Lindi Ortega

0:00So how's life? Life on the road? You've basically been on tour for a little while. You're almost almost done this run. How have things been? They've been great actually. This tour has been awesome. We've gone to some really great places. Tour Texas did Arizona, which I've never played. Or Phoenix, Arizona. It's the Hootenanny Festival up in Silverado, California. And then the Way to Take Croak Festival and then the Suttery Sioux St. Marie. And there's a few more left to do. Right. The Hootenanny makes me think of social. You know, I was reading somewhere online that you opened. So maybe they got it wrong. Did you actually open on tour with social D? Like did you go up? I did twice. I hope I opened for them twice. How does that fit?

0:49The detailer is set. It's awesome. Yeah. The detailer is set to be different because that crowd is looking for something a little different, I would think. Not really. I just played more of my faster rockabilly kind of song. But it was great. They've been one of the best audiences I've ever opened for. And not only that, but when I went to do my solo run, a lot of social defense came back to see me. Oh, that's interesting. Yeah. Yeah, they dug it. I mean, I think it's cool. I mean, Mike Ness is a huge country music fan. He loves Johnny Cash and even does a cover of Ring of Fire. We ended our set every night with Bolson Prison. So I think it was a good tie-in. And yeah, I mean, the crowds were great. And I knew that I couldn't go up on stage and be sort of

1:39meek and scared. I knew it was a crowd that I had to really give her and stand behind what I do and be confident. And it went really, really great. Honestly, it's one of the best tours I've ever done. That's so good. So do you want to try and tour with more punk fans? Is that the interesting pairing of Lindy Ortega's music? I think there's room for it. Definitely. I mean, I just did a collaboration with Tim Armstrong from Rancid. And we did a cover of I Want to Be Sedated. And I mean, we did sort of like a country version of it a little bit. But I mean, I think the doors opened there to do more collaboration stuff with the punk and rockability world. And I think Hootnanny was a great example of

2:30that opening that door. I was the only female fronted artist that was performing it this year. So I felt very proud to be able to do that and happy that my music allowed me those opportunities to play those types of gigs. So I'd totally be open to do more and more of it. Just since we're on the topic of gigs, I was at the Dakota last night for Cuff the Duke. And I was listening to your record yesterday. I thought our interview was yesterday. But so I listened to the record yesterday quite a few times. And I was thinking like the album fits in like the, I'm sure it works at Hootnanny and with the big crowds and everything. But it like, I'm picturing in my head as I'm listening to this record a room like the Dakota. A room's like the Dakota to go see your shows at. Have you been, do you agree with me or am I hearing things?

3:18Yeah, I mean, it works there. I think, you know, between the two records, which is often what I'm doing is is said is between the two records and now adding in the third record, which is coming out in the fall adding into new songs with that. You know, I would play anywhere really. I mean, that's what we've been doing. So, you know, maybe cigarettes and truck stops itself is more suited towards the Dakota code. And if I was just playing that record, but I think when you spend, you know, now having three records that are going to be out, you know, I think it's flexible to play all kinds of rooms and spaces and shows. I guess my question, it wasn't a very good question when I phrased it now that I thought about it a little more. I'm thinking more with Colin when you're producing cigarettes. Are you going for that kind of, I don't know what the word is, country bar kind of vibe?

4:07Because it sounds very airy, very reverby, very like full room kind of sounding. Well, I mean, I'm just sort of trying to speak to those people that loved those kinds of old sun studios kind of recordings and appreciated live off the floor recording and stuff that's pretty organic and we produced and with many, you know, multi-layered sort of affected vocals and things like that. So, I think if you appreciate sort of the old school sound and whether that be blues, country, soul, rockabilly, I think that those people, I mean, I guess that's the kind of market that I was appealing to when I was making my records. And is that changing that? Did you finish the record? You said you have a record coming out in the

4:55falls of Dunner. You still want to. I have a new record coming out. No, I mean, I'm still very much an appreciator of that old school sound and continue to have it inspire the music that I do. Yeah, I'm not really interested in being part of the pop world or that kind of sort of top 40 radio. I mean, if a song happens to cross over through some miracle, then I mean, that's cool. But if it's not what I'm not catering to making sort of a formulaic record that would fit that mold. It must be interesting playing. I always love talking to bands when they have the record finish and they're out on tour. They're road testing the new material, but no one's heard it yet. So, it must be really interesting from a performing standpoint of playing these songs that you know

5:41nobody knows and seeing when and where they catch on and where people are singing along at different parts. And do you have, have you noticed any of that kind of stuff happen with these new songs? Yeah, I mean, they've been getting really great responses. We've been test driving three of the songs off the new record and people are really, really enjoying them. So, I'm just excited for the record to come out and people to hear the rest of it. So, it's great. It's always exciting to play the new stuff, you know, because I do so much touring. So, I play so much just the first record and I've played them so many times. So, it's just, it's invigorating to get on stage with your crew, the people that you toured with and do these new songs. It's invigorating for me and for them. And also, I think for an audience that, you know, they're used to cigarettes and trucked up and

6:29little red boots. It's nice for them to hear something new. Are there songs from those two records that you think will always be in the sets? You're saying you're kind of tired of playing some of the older ones, but are there ones that like they need to live every night? Yeah, we usually do like little lie every night because people, people know those ones off the record. So, we do that in the day you die. Yeah, there's a few, there's a few that we definitely play every night. But the day you die a little large, they're always in every set. Cool. When, when are we going to do you know when the third record's in me out? Can you say I don't want to be quoted on it, but I'm going to say you can quote me on October. I don't know the exact date, but I'm going to say I'll joke. But fairly soon. Okay, cool. Awesome. Yeah. And what else do I want to talk about? So,

