Interview: Back to Basics With Liam St. John

The blues artist took a trip down memory lane to ring in the new year, reminiscing about his days on “The Voice” and his gut-wrenching 2022 debut.

Written by C.S. Harper

Photo courtesy of Dustin Genereux

Earlier in 2024, Afterglow spoke with Liam St. John as he brought his soulful melodies to SXSW. While gearing up for a new year filled with upcoming live shows and releases, the Spokane musician returned for a second interview to chat about everything from murder ballads to televised singing competitions.

Afterglow: Your musical journey, especially in terms of geography, has been interesting. You came from Spokane, Washington, and then ended up in the blues scene in Nashville. Typically, when you think of blues, Washington state isn’t the first place that comes to mind. That said, how did you become exposed to the genre, and what inspired you to pursue that kind of music?

Liam St. John: You know, I’ve always said that the blues find those that need it. And although I’m from the Northwest, I still listened to blues music when I was a kid, and my mom introduced me to blues artists like Ray Charles [and] Stevie Ray Vaughan, very soulful artists at a very young age. I think that music either resonates with you or it doesn't, and as a kid, those were the notes and lyrics and sounds that really resonated with me and moved me. It's always been the way that I've been able to process how I feel and how to feel things on a deeper level. It's always been the way that I felt the most seen. So I just feel like the blues kind of found me, and it's always been with me.

It’s really powerful when music speaks to you and makes its way into your life. You can see a lot of your influences in your covers, which you’ve performed and recorded regularly throughout your career. Some that stood out to me were Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean” and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell On You.” What has it been like to revisit the songs that have inspired you and put your own spin on them?

I feel like all we can do is take inspiration from the artists that have built … and influenced us. When I was first establishing myself as an artist and finding my sound, I felt I had a home in those songs and they really helped me to explore my voice and my sound, so I think they'll always be really important songs to me. And I still do cover them — some of them in my live set — especially “I Put a Spell On You.” Really love Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, just his artistry. For all of those artists, I really admire the vulnerability in the way that they present their songs, sonically and lyrically. So that's what moved me to make those covers and … start making my own music like that.

That vulnerability also stands out in your solo work, which goes to a raw place that a lot of artists tend to hold back from. For your 2022 debut album, stripped back, you chose a more minimal sound as a formal introduction to listeners. The record really puts your vocals front and center, which makes your music feel vulnerable and authentic. What inspired you to strip back the instrumentals to really explore your voice and lyrics on your debut?

I just wanted to present myself as honest and as vulnerable as possible, both lyrically and sonically. The songs … that were super intimate to my story — I thought the best way to present [them] would be in a live setting with minimal accompaniment. I wrote the songs on my guitar in my room. That’s how I recorded them: just me and my guitar. All the songs you listen to are live takes. There's no editing or multiple takes; it's just one take all the way through. Listening to Ray Charles or other blues artists like Muddy Waters — [I admire] hearing their voices crack, hearing the humanness in their music. That really moved me, and I wanted to present something in the same way in the hopes that it could move others.

That humanness comes through in all of your work, whether it be originals or covers. Your songs combine that classic blues rawness with a more modern ethos really well, and given your charting success, they seem to have wide appeal. Why do you think your music resonates with listeners so much?

I think most people out there struggle with the same things I did, which was speaking your truth and speaking for yourself. I feel like a lot of people, in one way or another, have not been able to speak their truth or felt wrong for being themselves, and that's what a lot of my songs are about. And so I think being so honest and vulnerable with the lyrics and then pairing it with just screaming my guts out in a live setting — people just really appreciated that and maybe felt seen [or heard] for the first time. And that's been my experience out on the road. In my messages, people tell me how the songs have impacted them and helped them through a hard time or helped them feel seen when nobody else could see them. And that really is what it's all about, and that's why I listen to music too.

It’s all about that connection and resonance. Speaking of which, something that stood out to me was the song “Eastham Prison Farm Blues.” It plays with your signature rawness with vivid storytelling, which reminds me of the tradition of murder ballads. What was it like exploring this narrative style on your debut, as well as your work as a whole?

Man, I really loved writing that song. Songwriting is such a mystery, and it’s honestly so fun. I heard of the Eastham Prison Farm because I was researching Bonnie and Clyde. When I read the words “Eastham Prison Farm,” my songwriting [brain] was immediately in a trance and needed to write a song about it, and it kind of wrote itself. I think I take inspiration from the artists that were so good at storytelling — obviously, Johnny Cash and “Folsom Prison Blues” and “Cocaine Blues” are great examples of that. I definitely wanted to pay homage to the artists … before me that [did] that kind of narrative storytelling, and obviously it just came out in my own unique way.

More recently, you released your sophomore album, All the Bad Things in 2023, and it continues this stripped back theme while being very narrative. However, the songs feel a bit more upbeat and collaborative, with contributions from Tori Miller and Beth & Marrow. What was it like to continue developing your sound and hitting the studio with other artists?

