ifitbeyourwill Podcast
"ifitbeyourwill Podcasts is on a mission to introduce you to amazing indie artists! Join us for cozy, conversational episodes where you'll discover talented singer-songwriters, musicians, and bands from all walks of life. Let's celebrate the joy of music together!"
Season Four - September 2024 to December 2024
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ifitbeyourwill Podcast
ifitbeyourwill S04E03 • Arthur Alligood of phoneswithchords
Ever wondered how a suburban kid from outside Nashville finds his musical path amidst the city's evolving soundscape? Arthur from "Phones with Chords" shares his fascinating journey from childhood oldies mixtapes to bedroom pop anthems. Arthur opens up about his mixed feelings toward Nashville's contemporary hits and his love for older country music, sparked by a spontaneous decision to pick up a guitar after quitting basketball. This episode offers an intimate look at how a simple choice can ignite a lifelong passion for creating original music.
Join us as Arthur digs into his creative process, revealing how voice memos on his smartphone capture spontaneous musical ideas that blossom into full-fledged songs. Hear about the magical "gateway song" that sets the thematic course for his latest album, inspired by reflections on time and personal experiences. We also take a lively tour of Nashville's iconic country bar scene, savoring hot chicken and heartfelt moments. This captivating conversation underscores the importance of love, support, and mutual reliance, wrapping up with a touching musical piece that beautifully encapsulates these themes. Don't miss this emotional and insightful episode as we kick off season four!
season four. We're really, uh, kicking it into overdrive here in season four. I love to start off with some really powerful guests and I am not pulling punches again today. Um, I have arthur from phones with chords. Um, who's, who's the brainchild behind this? This, this, um band I guess we'd call it, or name or moniker, whatever you might want to throw a tag on it. Um, it's really amazing music all at like very dyi, bedroom, dreamy indie poppy, it's like all the little tingly things that indie listeners like.
Speaker 1:Or find on this record. It tingles me still as I listen to it today. So, arthur, thanks so much for hopping on here and chatting a little bit about your musical story. Yeah, yeah, I'm glad to be here. Cool, where are we finding? You where are you coming in?
Speaker 2:from. So I'm uh, I'm uh outside of nashville, uh just kind of like northwest of town, um yeah, so just a little small town um is that where you grew up, area so right, is that your hometown, that your hometown that you live in still?
Speaker 2:Not my hometown. I grew up most of the time here. I was actually born in Athens, georgia, and then we moved away when I was little and so I've lived in these little suburban towns outside of Nashville, little suburban towns outside of nashville, like my dad was a journalist and so he, he had his like main, like paper job in nashville. So we've kind of lived, you know, growing up I lived in these little, like I said, little like suburban towns outside, uh, but never really in nashville proper. So cool.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, do you, um, do you find being close to Nashville has helped your music, like it's such a vibrant place for music that is is? Was that one of your intentions? Going close to Nashville is just so that you're close to that, that hub?
Speaker 2:I, I actually have. So I actually have a pretty love hate with okay, you, okay, you know, because I grew up like you know, like went to high school, you know, here, I've been here most of my life and so it's so for us going to Nashville was like, oh, it's in high school, it was like a Friday night and let's go walk Broadway, kind of thing. School it was like friday night and let's go walk broadway kind of thing. So I never really just country music really, you know, was never really a thing that I was really drawn to until later, like right in my like 20s and 30s, when I like discovered a lot of like kind of older country type stuff.
Speaker 2:But like I struggle even now because nashville has become, I mean, it's just a whole nother animal now and so, um, I don't really have like I don't really have any, um, connection with the city as far as musically. Now, it just happens to be where I live, so, yeah, and I appreciate like my brother is a, he's like an archivist and he works at the Country Music Hall of Fame and does work there and stuff, and so I feel a connection to that early country music history. But I like nowadays I'm like, yeah, I yeah, country music's changed, hasn't?
Speaker 1:it?
