Roots. That is the EP of sophomore musician Kyle Jackson’s new album. $500. That’s all he and his band members needed to raise at their recent concert in Hot Springs at Mountain Valley Water, which ended up bringing in $1400.
Kyle has been writing music since he was 15 or 16 years old. When he started playing guitar he was inspired by 60s artists like Bob Dylan and Neil Young. Hearing their music inspired him to do just what they do.
Writing songs began as a hobby, but turned into something even more. Writing songs became something he needed to do in order to deal with daily life. Music became his journal.
“I wrote a lot of just really bad, terrible songs,” Jackson said. “And just kind of slowly began to critique myself and start getting into the phase where I could write deeper.”
Since college, Jackson said his writing has changed in many ways. His goal is to have a level where people can listen and understand what it means, but when you look under the lyrics there is something deeper and bigger than the song itself.
Learning to be on his own during his time working at a summer camp in Charleston, S.C. last summer really helped him find the deeper side that he was looking for. That was the turning point for him and what really inspired his writing.
As far as the album project goes, Jackson and his “squad” go into the studio this weekend to begin recording more music. His “squad”, as Jackson calls them, includes fellow Ouachita students: junior Emily Weeden on keys and singing, junior Spencer Bryson on bass, junior Seth Bubbus on drums, as well as junior Nathan Street.
The idea behind their new album Roots is stories about people, places, events and certain situations and thoughts that Jackson has found himself rooted in over the years. Some involve Christ and some don’t. Honest music is his goal.
“My goal is to not necessarily make money or to make it big by any means,” Jackson said. “My goal is to really just share these stories, whether that’s a couple people in a room hearing these stories, or if that’s traveling and playing music in different states.”
Jackson does most of the song writing himself. Once he finishes he will sit down with the squad and they will throw around ideas.
“I’m not a Christian song writer, I’m a song writer who’s a Christian”
Jackson wants his songs to connect with people who may not listen to Christian music. However promoting himself hasn’t come easy.
“It’s very much not myself. A lot of it is promoting yourself and a lot of it is just trying to get people to listen to your music,” Jackson said. “I’ve had to swallow my pride and say, this is what I feel like I need to do and I’m gonna do it.”
The group has a website that is raising money for the album expenses. They are selling t-shirts, cd’s and doing pre-orders. Find more information on the link below.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kyle-jackson-roots-ep/x/13151562#/
