Latest / Caught on the Mike... / Stephen Day

Transcript

Stephen Day · Caught on the Mike...

• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Caught on the Mic.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Some artists spend their entire careers chasing a sound.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: Stephen Day spent more than a decade chasing himself.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now, with his self-titled album arriving on October 2nd, he's putting his own name on record for the very first time.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: A statement of confidence, vulnerability, and timeless songwriting.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: Today we're talking about identity, heartbreak, faith, family, and why the best music doesn't imitate it reveals.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: Stephen Day, welcome to the show, my friend.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, I loved that.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's good.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_02: That was good, bro.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: I had put a lot of work into writing these intros.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it warms my heart to hear that.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like uh like a heavyweight boxer.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I need you to come announce me before I go on stage for the shows.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I do uh fight commentary for an MMA promotion here in the Midwest.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know correlation.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'll just become an MMA fighter so I can hear it more often.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_02: Or, you know, through this episode, we become friends, and then if you ever need hyped up, you'd be like, Mike, hype me up, bro.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just or you get random calls from me, be like, man, I'm feeling down and out, brother.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta you gotta give me something.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: It would be my privilege.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get right into it, man.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you've talked about wanting to make a self-titled album since you first picked up a guitar in high school, but you waited more than a decade to do it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: Why was 2026 finally the moment where you felt comfortable putting your own name on the cover?
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was it was something I had always dreamed of doing, honestly.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I a lot of artists have done it in their careers.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, honestly, when I was in high school, like one of my favorite artists, it's it's like his name is Alan Stone.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he's a friend and collaborator these days, which is wild as well.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_01: But back in the day, he was like one of my favorite artists, and that album was the one that sort of brought me into his world.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: And um that like so many artists, you know, do their self-titled album like early on in their career.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_01: And for some reason, like when I started making records, I just started naming them things.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like I didn't start with a self-titled album, and but like it was always something that felt really inspiring to me.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: It was like this person is planting a flag and saying and saying, this is who I am, this is what I do, this is what inspires me.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and then they're sort of just like presenting themselves on a platter to you.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_01: And I felt like it has always been this thing that circled in my mind, and like, oh, maybe I should do this.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, I think the moment just came where the songs and the place I was at in my life almost like said it was time.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like I wasn't really, I didn't want to force it.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: I was very careful about being like, okay, it feels like this might be the time, but um I'm not gonna force it.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: I want the songs to tell me it's the time.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And so to me, it was this moment of I think this group of songs is like such a cool mixture of what I've done up until this point and uh what I'm doing going forward, if that makes sense.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was like this moment of yeah, it was like this moment of being like, I think this is my planting a flag moment, if that makes sense.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, it's funny, you've used that term twice, and I'm sure you saw me freak out the first time you're gonna do it.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_02: Sure, sure, sure.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Because that that is exactly what went through my head when you said planting the flag, because you know, thinking about my own fandom, it's it's like when you see an artist release a self-titled album, you're like, okay, this one they mean business.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Totally.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, was there a certain song that made you say, okay, this one is Stephen Day?
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think honestly, there's a song on the album called Mama I Found Your Guitar.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I was a lot of the songs, just like before I even get into this story, a lot of the songs on the record, uh, sort of like what I was saying about up until this point in my career, a lot of people might not know it unless they come to a live show of mine.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_01: But like a lot of songs start on guitar for me.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: And the guitar is like this magical vehicle that I think says, you need to write a song over this.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um and like just like that old saying, like, necessity is the mother of invention.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's like when I feel that way when I'm playing a guitar, it's like I'll start playing something and be like, dang, I gotta write a song today because that needs a song on it.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that kind of happened with Mama I Found Your Guitar.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was playing this lick, and a lot of times I'll like sing certain vowels and words just to see like what fits the puzzle piece that I'm playing.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And Mama I Found Your Guitar came out, and I was just started like, it started just falling onto the page.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: I was just like, this is literally just my origin story.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like that song is basically like, I found your guitar behind your closet door.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: And like it's this whole the whole song is like a very personal like trajectory.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like, okay, this is what started me down this path of doing music and doing this for a living.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when I was a kid, it like looked like, oh man, like in a matter of seconds, I'll be playing stadiums and everybody will be shouting my name.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like, and you do it for a long time and then you you start to like honestly, I never really readjust my the dreams, they're still just as big.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the the the like the way your brain sort of like uh thinks about what you do and how like there's this beautiful youth spirit when you're young of like, dude, I can do anything.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: And as you as you keep doing it, you're like, man, like is this what I'm supposed to be doing?
