Also, I have to ask, how are your chickens, cows, dogs, and cats doing? And do you name them all?
The chickens— there are a few of them that have names, but not all of them. We have three cats, they all have names. Two dogs, obviously, have names. And then our cows, they're kind of always rotating. So they do have names, but I don't always remember them all because I work with this cattle rancher who brings in cattle for a certain time of year to graze on our property. And then when they go to calf, to give birth, they get taken off the property. And then we get the babies of those cows. So it's like this constant rotation. And then the sheep— we actually just lost one last night to coyotes. I have a long history with sheep, and it's hard for me to get too close to them anymore because the last property we lived on, we had a mountain lion attack that took out all of our sheep but three. And so there was a lamb that I bottle-fed from birth because her mother didn't accept her. Her name was Valentine. And I actually have a tattoo of her on my arm. Oh, and a pig! Did you know we have a pig too? Her name’s Olive. She's hilarious. She's very trained. She's like a dog. She can do tricks and stuff.
I couldn't help but notice that your lyrics read like poetry, and so does the tracklist. Is poetry something that you engage with often?
It's funny because when I first started making music, when I was younger, lyrics were the last thing I cared about. I loved the melodies, harmonies, and chord changes more than lyrics. Maybe just because my brain wasn't fully developed, I didn't understand them. And so I would just write songs based on how the music made me feel. It wasn't until I got a little bit older, probably in my 20s, when I really started caring about poetry. And now, as I've gotten even older, the lyrics have become just as or maybe even more important to me as a songwriter. And so I didn't do a lot of studying of poetry or anything like that. I didn't read a lot of poetry books or have any poets that I really looked up to. But to me, it was always just about: how do I express an emotion and say it in a way that has never been said before, or is an uncommon way to express a feeling. Find a new way to word. Because there are only so many emotions to express, and there are [only] so many subject matters to write songs about. And a lot of them are repetitive. There are so many love songs. But how do I make a love song that is worded uniquely and differently and captures a different nuance of love? And that's always kind of what I'm trying to do.
So much of the album has to do with allowing yourself to unravel and even reconcile with having made the wrong moves at times, whether it be having been unfaithful, leaning on alcohol, etc. What happens when we look at our mistakes in the eye?
That's an interesting question. Every mistake is a learning experience, right? And so I think it's important. When I approach songwriting, I'm not only expressing an emotion, but I'm working through it. And so I'm looking at my mistakes and thinking, how can I become better from this experience?
WASTED POTENTIAL is such a striking title. What do you think we’re collectively failing to nurture right now as a society?
I think people have a tendency to focus a lot on the negatives in life, and don't realize that happiness is in your own power. I see people get really sucked into the news and all the shit going on in the world. To a point where it's detrimental to their own mental health. That is probably where we're wasting most of our potential as a society. We're just giving too much to the negative and not enough to the positive. We need a perspective change. Because it's so dark, and you can let all the darkness in the world just bring you down. But what good is that doing you, your family, or anyone around you? I see it happen in my own family. I just want everybody to be happy. There's only so much you can control, and you can have feelings and thoughts about things and share your perspectives and try to make change and do all the things, but at the end of the day, when you fall asleep in bed, you have to feel good and happy and comfortable with yourself and your life.
