A.W. Weiss on Living Room Tours, Their Dead Name, and Still Being Emo
Listen to Season 1, Episode 3 of the Trans Music Podcast by clicking the player above, or listen on: iTunes - Spotify - Stitcher - Google Play Music - Bandcamp
Do you know that Robyn song, Call Your Girlfriend? Well for a long time, I thought it was written by this week’s guest, A.W. Weiss, because their cover of the song is just so great.
I’ve listened to A.W.’s music for a long time, so I was so excited that I had the opportunity to interview them when they stopped in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on their living room tour a couple months ago. We had to do the interview pretty quickly, because they had a show to put on, but we still got to talk about their new sound, their new country music project, and transitioning as an already-famous person.
Riley: So the last time that I saw you play was in 2015. You were on tour with Mal Blum and Kid in the Attic promoting your last album; it was really good. A.W. Weiss: Yeah, that was a great tour. And since then, you've changed your name…
Mmhmm.
Come out as nonbinary…
Yup.
Gone blond…
Sure have!
And left your label.
Ha! Well, my label left me, but that's a whole thing in and of itself. Do you want to talk about it?
If you want to kick it off. Yeah, let's kick it off with that note! Kick it off with that! Earlier this year, the label I was on decided to not be a label anymore, which is a bummer, 'cause they were really cool before. And then they kind of restructured, I guess we'll say, to be diplomatic. They're not putting out records anymore, essentially.
Okay, so it wasn't just you. No, it wasn't just me. It was everybody on the label. How do you restructure and not put out records anymore? You become what is called a catalog label, which means you just keep making the stuff that you've already made and sell it online and distribute it, and stuff like that. Super boring. Essentially not a label. Sure, like a copyright holder. Yeah, something like that. So yeah, that's kind of what happened, which was at first really scary, 'cause I was under contract to make a couple more records with them. So I was like, "What am I gonna do now?" But I'm sort of embracing being independent. Cool. How is touring without label support? You know, I've never really had label support because I've never been on the kind of label that really gives that kind of support, as far as financial stuff goes. So I'm kind of just touring the same way I've always been touring, aside from the fact that this particular tour is in people's living rooms instead of in venues.
Has it been cool playing small shows? Yeah, I love it personally. It's been kind of my favorite way to tour so far, actually, 'cause I feel like the way I perform, especially when I'm solo, really lends itself to this super intimate... like, I talk a lot, so it's nice in people's living rooms. It makes more sense than in a bar. Sure. I'm excited to see part of your set tonight. It's been fun.
Say What You Mean by A.W.
An old song of A.W.’s that I sing in the car a lot.
So you're playing just you on guitar?
Yep, just me.
That's really cool.
Thanks!
Has it been hard promoting stuff with the new name?
Yeah, and I am totally cool with people saying "(formerly Allison Weiss)" in parenthesis, or whatever, but also, because I'm so excited about the changes and everything, I just kind of forget to tell people that's okay. And I think people who promote the shows are very nice, and so they don't automatically assume they can say that, so then as a result... I actually had the first show of touring in L.A., somebody came to the show and he came up and talked to me at the merch table afterwards. He was like, "You know, it's really funny, I've been listening to your music for 10 years, but I didn't realize until I got here, because I just got the email in my inbox that said 'A.W.', and I was like, 'Oh, that sounds cool,' and then it wasn't till I was watching you play that I recognized the songs and was like, 'Oh, I know this artist!'"
So I love that somebody literally came to a show just because they were like, "Oh, whose mailing list is this?" And then they realized at the show that they already knew who I was.
That says good things about that person. That's adventurous.
Yeah, it does, actually. That's an adventurous person who's just down to go see a show.
It's actually really nice to hear that people don't assume they can deadname you all the time.
Yeah, right? It's been cool, actually, that that hasn't happened. I mean, the only times it really happens is people accidentally come to shows and don't know. And they'll be like, "I'm so excited to see you," and use my old name and stuff. Then I usually don't say anything until I'm onstage, and then I announce it, and I'm sure they're like, "Oh no!"
Oh, God. So you have to come out constantly.
Yeah, I kind of have to come out constantly. But I knew, because I've been playing music for 10 years under my old name, that that was gonna be something that was gonna have to happen. So I'm prepared for it.
That's still rough.
It's still rough, but I'm prepared for it, so it's okay. You know what I mean? That's how my weirdo brain works. I feel like if I can prepare for chaos, then it's not as stressful.
I can see that. I can definitely see that. So tell me about your new country music project.
I've got a new country music project. It's, like, Americana. I actually don't really know how it's gonna turn out recorded. All I know is when I get back to L.A., I wanna play some shows; I wanna be a band. But I've been writing a bunch of songs on this tour for this project, which I'm calling Charlie Mountain. [Note: it’s spelled Charlie Mtn.]
Solo for now? Yeah. Well it's funny that I have a new band that's also just me. So I intend to perform with a band, and solo sometimes; we'll see what happens.
What inspired you to go in that direction? I sort of realized that a lot of the songs I write start out as folky country songs, and then I will produce them into pop songs. But then, especially on older records, there always ended up being soft, folky, country sort of songs that didn't, to me, really fit in with the other ones, but I put them on there anyway 'cause I really liked them. And now that I, with my A.W. project, am moving even more in the pop vein, the folky stuff fits even less. It's funny because I don't really have a southern accent, but when I saw your name it really comes out, 'cause I keep wanting to call you "A. Dubya." A. Dubya! You're right, it just rolls off the tongue! [Both laugh] Every time I'm telling people, "Oh, I'm gonna interview A. Dubya this weekend," it's like, no. No, I like it! A lot of my friends have taken to calling me "A. Dubs" or "Dubs," or stuff like that. Or "Dubya" even, which is funny 'cause of the ex-president. But I don't mind it; I like it.
