INTERVIEW: Stephen Jacques Talks and Premieres Music Video For New Single “Fragrant Flowers”

Hi Stephen, welcome to Tune Flickers! How have you been?

Stephen: Excellent Here in Virginia- and thanks sooo much for the tune flickers opportunity!!! It is exciting putting out a 13th record and trying to evoke a message, which is always beautiful if it just gets across to one person; we do it for the love of Music. It is all about the journey and the experience. Jason Narducy produced this new record In Chicago.,

So you’re back with the first taste of your new material, the single “Fragrant Flowers”. Both the video and song captures the spirit of the record in which the American West seems to play a major role – what was it about this era that you find so inspiring?

Stephen:  The frontier and its development amidst settlement into otherwise Indian territory is both historic yet tragic for the lives of many. A plight on either side and a struggle to say the least. So there was a lot of material to choose from and unless you were there, it was so difficult to Accurately condense and Distill so I hope I captured the essence. But, what truly took place It’s quite complicated on any given level.

As vast as the Wild Wild West is – what aspects of it did you seek inspiration from?

Stephen: Storytelling has undoubtedly fostered incredible detail , so much with gun fights, bows and arrows, roustabouts like The song about “Dusty Danny” or life on the farm. The invasion of one’s privacy yet also a sense of community where people helped each other out so much. Hopefully there were some fragrant flowers to counter the turmoil.

Was it easy to translate these themes to a modern era?

Stephen: Having not lived in this period did our best to Converge the musicianship and come close to the general sensation of that time. The pedal steel And acoustic guitar should evoke some of that feeling of the time. But yes, it was challenging. But in the studio, it is one song at a time with pure focus for a great production team; at the late Steve Albini’s electrical Audio recording studios in Chicago.

Music seems to be running through family’s blood – was it then a no brainer for you to follow in those footsteps?

Stephen: there were a couple musicians in the family, but it was more around the house, fun and singing, so there was no plan to ever do this; so it has been a big Pleasant surprise and Quite amazing the number of great musicians and the humility and unselfish contributions of the many artists we have been fortunate to work beside. Aside from that if you move in an unforced natural progression and do what you love things will usually work out. Purpose, passion, and mostly What gives you true meaning?

You’ve also had experience in other fields ranging from acting to engineering – has your experience in these camps influenced your work as an artist?

Stephen: The organizational skills and sought perfectionism of engineering is quite A funny realism especially for example if you have watched the TV show “Big Bang theory”. Yes, I have worked with nerds like this, and they are so honest and delightful. Any experience in acting or television is Beneficial to any performance artist or In attempting to capture the vibe and intent The artist is trying to get across. Multiple interpretations ,obviously in the eyes of the beholder.

Other than your new record, what else is there in store for you?

I’m trying to schedule a European tour and an Asian tour. I just finished writing a self motivation Book entitled “13 principles to power your life forward”. It was a different Textural change so to speak in writing experience, having completed 13 albums in the last 14 years. It was my first book, so the editors were more helpful than they’ll ever realize. Ha ha.