Meet Champagne Lane
In their first-ever interview, Atlanta duo Jake Rogers and Jackson Welch of Champagne Lane talk hitting a million streams, their debut EP, and recording in quarantine.
Jake Rogers and Jackson Welch
Claire: So tell me about how Champagne Lane came to be.
Jake Rogers: We actually met playing basketball. We’d see each other at the rec center and became friends that way, and then we both ended up taking a music production class. So the first day of class I go in there and Jackson’s in there. He was like, “Oh I didn’t know you were into music, too,” and I told him I played guitar and produced some stuff. We started hanging out with each other after that, he had a drum kit at his house and that became our practice area. We recorded “Golden Hour” just me and Jackson in one of our buddies’ basements, not thinking anything of it. We just wanted to get something out, it had maybe about a thousand streams at first but then that song just took off.
C: It really did, it’s racked up over a million streams! How does that feel?
JR: Hitting a million was pretty sweet.
Jackson Welch: I mean yeah, at this point we have no perspective on how big that number actually is. It was like a happy accident. “Golden Hour” was an acoustic song that I wrote in my bedroom that Jake turned into this band arrangement. We recorded it one weekend like, “Hey it would be cool to put a song out there so people can actually listen.” And a million streams later it’s… insane. It’s unbelievable that we’re here.
C: That’s fantastic! And you both have a history of music but you also have separate styles. How did that work for you from a collaborative standpoint?
JW: I think we both have very diverse tastes in music, so we’ll look for a compromise when we’re bringing something to the table and find out if we both feel good about the direction the song could go in. If something clicks, we know it right away.
JR: Yeah if something doesn’t click immediately, we kind of go back to the drawing board. When Jackson brings up a song it’s usually in the form of lyrics and a melody and some chords on acoustic guitar. I usually make a demo track, maybe a drum sample or something. And that’s kind of how Change of Heart was created, just a lot of back and forth on our own ideas. There are a lot of songs that didn’t make the EP that are decent songs, but we wanted to put out the best six songs we recorded.
C: How did you decide which six songs were the best, was it an “a-ha” moment or a more gradual feeling?
JW: For a lot of the songs on the EP there was a ton of reworking. Like we’d go back and redo the main vocal all over again. And then we’d sit on it for a bit, and redo that. What I Know (Won’t Work) was written over a year and a half ago and we tried it literally four or five different ways. Once we found it though, everything clicked and we recorded it in less than two weeks. I think at a certain point if you’re feeling like something needs to be reworked, and your next two, three, four attempts at it are unsuccessful, then it’s either time to move on from it or say screw it and put it out. So that’s how we chose two or three of the songs on the EP. Other ones though, you could just tell. You just know that you stumbled upon the sound you were originally looking for, and it feels very clear to express it. It doesn’t feel like you’re trying to make something work.
JR: And sonically, how a track hits is a really big thing for me. And after you’ve heard it so many times you have to try to get back to what you liked so much about the song originally, whether it’s the melody or something else. A lot of it is showing our friends, too, the ones we know will be honest at least [laughs]. So a lot of the time, the songs that make the cut are the ones that feel the most complete and that we’re most confident about.
JW: And those are usually the ones that best communicate lyrically what we’re trying to express. It’s all about how well we can communicate a certain emotion that others can understand or relate to in a certain way.
Claire: Awesome. Speaking of the soundscape, you guys introduce several elements on this EP that we don’t see in your past releases. What’s driving the shift in your sound, and where do you see it going next?
Jake Rogers: This EP was heavily inspired by the 80s and part of the reason for that is just that I bought a couple of synthesizers from the 80s. But moving forward, we kind of want to see if we can take that retro feel and add our own sound to it, or a more modern vibe to it.
Jackson Welch: And I think with the previous songs we’ve released, we wanted to branch out from that feel-good vibe. I mean, we can make happy music all day long. If you want to sit by the pool and drink a beer, we’ve got you. But with this EP, we wanted to show a little diversity so we upped everything—production, artwork, sound design. It feels good to be able to put this out and show we’re not a one trick pony.
JR: The 80s theme wasn’t intentional from the beginning, either. We just liked it and wanted to roll with it for a couple songs. In terms of what’s next, it’s hard to say. I’m heavily influenced by jazz, blues, soul, stuff like that. I think both of us want to get back to the music we grew up listening to. But also a lot of the music we write is heavily influenced by what we’re listening to now. I mean we’re always sending songs back and forth to each other, like “I want to do a song like that guy.”
