INTERVIEW: For country singer AJ Hobbs, too much is never enough
AJ Hobbs, a country musician from Los Angeles, is on a quest to connect with his audiences through thoughtful, soul-searching songs. He accomplishes this goal on his new LP, Too Much Is Never Enough, which was released earlier this year.
Hobbs is a self-avowed “Outlaws Soul” artist, someone who blends a mixture of old-time country with Americana, Texas music, R&B and gospel. The resulting sound is one both reminiscent of the great country artists of yesteryear and very much of the moment. He sings about struggle, sadness and his musical influences.
Songs on the new album include “Waylon & Merle,” “Tomorrow I’ll Be Hurtin’,” “Eastside” and “Life Without You.” Listening to his new album is almost like peering into Hobbs’ mind; he has no problem offering personal insights, setbacks and triumphs in his lyrics. This is as personal as it gets.
Audiences can check out Hobbs July 27 at St. Rocke in Hermosa Beach, California; Sept. 2 at the Maverick in Santa Ynez, California; and Sept. 16 at the Americana Festival Showcase in Nashville.
Earlier this year, Hollywood Soapbox spoke with Hobbs about the new LP and growing up both in the Inland Empire and Orange County, California. Here’s what he had to say:
On how Too Much Is Never Enough came to be:
“It’s actually kind of a crazy story. If you got a minute, I can tell you all about it. There’s a guy named Ben, Ben Reddell. … He does all the booking over at the Grand Ole Echo, which is kind of the summertime sort of like country and Americana showcase that happens on the east side of L.A., and he came to me. And he was like, ‘Man, I want to make an EP with you.’ I was like, ‘That sounds like a great idea. Let’s make this EP together.’ And we did.
“We went into his studio, [Bedrock.LA], and we knocked out five songs. And it was such a great experience, and I had Ted Russel Kamp playing bass on it. He played with Shooter Jennings for a long time and a bunch of other great guys. We collaborate a lot now and tour a lot together, and Storm Rhode IV is on guitar, Matt Lesser on drums. Brian Whelan came in and laid down some keyboards. Jeremy Long from Same Outlaw band came and laid down some pedal steels, absolutely amazing, and then he kind of had this label out of Texas that was going to put it out. And then the label decided that they didn’t want to be a label anymore, so the label folded.
“And I was stuck with five amazing songs, so then I went to Ted, who is this great producer. He’s produced a bunch of great albums and definitely knew the style, having worked with the Waylon Jennings camp for as many years as he did, and I said, ‘Let’s finish this thing, man. Let’s get seven more songs together and finish it.’ So initially like the EP was supposed to come out like spring of last year, and what wound up happening is that throughout the summer of last year, I basically recorded those other seven tracks and then finished up the record.”
On the overall experience of recording …
“Just like an amazing experience from start to finish but also kind of white-knuckling it for a little bit just not knowing when and where the record was finally going to land, but here it is. It’s great, getting press about it. I’m super pumped.”
On the inspiration from his wife …
“You know, my wife, she’s an amazing inspiration. She’s the one who basically keeps telling me that I need to be making music and playing music. She always tells me that I need to tell my own story, and so that’s kind of what the focus of this record really was.
“The record is called Too Much Is Never Enough. That alludes to my battle with alcoholism and kind of the way that things used to be. I’ve been sober for a long time now, so I haven’t had a drink for over 11 years. But it was great to be able to talk about that because I meet people all the time, and these people are going through recovery or struggling with alcoholism or addiction or whatever.
“There’s a song called ‘Eastside’ on the record that is about how me and my wife met. … So pretty much all of those songs, with the exception of maybe a couple, are like very personal and stories that they either are my story or they’re a slightly embellished version of my story to kind of fit the constraints of the song and not totally bum people out.”
On his early days of finding country music …
“I grew up on country music actually. … My parents, like in the late ‘70s, they wanted to be home owners. They were living in Orange Country, and there was a huge housing boom out in the desert, which is now called the Inland Empire. But back then we just called it the desert, and it seemed kind of like a no man’s land. And it was.
“We lived in a small housing tract where tumbleweeds were rolling down the street on a daily basis. It’s kind of like a one-stoplight town with a grocery store, a school where everybody went. Like it didn’t matter what grade you were in, you all went to the same school. And a hot dog stand, and that was it.
“And naturally like a lot of the people that were living there were really into country music, so my dad and my mother grew up listening to country music. But all of a sudden every single one of our neighbors was like, ‘Are you coming over on Sunday? We’re going to watch Hee tHaw. Bring the kids.’ There was a lot of great crossover stuff that was happening on the radio as well. Everybody from The Oak Ridge Boys to Alabama to Willie Nelson all had hit songs. That really laid the groundwork for me for like the next five years of my life of living in the desert and kind of hanging out with people to listen to country music, and country music is on the radio all the time, whether it’s in my dad’s car or in the house or whatever.”
On adjusting to Orange County …
“My parents split up, and I moved back to Orange County. Nobody in Orange County listened to country music. It was pretty much the same thing all the time, which was like, ‘I like every kind of music except for country.’ So I kind of had to sort of stash it away for a little bit so that I could fit in with my classmates, but as soon as I got out of Orange County and moved up to Santa Cruz to go to school, [I] met a bunch of people and quickly fell back in love with it. I’ve been obsessing over it ever since.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
AJ Hobbs’ new LP is Too Much Is Never Enough. Click here for more information and tour dates.
