Jack Kays Discusses His Heavy Lyrics – ‘It Just Feels Relieving’

On Wednesday’s Loudwire Nights (Feb. 5), Jack Kays joined host Chuck Armstrong to celebrate the recent release of his debut full-length album, DEADBEAT!. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“It’s like the most official release, the longest release I’ve ever done, and it’s kind of the first time we’ve ever put out a proper album and then toured it,” Kays told Chuck.

“I’m pretty excited and I’m really proud of what I’ve done.”

A major part of the connection Kays has built with his fans over the years — and certainly continues to build with DEADBEAT! and his massive tour in support of it — is thanks to the emotional weight and realness of his lyrics, something he doesn’t take lightly.

“I think to properly write about something that is really hard, something like addiction or the loss of a friend, fear of aging, something like that, in order to write about it, you have to have coped with it a certain amount,” he said.

“You have to have kind of dealt with it if you want to write about it in a way that is mature and feels timeless.”

Kays admitted that, as a guy who writes songs by himself, it can be heavy to put the lyrics down. By the time he hits the studio, though, those emotions don’t feel “fresh,” making it easier to create the songs themselves.

“It just feels really relieving,” he said.

“I think cathartic is the best way [to put it]. I love singing these lyrics, I love the build of these songs, love getting to the climax. It just feels really, really good every single time.”

One of the most powerful songs on DEADBEAT! has to be “My Promise (90 Day),” a track that features Blink-182‘s Travis Barker and is about addiction that is amplified even more with the emotional, but hopeful, music video.

Kays explained that he asked his fans to send in photos and stories about losing friends and family members to addiction.

He wasn’t ready for the response.

“Within the first day we had 200 responses,” he said.

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“It just blew me away. I obviously know that so many people struggle with this and so many people are touched but it, but that was a real-time example of how impactful this is and how devastating addiction really can be.”

He said seeing his email inbox full of photos, videos and stories about people struggling with the same disease of addiction he struggles with was heavy — but also, it gave him a lot of hope.

“All those people have died, but their photo and their story, it was sent in by somebody who lived.”

What Else Did Jack Kays Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• How his songwriting has evolved over the years: “When I first started writing songs, I was writing about stuff that had nothing to do with me. I was making SoundCloud rap music … Slowly, as I started getting better at writing songs, I just started being able to talk about things that were bothering me.”
• What it means to have Travis Barker’s support and friendship in his music: “My first song that blew up is called ‘Morbid Mind‘ and he found me because of that song … I didn’t have the tools to make a full punk record, I was just recording these songs acoustic. He really has his ear on the ground for punk music and he found that song probably when I had 10,000 streams, if that.”
• Why he loves cooking, but doesn’t consider himself a culinary chef anymore: “I haven’t worked behind a line in like five years, [but] I’m an avid home cook, who was professionally trained.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Jack Kays joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, Feb. 5; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand.