Meet Jarrod Gipson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jarrod Gipson.

Jarrod, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Music has always been the biggest part of my life and I can’t recall a day it wasn’t apart of it honestly. I started drumming unofficially when I was about three. I had this little toy drum, and that progressed to pots and pans, and that progressed to a real kit when I was eight. My dad was in love with music and watching him have the relationship he had with it opened my heart and eyes to it as well. Once I got that first kit, I was sold, and dove in. I started drumming in church when I was about 11, and that’s when I got the bug of performing music live, but I knew before then that’s what I wanted to do. When I was about 19 I started playing for a band with some of my friends, and then that kind of took off too. At one point I think I was in three at once, and I was in love with all of it, from rehearsals to the traveling to the actual show.

Drumming took me a lot of cool places and I got do some amazing things, from festivals to studio recordings, endless practicing, live shows, writing with friends, plus it introduced me to so many amazing people that I still talk to and have relationship with today. But I started finding I had more to say and couldn’t say it through drums and started burning out.

When my Dad passed away, drums no longer felt the same, which was very hard for me. So I started trying to teach myself piano. I had pretty bad insomnia and I had a hard time getting any sort of feeling to make sense, so I just would sit and play piano and sing(horribly haha) all through the night till I was so exhausted I could go to sleep. Eventually, I had some basics down and just writing down my feelings and how hard it was, which lead to poems, which eventually became songwriting.

I fell in love more than I ever had with anything or anyone. Songwriting and singing those songs is what made my heart come alive, and what made me feel like I was going to be ok, that there was hope, and it felt like purpose, so I committed to it. I always say to friends that Music is kind of my wife in a sense; I know it and she knows me, and it all started in that time. I cried and my piano listened, I was angry and it was there, and these words I started writing became very close friends. It showed me the living being that I believe music is for all of us, and why it is so powerful and the universal language to all of us.

Not knowing how to play piano, how to sing correctly or technically, etc. is what I am most thankful for because it abolished any rules or right way of doing things, which allowed me to give the most authentic, raw form of myself in each moment I was writing or creating. So now being an artist and releasing my own music, I try to keep that authenticity and raw emotion intact and tangible throughout each song or piece I make.

Being here now as an artist and not just a drummer is a crazy feeling for me, that I dreamed of but never thought would happen, so I am very thankful to be where I am and am quite content for possibly the first time ever.

Has it been a smooth road?
I think my road has been the farthest thing from smooth in many senses. The biggest reason I am still even living is my family. I realize more and more each day how rare the love and support of my family is, but outside of that, the road I am walking has been more wild, beautiful, and challenging than I ever imagined.

On a macro scale, loss and anxiety have been my biggest challenge but specifically, my dad dying was the biggest challenge by far. He was my hero, my best friend, and everything I believed about myself and my life were due largely to what he said. Thankfully he said amazing things about me and my life’s course, but still, I only believed because he said so. So when he died, I completely lost myself. Then I lost a lot of the friends around me, was forced out of my community at the time, was in and out of a toxic relationship that started while she was married, and I just turned off inside. Music was the only thing that turned the lights on in my soul if that makes sense. It was what kept me going and kept me from ending my life, or drowning myself in sex, alcohol, and my feelings.

My anxiety throughout that time was at a level I never even believed existed. I went through so much trauma at once that my body sort of took the brunt of it while I shut down, so from insomnia, to having an insane phobia of dying, panic attacks, I was an absolute mess. I remember if a place was too loud even, I thought I’d be having a heart attack and have to go home and lay on the floor while my mom took care of me.

Creatively, the challenge was not knowing what the hell I was doing. I was horrible at singing and didn’t know a lick of piano or anything, so I felt stupid for even thinking I could have my own music, perform it, or even create it. Add that on top of life outside of music, and it was too much for me most of the time.

But all of it taught me to keep going and never quit on yourself. There was something in me that just refused to give up and sacrifice my dream because it was all I had left to hold on to, and that place looking back, as dark and scary as it is, is a beautiful place to find yourself. It allows you to truly know, within your soul not just the mind, who you are and what you are capable of.

It also gave me the ability and the space for depths of empathy, patience, and understanding. So as much as I hate loss, I am thankful for what I allowed it to show me in its jaws. I try to translate all of that in my music because I never want someone to have to feel as lonely and alone as I felt. All I wanted was out, and for someone to understand and just see where I was, how much I’d been through, that I wasn’t crazy and this superhuman that could hold up the world on my own. Even the ones who did that for me know at the time I couldn’t receive it, so I want my music to give the space and permission for others to feel those things, and know that I am with them in it.

Loss is something I think we all avoid and fear, but the biggest thing I learned, and the biggest hurdle to jump was accepting that loss affected me so deeply simply because I was loved and loved that deeply, which is truly the biggest gift.

Can you give our readers some background on your music?
Music is the universal language in which people can all come together and share a moment, connect with one another, no matter their differences. I make music based out of intense emotions and life experiences that hopefully connects with others and pulls them into my experience, and I hope that it conveys to them that they are not alone, that someone gets it, and that they are more than capable and loved.

I think I am most proud of the album my friend Tyler Cuchiara and I just finished, “Heart Eyes. Cycles. Clear Mind.” It was two years of intense hard work, and so much growth for both of us, and created a brotherhood that I am beyond thankful for. We wanted to capture the intensity of the last four years of my life and create an experience that was real and raw, and I think we really did that. I couldn’t have done any of the last two years without him, creatively, and as a person. We just had our release show and it was amazing to see the response and energy of the room based off of what we had made together, and I am stoked to start doing more shows.

Now more than ever there is so much music to listen to, so many artists to follow, and I am jumping into that massive pool. I think what sets me apart is the foundation of passion and authenticity that I create from, and I hope that translates to every listener that they are not alone and capable.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
In my opinion, the music industry has gone through probably the most change this decade because of technology and streaming, which like everything, has it’s benefits and pitfalls. Now you can make a record from your room, upload it in a day, and be known all over the world the next morning. That’s not how it used to be, and I think that’s a beautiful, empowering thing. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for those innovations.

Simultaneously I think it’s created such a massive pool of music, content, and artists, that quantity has overcome quality and authenticity. Technology does so much of the work for us now that I think the voice of the artist has become diminished in a lot of ways. Everything is so perfect, whether that’s pitch of a vocal, or timing of a groove, that there’s a lot less humanity in it now.

I think we will start seeing more and more people start looking for the more authentic sounding music and artists, instruments, voices, etc. I know as a fan of many artists, I want to feel like I can connect with the artist and feel I know them through the music and outside of the music, so I think the artists that are doing that in a jarring, tangible way are going to be taking over and setting the standard. I hope it heads in that direction.

Contact Info:

• Website: jarrodgipson.com
• Email: jarrodrgipson@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jarrod_gipson
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jarrodrandallgipson
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jarrod_gipson

Image Credit:
Devin Richter. Paul Jones. Bobby Stevens.

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