Chattanooga Times Free Press music reporter Casey Phillips spoke with Jill Andrews, former co-lead vocalist of the everybodyfields, about her transition to being a solo artist, her song filter and becoming a mother.
CP: You’ve been a solo artist separate from the everybodyfields for about a year now. How difficult was it to make that transition?
JA: It actually came off fairly smoothly, but it wasn’t something I was totally sure of. When the everybodyfields were looking like we were going to be no more, I wasn’t thinking, “Oh man, I’ve got to start a solo career right now.” I wasn’t thinking that at all, actually. I was just wondering what I was going to do, if I was going to go back to school or what. I was looking at getting a full time job somewhere.
I just kept bumping into people in Knoxville, where I live, who kept encouraging me to play. It was one thing after another like someone asking me to play a solo gig here or asking if I wanted to get together and play music.
That’s how my band formed. I met the drummer in my band now. We had been friends for years, and he came up to me and said he wanted to play for years and now would be a perfect time. I didn’t really talk to him for a couple of months, but he kept pushing me. We got together, and with him came a bass player who is amazing, named Vince, and a guitar player named Robert. Then, I brought Josh Oliver in. It was pretty much that easy.
CP: At the time, were you looking beyond these people just wanting to play with you? Were you considering forming a new band at that point?
JA: I’m not really much of a future thinker. (Laughs.) I’m very much in the present every day. That’s just how I live my life. Even now, I’m not like, “Whoa, I can’t believe it.” It just is what it is. I don’t really think about how I got from A to B. Maybe I should, I don’t know. (Laughs.)
CP: Back in 2008, Paste threw some pretty hefty accolades at the everybodyfields as a band to watch. Then, they just recently said you were “an absolute delight.” That must be a strong affirmation of your moving out on your own.
JA: Yeah, that’s just one of the affirmations I’ve gotten along the way. As a musician, it’s the little positive comments people make – and the big positive comments people make – that keep you going. Even if I was raking in millions of dollars and people told me I was terrible or if nobody told me I was good, there’d be no way I could keep doing it.
CP: Did it change your perception of yourself as a musician having to go out on your own?
JA: Yeah, it did. It made me feel more accomplished, I guess. When I was in the everybodyfields, there was a big spotlight, and it was on two people all the time. I tend to base my musicianship and all that stuff on other people’s reactions towards me and to my music. I didn’t really know if people thought I was good in that band. When I stepped out of that band, it was like, “Whoa, these people are here, and they’re here to see me. That’s so wild.” I didn’t know how it would be.
CP: Does deriving your sense of accomplishment from other people’s reactions to your music in any way affect the pressures you feel during the writing process?
JA: I’m pressured all the time, by everything, but especially music. (Laughs.) I never sit down and go, “OK, I’m going to write this song about such and such, to please these people.” I never ever do that. I tend to write when I feel the spirit. It’s a really weird thing.
The moments hit you where you in his really crazy state of mind where it’s like night and day in your head at the same time. Things just come at you from all different directions, and you feel like you have to write them down. That’s when I write. I’m not saying it happens all the time, because it doesn’t.
I guess I’m never really pressured to write for other people because I have a pretty good filter. I think it might be almost too good because a lot of times, I trash things that might have actually been good.
CP: That’s actually what I meant. After you write, it seems like you’re very critical in the post-process, based on how a song is received.
JA: Yeah, after I’ve written a song is when I test it for other people. I literally have played a song one time for somebody, and if their reaction wasn’t as positive as I thought, I’d trash it. They might have just said, “Oh, that’s good,” and I would literally just trash the song.
That’s just me in older times. I think I’m becoming a lot more confident and strong and starting to know when I think something is good.
The song on the EP, “Always Be Sorry,” was one of those songs I almost trashed.
CP: That song really stuck out to me when I listened to the EP. What were you thinking about when you wrote it, and why did you almost trash it?
JA: The theme of the song is blame, and I was feeling a whole lot of blame in my life and wanted to write about it. I remember played it when I was in a little songwriting group, and I remember someone in the group who knew the situation I was going through was like, “Why don’t you play another one instead?” We were working on stuff to play on stage, and they were like, “Why don’t you play a different one?”
That was the first time I played it for anyone else, and I was like, “Aww, man, I worked really hard on that one, but I guess it’s trashed.” Then, somebody else later on in the group was like, “Play that song again, that was good.”
It’s crazy all the doubts you have in your mind when you’re creating something that’s completely showing your naked heart.
CP: Now that you’ve been at the solo thing for about a year and have your feet under you. Do you feel fairly settled in this new role?
