Q&A: Laney Jones is “Another Rolling Stone”
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY FAITH HOCHGESANG ☆
Photo by Nicole Miller
“A ROLLING STONE GATHERS NO MOSS,” THE ANCIENT PROVERB FIRST COINED BY PUBLILIUS SYRUS, IS APPLICABLE TO THE LIFESTYLE OF “ANY LIVE PERFORMING ARTIST” IN THE EXPERIENCE OF LANEY JONES.
On July 11, Laney Jones and the Spirits released their latest single, “Another Rolling Stone,” which captures their enthusiastic take on near-full-time traveling as musicians. The single provides a palpable live feel, with a driving and fuzzy lead guitar, a subdued bass line, and steady drums with fills accentuating Jones’s Adrianne-Lenker-level vocals. Lyrically, Jones is spunky with a country flair, appealing to her Nashville rock roots while also cementing herself in versatility with the song’s titular theme.
At the end of their first national headlining tour, with Laney on lead vocals and guitar, her husband Brian Dowd on drums, and their friends Glen Hruska on bass and Carson Lystad on guitar, the band has been brought together by a momentum toward redefining what it means to be meaningful, through an excitement towards their budding group sound, and with a renewed confidence in the adoration of their fans from connections made on the road.
Jones brings an ardor to all her art, with purpose and personality at the forefront of her impression. She hopes to release another record in the early months of next year, with a tour to follow, although new music has yet to be officially announced.
Read on for Jones’s outlook on touring, joy despite depression, harnessing what it is to succeed, and how cinema informs her music and creative mindframe.
Photo by Nicole Miller
LUNA: Laney Jones, thank you for taking the time to speak with The Luna Collective! On July 11, you released your latest single, “Another Rolling Stone.” Congratulations! For readers who haven’t listened yet, how would you sonically describe it?
JONES: Oh, what a question. I would say maybe it feels like “Fight Club,” just in the sense that sometimes it might come up a little too close, sonically, like my voice is up front, the guitars are up front, things are right in your face. I feel like in this modern pop world, people sometimes aren't used to listening to things that aren't so compressed. It just kind of feels like you're looking at somebody's pores or looking at film. But if you can get over that, I feel like it's a real ride. And it's kind of grimy, too. So, like “Fight Club.”
LUNA: I love that. That's so cool. That's the most creative way somebody's described something so far. I love that. Tell me more about the meaning behind its titular and most-repeated line: “I wanna be another rolling stone.”
JONES: The life of music that I do is a mix of a life of being a gypsy, just in the sense that we're rolling around to a lot of different places, and we get to see so many … you walk through so many different doors. Sometimes we'll play events for uber rich people and they'll be schmoozing us, and giving us samples of things, different liqueurs or whatever. And it feels fun. It feels great. But then also, we'll be hanging out at a dive bar, and bopping with those cats and feeling probably way more at home in that world. There's the term that’s so funny, “Rolling Stone,” it's been a term that I feel like is, Oh, you mean the band Rolling Stones, or there's the magazine and there's a Bob Dylan song. But the term has come long before any of that stuff. There's a line: a rolling stone gathers no moss. To me, it's more of this kind of lifestyle that when you tour and you're a musician, or any live performing artist, in a way where you travel to some town, you really are a rolling stone. I think it's more about not getting stuck in your your own world and frame of mind. So you are almost forever young in some instances, if you see it that way. Just even walking around in LA today, I live in Nashville, and I come from a small town in Florida, and just walking around and seeing: there's a nail salon and there's a dog sitting next to the lady getting their nails done. There's a lady who yelled like a pool screen doll in real clarity, she's got disabilities, and I can't be coming down here every day, and it was just straight and just, Man, this is a snippet that I would never see if I wasn't staying at a hotel in downtown LA and meeting up to do an interview. There's something in that the term Americana gets thrown around a lot, in all different ways, whether it's Americana music, or even, I think Machine Gun Kelly just did an album and had Bob Dylan narrate the trailer. At this level, I do feel like we're truly seeing everything that this country is going through. It's just an interesting cat bird scene, you know?
LUNA: Before “Another Rolling Stone,” you released a four-track EP with OurVinyl in May. How would you say “Another Rolling Stone” both builds off of that release and diverges creatively?
