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Jeremy agreed to talk with me today from his Universal Music office. Jeremy has built a solid songwriting career during the past few years. Lee Ann Womack-"He Oughta Know That By Now", Trace Adkins- "Arlington", McHayes-"It Doesn't Mean I Don't Love You". Jeremy also had cuts on Trent Willmon, Chris Ledoux, John Micheal Montgomery and Bobby Pinson to name a few. When I walk in Jeremey is wearing blue jeans, black pull-over shirt. After some small talk we began the interview.
Kelly Dunn: I hear a lot of good things about your songwriting. I heard you re-signed with Universal?
Jeremy Spillman: I just signed another three year deal. I really like the people here. It's great!
Kelly Dunn: I saw the Universal page and your picture is on the front page!
Jeremy Spillman: Yes, I'm "Songwriter of the Month"
Kelly Dunn: So what's this mean, you get a free car for the month? (laughter)
Jeremy Spillman: More work, they raised my quota!
Kelly Dunn: I thought you'd get a free lunch…
Jeremy Spillman: It's just good press around town so there's a lot of good publicity with that.
Kelly Dunn: It's a great buzz for you!
Jeremy Spillman: It's very good…
Kelly Dunn: I still think you should get a free car.
Jeremy Spillman: I don't think that's gonna happen. (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: Do you co-write a lot?
Jeremy Spillman: Most of early songs I wrote by myself. But lately it's mostly co-write these days.
Kelly Dunn: Do co-writing open a new world for you?
Jeremy Spillman: Writing by your self is very lonely. With a co-writer you get the instant feedback.
Kelly Dunn: Do you bring in the ideas?
Jeremy Spillman: It depends on the co-write. If it's with an artist I like to try to get inside their head before I begin to write. I like to bounce ideas around until something sticks. My pattern is that I'll write good for three to four months then I take some time off. That works for me. I take off as much time as I can. The folks here understand that.
Kelly Dunn: You need to re-charge the batteries..
Jeremy Spillman: Right, I like to keep busy. I'll just walk away and work around the house. It really helps. I hate physica labor…
Kelly Dunn: That will get you back to songwriting real quick.
Jeremy Spillman: Early on someone interviewed my parents and they asked if they knew I was going to be a songwriter. My mom thought for a few moments and then said, "Well, all we knew was he wasn't going to be a farmer!" (laughter)
Kelly Dunn: They had you pegged…
Jeremy Spillman: Yes they did!
Kelly Dunn: So you live in Nasvhille?
Jeremy Spillman: I actually live in Belleville with my room mate, Trent Willman, another songwriter. He's an artist on Sony. He just got to number 22 a song called, "Only Again Tonight". It's great. He's on the road for twenty five days out of the month. So it's quite here most of the time.
Kelly Dunn: What guitars do you own.
Jeremy Spillman: I'm a coinsurer of guitars. I guess my baby is a 1990 Martin D28 herringbone. I also have a Taylor that Trace Atkins bought me for the song I wrote, "Arlington". I just love my Santa Cruz Barritone acoustic, the Bob Bozman model. It was the first one they made.
Kelly Dunn: That's quite an honor!
Jeremy Spillman: I can't just endorse one brand because I love them all.
Kelly Dunn: Do you perform around town?
Jeremy Spillman: I play all the time. Sometimes I go to Florida or Muscle Shoals.
Kelly Dunn: Do you perform solo?
Jeremy Spillman: Soon I'll be going out Eric Church and Lee Ann Womak.
Kelly Dunn: That's a great gig.
Jeremy Spillman: I love to go out for a week and then come home. It's nice because as a songwriter you can see the crowd reaction
Kelly Dunn: That's the top of the world.
Jeremy Spillman: It's great.
Kelly Dunn: When was the first time you heard your song on the radio.
Jeremy Spillman: Back in 2004 I heard my song on a Nashville station, "Smash It or Trash It". One of the great moments was a song I had with Lee Ann Womack last year. I walked into a convience store and heard my song. My eyes started tearing up. I don't know why but it really struck me that I had made it. I thought this was pretty awesome.
Kelly Dunn: All that hard work paid off…
Jeremy Spillman: I'm just honored that artist want to cut my songs.
Kelly Dunn: Would you consider your own project.
Jeremy Spillman: I'm working on a small solo project. I don't want to be an artist. I like the thought of being semi-famous. I can sit in a restaurant without being bothered. I wouldn't want to the artist thing. I see what they go through and I think you have to have a certain make-up to go through that. I like to go home at the end of the day and sit on my couch and play with my dog.
Kelly Dunn: When did you get into writing.
Jeremy Spillman: My mom and dad were really musical. My dad was the song leader in the church. My mom was the singer. So if somebody were going to get married they'd call my parents to perform at the wedding. A cousin of mine gave me a guitar at 17. My parent's thought I was crazy to pursue this a career.
Kelly Dunn: What's the latest book you've been reading.
Jeremy Spillman: The last book I've read was, "Survivor". The same guy that wrote, "Fight Club". I'm reading another book by him, "The Diary". I read, "The DiVinci Code" awhile back. I just went back to the store and bought the book. I love to read a great novel.
Kelly Dunn: How did the song, "Arlington" come to be…
Jeremy Spillman: I came to town with a friend of mine, Dave Trembull. They went car shopping. They noticed a picture of a service man on the wall of the dealership. The salesman told us that it was his son, Patrick Nixon, and that he was the first serviceman to die from Tennessee. Dave told me the story and we were really moved by the story. He was buried in Arlington. We never demo'd the song. I played that cd for my song plugger here at Universal. It was the last song on the cd. He flipped out. Nothing else on the cd mattered after that. The plugger ran it over to to Scott Hendrix, the producer for Trace Atkins. They cut it the very day that we had written it. I'm surprised it had the legs that it did. I didn't think that a dead guy singing the song was going to be commercial hit. The song was very artistic and we enjoyed writing it. Never did we think it was going to go one to be such a hit song. Trace and everyone did a great job recording it. I receieved many emails from people who's lives were touched by the song. A lot of people told me it helped them through some bad times. Later, I got to hang out with some soldiers and that was a honor.
Kelly Dunn: What's coming up now that you have this new Universal contract.
Jeremy Spillman: I've got a new artist, John Pierce, on RCA, Dusty Drake at Big Machine, Brandon Kenny at Capital, so I've got a lot irons in the fire.
Kelly Dunn: I wish you continued succes Jeremy Spillman: Kelly, tell everyone I said hello. Take care!
Jeremy Spillman can be reached at: http://www.umg.com or www.myspace.com/jernatky
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Jeremy Spillman: Kelly, tell everyone I said hello. Take care!
Jeremy Spillman can be reached at: www.myspace.com/jernatky
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