West 22nd shares insights into their first headline tour and upcoming music projects that are in the works.
West 22nd continues to rise as a prominent band in the Austin music scene. After playing numerous shows across Texas, they explored new cities and states in their most recent tour. In March of this year, they put out two new singles, following their EP release in 2023. As the band made their way down to Dallas, Off Record Blog got the chance to chat with them and dig deeper into their experiences in performing and writing their music.
ORB: How do y’all feel about being back in Dallas?
Logan Madsen (LM): Absolutely wonderful!
Jet Beck (JB): I’m from ‘Dallas’ Dallas.
LM: We have two Dallas boys.
JB: *points to Douglas* And he’s from fake Dallas.
Douglas Blatt (DB): Yeah, I’m Frisco.
ORB: We heard there was car trouble! Could you briefly talk about what happened at your August show?
LM: Basically, I got a car a week before the show and Doug didn’t want to keep using his car because he didn’t want to bring his drums up to backline. I drove up, first road trip in the car! Thirty minutes after we left to go get dinner after we unloaded, it got absolutely sandwiched into two. Insurance helped me out and I got a better car out of it.
GA: We didn’t know until we were done with the show and getting ready to leave.
ORB: It kind of went with your “Road Trip” song.
LM: It did, unfortunately.
GA: There’s a line that says “We left that piece of junk on the side of the road,” some foreshadowing there.
ORB: Getting back into it. Last month you had South By Southwest and you played a whole bunch of shows there. It must’ve been so tiring!
GA: We played pretty much every day, but it was fun. A lot of the shows were very built-in crowds, so a lot of new fans that were introduced to our music and people from all over the country who were in Austin for that week, so the city was very busy and it was awesome to be a part of it.
LM: We got invited to a music festival from these people from the Netherlands. It’s not gonna actually happen.
ORB: That’s still cool. Not long after, your first headline tour. Can you talk about how tour has been, and performing and all that?
DB: It was tiring. We had to travel a total of 24 hours almost back and forth. I’m pretty sure everyone one of us got sick of each other at some point.
GA: It’s been a lot of adversity with a lot of our shows. Certain schedules. One of our shows was around Easter so the kids we were trying to target at that show might have been out of town. We were trying new distances, like we went all the way up to Denver, which was new for us. Every show had a little bit of adversity, but all of them ended up being really special. We were really happy with the turnouts we got and the shows we were able to put on for our fans. It’s all been worth it and I hope we continue that streak tonight with our last show and have a great show here in Dallas.
LM: We had shattered some windows, got some flat tires, had some beef with our managers a little bit, but we’re besties – we always squash it.
ORB: What was your favorite show?
LM: I would probably say Denver was my favorite, that was so much fun.
JB: I was a fan of the Denver show. That was a great time.
LM: Denver was so cool, we’ve never been in that market before and to have as many people come out that did and support us and buy merch. It was just such good energy, you can tell that Denver is such a music town. It kinda gave me the same vibes as Austin a little bit, just a little colder and beautiful mountains.
ORB: Austin is very musical. What would you say your biggest takeaway from performing live would be?
GA: It’s kind of what we were just saying, like sometimes we’re worried that turnout is a little suspicious. There’s certain obstacles that we might have sometimes, or we might be not feeling that great. Logan sometimes as a singer needs to drink some tea or something. We always, no matter what, get the crowd into our shows and very engaged with us no matter if it’s a big crowd, if it’s a small crowd, a little packed room or if we’re playing in a big venue like tonight or at San Antonio. No matter how much of the room is filled up we feel like we’re really connecting with our fans and they’re connecting with us. That’s the most fulfilling part of it.
LM: I feel like live music is just the best part about music. Finding someone that you like and listening to them and then going to a concert and seeing them live and experiencing that live. At least for me personally, seeing artists that I look up to as well. Not that people look up to us, maybe they do maybe they don’t, who knows. It’s just so much fun to have everyone in that room and us be on stage all for the same reason.
ORB: Performing is an art in itself just because it’s so raw, so has there been an artist that you’ve seen that you like the way they perform or inspires you?
Jeremy Ancheta (JA): Elijah Delgado. One of our San Antonio openers.
LM: I think one of my favorite artists who I found at SXSW last year was The Moss. They are ridiculous performers and Tyke the lead singer, his energy is infectious on stage he’s just flopping around and freaking out. Seeing shows like that we definitely take inspiration, take notes, learning in the crowd as we’re watching it happen.
