Austin Troubadour JM Stevens Transforms His Songwriting and Vocal Approach For New LP ‘Nowhere To Land’ (INTERVIEW)

Austin-based singer/songwriter and Producer JM Stevens recently released his second solo album, Nowhere To Land, which sees a big development in vocal nuances and a certain sparse approach to sound in comparison to his previous work. As the proprietor of East Austin Recording (EAR), Stevens is used to working with many genres and approaches and constantly finds himself coming across new ideas that have a bearing on his own work. 

This time around, due to the pandemic, Stevens found himself not only taking part in an online songwriting workshop that changed his approach to writing but also focusing on laying down guitars and vocals first, before any other sonic elements were added. A third factor that affected how this very focused collection of songs came together was Stevens settling on a dry approach. Together these features make for a very moving core construction for each of the album’s tracks which really showcase Stevens’ vocal work and guitar playing. I spoke with JM Stevens about this period of challenging times and positive discoveries in his creative process that we see reflected on Nowhere To Land. 

Hannah Means-Shannon: I understand that as well as making your own music, you also have a recording studio, East Austin Recording (EAR). Did that come from learning how to record and Produce your own work?

JM Stevens: I’ve always been someone who was hooking machines together to record, and it just kind of blossomed from there. I’ve always looked at making records, writing, and recording, as one big old package. It’s about how you present the songs. So much of that, for me, is tone. If I’m not into a snare sound, it might put me off a band. I’ve always heard things the way I’ve wanted them to sound. But EAR has been going since 2007. Before that, I had a little studio in a garage that I built in a rental house against everyone’s advice. I really cut my teeth in there, in a little two-car garage. I made tons of albums there. When I moved and found a way to make this studio, I’d already been doing it a bit, so it happened organically grew that way.

So those people were wrong and you were right!

[Laughs] It was people saying, “You can’t do that in a rental property!” But I said, “I’m kinda gonna do it.” I don’t know how I made that studio work. There was no bathroom in the studio, so people would have to walk around to the house and come in and out with my roommates there. I guess when you’re in your 20s and you just want to record, you just do it! When I was younger, I was working on the first digital machine that came out, that I remember, a multi-track recorder. I holed up in my bedroom for a couple of years making recordings, and really getting into writing. I had already been in bands that weren’t working out, so I said, “I’m just going to get stuff recorded.” Then I had a 16-track, one-inch tape machine, and that got me into analog recording, which I’m still doing.

I know that you played a lot of instruments on your new album. Did those early stages push you into becoming a multi-instrumentalist, in order to get stuff down? 

You just have to do the thing and go for it. I had a drum kit set up and bashed away on that thing. I mainly play guitar now and sing. I do a lot of harmonies for people and stuff like that. 

When you Produce your own work, is there a sky’s-the-limit feeling in terms of fine-tuning your songs? Or do you need to limit things.

You can fall into the trap of endless takes because you can. I try to treat it the way I would working with anybody else. I keep the thing rolling and try not to get bogged down. I’m not saying there aren’t times when I won’t go out there at two in the morning, crank it up and loud, and make sure it’s good! I try to move pretty quickly, though. 

Thinking can sometimes stifle things. I hope my instincts are pretty good at this point. When it gets to mixing, I have some people I’ll send it around to. I’ll ask them, “Put your ears on this. Do you hear anything?” I had some people who really gave me some good ideas on this. I don’t want to be in a bubble too much. I don’t want to go mad scientist in the lab! That’s why I have different players who come in and bring their energy.

Does it affect the process, making it feel more real, once someone else has heard it?

Right, it changes the energy in the room, when someone else is in there listening to it. If it’s playing in the background, even you hear it differently, because someone else is there hearing it with you. I’ve never quite understood that phenomenon, but it is a thing. 

When you Produce for someone else, do you work with multiple genres, or do you stick with genres that you write and record in?

I do all kinds of stuff. I just finished a Jazz record with a singer here and some really great players. That’s a totally different thing, a different approach to recording and mic-ing. I also recorded the new Uncle Lucius record, which is more of a Rock ‘n Roll record. 

Is it enjoyable for you to change things up like that?

Yes, and you get ideas. I think all of that influences my music. There’s no way that it can’t. You’re hearing those sounds and you’re immersed in it. You have a drummer who tunes his drums a certain way and you think, “Oh, that would be cool. I like how that sounds. I hadn’t thought of that.” All of those things get thrown in the gumbo.

I feel like these tracks have a real core to them, but there’s also a little bit of spareness. Does that tie into your working process?

