Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. We finished this producer pick show with some music and with our producer, Jordan Lauf. Jordan, tell us why you wanted to book Briston Maroney.

Jordan Lauf: Yes. Briston Maroney is a singer and songwriter who I've been a fan of for a long time. I really like his music. I especially liked his sort of more sad and slow, reflective indie music. Then I listened to this new album, and it starts off pretty upbeat and rocking and has this whole new sound for him, so I thought it would be interesting to talk to him about experimenting with a new sound and changing his music, but still keeping that introspective lyricism and thoughtful music.

Alison Stewart: Lovely guy.

Jordan Lauf: Very lovely.

Alison Stewart: It was just him and his guitar-

Jordan Lauf: It was.

Alison Stewart: -but there was a mistake. [laughs]

Jordan Lauf: Yes. This story is really a shout-out to our amazing engineer, Irene, who does pretty much all of our music segments on the show. Briston had unplugged his guitar from one of the recording devices in between sound check and the live interview and had forgotten to plug it back in, which, in maybe another person's hands, would have meant that we couldn't hear the guitar at all. Irene always thinks ahead and had a backup microphone pointed at the guitar just in case such a thing happened.

For the first song, his guitar wasn't plugged in, but you can't even tell. You can't hear the difference. In the middle of the interview, she runs in and plugs back in his guitar. At the end, he was like, "Oh, my gosh, I forgot to plug it in. I'm so sorry." She said, "No worries. That's why I have it in his backup."Shout out to Irene, who's truly the best, and it sounded great no matter what happened.

Alison Stewart: Here's a live performance and interview with Briston Maroney about his new album, Jimmy.

[guitar strums]

[MUSIC - Briston Maroney: Land of Lights]

Briston Maroney: [singing] I woke up late

I went outside

And I looked real hard

At my little life.

I love to laugh

I love to cry

I know some day,

My soul will fly

I'll be sitting in the sun

In the land of light

Where you never run out

Of fishing line.

Let my legacy,

Be these friends of mine

Blowing in the wind

Just like fishing line.

[guitar strums]

I stood up straight,

I dried my eyes

Everybody will live

Some folks never die.

If you’ve found love

Then you’ve found light

Someday soon

Your soul will fly.

I'll be sitting in the sun

In the land of light

Where you never run out

Of fishing line.

Let my legacy

Be these friends of mine

Blowing in the wind

Just like fishing line.

Da da da da da

[guitar strums]

I can see it all,

When I close my eyes

Those were the days

The best of my life.

I hope you know,

I can see your soul

It's the greatest story

Ever told.

I hope you know,

I can see your soul

It's the greatest story

Ever told.

I'll be sitting in the sun

In the land of light

Where you never run out

Of fishing line.

Let my legacy

Be these friends of mine

Blowing in the wind

Just like fishing line.

Alison Stewart: That was gorgeous.

Briston Maroney: Oh, thank you.

Alison Stewart: That was Briston Maroney with a live performance of Land of Light from his album, Jimmy. This is your third album, yes?

Briston Maroney: Third album.

Alison Stewart: What was the goal of this third album?

Briston Maroney: To finally enjoy the process a little bit. Making records for me has always been a very somewhat internally intense process, so this time around, I wanted to try to take a little bit of that edge off and just to just sit back and try to enjoy it. For the reasons that I got into making records were cathartic, and I'd drifted away from that, so with this record, I wanted it to feel good.

Alison Stewart: How did you sit back and just relax?

Briston Maroney: With the help of a lot of really good friends, the help of a lot of really good mentors, a lot of folks in my life who just really reminded me of, like I said, why I got into this to begin with. I started writing songs and started playing music to try to speed up the process of being understood in a community that I didn't feel totally understood in growing up in the South.

Yes, I realized I had drifted away from that core principle of like I'm doing this to try to understand the human experience more. This isn't about trying to be perfect or trying to check any boxes. Just getting in touch with the people who were there for those days, the early days of why I started doing this all.

Alison Stewart: You named the album Jimmy. Who's Jimmy? Is Jimmy somebody I should know?