So you just put out a single, Different Now.
Yeah, a couple weeks ago. And you did it alone. Tell me about making it, putting it together, deciding to release it. Well, it was a song that I recorded. I originally intended for it to come out at the same time as the last single I put out, which was Runaway, like a year or so ago. And then stuff just kept getting delayed with the label and we didn't really know what to do with it. So it was just like, delay, delay, delay, delay. And then finally I was like, "Man, I really love this song, and my voice is changing. I need to get this out before it's too different from how I sound right now, before it's weird." So I used TuneCore, one of those do-it-yourself things, and just put it on Spotify, 'cause I was like, "Who cares? I just want it out. I just wanna put it out."
It's a great song. It's also so pop. It is 100% pop music. Thank you! I really love how it turned out, and I hope that a lot of people hear it, but you know what? If they don't, that's chill too. Oh yeah, so you have to do all the promotion yourself? Yeah, pretty much. Man, okay. I put it on the website. I really like it. Thank you! I love that.
You just got married recently, right? Two years ago now. Two years on October 29, yeah. Congratulations! That's what I'm trying to get home for. It was like, "You can go on tour all by yourself for a whole month as long as you're home by the anniversary," and I'm like, "Okay." Gotta like, drive across Texas. Get home. That's reasonable. So you write a lot of love songs. How has the love song writing process changed after being a married person? Oh my gosh, I love that you asked this because I literally have a bit that I say on stage about how people ask, "How do you write songs now that you're in a relationship?" And I say, "Luckily I never get over anything," which is legit how I write songs. I have a stack of journals from my youth that sometimes I go through. I'm a very nostalgic person; I'm also a very obsessive person, so I can go over the same memory a billion times for my entire life. Just keep mining it for that material. Exactly! Straight up, that's a good way to think of it, yeah. I mine every heartbreak I've ever had for those types of songs, for sure. You're just like, "I've been happily married for 20 years, but man. That girl in high school? Fuck that girl." There were straight up songs about high school relationships on the record I put out in 2015. So yeah, you're not wrong.
They hit you really hard though, high school relationships.
It's true, they're some of the most powerful. I've actually been trying to embrace the way that I felt then as something that I can still feel now as an adult. 'Cause I feel like there's the label of being emo, and that sort of shit. But I feel like, thanks to the internet, there's a whole community of people who are my age still, and who still wanna talk about feelings, and listen to emo music, and be nostalgic, and still do that. So I'm like, "I don't need to necessarily grow up. I can still be emo and write emo songs." I feel like as you get older, your friends also don't wanna hear about it. Like when you're 15, your friends are all like, "Oh my God... so dramatic." And then when you're an adult, your friends are like, "Oh, they ghosted you? Cool…?" Yeah, they're like, "Oh yeah, that's because you're..." Yeah, I don't even know what they're saying. But totally. Friends don't care as much. So I can write those things into songs. So what's next for you? I am figuring that out. I think that's what part of this tour is about for me. Since I decided to do this by myself, I don't have anybody helping me drive, so it's just me out here, all alone. I'm trying to figure out what I want and what I wanna do. And I think that that's just, like, write songs and play shows. So I think I'm gonna be doing a lot more of this living room touring, because for someone like me, I've got a smaller, but very excited, rabid fanbase. So playing these living room shows is a way that I can do what I do, and it's still sustainable, so it's pretty exciting. I'm actually really stoked on it. So hopefully I'll put together another one, maybe for the spring or something like that. And then I wanna make a Charlie Mtn. record, and I gotta make a new A.W. record, so, just gotta write a lot of songs.
A song from the Charlie Mtn. project that was in the soundtrack to Far Cry 5, a video game.
It's been going well, though? 'Cause you're halfway through the month.
Oh yeah, it's been great. I love it. I'm kind of sad that it's gonna be over soon. But I'm sure after driving 36 hours through Texas, I will be ready to be home. You know, maybe sleep in my own bed.
I'm sure. That's really cool. [Notices the time is 7:52 pm] So it's about time for you to go on stage-
I love that you say "on stage" too, because it's just my backdrop I set up. And I get on stage at, like, 7:59 for the 8:00 pm show. 7:52 pm is like, "We've got plenty of time."
Just for context for those listening, what kind of car is this?
This is a sweet Chevy Malibu. I think it's the newest one; it's a rental car.
We're in a rental Chevy Malibu in someone's driveway in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. They are about to go on a stage that they constructed out of poles and cloth in someone's living room. There's about eight queers sitting on the couch.
So far! Hopefully there's more by the time it starts. I think this one's 15 people maybe, so it's gonna be nice and intimate.
A.W. in their rented Chevy Malibu
We've literally watched people walk around the car trying to find what door they're supposed to go in, 'cause it's just someone's house. And everyone seems really excited. It's really cool.
Yeah, I think it's gonna be good. Well, thanks for talking to me. Yeah, thank you for chilling in my rental car. Oh yeah! [Both laugh]
After we stopped recording, I was able to stick around for half of A.W.’s set, but I had to leave early to go play a show of my own! One of my bands was playing a local music festival. A.W. was sweet enough to come and watch me play, and then we walked around downtown Chapel Hill at midnight taking the pictures you’ve seen throughout this post.
A.W. Weiss is an LA-based pop musician originally from a small town in Georgia. Find them online:
Music: http://listentoaw.com Graphic design: http://wereolfgf.com Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/listentoaw
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