{"id":3640,"date":"2014-08-07T22:31:55","date_gmt":"2014-08-08T05:31:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/?p=3640"},"modified":"2014-11-11T06:56:54","modified_gmt":"2014-11-11T14:56:54","slug":"polly-interviews-derek-jennings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/polly-interviews-derek-jennings\/","title":{"rendered":"Polly Interviews Derek Jennings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"banner_001\"<\/a>Musician Derek Jennings of Ventura talks about songwriting, family, the Beatles, his former band The Return, and why his new record \u201cBummertown\u201d is not a bummer.<\/em><\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 What\u2019s your Ventura history?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Derek<\/a>Derek: I was born in Camarillo actually, two cities away, about 5 minutes on a good day.\u00a0 I was born at Pleasant Valley hospital and lived in Camarillo \u2018til I was about 17\/18, I went to high school in Oxnard and I frequented Ventura Theater all through those years, just going to see shows so I\u2019m no stranger to the area.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Was it a conscious decision to become a musician or was that something like the music chose you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 It\u2019s somewhere in the middle. I think it\u2019s where both of those two things meet. My dad was a big influence on me in that he would always have music playing.\u00a0 The biggest thing I remember was \u201cBreakfast with the Beatles\u201d.\u00a0 I forget what radio station but every Sunday morning he would just turn on the radio and he\u2019d let it play, you know, as my parents cleaned the house, chores, and me and my brother would fool around but I\u2019ll always remember that as well as the radio just being on pretty much non-stop. There was a lot of classic rock so I grew up on all the same songs that my dad grew up with when he was a teenager.\u00a0 Zeppelin, Stones, Beatles so that was mine and I\u2019m sure like a lot of people the big introduction to music. Where it changed is my dad also had a couple guitars lying around the house.\u00a0 He had a steel string acoustic and a classical nylon string, and I liked to play with the nylon strings because it wouldn\u2019t hurt my fingers as much. When I was about 14 I decided to actually pick it up and try to figure out how it worked. So at that point once I was able to figure it out it wasn\u2019t easy, but it wasn\u2019t necessarily difficult either.\u00a0 I was able to play it and was really excited and that\u2019s kinda where those two things meet.\u00a0 The music chose me\u2026and then I chose the music.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Who inspires you? I know you mentioned your dad and the Beatles, which I want to get back to you when we start talking about \u201cBummertown\u201d.\u00a0 Who inspired your songwriting? \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 I have always looked up to those old rock stars like the Beatles, Stones and then when I was learning to play guitar it was guitarists Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, they really shaped and molded the way I wanted to play. It was after high school with artists like Pavement and Elliot Smith, some of the more indie rock bands that opened my eyes to the songwriting. Not that the Beatles, who were like the greatest songwriters, but being so young I wasn\u2019t quite ready for that. So there\u2019s kinda like two sides to the influence. It\u2019s the playing and the wanting to be a rock star you know, not necessarily being famous but definitely well known. I want to be a master of my craft more than wanting to be famous. When I realized I could spend a little bit more time and actually write a song is when I started listening to Elliot Smith and actually going back and digging deeper in to those early influences and looking at how they wrote songs and how they came about, deconstructing those songs that I grew up with and finding a lot more meaning in them.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 What do you think about writing a song, does it come naturally? Is it music first and then lyrics?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 I think for me it\u2019s always been music first. I always usually start with guitar in hand, that\u2019s my main instrument, and then the lyrics. The riff tells me what kind of lyrics. Sometimes I\u2019ll give it some more thought but it\u2019s usually the song and the emotion, the tone of the song, that\u2019s when I decide to put lyrics to it.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 You\u2019re basically a self taught musician, have you ever gone to music school?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 No, like I mentioned before when I was 14 I picked up the guitar and I think the first song I tried to learn was a Green Day song they were the big acts, you know, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins. I\u2019m a 90s kid at heart. In fact I watched a biography on Kurt Cobain last night got nostalgic. I think it was a Green Day \u201chidden\u201d song on one of their records, it was like 3 notes, and I said, \u201cI liked to play this\u201d. I learned to play it, the rest came from there.