[00:00:00] Jordan Smith Reynolds:

Welcome to the Song Saloon. I'm singer songwriter Jordan Smith Reynolds. Each episode, I sit down with a songwriter and we talk about one of their songs. This week's guest is Mara Sol. 

Mara Sol is a singer songwriter producer based in Coachella Valley, California. Coming from a musical family, she started singing in musical theater from the age of 7 and trained in classical voice at Cornish College in Seattle, Washington.

After a break from her early years performing, the artist has found her way into songwriting spurred by a COVID project to learn guitar and how to produce music herself. Drawing influences from artists like, James Taylor, Fleetwood Mac, Sarah McLachlan, and Imogen Heap, Her, her songwriting comes from her past experiences and the lessons learned along the way.

Welcome Mara Sol. 

[00:00:48] Mara Sol: Thanks Jordan. Awesome to be here. 

[00:00:50] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Is it Imogen. Heap? Have I been saying that wrong? Imogen. Okay, good. 

[00:00:54] Mara Sol: it's a British name.

[00:00:55] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, I've been concerned that I've been saying it wrong my entire life. So hence the pause after I said the name. I'm super excited to have you on the show today. 

you brought a song called take me home, which is a collaboration 

[00:01:07] Mara Sol: It is. 

[00:01:08] Jordan Smith Reynolds: can you tell me a little bit about 

[00:01:09] Mara Sol: Absolutely. This is actually the first duet that, I've put out. 

Certainly not the first that I've, I've ever sung, but first that I've, written and co performed with Tom Sless who is an excellent talented songwriter, performer, singer, guitarist, all the things.

wE co wrote the song together, Tom and I, and it was produced by John Caviness who had a very strong hand in this as well. And then Tim 

[00:01:34] Jordan Smith Reynolds: We love John That's great. 

[00:01:35] Mara Sol: I know it's a total LASC collaboration. And then Tim Lightyear on guitar is who we finally went with.

[00:01:43] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's great. And it is out today. It is available to go stream. So, I would encourage you, to go listen to it, 

[00:01:50] Mara Sol: excellent. Thanks for that plug. Yes, we need all the streams we can get.

[00:01:54] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, wonderful. Let's talk maybe a little bit about what the song is about and we'll get into the performance. 

[00:02:00] Mara Sol: absolutely. So the song really started in a, in a very sort of pure and raw ways, very traditional for, for myself and my songwriting was kind of. A melody comes or some lyrics come and I remember going to John Caviness and saying I've recorded this little voice note. So it just comes from a very raw place and common to a lot of my songwriting it's all about relationships. um, Relationship with yourself and relationship with, with a partner. This song in particular is, is really about two two people, two protagonists who are maybe struggling to find their way to self love and they find that through the comfort of another uh, who makes them feel completely at home by bringing them into a place of, of home, not necessarily a physical place, but a place where they can feel comfortable really to embrace love with each other and of themselves.

I'm going to play an abbreviated version here, Jordan. Obviously without Tom here, I can't sing his his wonderful part. So definitely uh, encourage you to listen to the full song to hear both of us. But I'll, I'll sing an abbreviated version, which is probably the core of where this song began.

[00:03:05] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Thank you. Thank you so much. 

[00:05:54] Mara Sol: I think that's actually one of the first times I've ever played that, one like that version, and also and also fully because of just the way that the song developed in terms of the writing once we got Tom involved and John involved.

[00:06:07] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Sure. Yeah. I, imagine for live performances, you'll have to kind of, yeah, figure out

something 

[00:06:14] Mara Sol: I just have to call Tom and be like, are you free? We need to like do this live. It's much better as a duet, for sure.

[00:06:22] Jordan Smith Reynolds: That's awesome. And how did that collaboration get started with Tom? 

[00:06:26] Mara Sol: Yeah. So, so John and I have worked together on, on a few singles, three I believe. So I, I very much enjoy working with John and he always brings such amazing creativity and just new ideas that I'll never think about. And so I, I, I tapped him and we were just talking about, okay, what's our next project.

And I brought him this voice note that I. Recorded in my, my home gym and just had this tune in my head and the first verse and the chorus. I said, so we haven't done this before just starting with the base of their raw verse and chorus melody. I didn't even have the chords. And he was like, well, sure.