C: Who are a few of the artists you’ve been listening to lately?
JR: I’ve been getting deep into old Jackson 5, and we’re big on Still Woozy right now, too.
JW: Mk.gee.
JR: Mk.gee is the G.O.A.T. He was a lot of the inspiration behind the EP just in terms of sound design, production, and we wanted to emulate the uniqueness of his music. You never know what you’re going to hear in his music and we wanted to do something similar. And the variety in what we listen to can be challenging sometimes, because at the end of the day we’ve both been playing for so long that we can try all these different styles, so narrowing it down is difficult.
JW: Yeah, the retro thing was super fun and exciting to experiment with, playing with the synths and putting our own flair on it. And I think our versatility has allowed us to be flexible in the music that we pursue, so down the road it’s exciting because we can move in any direction that we want to.
JR: I’m serious, we might have a straight country song come out next. Who knows? We also love The Brook and The Bluff. They’re all insanely talented. One of our goals this year was to open up for them when they came to Atlanta, but then everything shut down because of COVID.
C: Yeah, it’s about time we addressed the elephant in the room—what was it like trying to write during the pandemic? It must be tough to find inspiration when you’re stuck in the same place day in, day out.
JW: There have definitely been ups and downs, but that’s to be expected. Having so much time and knowing this was the goal, it was hard not to put a lot of pressure on all the time that we had. Even getting one song done, we knew we’d have to turn around and do something new the next week. We’re roommates so we did everything from home. It was a lot of pressure, but it was a great experience. If I had to tell our five-months-ago selves one thing it’d be, you know, you’re going to get unmotivated but it’ll be worth it once you get this out. Writing it was hard, but I’m really happy with the way it turned out.
JR: I’m so happy it’s over, though [laughs].
JW: And about finding inspiration, it was cool because lyrically, I wrote the whole EP in this one little journal that I ended up filling up front to back. I mean yes it was songwriting, but at the same time it was just processing what was going on. That’s why a lot of the EP is about relationships. “Brother” is written about our brothers and our experience with learning how to love someone who’s in a different season of life than you and help them find what’s best for them. “Finding Myself” is about the relationship you have to yourself and your own mind. “What I Know (Won’t Work)” is all about not getting stuck in old patterns that clearly aren’t working. And then “Signs” is about relationships with others. “Another Day” and “Time Flies” are about our relationship with time and how you can use the time that you have to fulfill whatever purpose you feel that you have.
C: When you think about the time that you’ve spent on this project so far and the time you have in front of you, do you think you’ve found that purpose?
JW: We really try to make sure there is purpose and intention in every element of this art that we’re making. Lyrically, it’s fun to write lighter side and a couple songs on the EP are on the lighter side topic-wise, but I want there to be purpose in every song we put out. I find that purpose in better understanding myself through writing music and trying to give other people who are potentially feeling or thinking the same way that I am something to hold onto. I want someone to be able to say, “You know what, I’m in the same place as that guy, and he’s talking about everything that I’m feeling right now.”
JR: And from my standpoint, coming from the production side of our songs, when Jackson comes to me with lyrics I put a lot of intention into deciding what environment his voice his going to be in. It’s my job to figure out how to enhance those words what feelings he’s trying to express with the music that surrounds them. And that’s why it takes us so long to put out music and why we go through a lot of scrapped songs. This project was very intentional and very cohesive. But next we might do an EP where every song is different, you never know. I think that’s the coolest thing about our music. It’ll never be at a standstill, and it will only get more and more diverse and polished.
C: Well that’s really exciting to hear considering everything already sounds so professional. It’ll be great to see where you guys go next. In terms of actual performances, I know gigs are few and far between right now but do you have any coming up?
JR: Well we don’t really have a band right now. We have some friends that play drums and bass and keys so we can put something together if a gig comes up.
JW: That’s the curse of a two-man band.
JR: Yeah, it’s going to be a challenge to figure out how the hell to play this stuff live. We’re probably going to have to play things completely differently live.
JW: Which is fine by me!
JR: Me, too. We hope to do a show by early next year.
C: For better or for worse, you definitely have plenty of time to figure it out. You should just ride the wave for now, I’m sure it’s a relief finally releasing Change of Heart.
JW: Yeah, and we finally have a full setlist. For now we’ll let it sit and get some traction online and whatnot so when we do get to do another show, everybody’s going to hopefully know it… and maybe even sing it back.
Change of Heart is now streaming on Spotify.
Take a trip down Champagne Lane:
Photos courtesy of Austin Glaze (@austin_glaze).
