like Geese’s Cameron Winter. She also reflects on her early career, including ‘Nashville’ and her viral YouTube days with her sister, Maisy.
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00:00I think a lot of the people that I'm drawn to are artists that like didn't get recognition
00:05at their time. There's like a purity about those people that I'm really drawn to. Honestly it
00:12brings me to a very kid place where I'm like that's when I was making music for like true
00:18true true love of it and nobody's hearing it just me and a guitar.
00:27Hey guys it's Angie Martosio from the Rolling Stone studio and I'm here today with our very
00:32special guest Lennon Stella. Hello. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me.
00:37You are on the cusp of releasing Sleeping Lion. Yeah. It's your first new album in six years.
00:44I really want to hear about Comedy Show. It's your new single and I think you're releasing it in a
00:50few hours. Yes. So let's start with that. Like two hours. It's the first track on the album. It
00:54kicks it off in literally the best way. Tell me about writing that one. This song was like
01:02very natural. One of them that I mean there's a lot and it was six years of writing so there's
01:07a
01:07few that happen different ways but this one was very natural and kind of fell out. I actually had
01:12left my guitar a couple days prior at a different studio and someone came to drop off my guitar that
01:18I left and they swapped it with somebody else's and so I had this guitar that wasn't mine and I
01:25it actually like came with the guitar part in it. Wow. And I just started playing it. I was like
01:31oh
01:31this sounds nice.
01:38And then I went a couple hours later to a session and wrote Comedy Show. So I feel like there
01:43was a
01:44nice synergy to that one. I mean the song itself was written from a fairly low place and felt
01:53a heavier one for sure and kind of a song that doesn't really have like a bow tie or like
01:59a
01:59silver lining. It just kind of is just I wasn't feeling great. Yeah. But yeah it felt it was a
02:07very
02:07natural one to write and and was with Simon Wilcox and Ryan Raines who were like very comfortable
02:14people for me. Yeah. I know you were in a low place but I do think that when you're going
02:19to be
02:19performing this song live there are so many lines that I can see fans screaming to like are you
02:25seriously stoned right now? Totally. Lines like that like it's such a. It'll be much lighter. Yes. And even when
02:29I sing it now it's funny because it was it really felt heavy and now it
02:34it doesn't in the same way. And it's kind of just like a journal entry of that like moment versus
02:39it being
02:39the entirety of the record doesn't all feel that way you know? No I think it's a perfect next single
02:44to
02:45release. Yeah. What were your goals going into this album? I know that's like a big question because it's
02:49been so many years but like first off like how were you wanting to approach this? Because I had taken
02:55some
02:55time for the first time really in my life like I had been going since I was a kid. I
03:00definitely just
03:01wanted to be super intentional and like slow the hell down. Like slow down and take my time. Um and
03:11the writing of the songs all are pretty much like same day like the the songs themselves kind of flew
03:19out but the production and like going in and dialing everything that took longer and I my goal is really
03:26just to honor the songs and like capture the essence of them and keeping everything super natural and
03:32feeling really true and also just um having me play and sing a lot of it for the base of
03:40it and then like
03:40build off of that was a big goal of mine. But ultimately I just wanted to make something that was
03:45like very true and honest and not letting a lot of other things kind of get in there you know
03:55minds
03:55and opinions and all that. I mean when you announced the album it was like the biggest celebration your
04:01fans were like freaking out. It felt very warm. Yeah. Yeah. Did you feel any pressure to follow up your
04:10first album? Yeah I felt I thought I was worried about that ultimately but I it it just never I
04:15never
04:16really felt it. I I was feeling a lot of pressure when I was doing it before and then like
04:21the six
04:22years kind of actually just relieved the pressure and ultimately I was like once I get to a place where
04:27I feel really good about what I'm making then the pressure kind of doesn't exist like because all my
04:33pressure was coming so from an internal place you know it was all like my own pressure that I was
04:40putting on myself in the project and me wanting to get to a place I was like really happy with
04:45and
04:45like felt really good um and so yeah once I got there I was like oh nothing else really matters
04:52now I
04:52just want people to have it for the sake of like sharing and conversation but it didn't it didn't feel