Let's, let's work through it. So john really helped me work through kind of the foundation of the full song, the chords, what have you um, developed into, you know, the next verse. And we all, we, I always knew it would be a duet. The reference for this was "Shallow." And also I think I had just came off of a binging of Daisy Jones in the six.

And so I was all about like, I gotta do a duet. It's going to be great. And of course I've enjoyed Fleetwood Mac for years. So it was very much, this is going to be a duet. So we developed that and we, we, at the same time, John and I were talking about, okay, who's, who's going to be the the guy on the, on the track.

And, we kind of just both gravitated to, I was like, what about Tom Sless? Do you know him? Like, I kind of know him, but do you know him? He's like, yes, Tom, totally. And so we, we both had reached out to, to Tom and to our joy and excitement. He, he accepted and then, you know, he said, you know, would you be open to, you know, some, some, some co-writing, some, some lyric lyrical work?

And I said, a hundred percent. You know, Tom, I've admired Tom's work for. a long time and so I was honored that he would help me out basically and make it, make the song better particularly the lyrics. And we did a co write session and yeah, just, of course, you know, Tom's just so talented, blew me away with how much better the, the lyrics became.

Small, small changes, like one word would change everything all the way to In the chorus, the in total dark with no north star, I still find harbor in your heart. That is all, all Tom really. I ended up, I actually started that chorus with just take me home. Take me home. Take me home. And he's like, okay, that's a little boring.

It's let's spice this up a bit. But yeah, so then Tom and I had the session and, and really just progress from there. And then it was Tom, me and John and kind of the, in the group and really from there became a true kind of collaboration between mostly the, the three of us. 

[00:08:51] Jordan Smith Reynolds: So when you came to Tom, did you already have the lyrics worked out for verse 

[00:08:57] Mara Sol: Yeah, I had, I had the full song written but it was definitely in a place where, you know, these are, these are my words. There's some, you know, I feel very strongly about others are. gaps and let's see what we can do to make this better. And I wanted, I always wanted him to, the co artist to be the co writer.

I feel strongly that if you've got your own words, you know, in a song, it's going to come out very differently than if you've just written it. or just a kind of artist or performer on, on a track. So I was thrilled that he was willing to come into a co write situation, especially after I'd kind of already had a base of the song.

And, and he was really there helping me work through some, some parts that just weren't quite right. And then again small tweaks that just made all the difference to the song.

[00:09:42] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, Good, and was John involved in the lyric writing process as well, or more from the arrangements 

[00:09:49] Mara Sol: no, John was not from the lyric standpoint, but from the arrangement standpoint and Tom to his credit as well. He took some hand in the arrangement. There's a couple of. real important points. My guitar skills and I would say composition skills are in the, I'd say baby, baby composition skills.

And so I really leaned on, on Tom to, you know, add some elements kind of unexpected flavor and. And he did that. In fact, in this version which I've transposed to a different key, which is the original was in C, this is in G with some stepped up.

So, so D, but in any case, there's, there's like one, a minor chord. And I think in the original it was a D minor, but it's just one chord through the whole thing that is G E minor C, D, some pretty standard chords. And all of a sudden you get this A minor. And it just gives it, you know, all the unexpected, you know, flavor that I was looking for and it really was, Tom that said, I think we should just do something slightly different here.

And that's really, you know, to Tom's credit and his creativity what he hears, in a song and needing to be adjusted. So, yeah. 

[00:10:55] Jordan Smith Reynolds: you also balance quite a few music projects. So I wanted to talk about how this fits in, in the scheme of what makes you an artist. 

[00:11:03] Mara Sol: So I'm a marketer by trade and by day and sort of the day job that pulled me away from music for a while until I came back to it. so I'm very into branding, right? I'm very into, you know, holding a brand and having a brand. I think that's particularly important in music.