\u00a0 Then when I was 15 someone my father worked with\u00a0 was a blues guitarist. A weekend warrior you know, he\u2019d play on the weekends. So I took maybe 3 guitar lessons from him all of which I asked him to tab out Nirvana songs, a complete waste of his time, haha he did it you know of course and we paid for his time.\u00a0 But that was the also first time I played his beautiful vintage Gibson Les Paul which I damn near dropped because they\u2019re so heavy and so amazing. So yeah, I am self taught and I totally wasted his time.\u00a0 But he did show me those songs and a few other things and it opened my eyes even more so I can\u2019t I say I didn\u2019t take anything away from that. It was definitely a good experience.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about the record.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Absolutely.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 There are four songs on the record.\u00a0 Did you originally go in thinking okay I\u2019m going to lay down four songs and how did that evolve?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Derek<\/a>Derek:\u00a0 I as you know I had won the Zoey\u2019s Ones to Watch and I contacted Shane (Alexander) who agreed to help me produce the record. When I think about EP I think 4 or 5 songs and we both agreed 4 songs would be good with the time it would take, that was the best way to go.\u00a0 I had a short list of songs that I had played for years, even when Zoey\u2019s was on Main.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 I have heard a fast version of Quicksand (song 1 on the EP) was that one of the early songs?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Quicksand is, of all the songs, actually is the only one that hadn\u2019t been written recently. Its a couple years old. I recorded it as an instrumental while I was living in LA and it\u2019s still one of my favorite songs. It\u2019s kind of an Americana style instrumental and that\u2019s something I\u2019ve always loved growing up.\u00a0 Like old Fleetwood Mac. I love instrumentals as much as I love to sing. If I could I\u2019d write instrumentals all the time.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 You\u2019ve got a great guitar style I really enjoy watching and listening to you play the guitar but I also love your songs.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Oh thank you. I don\u2019t know where that came from\u2026<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Haha<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 I thought about that the other day and I tend to bring in\u2026umm, the way I hit the strings it\u2019s like my own built in rhythm like percussion. I noticed that recording the record and at the very beginning of Quicksand it basically starts out with the guitar strumming and it almost sounds like a drum roll intro. Yeah, I love it, I don\u2019t know where it came from but I\u2019ll take it. It\u2019s something that developed.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Your record is very reminiscent of 70\u2019s British pop, Beatlesque, Paul McCartney. Does that sound speak to you? Do you hear that? Do you feel that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yes absolutely, I\u2019ve always been the biggest fan of John Lennon\u2019s lyrics but Paul McCartney\u2019s music, especially his The Ram record… which I\u2019m sure a lot of people site as a big influence. I recently read that when it came out it was kind of a flop.\u00a0 People didn\u2019t like it, they didn\u2019t get it. For me I grew up hearing like \u201cUncle Albert\u201d, he mixes 3 songs into one long song and that blew my mind! That\u2019s the most amazing thing to me. I\u2019ll also to do that. I\u2019ll take 2 old songs and kind of meld them together.\u00a0 That\u2019s how Quicksand came about. It was an instrumental at first with a lead guitar playing over it and I kind of mimicked what the lead guitar was playing and started singing over it\u2026 and unfortunately in 2011 my dad passed away.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 I was going to ask you about you dad because of the lyrics in that song.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 It was unexpected he\u2019d been sick for a while he had heart complications from his time in Vietnam and he also battled with alcoholism and I wouldn\u2019t say drug addiction but he liked to smoke pot.\u00a0 And he couldn\u2019t have one without the other. Definitely a sad addiction and he got sick.\u00a0 So I don\u2019t think\u2026 he never really quit or slowed down. It got to a point where he needed to exercise and he wouldn\u2019t even get up and take a walk. He lived up in Northern Calif. He moved up there to help my brother. My brother has a couple little girls and was going through a rough patch with his ex-wife so my dad moved up there to help him out. My dad just kind of settled.\u00a0 They have a really good VA hospital up there. They really took care of him but he couldn\u2019t take care of himself.\u00a0 So when he passed away it wasn\u2019t a surprise but it was sudden.\u00a0 I shot up there and all he really had left was this old guitar. A beautiful Epiphone late 70\u2019s I believe. I took that and re-wrote Quicksand with his life in mind.