He’s the latest offering from Glassnote Records, home to Childish Gambino, Chvrches, and Phoenix. Hailing from Minneapolis, Minnesota, Jeremy Messersmith’s been peddling his indie pop around his native US for 8 years but this year, people are finally starting to sit up and take notice. On his first trip over to the UK (ever!) we spoke to him about opening for Obama, his new album Heart Murmurs and playing in a used toilet shop.
The Debrief: You spent January on all those ‘Ones To Watch This Year’ lists – has 2014 been kind to you so far?
JM: As far as being one of Time Magazine’s 14 artists to watch, we’re not all going to make it. I mean, I hope I’m the one that is but usually none of them do so I’m not putting too much stock in it. But since signing to Glassnote it’s basically no longer me and my manager emailing places being like, ‘Hey can I come in a play some songs now?’ They actually know the people at venues and media outlets. Also, I was like, ‘Look if this label’s good enough for Phoenix, it’s going to be just fine for me.’
DB: Have you met Phoenix?
JM: Yeah, it’s been really fun to meet all of them, it’s one of the few labels where I think, ‘Yeah I would actually want to hang out and be friends with these people,’ because why spend your life working with assholes?
DB: You've been doing your thing for a while, were there any experiences from the early days that you’d rather forget?
JM: Probably the funniest was when I went on a tour and someone was like ‘Hey can you play a gig tomorrow morning at this charity thing?' And I was like, ‘Sure!’ I wasn’t picky - if anyone asked me to play I’d be like, ‘YES of course I will.’ So I showed up at this place and it was housing charity and it was used housing stuff in a big warehouse and people would wander in and buy things. I played a set at 8:30AM in the toilet section with probably like overall 6 or 7 people walking by.
DB: Tell me about your adopted city of Minneapolis, all we know is that it’s really, *really *cold.
JM: It’s a small town compared to London, LA, or New York but it’s fantastic, it’s got such a good music scene because every winter you can’t do anything outside because it’s way too cold, so everyone just forms bands. The best thing to do is show up in the summertime, use AirBnB to rent a place in South Minneapolis and get a bicycle and just ride around all summer long. It is a bi**t *Portlandia, *my theory is Minneapolis, Portland and Austin, Texas are really the same city but just with different climates.
DB: Tell us about opening for Obama
JM: It was a big stadium and I was just the music for him to come into. No-one was there to see me, I wasn’t there to see me. Having to get used to the secret service dude was weird though. They are SO painfully intense. At one point this guy was like, ‘You need to be on the stage and then you’re going to have 15 minutes to do your soundcheck then you need to get off that stage or you’re going to be shot’. And I was kind of like looking at the guy waiting for a, ‘Ha ha ha,’ and then he outwaited me until I freaked out and then he was like, ‘Ah whateve’r. And I was like, ‘OH MY GOD’. I’m not used to playing a gig and being threatened by snipers. So it was bit mental.
DB: Luckily you've got your best friend on tour with you at all times right?
JM: Yeah! Andy my best friend is the drummer. He just went to the Grammys actually. He was nominated for a Taylor Swift record so we gave him lots of shit for that! Andy’s been on my tours for the last 5 or 6 years now, and there isn’t much that doesn’t get talked about in the van. I’m really particular abou the people I go on tour with. We’re looking at hirting a tour manager and we had a few conversations about some people and we’re like, 'OK they can all do the job *techinically,*but are they Van Worthy. Is this someone that you would want to be in a van with for like 10 hours a day? Some people you're just like, 'HELL NO'.
Follow Jess on Twitter @jess_commons
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.