In fact, I'd had a consulting session with one of our other LASC friends and, she confirmed that as well as once you kind of. built a brand around your artist name. You really kind of need to stick with that brand because, you know, you want to build a fan base. And the only way to build a fan base is to give them what they expect and what they want to hear if you're doing an electronic dance song, you know, one day and a country music song the other day. It's a little off unnerving for, let's say fans. I think some artists do, can do that brilliantly, but for the most part, you know, kind of sticking with the brand. It's also why I use the name Mara Sol which is a derivative and did come from my name and my nicknames that my family gave me.

But it's not obviously my, my real name. And it was really be able to create that brand and say, that's a brand that is different than my persona in my day life, my marketer by day life. And then as you called out, I have another, another music project called Auriel another brand that is very distinct and very different than, than Mara Sol

it's my electronic electronic music. I say space because it's also my playground. As a producer I've been learning, really, self teaching to produce music. And that's, that other brand gives me the space to do that. I've done some production on the Mara Sol brand, but it is quite different than on the electronic side, which is very, I'd say, you know, self contained, you know.

Me and my laptop, my microphone, we can kind of create a track in about three hours. And then you know, it's, it's pretty much ready to go. It's just, that's the genre DJs and, you know, electronic music. Whereas the Mara Sol stuff is, it's just so much more of a, I call it the craft of songwriting craft of music and my, really my singing voice as it were, and these songs take, you know, like this, this one in particular, I think we're four and a half months in before releasing it. So, yeah, very different projects. And for me, this is just a way of maintaining brands, but also allowing myself spaces to sort of explore different parts of music different hats, different roles of, you know, being the songwriter versus being the producer singer.

Usually in both.

[00:13:29] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, very good. And let's talk about that background. So you have a marketing background and then kind of went into these more music projects. It looks like you started getting a lot more serious about that in around the 2020. 

COVID era. So. Yeah.

What was it like balancing music during more of that full marketing career and that shift? Why did it happen? 

[00:13:52] Mara Sol: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I was a, I would say a pure singer for my childhood. I did a lot of stage, you know, stage musical, musical theater. I got into the more kind of classical and then opera through high school and then college. And, you know, as a classical musician and even as a, you know, stage kind of Broadway show tunes type singer, you always have a pianist.

Or a band or a, you know, an orchestra. And I, I, I think one of the reasons I didn't continue with music is I always had a hard time doing it on my own. It was just me and being acapella. You don't just like stand up and sing at what, you know, birthday parties or what have you, even though my mother would disagree and does make me stand up at birthday parties, 

[00:14:38] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I was going to say, as a classical singer, that's like a daily thing. Yeah, 

[00:14:42] Mara Sol: funerals, weddings. Yeah, exactly. But you always have your pianist, right? And so that was sort of the, the pull away from music is I, I didn't quite find the way to, to do music, do the singing part on my own. And you know, during COVID, it was the whole, everybody experienced, okay, all of a sudden I have nothing to do with my evenings and weekends after I get done with my day job.

Cause all my friends are, you know, in their houses and can't go out, et cetera. And I said, all right, but I've always been a learner. I've always. Throughout my whole life always changed ideas of what I wanted to learn. I was at one point, got really into fitness and did some bodybuilding competitions.

I did a master's degree in sociology at the age of 40. I did a yoga certification, you know six months program, got now a trained yoga teacher. So I'm always in this learning mode. And so during COVID, I was like, all right, I want to do something with music. I think I'm going to finally learn guitar.

I'm going to finally learn an instrument, which is what I hadn't had before. And it was just kind of a remarkable thing, just kind of fast forwarding through that whole story of once I learned and I'll say I'm still stick to my basic, you know, cowboy chords about, about 12 chords in my, in my roster, but it was sort of remarkable what I, the, the very early learning for me was, wow, I can, with some pretty decently basic, you know, skills I can now accompany myself.

And that was just like all of a sudden this big explosion. So I had started. Just kind of playing some, you know, cover songs and just kind of then recreating them. I basically took a lot of dance music and covered it acoustically. I kind of have a little brand around that now. And the songwriting really just came from there.

It was all of a sudden, I was like, Oh, now I have a tune in my head and I have a melody. And, you know, I think a lot of songwriters will say this. I don't know where the songs are coming from, but they just come. And sometimes they just come in tidal waves. I just kind of was in a position, I think, of finding myself to say, okay, songs are coming, let's, let's take them and doing my best to channel that in the way that I could with my, you know, fairly basic guitar skills and you know, still developing, but the lyric part for me came slightly easier because I had done a lot of writing.