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Wow<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yeah, his biggest regret was that his father never got to see me. I\u2019m the first born. His dad passed away not even a month before I was born.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad he got to see pictures and to talk to my daughter. He kind of fulfilled his wish to live long enough.\u00a0 At the same time my grandfather also died due to alcoholism and he was 50 years old, really young.\u00a0 My dad had a self fulfilling prophecy so when he turned 50 he did really well, but he died at 63. He had a good decade on his pops but a lot of that was downhill.\u00a0 That\u2019s how that story came about, him to being able to at least know his grandchild.\u00a0 He was a really good grandpa.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 It is a great tribute to your dad, lovely lyrics, the melody is amazing and you play it so well.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 It gave me a lot of closure and helped me mentally.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 The song \u201cDon\u2019t Forget About Me\u201d was collaboration with you and musician Shane (Alexander). How was that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 That was great. The beauty of collaboration and songwriting\u2026\u00a0 that\u2019s the one thing I haven\u2019t done since the split up of my band, to really sit down with other people and play music. And sitting down with him was brilliant because Shane is absolutely brilliant, his knee jerk reactions are just perfect. I had a short list of songs I wanted to do and most were 2, 3, 4 years old and I had this idea of a chorus that just popped out \u2026\u201droad your bike back home\u2026\u201d but I had it in double time with all the chord changes and I wanted it to be this big production and I showed it to him, showed him the intro, and I didn\u2019t have much, I had a verse and a chorus. He just said \u201cYes!\u201d and he kind of was giving me some pointers and we were working on it and I told him I really liked this song and we shook hands, I said let\u2019s co-write this. He was really into it and I didn\u2019t want to take the time to write the song myself otherwise it would never have made the record. Nor would it have sounded as great without his help. So we sat in his kitchen and wrote the song right then and there.\u00a0 We wrote the melodies and the lyrics, barring a little bit of editing here and there that song was written in about 30 mins. That was a lot of fun. That came out of spontaneity.\u00a0 The only idea I really had was kind of a mixture of two time periods the innocence of when you\u2019re a kid\u2026 I used to ride my bike a lot and when I met my wife, I met her through bike riding.\u00a0 On our first date we went on a bike ride. So I meshed those two ideas together and Shane helped me develop that.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 So it\u2019s a song about and for your wife Kat.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yes, it\u2019s for my wife with that melancholy, that childhood thing, because I think that draws a lot more people in. I think everyone can on some aspect relate to that rather than me coming out and being all you know lovey dovey to my wife haha, but I really am, I really am.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk about your family.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Aha<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 If you want to.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 No, absolutely.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Knowing you I feel that your family is your center, your central purpose of why you do what you do.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jennings<\/a>Derek:\u00a0 Growing up I always thought I\u2019d play music.\u00a0 Even when I got stuck in a rut with my day job I\u2019d always play music as a habit. But when my kids were born I was proven so wrong because they absolutely have become my reason for living\u2026 the meaning of my life are the kids.\u00a0 And it\u2019s so crazy and so corny but it\u2019s absolutely true. They are so brilliant and they are so little versions of me and my wife and I see my dad, my mom, my mother in law. I see everything in them. It\u2019s so crazy watching them grow up. And being able to show them stuff, things, music, instruments, art it\u2019s so much fun. Everything I do is for them and I don\u2019t wake up in the morning without wondering how I\u2019m going to better their lives as best I can.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 So moving forward how do you balance that being a musician and trying to get your career going having a family?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 It\u2019s going to be the hardest thing I\u2019ve ever done because I am a musician.\u00a0 I\u2019m a hard dedicated worker at what I do and if given a task I will do it. But in my heart I want to be a musician and that\u2019s really the end of my abilities.