Briston Maroney: The million-dollar question. I like to say Jimmy is a person that we all know in some roundabout way. I know I keep talking about growing up in the south. I split time between Tennessee and Florida. My mom was in Florida. The idea of this Jimmy character, this Jimmy person, is basically just like an amalgamation of a lot of the people that I grew up around. There's a very specific, you know, the phrase Florida man, obviously has a connotation to it. I do think that is applicable here. In reflecting on my childhood, realized I was around so many people that were just extreme characters and extreme kind of cartoonish, almost.

Yes, representations of what growing up in that region looked like, and so I was so inspired by just the sense of humor and the freedom that was exuded by these people that I was around a lot, just at bonfires or oyster roasts in my backyard at my parents' place. Like some funny old Jimmy Buffett motorcycle riding dudes that were like, "Yes, you know-

Alison Stewart: Jimmy.

Riston Maroney: -Jimmy," you know. Yes, you know. [chuckles]

Alison Stewart: My guest is Briston Maroney. You know you have a singer, songwriter vibe, that's what people describe you as, but on this new album, you rock out a little bit.

Briston Maroney: Oh, yes.

Alison Stewart: Oh, yes.

Briston Maroney: Oh.

Alison Stewart: Tomatoes and on Real Good Swimmer.

Briston Maroney: Totally.

Alison Stewart: Why did you want to try a different sound, and how did you go about it?

Briston Maroney: I feel like a lot of it had to do with permission. I think I've always loved, I've been very drawn to alternative rock and heavier stuff. I'm very inspired by just the spine within that music and the messaging that comes with the intensity of something like punk rock or alternative rock. My dad was a huge grunge head and put me on all the '90s classics growing up, so it was in my blood. I think it took until this point in my life where I felt confident enough to maybe give it a swing myself. Like I said earlier, just try out an impression of those bands that I love.

Alison Stewart: In the song Tomatoes, you talk about having a flip phone.

Briston Maroney: Oh, yes.

Alison Stewart: Do you have a flip phone?

Briston Maroney: I sure do. Yes. [laughs]

Alison Stewart: Okay, tell me why you have a flip phone.

Briston Maroney: Because I cannot handle the immense, the reality that comes along with carrying the iPhone all the time. It's pretty new. I just got into it for this tour, honestly. Yes, I did it for a long time in college, and it was awesome. I think forcing myself to take a break from the constant influx of, with this career path, like doing music, there's no defined hours, so anxiety a lot of times for me will manifest by way of working.

If it's the middle of the night and instead of just letting my thoughts race, I'll pick up my phone and try to do something, "productive", which always ends up being counterproductive. Trying to draw a heavier line in my life of art, being a human, dividing the two things very intensely, if possible.

Alison Stewart: You write about that on the album, on the song BS, the radio version, how you really hated the pressure of selling your music.

Briston Maroney: Totally.

Alison Stewart: Where was the pressure coming from?

Briston Maroney: It was from a couple of different sources. Internally, maybe it was the strongest. I mean, the folks that I work with, I feel really lucky to be around some very genuine people in the music industry, but there's just kind of the looming cloud. I'm sure in any media format, there's always this voice in the back of your head that's telling you that it'll all go away at any second, and so I think those. Yes, that's always been a fear of mine. I built up a real concept that if I was not constantly two steps ahead, that all this would disappear. In writing this record, I tried to really swallow the pill that that is a reality, and it is technically possible, and if that happens, then like, "So be it." A bit of acceptance.

Alison Stewart: How did it change your music, just alleviating yourself of that pressure?

Briston Maroney: I'm having more fun [laughs] to put it simply. I'm a lot less conscious of there's less fear involved with the idea of some people not liking it. It's taken me almost 30 years of my life to accept that you can't make everybody happy. It's a daily effort to practice that.

?Jordan Lauf: It's okay.

Alison Stewart: Yes.

?Jordan Lauf: It's okay not to make everybody happy.

Alison Stewart: Yes, dude.

Briston Maroney: [unintelligible 00:11:26] want to make everybody happy. Good Lord, that's a lot of weight.

Alison Stewart: Also, I think if you make everybody happy, you become like the mean. There's nothing to like or to dislike, it's just like, "Eh-eh."

Briston Maroney: Yes. [laughs] Yes, yes. I feel like I spent two years being that, just like the most two-dimensional. Like, "Hey, how are you?" I felt like no depth as a human being at all. Being down to just be true to yourself, I feel like it just relieves that pressure.

Alison Stewart: That must have meant so much to you personally, aside from your guitar and your career, just you as a human being.

