Jesse Astin is one of the most talented people that I know personally. I met him several years ago while working at a radio station and have tried to keep in touch with him ever since. He went from small town almost signed band member to doing BIG things in California. I recently got a chance to ask him about what he’s doing now and how he got there. Check out what he had to say and check out his music! You won’t be disappointed!

Photo Credit: Heather Ahrens

Amber: Been so long since I got to sit down with you in the dirty south! How do you like California?

Jesse: California is great. Weather is beautiful. Food is amazing. Culture is very diverse. Always something to do. I’ve lived here for two years now – some days I feel like I’ve been here a long time, and some days I am amazed with myself that I have accomplished so many things in such a short amount of time.

Amber: Do you get a lot of studio time there?

Jesse: I actually manage a studio in Burbank and have my own room there to work in, so I am in the studio almost every single day, usually for more than 12 hours a day.

Amber: What’s your current project(s)?

Jesse: I am almost finished with the new ‘Like Clockwork’ record that I have been working on for over a year now. It’s the best music I have made yet. I recently just played guitar on the new Automatic Loveletter record and wrote three songs with Juliet that will be on the record. I am also producing, writing, and developing a young artist named Lanchen. She’s 16 years old and has a killer voice and we write songs that are a little outside the box from what the typical pop-Disney girls would be doing. We’re making real music and it’s exciting. I’m also continuously working with my friend Mike Hardin of Stereo Then Video on a collaborative project that I started called ‘That’s Called Going For It!’ We’ve been working on that material for over two years and it’s really turning into something special.

Amber: What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done since you’ve been in Cali?

Jesse:I’ve done a lot of engineering and editing since I’ve been here and I think the funniest thing I’ve done was work on John Travolta’s vocals for the Bolt Soundtrack with Miley Cyrus. It was so funny to listen to his voice. He still sounds exactly the same as he did in Grease.

Amber: Ha! That’s hilarious! How many albums have you recorded personally and with the band combined?

Jesse: ‘Kill The Word’ was my first record. ‘A Cross In The Ground’ came after that. Then I spent a year or so working on 20+ songs for a record called ‘Placing A Future In My Life’, which I ended up losing due to a hard drive failure. Luckily, I had the latest mixes of most of them, so I ended up releasing the record anyway, although it was never technically finished. Then I did an EP called ‘All Signs Point To Yes’ which is the first record I did with an actual “band”. The new record is called ‘These Are All Things’ and it’s 95% all me. I had a few friends play on some of the songs but it’s mostly me doing everything. I think I prefer that when it comes to actually record Like Clockwork records. It works better for me.

Amber: which one’s your favorite and why?

Jesse:The new one; ‘These Are All Things’. I learned so much more about myself and about life through the making of this record. I had all the tools that I needed to get the job done properly this time, so it was much easier to let myself go and take the time to get the right sounds, etc. I feel that I made a really beautiful record.

Amber: Tell everyone about the song you produced and co-wrote that aired on CSI: Miami. How did it come about? Who did you work with? If someone missed it, do you know where they can find it?

Jesse: The song idea was started by a track that Baron Von Luxxury brought in to our writing session. We moved some things around, wrote a great chorus but found ourselves stuck when we realized that the song needed a female’s perspective. I invited Bonnie McKee to come in and help us finish the song and she killed it. The song was written almost a year ago and it basically just sat there with our publishers for a while until one day we got a phone call that CSI wanted to use it. We recorded Lucy Hale (the actress in the episode) singing the acoustic version that you hear at the end. So it just goes to show that you never know might happen to a song. I think it’s a really great song and I am glad people are getting into it. You can buy the dance-pop version on iTunes now under the artist name “The Show Stoppers”. You can watch the episode online, it’s called “Show Stopper”.

Amber: If you could pick one quote that motivates you on your day to day, what would it be?

Jesse: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I – I took the one less traveled by – and that has made all the difference” – Robert Frost

Amber: Could you give our readers a little bit of history on how you got to where you are? It didn’t happen over night, right?

Jesse: Wow, where do I start? I picked up the guitar at age 9… started playing at the house of blues in Orlando by 14. I had bands all through high school and eventually was offered a paying gig in a band called Travisty Theory at age 19 that I played with for about three years. We were almost signed to Geffen and everything fell apart. For the best. After that I opened a recording studio in Atlanta and started recording and producing bands. After a while I got really tired of recording local bands and felt that I was capable of achieving much more than just being a local producer that recorded cheap demos for bands. It was really frustrating. So I reached out to my friend Matt Mahaffey who was out in LA and asked if he needed any help engineering or editing, and he was just about to work on the Forever The Sickest Kids record so he hired me and that was my first major label gig. I assisted and editing on a lot of other records before getting hired by songwriters Scott Cutler and Anne Preven to manage their studio. After a few months I worked up the courage to play them a few of my songs and a few months after that they offered me a publishing deal with Check Your Pulse / Downtown Publishing. I got a few songs placed here and there and have continued to work on my own music as well. And that’s where I am now. I have a feeling this year will bring me much further in my career.

Amber: The infamous question, some of your musical influences and why?

Jesse: Queen, Smashing Pumpkins, Elvis Costello, Nine Inch Nails. I enjoy artists who venture outside the box but still have a real consideration for songs. You can be totally weird and crazy and creative and record you screaming through a metal trash can while wearing a tambourine around your neck – but without a good song you got nothing. It’s all about balance!

Amber: Can you give our readers some tips on rocking really hard?

Jesse: I think you just have to GO FOR IT!

Let me add, when Jesse says he did the whole album basically by himself, I think he means it looked like this:

Photo Credit: Drew Crozier

Be sure to check out Jesse’s Website and Twitter!

☮, ♡, ♪

-Amber