\u00a0 Like I said it is going to be the hardest thing I\u2019ll ever do. Looking at someone like Shane he\u2019s been a big mentor and my guide as to what I\u2019d like to do with my music. I see how hard he\u2019s worked. That guy is a hard worker. That\u2019s always been really difficult for me. I\u2019m the you know the guy, give me a guitar, I\u2019ll write the songs, but hire me someone to book me a tour or get me something to drink because if I start recording in my apartment, on the rare days I get to go home I fiddle around, I won\u2019t eat or drink anything because I don\u2019t know how to take care of myself. So it\u2019s going to be a long road.\u00a0 But life has opened my eyes to what I can do and I\u2019m going to take that and run with it. I\u2019m gonna work as hard as I can and I\u2019d love to phase out the day job aspect of it\u00a0 because it\u2019s really draining. And I don\u2019t think anyone in life should have to settle for anything less in what they really want to do. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s too much to ask.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 And you\u2019ve got the support of your wife\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yes absolutely, she\u2019s really supportive. She\u2019s always trying to help me out whether it\u2019s shopping for a new guitar, or trying to get an idea on a word that rhymes. She\u2019s super supportive, my family has always been, and my kids\u2026they love music.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 They are adorable<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yeah, that\u2019s an understatement, they are really something else.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Your goals, ambitions \u2013 you\u2019re looking at playing out more, doing tours?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yeah, I forget that I\u2019m a lead man at heart. I would love to be able to write music for film, TV, other people. I foresee myself doing that in the future but I\u2019m probably pretty na\u00efve about it. I don\u2019t know how that world works. I\u2019ve been told that\u2019s a whole different machine. I would like to share, I write a lot, and I\u2019d like to collaborate but at the end of the day I\u2019d love to be on the road, playing shows, playing live music, that\u2019s really what I like to do.\u00a0 I\u2019d go out and play on the street if I wasn\u2019t so terrified of doing so.\u00a0 Again that takes me back to the day job thing. It\u2019s so draining when you have a song idea stuck in your head and there\u2019s absolutely nothing you can do about that. I think we should all be able to step away when we need to. Again that\u2019s going to be difficult. But I would like to play more live music, all the time, every time\u2026haha<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Your newest record is called Bummertown so let\u2019s just get that out of the way. Why Bummertown?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Bummertown\"<\/a>Derek:\u00a0 Bummertown (song 3) came after Quicksand. It\u2019s just something I would say. It\u2019s just a saying you know like oh, we\u2019re out of food, bummertown.\u00a0 Haha, and I love it. My dad comes from the the early 70\u2019s you know, \u201cbummer\u201d. He used to always say \u201cbummer, I love it, so cool\u201d. And the way I use it myself is tongue in cheek you know I mean things are always going to be bummertown but there is always some kind of a silver lining.\u00a0 Somebody asked me \u201cis your record going to depress me?\u201d\u00a0 I said absolutely not. It all kind of turns around on itself, things may be bad but there is always a silver lining. Just depends on how you look at it.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 It does have that you know, oh man this is gonna to be a bummer, haha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Haha that\u2019s just how I am, black comedy. I do try to focus on the more positive aspects, the lighter side of a dark story. That song just kinda came about. I don\u2019t know what it was\u2026when my band split up, I started playing solo more, I\u2019d play Zoey\u2019s a lot. You kept having me back, which was great, I don\u2019t know why but you kept having me back, so that was a lot of fun. And then I met my wife. We made a decision to move to LA. I felt like the music scene in Ventura, I wasn\u2019t connecting with anyone like before when I was in a band. I felt almost alienated but I probably did it to myself. I probably dug in. I played less and less, but I\u2019ve always written. Moved to LA, still wrote, I didn\u2019t really connect with anyone there.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Did you play shows in LA?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Here and there. I\u2019d hook up with people from Ventura, old friends, from older bands.\u00a0 And again I didn\u2019t try anything new.\u00a0 This is another thing about me.\u00a0 My wife and I got pregnant and coincidentally my old job needed me and I needed a job so we moved back to Ventura. I just kind of laid low. I was day job dad. And I was happy with that. But I was always writing. And then of course you called me and kinda got me out of my shell. Then at that point there wasn\u2019t a lot of places for me to play so it was great to have a place.\u00a0 Bummertown came about when I lived in LA and it was about not connecting and the revelation that it\u2019s nobody else\u2019s fault but my own.