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, are people resonating with this?
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh am I supposed to be doing something else?
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like, and I think that song for me was like, this is a perfect, perfectly timed uh song that was given to me to I that I definitely think was like, hey, this is this is the moment.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is the song, like this is a song that sort of captures your start, your now, what your future holds.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think that song, I could sing that song forever because it's just like it's me, you know?
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yeah.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_02: I was talking with somebody today and they're like, hey, Mike, how's the podcast going?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Well, it takes 10 years to become an overnight success, you know, and that's a line that I I use a lot and I've heard a lot, but you know, kind of circling back to the mama, I found your guitar point, because I actually made a note to talk about this.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_02: Not only is it an emotional song, but it has a gravitas because of the story behind it.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_02: You discovered your mom's guitar, you recorded that song using the same guitar.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_02: Do you want to tell actually a little bit more the origin story of how that came to be?
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I found my mom's guitar when I was in middle school, and that sort of like started me playing guitar, wanting to learn guitar, honestly, falling in love with the instrument, fall immediately falling in love with songwriting too.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I feel like a lot of people fall in love with guitar and then they're like suddenly shredding and like playing Metallica, playing Metallica, like metal, like there's a lot of that trajectory, at least when I was growing up, it's like if somebody got a guitar, it was like suddenly they're they're like and and that's like so cool.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_01: And like I love that.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: But for me, it was like, oh, this is a way for me to um get to know myself, uh, get to express myself.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: It was a way for me to become an artist.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I didn't know I wanted to be an artist.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_01: I think I always I always liked, like growing up, I always liked doing the different thing than other people did.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like I always loved that feeling.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: But I think I really started to hone that once I started playing guitar because I was like, oh, well, like I want to make this sound, I want to be signature.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like I want to be, I want to make sure I'm doing something that nobody else is doing.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I think when I started playing guitar, I started writing.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um I was basically like grew up in church.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like my dad is a pastor, my mom is a nurse practitioner, and she also sang and played in church.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, I was I was around music all the time in a in a very communal way that uh I think has continued to like exist in what I do.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, I bring people together and I make songs that that brings people together.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And we get to experience this exchange of energy um honestly that I hope is just like of positivity and like joy and a a release and like an escape from uh just like the heaviness of life.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think like guitar and and like learning to play it, learning to write songs over it has just been this constant in my life ever since.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_01: And the funny thing about that song is honestly, this is one of my favorite things about that song, is the the lyric never changes.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: Like Mama, I found your guitar never changes throughout the song, and that's kind of also a real experience because some like me and my mom still kind of pass this guitar back and forth and and like I it kind of shows up in my life when I need it, if that makes sense.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, like I'm getting I'm getting emotional thinking about it, like it's just just this thing that uh I don't know, it just keeps showing up when I need that thing.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, dude, I can empathize with you on the same level, and I'll just kind of lay a quick anecdote for you.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, my dad was a professional musician long, long, long before I was even thought of.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so I similarly to you, I grew up with instruments all over the house.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_02: The thing was is he was so good that he was a horrible teacher.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: He was one of those people that were so talented, he just didn't have the patience to be a teacher.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, of course, as a young kid, I always wanted to take it up.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: So eventually I just kind of got tired of waiting for him to teach me.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_02: I got a chord book and I found my dad's guitar and I started teaching myself.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I would learn three, four chords.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Next thing I know, I'm covering a Beatles song or you know, or writing my own songs.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: So that emotional attachment to your parents' instrument, I get all too well because whether it be my dad's acoustic guitar or he had this old epiphone casino pre-Gibson buyout that was like his pride and joy.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I would sit down with that big old hollow body and and hash out a like I'd learn three chords, and then I'd write a song to those three chords, and you know, that that's how I learned how to write.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, like everything you're talking about ringing so true in my own mind.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, honestly, that is like I've heard other people, like producers that I worked with on the song, they were kind of like, what's this song?
