INTERVIEW: Jocelyn Arndt

We got the opportunity to talk with the lovely Jocelyn Arndt. Read our interview to find out about her most recent EP, Strangers In Fairyland.  We also have exclusive news about a single to possibly release on Valentines day! Find out more below:

For anyone who hasn’t listened to you before, how would you describe your sound?

 I’d have to say indie blues-rock with a pretty heavy lean on vocals.  We’re not too into sticking with rules though, so sometimes anything goes!  We always try to create music that feels right to us and while sometimes that’s just guitar, bass, piano, voice and drums… other times we’ve worked with entire horn sections, vibraphone, violin, synth, you name it.  It’s a blast!



What makes your sound unique and stand out from the rest in your genre?

I can tell you that standing out and being unusual is not a plan or strategy.  As a matter of fact it’s a little scary. The underlying feel in our music comes from growing up listening to all sorts of tunes from our parents CD collection. The artists on those CD's are really what inspired us to do what we do now.  Lucky for us, our parents have good taste! If we tried to be anything besides ourselves, it wouldn’t be honest and the music would never feel right.   I guess we’re just indie artists with a little bit of an old-school tint. 
 


Your EP Strangers In Fairyland released in October. How has the reaction been so far?

OK, number one and most important:  Our parents LOVED it!  That might sound kind of goofy, but that was a big deal to Chris and I because they’ve always supported our decision to do music. Beyond that it has been great!  So many wonderful comments from both friends and people all over who we’ve never met.  It’s also really interesting that so many people have different favorites!  We’ve even had radio programmers argue over it.  Of course there’s also the fact that Chris and I love it.  It truly makes us both so proud and happy.  We’re stoked!
 


What would you say is your favorite song off of the EP and why?

There are seven songs on the EP.  Coincidentally, there are seven days in a week.   I can have a different favorite every day of the week!
But, since you are interviewing me on a Thursday, and it’s the 4th day of the week…  I have to go with track 4 “Lullaby”.  Super cool track where Chris created a dreamy guitar texture and I tried a different vocal approach.  We also have a video for the song coming out in a couple weeks… stay tuned!

 


What is your writing and recording process like being a sister and brother duo?

Try, try some more, eat, disagree, try, take a break, eat, repeat!  More specifically and maybe more seriously, Chris will come up with a guitar progression, or I'll get a melody line stuck in my head, and then we'll build the song from there. We’ll fiddle around with things until we’re proud of what we've written. 
 


Any plans for a full length?

Well here’s something I don’t think we’ve shared.  We have a song just about wrapped up that features Danny Louis from Gov’t Mule on keys and legendary jazz vibraphone player Tony Miceli.  Those guys are unreal!  The song has a sort of updated swing feel with horns and Chris lending some great guitar.  I think we’re going to release that as a single on Valentine’s Day.  Other than that, we’ve got around 20 songs we are working on, including a new track written by Nolan Neal the frontman for Hinder.  It looks like August for a full length.
 


Any tours in the future?

Yes! We’re in The Northeast through the Holiday, then we’re in NYC, Cleveland, Nashville, Chattanooga, Atlanta, Birmingham, and Memphis.  After that I think we’re planning dates in California.  We love to play and meet new people!  It’s going to be insanely awesome!

 

Anything else you would like to add?

Yes!  Chris and I want to thank everyone for listening, coming to shows, and making us love what we do even more.  If you haven’t heard us please just give us a listen.  Our music is available from all the usual spots! If you’d like to keep tabs on our music, tour, or just our general silliness, check out the Facebook.com/jocelynarndt.  I post every day with the latest news, or whatever. Thank you so much for having me. (: