Alison Stewart: You're listening to All Of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart. Singer-songwriter Briston Maroney has a new album out. It's called Jimmy, and much of the record is about feeling free to be your true self. That's something Briston has had to figure out throughout his time in the music industry. Jimmy is his third album and it features some of Briston's most vulnerable songwriting. Bristol Maroney will be playing tonight and tomorrow night at The Rooftop at Pier 17 alongside the band Peach Pit. His new album, Jimmy, is out now, and he joins us now for a performance. It's really nice to meet you.

Briston Maroney: Nice to meet you, too. Thank you for having me.

Alison Stewart: The first song we're going to hear is Land of Light. Would you tell us a little bit about it and what you wanted to accomplish when you were writing this song?

Briston Maroney: Absolutely, yeah. Well, first off, thanks for saying all those nice things. My confidence is through the roof now. I really appreciate it. Yeah, this song, I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, so around a lot of Americana folk music. I was always very drawn to songwriters like Townes Van Zant and John Prine and all the classics. I loved the simplicity and the layers within the simplicity in their songwriting, and so, yeah, I'm basically doing my best impression of those dudes on this one. Yeah.

Alison Stewart: Let's hear Land of Light.

Briston Maroney: Awesome.

[MUSIC - Briston Maroney: Land of Light]

I woke up late

I went outside

And I looked real hard

At my little light

I love to laugh

I love to cry

I know someday

My soul will fly

I'll be sitting in the sun

In the land of light

Where you never run out

A fishing line

Let my legacy

Be these friends of mine

Blowing in the wind

Just like fishing line

I stood up straight

I dried my eyes

Everybody will live

Some folks never die

If you've found love

Then you found light.

And 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

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. Briston is playing tonight and tomorrow night at The Rooftop at Pier 17 with the band, Peach Pit. This your third album, yeah?

Briston Maroney: Third album, mm-hmm.

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

Briston Maroney: To finally enjoy the process a little bit. Yeah. Making records in the past for me has been a pretty grueling process, I guess, internally. I've spent a lot of the process very in my head and very concerned about the-- Oh, I just realized. I think that maybe that pick-up's down. That's my fault. Sorry about that.

Alison Stewart: We had our engineer come on in, check everything out.

Briston Maroney: That was a rookie mistake on my end.

Alison Stewart: No worries.

Briston Maroney: I think that mic was still picking it up, but, yeah. Making records for me has always been a very somewhat internally intense process. This time around, I wanted to try to take a little bit of that edge off and just sit back and try to enjoy it. The reasons that I got into making records were cathartic and I'd kind of drifted away from that. With this record, I wanted it to feel good. Yeah.

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

Briston Maroney: With the help of a lot of really good friends, and 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, yeah, 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 and growing up in the south, and, yeah. 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." So, yeah, 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: Don't worry, we got a text that says, "The guitar sounded great. Don't worry about the pick-up."

Briston Maroney: Awesome. Great to hear. Oh, okay. Huge sigh of relief. I'm so sorry about that.

Alison Stewart: My friend is Briston Maroney. 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-- the phrase Florida man obviously has a connotation to it, and I do think that is applicable here.

I kind of, in reflecting on my childhood, realized I was around so many people that were just like extreme characters and extreme kind of cartoonish almost representations of what growing up in that region looked like. 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 like, yeah, you know?

Alison Stewart: Jimmy.

Brison Maroney: Jimmy, you know. Yeah, you know.

Alison Stewart: My guest is Briston Maroney. 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, yeah.

Alison Stewart: Oh, yeah. On 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. But I think it took until this point in my life where I felt confident enough to maybe give it a swing myself and yeah, like I said earlier, just try out an impression of those bands that I love.

Alison Stewart: Who were you thinking of? What bands?

Briston Maroney: I mean, I got a Wean tattoo during the process-

Alison Stewart: Oh, really?

Briston Maroney: -of this record to sum up what making this record was like. Yeah. Oh, yeah, right here.

Alison Stewart: Is that a reverse Cuomo on your arm?

Briston Maroney: Got the little dude right there. Yeah.

Alison Stewart: That's awesome.

Briston Maroney: Yeah. All the insane just like weirdos of the '90s. Like my heroes.

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

Briston Maroney: Oh, yeah.

Alison Stewart: Do you have a flip phone?

Briston Maroney: I sure do. Yeah.

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

Briston Maroney: Because I cannot handle the immense reality that comes along with carrying the iPhone all the time. I mean, it's pretty new. I just got into it for this tour, honestly. So, yeah, 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, 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 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: I think it was from a couple different sources. I think internally maybe was the strongest. 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. That's always been a fear of mine, and so I think I built up a real concept that if I was not constantly two steps ahead, that all of 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 so be it. Just 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, I think, 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, but it's a daily effort to practice that--.

Alison Stewart: But it's okay. It's okay not to make everybody happy.

Briston Maroney: Yeah, dude, you don't 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 meme, there's nothing to like or to dislike. It's just sort of like, "Eh."

Briston Maroney: Eh, yeah. I feel like I spent two years being that, just like the most two dimensional, like, "Hey, how are you? Yeah." I felt like no depth as a human being at all. Being down to just be true to yourself, I feel like is so-- 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, yeah. That was like-- I think that honestly, yeah, that should have been my answer to that question. It's kind of a survival thing, I think. 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 and 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. Briston is performing tonight and tomorrow night at rooftop at Pier 17. 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. I'm 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 kind of 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: The artist behind that, the album artist is a really good friend of mine named Scout Smith. She and her dad both contributed to the final piece, but we went to high school together. We were in an art class together. I think we were two years apart. We'd chatted every now and then, but we were both pretty shy and we never really connected, but then we ended up reconnecting a few years ago over a tattooing. She's an incredible tattoo artist and she gave me a couple pieces. She gave me my handpiece and this little 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." It's I want this to feel like something that I would want tattooed on my body and I literally have trusted this person to do that multiple other times, so let's go for it, and so, yeah.

Alison Stewart: All right. 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: Yeah, absolutely. This is the closing track on the record. I would say this is the summation of the whole mission maybe.

Alison Stewart: My guest has been singer-songwriter Briston Maroney. His new album, Jimmy, is out now. Briston is playing tonight and tomorrow night at The Rooftop at Pier 17, along with the band, Peach Pit. This is Be Yourself. Thank you for being with us.

Briston Maroney: My pleasure. Thanks for having me. I feel like I'm-- 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]

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 wanna be myself

I’m so tired of hiding

I just wanna be myself

I’m so tired of hiding

I just wanna be myself

I’m so tired of hiding

And when I wake up yeah

I don’t feel like I slept

Every secret that I’m keeping

Is a secret best kept

Wasting so much time

Being somewhere I’m not

Never getting into it

Always scared of being caught

There’s a hand on my throat

And it’s stronger than God's

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

Push them away

Stand up tall

Like the birds that sing

La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la, la

If everything is nothing

Then I guess I got everything

Yeah, if everything is nothing

Then I guess I've got everything

I just wanna be myself

I just wanna be myself

Yeah, I’m so tired of hiding

I just wanna be myself

I'm so tired of hiding

I just wanna be myself

Just wanna be myself

And I'm so tired of hiding it, yeah.