JONES: So actually, we had “Another Rolling Stone” recorded already before we recorded the OurVinyl and released it. The OurVinyl session was a fully live session that we were in a boxing ring for. We wrote half of those songs that we played on that, like “Bitch Year” and “Knowme,” both of those songs we wrote this year, before going into the ring. The only time we had played them as a band before was when we got studio time in January, so that's when we had been finishing our record. We're kind of just pushing it a song out there at a time, just to see how far can we keep pushing. Even for us, those songs that we did live were the first time we ever performed them in front of people, just camera people. We've been on tour for four weeks right now, and it's a long time, but especially at our level, it's just us four in a van, right? But I was just now listening back to some of those songs that were recorded for the record. Man, they kind of feel like demos now, even though they're good. The hardest thing about putting out a record, and I think it should be, is the balance of having a recording that feels like this is the true essence of it, right? Versus, Yo, this feels like we're still not messing with it. Sometimes it can be the difference between what you think is a great song, or a freaking great smash hit song. So JT, James Taylor, he was originally signed to Apple Records, you know, The Beatles. And he actually had, I think it was “Fire and Rain,” and some of those recordings with Apple Records, but the recordings are more crazily produced. It's very Beatles. But these songs didn’t pass the sniff test. They weren't even singles. They became rerecorded and now that's the thing that's paying all his bills you know? So it is kind of crazy that sometimes it's not an instantaneous thing. You're kind of always digging, searching for gold, and sifting through and, yeah, I think that's what art is. And I think it's just harder for artists to art in this modern way we're all set up, just because it's hard to get people's attention in the first place. But the thing is, you can't be afraid to fail. I think I've been afraid to fail for a little bit. That's why I had slower stand-between songs and records and getting stuff out. But I think I'm learning to be excited about failure and just keep knowing that nothing really defines you, and just keep doing the thing that you know you're meant to be doing, and don't feel so personally attacked or weigh on your self worth if it didn't get you to where you dream or expect or want. It's just a lifestyle, “Another Rolling Stone.”
LUNA: There you go, full circle. Does this single feel more like its own project, or will it become part of the momentum towards a larger body of work, like an album?
JONES: Oh yeah, for sure. Well, it's been really cool, my last record, the process was me being a singer songwriter sitting on the couch with my acoustic guitar and man, I went deep with some of that songwriting. It's very cinematic, and so it's not something that I can pull off in this part of my career in a meaningful way. I love it, it's got all these really rich sounds, and maybe someone more creative than I could pull it off, but it doesn't feel as visceral as where I am now. I have a real sense of urgency these days, because me and my husband, we really want to do music for our life, and it makes sense. And we met doing music, that's our combined dream. But it doesn't mean it's not taxing. It's still a dream that we're still chasing. It feels like we're getting closer and closer, and this next record is a pretty rock and roll record. All the songs that we have so far for it have all been pretty much our live band that we've been playing with for the past year and a half. So it's fresh. All the things are fresh. It's never really happened where the sound on the recording is what we're doing live here, and that to me, makes me really excited, because I feel like we're finally figuring out, like, Yo, this is us.
LUNA: That's crazy. So you're talking about making it. What would that look like for you?
JONES: Well, I think being able to make a living makes sense. And by making sense, just being able to be on tour, and we're making some money, and not losing money. And that's not the case all the time. Man, we played this awesome Pickathon festival and it was great. We crushed it, and a lot of people saw us, we got paid, and they treated us super well. It was so cool. But then sometimes we have to play Spokane on a Sunday night, and still, there's a solid show, but it's not sold out and it's still a lot of work. You make certain sacrifices. Because we're just getting out there, going to the festival, and we want to drive there and get close as a band. I feel like it was a real growing point for us as a band, because we've been in the trenches together. So I don't regret it, I’m actually really stoked, because now we've been together for four weeks, seeing our faces, and waking up in the morning, sleeping in the same rooms, sharing rooms and couches and whatever, and boring each other and we're all still nice to each other. To me, that's exciting, because that just means we're getting to trust each other more in a deeper way. So I feel like this next record is kind of a launching pad. Music that feels more visceral and more exciting and fun for us.
LUNA: That’s really important. So I know you've already mentioned Nashville. I’m curious how it has influenced your perception of what it means to front a rock and roll band as well as your approach to artistry and performance?
