A conversation with Jimi Palacios from Gimme Country, a digital radio channel that’s grown extensively over the last few years. Jimi is a multi-year Ameripolitan Award nominee for Radio DJ of the Year. We spoke to him about his radio show, Country Du Monde, where he does a daily interview with tons of buzzworthy musicians. We asked him about his process in selecting music for his show, the good and bad of music genres, plus a lot more. Also, since Jimi is such a fantastic interviewer and so we got him to give us his best interview tips for radio.
A radio interview can be a major way to get the word out about your music. They can be either live or for later broadcast. After you set one up, you should definitely listen to a previous radio interview the interviewer has done so you can see their style. Is it funny? Is it serious? Should you have a lot of anecdotes or technical knowledge ready to fire off?
Radio interviews can happen via phone or via a video app such as Zoom or Skype. Make sure you knowledge of how to use one of these BEFORE the interview. A good mic is key to making your voice sound clear on the radio during the interview. You’re a musician, you should know all about mics, right?
P.S. Be sure to check out our other Music Rookie Podcasts!
TRANSCRIPT
Rachel: Hello, everyone. I’m Rachel Hurley from Sweetheart Pub and this week on the Music Rookie podcast is a conversation with Jimmy Palacios from Gimme Country. It’s a digital radio channel that’s grown extensively over the last few years. And as it turns out, they don’t only play country music.
I met Jimmy a few years back at Del Watson’s Ameripolitan award show that’s held here in Memphis. It celebrates Honky Tonk. Western Swing, Rockabilly and Outlaw Country. Jimmy’s been nominated for DJ of the Year every single year I’ve attended. Now no win yet, but I’m pretty sure it’s coming. I spoke to Jimmy this week about Gimme Country, his process in selecting music for his daily radio show and we also chatted about what makes a good on air interview. Plus a lot more. So let’s get started.
Rachel: First of all, thanks so much for doing this. I know that we’ve been trying to do this for a while now, and there’s just been, you know, issue after issue with everything going on, but we’re finally gonna make this one work.
Jimi: Awesome. Well, there’s also been like a continuity issue like between, what I’ve been doing and then what I’m doing now.
So we’re in a much better place now.
Rachel: Right. So let’s talk about that first. Why don’t you tell me everything about Gimme Country? I know it’s been around for a while, but it seems to be getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and I see more artists doing shows on it and, you know, give me the whole lowdown on how that’s going and how you got involved.
Jimi: All right. Well, basically I am, I guess the newest team member there at Gimme country still. I’ve been working there since October of last year, so almost six months. It’s been fantastic being there. Basically transitioning from , kind of like my straight legal job coming into music full time.
So that’s been really cool. So. Background on me, before I joined Gimme Country, I was doing independent radio here in New Orleans called NOLA County radio, which is basically Americana slash roots radio. I’ve been doing for that for about five years. And then earlier, in 2020, I was contacted by Gimme Country through a listener show that I did to go ahead and kind of jump on board with their programming.
At first it was once every other week, and then I was doing a weekly, and then when I was doing a weekly, it was right in the middle of COVID season or the lockdown. So I basically took the same format I was doing with NOLA County radio. Took it to Gimme Country and you know, interviews with Americana artists playing the latest and greatest of what’s out there and stuff like that.
So that kind of got me into a position where I can go ahead and interview for opening they had, which is on the production side, which is a world that I dabbled in here, community radio. So basically, for what I do with Gimme Country is I am the production manager. I basically lead a group of producers that produce every single piece of content there.
So on the metal side as well, so metal and Americana. That’s my main duty and then from there, I go ahead and do an Americana radio show every morning from 8 to 10, which is the thing I love, love, love to do. I’ve been able to go ahead and continue that and expand on that.
So that’s basically what I do for Gimme and got a great team there and a startup, and they’ve been doing it for a few years now. And honestly, the skies still feels like the sky’s the limit, you know? So I’m stoked to be a part of that team and watch this thing grow. Yeah.
