Jeremy Schantz Of Falterboy

Interview with Jeremy Schantz of Falterboy

SBS:  Hello and welcome to ya!  It’s always best to start off with some kind of introduction to who you are and what kind of music you make, isn’t it?  Tell us a bit about yourself & the history of your music, and give the people out there reading a couple of concrete reasons as to why they should be listening!

Jeremy:  Hey thanks for having me again (you reviewed my first album about 10 years ago actually) I’ve been making music as Falterboy for almost 20 years now.  It started off as a band in Tampa Fl but eventually our drummer moved away and then before we could replace him our bass player moved as well.  At the time we had only recorded some demos and hadn’t released anything so I sat on those songs for almost a decade and then after moving back to my home state of Michigan I decided I had to put these songs I’d been sitting on out into the world so I hired Rick from Cold War Studios in GR and he put me in contact with Nate his drummer from Mustard Plug and I happened to work with Kevin North Lincoln at a local restaurant and he played bass for me and I put out my first album, Blasphemy.  Since then I’ve moved back to Tampa (as has my original bass player so there might be some live stuff happening again soon) but mostly I’ve been focused on releasing a new EP the first single of which I just released in January and the rest of the songs are in the works now.

SBS:  While we’re still getting to know you and quite possibly introducing you to these pages of ours, what would you say is the newest and/or most exciting thing you’ve got going on with your music right now?  Is there anything you’ve been working on that just got released, or something happening behind the scenes that you haven’t mentioned yet?  What should your fans be looking forward to this year?

Jeremy:  Recently I put out a single called “Maybe Next Week,” it’s a song I started writing over 20 years ago when I first started playing the guitar and writing songs.  People would always say “You should do an open mic,” and I would always say “Yeah that’s a great idea,” and then I would plan on going every week, and then never do it, always making up some excuse to tell myself.  So, the song which I technically just finished this year is from the perspective of a songwriter putting off going to an open mic because of nerves.

SBS:  So far to-date, what do you feel like is the song of yours that listeners respond to the most?  Do you feel like you knew they’d like it when you first created it, or was it just another song to you at the time?  Sometimes it takes a few spins and a bit of time before we realize how special a song truly is.  What is it about this particular track that you feel people connect to?  If someone was to ask you to play one of your songs to get them interested in your music, would you choose the same one that listeners seem to enjoy the most, or would you risk it and choose something different from your catalog instead?

Jeremy:  One song that at the time I felt I was writing just for myself is a song off my first album called “Vinetree.”  I grew up way out in the sticks in southern Michigan and I was remembering my childhood one day and just started writing about the things that were very specific to me.  My neighbors and I as well as my siblings were all around the same age and we were the only houses around.  We used to meet up at a specific tree that was covered with vines.  We would swing and pretend to be Tarzan and just have all sorts of imaginative games.  I really felt like no one else on the planet would care about this song, but I ended up sending a rough draft of the song to my neighbor and it happened to be on her wedding day, and she said she bawled her eyes out listening to it.  The final verse of the song is all about going to my older brother’s high school football games and how all the younger kids would play their own little games while we watched the big kids play.  Since writing it my older brother passed away and so the song always reminds me of him.  So, I think I would play that.

SBS:  Is there a concert you’ve been to that…maybe it was the best you’ve seen, maybe it wasn’t, but it was a completely unforgettable moment in time that you might not even see from the same band or artist again if you saw them play in the future?  Know what I mean?  Like, maybe a band you saw was touring a certain album and they never played those songs again…or like, maybe an artist climbed up the frame of the stage like Eddie Vedder did, and of course he’s probably not doin’ that now as an older dude…there are countless examples of amazing shows from the artists & bands we love most that we will never see happen twice.  Tell us all the details you can remember about an unforgettable show you saw, and why you don’t think that if you saw that same artist/band today that it could all happen again.

Jeremy:  Yes!  Completely.  I went to a concert with my brother before he passed.  He was an amazing drummer; he played in band all through high school (even when he was on the football team he used to change uniforms for the half time performance and then quickly get back in his football uniform), then after school he continued playing in church bands.  He took me to a show in St. Pete to a couple bands I had never heard of at the time.  He specifically wanted to see North Mississippi Allstars, and they were touring with Galactic.  We ended up running late and only caught the last few songs of North Mississippi Allstars so at first, we were a little disappointed, but then after Galactic had played a few songs the drummer for the North Mississippi Allstars came out and he started playing on the outside of the drum kit for Galactic.  It was super fun and my brother and I were digging it.  Then the two drummers, without missing a single beat switched places and the drummer for NMA sat down and the drummer for Galactic stood up started playing on the outside of the kit.  Then they just kept doing that over and over circling the kit and switching places all while playing.  My brother and I just kept looking back at each other in disbelief, our jaws getting closer and closer to the floor.

