Jade Jackson and Aubrie Sellers have carved out successful careers as singer-songwriters in their own rights – but it was a chance meeting at Americanafest in Nashville in 2019 that brought them together.
Over the coming months, the pair rapidly developed a strong friendship, which in turn evolved into a desire to build a creative project together. Now they’ve teamed up and released their debut album, ‘Breaking Point‘, a rock-influenced project which shows off their vocal harmonies and songwriting talents.
I caught up with Jade and Aubrie recently to talk about the record, their experience of working together, plans to get back on the road post-pandemic and more.
How did you end up working together on this project?
Aubrie Sellers: Well we ran into each other – I played before her at Americanafest in 2019, and then [laughs] we didn’t actually meet in person but we saw each other play, and then she can tell you because she reached out to me on Instagram like a year later or something.
Jade Jackson: Yeah, I didn’t know that she was following me before I saw her performance or anything. Usually with Americanafest you play your show and you’re off to the next, so when I had DM’ed her to just randomly see if she wanted to sing harmonies on the song I’d written she was also following me, and she responded to me and I was like, “oh that’s so awesome!” And then like three days after I reached out or something crazy like that we hit off and did a couple of demos of that song and some others. I threw it out to my label to see if they would pay for us to do a couple of singles and they just came right back with “can you guys do an album?” We were like, “errr…. OK!” [laughs] So it happened really fast.
You’ve mentioned the album which is out now – can you tell us a bit more about that?
Aubrie: Yeah. So, how many songs did we write?
Jade: Yeah, so she wrote three, I wrote three and three covers and one co-write that we wrote together.
Aubrie: It kind of pushes further rock than either of our records but I thought that was what we had in common, so I felt that naturally came out in the songs we chose and the production. I co-produced the record with Ethan Bounder who played guitar on the record, I’ve been working with him for a long time. And yeah, we had a lot of fun making it. Jade says the creative process was really different for her and she had to let loose a little bit and not plan as much.
Jade: Yeah, for sure. Because things were happening so quickly. The way that I’ve done things in the past was a lot more calculated and had to work with a lot of different people’s timeline and then I was just… it was a different energy going into this. It was kind of like a crash course – ‘go record a record, be experimental, have fun’. And the overall sound of the record at least to me is like very freeing and fun and open and how it should be. So we’re excited.
You’ve also talked a bit about the writing for the album. Were there any songs either of you found particularly easy or particularly challenging to write?
Aubrie: Well for most songs we kind of went back in our catalogues and picked songs. We kind of played songs for each other that we’d had around, and we just picked what we responded to and felt like kind of fit together. Like ‘The World Is Black’ that’s on the record, I actually recorded that with different production on my first record. So I’ve had that song for a long time and had wanted a place to put it but didn’t feel like it fit on my other projects. And then when this project came along I thought it was perfect. So it was kind of like that. And Jade sent us like a million songs that she’d written. We really loved ‘Waste Your Time’. I think that was one of the last ones we picked. And so it was just a process of picking songs, although we did write ‘Wound Up’ together. ‘Wound Up’ I had already started on my own and I just wanted to change the lyrics, so Jade sat with me and we overhauled the lyrics and it was really easy. I feel like we need to write together more.
Jade: Yeah. That doesn’t always happen. Neither one of us are huge collaborators.
Aubrie: Me more so than her, I’ve written with a lot of people but I feel like my favourite songs end up coming out of [writing on my own].
Jade: For me it’s like a personal therapy process so I feel like stick a creative sensitive person like her or I somewhere and say “go collaborate with this person” doesn’t usually work super well or doesn’t feel super natural to me. I feel like if Aubrie and I had more time and had been like, “you’re going to go into the studio in a year” versus in a couple of months, which is really what we had to put this record together, we probably would have done more writing together and we may do that in the future. It’s definitely like a very organic connection.
How did you find the process of narrowing down what songs to choose – both your own tracks and the cover versions? Was it a challenge at all?
Aubrie: Well it didn’t feel that challenging. I feel like we kind of had an idea of which songs we responded to the most and near the end when we were trying to find a couple more, but it came together quite easily to be honest. That was what was so cool about this project, none of it really felt like a challenge [laughs]. It all felt quite exciting.
Jade: Yeah, it kind of fell together in a cosmic way.
You’ve got three covers on the record alongside your original songs. What drew you to choose those, and particularly to ‘The Devil Is An Angel’ as the lead single?
Aubrie: Yeah, Julie Miller is one of my favourite artists and songwriters and I’ve loved that song forever. I don’t even know how that came up, but Ethan started playing it in the way that we played it on the record, with that kind of rock guitar riff and I was just like, “this is amazing”. We sang it, we recorded it on a voice note and sent it to Jade and I was like, “oh my God, this is so fun to sing”. One of the reasons we picked it as the first single is because we feel like it’s a good representation of the album but also an equal representation of us, as far as we’re both singing on it a lot.
Then ‘Has Been’ was a song that I had been wanting to record that my friend Shannon wrote, and when she brought ‘Hush’ to me, that was the first song that brought us together, I showed her ‘Has Been’ and we recorded little demos of it that first day we got together. So those were the two songs that started the record.
And the Suzi Quatro song I heard because I watched a documentary about Suzi Quatro, and was super into her and in love with that song. So once again we decided to put our own spin on it.
Jade: Yeah, her and Ethan were spearheading – obviously I’d heard ‘Has Been’ and I was like, “I love that song” and your friend wrote it, Shannon. But as far as the other two, I was a little reluctant. I love both the songs and both the artists but my mind has always been kind of… if we have all these songs that ours that can only come out in this way, I was like, “why would we choose somebody else’s song?” But I went with the flow and I’m so glad that I did because we did create something new out of that. I think my fear is trying to record a song that’s already done well and copying it, but we didn’t do that. I purposely didn’t listen to those two songs more than once by the original artists because I wanted my sound to be my own interpretation of them.