And I think just through my, through, through life I done a lot of like creative writing. So for me, that, that part was like, oh, okay, now I'm trying to marry these things that I've kind of put together my whole life. I think there was a guest on your last episode. I think it was Jacob that was saying story about, you know two fishermen and, you know, the fisherman who had caught the fish and the one who had caught more fish said, my line, my, just, just my line's been in the the ocean longer, right?

Or, and, or the water longer. That's how I feel very much, is I think having come back to music and songwriting at a later stage in, in my life, I, I think while many days I'm like, gosh, I wish I would have done this when I was 20. I, I feel like, My songs are very much me and they're very, and the only reason I'm able to do this now for, for myself is because I'm in a much later stage of my life.

I've kind of had all this life experience and now it's like, let me tell you my whole life experience in, in a few songs. So.

[00:17:56] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, I think making that space for songwriting is really the key. And what I've been trying to focus on as well as, as opposed to the output. Right. 

Is focusing on creating that environment that you can channel. Because yeah, when you're kind of focused on, Oh, I got to generate, I got to make a song a day.

I got to do this. And you just wear yourself out and lose the inspiration really quickly. You know, 

[00:18:19] Mara Sol: 100 percent 100%. I respect and appreciate, you know, some songwriters say, look, I'm going to write 30 minutes a day. I'm going to stay on a schedule. I'm going to be very regimented about it. I think that's great for a certain personality me. I'm much more in line with you know, the songs come and I, and I go with it and sometimes I'll have 10 songs that I'm working on, and sometimes I'll have zero and I just kind of have to follow, be, allow myself to follow that wave.

I, that's probably for, for me, because I'm much more of like an, I would call it an intuitive or kind of organic song songwriter. I don't really sit down and follow, I mean, I, I structure things and I study music and I. You know, in composition, particularly in the production side of things, you start really learning, Oh, everything has a template.

Every electronic music is one of the, I think, pure genres in terms of it has a template, you start with a kick and then you add the snare and then you add the high hat. And that's been really interesting for my development of, of the Mara Sol music, but. What I'm hearing you get at which I hear a lot when songwriters talk is that the finding the why, like, why am I doing this?

 I have a really hard time accessing emotions in, in general, in my life. It's just. I had a bit of a traumatic childhood and you know, you get to a space where you just decide, I'm just going to not be emotional.

I'm just going to cut myself off. And, and so for me, songwriting and why I have such just why all of a sudden just everything is just feels like it's pouring out is I've now. Basically, it's a space for me to access those emotions. It's write words and sing words that I would never be able to say. And, and I think that's another reason why I gravitate toward these songs that are all about like relationships.

And my mother says, all your songs are like love letters. It's your love letter to yourself or a love letter to your children or a love letter to your. And I, I reflected on that a lot because I think she's quite right. These are, these are the letters I always wish I could have written or words that I could say to people when they're here, but I, I just have a hard time accessing that space in real life.

So for me, the songwriting is that space of being able to be vulnerable. So for, for me, it's like truly a lifeline. It is, it is. And it's absolutely what I needed at that moment in my life, particular during that, you know, pandemic lockdown. And I can't say I would be what I believe to be a healthy, healthy, happy person.

Had I not really found this space, I mean, I probably would have gone to yoga, but also another healthy thing, but yeah, that's, that's my why. For me, it's, I'm always, I'm on my own schedule.

Cause it's just for me. And I love if people, other people can share in that experience. I love to share. And I would like to think that I build relatable music. So I think all being, you know, humans, we're all about relationships and we have some very common experiences and somebody is struggling and I have a song that talks about a resolution to that, if somebody can find some peace and solace or joy that warms my heart, but ultimately, you know, this is a project for, for me and for having a space to, to be vulnerable and, and, and honestly, that's what this song is really, I think the culmination of, as I was explaining, it's like that struggle for self love I think sometimes does take, for me, for sure, it's taken another person in my life, almost giving me permission and giving me space and giving me validation that I need to love myself.

