Bay Area native Reese Posten started his musical journey in the 8th grade when he joined the punk rock band Grandma’s Cat. Playing with them throughout high school, the band had opportunities to play at DNA Lounge, Brick and Mortar, and the famous pop-rock club The Gilman.
“With that band I was able to experience a lot of what the Bay has to offer for indie musicians.”
The artist has already released four songs since the start of quarantine. The two most recent tracks implement what he has learned during his first semester at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. I had a chance to talk to Reese about his influences and his current musical journey.
It’s interesting how the Bay influenced your work because I noticed that area is very EDM-heavy. In your Spotify bio you said you wanted to go away from that mainstream electronic sound. I’d love to learn how you discovered your own style.
I grew up listening to rock music and later got into pop, blues, jazz, pop, R&B, and a bunch of other things. I started absorbing all these different artists and their music, and when I was writing songs I found myself using these jazz/blues-like progressions, incorporating hip-hop, and adding more electronic pop influences. I wanted to combine these progressions and digital sounds to create this really cool listening experience. I don’t know how to achieve that at the moment, but I’ve been trying really hard to do so.
Going through your discography, your songs give off a really nice vibe if that makes sense?
My friends say my songs have this beach vibe. I surf and that’s probably why they sound the way they do but it’s not intentional. I’m a complete sucker for those super laid back, chill songs that you listen to when driving to that beach so that’s probably why.
When I was taking notes on your songs the main influences I could hear were John Mayer and Nora Jones so I could definitely hear that laid back feel you were describing.
John Mayer has been a big influence. He was the bridge from pop to blues for me. Some of my favorite blues artists are Fats Domino, Freddie King, the older stuff. And I love it. When I was younger, John Mayer was a really good bridge from pop to blues because he had a lot of those influences in his work. He was really important in my journey to finding my sound, but I listen to a variety of different artists now so it’s hard to pinpoint exactly which one influences me more.
I saw your artist playlist on Spotify and saw that it went from artists like Tyler the Creator to more lofi songs. And now talking to you today, that variety makes sense.
I still listen to that playlist everyday. I love it a lot because there’s a lot of indie rock, random pop, and blues mixed in. It encapsulates everything that I listen to.
I’d love to learn more about your previous releases. What’s the story behind each one?
“Over” was the first song I released as a solo artist. I was still in the band Grandma’s Cat when I wrote it. I honestly don’t know where the song came from. It sounded really jazzy and mellow, I don’t know how to describe it but I loved it. And all these lyrics just started flowing when I played the progression. I wrote this whole song by myself and I thought it was really cool because it was nothing like what I’d written before.
At the time I was working at this rock band camp where these little kids would come together and I would teach them songs and stuff like that. That job helped me pay for some studio time, but I only had one day to record everything. I brought two drummers to help me because I wanted to pleay drums. I wanted to play all the instruments on the track, which I did. And I was really proud. It wasn’t the best, but I’m proud that I was able to do that.
How did you feel after you officially released “Over”?
It was released the summer before my senior year of high school and I think I had some unrealistic expectations. I was like, “everyone’s gonna love this song. They’re gonna think it’s like some cool fusion track.” Regardless, I wasn’t let down because I released it. And just the process of releasing it and having my friends hear it and saying it was cool is what made it to important to me. I’m so glad that I started doing this. Now, I can do whatever.
What was the transition like going into your second single, “Moving On“?
Those two songs were written a year apart. I wrote the riff and progression in one day in my home studio. I recorded it here too. I was super bummed about going to college and leaving the people I had such a strong connection with. So I wrote the song and even though it wasn’t that super well produced in my opinion, because at the time I didn’t know a lot of the stuff that I know today, it still means a lot to me even to this day.
Would you ever go back and remaster “Over” and “Moving On”?
I don’t know about “Over” just because that was so long ago. Thinking back to how much I was learning then, I kind of want to keep it that way just so I have that memory. I want that song to be like a starting point of someone who’s really rough around the edges with music and stuff. I’m still not where I want to be. But it’s just fun to share my progress with everyone officially. If someone were to go all the way back in my discography they’d hear my voice change in these three songs and how I’m developing my singing.
“Moving On” though, I actually have through about that. I’m not completely sure yet though. I haven’t really committed to anything, but I have thought of that one a bit.
How would you compare the process of making “Broken Stories” to “Over”?
I wrote that song so fast. There was a day where I was in my studio for hours. It’s an upbeat song. I wrote that song about a breakup, my girlfriend had just broken up with me at the time. I was just bummed out of my mind. For some reason, I just came in here and wrote the happiest song in the world about it. The lyrics are definitely not happy but the whole song is really upbeat which I thought was fun. I recorded all the parts in one day, then I sent it to this guy on Fiverr to do the drum part. Then I remastered everything and just put it out there. I was like, I just needed the song to be out there.
It’s cool seeing how quickly you were able to create these songs.
Right now I have so many drafts of unfinished songs that only had a verse or a chorus. But every now and then I’ll get a song like the ones I’ve released that were out in a day. The song I’m going to release took so long to complete. It was a long process, I think it took around two months.
What’s that song about?
I had some issues with a couple friends. We don’t talk much anymore. I had this big group of friends that they were kind of in but they did their own thing. We had some issues with them for something so I started writing the lyrics for the song. I finished the lyrics, but I was so stumped trying to figure out the melody. I ended up reaching out to FredTheBlackKid. He’s such a nice guy. I found him because all my friends listen to this one song he has called “Blessings” featuring Luca Mantuano.
I DM’d [FredTheBlackKid] on Instagram and was like, “Hey, if I send you a rough cut of my song would you be interested in writing a verse for it?” And he was like yeah definitely. Just right way, within an hour, he responded and sent it over. The next week he sent me the final draft of his verse. It was amazing. I was so excited about the whole thing. It just made the song, this was exactly what I needed.
You mentioned earlier that you have some songs that you just have the chorus or the first verse. I read that you’ve been writing music since you were six. I was wondering if there were any songs you had when you were younger that you’d want to go back to and possibly release in the future? Or would you just leave them in the past?
That’s a great questions. I started writing when I was eight or nine, playing guitar since I was six. All the stuff that I wrote then, probably not. I was just trying to sound like Green Day. I do have some slower songs that I wrote my freshman or sophomore year that I still kind of like.
I was just thinking about that yesterday. I have this one song that it really slow. It’s kind of a bummer. But I do really like the song. I have a couple other songs already lined up for the next few months, and I’m ready to release those as well.
Reese Posten
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Photo by Michelle Castillo