I was trying to keep it spare. It’s easy to fall into the trap, of saying, “Let’s layer another guitar! Let’s put all this stuff!” I didn’t want that. I wanted to lock in on that guitar and hear that guitar. I wanted to keep it limited, to limit the amount of information bombarding someone. At first, I wondered, is this “Produced” enough? Whatever that means. But eventually, I began to like it because it felt organic and real to me. 

I know that you were working on this during the pandemic period. Do you think that influenced a more isolated feeling or sound?

I definitely had that on my mind. Things were uncertain and they were times like nobody had ever experienced. To think about it now is like a dang movie.

It’s impressive that you were writing so much during that time. Was that helpful for you?

I totally switched gears. I’d always been one of those who thinks that inspiration is going to fall out of the sky and hit you on the head, and you’re waiting around on it. I’ve completely changed my process on that. At least for me, you have to place some deadlines. I got into this group where you had to turn into a song every week. It really makes you drop the preciousness that you might have on some things and just get it done! You get some good first instincts like that. Some of the songs on the album were written that way. 

For me, the first thing I’m getting stoked on is the melody and the cadence, the structure of the song. The words can move around and change once I’ve thought about it a little more, but it’s about getting that melody and sound down. That was really good for me to be cranking stuff out and not thinking too much. Then, you’d go back later and think, “Oh, that’s a good song.” You get almost the perspective of being another person because you’ve forgotten about it a little bit. 

At what point did you find yourself moving into that sparse sound?

I was listening to the Lucinda Williams record, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road. I hadn’t heard it in a while, and I was listening to it a lot. I loved how dry it was. I loved the vibe. Some of the mixes, I had it a little wetter. I wasn’t sure why, but I wasn’t liking the vibe. Then, somehow that Lucinda Williams record popped up and I thought, “This is where I want to go with this record. It needs to sound more stark, drier sounding.” That’s what I did. Then I took it a little too far! It was so dry that it felt a little harsh. So I went back and remixed some stuff and added a little ambiance on it.

It’s still got its moments of sparkle, those brighter little glimmers in there. I appreciated that. In a way, it makes it sound more modern to include those.

Yes, I didn’t want to go retro or throwback.

When you were in the songwriting group, did other people give you feedback on the songs?

Yes, when you’re in this group, people give you feedback on your songs. These are people I respect, but I’d never done that before. That was really cool, the kind of let go a little bit. It’s a little scary!

That’s absolutely terrifying, I’m sure. Did that feedback influence which songs made it onto the album?

At that point, no one was playing live anymore, so I would put clips of these songs on my social media. I kind of had a feel for which ones people were connecting with before I even recorded them. I’ve already got a whole other album almost done, and I’m excited about that. Now, if I have a new song and I have it done, I’ll try to play it live pretty quick, like my next show. 

I say that it saves you six months of rehearsal and thinking about it. It’s really throwing yourself onto the fire! It’s terrifying and I like to put myself in terrifying situations, sometimes. Right before I go on, I’ll be scribbling out lyrics. I’m going on tour next month and I’m sure that I’ll get some [songs] along the way because you’re living it.

I’d like to ask you about your vocals on this album because they really stand out. There’s so much nuance and emotion to them and I wondered if you had a particular philosophy behind them.

You know when you hit the right emotion, and you hope it’s the first take, but it’s not always. But I’ll tell you the main difference for me. On the first album, I was getting stoned, drinking a lot, and smoking a lot. I quit all that. It’s been 3 ½ years now. I decided to take all that energy and put it into singing and guitar playing. I really tried to up my game. I went crazy on doing vocal exercises all the time, almost like going running. I think about it, and all my life I’ve practiced guitar, but I don’t remember ever really working on vocals. Not really working on them, you know? 

I found some teachers online that I connected with and I really got into doing these exercises. I do them every day. It’s pretty zen-like. You’re doing these vowel sounds. It’s almost like meditation for me. I’ll sit there and do them for an hour or an hour and a half. Now, I’m doing three-hour shows by myself. Before, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. Now, I do it all the time and see it as something I’ve got to keep up. And when I go in the studio, I’m ready to go because I’m singing all the time. Basically, I don’t want to have to sweat it! It comes out easily.

You’re spreading the work out over a longer period, so you don’t have to warm up all at once.

I’ve worked with singers who come in and say, “I haven’t been singing for a couple of weeks because I wanted to save my voice up for the studio.” I think that’s just not a good idea. I think you need to be singing all the time. Then, when you come into the studio, it’s not some kind of massive undertaking. It’s just something you do, it’s just part of you. Then it’s not an overwhelming thing. Vocals can be really hard and personal for people. Any way that you can dull that edge, I think, is good.