SBS:  I’ve heard it said many times that it’s harder to write a song in a happy mood than to write one when you’re feeling down.  Of course, for some folks, the opposite is just as true…I guess maybe that’s a reflection of who we are on the inside perhaps?  From YOUR perspective, what’s the particular emotion you associate with the most, or connect to the strongest when you’re creating your music?  How does it play a role in what you write & why do you feel like that specific emotion gets the best songs out of you?

Jeremy:  I spent a good chunk of my younger years, late teens and into my mid to late 20’s on the perpetual verge of suicide.  I made halfhearted attempts and did lots of risky behavior because I was extremely depressed.  That being said, I wrote a lot of my songs in that state because it was like therapy.  I had some sort of burning desire to get those words out of my head/heart and put them into the world.  Then when I did, I would feel better for a time.  However from the outside, except for a few extreme episodes, most people would have thought I was a pretty happy person.  Which I think is why despite my sometimes very raw and depressing lyrics I usually place those lyrics in an upbeat and fast tempo song to kind of hide what the song is really about.  One thing to note is that now that I’m feeling much better about myself and my life I find that I can actually take things I wrote years ago and edit and improve them and actually have the motivation and energy to work on them and get them out into the world.  I now have a completely different attitude toward suicide then I used to.  I used to take little attempts at destroying my entire self.  But now I’ve flipped that around and I take wholehearted attempts at destroying little aspects of myself.  The negative parts of myself that I don’t like the fears and the habits that hold me back.  I try to kill completely those single aspects of myself.

SBS:  Let’s ask ya this…would you rather create a massive hit song that the whole world knows and sings along with, or risk toiling in obscurity for the length of your career to fully keep your artistic integrity intact?  Is it really that much better to be one of those artists or bands that are only known for one song, or is it better to build a whole catalog you can proudly stand behind that might not be known at all?  One-hit wonders tend to get judged pretty harshly and are often crushed under the weight of constantly trying to find that second hit – but the flipside of that coin is the right hit song can be so financially lucrative that it can often be enough to build a whole career around.  Still…I have to wonder whether or not that would suck all the joy right outta the craft…maybe it’s really better to have no hits than one hit – what do you think you’d prefer and why?  Do you feel like creating a hit song is truly crucial to a music career?  If it’s not, what’s the alternative?  Can you still have a career without really becoming known?

Jeremy:  Being a part time musician (I teach high school science when I’m not writing songs) I can honestly say either option would be fine with me if it allowed me to transition to music full time.  Though I think I would rather have a full catalog that resonated with a smaller group of people than one song that everyone seemed to like but then have most of my other work ignored.  I like to think that my writing is capturing something about the human experience that people can relate to, hopes fears, love, anguish.  My hope is that I have at least a little bit of something that many people can relate to in each of my works.  At the end of the day, I’m really writing songs for myself.  Even if no one listened to them I would still write songs.

SBS:  Alright.  Personal taste.  It’s a weird thing right?  Impossible to predict, isn’t it?  We always talk about A-sides and B-sides when it comes to making music, and I like to believe that albums are generally put together with the artist or band bringing their best (theoretically, the A-sides) to an official release.  But once a song has been put out there into the world, it takes on all kinds of different meanings to every set of individual ears listening, doesn’t it?  For example – I’ve heard plenty of songs on what are considered to be B-side albums, or second songs that came along with a single that I might like even more than an A-side.  On the same side of that coin, just about every artist and band I know of tends to like certain songs they release much more than the ones their fans respond to the most.  So…I guess the question is…is there really such a thing as an A-side or a B-side to begin with?  What’s the point in worrying too much if everyone out there will draw to their own conclusions about what they like anyhow?  Should we just put absolutely everything we make out there online & let people be the judge?  When we label something as an A-side or a B-side, doesn’t that somewhat limit the listener’s objective ability to assess how they feel about a song on their own?  Who really decides what’s an A-side or a B?

Jeremy:  I’m a firm believer that the art is subjective and that however people interpret something is valid to them.  There are plenty of songs that I think no one else will like this, but I do so I’m going to put it out there anyway and then I later find out that was someone’s favorite.  I think that as artists we are just as likely to have our own favorites but no matter what our personal opinions are, other people are going to like what they like.  In the modern world of streaming and digital downloads I don’t really spend much time thinking about A sides and B sides (although I’m old enough to understand the reference 😉 ).  To me unfortunately it’s just a matter of having the funds to record and produce a song, so I have to limit it to what I think is my best work and who knows if that’s what other people would agree with.  I could be sitting on a song that other people would love but I don’t have the money to record it because I think I have three other songs that are better and I chose to record those instead.  Hopefully someday I’ll have the income to record and release whatever I want and not have to limit myself.

