0:02

Hello everyone, and welcome the inside the studio

0:04

on I Heart Radio. My name is Jordan

0:06

Runtog. But enough about me, let's talk

0:08

about my guest today. He's a rising

0:11

star in pretty much every medium.

0:13

You probably first knew him from his lead role in

0:15

the Disney series Bunked. More

0:17

recently, he may have tugged at your heart strings

0:19

in the Netflix drama A Week Away. But

0:22

what you may not have known as it in between takes

0:24

on the set, he was writing songs, like

0:27

a lot of songs He's written close to a

0:29

hundred and a few weeks back, as fans

0:31

heard the results Wildfires,

0:33

a name of his major label debut single

0:36

in advance of a bigger collection to come shortly,

0:39

I had a great time getting to know him, learning

0:41

about his writing style, and generally

0:43

acting like two record nerds. I'm

0:45

so happy to welcome Kevin Quinn oh

0:48

Man. So much talked to you about today. But first of all,

0:50

tell me about your new single, Wildfire. How

0:52

did the song begin for you? Tell me a little bit about

0:54

the inspiration. Yeah, I think Wildfire

0:57

for me, I just wanted to create something

0:59

positive, uh, an introduction

1:01

to the rest of the project, you know, like I

1:03

just want all this music to be positive, uplifting,

1:06

inspirational. Uh, I wanted to be

1:08

clean. You know. These are just created choices

1:11

that I've made for the project, and I

1:13

feel like Wildfire crossed off every

1:15

list for those things of of what I wanted

1:17

the project to be. So, you know, we

1:19

imagine it would be a great debut single and

1:22

I'm glad we chose it. Um. I think

1:24

the inspiration behind it was just like

1:27

even through the worst of times and the darkness

1:29

and uh, just total

1:32

ship, you know what I mean, Like like

1:34

you have that wildfire in your heart that just gets

1:37

you going through you know, It's like

1:40

it's it's a thing that's bigger than you, that

1:42

will get you through the darkest of times, and

1:45

it's a real thing. So I feel like that's where

1:47

the wildfire metaphor spawn

1:49

from for sure. Absolutely.

1:51

I mean it's a beautiful message and especially one we

1:54

need the last year and a half or so.

1:56

It's definitely something to me that we need to tap into

1:58

in ourselves. Yeah. Man, it's it's

2:00

so it felt really timely too,

2:02

you know, because a lot of this stuff I wrote

2:04

during the pandemic, and I

2:07

just wanted it to be like the perfect timing of the release

2:09

considering just what the world's

2:11

has been through. Um So, I

2:13

felt like it was it was a godsend. You know that

2:15

Wildfire checked off every box and uh

2:18

it just it just felt very timely, and it felt like

2:20

the timing was perfect. Absolutely

2:23

in the video does such a great job of

2:26

illustrating that. Talk a little bit more about the

2:28

visuals for the song. Yeah,

2:32

it was. The video was directed by Roman White,

2:35

who if anyone listening, Uh,

2:37

there's a movie on Netflix called A week Away

2:40

that I started. It's a musical movie. Have

2:42

you seen it? You may not have. I

2:44

I have not. I I was actually I

2:46

was just about to ask you about that, but please,

2:49

I got a lot more on that to come. No.

2:51

No, it's definitely very younger crowd. I wouldn't

2:53

expect you to watch it. Um

2:55

but the director of that movie, Uh,

2:58

we teamed up Roman I to create

3:00

this music video, and I told him I wanted

3:03

something energetic, you know, I wanted something very

3:05

much in the pop lane, which he had

3:07

done before with a lot of the artists he had collaborated

3:09

with in the past. Uh So, we I remember

3:12

we had like this forty five minute phone call just

3:14

to discuss ideas. And it's

3:16

so rare that a creative relationship

3:19

is so synergistic and

3:21

you bounced all these ideas off of each other.

3:24

But that's how it is with Roman and I. It's like, you

3:26

know, I I spit ball an idea and he

3:28

immediately receives it and vice versa.

3:31

Um. So I feel like it was very much

3:33

a collaborative process, even from the treatment

3:36

to the filming to the final product.

3:39

Um. But I gotta give it up to Roman

3:41

because he had this vision for the

3:43

the kind of like Kevin Bacon foot loose

3:45

dancing around the you know what I mean, like in

3:47

the protament. Uh. And it turned out great.