JONES: Whoa, what a question. I think Nashville has definitely been a place that makes you level up your professionalism. All of us who are in the band have toured with other people and on some bigger levels, like my husband Brian used to play at amphitheaters with country musicians and stuff. And I think because we're so spoiled in Nashville too, with so many great musicians and artists playing, there's a certain level of showing up for something. I don't really ever phone it in, not that anybody does, but when you're called for duty, you must raise the bar. I know I can show up for the throwdown. We did this opening tour two months ago now, but we actually had a show at the Troubadour here. It was sold out. We did seven days opening for this band, Mirador, which is Greta Van Fleet’s like super fan offshoot. One of the brothers, Jake who plays guitar, it’s his project. All sold out shows. And we're the sole opener. And I was like, Yo, this is crazy, but am I gonna get intimidated? No, I'm just gonna freaking live this up. Let's kick some ass. It just felt so fun to be ready for it. When you're on stage and there's an audience, it's like a mirror, you know. You give stuff, and then if people are giving it back to you, then it fuels you even more. And then it just gets crazy and crazier.
LUNA: That's so fun. I'm glad you had that experience.
JONES: Oh yeah, it was great. But that's why I feel like in Nashville, you better be able to do that or what are you doing?
LUNA: You’re approaching the end of your first national headlining tour! What have you been learning and enjoying most on the road and from your audience, and what will you take with you moving forward?
JONES: Oh, that's so great, wow. Well, I kind of touched on it a little bit already, which is saying how deep I feel like as a band going through the trenches and just being able to really trust each other and hear each other night after night and by playing a similar set of songs, we've just gotten… It's like a piece of fabric, or like a painting: every night we're playing a set, we're making a painting, and when you first give it a try, you have this amount of time and you paint, and it's an exhibit, but the detail is not quite there, but the next night, your brain knows how to make these shapes so that then you can do more detail. You start getting closer and closer to more detailed work every time you do it, and it's exciting to see how other people's brains work in that setting. The only way you can do that is by doing it. But it was really cool that every show we played, like literally every show, there was at least one person there that traveled at least three hours to get there.
LUNA: Awesome.
JONES: We've gotten different gifts, some chocolate or champagne, and people have just been really sweet. It fills me with excitement and joy, because I was really nervous before this tour, and a little bit depressed. Honestly, it sounds weird because you should be happy to go on tour and stuff like that. We just got off this tour where we opened up for all these people, and that really felt like a freaking dream. And then the whole month that we had off between that, and then going on this, I was just doing work. Getting all the things ready for this and I didn’t really feel like I had a break. I was like, Oh man, are these not gonna be meaningful, or like, Are people gonna be there? But the thing is, it's actually been even more meaningful, and in such a deeper way. I've heard people say I’ve made them cry. I think there’s something that we're doing that is resonating with people, and it fuels me to keep going.
LUNA: I’m so happy for you. That's so special.
JONES: Yeah, it’s a ride.
LUNA: What’s on the horizon for Laney Jones and the Spirits?
JONES: We definitely have been working on a record. We are gonna release a couple more of those songs off of that this year. So be on the lookout for that. I'm really stoked to share them. So just kind of finishing up that, I really want to get a record out early next year, and also, we're doing a few more opening dates. So really stoked for that. We get to share the music with more people, and just keep scratching away, keep writing songs and going deeper.
LUNA: So “Another Rolling Stone” is going to be on that next record.
JONES: Yeah, absolutely.
LUNA: What do you love to do when you’re not making music?
JONES: For me and Brian, we always love playing basketball. We’ll play one on one against each other, and it's been so cool because I feel like I'm getting better at basketball all the time. My dream is to dunk one day. I don't think it will ever happen. It could. I’ve had two knee surgeries in the past two years. I love hanging out with my dog, I love watching movies. The band, I would say we're cinephiles. Sleeping is awesome. Recently I've been playing some Zelda. I love drawing. I do all my own designs, like art stuff, I hand-press my t-shirts. Oh man, if collecting hobbies was a hobby, that would be my hobby. There's so many things I want to do if I could just find the time, like gardening, recording, mixing, all that stuff.
LUNA: Is there anything else you want to speak more on or introduce before we close?
JONES: Dude, I blabbered on, I don’t even know [both laugh].
