UTG INTERVIEW: Jocelyn Finds Success With Crowdfunding and First Tour

September 26th, 2013

Matthew Leimkuehler

Pop-rock outfit Jocelyn have mixed the right amount of grassroot and digital promotion to work their way up in the independent music scene. The band’s impressive formula of pop hooks and energetic live shows make them an act you don’t want to sleep on heading into 2014. The band have grown immensely since formation in late 2011 and recently ran an overly successful Kickstarter campaign, raising $20,000, which lead to their first full-US tour in August with Hello Highway and Once Upon A Time.

Jocelyn took the momentum of their early 2013 EP, Storyline, to release the successful single “Miss America” during the summer. This group have worked relentlessly over the last two years and no one should expect them to slow down any time soon. We had a chance to sit down with Steve (guitar) and Alex (bass) and chat about everything the band has been through to finally finish their first coast-to-coast tour.

You released a new single and video with “Miss America” over the summer, how has response been?

Alex: I’ve had a lot of people making fun of me for it because it’s based on a true story. There was a girl my senior year of high school who had the hots for me and I basically ignored her and a couple years later she ended up winning the Miss America competition. I felt pretty stupid. That’s what the whole song is about and what the music video’s about. It’s just me being a douchebag.

Steve: So it’s real life.

Alex: Yeah, basically. Response has been good. I’ve heard a lot of people say it’s hands down their new favorite song and they heard a lot of growth in it. It’s my favorite song to show off, for sure. Lyrically, I put a lot of effort behind it and so I have a lot of pride for it.

Steve: Aside from the story, which is obviously fun, we’ve had a lot of positive response to it. It’s as fun of a song for me to play live as any other.

The first tour is now over, how was the first full-band experience on the road?

Alex: It’s been very awesome. We feel very vindicated.

Steve: A lot of the shows we’ve played the last month, we could name 60, 70 or 80% of the fans that came out.

So, with your Kickstarter for the tour, your goal was $5,000 and you raised over $20,000. How did that make you feel?

Alex: We went in realistically thinking $7,000 was a good goal and $8,000 was pushing it. It reached $5,000 in 10 minutes, $10,000 in 48 hours and it reached over $20,000 in a little over three weeks.

What were you thinking when you hit the goal in 10 minutes?

Steve: I called him and was like, “is this a joke?”

Alex: Landon and I were in Montreal, surrounded by a bunch of French Canadians, who probably hated my American flag jacket, and we just leap into each other’s arms and freaked out. It was shocking. People kept giving and kept shocking me. It got to a point where we were trying to see how many fans we had and kept asking for everyone to give $1 and it was at $16,900 with 12 hours left and got to a point where it was going up every time I refreshed the page.

So, as a band, you guys are spread out across the country, do you know how you’re going to make it work now that tour is over?

Alex: We’re figuring that out, still. For this tour, we all met up about 3 days before it started and made it work.

Steve: We’re kind-of used it.

So, what’s next for you guys?

Alex: Keep touring.

Do you know what tour yet?

Steve: Nothing is planned, but hopefully we can do something again this fall. For sure we’d like to be out in January, February, March. Some time like that.

By Matthew Leimkuehler (@callinghomematt)