Interview with Conner Cherland: ‘I just had this belief that someone was listening and I was building something more beautiful for the future’

Santa Barbara, California-based singer-songwriter, Conner Cherland, will release his third album (inc. EPs) in mid-June. Titled Love Songs by Conner Cherland, it is both a tribute to his wife and to his parents’ longstanding marriage.

This month, Cherland released his first single from the upcoming album, ‘This Is How I’ll Love You’, a charming folk song about his wife, in which he details the sweet things he does for her: ‘No, I’m not the wild type, I’m making coffee, swept out of sight the dust mites that accumulate and kill the spiders that you hate, breakfast when you’re running late.’

I ask him if he’s a frequent killer of spiders and he laughs: ‘When we first got married, I would do this thing to annoy her. We had this candle and I would smush the spiders on the bottom of it, it was full of spider bodies, you had to let them build up for real comic value!’

He will release an additional three singles in March, April and May, the next of which will be ‘Gotta Have You’: ‘I quit my job at a tech company and became a husband in the same month,’ he said. ‘When I worked there, I made a burrito for breakfast and lunch every day for two and a half years! You save a lot of money but there’s a lack of flavour and variety. It’s a cute metaphor for what my wife brings to the table. She introduced actual spices into my life, Trader Joe’s (a fantastic deli-style US supermarket) has the most amazing spices! She’s this force of variety and spice.’

The second verse of ‘Gotta Have You’ is just about the burrito: ‘It’s acoustic guitar but with a full band vibe. It’s still pretty but fun. The Rare Occasions (an LA band who I have also interviewed) play on this one. We yell out some lyrics together!’

‘They’ve been playing on my tracks for the last three years’

Cherland met The Rare Occasions’ lead singer, Brian McLaughlin, in an extremely serendipitous way: ‘I started doing music full-time four years ago,’ he explained. ‘I met him at my first gig at a coffee shop, he was there with his girlfriend. It was during his first couple of weeks in LA and we got chatting, he didn’t know anyone, I didn’t know anyone but he was open to friendship and they’ve been playing on my tracks for the last three years. They play on all the tracks on my new album, other than two.’

In April, he will release the single, ‘Darlin’, which is also about his wife: ‘It’s about if you’ve been in a relationship and that person makes you late for something. It used to annoy me but I started reframing it as I’d rather not be on time than be lonely.’

Another track, ‘Gerilyn’ – his mother’s name – is about his parents’ 38 year marriage – it’s their photo on the cover of ‘This Is How I’ll Love You’. I tell him it’s an impressive feat being married for so long and he agrees: ‘It’s extremely rare, in that photo, she’s just 20, I’m 28 now. It’s a cute sentiment. The photo was taken on their first camping trip after they were married, they’re blown away by how young they were and how much hair my dad had then! She’s looking at him cutely! ‘Gerilyn’ is a snapshot of their relationship, my dad has extreme loyalty to her and her to him.’

He hasn’t played it to his parents yet and he has some misgivings that his mum will object to the swearing: ‘There’s a line in it ‘Fifty years ain’t shit, we’re not close to giving in’ but I’m not going to tell her about it, maybe she won’t hear it,’ he laughed.

I tell him that, musically, he reminds me of The Teskey Brothers and ask which comparisons he tends to get: ‘I struggle finding a comparison,’ he said. ‘I’m often told I emulate Hozier, Randy Newman and Tayler Ashton. I copy a lot of people, a mash up comes out!’

Growing up in the early 90’s, Cherland listened to a lot of Linkin Park, Usher and Eminem – ‘entirely different stuff’, as he put it. Other music also came into the mix, though: ‘I was raised on the Disney channel, if it was mushy, I loved it to pieces!’

‘When I was starting out, I was trying to meet as many people as possible and kept meeting these “Bootlickin’ Betty” types’

‘Bootlickin’ Betty’ a track on his 2019 EP, Toad Boy!, is about a specific type of person he has encountered in the music industry: ‘I’m not from the music industry, so when I was starting out, I was trying to meet as many people as possible and kept meeting these “Bootlickin’ Betty” types. You’d get radio silence from them and then they’d leave you messages promising record contacts that would never materialise. After four let downs, you know nothing’s going to happen, it was a very weird dynamic. I’ve sort of learned to ignore them and to try and gauge when I’ll make or lose money.’

For me, the most beautiful track on Toad Boy! is ‘Let Me Body Be’, on which The Rare Occasions also play and which is based on the e.e. cummings poem about death and life going on without you titled When God Lets My Body Be:

when god lets my body be

from each brave eye shall sprout a tree

fruit that dangles there from

the purpled world will dance upon

Between my lips which did sing…

‘It’s based on that poem but I also liked Hozier’s song ‘Two Weeks’ about bodies decomposing,’ he said. ‘My song is about when I was playing in all these bars, all alone, to people who weren’t really listening, so it wasn’t very fulfilling but I just had this belief that someone was listening and I was building something more beautiful for the future.’

As the song goes: ‘From his eyes grow the food his children eat, from his hands, the grass soft on their feet, from his heart grew the love that they need.’

‘I’ll throw every noodle at the wall and not judge any noodle!’

He’s made the most of lockdown by trying his hand at new types of music and has started watching YouTube tutorials about how to freestyle rap. ‘You sound like a fool when you start,’ he laughed. ‘I’m still getting into the habit of saying whatever I want and writing it down, I’ll throw every noodle at the wall and not judge any noodle!’ He’s also finding inspiration when he’s out and about: ‘It’s very liberating, I go out on walks and sing out loud and I have the first quarter of the song by the time I get home. I’ve been having a lot more fun recently, there’s more variability.’

For someone who has been used to playing four-to-six gigs a week, the lack of social contact has been hard in recent months. However, he has found a way round it by offering free socially distanced concerts in people’s homes. ‘I’ll come by if people ask me to,’ he said. ‘I need to keep my chops up, to connect with an audience, that’s what makes people come back to you.’

Also, around once a month, he performs a show up in the mountains, where people can either listen from their cars or sit outside at a safe distance from each other.

He’s a huge fan of San Diego-based singer-songwriter James Spaite, who he describes as playing ‘percussive, finger-style guitar, he’s a really talented instrumentalist’.

The best gig he ever went to was by American prog rock band, Coheed and Cambria: ‘They base their songs off a comic that they write and the comic on their songs,’ he said. ‘They put on one of the coolest live shows I’ve ever seen, it’s kinda angsty music. I was there one time in the mosh pit as a medium sized guy with dark hair and black clothes and ALL the guys in the mosh pit had dark hair and black clothes, and I thought “I’ve found my people!”. We were all pushing each other in a Kumbaya kinda way!’

(Photo credit: Josie Farrior)