And that's the most important thing. And that's, that's been, you know, my husband in, in my life. And, and that's really the root of what, what the song is, which is a kind of a culmination of all the, all the journey. 

[00:22:01] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, With songwriting, I think we sometimes fall in the trap of, oh, we should be writing for other people. You know, like we get that feeling, oh, we should, yeah, we should be thinking about our audience as we write. And like, maybe to some extent, that's helpful.

But Really, when you're writing for yourself, when you're writing for something that you connect strongly with, that's the only hope and prayer you could have of someone else connecting to your song, right? Yeah, because if you're not feeling it, then No one is 

[00:22:32] Mara Sol: No. No, it's that super fine balance, right? I mean, for me, I, I guess I've always interpreted the, write for your audience as, as in, you know, we can't make it so personal that it's unrelatable. And yet you can't make it so generic that it sounds inauthentic, right? So that's the balance, at least for, for me, that's where I, I work a lot to figure out where that right balance is between those two things of making it.

You know, relatable enough, but not generic. And, and that is a hard, it's a, it's a fine balance for sure. Cause I, I would say, you know, in our song club when you have feedback, I'm often given the feedback of go deeper, go deeper. And while I appreciate that feedback and generally I do need to go deeper.

I, I think there's a point at which you get too deep and too personal, and that's unrelatable entirely. And finding that balance, I think is, is the sweet spot of songwriting. Totally.

[00:23:29] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah, I do find it like extremely therapeutic like, like you had mentioned going through some of these things and working through stuff. What's funny though, I found too, is that even when I'm writing about something in particular that I'm going through, like, it doesn't solve the thing, but it, like, helps me zoom out a ton.

And like, you know, you can see the issue, but, and you can live with, you make space for the issue, basically, and, and, and live with it. 

[00:23:56] Mara Sol: Yes, and maybe understand the lesson behind it. I, 

it's interesting, I was just having a conversation with my brother about this of, I'll take the traumatic childhood, right? You, you don't want to go so deep that you're constantly wallowing, you know, in this, Oh, I have all this pain, I have all this trauma, what have you.

Equally, you, You might want to explore that space because sometimes there are reactions or responses that we would have as humans that are coming from that place. And trying to understand, Oh, that's why I'm responding this way, or that's why I'm reacting that way is to me, the only way we can make a different choice is to really understand where you're coming from.

So I guess I would relate to it that way, which is that that's the zoom out, right? Which is, oh, I see the matrix now. I understand. I understand why I'm doing it this way. And sometimes it's unlearning, right? It's the unlearning piece. I would say, as a classical vocalist, and I think you could probably share this sentiment perhaps, which is, there's a lot that I'm still unlearning control is one of those you know, my voice is, I would say, still in a space where it's pretty controlled and my notes are very consistent because that is what you learn as a classical singer, and I think in pop music where even country music, any modern music which is a common criticism I, I get about my music is, hmm, this doesn't really sound very modern.

I'm like, yeah, it's because my classical, because it's classical, because I have this classical influence is really breaking down those, the rigidity that we were, we were taught in, in classical music. So to me, it's like, It's just the unlearning so I can relearn a different pattern and that's very related to I think just like psychology and sociology of like how we have to understand our patterns so that we can unlearn them and take a different approach if that's what we're choosing to do.

[00:25:59] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Right. Yeah, if that's the goal, that makes a ton of sense. Yeah, I think, personally, I, I totally hear that with the classical singing stuff, and that can, that can get in the way for sure. I know, especially when I was starting to do more songwriting stuff, I was told my vibrato was a little intense most of the time, and to some extent, now I just don't care. bEcause, yeah, because I, I enjoy the sound of vibrato, I like where I'm at, where, you know, where the journey's taking me, the classical and some songwriting stuff. So I, I hear that the vibrato thing, and others, and yeah, I guess I've just started to kind of warm into where I fit in the whole puzzle, and 

yeah, 

[00:26:40] Mara Sol: I love that. I love that so much. It's, it's, it's really embracing. Your, your voice, right? And I'm with you. I have that exact. I have exact same criticism. It's like, Ooh, your vibrato is a little intense. Like, yes, and I can, you know, I can tone it down. It's controllable, but I'm the same. I frankly like a vibrato.

