Batman. Batmobile. Batcave. “Bat-” as a prefix always leads to something awesome. Outside of the Batman IP though, bats (the animals) don’t do anything crazy interesting. I’m sure bats (the animals) wish they could be half as talented as Bats (the artist). If you didn’t know, I’m talking about Nashville native Jess Awh, who’s been releasing music with her band under the name Bats for the last few years. In the weeks leading up to her upcoming performance at The East Room, I had the wonderful opportunity to interview her about a few questions regarding life, country music, and the overall experience of being a touring musician…among other things that may or may not end up involving a cereal box. Here’s the conversation, giggles included.
TRANSCRIPT:
“Well to start the interview off, sort of as an icebreaker, what comes first for you, lyrics or the instrumentals?”
“Hm. I guess…lyrics. I usually write with just a guitar, and I wouldn’t say that I write the words before I, like, play the chord progression. It’s kind of simultaneous. But everything that happens with the band is months after that, probably.”
“Follow-up question, what goes into the making of a Bats song? What is that process like?”
“Man, I don’t know! It’s sometimes different than others. I feel like, y’know, all my songs are–the lyrics are really hyper-specific and personal to my life, even if they’re not actually true. Which sometimes they’re not. But…yeah I would say the songs are like my way of processing things that happen to me and dealing with emotions so…I write when I’m upset or feel like I need to talk to myself. Yeah!”
“What’s the most interesting thing about being part of the Nashville music scene, to you?”
“For me, it’s really sweet and special, because I was born and raised here–I don’t know if you know–so I’ve been going to DIY shows in Nashville since I was 14 or 15, and some of the bands that I get to see now are bands that existed back then. Some of them are still playing local clubs and some of them have totally blown up and they only come back here on tour once a year, but I kind of get to see the community grow and see everybody excel at what they’re best at over this really long span of time, and I think that’s special.”
“Do you have any particular artists that you’re sort of excited to watch right now?”
“In Nashville specifically, I think Soot is one of the coolest bands in town.”
“What’s your favorite venue that you’ve played at since Bats started as a project?”
“In the whole world?”
[Laughter]
“I guess in Nashville specifically.”
“I love playing Soft Junk. I think that’s one of the coolest things that our local scene has going on now. The guy who runs it just like, loves music and doesn’t give a fuck about anything else. The space is so cool, I don’t know if you’ve been there.”
“I went twice, and both times I’ve been it was incredible.”
“Yeah, it’s awesome. And it’s right next to my house!”
“While you were on your winter tour to end off the last year, how did going on tour feel for you and the band?”
“It was good! It was a really good tour. It was cold, which is a downside of doing a tour in December, but the upside is I think not as many bands are touring around the country at that time of year so people are excited to see your show. We played some cities we’d never been to before. I think the more we tour, the better we get at it just in terms of figuring out how to save money and cut time off driving routes and have fun along the way.”
“What was your favorite city to stop at on the tour?”
“I love playing New York because I used to live there. So every time I go back it’s almost like a homecoming show; we played this big, crazy, chaotic show in Brooklyn with a bunch of our friends. It was definitely a wild night.”
“Bats has been releasing music for about the past 5 years. What do you want out of 2025?”
“I mean, things are a little uncertain with [the] timeline but we did just record a new record like a couple weeks ago that’s getting mixed right now. If I could have anything out of 2025 it would be to start releasing those singles and getting that new music out because I’m really excited to share with people. But, y’know, I figured we just go with the flow and do whatever we’re able to do.”
“I guess this is another future-oriented question. Where do you see yourself in the next five?”
“Y’know, what I always tell people is I want the project to get more successful and be more lucrative; not necessarily because I need it to make money but because I want to be able to support this arts community that I’m a part of, and pay my bandmates really well, and pay the video creators and the mixing engineers and everyone I ever work with because they deserve it so much. I think I would say I hope to be able to pay my friends more and more. They really deserve it.”
“I think it’s fantastic with the direction that newer country-influenced artists are taking the genre, so if you could just speak to that country influence a little, how was that [for you]?”
“Like I said before, I was born and raised here, so I grew up on 95.5 Pop Country Radio and I always thought that it was kind of stupid – y’know if you’re a kid growing up here you’re like “I don’t like country, ew!”– but then when I moved away, I was kind of homesick and looking for a way to come back to myself in a big city far away. I was like, “Maybe this stuff isn’t so bad.” I actually did college radio at school, and I ran a radio show called “The Tennessee Boarder Show” which was ‘70s to ‘90s all vinyl country music for two hours on Sundays, and that’s how I got to find out about the earlier influences that created that country radio sound that I was listening to in the 2000s and 2010s when I was growing up. That stuff is obviously amazing too, so I think both have really influenced my songwriting at this point, even though that’s not really the genre that I’ve ever made, y’know?”
“Is there a wishlist artist that you would like to play with/open for/have open for you?”
“Hm. Wishlist artist. Good question. I really want to play with my buddies Free Range. I don’t know if you’ve heard of them. They’re out of Chicago.”
“That’s sick. What kind of music do they make?”
“It’s like Americana/indie rock, kind of similar to us. They’re just a bunch of really good friends of mine. One of them is actually mixing our record right now. I think if we played together it would just be, like, a love-fest.”
“I guess as an ultimate question, why Bats?”
“I wish I had a good story.”
[Laughter]
“I honestly hate naming things and I was like, “What’s a word that is simple enough that it would never annoy me?” But I do have something that I can show you actually. I was getting Korean food with my mom recently, and she brought this to lunch and she was like, “Look what I found in my house.” Because she’s cleaning it out to sell, and apparently I made this when I was in, like, fourth grade. It’s a cereal box for a fake cereal I invented.”
“Bat Bites. I guess it was always sort of foretold, then. That’s awesome.”
“Yeah, so I guess on some level I’ve been into it for a while.”
“Well yeah, that’s pretty much it [for the interview].”
“Yeah, thank you so much for talking to me!”
“No, thank you! I’m super excited for Sham Jam, it’s gonna be super awesome.”
“Hell yeah. See you later!”
Interested by the interview and can’t get enough of Nashville’s very own? Catch Bats along with other Nashville local stars McKay and Paperview for a free show and more tunes at WRVU’s annual Sham Jam on March 19th at The East Room!