JA: Not really, but I never really feel that settled in any role. I’ve got a whole lot of work ahead of me because I want to put out a full length in the fall. I always feel the pressure, because if you feel too settled, then you’re not doing anything. With music, you’ve always got to be doing something, creating something new.
CP: You are now 29, which means you’ve been writing and performing for a solid decade. That’s kind of a mileston. How do you feel like you’ve grown as a writer in that time?
JA: You know, I think when I first started writing, I wanted to write things that sounded really cool. (Laughs.) I wanted to emulate other people. Now, I’ve grown to the point that it just comes right out of my heart. Before, I had never written songs, so all I knew were other people’s songs, so I thought, “This is a good way to start writing, by taking from those.” Now, I play a lot of guitar and find my own melodies.
CP: Listening to your EP, it seems like a very natural progression from the everybodyfields’ last album “Nothing Is OK” with that same “bigness” of sound. Did you ever consider reining that in to distance yourself from the band?
JA: No, not really. There really wasn’t a motive in mind to sound like the everybodyfields or not sound like the everybodyfields. I was half the sound of the everybodyfields, so there’s definitely going to be a continuum of that.
I really don’t have any need to negate the things I was doing in the band or that the band was doing and to start playing polka music. (Laughs.) The music is me, and it’s what I like, and it’s what affects me the most, emotionally, so I write about it.
It’s going to be a continuum of that, and it’s going to progress. There will be a natural progression, and maybe five CDs from now, it will be like, “Wow, I can’t believe I made it here from that EP or ‘Nothing Is OK.'” Right now, I don’t feel like I need to make a deliberate jump.
CP: A few years ago, you described songwriting as a cathartic activity, a way to “a way to get out what’s eating (me) up inside,” which made sense, given the sad overtones to most of the everybodyfields’ music. What’s eating you up inside these days or are you starting to concentrate on the happier side?
JA: Umm … both. (Laughs.) I think I’m looking more towards happy, hopeful things these days. I think what I’ve kind of been doing lately is bringing the sadness around to hope. That sounds stupid. (Laughs.) You can talk about all the sad things in life, and if you just leave the audience feeling sad, that’s not really that fun.
But if you talk about the sad things in life and leave them with something to look forward to so it’s not all bad, it seems like people need that these days, especially.
There are a lot fo really good things happening in my life, and those will definitely be coming out in some songs.
CP: Is one of those happy things of late that you became a mother last year? How has that affected you, musically?
JA: Yes, that’s definitely one of the happy things. I’ve never really been a very organized person, and to be a musician, you don’t really have to be. (Laughs.) But to accomplish things as a musician, you have to make way in your life for things, time to write and stuff.
It is an incredible balancing act for me, to juggle being on the road and being a mom and being a wife and feeling really accomplished at all that. One thing I hate more than anything is doing something halfway. That drives me crazy. If I feel like I went out on stage and did something halfway, or I hung out with Nico and we just hung around and I didn’t really play with him, I hate that. It’s a real balancing act, and it puts a lot of pressure on me, but it drives me to be better.
CP: Did you have any second thoughts about touring after Nico was born?
JA: Oh yeah. It definitely complicates things a lot. We all just get in the van and ride – everybody, including Nico. It’s me, my husaband, and the whole band in the van. It’s kind of crazy. Luckily, Nico is probably the best-behaved baby in the whole world. (Laughs.) Literally. He’s so good. He doesn’t cry at all. He just stares at people and laughs at people. The guys in the band are really great with him and sweet with him. It’s nice having my whole family on the road. My husband is my manager, and he does all my managing work.
CP: You mentioned that you were working on a full-length for the fall. What are your plans for approaching that album?
JA: I’m going to be taking most of February off just to focus on writing. My husband had a full time job, and now he is in his last week of that, so he’ll be staying at home and helping me with Nico and doing a lot of work on the side. We’ll both be getting really organized with the band thing so we can have a really strong spring and summer touring schedule and I can work on my writing. I’m not sure when it will be released, but maybe August or September.
CP: Have you already written material for it, or are you waiting until next month to get started on that process?
JA: I have a couple of songs that I think, depending on whether they go well together, will be on there.
CP: What was the motivation behind doing a full-length instead of another EP?
JA: I guess, kind of the old school mindset. I just want to release a full length and have it be in national distribution and really promote it well – hire a publicist and all that. I just want to make it be a real big deal, as big a deal as I can make it be and see where it takes us. (Laughs.)
I’m definitely open to the EP idea, though. You can really crank out an EP every year or twice a year. That can really keep the fans happy.