Rachel: And I’m interested to get your take on the Gimme Country name, because it makes me think that it’s a country station, but of course I listened to your shows and I see the Tweets and all that kind of stuff. And you guys don’t just play country or just Americana.
Jimi: I love the fact that you’re bringing that up right now. So Gimme Country, right.
So I think that country is at an interesting point or it’s been at an interesting point for the last few years. I mean, it’s kind of like one of those things, what does country mean? Right. And I’ve taken full advantage of that nebulous kind of meaning right now. You know, I know that there’s some purists out there that will tell you exactly what country is and what it should be.
It ain’t like that anymore reason being is because if you listen to corporate commercial country, that ain’t country. Right? Or at least not the country definition that they’re giving.
Rachel: It seems like that’s what eighties pop used to be.
Jimi: Yeah. So like, you know, in this kind of transitionary period and who knows where country goes. I kind of tend to like lean on the Americana or roots definition of it.
Right? You know, people that are making original music in the roots area because where does rock and roll sit now? You know? It doesn’t sit in popular music. There’s no rock category anymore. Honestly, all those artists are like Americana artists now by default isn’t that weird?
Where do you like?
Rachel: Get people to differentiate in those, like, you know, there’s like kind of folk Americana, but there’s like Heartland rock Americana. There’s like country Americana, but it’s kind of all falls under that bigger umbrella.
Jimi: Yeah. And then of course, no ill will towards the Americana Music Association, which is a great organization, a great trade organization.
Americana really is a trade organization term. Right. So like we’re really talking about is roots music. So like that’s where I kind of come in. I try to take to go ahead. And I, I like to go ahead and play lots of Roots artists out there, everything from like folk to hard rock. Of course with country being in the middle there and very soulful sounds as well.
And everything that we can go ahead and put under the umbrella just makes for an amazing programming experience. It just, it makes things a lot more fun for me, you know, at least for my show, you know? So
Rachel: And you play a lot of indie rock too, or what I would consider indie rock. So
Jimi: yeah, with inclinations towards country, like say for instance, like Spoon, right?
Spoon is an indie rock band, but you know where they started, they started in Austin and they’ve got some twangy stuff to them and they just covered a couple of Tom Petty tunes. So like what a better time to go ahead and play some Spoon on Gimme Country.
Rachel: And I almost feel like sometimes I don’t even know by the intro of a song what genre I’m going to consider this until I hear the person’s voice.
Right? So then they might come in with a little bit more of a drawl and then I’m like, “Oh, that kind of leans more roots music or folk music,” or if it’s more breathy then maybe it’s a little bit more indie so, you know, it’s, it’s so many different pieces of the puzzle and it kind of feels almost like, What is the thing that the chief justice said on the Supreme Court?
“You know, I can’t define porn, but I know it when I see it.”
Jimi: Oh yeah totally
Rachel: So that’s kind of how I feel about when I listen to music. A lot of times it’s like I listened to it and sometimes I’m kind of split down the middle because obviously I get pitched a lot of music and it’s like, what outlet am I going to pitch this to?
Does it fit? Sometimes I hear that it fits, but the person I pitch it to is going, “Why are you pitching this to me?” You know? And I’m like, “Well, because to me, this sounds like this, this and this,” but they don’t hear it.
Jimi: I hear you. And it’s, it’s, it’s hard to navigate that now, which I love, honestly, I love the nebulous aspect to like music right now.
And I love the fact that honestly, a lot of the more established Americana acts, they’re just trying to go ahead and push it out even further. With you know, Sturgill Simpson like these last couple of record cycles. I mean, he’s he’s doing rock and roll. He’s doing bluegrass, you know, you got Margot, that’s firmly doing like a rock and roll album.
