#105 JD Reynolds

Rae Leigh: Welcome to where somewhere at a truce with J D Reynolds, how you doing 

JD Reynolds: Hello, how are you on? Thanks.

Rae Leigh: Welcome to the Songwriter Trysts podcast, family.  

JD Reynolds: Thank you for having me.

Rae Leigh: exciting to have you a part of what we're doing. I get everyone to Start by telling me your artist's journey and story. Who are you and where you come from?

JD Reynolds:  My name is JD Reynolds. I am a country music artist. Where do I come from? I'm I come from rural New South Wales in Australia. I'm a country girl come from a medium size family. Everyone's a music lover and yeah, that's where I come from. Just to just an Aussie girl 

Rae Leigh: sounds good. So where did you get started? When did music influence you to begin with

JD Reynolds: I think I got the best introduction to music from my mother. She's a massive fan of music. So from the day I was born, I had Dolly Parton, queen of country music playing in the house. I had Elvis the King of rock and roll. I had Michael Jackson, the King of. The King of Pop had Prince, the Prince of everything.

 Whitney Houston, Roy Orbison. And so she had these fantastic artists on repeat in the house. And my mum would grab me as a toddler and say, come on, let's sing let's dance. And I think that, that is how I got my introduction into music because I just started singing and dancing while I was still in an nappy.

Rae Leigh: Yeah. And was your mum musical or she just was a fan.

JD Reynolds: My mum is a fan. She does have a sweet voice, but my mum is just amazing a major music fan, but my mum is a fantastic photographer, so she's very artistic. So it's a very artistic family. My brothers can sing, my brothers can play guitar. They didn't pursue those avenues, but they're still very musical.

So I think it was through my mom. It was definitely through my mom. That's where I got my love of music.

Rae Leigh: And when did you start being a songwriter? When did that stuffy.

JD Reynolds: As soon as I caught a hold, a crayon properly and string some words together. I started writing I, how I started songwriting was I was rewriting the ends of all the nursery rhymes that I was read as a kid. Because I felt that a lot of them have sad or brutal ending. So I rewrote the ends of all of them and my mom just kept them in a journal.

And that's how I started songwriting.

Rae Leigh: That's gorgeous. It's a beautiful, this is just you are born this way, which is beautiful. I think all people are born this way, but you were encouraged in it, which is really nice. Well done

JD Reynolds: Yeah, no, I think, yes, it's amazing. She's amazing. And I just had, I think I had a love for music on this equal par of just a love for life. So for me, my music, my songwriting, my singing, my dancing, just the joy of being alive is so wrapped up in music. That for me, it's a very special and spiritual thing.

Writing music.

Rae Leigh: Absolutely. It is. Yeah. And when did you decide to make it like a career? Cause that's a big thing doing it as a passion, but then choosing to share it and make it as a career and, run it as a business. That's a really big step. When did that happen for you?

JD Reynolds: I felt, I knew I wanted to do this from a very young age. I had a, I believe that my song writings to gift straight from God, I knew that I had these great songs just churning in my brain. So I knew. All along that I wanted to be in the music industry. I started off as a as a dancer. And how I used to calm my nerves before any big shows or any big ballet exams or any big concerts is that I would sing to calm my nerves.

And I would sing my own songs that I had. I had written as a, and that's how I started. Thinking to myself, you know what? This is what I love. This is what I love to do. I think this is my calling and I want to be, as I want to be an artist.

Rae Leigh: Yeah. I love that. That music relaxed me as well. Like I would sing during exams and I'd be told to shut up, 

JD Reynolds: Yes, that's right. Oh, me too. Oh my gosh. Yes. Humming while you're writing essays in exams. Yes. I'm guilty of all of that. I used to do it all and I think the examiners were used to me. They're just tapped me on the shoulder and say, JD.

Rae Leigh: it's a subconscious thing that happens. Isn't it? I didn't know that I was doing it until people were yelling at me and be like, why is everyone yelling at me?

JD Reynolds: Yeah, for music for musical people just to start humming or singing or dancing anywhere. It's just very nice.

Rae Leigh: nice. And so freeing.

And so have you always done it straight out of school? You did dancing. What inspired the dancing and journey like?

JD Reynolds: The dancing came about when I was scouted by the Royal Academy of dance, when I was just a toddler They spotted me and said she's our next ballerina. So I was classically trained to the highest level that a ballerina can get to. And then I grew very tall overnight.

It literally was an overnight growth spurt. And

Rae Leigh: what's very tall.

JD Reynolds: I'm five 11. Yeah, I'm five 11. So it's not an ideal height for a female ballerina, a perfect height for a male ballerina. 

Rae Leigh: A female model.

