Stephen Wilson Jr. Praises Seattle’s Influence on Songwriting

Stephen Wilson Jr. joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday (Jan. 21) to celebrate the recent release of the deluxe edition of his album, 2023’s søn of dad.

“The conversation wasn’t over,” Wilson told host Chuck Armstrong about the new tracks featured on the deluxe edition. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

“It still had some talking to do. You go out and play these songs and, when we made this record, I didn’t have any fans, didn’t have anybody to play them to. I didn’t really know how these songs were going to evolve, how they were going to grow.”

Wilson called the world “a bit of a laboratory,” and as he toured different towns and played his songs for different crowds, he saw how his songs could change over time. So, he wanted to highlight that evolution on the latest version of søn of dad.

“[It’s] just a representation of what is happening,” he explained.

“It’s not a business move. It has nothing to do with anything like that. We’ve seen these songs kind of take on these new life forms with people and these new life forms need to be heard.”

Stephen Wilson Jr.’s Diverse Influences

As Wilson spent some time explaining his deep appreciation for artists like Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp, he also dove into how the rock scene from Seattle shaped him as a singer and songwriter.

“The Seattle approach to songwriting definitely has had an influence on me,” he shared.

“I’m a Nashville songwriter, I claim that badge proudly. I moved to Nashville to learn how to write songs with the best…but you know, I brought a lot of that Seattle with me.”

To Wilson, the Seattle approach to songwriting is rooted in what he refers to as the abstract.

“I really wanted to figure out how to write songs the way Nashville songwriters do, but I also wanted to incorporate the abstract nature that Seattle brought to the songwriting craft, like Kurt [Cobain], he loved to write in vignettes. You just kind of see these little snapshots…nothing really makes sense, it’s just different little vignettes.”

In addition to Cobain, Wilson has drawn a lot of inspiration from Chris Cornell.

“He literally turned poems into metal. He’s very much a poet and he wrote like a traditional poet. But he was still able to fly way closer to the sun than a lot of the Nashville songwriters were willing to do.”

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He shared how both Cobain and Cornell were willing to say things in songs that nobody else would go near or touch — and that always encouraged him as a songwriter.

“I got courage from them to say things that, you know, often make some folks perhaps a little uncomfortable or it might just kind of shake their paradigm a little bit.”

What Else Did Stephen Wilson Jr. Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• Why his dad was — and still is — such a significant influence to him: “He was my corner man in boxing and he was my corner man in music. When I quit my job as a scientist to do this craziness, he was one of the few people on Earth that was coaching me through that … He was a wild man. He was a real dream chaser. I’m just really lucky. I got really lucky.”
• How Willie Nelson made him feel okay about the way he played guitar and sang: “I’m just kind of copying him. Since that day [I saw him] at the Ryman, I just took as many notes as I could.”
• Why his song, “I’m a Song,” was so difficult to perform — and how it’s gotten easier to play in front of people: “That song was really effective for me kind of just getting closer to my dad. It was kind of like a conduit to me and my dad.”

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Stephen Wilson Jr. joined Loudwire Nights on Tuesday, Jan. 21; 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.