And definitely relying on more the soulful aspect of her voice as opposed to more of the country stuff. I love it. And it just makes things a lot more confusing. But the thing is, is that good music is good music. And like, you can identify that pretty readily, you know,
Rachel: Yeah. And then a lot of times I get albums where it’s like five different genres on the same album, so that again is cause when you upload a record to a distributor or you pitch it to playlisting or whatever you’re supposed to tell what, what is this album? Is it a folk album? Is a singer songwriter album? Is it a hip hop album? And there are tons of stories or press stories, like in Billboard all the time now about how we’re in a genreless land, you know, genre going away.
So I don’t know if that’s helpful to people or not helpful to people.
Jimi: Well, I don’t think we’re quite there yet. We’re like we’re genre less, but we’re definitely getting there at least with the people that can afford to go ahead and do that right now.
Rachel: Right, right.
Jimi: But I would still say that people trying to probably break in. Unless your stuff is absolute fire. You’re probably want to want to go ahead. And stick to a thing or a couple of things that way you’re not confusing people all the way, but then again, like I said, I mean if the music is amazing. It speaks for itself. Right?
Rachel: Right. And so you kind of are lucky that you get to hear a lot of stuff way before it’s going to come out. People send you records, that are two months, three months in advance. You get to be an early, early supporter. Do you ever “find that you pass on things that later on turn out to be huge?
And you’re like, “Oh, I just, you know, I just missed that or it’s just not my taste.” Or do you have any stories like that? Like for me it was Sturgill Simpson. You know, the first time I heard him, I was like, that’s not going anywhere.
Jimi: Oh, man. Well, not all the time. I mean, there’s so much music out there, so like, I can’t cover everything. Right? So like I already know going into the game that I can’t cover everything, but I will say this is that if something is a little bit more innocuous to me, if it just sounds like anything else, then I tend to go ahead and tune out sooner than try to go ahead and, and truly try to go ahead and see what’s going on there and everything like that.
I mean, I’m really at a point where I like a lot of different, interesting sounds and I like from a lot of different backgrounds from people. I want to see like some diversity out there, you know? And those are things I think about when I’m programming my shows, you know? So I’d like to go ahead and have a wider array of different things.
Now, I have like my biases, like being here in New Orleans, I hear horns or something like that. Man, I love it. Just like I love stuff that comes out of Memphis generally and stuff that basically is up and down the Mississippi river from St. Louis down to new Orleans, I generally love. But like, you know, but I try to go ahead and, and keep an open ear for different things.
It’s just like when I hear the same thing being repeated, regardless of the artist, and regardless of the painstakingly, you know, the dedication to go ahead and just kind of gets, if it somewhat sounds like something I’ve already heard before. It takes a lot for me to go ahead and get like, excited about something like that.
Rachel: So you’re talking about building diversity into your playlist, which is, you know, a big thing that a lot of people are trying to focus on now. And there’s some back and forth discussions on that. Because everybody thinks Americana and country is all white.
And , I feel like there are more and more diverse people from the LGBTQ community and black and other racial ethnicities coming up and poking through, but it’s still generally pretty white. What’s been your experience? Are you getting more music pitched to you that is diverse lately?
I mean, does it feel like it’s changing to you? Or is it like you really have to work at it to make a diverse playlist?
Jimi: I mean, it’s not that difficult, honestly, the artists are there, whether I want to go ahead and just if we’re just talking about ethnicity or whatever, I mean, not everything is black and white.
I mean, you’ve got lots of different people in there, but there’s all kinds of artists with amazing material out there right now. So like, it’s easy to make a playlist. I mean, right now currently, I mean, you’ve got Allison Russell, you have like Adia Victoria, you’ve got. You know Valerie June that just released an album.
I mean, there’s, there’s lots of great stuff out there right now. And from women, artists too. So I’ve never really bought into the fact that it’s just not there, cause it’s always been there, you know? And especially in the Americana realm, there’s a lot of amazing women artists, there really is.
