By Zac Taylor
Managing Editor
Zac Taylor: When you heard the big news that you got signed to a record label, what did you think?
Jordan Tarrant: Actually, the way it worked was I was offered an opportunity to write and record a song for this independent label called Cardinal’s Zen, my friend Evelyn [Brown]’s dad’s label. He came and asked the choir director at our high school if he knew any bands that he could put on his Christmas compilation. It was called ‘An Austin Double Wide Christmas.’ There are some other skeezy bands on there, too. Ha. But anyway, I came in with my band and he liked what we were doing and he asked us to write a Christmas song. We were all sophomores in high school at the time. And once I did that with him, I kind of just kept hanging around his house, where he would engineer and mix everything, and I would just hang out and watch him record, help him record, and I would bring my songs in to him, and he dug what I was doing. But he’s a music producer, he knows what’s going on. And he would just rip my songs in half every single time I would bring one in. It took me a while to get used to a healthy level of detachment, because it was so emotionally painful every time to hear so bluntly with such disregard for anyone’s sensible emotions to take the criticism. He definitely critiqued my songs into a place where they were more concise and focused than they were beforehand. I just absorbed as much as I could since I was 16, and I’m 23 now. He’s been developing me as an artist for so long, it’s kind of like why wouldn’t I be on his label, you know? It’s called Tono Music Group now, which is short for Toby and Norman’s music group.
ZT: I was actually talking about Heavy Rotations…
JT: Oh, Really? I had no idea. Well from what I understand, they had a lot of people that were doing really mellow singer-songwriter sort of stuff, and part of the reason they dug my tracks was that they were up-tempo balls-to-the-wall rock and roll songs. And the songs are pretty shallow. Feel free to print that. They really are. I was so afraid I wasn’t going to be able to perform at the BPC for my last year, and I was thinking ‘If I don’t get to perform at the BPC, I’m going to regret it for the rest of my life.’ So I was just super stoked when we found out that we actually got on the bill and that Heavy Rotations chose us. What’s it going to be called? It’s not going to be called Dorm Sessions is it?
ZT: Dorm Sessions 7. Clever name, right?
JT: But the thing about calling it Dorm Sessions, is that I don’t live in the dorms! No one in my band lives in the dorms!
ZT: Is it under Jordan Tarrant or Jordan Tarrant & 10,000 Volts?
JT: Just Jordan Tarrant for right now. I figured for myself, before I get involved with a label, it would be best to promote my name and get it out there. When we put out an official release with Tono Music Group, it will be under 10,000 Volts, if we decide to keep that name. But not Jordan Tarrant.
ZT: When you heard you were opening for Pat Green at the House of Blues, did you freak out?
JT: When Tommy Bohlen told me the other day, I was just sitting at home watching the news or something and I was just floored.
ZT: So is there any way you’re going to leverage the Heavy Rotation show and the Pat Green gig into some serious momentum for you?
JT: What I’m doing now is working with a current Berklee graduate named Matt McArthur and MP&E faculty Susan Rogers, and they’re digging what we’re doing, and what Russell Lacy and Tamsin Wilson are doing, and what we’re doing at Monkey Rock. They’re super supportive. Matt caught wind of a recording I did with Catherine Wilson for her MP&E project last semester and he really dug the song and wanted a chance to record it himself. It’s called ‘Don’t Love Me,’ it’s kind of a ballady woe-is-me sort of song. He really dug it and wanted to record it. What we’re going to do is do it as quickly as possible and as well as possible and create an online viral marketing campaign to support concert attendance at the March 5th date. The March 5th Date. The March 5th date.
ZT: I’m sorry, when was that show?
JT: It’s on March 5th. House of Blues. Landsdowne Street. So that’s what we’re doing to get ready for that. I’m working with the band right now: Russell Lacy on guitar, Curran McDowell on drums, and Derek McWilliams on bass. And they are some mean monsters. It sounds like Keith Richards from 1975, Charlie Watts, and the mother of all bass players, whoever that might be. Everyone sounds great.
ZT: Are you playing both acoustic and electric guitar?
JT: I’ve decided I need to do acoustic. I’ve started to look at the guitar playing as more of an extension of the drum section, and kind of a musical high hat sort of thing. I think it makes a lot more sense for me to be guiding the rhythmic pace of the song. And it lets Russell do his thing, and I’m not stepping on his toes.
ZT: Heading back to Texas when you’re done with Berklee in May?
JT: Yep.
ZT: You’re going to do the Tono Music Group thing and milk it for all it’s worth.
JT: I’m going to milk that cow for all it’s worth.
ZT: Where would you like to see Jordan Tarrant in four years?
JT: On the cover of Rolling Stone!