Speaker 2:it really has. Yeah, it really has, and I am. I am just not. There's nothing uh about it, at least like country radio. That's really appealing to me.
Speaker 1:So right, right, yeah well, arthur, let's start off like yeah, I'm asking this question to start um as to like, where did it all start for you, like music wise, like yeah, what was your first? Like influences, and then, when you know, when did your, your personal music, fold into that whole kind of love for music?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was actually thinking about this the other day. What is my first moment of listening to music? And I think my earliest memory of listening to music was just one Christmas, getting like a. It was like an oldies mixtape, mixtape where it had just had.
Speaker 2:It was just like all the best of the oldies, like yakety yak and you know, la bamba and all those songs and I remember sitting there in this like, uh, my grandpa's old, like you know, uh lazy boy, and listening to that, uh and really loving it. But then I didn't really get into playing music or writing music until late high school and on a whim I asked my mom for a guitar and we went to this pawn shop and she got me essentially the crappiest guitar that anyone could start playing guitar on. It was so bad but I just I took it up to my room, closed the door and it was like I think that was the beginning where I just the possibilities just seemed endless and I never was like the guy. I learned a couple of songs, but I was never like learning covers. I just almost instinctively from the beginning just wanted to write little riffs or come up with things on my own.
Speaker 1:So well, had that been, was that kind of a catalyst for asking your mom for that guitar? That you kind of had these things swirling around and were like, hey, I wonder if you can turn this into the physical world?
Speaker 2:um, yeah, I think I didn't. There was a shift in me because I I had I was really into like athletics, play basketball and everything, and I'd actually quit basketball my senior year and I was trying to fill the void of what sports had meant to me, and so I just like I said, on a whim, I was like, oh, it'd be cool to do something totally different and get a guitar, right, you know, and so yeah, but I I don't think I was really aware of the things that were going on in my head and the things that I was thinking, until I got the instrument and then and stuff started spilling out. I was like, okay, well, this is a processing thing, you know. Yeah, yeah, which still?
Speaker 1:is absolutely, absolutely. And when you were first starting to kind of play and yeah, what were you what? What were you trying to emulate, or or or? What style were you trying to? That? You were close to that. You wanted you. That inspired you to yeah, to write the songs like what were you listening to and like what. What was your objective like? I want it to sound like yeah, yeah, I think.
Speaker 2:Um, it was two things. So I mean, obviously I grew up in the south and in the church, so there was things that I was emulating in two different worlds. It was like like jars of clay. I don't know if you remember that band back in the day.
Speaker 2:I was like huge into them, as I was a youth group kid Like I wanted to be Jarzik Laisovat, and then on the other side I guess more of the secular stuff. It was like Oasis, and I remember learning Wonderwall, which is so weird, you know, because they're doing they've just announced those shows- yeah, was it 30 years later? Yeah, I remember a moment with learning Wonderwall it was the first time.
Speaker 2:My brother's just very, just, very to the point, and that was the first song that I learned he goes. That actually sounds like the song, because apparently I was just butchering every other song I tried to learn.
Speaker 1:It's like actually actually sounds like it um well every step is a step in your journey, right? I mean you gotta go through some of the lows to get the oh heck, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So yeah, it was a little bit of both, both worlds like that. And then my dad would bring home because, being a journalist and stuff, he would bring home, you know, these like little sampler, sample CDs that people sent in Cool, and they would just there would just be a pile of like a kind of a bargain rack at the paper and he would just like, oh, arthur, am I like this? And he would bring it home and that exposed me to some cool stuff. So so yeah, yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 1:That's cool. And what was your first? So you started in high school, Did you? Did you get together with other people, other colleagues to to play together, or did that happen a little bit later than high school? So?