04:58so so much pressure. You said the writing was pretty like seamless and easier and then it was the
05:05production that took a while was the album scrapped I have to ask? It did get scrapped yes. Tell me
05:10a
05:10little bit about that. Well I I had written all the songs and I went in originally um to produce
05:17them
05:17all like with a band and another producer and all I mean everything sounded great and awesome and we
05:22spent a long time on it but we just got to the end and I felt like it wasn't like
05:27a hundred
05:28percent correct and it felt silly after that much time to to put something out that didn't feel like
05:34every fiber of my beings like in this. I honestly think that somebody accidentally like whispered that
05:42to me that like we could start again and I was like sorry that's a possibility so I took that
05:49and I ran
05:49with it and yeah I basically I was like in this very in-between period not knowing who to do
05:56it with
05:56again and like I knew I wanted to keep all the same songs but go try to try it again
06:01and produce
06:02them in a different way and literally in this very weird liminal space Andy Schaaf's team reached out
06:09to mine at the time and was like Andy's looking to produce for other artists I was like if I
06:14knew
06:15that like he would be my choice like my absolute like pick of the litter number one that would be
06:21my
06:22that yeah his I mean his records have been such a huge part of my life and incredible yeah so
06:30incredible and knowing that he like produces all himself like writes them all produces them I'm like
06:34he would have been so up there on my list so it was very magical timing and it just made
06:41sense also
06:42it was like in Canada an hour outside of where I'm from felt very natural. It seems like from the
06:47guitar
06:48that you stumbled upon to Andy you had like a lot of universal alignment with this album. I'm really
06:55feeling that. Totally there was like so much of that even in the quiet like off times where I wasn't
07:00where I was just like existing and being and like figuring out my sense of self you know like there
07:07was a lot of a lot of guiding and connecting for sure and feeling feeling very guided. Yeah and I
07:14read
07:15that you were also for a number of years like outside of Nashville in a house with goats I read.
07:21I did have some goats. Need to know about the goats. I did have goats. What was that like because
07:25it's
07:25like it must have been kind of nice to unwind and like disconnect a little bit. Totally um well yeah
07:32it was like through it was COVID ultimately it was 2020 um and I just moved out there the start
07:40of
07:40COVID and my record was coming out and came out through that time and it just kind of aligned
07:48for me to just pause and then also be on like a lot of acres and just get goats and
07:57live with my
07:57boyfriend and just like float away for a second. Um but I think that I don't know I feel like
08:02it took
08:03there was like a sustain to the the high stress of like my life for a while where it didn't
08:12like
08:12fully hit me that I could pause until like a couple years in like I don't feel like I actually
08:16was like
08:17relaxing out there and then a couple years in I was like okay like we have space we have time
08:22we can
08:23breathe but yeah I don't know. It's like much needed. Yeah yeah for sure. Totally. I want to read something
08:29back to you when I was reading about the album you said that there were glimpses of me before but
08:34not
08:34without compromise. Can you expand on that a little bit about your earlier work and what you wanted to
08:39do different? I think like when you're a kid in the industry you just are so malleable and like
08:45you're moldable and I was just in it since I was 12 and my sister was eight and we were
08:51on the tv show
08:52and then I immediately went into signing a record deal like before the show even had ended and
08:56it kind of um it just made me very like prematurely exposed to a lot of voices and a lot
09:04of people's
09:04opinions and a lot of you know thoughts on what I should be doing and I just didn't have the
09:10like
09:12I don't know I didn't have it in me to rebel against it or to like know how to push
09:18back or know or
09:18even just have the quiet to like know what I actually wanted. Yeah yeah totally all I knew and also
09:24like
09:24when you're coming from a tv show you're like you know to like be good and be like obedient and
09:31like
09:31follow the rules and and act and like that is that's a very different role than the music industry
09:37and I think when you're coming from that you're kind of um setting yourself up like you need you
09:43need a different mentality I think. I just felt like I just got a little like swept up in different
09:49opinions and I honestly just needed quiet to to recenter and be like what what do I love because
09:55what I love is very different than what oh like I love what I the my last record I've so
