An Interview With The Promising Musician, JAEGER WELLS on Making Thoughtful Music and More! !

Jaeger Wells is a talented musician gearing up to release his debut EP (produced by The Early November’s Ace Enders) and is eager to share his first single with fans!

That song is “What It Feels Like” and it perfectly showcases Jaeger’s knack for channeling heavy subject matter into an upbeat and positive tune.

“I initially wrote the song about one of my friends believing their significant other was cheating on them – however I think it grew into something more than that,” says the songwriter. “It is about paranoia and the ever surmounting fear of anxiety that the worst is always just around the corner.”

Watch the new video for “What It Feels Like” through Vevo – http://www.vevo.com/watch/QMGR31526010

Learn more about this promising singer-songwriter in the following All Access interview:

Thanks for your time! Besides this interview, what else do you have on tap today?

Thank you guys for having me! Today is a great day as I am finally finishing up the new guitar I am building. This is my first time building a guitar from scratch and it’s been an extremely rewarding experience.

Can you remember your earliest musical memory? Have you always wanted to be a performer?

Music has always been a part of my life. My parents were constantly playing music in the house, most of the time they would have the TV on with the sound down while we listened to their record collection. Needless to say, I now have some off the wall musical associations with certain TV shows we would all watch as a family.

I think at the heart of it, I have always wanted to be a performer in one way or another. I started doing musical theater when I was about 6 and my major focus on music really started coming around the time I was in middle school.

Generally, where do you get the inspiration for your music?

When I was younger I used my inspiration to bluntly tell the truth and leave it all out on the line. Over the years, I have been more inspired to write about what I see happening in the world around me – it makes for better storytelling behind the music.

What does it feel like to finally release your debut single “What It Feels Like”?

It feels fantastic. I’ve been working on this song for a while and it makes me so proud that we were able to capture the sounds I had envisioned for quite some time.

Can you talk about the song’s video? How creatively involved were you in the making of it? Where was it filmed?

The video was shot over the course of three very sweaty days in the desert just outside of Phoenix. We worked very closely with director Justin Kroger to create the concept. The actress, Hannah Walker did a phenomenal job capturing the subtle nuances of what we wanted to visualize with the song. Overall, we had a lot of fun with the video. It was a small, intimate production that came together quite nicely and we had a lot of fun.

When do you hope to release your debut EP? How will the songs on it flow with “What It Feels Like”?

Our EP will be out before the end of the year, and we’re excited to share what’s to come!  The other songs exude more of the same message that you hear in “What it Feels Like” – a quiet, positive determination to get past the turbulence and big changes we experience in life.

What artists have consistently inspired you and your music? Who would you love to work with in the future?

I think the best inspiration comes from the artists whose music really embodies you as a person. That being said, I’ve always found a lot of inspiration from the first couple of Barenaked Ladies albums because they are so poppy and catchy yet deal with very dark, cynical lyrics. That is a relationship that has always really struck a chord with my personality. I always feel really inspired by Ben Folds as well. He is another one of those artists who have these songs that teeter on the the edge of going completely off the rails.

Jeff Rosenstock (Bomb The Music Industry!, Antarctigo Vespucci) or Dan “Soupy” Campbell (The Wonder Years, Aaron West & The Roaring Twenties) are two of the artists that I would absolutely love to work with. Jeff has got to be one of the hardest working people in the music industry and I am a big admirer of his brilliant, mad scientist production in his own work and others. I would love to work with Soupy because I think he is one of the best songwriters of our generation. His confessional, storytelling approach to songwriting consistently leaves me in a state of awe.

What’s been the most surprising thing to you about the music industry?

Hands down the grotesque amount of sexism that occurs on a daily basis in the industry. It is unfathomable that people don’t get treated as such, when music is one of the few innate things in the universe that creates a community. Treating people like they are objects or inferior goes against the very core of what music is about. I do think that there are some phenomenal leaders like Jessica Hopper from Pitchfork who have the guts to publicly say “hey, this is what is happening, and this isn’t right. We need to fix this.” – but we need more advocates in all facets of the industry to help eradicate this issue.

I understand that you have already released some music  as a solo act and now you have a new full band sound. Can you talk about the change?

Yes!  For me, being a solo act allowed me to develop an identity and really help me understand who I am as a person. I think in order to really find yourself you really have to strip away layers and focus on the raw, core of a person. After really understanding that, it felt like it was time to expand my singular message into a collective voice. With the full band sound I feel like it has been an evolution to being receptive to more diverse musical arrangements but also adding more descriptive subtext that is hard to communicate as a solo act.

What do you hope listeners take away from your music? Is there a message you hope reaches them?

When big changes are on the horizon, your mind is going to be in complete disarray as you try to search for the resolution – and that is okay.  Ultimately, I want people to embrace the internal chaos and trust that while things may not always work out in their favor, it will work out.

Jaeger Wells Online:

https://www.facebook.com/jaegerwellsmusic
https://soundcloud.com/jaegerwells
https://instagram.com/jaegerwells
https://twitter.com/jaegerwells