Rachel: There’ve been some discussions go down from different people on Twitter. Having different opinions on how much there is to choose from. And there are varying opinions, but it’s good to hear you say, it’s not that tough if you are looking for it. If you’re just playing the same, you know, there are people out there that interview the same type of band every single week.
And I don’t want to like come down hard on like the white boy Americana band, cause I represent a lot of them. But there are a lot of the them out there, so sometimes it’s like week after week after week, when you see the same type of band have a spotlight put on them. You do get to the point where you’re like, is that it?
Jimi: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think like the programmers ear though, because like, I think in that situation, you might have a programmer that likes a certain sound. So they might like every single derivative that uncle Tupelo put out there. So guess what? They like Son Volt, they like Wilco.
They’ve got, they like all the different progeny that came out from that sound. And like, not to say that it all sounds the same, but a lot of it has like a certain aspect to it that they can go ahead and hear, you know, that first fusion of like rock and blues and country and stuff like that.
So like, that’s cool. I mean, that’s certainly going to lend itself to go ahead and being like a lot of the same type of artists, but I don’t know my ear is like, I just like a lot of different sounds, you know, and just changing it up. I mean, if I, if I feel like a playlist is too heavy in one area, I try to go ahead and like in the next set, go ahead and come back with something completely different, you know?
Rachel: Right. It’s funny that you mentioned Uncle Tupelo and Wilco, because when I was driving up to Nashville last week, I was listening to Jeff Tweedy’s book, “Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back),” and I never really put it together that he really feels like Uncle Tupelo came out of a fusion of country and punk.
You know? But they fuse so far from what they were into the middle, I guess. And it was hard to see those parameters, at least for me. But I thought that was interesting.
Jimi: I think on the punk side, he probably is. And I haven’t read the book. It’s definitely on my list, but like on the punk side, probably more of like the DIY mentality of it. You know what I’m saying? Like just having to go ahead and take things into your own hands.
Rachel: No, he was really into the Minutemen and Husker Du and like, you know, that whole scene, not, not like the sex pistols punk or whatever, but yeah, yeah, yeah. That more garage bandy kind of punk, I guess. But yeah, it’s a good book. You should check it out.
So let’s get to the part where we talk to the musicians. Cause that’s who this is for. What are your tips of the trade that you have for them? You’ve been doing this for a while, what mistakes do you see musicians made or what do you think see that people are doing right that you can encourage them to do more of?
Jimi: I don’t know. I mean, I hate to be like, try to go ahead and say like, people are doing something wrong. I mean, if they’re doing something that, you know, they want to do, I mean, go for it. I guess like, at least for me as a programmer and I get to program all my stuff, which is pretty fantastic. And I don’t take lightly.
I don’t know. I like to go ahead and see kind of whatever type of music that you’re trying to go ahead and pitch, or try to go ahead and get on the air, that it’s like fully formed, you know, that it is like a complete concept. Like you’ve been practicing your craft for a while that it sounds complete, you know what I’m saying?
And that doesn’t necessarily mean like overproduced or like, you have to go ahead and go and you have to be on a label or anything like that. It just means that whatever project or whatever your sound is, like, it’s, it’s like fully formed, like you stand right behind it and you’ve been, you know the songs. You really believe in them, it’s not something that’s kind of like fly by night. Like, I think there’s so many, the genre lends itself to people like, “I just got this guitar, I’m going to go ahead and start practicing it. And you know what? I’m going to start releasing some stuff on band camp and like start doing this thing” and that’s fine and all, but that doesn’t mean necessarily mean that it’s like radio ready. You know what I’m saying?
Rachel: No, I mean, I talk to clients about that all the time. You know, I did a podcast with Valerie June, who you mentioned earlier back in 2007, when she was first getting started out, but she, you know, she was fairly well known around Memphis and she was on an MTV show.
I don’t know if you remember the Craig Brewer show that he did , so last week she was on late night television, right. But that’s a 14 year difference between her being on a podcast and being on late night. And often I will get newer clients who are like, ” Are you going to pitch us to this, that and the other?”