3:50

So I was I was super pleased. I mean

3:52

I was gonna ask. I know, obviously you were extremely

3:55

involved in the soundtrack to

3:57

the movie. I think I think it was eleven

3:59

out of thirteen songs something like that. Uh

4:03

yeah, Did that in any way influence

4:05

your sort of decision to to take this time

4:07

to really focus in on your music career

4:09

after all the the acting have been involved with.

4:12

It wasn't the movie soundtrack that was

4:14

a catalyst, believe it or not. I

4:16

had been writing music for

4:19

four years up to that point, I

4:21

released some music, uh you

4:23

know that I thought was representative of where

4:26

I was at at the time, only to realize

4:28

later, no, this is this isn't the

4:30

direction I want to go. But you know, I'm young enough still figuring

4:32

out my sound at this point where I want to go. Um,

4:35

So I scrapped those songs and I started

4:38

a completely new project with some new

4:40

creative choices. But just you

4:43

know, recording the soundtrack, we actually

4:45

recorded it on sets that we built, like this

4:47

makeshift studio, and the philoph

4:50

producer was, yeah, like he created this vocal

4:52

booth in in the camp summer

4:54

camp that we were shooting is really cool cool, Yeah,

4:57

yeah, But we would just spend our days in there and

5:00

gove around and and it just felt so

5:02

comfortable. And Adam Watts

5:04

was the film's music producer. He had worked

5:06

on like High School Musical and some of the other

5:09

Disney musicals. But yeah, like I said,

5:11

just so comfortable. And although that

5:14

process wasn't the catalyst for me, like

5:17

writing music, I had already been doing it it definitely.

5:20

It was just experience that continued to help me grow,

5:22

and I think that enough made the

5:24

experience worth it and you touched

5:27

on this a little bit earlier. You've had something

5:29

like a hundred songs in your

5:31

reserves right when when you started?

5:34

I mean, that's that's incredible to me. When did

5:36

you first start writing? Um?

5:39

When I was on a Disney a

5:41

Disney Channel show called Bunked. I had a two year

5:44

tenure on that show. And yeah,

5:47

yeah, Like I think I mentioned to some of the cash

5:50

and crew that I had this, you know, dream

5:52

of pursuing music. UM, But

5:54

I don't know if they realized quite the

5:56

extent of how hard I was working at it at

5:58

the time. It was just kind of something I did on side

6:01

when I wasn't on set. But yeah, I mean

6:03

four years worth of writing. Um.

6:05

I definitely did have, you know, a hundred

6:08

songs in my pocket before I decided to release

6:10

Wildfire at least, you know, like

6:12

just writing for four years. But that's how particular

6:15

I was. I was like, I don't want to release stuff

6:17

just for the sake of releasing it. And I had done

6:19

that before and I didn't like the results. So

6:21

I just was like, Nope, I'm not gonna

6:23

release anything. And it worked out.

6:26

Where Where did this come from? For you? Like?

6:28

Who are some of the people that made you want to pick up an instrument

6:30

and express yourself in this way. I

6:33

can't explain it. I can't explain

6:35

it. It was just something I was always drawn to.

6:38

I think, I don't know. You ask

6:40

any creative and and any performer

6:42

in this business, it's like where can

6:44

you really pinpoint their passion and when

6:47

they wanted to decide to do it or what

6:50

was the catalyst? But for me, it was just

6:52

always something bigger than myself. It was

6:54

like I couldn't imagine myself

6:56

doing anything other than performing.

7:00

So I don't know. It

7:02

was that carried on through my childhood.

7:04

Like I remember that feeling in my childhood

7:07

listening to some great music

7:09

like the Beatles or the Rolling

7:12

Stones or you know, just like

7:14

a lot of rock bands, a lot of eighties

7:16

and nineties music. I just absorbed myself

7:18

in music as a young kid, uh,

7:21

and that followed me as I got older,

7:23

and I just knew what I

7:25

wanted to hear in like the track

7:28

and the harmonies, and I got

7:30

pretty good at theory at one point, and so

7:32

I just started making my own music. Wow,

7:35

that's really cool. I mean, I'm someone who

7:38

loves music. I I mess around on

7:40

instruments, I've taken music theory

7:42

classes. I have never been able to write a song in my

7:44

entire life. So when I when I talked to someone like

7:46

you who said, yeah, I've written a hundred, that's

7:49

just to me, that's like magic. I mean,

7:51

how does the theory factor

7:53

into your your writing process? Because

7:56

that's always such an interesting line because I know there's

7:58

people like Paul McCartney who can't read me is

8:00

it. I mean, it's just totally something that they do by ear,

8:02

and so the the the line

8:04

between wanting to know what you're

8:06

doing with theory but wanting to keep some magic and

8:09

spontaneity in it is so interesting to me.

