YM&C Exclusive Q&A: Oh, Jeremiah

What’s that sound? The creaking of a front porch swing, crickets chirping in the night, or maybe it’s the wind blowing through the Magnolias. No, wait. It’s just the sounds of Oh, Jeremiah. Bringing you new music all the way from Mississippi, Jeremiah and his fellow music makers are taking the South by storm. I’m very excited to share with you the lyric video for the first single off “Our Very Own Kingdom”. Now at first, I’ll admit, I was a little bummed when I found out the two badass alpacas (see album cover) weren’t spitting any verses on Oh, Jeremiah’s newest single, Two Animals. But alas, I decided to give it a listen and fell in love with what I heard.

I also had the opportunity to ask Jeremiah some Qs. These were his As:

Introduce yourself and your bandmates.
Oh, Jeremiah as an artist is myself, Jeremiah Stricklin. I am really just a singer/songwriter. But I’m honored to have a band that I can trust and that travels with me to perform live. Erin Raber plays violin and is legitimately my favorite female singer on the earth. I hate my bass player but only because he’s my brother, Josh and I’m allowed to/supposed to. We have a couple drummers we rotate in with us but Cody Carpenter seems to hang around the most. He is the drummer for our new record and he’s one of the greatest guys I know.

I understand you write your own songs, where does the inspiration come from?
Most of the time, it comes from a self-destructive point of view. Being a songwriter is the only job you can tell all the bad things about yourself and then someone hands you a paycheck at the end. I have learned, though, that many people may show up to a pity party, but they don’t stay until the end. So I try to find an exciting way to dig deep into those big emotions. For instance, I’ll write these dark feelings into a fun song through the eyes of zoo animals.

List 5 descriptive words for Oh, Jeremiah’s sound? (*for an extra challenge use only words that begin with letter S)
Serious yet Silly. Sensible yet subtle. Saucy.

Do you have a favorite song from your new album?
Two animals for a great number of reasons. Very rarely do you go into the studio and capture exactly what you set out to do. There’s a certain level of compromise that goes into working with other people. But for some reason, everyone linked their souls together for 4 minutes and it just takes me some place.

Do you think being a musician from a small town gives you an edge?
Without a doubt. It’s almost unfair how much free time I had to practice simply because I had absolutely nothing better to do. Being a storyteller, you have to learn to dig into someone’s life on an emotional level. When I travel to big cities, people are far less inclined to speak to strangers. In Mississippi? I’ve literally been handed a jar of strawberry jelly “just because I looked like I needed it.”

If you could tour with anyone in the world, who would it be?
Josh Ritter. Next question.

Describe what life’s like on the road with Oh, Jeremiah.
The LEAST glamorous job in show business. I listen to a lot of audiobooks or podcasts about comedians I love. I often tell people I’m not a singer/songwriter for a living. I’m a driver and a secretary. I drive 6 hours to play 45 minutes, answer a bunch of emails, whether it be booking or what have you, and then repeat. But there is something magical about those 45 minutes.

Last one. When I say Mississippi, you say?
Crooked letter crooked letter dotted letter. Hump back hump back dotted letter.

Bonus: Fill in the blank: If I weren’t a musician, I would be a screenwriter or batman villain.

Get your copy of “Our Very Own Kingdom” on April 29th.
P.S. If you’re in the LA area Oh, Jeremiah will be gracing the Room 5 Lounge on July 10th.

Facebook.com/OhJeremiahmusic
ohjeremiahmusic.com
@ohjeremiah
Instagram: Oh_Jeremiah

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Lauren Powell

Just a small town girl...No, literally I grew up in an extremely small town. After 24 years I made my way from Mississippi to Los Angeles to pursue my dreams. I like to live life by the "Three C's", cats, cake, and crochet.