Briston Maroney: Oh my God, yes, yes. I think that, honestly, that should have been my answer to that question. It's like it's a survival thing. I have so much respect for the folks who can balance their existence at the same time as their commercial success. Those two things are just not congruent to me in my soul. I feel so much lighter knowing that I'm doing what I want to do.

Alison Stewart: My guest is singer, songwriter Briston Maroney. His new album, Jimmy, is out now. What's your songwriting process like for you?

Briston Maroney: It's pretty squirrely. I'm a squirrely cat. It's like, I like to be caught off guard by a song. I'm not a very, what's the word, I don't sit down and deliberately try to put pen to paper. I like to set up a day. It's like, "Okay, Saturday, I would love to write a song on Saturday, so I'm going to plan on going to the grocery store, going to go for a jog. I'm going to go to the rock climbing gym. I'm going to do whatever." Just something completely unrelated to music, and wait for inspiration to strike at a time where my eyes are 180 degrees the other direction. I'm typically grabbed by stuff when I'm not thinking about writing.

Alison Stewart: The cover art for your album is amazing.

Briston Maroney: Thank you.

Alison Stewart: All right, so it's a portrait of you. You've got a blue hat on. There's all kinds of things coming out of your hair, car keys, a pencil. Who's the artist? How did you come up with the concept?

Briston Maroney: Yes, the artist behind that, and the album artist is a really good friend of mine named Scout Smith. She and her dad both contributed to the final piece. We went to high school together. We were in an art class together. I think we were two years apart. We chatted every now and then, but we were both pretty shy, and we never really connected. Then we ended up reconnecting a few years ago over tattooing. She's an incredible tattoo artist, and she gave me a couple of pieces. She gave me my handpiece and this little-

Alison Stewart: Oh, [unintelligible 00:14:05].

Briston Maroney: -fishing lure that I have. We connected over that, and when it came time to make the art for this record, I was like, "Oh, dude, I want this to feel like something that I would tattoo on my body." I literally have trusted this person to do that multiple other times so let's go for it.

Alison Stewart: We're going to hear one more song from you. It's going to be Be Yourself from Jimmy. Do you want to set this up?

Briston Maroney: Yes, absolutely. This is the closing track on the record. I would say this is summation of the whole mission, baby.

Alison Stewart: My guest has been singer, songwriter Briston Maroney. His new album, Jimmy is out now. This is Be Yourself. Thank you for being with us.

Briston Maroney: My pleasure. Thanks for having me. I feel like I'm stuck. I'm glad people can't see how red my face is. I'm really nervous, but I'm having a lot of fun. Thanks for having me.

[MUSIC - Briston Maroney: Be Yourself]

Briston Maroney: [singing] Stuck my head out the window

Or in this case, the ceiling

Oh, I wish I had the perfect word for this imperfect feeling

All my life, I've been told to look after myself

All my life, I have lived like I'm somebody else.

Put my foot on the pedal

And I fired up the vestibule

Wasted days doing things other kids said were cool

Can’t tell if I’m scared, if I’m excited

I just want to be myself,

I’m so tired of hiding

I just want to be myself,

I’m so tired of hiding

I just want to be myself,

I’m so tired of hiding it, yeah

[guitar strums]

And when I wake up, yeah, I don’t feel like I slept

Every secret that I’m keepin' is a secret best kept

Wastin' so much time being somewhere I’m not

Never gettin' into it, always scared of being caught

There’s a hand on my throat, and it’s stronger than gods

And some days I'm ready to give up what I’ve got

But right when I feel that hand start to tighten

I remember all the birds I hear singing in the morning

And I fight with my muscles, I push them away

I stand up tall like the birds, I sing

La la la la la la la la la la la la la

If everything is nothing,

Then I guess I've got everything.

Yeah, if everything is nothing,

Then I guess I've got everything, yeah

[guitar strums]

I just want to be myself

I just wanna be myself

Yeah, I’m so tired of hiding

I just want to be myself,

I'm so tired of hiding

I just want to be myself,

I just want to be myself

I'm so tired of hiding it, yeah

Alison Stewart: That was Briston Maroney with live performances from his new album, Jimmy. That's All Of It for today. We'll be back tomorrow with a show curated by our producer, Malik. Until then, I appreciate you listening, and I appreciate you. I'll meet you back here tomorrow.