8:11

Totally. Yeah, it's weird because you don't want to go

8:13

too far in one direction on either side. If

8:15

you're too focused on the theory, you can't let the creative

8:18

flow. If you're too focused on

8:20

just writing a song and not focused

8:22

on any theory, then chances

8:25

are you probably won't write a great song at the end

8:27

of the session. Um So I always

8:29

found there's like a middle ground between what

8:31

is proven to sound good based

8:34

on music theory, but then

8:36

letting the creative energy flow and not being too

8:39

merry to any idea. Uh.

8:41

For me, it's like in the writing room, I just love having

8:43

conversations with my co writers. I

8:46

feel like that's what spawns all

8:48

the great ideas, is not necessarily

8:50

looking for the lyrics or the

8:52

melody, but just conversing

8:55

with the co writers. You know, like how

8:57

is your week or what popped into

8:59

your head that you know you want to tell everyone

9:02

about. Like, those are the kind of things that make

9:04

a writing session great because they just become

9:06

this there. They start as an organic

9:09

idea and they become like the

9:12

passageway to a great song in my

9:14

mind. Oh totally. I mean that's where

9:16

where the human element comes in, is from

9:18

that that real interaction. Yeah,

9:20

it's it's such a human element. You're absolutely

9:22

right. It's like I don't even know how you explain

9:25

it. Like, and if we could

9:27

all write great songs and every

9:29

song we write as a hit, then everyone would

9:31

be a superstar and super successful.

9:33

But we all know, like my heart, to

9:36

write a good song, it's virtually impossible.

9:39

Like if if you're lucky, you'll get

9:41

a few a year so and they'll make it on the

9:43

project. That's kind of been my mentality.

9:46

Judging from the Jimmie Hendrick's post

9:48

Racy behind You, I know you're and what you mentioned earlier,

9:51

a guy who knows Oh

9:53

yeah, yeah, I don't even

9:55

know, Like, how do you explain

9:58

some of his lyrics, Like, I

10:00

mean, the team just has a far out

10:02

mind. Uh, what's that song? No?

10:05

It is Boldest Love? Yeah, yeah,

10:07

the way he personifies colors like that,

10:10

and and it's just so weird

10:12

because a lot of the song doesn't even rhyme.

10:15

You know, It's like I don't know how

10:17

he does it, but yet it works so perfectly.

10:19

He's always been an inspiration to me,

10:21

oh totally, and a massively underrated

10:24

lyricist. I mean, if you

10:26

watch some of his interviews that he gave and the you

10:28

know, the short time that he was alive, it's so

10:30

interesting to hear. Like you said, he is far out,

10:33

Like his take on everything

10:35

is just like totally a slightly

10:38

different angle than than everyone

10:40

else around him. Yeah, and he

10:42

had like a weird way of speaking to you

10:45

know, like and I feel like it translated

10:47

into it not only his personality but his songs

10:49

as well. And just for the listener, what

10:51

we're referring to the

10:53

giant Jimi Hendrix poster behind my

10:55

back and my house right here. Um

10:58

yeah, I have another one in the living room too. At

11:01

some point in order are

11:17

you into uh, just from some of the

11:19

things you were saying, I feel like you would dig it if if if

11:21

you're not, Are you went to the Beach Boys Pet Sounds album

11:23

at all? Yes? I

11:27

I'm not like absolutely in

11:29

love with it. I realize everyone says

11:31

it's like the greatest album of all time. They're not wrong.

11:34

Um, I just feel like my it's

11:36

a very specific kind of sound. That's

11:39

true. Yeah, you know what I mean. And I just

11:42

like to I never stick on

11:44

one, Like if I'm listening to something, I never stick

11:46

on it for a long time. I'd very much have

11:48

music a D d UM. I realized

11:51

it's brilliantly written, it's brilliantly

11:53

produced. I've heard it many times. Um,

11:55

but is it my absolute favorite?

11:58

I don't know. I don't have like, I don't know

12:00

if I have an absolute favorite album.