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what is this song?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is this a is this a true story?
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yeah.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: And they're like, dude, this is like this is what happened with me.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's like I think it's just it's just like uh and that goes for like the way I want people to experience my music.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think there's a lot of songwriters today that are very uh almost sort of like diary-driven, like here's my exact, here's what happened exactly with this relationship, and like here's my heart on my sleeve in a way that is like their fans, yes, their fans are receiving the story as they can participate in the story too.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I also think the fans are like, oh, this is your story, and I want to like learn about you.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, I'm like, I consider myself a storyteller and somebody that's curating, uh, like just hoping that people take these songs and they put them with their lives.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_01: They can like, they can like let the song become what they need it to be for them.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man, that's amazing.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that kind of leads into my next question.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_02: One line from your bio that's really jumped out at me was that you said you're finally in a place where you're emulating your heroes instead of imitating them.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_02: That's a hugely honest distinction because I think we've all been in that moment where you're just like, man, am I just aping off of something I've heard before?
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_02: When did you recognize the difference between borrowing inspiration and finding your own artistic voice?
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: That is a great question.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, it's it wasn't until these songs started getting written that I was like, all right, there's something about this that I I and this is also like uh it's a declaration, but it's also just like this hope and this like desire.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_01: It's like this is um I think these songs stood out to me in a way that I was like, I think I'm putting my stamp on these.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like I don't think I'm I don't think this is like music that somebody's gonna hear and be like, oh, this like I I don't think they're gonna be like, this sounds like a ripoff.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think this music I think this music sounds like, oh, I think this, you know, my goal is like, oh, I think this sounds like this style of music, but like this guy's like standing on the shoulders of other artists.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: If that makes sense.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: I think to me, I was like, I I'm trying to do this sort of like soft rock and soul thing where it's like sounds like it's always existed, but at the same time, I'm like, yeah, but this is me saying, give me the torch and let me carry it.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: Like, let me let me let me like participate in the in the like genre building and genre bending of music history.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: I recently I had um Josh Wills from Story of the Year on, and we were talking about this very thing, and we were talking about how certain bands now almost in certain artists now almost create their own genres, like because of the sound that is uniquely theirs.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: I say this on almost every episode of the podcast.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: I think a large large part of that is the very rare silver lining of streaming that people don't adhere to guardrails of genre anymore.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: People listen to music and just experience things as music.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: Do you feel that with what you're doing, you're kind of almost here here's a funny phrase for you you're almost in the hope core era of music where you're you're making something hopeful but also uh insightful and self-reflective at the same time?
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I haven't heard that phrase.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: Hope core?
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: But but I would say yeah.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I think that like I see music as a tool to fight against the heaviness and darkness of life.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: And and I think that I love all kinds of music.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: So like I love a good sad boy, sad girl song just just as much as the rest of them.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: However, and I guess I'm talking about there's like a there's like a certain style of songwriting.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_01: I think what I'm talking about is like I have realized that's not necessarily my bag for how I see myself as an artist.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I think every artist has a right to do whatever style of thing that they want to do.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: For me, it was an it was like an eye-opening revelation over time in the past you know few years.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I think I'm supposed to be doing something that is a little more like joyful, uh, like something that can take somebody through an experience, not just sit with them in it.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: And like one of the songs, Rock Bottom Baby, the first single, was kind of like my attempt at that in just one song.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, this is this is a feeling that I go through in my life of like the ups and downs of life where things can get really heavy, they can get really dark, and you feel like that is not going to ever end.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then there is this like ground floor that you hit at some point that you're like, I think I might be coming out of this.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_01: And that song has this whole, like, even with the chord progression and like the way the changes happen throughout the song, like it doesn't really bust wide open until the bridge, where the and that's when like some other chords start throwing some colors in there.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: But like most of that song is like this rooted bass note that stays the same the whole time while the chords are changing under it.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: And to me, that's just this feeling of like, when is this gonna when I'm when when am I going to find relief?
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: When am I going to like see some light?