And so then I also, you know, you also go, Oh, it's just a taste thing. But I think your point is more important, which is, it's what you are comfortable with, right? And what you, you know, 

enjoy and. I don't know. That's where I've gotten to the space to where I'm very comfortable with. I like it. I'm going to put it out there.

If somebody else likes it, amazing, but I am okay with just me liking it if nobody else likes it. Except my mom. My mom will always like it. So.

[00:27:30] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, Yeah.

I think it's when it's getting in the way of your expression, like, you know, the classical, maybe the classical training is, is getting in the way of expressing something in your, in your song, that's when it could be an issue and maybe that's something to work 

[00:27:43] Mara Sol: Yeah, no, that's absolutely right. And for me, it can. And again, you said it's like the zoom out and go, Oh, is this what's, you know, in the way some of that, you know, rigidity or have you said, Oh yeah, I don't have to always be on the note every time on the beat. And kind of get off. So yeah, the guitar playing has really helped.

I mean, honestly, it's like, I also, I think I approached it first. It's like, okay, every strum has to be on the rhythm and then I realized. No big deal if I miss a, if I miss a strum or miss a note or what have you, it actually makes it sound kind of authentic and it's actually okay if I kind of go slightly off beat or slightly off, off rhythm.

And that really helped me even with my singing and like, oh, and it's actually okay if I do a, you know, pickup note here, even though it wasn't written that way. So it's all, it's all the things, it's all the influences.

[00:28:27] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah.

for sure. I, I was thinking about it because my latest EP, The Deepest of Blues I purposefully downplayed vocals in that EP coming as a vocalist background, as you have too that's usually the focus, right? Someone comes up and they say, love your voice, which is awesome.

It's, it's great to hear that. But I wanted, I wanted the focus to be more on songwriting and lyrics and stuff. And so that was my way of doing it, and I'm excited to get into this new phase where I could start, doing more rangey stuff with voice again, but, 

[00:28:58] Mara Sol: I love that. I might steal that. Cause I have a similar challenge. You know, I play my, play my music and people are like, Oh, you have a great voice. Like, yeah, but I wrote that song, 

[00:29:06] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yeah. 

I 

know. It's like, you wanna take the compliment, But Yeah. 

[00:29:11] Mara Sol: But I'd actually rather be, that's true I've actually gotten to that point too, I'm very like, okay, great, my voice, but I'd rather be known as a songwriter, 

[00:29:18] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Mm-Hmm. 

[00:29:19] Mara Sol: By the way, Deepest Blues is I still have that on replay.

[00:29:24] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Oh, 

thanks so 

[00:29:24] Mara Sol: no, seriously, it's, it's, I, I find I download very few full albums, you know, anymore. I think very common. But that one I have and that it's actually one of the few that I have downloaded. And so when I'm on a plane, which is always, it's always playing, 

[00:29:40] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Oh, I love that so much. Thank 

[00:29:41] Mara Sol: yes, yours and, and, and, and uh, J cats again, my two genres.

[00:29:48] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes. Yeah. 

[00:29:49] Mara Sol: electronic. So I always have that on my, you're my travel companion if you didn't know. 

[00:29:54] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Oh, great. Wonderful. That, that EP is kind of meant for some, uh, long traveling road trip kind of, kind of 

[00:30:01] Mara Sol: it's beautiful. And even though you say you didn't focus on the vocals, I can still hear your, your falsetto in particular is just, like, amazing. Like, cause I also know you and I know that you have the, the training.

I'm like, oh yeah, it's it's beautiful. So 

hopefully you can take that compliment. And the songwriting 

is amazing.

[00:30:17] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Okay. Thank you. I appreciate that. 

[00:30:21] Mara Sol: Definitely.

[00:30:22] Jordan Smith Reynolds: I would love to talk for a second. You said you started, you came from a musical family and doing musical theater and classical. I know we're getting to the end of the episode here, but I'd love to just dive into that for a second.

why was your family musical? You mentioned that. And what kind of productions were you in? 