Speaker 2:once I well, yeah, in high, late high school I had become friends with still guys that I still kind of keep up with and we we had a band and we were just we. There was one like all ages venue. That was like a little bit. I mean, it was close enough that it wasn't super far for us to drive and we would play there and but it's weird because it's like I haven't. That was really the only place like collective band that I think I've ever been in. After that I just started really doing my music on my own. It ended up being the situation where I would go into the studio and put a, a band together just for the album. Okay, okay, but never. I mean, there's been a couple of times where I've had like a tour and had a band, but it's not not been like that. That first band you have where you're just like playing in a garage and you don't play with anybody else and this is your. You're just cutting your teeth, right, right, yeah and what was your decision?
Speaker 1:to? To kind of want to do it on your own, to to kind of be the everything for, for the music you want to make? What was that decision process?
Speaker 2:like arthur, I think I think it was just looking, uh, looking at song. Right I, when I got it the guitar, I started writing, but I didn't really know what songwriting was, or I didn't know who songwriters were, and one of the only artists that my dad I remember my dad listening to or singing along to on the radio was james taylor, and so I remember fire, fire and rain would come on and I would hear him singing to that and I think, even subconsciously, I, I thought man, one individual, wrote the song. I think I started looking around and saying, okay, songwriters write the songs. I think that's what I want to do. It's not necessarily to have a band or be a rock star, like have a band or be a rock star, but just to. I think the craft is. During that time I was just like oh, okay, now I know what I want to do. I want to write songs, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's cool. What's your process? Like Garth, how does a an idea that you might have a line, a phrase, how does that evolve into something that you'd put down on tape?
Speaker 2:so I, this is honestly perfect, like like for that question, because it's I always typically go to and to explain, like you know, sit down with a guitar or whatever. But just today I, uh, uh, one of my daughters had a like a cross-country meet and so I went to that and I was just waiting for it to happen and I just started kind of like hearing or like a line in my head, and so I I'm big on, I'll just pull up the notes app on my phone and I I wrote like I like, even looking at it when I got back today I was like, okay, okay, this song is pretty much done. I've just got to like, find the right key and like. But I didn't have an instrument with me and I'm just like hearing this eternal internal melody and I know if, like anyone's around me, they're like what is?
Speaker 2:she doing, because I'm just like tapping, and then, when no one was looking, I would just like sang it into my phone. You know, and that's really phones with chords, is that that idea?
Speaker 2:and it's kind of a stupid name, but the idea that really songs for me. I mean, what's the smartphone I got one of, the I'm just the voice memo app. You know, it just changed everything for me, because I will write so much stuff that I will just I'll forget about, and then every now and then I'll just start, I'll just it's like treasure troving you know, just go back through and like oh crap, I love that, why didn't I do?
Speaker 2:anything with that cool um, so, yeah, yeah. So I think for me it can be at any moment. I still do me and a guitar kind of stuff where I just sit down. I've been writing the last couple of years where it's just me and I'll start with like a beat or something in logic and then build it out that way. But yeah, I've just kind of wide open. It just comes in so many different angles, right, right, yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I guess when you have an inventory as well, if you're ever kind of like blanking on new things, you always have a little treasure chest you can go to and just pull something out that you've already kind of started.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like a. I don't know if you have this wherever you live, but there's. I don't know if you have this wherever you live, but there's. It's very common to just like go down a road and some guys just got essentially a junkyard on this property and it's like 50 to 100 cars and it's just everywhere, and it's like, and people come and they're like, oh, I need this part off of this car and I feel like that's what I do. I just like I'm very like obsessive about not throwing anything away, and so then I just go back to my phone or I go back into my files on my computer and I'm like, oh yeah, I just pulled that. Like I'm constantly like borrowing, you know, and it's so weird because sometimes I'm like I think I'm stealing this from somebody else and then I'll just I'm realizing I'm stealing it for myself you know, it's something that I'd like eight years ago, you know, yeah, so it's funny.
Speaker 1:That's funny, man. Yeah, that's really cool. And how did? How did this latest record that's coming out? We were just talking about this. Yeah, coming out next week, uh, friday the 13th um of this september. Yeah, how did this record come to, to be what was? Yeah, how did it start? What? Are these? A collection of songs that you sat down to write for a record, or is it similar to what we've been talking about, where it was like songs from long, year-long history?