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um I think like after the after the bridge happens, like there's this whole part where it's like it's almost like this 70s like outro feeling thing where the the outro refrain is this vocal that's like ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_01: And the lyrics are see the bottom, it's all in the way you see the bottom, it's all in the way you.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, in the way there's ain't nothing below.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_01: See the bottom, it's all in the way you see the bottom, it's all in the way, there ain't nothing below.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like this, like, you could see that both ways still.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: It was like this um that song to me was I was like, man, I can like I can like take this on the road, and my hope is that that song just speaks to people where they're at.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And um I hope it is a friend to people that might be struggling or having a crisis, you know.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: I hope it's I hope it's something that people can like just grab on to and be like, man, I've felt this, and uh, it is something that I go through in life.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's like a cycle, like you have ups and downs.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_01: So I just hope it's like something they can come back to.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Very good point there, because music can sometimes say things that regular conversations can't.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_02: And going to the other side of the pendulum, you have a very vulnerable song called Don't Leave Me Like This on the Record that talks about a health scare somebody close to you experienced.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_02: Did writing that song help you personally process the emotions in a way that nothing else could?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Totally, man.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: That song.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_01: The when I wrote that song, the writing of it and I made a demo of it.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_01: There's like an early demo of it, that it all just sort of fell out.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like I basically there was this span of a few months where my wife uh yeah, had a health scare, a cancer scare.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she had like two major surgeries in a span of you know several months.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: And before before the surgery happened, we were getting messaging from doctors like this could be really bad.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: This could be, if this is malignant, like our it would have turned our lives upside down.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm so grateful, like she had the surgery, tumor removed, it was benign, like all things, like I'm just so grateful for that that was the way things turned out.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: But like in reflecting on that time, I had this title idea because it was like it was what I was feeling like.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_01: Don't leave me like this.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: This is just I I had never imagined that.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, it was like I think I was just like, I want to write this song, I want to write this chorus for me so I can go and sing this chorus and like it be the most cathartic therapeutic thing possible.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I want to make this a pop song that somebody could hear and it not be like so specific that they're like, oh, this is you know I don't know.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes when I feel like things get too specific, like you can't put your own story on it.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so I wanted to I wanted to make it this thing that I could, you know, express everything I needed to in a matter of words and melodies that like I I'm such a melody person that like I'm trying to attach this I'm basically burying my soul in melodies just already.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And to to like put those chorus lyrics in there and then sort of like spin the song on its head to where it's like it could be also be this like romantic um experience.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't know, it was just it was just like so it it felt like something I had tapped into before but never like done to that level.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it just felt like vulnerability, like max capacity.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um so uh I feel yeah, that song just like means so much to me.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: Introspection doesn't sound like it's an oddity to you, it sounds very natural uh to you.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: As a matter of fact, there's a note that you kept in the studio that said, In with the old and out with the new.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure that kind of when you go from the depths of a song like Don't Leave Me Like This to Um Back in My Bed and other other tracks on the album.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm sure there's a myriad of emotions that you're feeling, but trying to keep it consistent.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_02: You wanted the record to sound like the records you grew up loving, but somehow make them sound like 2030 instead of 1975.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: How intentional was that philosophy throughout the album, considering the range of emotions?
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_01: That's like always been my goal.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think I live in this space where I'm trying to tell a story and do it in a way that is fresh, but again, like stands on the shoulders of what's come before.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think for me, I'm like there's so much I'm like a music song, music lover, song lover, like all of it.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: So like so many references, so many like sonic textures that I'm like, oh man, if we had this, I think it could make it feel like like not retro, but like who knows what's gonna music's gonna sound like in a few years from now.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: Like I like dreaming like that.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I want to make something that yeah, feels like it's existed forever, but not because it's like dated, because it's like timeless and that it has this ability to like be recognized, but also like push something forward, if that makes sense.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: Perfect sense.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: Perfect sense.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you've now surpassed 200 million streams.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's a lot.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: You've toured with artists, yes, you've toured with artists like Teddy Swims, Alan Stone, Ben Rector, and earned major film sync with the film strays.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: From the outside, people might think that confidence naturally follows success.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_02: Has confidence actually come from accomplishments or from simply becoming more comfortable with yourself in these moments?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I think it's a it's a constant back and forth.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think just like I was talking about with the song Rock Bottom Baby, it's like this, you know, there might be moments where seasons where, like when I was writing this album and like sort of dreaming up this album, I was like, dude, this is next level.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like, this is the future.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then, and then you like finish it and you're like still hyped on it, and then you like I it's funny.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was talking about this with Abby, my wife, the other day.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, people that don't make music or like don't put out music, they don't realize that like there's a whole period of time where artists are sitting on music where like in their heads they're like, oh my god, is this good?