[00:30:37] Mara Sol: Yeah, so art and performing arts. My father was an aspiring visual artist. He did a lot of painting. My mother did a lot of acting was in a lot of community theater type of, of plays. She was definitely the actress. But all of my siblings were in this musical theater gang. So I actually have a huge family.

I have six sisters and one brother. So when I say all of my sisters. It's a lot of them. And it was a local community theater where they had a like a dinner theater, musical theater. And before the main act they would have this troop of kids, 20 kids or so come out and do 20 minutes of, you know, song and dance review type things.

So we would audition for this and it was kind of prestigious, you know, in the community to get, accepted. Sometimes you audition and didn't make it. And other times you audition and did make it. They gave you a little stipend. So it was always like, would I get some spending money? But it was really, you know, I mean, it was also fun.

It was a very much a, you know, this is what we did to hang out with our friends. I went to magnet schools in California. So one of them was called Bullard Talent the name's on the school. And it was very much, you know, an intermittent with our regular math and science. We would have, you know show tunes type, you know, class or piano class or what have you.

So it was very much one of those, Very not Juilliard, but very type that you would say. Or Fame. No, the school in Fame. It was kind of like that. So that was really my upbringing. I was just brought up around this type of, you know, community theater. And that's what we do every night. I mean, we did shows Tuesday through Sunday and two on Sunday.

 That was childhood. So it's a great foundation. I mean, you definitely looking back on those times, you realize, okay, that taught me responsibility. It taught me how to show up. I can't let my team, the team down. I can't let the crew down. You know, it's also hard. You're basically working as a kid.

Every night you couldn't go to birthday parties if they were at 7 p. m because you got to go do a show. So that was you know, that. And as I mentioned, you know, then kind of got into more of the classical style. Um, Today I, I have it's, it's really interesting. A lot of my siblings have done very similar where they've kind of gone away from performing arts and now come back.

I have one of my older sisters Is, is now doing teaching drama at a, at a high school and so they're just, they just had a big like you know, theater show and so it's all like, this is the family. What's up? I'm like, Oh, great stuff. You know another sister does. She just directed a production of Cabaret.

And she occasionally performs. So it's very much like, well, okay, we're all back in this kind of like community theater. kind of self expression and doing these things very much on the side of, you know, life and, and, and work and, and, and what have you. But yeah, and when we get together, we do a talent show at our family reunions.

So it's definitely that, that family.

[00:33:19] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Huh. Yeah, no, that is, that is really relatable for me. 

For better and 

for worse. Yeah, it's like, we'll get together with some of our family and you know, some of the family is pretty musical and other sides are less so or whatever, Doesn't matter. if my grandma is there. It's like, it is now a talent show and these siblings will go up and sing and yeah, it's 

[00:33:42] Mara Sol: Yeah, we've even got the next generation. I don't know about you, but we've got now like 11 nieces and nephews. They're all going into like theater and like dance and singing and it's like, okay, we're going to keep this going, obviously. 

[00:33:54] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yeah. 

[00:33:55] Mara Sol: So it is good fun. It's, it's, it's good fun.

[00:33:59] Jordan Smith Reynolds: It is, yeah, and it's great to be able to relate on that level with, with your family too, to have that in common. 

Yeah, thank you so much For being on The show today and for bringing Take Me Home. It's a beautiful song.

I'm excited to, to share and to hear the whole thing. I actually haven't heard the, the full package yet, 

[00:34:14] Mara Sol: Full package is pretty good. Thank, thank you, John. Thank you, Tom. Thank you, Tim.

[00:34:18] Jordan Smith Reynolds: yes. Yeah, I've heard The little tiny snippets. on, on the reels and things, so, 

[00:34:23] Mara Sol: Excellent. Well, I'll send you that MP3 for sure. No, thank you. This has been just a really fun conversation. It's great to talk to fellow songwriters, especially someone like yourself. It's really fun to just jam on the songwriting.

[00:34:36] Jordan Smith Reynolds: Yes, awesome. Well, thank you so much. And yeah, we'll see you next time. 

[00:34:40] Mara Sol: Thank you. Love it. 

[00:34:42] Jordan Smith Reynolds: All right. 

[00:34:42] Mara Sol: Bye.