ORB: The Moss is a good answer! Getting back into your music, all of your songs are fun and light-hearted but I feel like they each have a story behind them, and you write all your songs yourself? Could you just talk about your process and where you get inspiration from.
LM: Every song is such a different…the way it’s made is different every time. I’d say in a general sense, me or Gabe will get together, send a voice memo or something. We’ve got thousands of voice memos. We’ll just send an idea, and then we’ll either be like “Save that for a solo career bud” or sometimes we really connect with some stuff one another is sending and we’ll try to flush out an idea. Go back and forth and then get the lyrics and melody and structure and then we’ll get with the band and they’ll put their parts in and have their own spin and ideas. It’s a super fun process.
GA: I think a lot of it depends on the mindset we’re in and the time period we’re writing the songs in. So a lot of them are very fun and light-hearted like you said, especially the early ones. I think the last two that we released are a lot heavier and a little darker as well in their lyrics. That also isn’t necessarily a sign of what we’re doing in the future as well, we’re still evolving our sound, trying new instruments. Logan has been playing a lot of acoustic guitar, trying some piano stuff, some harmony stuff, everyone’s kind of contributing in different ways so we’re always changing the sound. What we’ve already done is a big sign of what we can do as a band and our sound, but we’re always continuing to try things.
ORB: Moving on to your new songs, they definitely fall more on the rock side versus the indie and country-ish of All The Way Home. Are you working towards experimenting with these new genres? Do you think your new music will be on the rock side or is it just going with the flow?
LM: I don’t think it’ll be as rock-y as those. Those are pretty personal songs, it’s definitely different than what we’ve done before, but it kind of stemmed from relationships and personal sides of our lives and we kind of just wanted to put it out as a double single and put it together. I don’t think we’ll stray too much towards that heavier rockier side of music. We’ll probably stay more true to the EP, but you never know, we’re still writing a bunch and still figuring out our sound.
GA: I think for better or for worse, it’s kind of hard to pick what genre we’re at right now, what we’re writing with. I think all the songs that we have that we’re working on right now, all the new ones. They all range from having a little more of that Folk-Country feel, or a little more of the rock. Or even back to some of the more World and Reggae and Ska, a little more like Sunny-Jones for example. But no matter what I feel like we feel they all have a distinct West 22nd trademark on it that kind of connects them. That’s why we’re not worried about trying new things and experimenting with new songs. It all feels very genuine to us, and hopefully our fans continue to think so.
ORB: I think they are very genuine. With all the songs your writing, new album soon?
LM: It’s in the works most definitely, that’s what we could say. We’re not entirely sure about the timeline just yet, but we’re just gonna spend after this school year writing as much as we can and trying to see what we can do.
GA: It’s early stages but it’s definitely one of the goals we have on our mind.
ORB: If you had one word to describe the new music, what would you say?
JA: Authentic.
LM: I think authentic is a good word. Every song we’ve put out has been the first song we attempted to write and I feel like we’re just continuing to write what comes to us and yeah just being true to ourselves in what we’re writing. Not trying to cater to anybody and kind o just writing the music for ourselves and hopefully it translates.
GA: I’d say self-aware as well. I think sometimes we feel, or we know which songs are very serious or when they’re a little more light-hearted or even a little corny and I think we embrace that and we’re very aware of that sound and always trying to improve it.
ORB: Before we wrap it up, do you have any advice to any young musicians trying to make a name for themselves in the industry?
GA: Play live, write music. That’s it.
LM: I always say, whenever anybody asks us that, I always say a quote from…I have no idea who told me this but they’re like If one person leaves your show then that’s a success, so even if they’re the only person in the crowd. Don’t get down on yourself.
JB: I’d say get out there, put yourself out there. I’ve been playing music for so long and I’ve always wanted to be in a band but it never materialized, so I would just kind of sit in my room and play music. But then you go out and see bands, you meet people, you talk to people and opportunities come.
LM: Our second show we’ve ever played, with almost a completely different lineup, Jet came up to me and was chatting with me after the fact. He was a freshman and at some random frat, some party he was at, and he was just expressing and said “Yeah I play music,” and that connection alone got him in our band.
Follow West 22nd on Instagram, and listen to all of their releases here.
I am a Dallas-based photographer who has an appreciation for both the arts and music! Besides photographing concerts, I also enjoy doing creative portraits and working in Photoshop. I spend my free time either playing the cello, guitar, or piano or collecting CDs and vinyls. I would say my top three favorite artists are Peter McPoland, The Beatles, and Harry Styles! I’m currently a senior in high school, but I plan to major in graphic design and one day turn concert photography into a career.
