A Conversation with Jon McLaughlin – HuffPost 5.18.12
Mike Ragogna: Jon, your new album Promising Promises is basically a reworking ofForever If Ever, right?
Jon McLaughlin: I made Forever If Ever last summer, 2011. I was actually in between labels at the time so I made the record, I self-produced it, recorded it at home in Indiana, and put it out independently. It got into the hands of Razor & Tie and they said, “We really love the album, we’re big fans of it, and we want to sign you to our label.” I signed with them but I didn’t want to record a new record with them, so we were stuck with them wanting a new record but I had just put Forever If Ever out. I didn’t want to kill it and put anything new out so we decided that what we’d do is take Forever If Ever down and I already had a bunch of new songs. We picked three new songs and put those on, took a couple songs off, put Sara Bareilles on as a duet on “Summer Is Over,” did a bunch of repackaging, did a new photo shoot, made a new video, all that kind of stuff. Promising Promises is like a new and improved Forever If Ever.
MR: Nice. And your duet with Sara became a video.
JM: Yeah, we shot a video out in LA for “Summer Is Over” and we shot it all over the place. We drove all over LA getting a bunch of flashback footage of the summer–you have to see the video for this to make sense. Then we ended up going way outside of town and we shot in this compound that had this one amazing-looking tree that has been used for tons of stuff. Skittles uses it for their commercials, I think it was The Lovely Bones tree in that movie. The most famous thing in the video is the tree, actually.
MR: Nice, the star of the video is the tree.
JM: Right. But it was the most fun I’ve ever had doing a music video, for sure.
MR: Signing with a new label and coming from working the latest project independently, in retrospect, what were some of the hardest elements of being your own promoter, your own label, etc.?
JM: I used to be signed to Island Def Jam. I was signed to them for almost six years. The music business went through a lot of changes during those 5-6 years. The (people) I was working with in 2005 when I was signed looked nothing like the (people) I was working with in 2011 when we decided to part ways. My time when I was independent was actually amazing. I was at a point as an artist where I really knew exactly what I wanted to do. I felt really strongly about the songs I was writing and I really wanted to do it a certain way. Being independent definitely has its pros. One of them was being able to do whatever I wanted to do. It was a little bit scary, though, at the same time, because everything falls on your shoulders. You don’t have a label writing the checks, you don’t have $100,000 marketing budget to make the video. But honestly I loved it. The thing I loved about Razor & Tie is it doesn’t feel like I’m changing the game to sign with a label again. It feels like Razor & Tie is helping me eliminate the con while at the same time keeping all the good aspects of being independent.
MR: Well, there’s social media, etc. that are also involved, and that can be challenging for many artists to get their hands around. Were there other challenges being independent?
JM: Typically, it comes down to the promotional side of things, the money thing. If you have endless amounts of cash, you can hire a big time publicist to get you out there. But a label having some money can help you get your space and get your name out there and you can use their connections to get on great TV shows and all that kind of stuff. There’s definitely an advantage to that for sure.
MR: Which trackss do you think are going to get the biggest attention, and what’s your favorite?
JM: Obviously, “Summer’s Over” is probably #1 because of the fact that I was able to get my buddy Sara to sing on it. She just killed it and brings the song a whole new life. That’s #1. If I had to pick a favorite, it’s tough to pick amongst your songs, but there’s a song called “If Only I” on the record.
MR: Mine too.
JM: Yeah that’s one of my favorite songs of any song that I’ve ever written and I think a lot of that has to do with the process that my band and I went through when we recorded it. It was very different, and this gets a little geeky, but the way we recorded it was different. We had multiple drum sets going on at the same time and it’s a long builder. It’s a very mood-setting kind of song. I’m excited to play that one live because in the right room with the right crowd, it could be a real moment.
MR: And there’s “Your Never Know,” as in you never know what you have ’til it’s gone.
JM: Yeah, very true. That’s a song that’s pretty straight ahead. We’ve rehearsed that song one time so far. It’s one of those songs that just comes out so easily, we don’t have to work at it. I know it’s going to change on the road, but it’s already feeling really good.
MR: Another one of your new songs is the title track, “Promising Promises.”
JM: Yeah, “Promising Promises” is going to be one of those songs that I know will be playing from here on out. It’s one of those songs where we build the set list around it. I can already tell it’s going to be a staple and I’m going to have to really practice a lot to make sure I can play that piano solo night after night.
MR: I asked you this last time, but what advice might you have for new artists?
JM: I was thinking when you brought up the whole social media aspect, I think that maybe a couple years ago, I felt like if you were signed to a major label, they should have control over a lot of the aspects, like it’s a team effort on all fronts. I don’t feel that way anymore. I always have a lot of people telling me good advice, which, if you’re signed to a major label, is great. If it’s a right fit, that’s great. But always be in the mindset that you’re independent. I think especially when it comes to your social media and whatever avenue you have to have a direct connection to your fans, you need to hold those cards close to your chest and really always be in control of that. Even though now, when times get busy since I’m signed to a label, they’ll help with getting some promotional things out via Facebook and Twitter, I do 99.99% of all the social media stuff because it’s just too much of a personal side of you and it needs to be you.
MR: How do you maintain yours? How do you keep up?
JM: There’s an ebb and flow a little bit, you have to cut yourself some slack sometimes. You can sometimes feel like it takes a certain personality. I’m not a Perez Hilton and don’t have something to say all the time. You really have to view it as an extension of your self. If you want your fans to be connected with you and you connected with your fans, you gotta just let it be organic and treat it as a conversation that’s open. I personally think it’s the greatest thing in the world, the fact that Twitter and Facebook are there and at any moment, anybody anywhere in the world can send me a message and it literally vibrates on my phone, I think it’s awesome. I think it’s great. It really serves me well in my career in a tangible way.
MR: What’s touring going to be like?
JM: The band will be back together. I did a solo tour last year, which I really like but I’m excited to get the band together and put on a proper show to represent the music live. That’s what we’re going to do. The record is new, it’s coming out in a couple weeks, and I’m excited to see how the songs evolve once we get out and start playing them live. There are a lot of these songs that we’ve never played before. I know that they’re going to change and morph into something different.
Transcribed by Narayana Windenberger