10:01there's so
10:01much that I love about everything I've done like it's not that I have like a total shame around it
10:06but
10:06it's just I just knew that it wasn't like deeply fulfilling me and that if I wanted to have it
10:12sustain me and feel good and like really carry me and also for me just to have like an honest
10:17relationship with people and not feel like I'm not being totally truthful you know so I feel like
10:24this time around the goal was just to to get quiet enough to like have uh that channel open to
10:32like
10:32know what it is I want and then have the time to like unlearn the things that made me go
10:38oh I'll do what you want you know like that just takes time to like kick that out of your
10:42system um
10:43and I I got to a point then and now where I'm like oh I can like I know I'm
10:48sure enough about it
10:49that I I don't feel so confused and like yeah you know tossy turny with it all and you are
10:57once again
10:57working with Simon Wilcox you're a longtime collaborator yeah do you guys have any discussions
11:01about this and where you wanted to take the project she I mean she's like literally one of my best
11:05friends so we like talk a lot about this and the conversations we were having about being honest
11:11with the songs she's very pro like go there and then we'll edit it later and I'm so not I
11:20don't
11:20yes yes and like I want to definitely be mindful um of people hearing it and like how personal to
11:28go
11:29you know yeah she was helpful in that process of just like letting me go there and like pushing me
11:34to just be like let's just like write it freely and then we can edit and tweak and if we
11:38don't want
11:39these people to hear this about themselves like we can we can change it you know but yeah I mean
11:44comedy show is one of those that genuinely was written being like this is we're gonna go so
11:49specific that it's probably not gonna make it out but it's yeah you know maybe one day and it ended
11:57up
11:57just feeling feeling good that's the best feeling when you're when you're writing not to think about
12:01what other people might perceive and you can just get it out totally is there an actual Kathy
12:06yes my aunt Kathy I love that my aunt Kathy I was there in Canada at the time for my
12:12mama who was
12:13sick yeah it's all it's very literal and yeah yeah how do you decide what you want to keep private
12:19to
12:19yourself and put out in the world I feel like it's kind of just on the day like when I'm
12:25writing I'm
12:25like this this feels relevant and like I want to go there all the way and and I end up
12:32you know
12:32being more specific with it but I do kind of just like feel feel it out you know one of
12:37the more
12:37tender moments on the album is if she'll let me can you talk a little bit about that one it's
12:42it's a
12:42pretty like tender song it is tender thanks for saying that um yeah that one is like well my parents
12:50have been divorced for a while um and that song's about kind of just like love changing and in over
12:59time and like being something very different than you thought it was going to be originally but
13:04equally as beautiful in ways and um yeah that was also about a literal experience where my dad there
13:11was something going on and my dad had sent that exact text he just said you know I'll I'll definitely
13:17I'll go there if she'll let me and I just thought that was a very it's a beautiful thing because
13:22things don't turn out as you expect them to and things happen and through it all to just have like
13:29human love that's just like no matter what if you're if you're there once like you're they're
13:35kind of just always there and I think there's there's a lot of songs in the record that are just
13:39like relationships being in in different stages and that's kind of like the final stage of of a
13:45relationship is like you know even though it doesn't work out I'm I will always always always always be
13:50there and tell me about the track sequencing because you follow that up with smartest person
13:55in the room and it's definitely a little bit lighter it's really funny um you put the dick in
14:01diction like how did you come up with that it's also good tell me about the song thank you um
14:06yeah that
14:07song was Ethan Greska Simon Wilcox and I um yeah that was that's definitely like the the lighter of the
14:16bunch yeah the lightest it's a mansplaining person that just likes to hear themselves talk and wants
14:25to be in the microphone all the time um and I feel like we've all kind of been in the
14:28corner of like
14:29of that where you're just somebody is speaking like to prove something to themselves like you're being
14:38you're being used in that moment they're not talking to you and you're irrelevant and you're
14:42actually the prop um and yeah that's that song was just like a almost a light-hearted jab but also
14:49in a very real way um there's a lot of those around and I think at some point it's like