Speaker 2:actually this, this record was. I was right, I thought I was going in a certain direction. I was working on these other batch of songs, yep, and then over the holidays this past year I just I wrote one song. I was really just contemplating my, my kids are all in high school and they're getting older and I'm just like just feeling kind of my life, kind of like just flashing before me, and I wrote this one song.
Speaker 2:I'm a big believer in the like. Sometimes there's gateway songs where one song will just kind of open the door, just enough. And then you're like, oh, there's all kinds of stuff in this room, you know, all kinds of stuff in this room. You know, and, um, so yeah, I started writing and all these. It was just a lot of songs about time and the past.
Speaker 2:You know, just things going by quickly and things like that and so, um, but they were all written on the electric guitar, which I don't typically write on the electric. My brother, he was like had this kind of cheap electric? He's like do you want to? I don't typically write on the electric. My brother he was like had this kind of cheap electric? He's like do you want to? I don't use this, do you want to have it or borrow it? And I was like sure, and just writing on the electric guitar opened up so much. And then I was just like okay, this is where I'm going, and just kind of like I don't know. I feel like I write in batches where it's like I'll write in a certain vein like 20 songs, and I'm like Whoa, where did that come from, you know? And so yeah, so that's kind of where it started.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Arthur, is there a persona that, like you say, like I love that, I love that illusion you created of opening a song will open a door to a whole other batch of songs? Yeah, Do you keep that same persona of the song that opened that door? I guess I don't know in the sense that you keep that style or you keep that lyrical thread or you keep that kind of sentiment of that song and kind of build up around that kind of aesthetic.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's a great question. Yeah, I I think. Yeah, in ways, I think it's just that that song, like, like I said, opens the door and then you get in there and then there's, like you realize, everything in the room is has a thread. Yeah, so everything is connected, everything is kind of in and really your only job is just to take the time to, to work, to work out the material you know, to kind of see what's in that room come to fruition. And it's not that you're like okay, I'm going to put on this jacket and I'm going to be this certain person. It's just like, okay, I'm going to accept what this is instead of trying to make it something else. Um, just kind of like, because there's a couple songs that I thought I don't know how this is gonna fit on there, but then at the end I'm like okay, I think it still does, even though it's like really different okay so so yeah, I love that question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I mean, I really like this record, um, so first off, people go buy this record, support phones with cords. I mean, it's such a great bunch of songs as well. Yeah, back to your other, your catalog. Yeah, and this record in particular. It seems like you were, um had had reached out to times to some more collaborators, or was this still very much your?
Speaker 2:you kept it close to heart well, I, I, um, I do everything at my house, just kind of like all the recording, but I admit that the record before this I did a collaborative album with this. Uh, this guy, ben that's in this band, called a place for owls. They're're from Denver and they're like kind of like emo or emo adjacent or whatever, and like I grew up on that style, uh, you know, and so I've just kind of made friends with them and they're like younger guy, like guys, and I'm I'm not really in that scene anymore, but it's just there's just really cool people. But one of the guitar, the guitarist uh for that band, nick weber, uh, we connected and then, uh, he's just super talented guy and I just started, he became like my sounding board for these songs and so I would just send him the demos, the really just crappy demos, and he's like this is great man. And so we, we ended up talking and he was like I, you know, I would love to mix this and so, but he actually did more than mixing. He was kind of like we co-produced it, in that he was such a, he was like there the whole process and uh, so I would send him an early edition of a song and then, and then I would go back and work again and then I would add all this stuff and he's like oh, this is even better. You know, like so it was.