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Song 4 \u201cA light That Still Remains\u201d was that a last minute?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yes, originally we were going to go with \u201cWaiting for A Train\u201d which everyone knows is \u201cmy song\u201d and I will probably re-visit that when I do an album. I kind of had an idea and I showed Shane and again, his reaction you can\u2019t beat it. When you see that look on his face and he\u2019s into it there\u2019s no going back. He\u2019s going to make me work now. He\u2019s gonna make me finish this fucking song\u2026<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Right, you\u2019ve released the Kraken.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yeah, haha, I had no other ideas for that song. We had a start date and I knew I would have to have the song completed. You know there wasn\u2019t really any pressure other than from myself so that song came about sitting in my living room. I was fortunate enough to have an apartment which has kind of a limited view of the ocean. So it\u2019s really nice, as luck would have it there was a storm and it knocked down the neighbor\u2019s tree giving us a beautiful view of the ocean.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Haha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Haha, so the sun was setting and I was fiddling around, I had my guitar and like I said before, the music comes first. I had a little guitar riff that I really, really liked and I just went basic – sun, setting, boom I\u2019ll start there. The song came about with no real story behind it so I created a story. It\u2019s basically, and I\u2019ve never really felt this way. I\u2019m really connected to my family but the song was about having one foot out the door. You\u2019ve got your responsibilities but there\u2019s a whole other world out there.\u00a0 It\u2019s kinda playing on the\u2026<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Yearning.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Yes, there\u2019s always more. You have your responsibilities but you have your yearnings. It kind of plays off that and I think everyone in the back of their minds has had those feelings at one time or another. It\u2019s not about being\u2026 untrue. It\u2019s just about those feelings and to deny that, is to be untrue, you know? We are all human. It took me a while to get there but yes, we are only human and that\u2019s what that song is about.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Well, it\u2019s so pretty.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Working with Shane has been amazing because when he heard me play he said wow this is music that I like. Working with him and seeing his enthusiasm it made it all that much easier I was able to be myself and I was able to write what I wanted to write, no pressure at all, he\u2019s a pretty mellow guy.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 But he\u2019s a task master.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Absolutely, and like I said I don\u2019 t know if I\u2019ll ever be able to have that discipline but he is someone who knows what he wants. I\u2019ve always been jealous of people who have that ability to\u00a0\u00a0 know what they want. To wake up in the morning and say I\u2019m going to do this, I\u2019m going to do this and I\u2019m going to check off all my boxes you know. I get up in the morning and say oh what do you want to do today, oh I don\u2019t know what do you want to do today? Haha.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Haha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 I\u2019m really fortunate to have support and a lot of good friends, I think that will help me find my way. It\u2019s nice to be able to be doing this again and I\u2019m not na\u00efve at all when it comes to dues. I absolutely have to pay my dues all over again.\u00a0 As I said I was in a band for 10 years.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Yes, let\u2019s talk about that.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 I was in a band called The Return and we were kind of in the vein of the Police and The Clash but we had a little bit more post rock influences, like the band Fugazi and influences from some of our peers who are still around today. We started out as a SKA band in high school and it whittled down to the 3 core members. Myself, Justin Dempsey, who currently plays with Stop Breathing who was just on tour with the Pullmen sitting in on drums. He\u2019s really continued playing music on his own and Justin is absolutely a juggernaut on the drums and Andrew Gavigan played bass.\u00a0 Andrew actually doesn\u2019t play music anymore but is a very successful fitness equipment entrepreneur and has done very well for himself. The 3 of us initially decided to go it on our own.\u00a0 We set up all our own tours, toured around the country for 6 years, we were invited on tour over to the UK in 2006 with RX\u00a0 Bandits they wanted us to come. We got on Myspace, sent out a plea saying we need a driver for us in the UK and someone came back and said he\u2019d do it. So in true punk fashion we drove around the UK and toured in a hatchback. They drive the smallest cars over there. It went really well and we recorded 4 full length records, that we are all super proud of them. After a while we couldn\u2019t quite get to the next level even though we had the talent, we had the songs but I think is was hard to come back after every tour and start over.