JD Reynolds: Yeah. So I, then I started getting into some modeling that's right. So I thought, okay, we'll look, the ballet will have to, we'll have to be just continue to do ballet for my own love of my own fitness and my own passion for it.

It looked in the back of my mind. I always knew that I loved music. I had also, I was continually songwriting singing and I thought the journey is just slowly drifting into what I really want to do anyway.

Rae Leigh: Yep. And you did, so you did dance, then you got too tall. Fair enough. I'm tall as well. I get it. And then he did, you did modeling,

JD Reynolds: I did. Yeah. So it was just that natural transition. Oh, like I, yeah, she's tall and skinny yet. Then she goes into modeling. So I ended up doing some modeling, which was fun. And I was I've been blessed enough to see the good side of modeling. I know that there is not such a good side to it.

But I had a fabulous mum who came with me everywhere, who was my protector in everything. Cause I was on the age when I was doing all of this. And and so she would come with me everywhere and protect me and just be there by my side. 24 seven with everything. And I was doing in modeling. So I was very fortunate with that.

But it's something I enjoyed it. Wasn't it's not my passion. Even before, even with modeling shoots, I'd get nervous. I said, look, can I just put some music on and sing? And then you'll get the best photos of me.

Rae Leigh: that's really cool. I love that. And I probably would have loved that too. I reckon.

JD Reynolds: Yeah. So I just said, look, I can't stand here and look serious, or I can't runway, I can't do the runway without music and singing and smiling. So I used to get in trouble a little bit that smiling on the runway, but anyway, it's pretty good thing to get in trouble for our record.

Rae Leigh: Yeah, I reckon too. I reckon too. Yeah, take me back. All so you did a modeling and then when did you first start recording and releasing and becoming yourself as an artist?

JD Reynolds: Not and listening to a lot of different types of albums and. I kept on coming back to a couple of artists where I thought, Oh my goodness, I really like that sound. It wasn't a matter of all. I like the songs or I like that. You know anything about it. It was the sound of these albums. And then.

Rae Leigh: then

JD Reynolds: I listened to another one, I thought, okay, this has got a very similar sound.

Who is this? So I started Googling who the producer was and it was Brad and Williams. And he was the bee's knees. And, Oh my goodness. How am I going to get in contact with this man? So just through the powers that be just sheer determination, right? At a little bit of cheekiness, I. Got a hold of Braden's mobile number.

And I rang him and started singing down the far and just saying, and I said, I'm Judy Reynolds, this is what I sound like. This is one of my songs. And I just started singing until I thought he'll either tell me to shut up or just hang up on me. And he literally said, Wow. All right. You're on comparable out yo.

And I said, Oh my goodness. And he just, then we just started communicating. And from there, we are just creating a really awesome and unique country album.

Rae Leigh: That's that's such a cool story and well done. You're obviously a very brave and determined, passionate person and I love it

JD Reynolds: Oh, I think you just gotta go for it. Sometimes. You think, look, if I get hung up on or someone tells me to get lost. Oh, that's all right. That's fine. But I'd rather just, I'd rather try.

Rae Leigh: Absolutely. Yeah. Try because if you don't try it to no anyway, isn't it?

JD Reynolds: Absolutely. That's so that's how it all, that's how, that's how my country journey began. I always knew I was going to be a country artist. I do write a variation of songs in variations of genres. So a lot of artists do reach out and ask me to write to different types of songs. But the country music.

Rae Leigh: That's awesome. I love country music and it's something special in there that I love all music, but there's something special about country music that I'm, can't quite put my finger on, but I don't have to. It just feels good. 

JD Reynolds: No. That's right. Someone was asking me about this yesterday actually was having a chat with someone yesterday afternoon, just about country music and what it means. And. They asked me why country music and what do you love about country music? And I've always felt that with country songs, the lyrics tell a story.

I like to listen to a song and I liked it. And Be absolutely submerged into the songwriter story. I like it, a strong visual, I like strong lyrics, and I like to hear a story. And that's what I love about country music, because. Lyricists in country music always have a story to tell it's not just one or two words on repeat or one or two lines on repeat.

It is a tiny little, three minute book of awesomeness. Thank you. Yeah, and that's why I love country music.

Rae Leigh: It's that's perfectly wrapped up. I love it. And what about this album you're doing and what you're creating at the moment? Is there a core message or a goal behind what you want to say through your music? What you want the stories to say?

JD Reynolds: Yes, absolutely. The album is sounding amazing. I'm very excited about it and re it is literally like me handing you over my diary saying, here you go. I sing my truth. There are no punches pulled than the album. If you hear a song, you think, Oh my goodness, did that really happen? Yes.