7:14how did moving to Nashville change? I mean, it's such a Toronto to Nashville is a huge, huge difference, especially in terms of just from what I know from the few times I've been to Nashville, there's music everywhere, there's writers everywhere, there's writing sessions going on 24 hours a day. How did it change your life? Well, I mean, my initial reasons for moving to Nashville were more to absorb its history. I know there are a lot of my music heroes have been affiliated with Nashville in some way, and there's a lot of history there. So, I didn't want to just read about it. It was very important for me to go and experience it for myself and try and imagine what it would have been like in the 70s to be a music maker in Nashville. And you know, they've got, they just

8:06opened the Johnny Cash Museum there. So, you know, it's kind of like the only place you can go and see all the memorabilia and read about it and get really close to it. So, that was important for me. But since I've been there, I mean, I've learned so much about sort of Nashville and the culture itself and it being a music city and a mecca for country music. And you know, you mentioned the Dakota and as far as sort of country-esque music goes, Dakota is kind of like a big place to play for that. Whereas there's 100 Dakotas or Dakota-type places in Nashville to go play. So, there's for me as an artist just to sort of spread my wings. There was a lot more room there. And yeah, it's

8:52very inspiring. I mean, like you say, everybody is making music or involved in the industry for the most part. And so, there's a lot of commonality with the people. It's easy to make friends out there and collaborate and do fun projects and sing on other people's, you know, recordings and all that sort of stuff. So, I just think it's helped me grow and it's helped me learn and experience and evolve. Have you done the co-write thing? Have you tried writing sessions with people? Oh yeah, yeah, definitely. And it's definitely a collaborative effort with me. I think it's a beautiful thing when two creative people can get together and form a song together. And I have people that I like to work with. I mean, I've done co-writes where I haven't liked it initially.

9:42I wasn't into the idea because they were in experiences and I enjoyed particularly. But I think it's kind of like dating. People always say this and it's true. It's like you kind of know off the bat if you're going to hit it off or not. And when you do hit it off the chemistry, it's good. And people get where you're coming from. Then it can be amazing. It can be a really beautiful thing. And then I mean, on the same side of the equation, it's like you can also have a, or somebody doesn't get away from it. And it doesn't work out. And you know you're never going to play that song ever again. And it gets awkward. Kind of like a date when it goes bad. So it has ups and downs and when it works, it's great. And I've definitely been fortunate to work with people

10:32in co-writing sessions that have been amazing. And it worked really, really well. And I love the songs that we've written together. And I mean, there's songs that are written with people that really get where I'm coming from so much so that I forget that it's a co-write. I feel like it's my song, you know? And it's really great. So I don't turn my nose up at all. I think it's really great. It's wonderful to collaborate with other people. I want to talk about just too much time. I want to talk about Brandon Flowers just singing back up. I saw 20 feet from start him a couple weeks ago. Have you seen that yet? No. Documentary about backup singers and just the unsung heroes of some of your favorite songs kind of thing. So as a performer, it's actually really cool like hearing some of those stories.

11:17But as a performer, a lot of people have seen the killers in performance. Brandon is known as this big showman kind of thing. What did you learn from a performance standpoint of watching him every night? It's a very different world. Really, the world I operate in, it's a much higher level and it's a much more mainstream level. So I learned that it's a different world. It was really something that came about at a time where my hands were tied as a musician. I couldn't do anything because I was in the midst of getting out of a major label deal that went bust. And I still wanted to be involved musically and do something and that opportunity came about.

12:03And I didn't think I had anything to lose by taking it. So I took it. And of course, you learn things. I mean, I guess I learned what it was like to be on a tour bus with a bunch of boys for months on end and learned that I can handle it. And I guess it was my first time sort of being away for that long on a tour and going to those countries, which is really, really cool to be able to visit Europe and play some of those big festivals and sort of learn about what it would be like to be on show like Leno or Jimmy Kimmel or Jules Holland and see the behind the scenes on all that kind of staff and what tour buses are like and that level of touring. So that was definitely a learning experience. But for me, I mean, if there's one thing I learned at the end of the day,

12:53it was that I had no desire to be a backup singer and that I really wanted to do my own music. And I was aching to get back to creating my own songs and doing my own things at the end of the day. So, well, I think it's, you know, I have a lot of respect for people that do back-backing singing and I totally know what they do and their experience is. It's not for me. So I guess that's what it taught me at the end of the day. It sounds like it wasn't creatively fulfilling enough. So were you writing? Was it like a creative period for you from a writing standpoint? Did you have time? No, it wasn't much time for that really. It was quite busy to be honest and there wasn't time,

13:38you know, you were constantly surrounded by people. Like I said, I'm not a butt with about 15 people, 15 guys. So there was no room to escape to to pick up a guitar and write really. Not a lot of downtime in hotel rooms and stuff like that for that kind of thing. So, there wasn't, yeah, like I said, I felt like I really felt like I needed to be creative and I needed to get out of being a backing singer because the urge within me to create and sing original songs was very strong. So it's for some people, but it's not for me. Right, cool. So we do something called Five Questions. Five Quick Questions, one word answers. Road or studio? Road or studio? Road. Landon or McCartney? Landon. When you hear a song what usually hits you first,

14:28lyrics, melody or rhythm. If someone's never heard Lindy or Tega, what song do they start with? I know it's a new one too. I really like it though. I'm gonna say murder of crows. Cool. That's what I wrote beside it. I wrote a cool song. And in one word, Lindy or Tega? Passionate. Hold it.