Jared Corder of *repeat repeat talks Sloss Festival and the rock scene in Nashville

In the past few years, Nashville has established itself as a bit of a rock and roll incubator, with bands like Moon Taxi, Kings of Leon, and Paramore launching nationally. If those bands’ trajectories hold true, the next national act to come out of Nashville may just be *repeat repeat.

Led by the husband and wife duo of Jared and Kristyn Corder, *repeat repeat has been a fixture on the Nashville club scene for years but in 2018, following the release of their new album ‘Floral Canyon’ for Dangerbird Records, they have begun the type of festival blitz that typically signifies a band on the rise. I caught up with Jared Corder by phone the day before they were scheduled to take the stage at Birmingham’s Sloss Festival on July 14 to discuss where the band goes from here.

Chris Griffy: Looking over your tour schedule for 2018, it looks like you’re doing a big festival run. What made you decide it was time to hit the festival circuit?
Jared Corder: We’re at a pivotal point in our career where we’re gaining traction and exposure, but the key to getting to that tipping point where you’re on the road most of the year is getting in front of as many faces as possible. Festivals are a great way to do that because there are 20 or 30,000 people, or in the case of Bonnaroo, 80,000 people. You get a couple thousand there for you and a couple thousand walking by who want to check out a new band, so it’s a great way to get your faces in front of a lot of people at once. Also, the vibe and energy at music festivals is exciting for us. People are so happy to be there. We’ve seen a lot of our friends and made some new friends because we’ve been playing on the same lineups all year.

CG: Do you tailor your setlists differently for festivals since you are playing to walk-through traffic instead of people who have specifically paid to see you?
JC: Definitely. We feel like festivals are a chance for us to give our “elevator pitch.” We get 40-45 minutes at our level as a band and then you’re off the stage, no encore or anything. So you have to give everything in a short amount of time. So we tailor the sets to be as eye catching and ear catching as possible in that short time. At a headlining show, we would push the energy up and down, maybe do a few more ballady songs. At a festival, you’re playing in the middle of the day, people are drinking and want to have a good time. So we get up there and try to get everyone’s blood pumping as fast as possible.

CG: A lot of Nashville bands use Birmingham as one of their first “jumping off” points when going national. Was that your experience.
JC: Not really. We played The Nick once early in our time, but that’s it. We always wanted to play The Bottletree because we heard good things but we never got that level before they closed. So we’re going to come play Sloss Festival and maybe come back and play Saturn or something next tour!

CG: One of the more entertaining things in reading about your band is watching people try to put *repeat repeat into a genre. Talk to me about your influences and how you define yourselves as a band.
JC: We have a hard time describing ourselves too! Kristyn and I had different upbringings. She was raised really into those ’60s California bands like The Mamas and the Papas. Big harmonies. I was more into punk bands like Bad Religion. Big and loud. I want to record big, brash, fast rock and Kristyn wants big harmonies and vocal runs. So we balance each other, but it makes us hard to classify at times.

CG: In the last few years, Nashville has emerged as a rock and roll town. How has your experience been on the Nashville rock scene?
JC: I moved to Nashville almost 10 years ago. There’s always been a cool underground rock music scene in Nashville. Anytime you have a high concentration of one genre of music, as Nashville does with country, whatever comes out in the rock world has to be really good because it has to get its head above the country music town. But I think booking agents, radio promoters, and press are finally starting to notice Nashville as a rock and roll town.

CG: Look forward to seeing you at Sloss.
JC: Yeah! We’re going into the studio next week to begin work on our new record. So you’ll get to hear a few of those new songs there!