THIRTEEN: Thank you so much for taking time before your set to chat with us! Let’s start off by having you tell us a little more about you and your music!

ROWAN DRAKE: My name is Rowan Drake, a singer and songwriter from upstate New York. I live in Los Angeles now. I personally like to leave my music up for interpretation of the world. For me, it’s just a way to communicate with certain people in my life, whether that be, you know, a loved one, or a parent, or myself. It’s a direct channel that I use and that’s my primary reason for creating. 

THIRTEEN: You are currently in the midst of almost thirty shows opening for X Ambassadors, how has everything been so far?

RD: Yeah, I was terrified. I was kind of a control freak the last two weeks leaving Los Angeles and trying to get everything in order, but honestly, it’s been some of the best days of my life. It doesn’t matter if there’s a single fan in a single city. I met a girl in Nebraska the other day and I realized that there’s a person there who cares about me who I instantly care for the second I meet them in the middle of Nebraska or whether we are in Michigan, I just met somebody. It;s me meeting those people is the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever experienced in my life and I want to do it for the rest of my life. 

THIRTEEN: You are releasing your sophomore EP, For all my eyes have seen, in less than a month! Congratulations! In what ways is this EP different from your debut, Dear Ella,?

RD: Well, the first project, Dear Ella,, was very much a direct communication with Ella and she was in my life for the creation of it, so I had somebody to look at while I was creating. The second one, For all my eyes have seen, was very much created in the year since I parted ways with her. For the first time, I was creating music in complete isolation. I didn’t have this person that I was writing these songs about to look at. After I created them, I had no one to bounce them off of so this was very much just kind of a reflection of what I have been doing the last six months… Which has just been rotting away in my room and questioning a lot and, I don’t know, regretting and then coming to the conclusion that this is better and then regretting those conclusions. This project has been a whirlwind of contradictions but I’m excited for people to hear it.

THIRTEEN: You had mentioned that this EP comes from the last eleven months of your life as you’ve been searching for a new identity. Do you think you’ve found it or is there still more work to be done?

RD: I think if anything has given me identity, it’s been the last two weeks on tour. The music hasn’t really given me an identity because, honestly, it’s constantly changing. I’m sure most artists will attest to this, but by the time you’re actually ready to put something in the world, you’ve already moved past it. I don;t think that really ever stops or rarely ever stops, but this tour and meeting people and singing songs old and new covers has given me the identity that I have been desperately needing. 

I talked about it the other day with a friend but I really feel joy like I have not felt in a long time. That’s a sad thing when you’re living a life that should be bringing joy to you. I live an amazing life, you know what I mean? I just was not in a place to really appreciate it until I got on the road a couple of weeks ago.

THIRTEEN: Tell me a little bit more about the identity you’ve found in touring. 

RD: I mentioned this earlier, but I create music to communicate with somebody at a certain time of life and so very quickly we move past that point where they either receive that communication or they don’t, and it grows old very quickly. It’s really hard for me to hold onto the music for very long, at least in terms of identity. Honestly, I will say it’s a little naive of me to say I’ve found my identity in touring because I’m sure it’s just a bit of a high on life with meeting people and that connection. I will say, I bet if I put everything into this I would wake up in five years and think, wow, I probably should have focused on my closer connections and not just leaned into the admiration from amazing people, but also strangers. I didn't know these people before I met them and, right now, I am living in a bit of a fantasy and I think I’m letting myself do that because I just need it. 

THIRTEEN: You’ve given fans a look into the new EP with your last two singles, “Why” and “Youth”. Why did you choose to release these before the full EP?

RD: “Why” was born out of genuine excitement when I created that song and I was ready to share it with the world. “Youth” on the other hand, I love that song and I adore that song, but with most projects you put out with a major label, there’s one song on there that is very much your trading card with the label. They get one, you get one, and “Youth” was the label’s choice. That would have been on the project no matter what, but I wouldn’t personally have put it out as a single. 

THIRTEEN: What song off the new EP has had the biggest impact on you? Between the songwriting, recording, and now performing process?

RD: I think there’s three songs that kind of jumped out at me. There’s one called “Beautiful Boy”, which I’ve been sharing and singing each night and sharing online. That song is deeply rooted inside of me. It has words that I desperately needed to hear from somebody. So when I couldn’t get them from them, I just wrote them for myself from the perspective of her speaking to me. THat song, for me at least, was a comfort that I needed. It’s found a similar comfort inside of people and they have just picked it up and really ran with it. I care so much about that song.