I always follow what I feel would express me as an artist in that timeframe. So I had upright bass on most of the songs, and had some harmonies and did some collaborations. I just feel like we're always evolving as artists, and I'm never going to be one thing to myself. I want to evolve and make different types of music. But yeah, it's interesting you say [it sounds] upbeat, because most of the songs are so dark. “Little White Lies” was one of the first songs I wrote on the album…. If you actually take time to listen to it, it's a very dark song about confessing to my loved one that I had been lying about taking drugs, but it's in this uptempo major key, so it seems like a happy song. But I  like the juxtaposition of that uptempo major key sound with really dark lyrics. I enjoyed writing all the songs; some of my favorite songs were written around that album, like “Everloving Eloise,” “San Quentin Infirmary Blues,” lots of them I really love. And yeah, I wrote a couple songs with my girlfriend, Tori Miller, and we always had the idea of making a duo. I also wanted to just highlight her as an artist, so I featured her on some of the songs that we wrote, like “Lenore” …. I think people really resonate with that Southern Gothic, male-female duo. [That song] has been recently doing well — and “Annabelle Mae” as well, it always gets people going.In the spirit of getting people going, what songs are really popular in your live shows, and what is the energy like in your performances?

Energy is very special to me. It feels like a group of long-time friends seeing each other for the first time in a long time, and it feels very present and very electric in the room. “Eastham” [makes] people fucking scream. “Forefathers,” “to the last penny,” [and “Dipped in Bleach” are] obviously huge [ones]. But I'm always surprised to hear the energy around other songs, like newer ones like “Believer” or deeper cuts, like “Where The Pines Meet The Palms.” I just feel like I have the coolest audience who really deeply resonates with my songs, and so they listen to them a bunch, and they feel the lyrics. And so when they're at the shows, it feels like they're singing along the whole time.

It’s always good to have that energy to keep you going on your live shows.

Yeah, absolutely. I think it's really special. I always try to remind myself that it's not just me spitting out at people listening to me. It's a shared energy between us and them. And you know, I'm giving up myself every night, but I feel like they're doing the same by coming there, and letting their walls down, and screaming their guts out at me.

Since a lot of your songs are more stripped back instrumentally, what is your live setup like? Do you have a backing band, or is it just you and a guitar?

Well, it was me and my guitar for a little bit, but me with a live band has always been what I felt is me at my fullest potential and my truest self. And so I now have a band. There's five of us: [we’ve] got upright bass (the bass player plays upright and electric), electric guitar, drums, me on my acoustic [guitar], and then an auxiliary player who plays banjo, lap steel [guitar], keys, and harmonica.

What’s it like performing these songs, which were originally written more minimally, with a band? Have you ever thought of exploring that maximalism in the studio as well?

Yeah, I feel like it only elevates the song, because a good song is a good song. I feel like no matter how you present it, there's just as much electricity in the room with me on my guitar versus me and my band with these songs. But moving forward, I'll always just write on my guitar with my voice. It's never going to change [in] that way.

You really started gaining attention and success in the industry as a contestant on Season 19 of “The Voice.” How do you feel you've grown as an artist since then?

I’d been auditioning for “The Voice” since like 2013 and kept getting rejected from the show. That put a perspective on me where I realized I was trying to be an artist in the eyes of “The Voice,” of an NBC producer of this show. Because I got rejected so much, it forced me to analyze why I wanted to be an artist. So I really started digging into finding my voice, and that's where I really found my truth, playing in dive bars and singing at empty open mics, but just truly expressing myself [and] taking risks that I wouldn't have done if I had kept that perspective of trying to be an artist that I wasn’t. I think that ultimately led to me being cast on “The Voice” because I had done the work to find myself as an artist. And so when I auditioned again in 2019, they saw a different person, somebody who's confident in themselves and in their voice, and somebody who's willing to take risks. And I think that's what I did on the show. I took a lot of risks and had a lot of fun, and I really loved my time on “The Voice.” And then I just kept my nose to the grindstone. I mean, I never really stopped. That's the thing that some people do after “The Voice”: when the momentum slows down, they stop with it. But I just kept going and digging through my thoughts and feelings, and then it was like a year after “The Voice” until I finally wrote “Dipped in Bleach,” and that is really what changed the trajectory of my career. And I think that's really special, because “Dipped in Bleach” was a song that I was afraid to show people because it exposed so many vulnerable parts of me. And that only put gas to the fire of like, I'm just going to be myself and I'm going to continue exploring my artistry, and my voice, and my truth. And that's kind of been on a train since then.

It’s very inspiring to hear that despite the hardships and difficulties with authenticity, you eventually did find your own voice. It sounds like a very fulfilling and rewarding journey.

Yeah, absolutely, it's a big weight off my shoulders. I've never felt more free than I did, like just

being able to say my truth. And I feel like that's what a lot of people feel when they listen to my songs. Beyond just responding to the calling of being an artist, I want people to feel like they have the opportunity to live their truth, no matter how painful it may seem to be staring at it.

You can follow Liam St. John on Instagram and catch him on tour with Dexter and the Moonrocks and ZZ Ward this year.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.