\u00a0 How do you pay rent?\u00a0 The bane of all touring musicians is – what do you do when you come back from tour? You just want to go right back out on tour because that\u2019s all you know, that\u2019s how you sustain. It finally came to a head. No bad feelings but we all kind of looked at each other one day and Andrew, not that he was the catalyst or anything because it was all in our heads, said \u201cI don\u2019t know if I want to do this anymore\u201d. He said, \u201cI want to move to New York, I want to do something different\u201d. And there was no push back.
\nJustin and I just looked at each other and we kind of agreed. There was not \u201cWhat!?\u201d \u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d There was no animosity. It was just, wow, we\u2019re so glad you said that.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 Hahaha.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 And you know the months after we were really regretful and remorseful because that\u2019s all we wanted to do but we didn\u2019t do anything to continue. So that whole thing when I say I paid my dues I literally feel like I have.\u00a0 We worked really hard, did everything on our own, printed our own T-shirts, we did have a record label, who was just one person Matt Martin, he was like the 5th Beatle or the 4th Return but we wouldn\u2019t have been able to do anything without him. Between the 4 of us we did everything ourselves. And it was really great and it was really rewarding but it was really hard. I\u2019m not going to play dumb when I say this time around I\u2019m going to know that I\u2019m going to have to pay my dues, again. I\u2019m not expecting anything from this F\u2019d up world. I know that I\u2019ve been playing for awhile and I could be like hey, where\u2019s my record contract and where\u2019s my money but I would like to think that I\u2019m too humble to do that. Because I know there are a lot of hard working people out there that have been doing it for a long time. They totally deserve it and for some they\u2019re never going to get it and that\u2019s too bad. I don\u2019t want to be one of those people. I\u2019m really going to work for it and hopefully get my break somewhere along the way. In the meantime I\u2019ll still work and I\u2019ll still be dad and I\u2019ll always write. That\u2019s my goal to somehow play music. Then again I should probably compartmentalize that goal cause of \u201dwhat do you want to do? I don\u2019t know what do you want to do?\u201d It\u2019s going to be much more difficult. I should probably set some goals and I have. I\u2019d like to set up a tour I\u2019d love to release a full length record and just get out on the road.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 And eventually do this as a full time job.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 Absolutely, I\u2019m living vicariously through Lee Koch. He\u2019s just been with his family on the road in a trailer and that\u2019s just beautiful to me I\u2019d love to do that. And his shows are not at huge venues but he\u2019s on the road and he\u2019s been playing and he has no hang ups and at any moment he can stop and turn the car around somewhere else and he\u2019s got his family with him, his guitar and so I\u2019ve been closely monitoring that.<\/p>\n

Polly:\u00a0 You know it\u2019s possible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Derek:\u00a0 That\u2019s what I learned when you go on tour, you set it up and stay in peoples homes and you meet and become friends and play shows and that\u2019s where the magic happens. And my wife, she\u2019d be there in a heartbeat. If I came out and said out of the blue, you know it\u2019d be really cool if we could just get the F out of here and before I\u2019m even done talking, she\u2019s like already on Craigslist looking for a trailer. She\u2019s very into it.\u00a0 But I\u2019d love that, to go around the country and play music and meet people. That\u2019s probably not great for being a lucrative rock star because all I\u2019d want to do is play free shows but I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a way to meet in the middle. To at least do the day to day and be happy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Musician Derek Jennings of Ventura talks about songwriting, family, the Beatles, his former band The Return, and why his new record \u201cBummertown\u201d is not a bummer. Polly:\u00a0 What\u2019s your Ventura history? Derek: I was born in Camarillo actually, two cities … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,257],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interviews","category-polly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3640"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3640\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3652,"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3640\/revisions\/3652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/venturarocks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}