And, you know, all these people that it seems like they were an overnight sensation it’s really years and years and years behind them before they really got any of the big press or the big opportunities. And I try to tell people it’s much more about. Can you stick around? You know, the longer you stick around, the more you build your name the more opportunities will come to you and it’s a time game.
Jimi: Yeah, Valerie June’s amazing. I mean, I just got to interview her during like the big, at the, like, when she was. Her last album cycle. So like she’s a fantastic interview and she has been around for a long time. And she’s one of those you know, like we’re talking about her album. I mean, she can pinpoint exactly what sound she’s going for.
She can tell you that, you know, with this last album that she just released, how coming full circle and like having some Memphis influence on it was super important, you know enough to go ahead and get Carla Thomas and get an original string arranger for like those Stax records that came out like a long time ago.
You know what I’m saying? And that’s kind of like the level of detail that you don’t have to be Valerie June, you could be an emerging act, but like, that’s the level of detail that you’re always looking for, like as far as the music is concerned, regardless. Right?
Rachel: Right. Well, David Sedaris says that he does 15 edits of one of his stories before he ever sends it to an editor, you know? And that’s why his stories are so good is because he’s not, he’s gotten past that need to get it in front of somebody else right away. Right?
Jimi: Yeah.
Rachel: Just like, “I finish it now I’ve got to,” you know, and I used to do that too early on when I had my blog.
You know, I would write something about music and I would just hit publish, and I just felt good to like be done with it, but then as time goes by, you see when you go back and look at that stuff that you did quickly and got out there, you look back at it and think, you know, “That was so weak. It wasn’t very good and I didn’t spend enough time on it.”
And I wasn’t, you know, I was more interested in just like releasing it to the world than it being really good. And so I think that comes back to what you’re talking about with like newer artists. They’re so excited that they made something that they want it to be heard by someone instead of like pulling back and, you know, reworking it and reworking and reworking it until it’s something that’s really good.
And they might not even know what is really good then yet.
Jimi: Yeah. True. And then also too, like, I want to just make sure that I put this in there. It’s like, I’m one opinion and I may be completely off, you know what I’m saying? But there’s always an audience and like you see to go ahead and find your audience and everything.
And I guess the number one thing is just like, whatever you’re going to go ahead and release, just be a hundred percent behind it and have put in the work, because I mean, you can hear it, you know, like at least I think I can at this point. So it’s just always good to go ahead and have something like, you know, whatever it is, whatever sound inclination is like, just for it to be really, really, really ready to go really polished and stuff, you know?
Rachel: And I think, you know, it’s hard to tell someone to like, hold back. But it is a first impression that you’re making when you put stuff out into the world. And so if you put stuff out into the world that isn’t ready to be there and people listen to it and they build that first impression, they might not pay attention to you in the future.
You know, they’ve already decided they don’t like you. So, everything’s a balancing act and there’s no one way to do anything, but it’s just things to think about.
Jimi: Yeah, I mean, and it’s fun to go ahead and listen to like all different types of things coming in. I mean, it, the variety of music out there is pretty amazing.
And I think that you know, coming full circle, like what is country? Who knows? We’re still defining the term right now, but it’s, it’s an exciting time to go ahead and like be able to go and listen to a bunch of different Americana roots stuff and seeing how it all fits in together. Because ultimately I want to see all these bands, like in a live setting, right?
We’ll eventually get there.
Rachel: Well, what about tips on interviews? Do you find that some people come more prepared to be interviewed than others? You know, some, some people don’t really know what to talk about because they haven’t really prepared for the interview.
Jimi: Oh, absolutely. I mean, I interview at least five new or not new. I interview at least five new artists a week to keep up with my own show, which is like, you know, every day, every work day.
Rachel: Right.