14:57not fun to be around anymore so yeah that's that's one of my favorites on the record for sure did
15:04you
15:04guys talk about how you wanted to sequence these tracks because they're they're really paced perfectly
15:09yeah it did go through a couple different okay versions I wanted that one in particular to be
15:17later because I did like I liked the lightness being like you know cherry on top versus being
15:24like the crux of the record or I thought everything else kind of grounded it more and that that one's
15:28like the fun one comedy show being first was really important to me just because I think it
15:33opens the door in a very like naked way it it goes through relationships and in a way that felt
15:41important to me to kind of just yeah it being me and then my parents and then being kind of
15:48just like
15:49a lighter hearted thing and then whatever that means ending it it's a perfect finale yeah
15:53it was important to me because it's like the mantra and like the very simple just like down to
15:59the root of it all and just me and guitar and like live take and then Andy ended up singing
16:05over
16:05top of that which felt so special to me his voice would you say that the theme of the album
16:11is like
16:12your relationships or relationships in general I think yeah like like observing relationships and
16:17just um kind of like a psychoanalysis on like people in my life and my relationships and the way that
16:23I am with people I would say yeah relationships is is the theme I I again it wasn't even like
16:30a
16:31the goal of it but by the time I went through all the songs and chose them it just felt
16:35like that was
16:35what I was singing about as I was growing and evolving and like figuring myself out and I noticed
16:41that you have far less people on this album that you worked with is that correct yeah yeah and I
16:46kind
16:47of see it as like you kept the most essential people to you like how did you find Ethan Gruska
16:51because I think he what he adds to the album I can see it's really yes yes he's like one
16:57of my
16:57favorite artists ever the valley is my favorite yeah yeah he does he I mean writing with him is
17:04incredible he's so open and like such a music lover so creative and um he added so much and I
17:14think
17:15yeah I wanted it to be small like I really wanted it to be small and um feel stripped and
17:22feel like
17:23we're keeping the essence of of like you know the energy of it and not getting to that that's a
17:29part of
17:29what happened last time when I was talking about just like getting gets convoluted it's I think when
17:34you have too many people even if they're all even if we all are aligned it's like hard to get
17:39on the
17:40same wave you know so I wanted to be small for sure and I kind of did I just like
17:46picked my favorite
17:47people that um felt aligned and you know yeah it feels like we're all in the room with you when
17:54I
17:54hear it I love that it's like a very cozy yeah that was definitely that's the goal yeah that's the
18:00goal I wanted to be like living room record how would you picture a live setting with that full band
18:06I want clarinets and um I will definitely be playing acoustic the whole time and some keys
18:12another acoustic probably but definitely like feel very human and feel very live and and like we're
18:20all bouncing off of each other yeah times in the in the past where I've played shows you know it
18:25those
18:25songs were so different they didn't ask for that so now I'm excited to have a record that asks for
18:30like people to be interacting and also with audience like I it just feels like a very
18:37conversation like I feel like it's opening it up to be a back and forth which I'm just excited to
18:42feel
18:42that way because I didn't I didn't always feel that way and that's what I think is going to make
18:48this all like fun yeah have it be a back and forth you know no absolutely are you excited to
18:54tour this album if you are like yes being on the road and like it's been a long time yes
18:58it's been a
18:59long time I'm so excited I mean that's like where I think this record is going to feel the best
19:06it's like written to be out there yeah what about the imagery of the album how did you approach the
19:13cover like the whole the whole vibe well that was taken in my bathroom um that was a lamp that
19:21I got
19:21the rose bowl yeah I wanted to shoot all of the photos in my house it's like kind of just
19:27going with
19:28the record feeling warm and cozy and just having it feel intimate um my friend Adam took the all the
19:34photos and it was just him and I the thing that kept coming to mind was like lamp lit before
19:40I knew
19:40that that that lamp was going to be perfect for the photo so it ended up just aligning and making
19:45making a lot of sense but I just wanted it to feel warm and and intimate and what music did
19:52you
19:52listen to while making this album because I read there's some Nick Drake there Molly Drake
