Jackson Dean in Zurich

Another day, another concert AND another interview! We had the chance to sit down with Jackson Dean before his first-ever show in Zurich. If you want to know, what know more about his upcoming single or which song he would love to play live someday, keep reading. A couple concert shots can be found at the end of this article as well.

While I got to sit down with Jackson Dean before his show at Plaza Klub this past week, country music fans were lining up to get into the venue. It was so great to see that the country scene in Zurich is growing still. Plaza was almost sold out, so it was really tight inside. But that just goes to show that this music genre has great potential and young artists such as Jackson Dean are also welcome in Zurich – or Switzerland in general.

Interview with Jackson Dean at Plaza Klub

Anyways, welcome to Zurich, and thanks for taking the time. So, You just came down from Zermatt, which was probably one of the more special venues to play at. Do these kind of like special places influence your performance?
Absolutely, thank you. Playing underneath the Matterhorn… That whole valley was incredible. Places like that are incredible. We try to go to as many national and state parks as we can back home while we’re on the road, and we love it. We have many photographers in our band.

Everybody’s pretty much got a Fujifilm and does their own thing. But you see those places, and it definitely does something to you on the inside. You’re like, well, I better give an extra 5%, 10% on this. But in clubs and stuff, you can feed off all sorts of different kinds of energy, and sometimes you’re pushing hard, and sometimes you don’t have to push so hard.

Was there a highlight during your time in Zermatt? Could be offstage or even onstage.
Taking the train to the top of the mountain was pretty cool. We went to the highest post office in Europe, which was pretty cool.

But getting to, I’ll say this… Taking a big shot of Fernet, looking at the Matterhorn eye-level with it was pretty funny and pretty awesome to be able to do. Everywhere we go, he orders at least three shots of Fernet (Jackson points at his manager). If we go to a new place, he’s just like, yeah, Fernet?!

Ok, so we know what to bring to the next show 😀 How would you describe your music to someone who doesn’t really know what country music sounds like?
Hmm.. Raw. The studio stuff is killer production, striving for perfection. But live – it’s raw.

On the commentary version of your first album, you mentioned that “Wings” is one of the songs that you really love playing live, how come? What makes it different compared to others?
I love it because there’s something that happens to the audience when it starts, everybody kind of just, like, quiets down. And it’s probably the lowest in volume of the songs in the beginning, and then it just climbs this mountain. It’s a beautiful composition at the end of it, and it’s just… And it’s just, like, the contrast of those two in the same breath is so awesome, you know? But it’s also a very emotional tune.

That was a poem that me and Park Chisholm put to a tune, you know? Literally, it was just… He wrote half of that as a poem, and we finished it. It was the first song we ever wrote together. It’s always been very emotional.

I think everybody has things in their life that, you know, they dwell on, and that’s what that song is, you know?

Ok, but so is there a song that you would love to play live at some point, but it just never really makes the set list?
Yes, there is a song that we cut that was inspired by, and we gave ink to R.L. Burnside. Great, great, great artist. He has a song, a version of Someday Baby, the old, you know… (Jackson starts singing) Someday baby, ain’t no trouble for me… It’s an old blues song. But the groove is impeccable, and we just haven’t found a spot to put it in the set to where it makes sense, because we got a pretty good flow going right now, but it is so funky and fun…

But I think when we start putting out this next batch of stuff that’s a little bit outside of what we’ve been doing, that it’ll kind of pop in there and be like… Might fit better then with the new era coming up.

This song… Chorus, one verse, chorus, a bridge, solo, another bridge, and then a chorus.

The new era… Talking about that. You just announced your new single “Be Your Man”. What can we expect from this song?
Well, it is not a typical song. You have the three peaks in typical songwriting. You have verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, and you’re out, which is most of the time what you get. This song… Chorus, one verse, chorus, a bridge, solo, another bridge, and then a chorus.

Oh wow… How long is this song?
It’s like 3:20, 3:30, something like that. It’s a normal length song… But it goes by like that, and you’re like, wait, what? That’s it? You know? But it’s very fun. I hate using the word fun, but it is so fun. By the second chorus, you’re just like, okay, I’m in. Let’s see what happens, you know? I love J.J. Cale and the drier side of recording sonically and whatnot. The solo sounds just like something J.J. Cale would play.