Jimi: So I have to go ahead and refill what I just went ahead and put out there. So talk to a lot of people. I mean, I’ve probably done over, like, easily over a thousand interviews at this point, but yeah, people come in with all different types of experience and and even preparedness for the interview. It’s always amazing to go ahead and just have a great interview, regardless of someone’s stature, whether they’re like been in the industry for awhile, they’re well-established, but, man to go ahead and have a really great interview where we’re just extracting all this great information. You know, some of my best interviews come from emerging acts and that’s why I still talk most of the, the interviews that I do are still a lot of emerging acts because they’re genuinely excited. They’re genuinely excited about their product and they can go ahead and speak to it.
Something they’ve been working on for a while. They can go ahead and go through all like, The horror stories of getting everything together and like that first studio experience. I mean, those are amazing, amazing stories. And it’s, it’s surprising to me sometimes when I’m like interviewing an emerging act and I’m like, “Hey man, the world’s your oyster. We’re trying to go ahead and help you out here.” And they got nothing to talk about and I’m like, “But this is something you love! Like how do you not have anything to talk about?” And I’m trying to like, get them going, you know? But, you know, it happens every once in awhile. And I guess, like, I don’t know about any advice, but I mean, it’s certainly something that you need to think about as an artist, right?
It’s show business, right? So like at some point you’re going to have to show someone what you’ve been working on and explain it like at a relatively high level and get me excited about it. I mean, I’m a pretty excited guy, so it doesn’t take much for me to get excited, but you know, there’s some salesmanship, that definitely needs to go into like, whatever you’re doing too, you know?
Rachel: Yeah. My tips for anyone interested, and I did this for a band last week, is I made them make a bullet point list of things that they wanted to talk about beforehand. And if the interviewer, because you never know what kind of interviewer you’re going to get, right? And some of them will ask the same questions that every other interview person has asked them and they get tired of that. And I was just like “Write down your five bullet points and then steer the conversation to what you want to talk about. And the person interviewing you will be happy to talk about whatever it is you want to talk about.”
As long as you show excitement and have something to say, they’ll go with it, you know, so be prepared to, and you see that all the time with politicians, right? They get asked a question on a news show and they start to answer the question, but they don’t answer the question at all. They just steer it to what they want to talk about.
Jimi: Exactly. I’m all for it, man. I mean, help me, especially if there’s something that I don’t know about and I try to be pretty prepared for all my interviews and ask interesting questions.
It’s not all just about, “Hey, where’d you record this? Who produced it? What was the process like?” I mean, those, those questions will usually come out especially with an album release and everything, but I love the nuance in you know, especially if like a band has an interesting formation story or like, you know, they were the composite of several different bands that came together and decided to do a one-off and now this thing is the thing that hits. Those are great stories to hear because it lets people know that like, “Wow, man, maybe the thing that I’m doing right now, isn’t like the final thing that I’m going to be doing.” So like, you gotta keep on plugging at it, you know?
Rachel: Well, you’ve been a great interview and I thank you again for doing it. For bearing with–
Jimi: Oh man, my pleasure.
Rachel: Our time mix ups, but yeah, thanks so much and keep on doing what you’re doing. You’re very helpful to a lot of people in getting the music out there, people starting out and people established. You’re doing a great job.
Jimi: Thank you so much. I mean, I love what I do and I finally get to do it like all the time. So it’s, it’s been cool and we’ll just continue to to absorb as much music out there and get as much as we can.
Rachel: Awesome.
Rachel: And there you have it. Thanks to Jimmy for taking the time to chat with me this week. Be sure to check out, Gimme Country to hear Jimmy’s daily show Country Du Monde. It’s where you’re going to find out everything new and exciting happening in Americana and roots music. You can listen to it online Gimme Country .com.
Or you can download the app. Thanks for listening to the show this week. If you’re interested in more insider information, just like this, be sure to check out our weekly newsletter. You can sign up on sweetheart pub.com. And don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast to be notified when the next one comes out.
If you’ve got a specific question. Feel free to tweet me or shoot me an email. I’m not hard to find. Now. Go do something useful.