19:57Connie Converse like these incredible overlooked artists yes yes yeah I noticed a theme in the
20:05people that I've been listening to while I'm making the record and also just now like I think a lot
20:10of
20:10the people that I'm drawn to are artists that like didn't get recognition at their time or like
20:17Molly Drake Nick Drake's mom I guess she didn't even put out any music when she was alive and it
20:22all
20:23got put out after so there's like a purity about those people that I'm really drawn to and really
20:30centers me and when I listen I feel really grounded and honestly it brings me to a very kid place
20:37where
20:37I'm like that's when I was making music for like true true true love of it nobody's hearing it just
20:44me
20:44in a guitar like singing it from a very heart place um and Molly Drake is a big one for
20:52me Connie
20:52Converse huge I mean she's like has a crazy story ever also I know that's that third man reissue I
20:59got it's like it's incredible it's but it's also like you know we're very similar in age like we grew
21:05up with Nick Drake already kind of becoming a thing yeah Molly was a little later but Connie's very new
21:10yes yes I don't even know how I found her I I actually don't know where I found her but
21:16then I
21:17I got this book um to anyone who ever asks and it's just the crazy her story is crazy she
21:24like
21:24fully disappeared but I mean she ran away or I don't I actually don't know what happened but it's
21:33such a wild um thing with her music because I'm like you can hear all that like in talking like
21:41you she's very much yeah she's she's wanting to float away so yeah there's a lot of Nick Drake Nick
21:48Drake guitar is like all time I mean I think it's probably for everyone ever but um but that's like
21:54such a good thing to me like yeah like there's so much love for it and I love that as
21:58time goes on
21:59he's finally getting appreciation yeah like obviously with the Volkswagen commercial years
22:04ago but there's a younger generation of singer songwriters totally I talk to all the time who
22:09are like I love Nick Drake and I'm like thank god yes we all must love Nick Drake yes totally
22:15he's
22:15definitely the king of that guitar sound and warmth and like just yeah he's the best so so preserved but
22:24I was listening to a lot of him and Elliot Smith too yeah like yeah and Andy which then ended
22:31up
22:31the reference for a lot of the songs ended up you know being the person that I recorded them with
22:37which was crazy and full circle really really full circle yeah and I see like Andy being a part of
22:42like the Nick Drake lineage yeah um what would you say is your favorite Nick Drake album Pink Moon I
22:48think
22:49yeah you can't yeah that's like classic I mean that's that's like my my awakening was Pink Moon
22:56the song itself um when I was younger and I I definitely always go back to that why do you
23:02think we're so drawn to overlooked artists like for me it's like if you're obsessed with like the 70s
23:08you know all the greats and it's even better when you can discover something from that time that
23:13you didn't know was there yes totally yeah there's just something about the purity of like it's just
23:21untouched you know what I mean and it feels um yeah like not tainted by like industry or really
23:30anything else like it's just the music at its core and it's so refreshing to like listen to because
23:37for me I'm just like I feel like I tap into the energy that is that which is like so
23:43centered um
23:44but yeah I don't know I think there's so much going on now and it's like all yes happening so
23:49quick
23:50um that there's something about the slowness for me when I'm listening I'm like it just feels
23:56like nobody was rushing this person like they had time and they just did it because they loved it and
24:03um yeah I think there's so many reasons why I think we're all getting like drawn back to
24:09that also just like analog in general I'm like it's been a year of analog yeah I feel like it
24:14really has been it's not even cds or like cassette tapes it's phone-free concerts it's like there's
24:21been a movement towards that and I I love it me too and like long form in general like I
24:27think everyone
24:27is slowly inching over like even just like sub stack like yeah like we are liking different
24:34things again which is exciting and I think it's translating to music too yeah yeah absolutely and
24:40I think you know even if it took six years I think you're coming to this at like the perfect
24:45time for
24:45your record yeah I feel that yeah it's like a perfect fall album I feel that I do I think
24:51yeah it happened
24:52as it needed to there was plenty of time throughout the process where I was like I think the records
24:58may be done and I'm I'm really glad that it it kept you know being delayed until it was time
25:05it was
25:06all supposed to be like that yeah um I want to talk about your beginnings a little bit did you