It is so funky and groovin’ and, like I said, new territory for us in a big way.

That sounds exciting! Does that make you feel a little nervous though? Bringing out new stuff that people might not be expecting in this way? I guess there’s always a risk of your fans not liking it?
Uhm, no, because we were playing entire sets of unreleased music when we first started touring out. We had an EP out when we went out after we got with Big Machine, and we would just have to kill like an hour’s worth of time. That’s a long time and you can’t make five songs stretch after that. We didn’t want to play all covers, so it doesn’t bother me.

When you work it out for the first couple of times, it can be challenging when it comes to this, but songs ebb and flow, they’ll feel great for six months, and then something will happen. You’re like, how do we play this again? Why is this not feeling like it did last week? We don’t do any tracks, any click, anything. It’s off my boot heel, and that’s it. It’s a very raw thing.

So it’s kind of like when your body tells you that you need to go take a walk in the woods. It’s kind of that thing for me.

When you’re not immersed in your music, what are some hobbies or activities that help you unwind and maybe stay grounded?
My house, my place is up in the hills in Tennessee, and I got some woods around me, so I love being in the woods. I also grew up working with my hands and whatnot. My dad was a bricklayer, so me and my siblings labored for him pretty much until I left, and my siblings are taking over the business now. So yeah, working with my hands, I started burning guitars.

You’ll see all the guitars up there later at the show. All the artwork on those I did. I did one for Lainey, Miss Lainey Wilson. So it’s kind of like when your body tells you that you need to go take a walk in the woods. It’s kind of that thing for me.

Before Jackson Dean got on stage, he had Swiss country singer Florian Fox warm up the crowd for him, here are a couple of shots from his set at Plaza Klub:

Concert Photos: Florian Fox at Plaza Klub, Zurich

We usually ask some of our followers to send in questions, and I’ve got two interesting questions for ya.

Nina wanted to know what your most meaningful lyric is that you’ve written…
Hmm. Can I think about this for a sec?

Sure, I guess that’s a tricky one – like pick your favorite baby/child 😀
Yeah, but usually it’s hard enough to pick your favorite song, but your favorite line. One of my most poignant ones, and just because it’s been on top of mine since we released it, “still ain’t a train around that can hit as hard as you” was probably one of the most poignant ones.

It just means “something you’ll never get over”… But off the tongue and placed in the song, it just hits hard.

Tom would like to know if you could collaborate with any artist from a different genre, it cannot be country, who would you choose?
Without a doubt, Robert Plant.

That came out fast! Okay.. So since you’re in a quick-fire mood already, we’ll go right over to our quick-fire round!
Okay. I’ll try to be quick again…

Coffee or whiskey? Whiskey.
Best road trip snack? Jerky.
First thing I do when I get off stage is? Pour another drink.
Whiskey? Yeah!!
One word your bandmates would use to describe you? Stoic. Naaah well, I don’t know.
Is that maybe more a word YOU would want them to describe you with 😀? I would hope they would.
Nashville is? Beautiful.
If I could live anywhere in the world other than Nashville, I would move to? If I had to, probably the Scottish Highlands.

You were just there, right? That place really did a number on you, huh? It really was amazing. We saw Ben Nevis and where they filmed Braveheart and stuff. And I was like, oh, this is beautiful. And then we hit Glencoe, and I was like, oh, my God. It’s getting better and better. I could live here without a doubt. It’s so beautiful. Green and beautiful.

And now the last one… Switzerland is? Magical. It’s the only word that keeps coming to mind after these couple days: magic.

Good answer! Amazing, soooo. That was it, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me…
Absolutely! Thank you!

And I’m looking forward to hearing “Wings” tonight. Can I be excited….? (Jackson starts to look away a little shy…)
I’ll talk to the boys….

Wait… Is it not on the setlist for tonight?! Jackson Dean is performing in Zurich but not playing Wings?☹️
Uuuuhm, yeah, well… Let me talk to the boys…

Spoiler alert: he in fact did not talk to the boys – or they decided to let me wait a little longer… Wings was not performed that night…