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_01: Is this good enough?
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: Like, am I good enough?
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_01: There's like this whole span of time before the record goes out where they're like second guessing everything.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh I think it's just like I have to continually like center myself and like come back to myself um when I'm when I start spiraling like that.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_01: And um yeah, just make sure like I've got things in place where I'm like making sure my head's on right, you know, and and like making sure I can go out on the road confidently, confidently and be like, no matter how this streams or shakes out, like I love this music and I want to give an amazing show to my fans.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: And that's like what, you know, that's what it's about.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: Do you have moments when you're working with collaborators and they have to reel you back in because you're second-guessing something that you've written?
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like in a writing room, man, it's especially in Nashville, it's like you find people that you trust and you trust their taste, they trust your taste, and there's a lot of chemistry there.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot of like catching flame, if that makes sense.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like there's just like that moment where you you just start working with somebody and you're like, okay, we get the same stuff.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like we like the same stuff.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is great.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Like we're on something.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: And then I I mean at least that's how I feel about writing.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's like you might, you guys might come back to that song another time and be like, yeah, that wasn't it.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: But but like at least for like when you're making it, I think there's a lot of like chemistry-based, like just momentum, you know?
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, yeah.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've had bandmates in the past, one in particular, he's my best friend, actually.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: He would bring a song to the band room, and he'd get the entire band all revved up on it and excited about it, and he'd be like, uh, I don't think I like it.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_02: I want to take that back to my corner, and we'd never hear that idea again.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: And we'd be like, Corey, why did you do that?
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Why would you bring that to the table and get us all excited about it and then pull it off?
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_02: I always like asking little questions like that based on some of the things I've experienced in different writing rooms for sure.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think what people don't realize is like making a song, no matter what it's about, is a very vulnerable experience.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, even if the song is about something not that deep, like there's vulnerability involved in coming up with an idea, sharing the idea, uh, the style of music that you're basically when you put out a song, you're saying, I like this.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, that's like that's super vulnerable.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, for sure.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_02: I love the new single, Back in My Bed.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_02: It feels nostalgic without sounding overly retro.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that is an accomplishment within itself.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_02: It almost feels like you're writing a love letter to the music that first made you fall in love with a guitar.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's my observation.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_02: If 16-year-old Steven heard that song today, what do you think he would say?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, I think he'd it'd be his favorite song.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I really do.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think he'd be like, Man, I gotta learn how to play that.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_01: I like I gotta learn how to play that solo.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm gonna go perform that at the Mexican restaurant up the street where the open mic's happening.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm serious, man.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's what I was up to back then.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: I was just finding these songs that uh I loved and I was just learning them.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I I think there's something about that song that I'm like, man, I hope that song is something new guitar players are like, oh, I can learn that part.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: I can learn that song.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: And um, yeah, that was one of those songs for this record that like I was jamming over that guitar part, and like again, I'm often sort of uh spitting out vowels and words, trying to like puzzle piece the exact feeling that I want to put over um the right guitar part.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, that one, like, I just love that song, man.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: I think the vibe is so sick and it just feels funky and fun in like a in like a I don't know, in like a wistful romantic way.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: I love it.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know, six years ago, John Mayer's last studio album was kind of a tongue-in-cheek, uh, almost like an 80s throwback vibe of like the classic albums of the 80s and such.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_02: And when I've heard the two most recent songs, I think you accomplished the same thing without the sense of irony.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean that in a complimentary way, to where you thank you, man.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_02: Where we're where you get that same nostalgic feeling, like I said, without it sounding overly retro, like you elicit that sincere sense of emotion.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm I'm really, really, really excited to hear the rest of the album.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of which, yes, speaking of which, you are releasing a career-defining album on October 2nd, and then literally the next day you're heading out on a 23-date national tour.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: What excites you more right now is it watching people hear these songs for the first time or getting to play them live every single night?