25:11always
25:11know you were really really young when you started performing yeah and singing did you always know you
25:17wanted to do this yes okay yes the music part of it yes um I truthfully I've been thinking about
25:28this
25:28a lot like my my kid idea of what I wanted I wouldn't say like I didn't have the like
25:36I want to be a
25:36star thing yeah or like I want to be like even on stage really making music I just did have
25:41like a strong
25:43music connection for sure and my parents were a duo and my sister and I always played together
25:48so there was a definitely a music music core that I knew I always wanted to write and I knew
25:53I always
25:54wanted to play um and then when I was 12 like the tv show happened which then kind of pulled
26:02it into
26:02like made it more of a job or made it more of like a thing that you're doing for something
26:08versus just
26:09like you know doing it for fun and so then that kind of put it in my head I think
26:13and planted the
26:14seed and and became my life but I did always have a total knowing that this is what I wanted
26:20to do it
26:21was never a question and even still it's like there there was never a moment where it didn't feel like
26:27so inevitable or just like obvious to me um which is I'm very grateful for that that grounding of
26:36like absolutely knowing you know yeah yeah um and you know you mentioned Nashville it's obviously
26:42hard to even mention that without talking about Hayden and I wanted to know your memories of her and
26:49you know I'm really sorry for your loss oh thank you um yeah I have not talked about that out
26:59loud
27:00um no no um she's just yeah that was a really being on Nashville was a really magical time and
27:13we were so little and my sister and I were both so protected by everyone on the set like it
27:20was
27:20actually pretty magical um like child actor experience and Hayden in particular was so um
27:32cushiony like she wanted to I think because she was a child actor of course had the the drive to
27:39be
27:39like I'm gonna make you feel really safe and really comfortable and also like teach you how to stand your
27:44ground and stick up for yourself and I think she she had such a like toughness about her but also
27:50like
27:51very warm and very much wanting to make everyone feel very very very comfortable um so she was a dream
27:59to
27:59to be with when we were kids and the whole set itself was was very very very um safe for
28:07us
28:08yeah do you remember meeting her because I you and your mom paid tribute to her and wrote that like
28:13you were you and Maisie were so excited to meet like the ice princess totally Maisie was like obsessed
28:19with that yes no she totally we had our table read she's like very um like she walks in a
28:29room and it
28:30is just like she's very magnetic um and we were we were both like in awe of her instantly and
28:38when we were in the earlier days my character was also in awe like that was the thing you know
28:43like
28:44that was that was the that was the role and so then later it was when we started having more
28:49like
28:49intimate scenes like where we're actually hanging and talking and she became like my mentor on the
28:56show and and all that so it was later in in the years of filming that we got closer and
29:02and had a
29:02more intimate vibe with with our actual characters but then also in real life so yeah it was later
29:10what did she teach you overall do you think it's interesting because I'm verbally she taught me a
29:16lot about acting you know like she she's such a pro like such a pro and was so um good
29:26at what she did
29:27and then also just good at like navigating people around her and how to keep everyone feeling really
29:32good while also doing a really good job and and acting um but I think energetically taught me to
29:39to be honest and true and really wanted me to um not do the child actor thing which is what
29:49we were
29:49talking about earlier with you know the the obey or like just hit your mark and zip your lips kind
29:55of
29:55thing not that anybody was telling me to do that but that is the undertone of like yeah being a
29:59child
29:59actor and I think she she taught me you know to to not do that to not go there and
30:06to not let that be my
30:08way of handling it all well thank you for sharing that of course and in terms of Maisie you know
30:15you guys have different paths now she's literally killing it I saw her in end of oak street fending off
30:22dinosaurs yes yes she's a mild ass Bobby Pauze's movie did you guys kind of know that you were
30:29going to take these separate paths hmm it became clear like after Nashville where we were like
30:35I'm gonna do music for a second and she's gonna take she took like a second to go back to
30:40school
30:40and hang and like she went to an art school in Nashville um and we'd like we'd done online school
30:48when we were filming so she she wanted that time to just be a kid and go to school um