12:02

Um, but I do like it. Are you big

12:04

fan of that one? I'm a big fan of it. I

12:07

mean just he would start all of his

12:09

songwriting sessions having these long conversations

12:11

about life and love with this lyricists,

12:14

and I was just made me think of what you were saying about

12:16

how that's where the best songs come from, when you

12:18

have that shared connection that's born out of a conversation,

12:21

and it's not just sitting down to you know,

12:23

write Moon in June lyrics that are just

12:25

kind of feel fil the melody, but

12:27

something that actually has some some meaning to the

12:29

two of you that are making the song. I

12:31

didn't realize that that was his approach,

12:34

so so he did have a similar approach. I

12:38

have to is there any like YouTube videos or anything?

12:41

Oh, I can send you some. I'm

12:43

a huge Brian Wilson nerd. I can send

12:45

you some session tapes and stuff.

12:47

But uh I I

12:49

meant to say earlier, I I loved your cover

12:52

of Exile Taylor Swift

12:54

track that is like gray. I saw it on social

12:57

I was a beautiful version of

12:59

that. Yeah, you know it's funny.

13:01

I have a twin sister and she is obsessed

13:04

with Taylor Swift. Man, I can't even

13:06

explain it, Like it's so weird

13:08

because of my sister has friends over who

13:10

are similar in age, Like they'll just spend

13:12

an hour debating on which song is

13:14

better on every single album,

13:17

Like, well, I kind of like my tears Ricochet

13:19

because both La Thelah, but I

13:21

would agree with you like that it's not quite as

13:23

good as this and both. And I'm like, who

13:26

does this? Like who debates uh,

13:28

like every track on an album and

13:30

has an hour long conversation about what they like and

13:33

don't like. Um And I never

13:35

understood that. But yeah, my my

13:37

twin sister is obsessed and by the transitive

13:40

property. I've got her music

13:42

as well. UM, but I

13:44

will say, out of all the stuff that she's

13:46

done, my favorite has been

13:49

uh this recent the recent album

13:51

what is um? The one with Exile

13:53

on it? I can't remember? Folklore? I think that yeah

13:56

and evermore Yeah, so those two, um

13:59

and I think Aaron Dessner is a pretty

14:01

big piece of that project. And for

14:03

me, it's like I love

14:06

the kind of folk thing that she ventured into

14:08

with those two albums. Especially

14:11

Dude. I am such a big fan

14:13

of Justin Vernon and Bonnaber, one

14:16

of my favorite bands of all time, and I'm

14:18

lucky to be alive to watch them. I saw him at

14:20

the Hollywood Bowl and oh

14:22

nice. So but

14:25

The way that she kind of ventured into that sound

14:27

with them at the Helm is my

14:29

favorite thing she's done so far by far.

14:32

Oh, it's super unexpected. I didn't you know. I

14:34

guess I should have maybe expected it given her sort of

14:36

country, slightly more folky beginnings,

14:39

but still did not see that comment after you

14:42

know, lover her and everything that was before that. Yeah,

14:45

And I feel like that's what a good artist

14:47

does, and she's a great artist in that way. It's like

14:49

you reinvent yourself with every album.

14:52

I mean, that's what it should be in my mind.

14:54

Um, even like justin Timberlake Man of

14:56

the Woods, something totally different than what he was

14:58

doing before. Um. So, you

15:01

know, like as far as my own personal music,

15:03

I definitely have an idea of what I want this first

15:05

project to be. But I

15:08

already have ideas like what's the sophomore

15:10

album gonna look like? What's it? You know what I mean? So

15:12

I have these ideas in my head that

15:15

I want to execute,

15:17

but I just gotta finish reporting the debut

15:19

album first. Yeah. How far along are you

15:21

with that? Uh?

15:24

I would say like half of the songs are written

15:27

at this point. Um, I think we've

15:30

produced three. We're

15:32

just about to produce three here, so

15:34

Wildfire is one of them. There's a second single,

15:37

um, and then I have the surprise

15:39

Spanish version of Wildfire, which by

15:42

this point of the podcast being aired on I

15:44

think we'll be out by then septembery is

15:47

that what'll be out by then? I'm not sure what I

15:49

think this is me? You're

15:52

catching me not knowing what day it actually is

15:54

today. I think it might be right,

15:56

I think it's it's I think it might be this Friday,

15:59

um, so slightly before it, but

16:01

but yeah, call it very close. Then they have

16:03

the Spanish version of Wildfire to look forward to that,

16:06

and then I was gonna say a third and

16:08

fourth song. Uh. Then we got to record

16:10

the rest of the like six or seven there um.