There’s another one called “Albany St”, which was kind of the home that most of my love with Ella from the last project took place in over the last four years. That song, sonically, I’m really proud of. I think people, if they let themselves, will just get lost in that world.,

The final song on the project, which I only decided to put on about a month ago, is called “Unsee”. I was desperately needing something outside of Ella, since both projects are about her and I just needed a break away from that. “Unsee” has nothing to do with her, it’s about a completely different part of my life and it was me craving anything outside of her.

THIRTEEN: It sounds like Ella was incredibly special to you. How does it feel to have a very specific person as your muse versus writing a song like “Unsee” that moves away from that?

RD: I will say that people have called me out on this. I grew to use Ella as my safety mechanism and my coping mechanism. I wanted so badly to still be thinking about her and creating about her that I wrapped my musical identity in her so tightly. For a long time, that was really comforting. It was so easy for me to create music about her and it wasn’t until very recently that I started to grow really afraid that I was nothing beyond her. Musically, it’s kind of a blessing and a curse when it feels good. I want to feel close to her and I have this amazing way to do so, but some days I want to be so far away from her. Sometimes I pick up my guitar and all that I seem to know how to create is something about her and that is a challenge for me. 

THIRTEEN: You briefly mentioned sharing your music online. What is that process like in a time where apps like TikTok are the ultimate way to share music?

RD: I mean, it’s challenging. I think I owe it so much and I’m so grateful that it’s brought me all the people that it has. I don’t know how to communicate over TikTok in the way I do when I meet someone and that’s why this tour has been so rewarding because I get to meet the people who found me through the songs and I get to speak to them and look them in the eyes and do things you cannot do through TikTok. I can see this switch where I just truly believe that they will be coming to be shows for a long time. Honestly, I’m still figuring out how to properly exist online, but I think that the one thing that cuts through very well is music and even if it’s a 30-second clip that someone has seen, then it could be the right 30-second clip where they feel heard, the feel seen, and I think I have found a way to do that with music. I just need to figure out how to do it with other aspects of my life. 

THIRTEEN: It sounds like your life made a drastic change when you were 15. How did you initially find your way to music?

RD: It was this weird thing where when snowboarding left my life, which was my entire life, every bit of my energy was focused on that. Then, I looked around and there had been a consistent strain of passion and admiration in my life for music that I had never considered as a career. My parents are some of the biggest lovers of music that you’ll ever meet, and they aren’t even musicians. I just needed something very quickly to pick up and that is just what happened to jump out. It was only really around four years ago that it really stood out to me and I just looked at it and was like, this must be it. It was very naive at the time, but now it feels less naive. 

THIRTEEN: At that time, did you ever imagine it would lead to any of this?

RD: Again, it was ridiculous. I mean I have a date tattooed on my side that I’m supposed to be selling out arenas in a year! You know what I mean? I believe, and truthfully, there’s not been a single day that I realized I would have booked out a venue and I still believe I will be standing in an arena in a year, but I was given a gift from my family to believe and I will never stop believing. This is the very, very beginning of it and it’s amazing that the passion and the outlet for me, is truly a comfort in a way when it works. It also aligns with a slight craziness I have about it, but I do believe it. 

THIRTEEN: What advice would you give to your younger self as you were just starting out in music?

RD: I think for a time I tore away from most relationships and put all of my energy into music. I have a lot of regrets about that now. I would just tell that person that he would have days that he dreamed about but he would also go home and just continue on. That was a weird balance to find and I would just say for him to be kind to the people around him, just because you’re striving for your dreams does not give you any right to have a scorched earth attitude through life. You have to be kind to other people and I feel like I’ve come back to that but for a time I think I was a little lost. 

THIRTEEN: With the release of your EP almost here, what else should fans look forward to?

RD: After I played the first few shows, I was calling my managers and I was like, any tour you can give me I just want to go back. I’m just so far away from where I want to be and I just want to play a show that I would be proud of. If I’m already having this much fun, I can’t imagine what it would be like. I’m very motivated right now and I’m going to put out the music and go home to where my story always seems to pick back up. I don’t have anything definite and solid but I would just tell them that I am more excited than ever and I really just feel it. I think there are some really exciting things coming up and that’s all I really know.