30:53and then by
30:54the time she turned 17 or 18 she did my old ass I think she had just turned 18 and
30:59then she's been
31:00like going going going back to back to back yeah she always wanted to act that was like that was
31:05her
31:06thing as a kid I mean that's how Nashville happened was she was auditioning yeah and then I got called
31:11in so it was it that was very much her thing and she's she's always known that she wanted to
31:15do that
31:16but she's also like a freak musician talent she's going to definitely you know tap into that
31:24shortly I'm sure I mean both of you also when you're together like I don't know how often you
31:30revisit your YouTube videos but it's pretty never it's just never
31:40the the Robin cover now has like 31 million views or something crazy when was the last time you saw
31:45that that one maybe more recently of the of the bunch um still been a while though like a couple
31:52years but that that was yeah so funny like early YouTube very early YouTube era like yeah that was
32:01such a whirlwind of of yeah experience but it also happened to be like right as Nashville I mean
32:08that's too long of a story to even get into but they helped they helped each other yes that helped
32:12us get our visas to be on the show so they they helped each other and that was like a
32:16very that that
32:17uh YouTube video was like pivotal for us so you look back on it fondly very fondly that's great yes
32:23what's your relationship like now with social media
32:25um I'm discovering actually currently well I mean my relationship
32:32with it is that I don't want to be on it but my relationship yeah I don't want to be
32:38on it um
32:39but I'm trying to discover and figure out how I how I want to engage with it because I want
32:45to
32:45I want people like I want to feel people I want to to uh be talking to people and my
32:52my desire is that
32:54I can just get out there in real life like that social media can be enough to like get me
32:59out
33:00there and then I just talk to people in the flesh it's different than it was I mean YouTube felt
33:05further away yeah like I felt like there was like a gap between me and it and we could like
33:10put make
33:11the songs and then put it out and then wasn't like me scrolling on you know like I wasn't I
33:16wasn't
33:17up in there like that and yeah the way social media feels now is definitely way too close
33:22yeah too close yeah very close and also even in the last six years since you last released an album
33:28I feel like it's very different yes the pace is crazy are you told that you have to like have
33:33all accounts and like tiktoks and everything for the album you can kind of like separate yourself
33:38I'm I'm figuring that out of like how how like my desire is to is to not um
33:48lean into the like fast fashion of of it I'm like I it doesn't feel good to me and ultimately
33:56I just
33:56like have learned that what doesn't feel good is it's just like not worth it yeah there you go just
34:01not worth it so I want to find a way to make um to make it all work and and
34:09feel good but I think
34:10ultimately it's like there's a slowness about the way the record was made and kind of like anti that
34:17and anti like diluting something or like making it watered down enough to like quickly grab your
34:24attention or like um be digestible instantly and I think the record was made to like really honor
34:32not doing that and I think it would be silly to pump out the record in a way that would
34:38completely
34:39contradict that yeah and then kind of like erase the way that that felt for me so um yeah I'm
34:46definitely I'm trying I'm navigating that at the current moment of just like how to make it feel
34:50good and also just like get it heard and get people to know that it exists but also not watering
34:57anything down or making it feel like I need to bite and grab anyone too quickly yeah I'm feeling
35:02that with a lot of music this year um what albums have you enjoyed that have come out I know
35:07it's like
35:07oh my god there's been so many Cameron Winter record yeah um which maybe was not this year
35:14no but it was last year the Kearney Hall film is coming out it's still popping I love love love
35:20that
35:20record um that came out right before I was going in to re-record the record oh wow and I
35:27it really um
35:29again just grounded me re-inspired me I was like oh this is so true and so pure
35:34and really exciting that this is being made right now and then it started getting so much
35:38traction I was like this makes sense like this checks out this is perfect it's a perfect record
35:43and I really um like yeah it just it felt it felt like we were all wanting that like real
35:51yeah realness and like someone that's pretty like not um affected yes you know I could continue
36:00talking to you forever such a nice chat thank you really great thank you so much thank you so much
36:05I loved all your questions thank you