A Conversation with The Ready Set’s Jordan Witzigreuter – HuffPost 5.22.14
Mike Ragogna: Jordan, your latest album The Bad And The Better was produced by Ian Kirkpatrick. What’s the band’s process in the studio like with him?
Jordan Witzigreuter: My process with Ian is very laid back. I had already finished a lot of the songs before going into the studio with him, so it was a lot of editing and double checking to make sure we agreed that everything was written as cohesively as possible, and honing in on small production things. We wrote and produced couple of songs from scratch as well, so the process really varied on a song-by-song basis. Ian is great at making sure that I don’t get too carried away on one idea, and explore every other possible way of phrasing or delivering something before I commit.
MR: Can you take us on a tour of the album’s material, like what was it like writing the material and do any songs have an unusual or particularly unique origin?
JW: I wrote a bunch of songs — 70 or so — over the past two years, and only a few of those 70 were even considered for this album. I tend to like a song when I finish it, give it a week, and then I’m over it, so the ones that made the cut were the ones I still felt passionately about. The album is about 40% of those songs, and 60% songs I wrote in the studio while recording. As far as origin goes, I actually finished the song “Fangz” quite a while after the album was finished, and I didn’t know if I planned on using it as a TRS song or as something to pitch to someone else. When I switched labels, from Warner Brothers to Razor & Tie, I had to chance to change things, add songs, and go back through the music to make sure the album was what I wanted it to be. I remembered Fangz and thought “this song is kind of weird for me, and I know there would be no way it would have been approved before, but I don’t have to worry about that now”. I recorded and produced it myself at my place in LA instead of at a studio. It was strangely liberating to just make a decision like that without having to get approval from 100 different people. At the end of the day, I think my fans will like it, so it makes sense to me.
MR: Do you have a favorite cut among the tracks, which is it and why does it resonate with you?
JW: My favorite song is “Are We Happy Now?” It’s about me chasing these external forms of validation for happiness — crowd sizes, song sales, chart position, radio play, etc., etc. Those are all really important things of course, but when you’re someone who has always been very goal-oriented, those things can become huge weights, especially if they don’t live up to your hopes and expectations. It reached a point where even if something amazing happened, I would be too caught up in worrying about next step toward reaching an “ultimate goal” to even appreciate it. The craziest part is that chances are, that goal would shift to something else as soon as it was obtained. In the simplest sense, it’s about stopping to smell the flowers. The present moment is where you find happiness, because that’s all we actually have, and it is amazing. The future is always going to be the future.
MR: What is it about the themes within The Bad And The Better that you can relate to the most?
JW: The best way for me to describe the overall theme within The Bad And The Better is to explain why I named the album that. The Bad And The Better symbolizes perspective. There is an inherent element of bad in every good, and of good in every bad. It’s all in the way you choose to see it. The idea of that comes through in some of the songs, like “Higher,” “Are We Happy Now,” “Bleeding,” etc.. When I was writing the album, perspective and my decision of how to interpret things shaped a huge turning point for me as a person.
MR: When you look back at the guy whose band had a hit with I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming five years ago, what are some of the biggest challenges and biggest evolution you’ve had since then?
JW: I feel like I learned how to write songs again. I had a loose grasp of how to write a song five years ago. Now I am more confident, but I’m still learning. I got to write with incredible people, like JR Rotem, RedOne, some of RX Songs camp, and a ton of others. Every session i would go into would feel like class for me. I started touring straight out of high school and didn’t go to college, but after spending all that time working with incredible people, I feel like I attended some kind of “real-world-experience-songwriting-college”. I’m really lucky I was able to do that — it taught me how to trim the fat on songs, how to make the best parts stand out, and really edit myself while I write and work on tracks.
MR: What are a couple of your favorite moments of The Ready Set journey so far?
JW: My favorite moment of all was probably the first time playing at an arena. it was a radio festival in Minneapolis, it was sold out at 14,000. We opened the show, but had never played to more than 2,000 people up until that point. The funny thing is that I had no idea it was even that big of a show, like I didn’t put it in perspective until I walked out on stage. 2 years prior I was playing to 50 people. I felt really lucky. Another awesome moment was getting to play in Manila–I had no idea I had fans overseas, let alone ones as passionate as them. You really feel a lot of love in other countries.
MR: You went on tour with Maroon 5 and other major acts which initially got you big visibility. Do you return the favor and try to help out bands or acts that are just starting out?
JW: I love bringing smaller bands on tour. The first time I got to be a part of a real tour was with Boys Like Girls headlining. They treated us so incredibly well–their crew helped us with gear, their sound guy ran sound for us, and they definitely didn’t have to do those things. I always hope that after a band tours with us they feel that we treated them well. It’s not as common as you might think, but it really does go a long way to be as nice to everyone on the road as possible. When you treat people poorly, word spreads like wildfire.
MR: Jordan, what advice do you have for new artists?
JW: Put 100% of your energy into making it happen for you. Ignore all naysayers, spend all your time on your art, and fully devote yourself to it. Have a plan and a goal in sight, and do everything you can to convince yourself of it’s reality. Don’t worry about how you will make it out of your current circumstance to succeed, just do everything you can where you are at that time to get yourself closer to where you want to be. It’s always a step-by-step process. Don’t get caught up in let downs or failures, everything is part of the journey. The seemingly worst situations make the best stories down the road, usually!
MR: What musical or creative goals do you have for The Ready Set?
JW: I actually have just started getting really excited about the idea of starting the writing process for the next album. I have a lot of things I want to do, and I think the door is really open for me right now. I have an amazing team with my management and new label Razor & Tie, and I think creatively, everybody is truly on the same page in a big way. My goal has always been pretty simple–put out music I love, play that music for as many people as I can, and maintain the same excitement and passion I felt when I started this. Right now I am pretty excited.