SBS:  Who’s someone you would be able to pinpoint as an influence on your music, or who you are as an artist, that even your fan-base might not have expected?  How has that person affected the way you make your music, and do you really feel like the influence ends up showing up in your sound, or not?  Maybe it’s something they said, maybe it’s something they did, maybe it’s something they accomplished that you hope to as well someday…maybe they’re simply iconic, or have become legendary.  Tell us why this particular inspiration matters to you & how they made an impact on how you view the art of music.

Jeremy:  I grew up listening to Punk (as I’m sure you can tell from my first album even though my current release/s are more Alterative or Indie) but I remember listening to “Chesterfield King” by Jawbreaker and just being able to see the song like it was happening in front of me.  Then when Jets To Brazil released Orange Rhyming Dictionary, I was transfixed by those lyrics and so to me Blake Schwarzenbach is one of my favorite artists and I try to emulate his lyric style with both poetry and abstract concepts as well as visceral and here and now specificity.  I think it’s a winning combination and that level of songwriting is what I aspire to.  As far as music and instrumentation, I’ve fallen in love with Michigander.  I recently reached out to him on social media and told him straight up that his (Jason Singer) music is what I’m trying to create when I write music.  To me it’s like having a box of crayons and looking at the Mona Lisa and trying to put that on paper.  I can never quite get there but that’s what I was trying to do.

SBS:  I’m going with a motto of being unafraid to fail this year, because I think even though I’ve failed in so many things that I’ve tried, maybe I still haven’t failed enough to have learned to not be so afraid of it yet, you know what I mean?  We can learn so much by failing…by trying different things…by stretching outside of our comfort zones – and heck, we don’t even know if we can find success at all unless we’re really willing to see what we’re capable of, right?  So let’s ask you this – what do you consider to be your biggest failure with your music to-date, and ultimately, how did that experience actually end up helping you later on?  What did you learn from whatever mistake you made & how did it assist your evolution?

Jeremy:  This is a great question and it’s also my goal for the year.  Not being afraid to fail is one of those things I’m trying to cut out of myself because failing is exactly what leads to success.  I think the thing I’ve learned about the music industry is that despite being all about art, it is a business and just like any other business it takes investment and promotion.  If I owned a restaurant I wouldn’t expect to be successful unless I advertised and got the word out about what I have to offer.  Similarly releasing music even good music can be daunting because there is so much released every day.  It’s impossible for people to listen to it all.  I used to believe that if I put out good music then magically it would just get shared and people would find it, but the truth of the matter is it takes investment and promotion and that costs money.  Younger me would have thought this attitude was jaded, but now I realize that’s actually how it’s always been.  The big record labels used to pay radio stations to play their songs so the only difference is, as an independent artist, I have to come up with that money myself.

SBS:  As I always like to remind people participating in our interviews, there is no such thing as an interview that has ever covered everything that someone would want to talk about, this one included.  We cover that here at sleepingbagstudios by offering you the ‘open floor’ at the end…a space where you can talk about anything else you want to.  You can mention anything we didn’t bring up.  You can talk politics if you want to.  You can swear.  You can tell us which websites we should go to in order to listen to your music.  You can tell us your favorite movie if you like.  Heck, you can full-on repeat yourself and say something you’ve already said if you feel so inclined – it’s YOUR space to say whatever YOU would want to say to the people out there, completely free of our influence on the conversation…all I suggest is that you take it for a ride and make good use out of it.  Thank you so much for talkin’ tunes with us!!!

Jeremy:  I think I’d like to take this space to just remind readers how important they are in the chain of success for independent musicians.  If you hear something you like, make sure to share it with your friends.  Make a post on social media, come see a live show or buy a t-shirt.  Releasing music isn’t possible without the support of other people who appreciate what you’re doing.  So a big thank you to anyone who’s reading this and giving my songs a listen.  You can find me on all the social media (except X) like Facebook.com/falterboy or Instagram @falterboy and I have a website where I post upcoming shows and have a link to buy merch www.falterboy.com and you can listen to me on Spotify and Bandcamp.  I also want to extend a heartfelt thank you for your previous review of my first album 10 years ago.  It’s been great talking to you again.  Thanks.

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