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I love playing shows.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's like it's the best.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think my favorite part of shows is truly like the community of it.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yeah, since it since I started touring, like I feel like my crowds love to, we just like love to sing these songs together.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like you'll go, some people go to shows and they like watch the performer.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I do think some of it is that, but I also think that like people coming to my shows are like, dude, we're like, we're stoked to sing these songs together as a unit, you know?
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I think for me, it's it's like it's also a part of like this new album.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm pushing myself harder than ever.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I put my everything into singing these vocals, playing these guitar parts.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like it's gonna be, I just think it's gonna be a new level of a show, honestly.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm stoked to see how people react.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's just gonna feel like a new thing.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna, I don't know.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: I I've got I've got great vibes about it.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, that's a good circle back point.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: Is the album closes with the song Pictures Perfect, and it's described as one door closing and another opening.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_02: So when people finish this record, what do you hope they understand about Stephen Day that maybe they've never heard before?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think that song, at least for me, in writing it, it was a way of being able to reflect on a photo and a photo that I love very much of me and my wife and our dog.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: And it's this song that is saying like you can love a photo and live with the harsh reality of what was going on at that time.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's like this, this, there's this gray of like of you know, multiple things existing at once.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that I'm trying to let people or like push people to like experience the gray, even in like smaller ways, of like, this is an album that spans genres and like blurs things, and it doesn't have to be so black and white in terms of like what you like, what you don't like.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is a project of lots of different vibes and um feelings, and uh yeah, I think I'm just trying to say like also bring bring that with you into the next chapter.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like uh there's there's something about like recognizing the realities of your story and your life, and then move bringing it with you and not like you know shying away from it or like trying not to look at it.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: You know, there's just like I think I'm hoping that it just speaks to that, and people feel like they have a friend through my music and uh a yeah, something that can like journey with them as I continue to do the same, you know?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: Back to that whole hope core thing, your music has always felt incredibly hopeful, even when you're writing about heartbreak, uncertainty, or fear.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: If someone listening today is standing at a crossroads in their own life and you had to narrow it down to a singular vision, what do you hope that they hear in this record overall that reminds them to keep moving forward?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: Hmm.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's a good question, bro.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: You got good questions.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, I think that honestly, that like music has power, like what we were talking about earlier, that it has power that words and you know, just having conversation doesn't have.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: There, there's so many elements to music that people don't even realize.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I think music has been a friend to me my entire life, and I go to it in in hard times.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um in some ways I think about what I do similar to how people sometimes think about the blues or soul music in general.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's this sense of like there's something being communicated here that surpasses what is on paper.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that that kind of thing speaks through music, but it also is something that is true about relationships and uh just being human in general.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: So like it's easy to forget that life has this sort of magical power to it that you can tap into and move through life with the hope and the idea you can move through life a little easier knowing that like there's more to all this than what we might think.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_02: Agreed.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and getting to know you on a personal level.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: My closing question that I ask every single guest that does this show, because I enjoy the uniqueness of everybody's experience, is what's your advice for making the world a better place tomorrow than it is today through your eyes and your experience?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, man.
• 39:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like I I think it's easy to start your day without remembering how important kindness can be.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, like, if there's a way to incorporate something in your morning routine that is is sort of a reminder to you that like I'm going to operate out of the spirit of kindness today, I think that that's huge.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like just because life can just pass you by sometimes and you can feel like you're not an active participant in it, it's important to like center yourself and be like, I am I have some uh I have some way of dealing with people.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: I I can control some of that, and I think choosing kindness is huge.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Steven, why don't you tell everybody where they can find you and your music online?
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm all over socials at Hey Steven Day, and then I'm on streaming services.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_01: You name it, all of them.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Stephen Day, Steven with a PH.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_02: Dude, I love it.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: October 2nd cannot come soon enough.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: Steven, man, I have thoroughly enjoyed this conversation and getting to know you, and I'm glad to now call you a friend, man.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks for doing the show.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: The world's a much better place with you and it, my friend.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_01: Dude, it was an honor.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you for having me, man.