You’ve mentioned taking that more rock-influenced approach and putting your own spin on this record. Was that always the vision you had for the album or did it evolve organically through the process of making it?
Aubrie: Ethan and I definitely had a vision for the production. But I do think picking the songs and all that, it was a lot of natural evolution too. Like she said, we weren’t super-calculated. I’m not ever really super-calculated when I go and make music because I feel like it violates the magic that can kind of come up naturally. So there was a lot of that. We did have a direction in mind, but we weren’t like ‘this is what we’re doing’ so specifically.
Jade: Yeah, it just happened fast and the band that Aubrie and Ethan put together, they would just like try things and be like, ‘cool’ or ‘try this’. It happened quickly but it was also just seemed very like magic [laughs].
Aubrie: Putting together the band and engineer are like 90 per cent of making a record sometimes – the way that I like to make records, because I don’t like to get in there and say, “you play this, you play this”. It’s more about “this is the idea we have, let’s put together the right players and then let them do what they do best, and let’s experiment and find it that way”. So that’s more of the process.
You’ve also played some tour dates recently. How has it been getting back out on the road?
Aubrie: Well we’ve only played a couple of shows, one of which was at Americanafest, which is cool because that’s where we met and this is the first Americanafest since then [laughs]. So that was super-cool. We played a show in Alabama, just a random stop. Things are still a little weird – we were supposed to have a whole tour in October that got cancelled, so we’re just kind of going with the flow. We just announced a live stream from the studio we recorded the album at with the band that’s on the record. So that’s gonna be super-cool because that’s an opportunity to take them out. But if we were full-time touring right now we probably wouldn’t be able to bring them, so that’s gonna be really fun.
How did you find the experience of making this record compared to those you’ve made previously, especially given the backdrop of the pandemic? And is there anything you’ve learned from making this album that you’ll apply to future projects – either together or as solo artists?
Jade: Yeah, I’ve done two records with my label prior to this and I did two before that that I produced by myself, but those disappear when you get a record deal [laughs]. So my debut was actually my third record. I just always feel like every record is a representation of that chapter of your life, in a weird way. You do learn new skills but more so you learn more about yourself and how you react to different environments because every record is so different. You’re surrounded by different people and I think as songwriters, you’re also so passionate about the work.
So yeah, this record has really helped me to let loose and to also voice my opinions, whereas before when I had gotten signed and got the opportunity to work with my producer who I was a fan of, I was obviously intimidated in his space. He would make suggestions that I didn’t necessarily feel were right for the song but I would just let them go because I trusted him and I felt like he knew more than me. I’m in a contract to do one more record with him and I feel like when we do step into the studio for our third record together, I’m gonna feel more courageous and have the ability to voice my opinions and I think it’s gonna be a lot of fun.
Aubrie: Yeah. I had a lot of fun making this record. I feel like because tours and everything were cancelled last year, that’s what enabled us to come together and make this record. So it’s really cool. It’s like the silver lining of the whole thing for us. And for me, I’ve had fun being able to do everything including interviews and everything else with someone else. We can share in the joy of that. So I’ve learned that about myself. And I hope we get to collaborate more in the future.
Is there anything that’s stood out to you from the experience of doing this as a duo compared to making your solo records?
Aubrie: Solo artists can be lonely a lot of the time, and especially as a girl you’re usually the only girl on the road. So this is really fun to work with another girl [Aubrie and Jade laughs]. And not just any girl, but we personally got along very well instantly as well as musically. So we feel very close. It’s a really good experience to have someone there to share in all the joys and all the frustrations. But this has been such a fun process.
Jade: Totally. Because I think when you get out on the road and have that touring lifestyle, it can be really challenging at times. And I can pick up the phone and call my mom and dad and they have no idea what it’s actually like. A lot of people have this misconception about touring – they think it’s a lot more glam and excitement. There’s those parts as well but I think that’s like the hour you perform but the other 23 hours can be really challenging. And to try and communicate that to somebody without feeling like you’re sounding ungrateful is my biggest challenge. So to have somebody who’s doing the same thing that I’m doing and has gone down the same path is so nice, because you don’t feel judged. It’s been really nice.
What does the next six months or so look like for you? Are there any new plans to tour or is the main focus promoting the record?
Aubrie: We’re not nailing down any plans to tour because things are still weird, but we’re doing these few things that we can control like the live stream. And then our physical records drop in December, so things like the vinyls and the CDs and all that, so we’ll be doing things between then and now. We’re thinking about doing something in California around that. We’re planning some things around that but nothing is super nailed down. But we have a great publicist, so we’re excited to keep working with him and do everything we can without technically being on the road right now.
Have you thought about plans for future collaborations yet? Or even a second record?
Aubrie: Yeah, we haven’t thought about it specifically but I’ve definitely enjoyed the process and would love to do it again.
Jade: Yeah, she’s shown me songs and I think we’re always writing, so similar to the nature of how the last record happened I think it might just flow into existence at the right time [laughs]. We haven’t planned it out but we are totally down to do that.
And finally… when it’s safe to do so, have you got any plans to come over to the UK?
Aubrie: I’d love to come back. That’s number one on my list. I can’t remember what year I was over there but it was so fun. You’ve been there right?
Jade: Yeah, I was there for the press week, kind of like what we’re doing now but I actually got to come and meet with you guys, and that was so much fun. So we’re sad we can’t do that right now but it’s definitely been a highlight.
Aubrie: We’ll be back! [laughs]
Jackson+Sellers’ debut album, ‘Breaking Point’, is out now on ANTI- Records.