16:14

But recording the Spanish wildfire, uh

16:17

was a lot more difficult than I expected.

16:19

I should just say that for the record. How's

16:21

that just with with getting the

16:23

sounds out of your mouth that maybe aren't aren't

16:26

ordinarily something that you're saying or yeah,

16:28

because here's the thing, like I'm

16:31

not fluent fluent, but I'm

16:34

more than conversational and I'm but I'm

16:36

less than fluent. So I felt

16:38

pretty confident when we had this idea to give,

16:40

you know, the Latin American markets something they could

16:42

listen to. Um, and we were even gonna

16:44

do like Portuguese version. And I'm not sure

16:47

if that changed when we realized how difficult

16:49

it was to get the Spanish one done.

16:52

UM. But we recorded it at the

16:54

Capital Tower very

16:56

yeah, dude, we had like this crazy

16:59

nice mike we're in studio A

17:03

whoa. I was

17:06

super stoked about it, um, and our engineer

17:08

was like, just you know, this is Snastra's mic so

17:11

it makes something great. Yeah yeah,

17:14

UM. But it was just like the delivery

17:16

of of the Spanish words

17:19

within the context of the melody was a

17:21

lot more difficult than I thought it would be,

17:23

because you know, when you sing in your native language.

17:25

When I when I'm singing in English, I can hear

17:28

how the melody and the pitch and everything

17:31

I want in the vocal performance how it

17:33

should be in English because I hear

17:35

it back as I'm doing it. But with Spanish,

17:37

it's like that element of hearing yourself back in

17:39

the microphere in the headphones wasn't

17:42

as prominent, so I felt like I was shooting blind.

17:44

A lot of the time. That's really

17:46

interesting. Yeah, I don't know how to

17:48

explain it, but overall, I'm

17:51

very pleased with how it turned out. I know the label

17:53

is pleased. I think the fans are gonna be pleased.

17:55

But it was definitely a more difficult

17:58

idea to execute, and I'd expect you.

18:01

Oh wow, I can't wait to hear it. I mean, all

18:03

power to you. I took eight years of French and

18:06

my teacher used to make me read at

18:08

the end of class for her amusement because my pronunciation

18:11

was so bad. She was just roll and of

18:13

course now totally gave me a complex and I

18:15

won't you know, all the language teachers

18:17

have a fuel day with their students. Oh

18:20

yeah, big time. Oh

18:23

man. I mean you, you know, speaking

18:25

of all the different influences you have and something

18:28

I want to ask you about. I know you have a obviously

18:30

a very big musical theater background.

18:34

I did musicals in high school. I love

18:36

it. I miss it every day thinking

18:38

of the songs that are in musicals.

18:40

I mean just the song craft there, I

18:42

mean from people like Sondheim and Rodgers

18:44

and Hammerstime. It's it's so impressive and people

18:47

kind of forget the quality

18:49

of those songs. What did your background

18:51

in musical theater do for you as a songwriter,

18:53

you think, I, I, that's

18:56

actually a great question. Um, I

18:58

definitely. I I never

19:00

wanted my music to be like,

19:03

you know, Becausicus, across the line of uncool er jes

19:06

yeah, the showy um And I

19:08

never wanted it to quite cross that line.

19:10

But at the same time, anyone who's been to a musical,

19:13

you can't deny that by the time you finish

19:15

watching the musical and you walk out of the theater, at

19:17

least one song is stuck in your head. It's

19:19

like every single musical has that song.

19:22

It's powerful. It's totally powerful.

19:24

Yeah, and with like an ensemble of actors backing

19:27

them up, and and it's a it

19:29

really is a produced

19:31

song on stage, happening

19:33

live. And I feel like these

19:36

musical theater songwriters are

19:38

just so good with finding these super catchy

19:41

melodies. Um. But they're also

19:43

trying to push the bar a little bit,

19:45

Like they may throw in a natural note

19:48

to surprise you off guard, or they may have

19:50

a key change. Right, everyone knows the key change in musical

19:52

theater. Um. And while I've never been

19:54

so bold that's to include a key change like

19:57

that. Yet, um, those melodies

19:59

stick with you, you can't deny um.

