via Aaron Perlut
We pick up on Episode Eight of Season Five of the Load Out Music Podcast with a unique conversation: Welcoming in Jake Neuman of Jake Neuman and the Jaybirds, along with ace producer and former guest Greg Griffith.
Griffith’s credits include working with Alanis Morissette, Dave Navarro and Macy Gray, major label record deals and helming production on two solo records for Amy Ray of The Indigo Girls. He not only produced the new EP by the Jaybirds, “Little Bitty Town,” but he also produced the new album Peacedale by my own band, Atomic Junction.
As most artists do, Neuman started his career in less-than-glorious fashion. He was playing a Taco Tuesdays in the Bakersfield, California-area, where he, “kicked around from job to job until I found music.” Bakersfield, of course, is where the nexus between rock ‘n’ roll and country music incubated in the 1950s and 60s, and while Neuman considers the Jaybirds to be country, he thinks that it’s, “more of the idea of, hey we’re going to do it our own way.”
After moving from California to Nashville, and having not played live in two years, working with Griffith was definitely a step up towards his career aspirations.
“I learned it’s a perishable skill,” Neuman said of his musicality. “You stop for three months and you’re in trouble. I spent every day since that point getting better.”
As for the connection between Neuman and Griffith, much like the relationship between Atomic Junction and Griffith developed—it was one born through social media, as coming out of the pandemic Griffith found himself surfing TikTok and Instagram.
“I was kind of coming to terms what I wanted to do with my life,” Griffith said. “I was not in love with the idea of being on the road 180 days out of the year,” without his family.
Thus, he launched a studio and record label under the Peacedale name and ultimately went to Nashville and met with Neuman at Americana Fest.
“I’d done some little BS in the past, but it was kind of home recording,” Neuman said of working with Griffith. “I’d never really worked with a producer until Greg. He kind of heard what was in my head.”
Atomic Junction teamed with Griffith after a conversation we had together. We had a sense that he truly understood who we were, what we were doing and how we hoped to accomplish our goals. But there was a significant learning curve in working together once the rubber hit the road.
“There are some projects I feel I have very little to offer,” Griffith said of his experience with Atomic. “I just saw potential there. There was a place for me and my skills of maybe helping people listen to each other…We all need that validation—that, oh somebody believes in me and has to rise to the occasion.”
The experience was so rewarding that we chose to name the album Peacedale after the studio and in light of our experiences there. But the work—Griffith is all about the work—the long days, grinding it out and developing a product that people will want to hear.
“It’s not always rainbows and sunshine,” he said. “That’s the thing about recording is that you put that microscope on and, man, it shines a light in some areas you don’t want to even talk about. Sometimes our delusion is what gets you through the day. As a producer, sometimes you have to have some hard conversations. At the end of the day, we need to make a good record.”
It’s an amazing conversation between three artists talking about two pieces of art they collectively developed together. Enjoy the latest episode of The Load Out Music Podcast.