That really happened. Oh my goodness did. Yeah, it did. She really goes through that. Yes. That really happens. So every word I sing, every melody, every everything on the album I wrote from the lyrics to the melodies, even just guitar parts or piano parts for our sound look, I'd like the banjo doing this, or I like the, keep the keyboards doing this, or I might the fiddles to be coming in here.

And it was a great journey for me. Co-producing the album with Brandon was a thrill and amazing. And I think that if you are in a mood one day where you feeling a bit sad there's a song on there for you. If you're feeling angry, there's a song on there for you. If you're feeling optimistic about life, there's a song on there for you.

If you've had boy trouble, girl trouble, there's a song on there for you. So I do think it's going to really hit listeners in the heart. And now we will, they will be on an emotional roller coaster with me.

Rae Leigh: that's cool. It sounds like a full spectrum of emotion, which is exactly what it is to be human. We don't ever feel just one thing. We feel everything. Sometimes we feel it all at once and sometimes we, yeah, we roll with the motions, but I think that's beautiful. And that's what music is there for to help us just feel held in those emotions that we all feel all the time.

So well done. You said you'd done, you've done all by yourself. Do you do co-writing have you ever done co- writing for your music ?

JD Reynolds: I love to co-write with my mum. She is this secret little gem of a writer, and she thinks outside the box lyrically, because she is an English major. She knows all of these different meanings to all of these fabulous words that you'll never hear. And I like to run things past my mum where I say this is I'm trying to express this in a way that sounds like this.

And then she'll just think on it for me. And then we'll come up with some ideas. She's, co-written a couple of the songs on the album. As a lyricist as far as writing with other artists, I'm a very unique writer. Unlike many other artists in the world. I cannot go into a studio and sit down with a pen and paper and say right off you go I will never happen.

For me. It's spiritual, I can be driving my four by four. I can be at having a surf and an entire song in its entirety, or maybe just a chorus of a song lyrics, melody. The whole thing will come flying straight into my head and hit me like  a bolt of lightning. And it's a very unique way of writing, but it's not very conducive to sitting down with other artists and say what would you like to write about the best way for other artists to co-write with me is for them to say, I've got an idea.

This is what I'm thinking about. This is the direction I'd like to be going into. This is a song about X, Y, and Z. And then I'll have to say right. Let me think on it. And then if anything comes to me in the next week or two weeks or a month where it's literally given to me by God, I'll say, yeah. Okay. I've got something for you.

And then I can share that, but if it's right, sit down, here we go. We're in a writing session at two o'clock  on Saturday afternoon, I'll say, no, I can't do it.

Rae Leigh: I think I'm perfectly fine. It's just a different way of writing. And I've done co-writing with people where it's been face to face and we do it, within a few hours. And then there's been times when it's been over like, like via email, especially recently where it's like, Oh, I'll send you an idea.

And then a week later I get back an idea with a voice recording and some lyrics, and then, we just go back and forth and there's something special in that to be able to create that vulnerability and that space for someone to. What you said, just go into yourself and have that experience and then come out of it and share,

JD Reynolds: Yes, absolutely. So I enjoyed Brandon sent me a piece of music that he was working on and he said, he knows how I write. He said, just listen to it. Get it into your head and see what you can come up with. And I had to just, I had to listen to it and then forget about it. That's how I do it. And then something will.

And in this case, it did something will hit me a month later, two months later, even six months, six months later. And I will have a fabulous song ready to rock and roll, and it'll be weird. Oh, Hey Brad. And remember that piece of music 12 weeks ago. Hey, I've got something. Yeah. The stairs have our right now.

He loves it. And it's been great working with Brandon because. I am such an interesting songwriter in the way that I do write that it's been nice to work with Brad and who really understands creatively what what I'm doing and how I process my song writing. And as Eddie's, it's really nice that he's always really encouraging and I can.

When I'm listening to the mixes of the album that we're piecing together. I can hear that a special relationship that myself and Brandon have got within the album. And I'm so grateful for that because it was so important for me to have a producer who really understands. It's very hard to find a producer who can hear inside your head. And

Rae Leigh: impossible, but

JD Reynolds: Exactly, and it takes a lot of really good open, free flowing communication with your producer to try to get your producer, to get those ideas out of your head and get them get them down. And I think that myself and Brad did that very well. So I'm super excited about the album.

Rae Leigh: That's awesome. I'm excited to what is the best advice that you think you've ever been given

JD Reynolds: Stay true to yourself trust your gut instinct because it is always right.

Rae Leigh: Isn't it, even when you don't know why

JD Reynolds: yes. Always wear fabulous underwear. This is my grandma, because even if you're in a, even if you're in a daggy track suit, you feel a million bucks

Rae Leigh: If you got good underwear on

JD Reynolds: and standards are like stilettos the higher, the better.

