I’m gonna start out with the question in which I probably totally over-analyze your music. But your debut, Take The Fall, sounded like the classic ”heartbreak-cry in your beer-wrote this on a bar napkin” troubadour record, while Caffeine & Gasoline sees you out of the woods, a free man and ready to rock. Right?

Well, Take The Fall was a pretty different approach than Caffeine & Gasoline. On Take The Fall, I was pretty much just writing songs that came to me, sort of letting the songs do the work. By the time we released C & G, we had developed a pretty energetic live show and I wanted to write an album to reflect that. So we went in and cranked it out live in the studio, minus some vocal stuff of course. So yeah, our last release defintely has a more free-wheeling vibe.

The two albums were three years in between. What happened between the two? Did your mindset, your approach to music change?

Yes, my mindset definitely changed. It is always changing. I mean if you are a lover of music, you are influenced by it. So my musical perspective depends just as much on me as it does depend on my musical surroundings at that time. When it came time to write the songs for the second album, I was on this kick of being deliberate, have something to say and say it. Of course now I am in a place where I think it is time to be more true to the song. Like however the song comes through you...let it be - if it ends up being a children's song or something, oh well. More stream of conscious or whatever. It always changes....

A lot of these reviews I’ve read seem to touch down on the fact that you shouldn’t really be able to do this. You’re too young to have such a crushing insight to life and love, AND you’re from San Francisco, and people from San Francisco don’t sound like this. Do you think there’s any sense in that? Do you ever find yourself amazed by the fact that you’re actually very very good at what you do?

I have read some of that stuff too. Not sure what to say. My father is an old school country songwriter and when I first started writing I HATED that I sounded country. It was just a quality in my voice though I guess. I've always been pretty keen on picking up on vibes and I always eaves-drop on other people's conversations - maybe that comes in handy when telling stories I guess.

You grew up on a steady diet of Willie Nelson and The Eagles. They were at seperate ends of the country music spectrum, divided and united at the same time. What do you think you’ve learned from them, respectively?

Honestly I have no idea. I never thought any of it had an influence but as I have gotten older, I see that it does. I guess we are just little sponges growing up and you never know what will come out in the mix. Willie is the coolest person of all time so hopefully I'll get some of that.

What drives you to go out there night after night and pull your heart open in front of strangers? Is there some force deep inside you that drives you towards this self-torture that songwriting and touring can be?

Yep. It is mostly that I feel compelled to write songs. Not sure why because it certainly isn't always fun. I do know that I feel pretty alive when I am playing music and I feel pretty fulfilled when I am writing music. But it definitely isn't zippity-do-da all the time. For me anyway. It is just something inside me that tells me I should be doing this.

Tell me about your band, The Deadmen. How do they make you a better musician, songwriter, stage performer and rock star?

Honestly they are the sound of the band. I write songs with 3 or 4 chords in my bedroom or bathroom or car. They bring the show on. I cannot overstate their value to the music. Truly amazing players and singers and they are dedicated to what we do. That is the most important thing in a band I think - belief and dedication.

You’ve been compared to some pretty great people, from Steve Earle to Ryan Adams. I know these comparisons are often useless, so instead of asking you if you’re the next Steve Earle, I’ll rather ask you where you find your own voice in this often crowded scene that is the new American troubadour?

Well I have found that if you think about creating your own voice or how to stick out or be unique, you will drive yourself mad. Nothing is original anymore, the closest you can get is by being as true to yourself as possible. So I am on kick of being true to that now. Like there is only one of me and to get that across through music, to let people know me through music - that is as original as it gets. So yeah, I try not to worry about "sounding" unique or whatever. Be myself - the more freely I express myself, the more original I become.

My favorite song of yours is probably Take The Fall. It’s very powerful AND extremely fragile at the same time. How do these songs happen? Is there an inner struggle in you between the tender side and the loud side?

That song started off with a delicate verse AND a delicate chorus. Like I said earlier about the band - they create so much of the sound. When I got that song in front of them, we developed this big anthem style chorus. We all dug it and thought it was a bit trippy so we kept it. That's about all there was to it.

I just read on Facebook that you’re looking for a studio to record your next album in Can you tell us anything about the songs yet?

Not really since right now I just have a bunch of titles. Yeah, just waiting for the songs to attach themselves to the titles. But I will say it is going to be a more risky album. I'm up for trying anything now.

I’m going to let you go with the big, stupid, rude question that you’ve probably been asked a zillion times, but what’s it like being only one T away from being the guy who plays guitar on my favorite Steely Dan record?

Ha. Well it's interesting. We are friends or cyberfriends or whatever. He is super nice and we have connected online and had a few laughs at things like mistaken identities on handbills and marquees. I once even had a guy ask me how old I was when I tracked "Reelin' In The Years"...I wasn't even born.

You'll be opening for Merle Haggard and Kris Kristofferson soon. That's like opening for Bob Dylan and Jesus! What do you think will be on your mind the first moment you steep into the backstage bar?

Well every time I get to open for one of my heroes, which I have been lucky to do a few times, I feel a sense of accomplishment...then a moment of terror...then a moment of gratitude. Such legends of songwriting, I hope they like my songs. As for the backstage bar - it'll probably be off limits to the supporting act so I will have to sneak in.


Caffeine & Gasoline is out now. There's also a free download of Getting My Nerve up at Elliotrandall.bandcamp.com/track/getting-my-nerve-up