Interview with Jon Troast [Gourmet Music Report #24]

Indie folk artist Jon Troast is commonly associated with 3 things: He's always wearing a pair of red shoes... yes, it's true. Most of his touring involves $100 living room concerts, which has been booming in this down economy. For years, he has been writing thoughtful & creative music that deserves a closer listen. Here's some of our conversation:

DT: When did you fall in love with songwriting?
JT: I've always written songs, since early childhood -- just making up little ditties about walking around the house or whatever I was doing. And my parents always had some sort of music playing. Both my parents played piano. And since then, it's just a creative outlet for me that I haven't found anywhere else. It's been awesome to use that gift.

DT: How does your faith play out in your songs?
KC: Well, that's always a good question. I don't necessarily always write about "Christian themes." It depends on how you categorize it. To me, everyday life is a gift from God & writing a song about something you went through -- a breakup, falling in love -- that's all something that God works in. So for my faith it really opens it up to writing about anything. And thankfully I can write with a peace as far as knowing that God's got it all under His hand.

DT: Are the songs on your latest CD "With,To,From" more stand-alone pieces or is there a bigger theme?
JT: I'll write songs year round and then when I get together with the producer, Mitch Dane, who I worked with on this one, we'll sit down. And there are certain songs I definitely want to record and then we'll get those down first. Then I'll show him a couple more and he'll pick from those. And we'll slowly narrow the final selections down. But I don't write an album on a theme -- typically it's just snapshots from the past month or the past year.

DT: Any particular reason why you write so many love songs?
JT: You're calling me out here, man. You know, I don't have a whole lot of first-hand experience with it. I feel like I write a lot out of empathy and that's where a lot of the love stuff comes from. But I... yeah, I would love to get married some day. We are made for relationships so that's something that's inside of me and that comes out. Not always firsthand experience like I said, but stuff that I can relate to.

Listen to "Under The Radar" this weekend for the music and interview with Jon Troast, and also check out RadarRadio.net to see him perform in our studios.   [http://radarradio.net]