“It’s Guilt-free pop:” In The Studio with the Ready Set

The Ready Set have not released a full-length since 2010’s I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming, which featured “Love Like Woe,” the single that skyrocketed the man behind the band, Jordan Witzigreuter, to radio fame and platinum RIAA certification for the catchy track.

Witzigreuter has spent the past couple months finalizing his currently untitled upcoming full-length as a follow-up to 2011’s Feel Good Now EP. He discussed working with producer Ian Kirkpatrick (the Summer Set, Breathe Carolina) and releasing an album he hopes all his fans have been waiting for.

Interview: Rachel Campbell

How is Summer Fest with We The Kings, Breathe Carolina, T. Mills and Keep It Cute going?
Jordan Witzigreuter
:Really good. The shows have been super-fun. They’ve been really big, and it’s cool because we’ve been friends with everyone on this tour for a while. We’ve basically toured with everyone before in the past, so it’s good vibes all around.

You tweeted that you were done writing in early June, so what’s the status of your new material now?
Right now the album is completely finished. I think it’s actually getting mastered right now–today. So, it’s just waiting to put it out, and getting ready for a ton of new stuff [to happen]–new videos and I guess web series stuff–and touring. But yeah, it’s 100 percent done, and I’m pretty stoked.

Do you have any ideas for a title or general release date?
I got a couple title ideas, but a release date, I’m not really sure. That’s out of my hands, and more so in the label side of things, but everyone on my team is [saying] as soon as possible. If I could have it my way, it would be in a week, but we’ll see. The title thing is always the last piece of the puzzle for me. It takes me so long to figure out what I want to call it. I overthink it a crazy amount, but I guess it’s probably a good thing. As soon as I have a title, everyone will know.

Do you base the title on the songs in the album, or do titles usually come to you randomly?
 It kind of depends. I like to listen to [the album] through a ton of times, and figure out what the consecutive theme throughout it is then try to base it off that. It’s 50 percent that and 50 percent picking something out of the blue that sums it up.

What would you say is the theme running through the new songs?
I feel like it’s a little bit more on the honest end of things. It’s the songs I’ve wanted to write for the past couple years. I didn’t really get the opportunity to after all the radio stuff happened, which is really awesome. It’s cool, but it felt like for a while, I was trying to chase writing a certain type of song, and I think the past year taught me not to do that, and it feels refreshing. Every time I listen to it, it feels more like a definitive Ready Set album than anything I’ve done in the past. I feel like it’s entirely me and everything I want to be.

I'm Alive, I'm DreamingYour last full-length was in 2010 with I’m Alive, I’m Dreaming, and you released a couple EPs between then and now. Why did you decide this was the time to put out a full-length instead of another EP?
I just felt like it was time. There’s only so much attention you can hold with people when all you’re doing is putting out EPs, because it’s never going to fully feel like–even if it’s a seven-or-eight-song EP–it’s still never going to feel like a full, definitive body of work. A full album just seems like something that’s overdue.

You have been playing some clips of the albums for your VIP meet and greet. How has that been going? What has the reaction been like?
The reaction has been really positive. I put up a clip of a song yesterday on Instagram too, and that got a pretty good response. I think that it’s always kind of hectic at the meet and greets. Sometimes I don’t think people realize what exactly it is because it’s always loud and kind of crazy, but the people who do realize will hang around for a little bit and listen after it. Everyone seems really excited, so I’m pumped. >>>
 

Have you been playing any of the new songs live on this tour, or are you waiting until you make some more announcements regarding the album details?
I’m playing a few new songs actually. One of them, “Freaking Me Out.” We’ve been playing it for a while, because many people have caught onto it. They actually know the words to it from YouTube, so it doesn’t really seem super-new, but we are playing one that’s brand new, and is really, really fun. I like doing that–I like playing new songs on tour–but it’s a fine line. If we were playing anymore than that, it would be too much, and people would get bored. I never really liked it when I would go to see bands that would play the entire album before it even came out.

How would you describe the new album to someone who isn’t making it to a show on this tour?
If they’ve heard the Ready Set before, it sounds like old Ready Set, but better–a lot better, I think. It’s a pop album, and it’s electronic kind of. It’s a lot more organic than it was in the past, but I would say it’s hopefully guilt-free pop. It doesn’t have to be a guilty pleasure. I just wanted to write some good songs, and hopefully everyone can enjoy them.

Have you had to do any preparations from the road or at home or has it all been in the studio?
A lot of it was on the road before, earlier on past tours, but it’s really hard for me to write on the road for some reason because there are always a million things happening at once. Even if I go and close myself in the back of the bus, there are always people running around and doing stuff, so it’s tough, but it’s a good chance to do demos and things like that. Most of it was pretty much put together in the studio.

Do you prefer to write in the studio or is there another place better than the road that you like to go to channel everything?
Yeah, it’s a lot easier, and I got to do the album with my friend Ian Kirkpatrick who has done a ton of other stuff. He’s really talented, so it was really good vibes the whole time. I just went to his house studio and worked on it. It was really low-pressure and very low stress, which is sweet. That’s the exact opposite of what you get on the road. [Laughs.]

Have you worked with Ian Kirkpatrick prior to this upcoming album?
Yeah, I actually did my last EP [Feel Good Now] with him in the end of 2011.

You released the I’ll Be Waiting EP for streaming recently. Will any of those acoustic tracks be re-recorded for the album, or were they just a fun thing to do between official releases?
Yeah, it was just a fun thing to do. It’s been a really long time since I put out anything that was more on the acoustic side, which seems, as I’m doing a lot of acoustic shows, my fans tend to gravitate toward a lot, which is cool. I had some time off, so my guitar player, Deryck [Stanek], produced it. I pretty much spent a week putting together all of the songs with him, and actually got to play everything–it was all organic instruments, and it didn’t take synths or things like that. It’s a way different change of pace than I normally do, but I’m kind of looking at it as a bridge to the new album. Because I feel like the new album is a combination of old electronic stuff I did and then that EP rides the line in the middle of it.

Is there anything fans should know specifically about your new album?
I’m hoping it’s the album everybody has been waiting for me to put out. I know a lot of my fans have been sticking around for a long time without any new music, and I feel really bad about that. A lot of it does really fall out of my hands, but it feels like it’s a new fresh breath of air for me. Not to be cheesy, but I feel like I’ve finally figured out what it is that I’m doing. I feel like I grew up a lot as a songwriter over the past year, and hopefully they do. Hopefully I get to see them come out and sing the words at the next tour we do after it comes out. ALT