20:01

So I definitely feel like I took some of that from

20:04

just my experience in

20:06

musical theater and and finding

20:09

those super hooky melodies. And if you

20:11

find a melody and it's not super

20:13

hooky and you're not in love with it, then

20:15

you better find a hu melody. That's how I've always approached

20:17

it. In the in the room,

20:20

I always thought it was interesting how the Beatles when

20:22

they started out, they didn't have tape recorders,

20:24

and so they were writing melodies just

20:26

that were good enough. And they figured, if we can't remember

20:28

it the next day, how

20:31

can we expect fans too, you know. And

20:33

I had this built in sort of system of like,

20:35

well, it's gonna be good enough for it to get stuck in our head

20:37

first. And it was just a sort of a funny

20:39

way to like, you know, their own sort of litmus

20:42

test, their own uh you know, way

20:44

to weed out the ideas that weren't that good. So

20:47

did they like if they did have a melody? Because I'm

20:49

always interested in learning more about the Beatles. I'm not sure

20:51

if you know a lot about them. I'm a

20:53

gigantic beetle nerd.

20:57

So if they came up with a melody right

20:59

and they weren't in love with it, would they change

21:01

the melody or would they just you know, stick

21:04

with it, you know, hail

21:06

Maren Hope that it you

21:08

know what I mean. Like in the early

21:10

days, when they were really just trying to knock out

21:13

two Wish albums a year plus

21:16

four singles or something like that, they would

21:18

kind of like, Okay, well, we don't have that much time

21:20

and we're touring on top of all this, we

21:23

gotta just do it. But then when they stopped

21:25

touring in sixty six, they would

21:27

kind of massage it more and really like wait

21:29

for it to be. They wouldn't waste time

21:31

on something they didn't think was which

21:35

was interesting. Uh.

21:37

And that's where I feel like instincts

21:39

come to play. Yeah, Because if you're

21:41

if you think you're not in love with the melody, but

21:44

it showed up somehow in your session included

21:46

on the demo um and I feel like

21:48

that's just good instincts. And I

21:52

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, I'm sure it had amazing

21:54

instincts. George Harrison. Um,

21:56

yeah, that's that's kind of how I would imagine

21:59

that to go. I get demo watiss sometimes

22:01

too, Like I'm like, I'm a huge

22:04

demo lover, you

22:06

know what I mean. Like if I write a song

22:08

and I hear a certain production attempt

22:11

on the demo or you

22:13

know, a certain melody, I get

22:16

really married to the demo. And I think part

22:18

of it is that I try to perfect the demos

22:21

before they go into production. I'm

22:24

like, I didn't want to change this because I've fallen in love with

22:26

this as I continue to listen. But

22:28

you know, it's just one of those

22:30

things with artists. Do

22:42

you find that your favorite

22:44

songs or maybe the songs that are most

22:46

fulfilling to that they they come

22:48

faster, almost fully formed, versus

22:51

the ones that you really have to kind of like find

22:54

your way a little bit more. Yeah,

22:57

um not, this is

23:00

Sarahly. I will say I

23:02

get like, not even in

23:04

the studio, in just my daily life.

23:07

I'll get this kind of manic creative

23:09

energy and I'll hear

23:11

these melodies in my head and I'll

23:13

pull out my voice memos and try to lay

23:16

something down and then I'll stop

23:18

that voice memo, I'll start a new one, record

23:20

a harmony for that line. I just recorded it. And

23:23

I remember I did this one song, uh

23:25

that I recorded the whole thing in

23:27

voice memos atven PM

23:29

the previous night of a morning session, and it

23:31

ended up being a great song. Um.

23:34

And I had all these ideas for like strings and an

23:36

orchestra parts, so I was mimicking

23:39

those sounds with my with my voice

23:42

and I we ended up including

23:44

them in the track. And just like there

23:47

are those spurs of energy where it's

23:50

something bigger than you and and

23:52

you lay it down and it turns into

23:55

something. Um, all songs

23:57

just start with like the bare billons and I

23:59

have those moments a lot, right, I just recorded

24:02

the bare bones and it becomes something great. So

24:05

I don't know if the answers your question, but that's

24:07

been my experience. Oh absolutely,

24:09

Then I know. I know faith is a big part

24:11

of your life, and I was gonna ask you how

24:13

that comes through in your music, but it sounds like you just

24:15

answered it. I mean, those moments of inspiration,

24:18

we're just there. It is. That's that's

24:20

kind of I don't want to put words

24:22

in your mouth, but no, it's weird

24:24

man with the faith. Like. I

24:27

never would have imagined that I was making

24:29

this kind of music. UM. Like, it's

24:31

it's not straight up Christian music, but

24:33

it's not straight up hoop. It's very much crossover

24:36

between the two with these subtle

24:38

faith undertones. And and I like that

24:40

because it's actually really representative

24:43

of who I am as a person and where I am

24:45

in my faith journey. But

24:47

if you told me that I'd be making music

24:50

with any faith undertones,

24:52

I probably would have been pretty surprised.