Rae Leigh: Okay. They're all brilliant. And the best the best advice I think I've ever had on this podcast. Well done. I've done over a hundred of them. You've done well. All right. If you could go back in time and give yourself a piece of advice, or if you're talking to someone just coming into the industry, what do you think is the most important thing to share with them?

JD Reynolds: I think I would share with my, with myself. If I went back is to stay on your journey. Trust your journey. Trust God. He's got your back and trust your trust yourself, and always listen to those who love you the most. So if you have a parent or a sibling who is giving you advice and you know that person loves you the most, and then you have an outsider giving you completely and totally opposite advice.

My opinion is to listen to those. You love.

Rae Leigh: and that they love you.

JD Reynolds: Because they always have your best interests at heart.

Rae Leigh: Ah, so true. And sometimes we are blind to things, because we want to believe something or, and that's when we can get caught up and

JD Reynolds: Yes. Yes, absolutely. And I think, yeah, absolutely. And for for the younger artists, cause I, I started as a kid, always have someone there with you. Someone who has your back, some, a family member, someone who loves you and will protect and take care of you. And I just always have them and take them everywhere you go.

And then that way you will enjoy moments in the industry that other young artists haven't maybe not enjoyed so much.

Rae Leigh: Yes. And that's a very good point. Safety first, especially for young ones.

JD Reynolds: Yeah, absolutely. It's safety first and whoever doesn't like it, you just tell them to go jump.

Rae Leigh: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If they don't like it, that's a good reason for it.

JD Reynolds: Absolutely say yes, stay strong and stay true.

Rae Leigh: exactly. Not as beautiful. Oh very full of good advice. And I really appreciate you sharing so openly and vulnerably with this last question, it's more about your inspirations and I know you have a lot of them, but if you could, co-write a song with anyone in the world, dead or alive, who would it be and why, if you just pick one.

JD Reynolds:  Prince. I would co-write with Prince. Let's make that, let's do something. I'll try that. I've got every, my mom grew up listening to Prince. The day I was born, I think mum said she was some and Prince in the house. He's one of those artists who is just a song writing genius and a fantastic lyricist. And I believe that's where. All fabulous songs. Get the word fabulous from their lyric content.

 I think a strong lyrics, something that hits people in the heart, something that really conjures up an emotion, a memory as powerful.

Rae Leigh: Oh, it is. And it's almost in un-human to have that sort of power. Isn't it? It's we tap into that. God, that's within all of us

JD Reynolds: absolutely. I agree. Yeah. Music is very powerful.

Rae Leigh: It is. It is very powerful. So what is your journey this year? What does it look like? When's your album coming out? What can we expect?

JD Reynolds: okay. So I just released my new single whatever. It's a very lighthearted girl power. Glad you girls go out, have a good time, don't care, whatever anyone thinks of you go out, do whatever, say whatever, be whoever you are. So I'm loving that single at the moment, it's getting some really good feedback.

And then my journey for the rest of the year is to get this album out to people in a, maybe in a few months time and just have people listen to the whole JD Reynolds journey in one album.

Rae Leigh: it's exciting. And that's such a big accomplishment. So I'm looking forward to that coming out and being ready to be released. You're going to do shows or tour or anything like that. I know it's hardness seasoned to do organize that, but

JD Reynolds: It  is it's difficult because things changing so rapidly that I feel the most at home when I'm on a stage, I love interacting with my fans. I love seeing the joy on their faces. I love them shedding a tear when something touches them. Cause then I start crying as well on stage. So I feel that it's just one.

Big emotional bundle of all kinds of emotions when I'm on stage. And I love sharing that feeling with everyone and I can't wait to get on stage and hoping. I'm hoping to do some shows in Shire. I did have a tour planned in America for the sea, which has been put on hold to next year. So I'm looking forward to interacting with my fans again and just touching base with them all.

In-person.

Rae Leigh: Very well done. I'm going to put the link to your music video or your music and your socials and your website, and everything will go into the description of this podcast. And we'll have a blog on the website somewhere, adulterous.com as well. And we also have a playlist on Spotify for somewhere to tryst artists that come on and talk to us.

We share their music and collaborate that way as well, just to support everyone. But is there anything else you would like to say to finish up.

JD Reynolds: I would just like to say to everybody who's listening. Thank you for listening. Please check out my music, Ray. You've been awesome. And thank you so much for having me on, and it is a fantastic outlet for singer songwriters, like myself to come on and have a chat. And I truly appreciate your support.

Rae Leigh: I appreciate you sharing what you shared and it's been a wild journey. It sounds like. And I think it's only going to get crazier the more you release. Hold on and enjoy the ride,

JD Reynolds: I will. All right,

Rae Leigh: but I'm sure I'll see you around at a show sometime.

JD Reynolds: I'm still, literally, but it's definitely thank you so much. God bless you.