Speaker 2:It was a constant back and forth and I realized I, I really worked that way, like I think why nashville uh, I didn't really feel like I fit in nashville is because it's about co-writing in a room, getting three or four people to write a song. You know, that's this, that's the kind of the, the common thing, and I I'm more of a let me buy my be by myself, work something out, then send it to someone, okay, give their feedback, and you know that that. So there's more of a like a, just a natural back and forth rather than a like, okay, I've got to somehow bond with four other people in a room. You know, I'm like, I need time, you know yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:so did you find that it was helpful to have that sounding board of? I mean, because you, you had done stuff by yourself, purely by yourself, right when you don't have that sounding board, what did you notice? The differences in the outcome of your songs?
Speaker 2:Well, I will say that the record my second record somebody had to I worked with this guy, connor Ryan, and we had a similar kind of back and forth tune Very similar guy, connor ryan, and we had a similar kind of back and forth tune uh, very similar. Uh, the only record I've truly the phone stuff that I've truly just done on my own was my first album, uh and um. So I've realized that I work good, work well, with one other person, like one other person. That is like okay, we're gonna we're gonna have this back and forth relationship and we're gonna like work together to make this thing the best that it can be. I've realized that that's a pattern for me and, too, like, I have a thing I I like to. I feel like if, in the end, you have a good record and you also have another good friend, then that's I mean, how can you ask for more than that? Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:And what kind of bringing things to a close. Arthur, thanks so much for joining. I mean some of your imageries and comments are really enlightening and just really cool. What does the future hold for this record, the release 2024? What do you plan on doing with the record once it hits the ground there on Friday?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I'm obviously just releasing it and I've there's another. I'm obviously just releasing it and I've, I've there's another. So I wrote so many songs that we were actually for a little bit contemplative doing like a double album, but we realized, like this is way too much stuff. So the next record after this, which I've already even started on, is it's, I think, going to be it. It's gonna kind of be like a follow-up to this, but I they're gonna be connected in some way. I don't think it's gonna be like a double album type of situation, but I think they'll almost be like bookends, um there and so, yeah, so I'm working on that, um, I hope to just get this album out.
Speaker 2:You plan on doing any shows with it a launch show or anything like that, yeah, part of me starting Phones is that I just where my life is. I don't really have the time or energy or resources to tour.
Speaker 1:Sure sure.
Speaker 2:So I'm just like okay, but I can make records you know, Right. So I my my goal my, like my five-year goal when I started phones was to have enough material maybe out and built up, maybe a base enough that maybe at the end of that I can maybe do some shows and I may do some shows before then, but I've I think the pressure to just get out on the road is something that I'm just not ready to take on right now.
Speaker 1:Sure, well, I mean the landscape of music nowadays is. Artists do it in so many different ways, some people have a tour. You know some just write to tour. So I mean, it's whatever floats your boat, really, um as long as you writing, arthur this guy right here will be happy.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, yeah. There's definitely no chance that I'm going to stop writing.
Speaker 1:Right on.
Speaker 2:So, but yeah, one of these days I'll get out there.
Speaker 1:Cool, cool, We'll all get down there.
Speaker 2:I've always wanted to come to Nashville to check it out and just like you said walk that strip and pop into this country bar and that country bar, eat some hot chicken. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, oh yeah, that stuff will set you on fire man right on right on yeah, well, I wish you all the best with this.
Speaker 1:Um, I'll definitely keep you on the radar yeah, for sure, and like I said, all the best with it and uh, thanks so much again for for joining me today to talk a little bit about you and this great band.
Speaker 2:Thanks so much. I appreciate it. Cheers, yeah With your love.
Speaker 1:I can't go wrong Without it. I don't wanna know when I'd be. I know you need me too, and I won't let you. I won't let you down. I won't let you. I won't let you down. I won't let you. I won't let you down. I caught your smile at the stars. The stars are silent, the stars. I keep it hidden in my heart. You're with me wherever I go, but I won't let you, I won't let you down. I won't let you. I won't let you down. I won't let you. I won't let you down. I won't let you. I won't let you, I won't let you down guitar solo I want to let you down.
Speaker 2:You won't let me. You won't let me down. I won't let you. I won't let you down. You won't let me. You won't let me down. I won't let you down. You won't let me down. I'm