24:54

But it's weird, man. I

24:57

went through this really, really

24:59

difficult rough patch in

25:01

my life. UM before

25:03

this project came online, and

25:06

I needed something to turn to. UM,

25:09

I needed like something bigger

25:11

than me. Two stop

25:15

where I was at, take a complete left

25:17

turn and start over. Um. It

25:19

was some health issues and I, yeah,

25:22

dude, I stopped. I never had an alcohol problem,

25:24

but I stopped drinking. I haven't had a drinking

25:26

and almost fourteen

25:29

months. Um. I don't mess around with any

25:31

drugs or anything. But yeah,

25:33

it's like I went

25:35

through this horrible rough patch and

25:38

in that rough patch, and the in the midst

25:41

of it, when I was at my lowest low, I started

25:43

getting these like synchronicities or

25:45

these signals from like a higher power.

25:48

Uh. And I'm super accepted to

25:50

that stuff. You know, I kind of have that creative energy

25:52

and UM. But I listened to that higher

25:54

power and call that God if

25:57

you will, will like it just took me down this

26:00

turn that I was so desperately

26:02

seeking um to make things

26:04

better. And that's when like this project came online.

26:07

That's when I did the Christian musical a week away.

26:09

So it's just all always

26:11

felt very meant to be. And

26:15

when I was doubting God the most, that's

26:18

when I realized, like damn,

26:20

like God has been leading this the

26:22

whole time, and I'm in the best place I've

26:24

been in years. Uh and I'm

26:26

stable. But yeah, I can't deny. We'll

26:28

have to go into detail into it another time

26:31

and that might shock the listener here,

26:33

but it was pretty bad. I was in a bad

26:35

place, but I'm better. I'm

26:38

I'm so glad to hear that. And also thank you

26:40

for for sharing that

26:42

with with me with listeners. I I

26:44

really I appreciate your your trust and

26:48

and your music as well. I mean, you know, I

26:50

think that you know people who

26:53

are receptive to art and

26:55

music are receptive to all kinds of different

26:57

energies too. And I personally believe that

27:00

tall related and and and sink.

27:02

I mean, as you said, you call it, God, call it whatever you

27:04

want. There's something else that we maybe can't

27:06

necessarily see or touch, but it definitely

27:08

is there. I could not agree with

27:10

you more. And yeah, just to the listeners,

27:13

thank you for for listening, you know. And

27:15

and that's what this whole project has been. It's

27:17

been me funneling all that

27:19

energy and all that experience and everything

27:21

I went through to turn it into something positive.

27:25

One of my friends told me after I

27:27

released Wildfire, They're like, do you realize you're because

27:29

I did this EP while back? And

27:32

uh, she said, do you realize

27:34

that out of the Cold, that single from

27:36

the EP that you did, it was a pretty

27:39

pretty dark, depressing song

27:41

in retrospect compared to what this is. And

27:43

you went from out of the Cold to Wildfire,

27:46

And I was like that that

27:48

is so representative of

27:50

the journey that I went through in a nutshell.

27:53

So that's why I like, I'm so excited about this

27:55

music that's coming up, because it's

27:57

taking all of the stuff that I've learned, all the

28:00

really heavy ship and just making

28:03

something great out of it. And I'm

28:05

so excited for it. You know, I think fans are

28:07

gonna love it. I can't wait for

28:09

for folks to hear Kevin. This

28:11

has been a true pleasure. Thank

28:13

you so much for your time today

28:16

and your music and just opening

28:18

yourself up. You are the best. I

28:20

really really appreciate it. Thank you so

28:22

much. Well. Thanks for having me, and I'm

28:25

so grateful that we really have this conversation. I'm

28:27

stoked, so it's a great meeting you. We

28:39

hope you enjoyed this episode of Inside the Studio,

28:42

a production of I Heart Radio. For

28:44

more episodes of Inside the Studio or other

28:46

fantastic shows, check out the I Heart

28:48

Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you

28:51

listen to your favorite podcast. W