Q: Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how your childhood impacted your musical direction?
A: Hey Bored City, I’m Kyle, aka Budd Jeepers. Music is the only thing in my life that I’ve ever really cared about doing. Or maybe I should say it’s the only thing I’ve ever pursued that didn’t feel like work. I totally took it for granted throughout my childhood, but both of my parents were super instrumental in me forming and maintaining an interest in music, and each in a slightly different way. My mom was a musician that was always pushing me to play and sing with her, while my dad was a non-musician but massive music fan that was always pushing a pretty eclectic range of stuff on me from an early age. It took me a few decades to realize that this was not the situation for every kid growing up. I’m obviously grateful for it now.
Q: Can you describe the musical style of Budd Jeepers in three words?
A: Deadpan Acoustic Angst
Q: How do you stay connected with your fans, and what role do they play in shaping your musical journey?
A: That’s a good question. Seeing as this is a new recording project for me, I’ve really only been trying to find an audience through online means as opposed to playing out anywhere yet. I still have to figure out the logistics of that. But it’s that whole thing where there are so many avenues to try and get your stuff heard online that it’s hard to know which ones to try and how effective any of them really are. So you try them all. I guess the hope is to slowly form a fanbase that digs what I’m doing through whatever variety of means that I can, and that they all tell a friend who tells a friend and on and on. I’d love to hear that some amount of people out there were connecting with my lyrics. That’d be rad.
Q: You have just released your new album, ‘The Voice of a Full Grown Idiot’. Is there a story behind it?
A: The story behind stepping away from my previous project Deepest Bison and starting this one was to focus more on the lyrics and the vocals than I previously had. I started thinking a lot about specific lyrics from certain songs where you might not even remember what the rest of the song was about, or the title, or anything else, but you remember that one phrase that sticks with you forever. Like “the sun pours down like honey” or “a society of whores stuck needles in an image of me” from Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave, respectively. Just a couple examples. I really wanted to write much more evocative and memorable lyrics than I had before. So the focus shifted a bit. And as far as the subject matter of the album goes, the songs are about everything from daydreaming about dying in an ambulance just long enough to be able to cut through traffic and be revived at the hospital to being creatively motivated and empowered by the feeling of losing your mind. Pretty normal stuff.
Q: What is your favorite track from the album and why?
A: No One to Serve is a good one. I think that I came up with some genuinely original and hopefully funny metaphors for the role that God seems to play in a lot of people’s lives. From my perspective, at least.
Q: Can you walk us through the creative process of producing the album, “The Voice of a Full Grown Idiot”?
A: The creative process was one of forcing myself to sit down, mostly with an acoustic guitar, and trying to come up with instrument parts and vocal melodies until I landed on something that I liked. Once I did, I’d record it onto my phone and listen to it throughout the day to keep it in my head while trying to come up with lyrics as I did other things. I don’t know how other people do it, but I can’t really sit down and bash out lyrics. I need to sort of be distracted for something to come to me that doesn’t feel too contrived or corny. So that was the writing process. The recording process was quicker, and there were minimal overdubs and other instrumentation that was written while recording. The hardest part about recording is knowing when a song is finished, but in this case, I went in knowing that I was gonna keep the arrangements really sparse, so it was easier than it has been in the past.
Q: What has been the most memorable concert or performance for Budd Jeepers so far?
A: I’ll let you know once I start performing.
Q: Reflecting on your body of work, each song holding its unique significance, could you share a particular track that stands out to you personally? What makes that specific tune special, and why does it hold a place of pride in your musical journey?
A: I’m gonna go with the song Like Knausgaard. That’s the first one of this batch that I started writing, and it immediately felt different in a lot of ways than anything I’d written previously. Most notably in the lyrics. It was the feeling of both trying harder to write in the ways that I mentioned earlier, but also of letting go and allowing the words to go off into whatever dark or ridiculous territory they wanted. That’s the one that told me I could do it.
Q: Exploring the diverse creative processes within the music industry is always fascinating. Could you provide insight into Budd Jeepers’ unique approach to crafting music? From the initial spark of an idea to the finished song, how do you navigate the creative journey and bring its musical concepts to life?
A: I’m not sure how unique it is compared to other artists, but for me, 9 out of 10 times, a song starts with a guitar part, followed by a vocal melody, followed by lyrics. And all of these things come into existence much easier and in a much better form if I can kind of trick myself into feeling like it’s happening serendipitously. Which I suppose it always is to a certain extent, but the trick is to not hyper-focus on trying to force them into existence. More just putting myself in a position to have something come to me. Like aimlessly strumming my guitar, or listening to a recording of a part I’ve already written while working on something else, etc. So it’s about repeatedly putting yourself in a position to make it more likely for something to happen organically, which hopefully makes it feel like magic when it does.
Q: As we wrap up our conversation, looking ahead, what aspirations or dreams do you have for Budd Jeepers, and what message would you like to share with your fans as they continue to accompany you on this musical journey?
A: I guess the goal is to keep cultivating an audience that can get on the wavelength. And the dream is to be able to keep following my own creative impulse wherever it leads and to have that core audience, however small, that is always down to come along for the ride. The only certainty I have about anything is that I will continue compulsively making music until I can’t anymore. It’s just that added bit of validation that pouring your soul into something is worthwhile when it makes a connection with someone else. So thanks for listening.
