GUIDED BY THE BIRDS, VAN CLEAF SAILS INTO NEW ERA

Jack Van Cleaf still cares about what his mom thinks. No matter how many millions of streams his songs garner, she’ll always be his first critic. She thinks he’s too hard on himself, even though he says he just writes about real life. Oh, and murder.

For those of you just learning his name, don’t fret — The Murder Ballads, a series of three narrative songs about the effects of insidious murders in the southern United States, are not real. They are laced with inspiration from various people and towns that he’s intersected with throughout his life, however.

By Joey Wasilewski

While the murder ballads are wholly fictional, Van Cleaf ties them back to the witty grit found in every one of his songs. He doesn’t write songs just to release them, there is a part of him and his moral philosophy in every one. For Van Cleaf, the most important things in his life are his friends, and nature — if his discography, littered with wildlife-titled tunes, including his latest release, “For The Birds”, didn’t make that evident.

“I’ve always been super into animal science and zoology and stuff since I was a kid,” he remarks. “In another life, I would have studied zoology or something.”

In this life he writes songs people from all across the globe have connected to — even Grammy award nominated folk artist Zach Bryan.

“I've not had any conversation with him, but I’m super stoked that he found the song,” said Van Cleaf. “I can only assume, I don't know what his, what DSP he's subscribed to, but can only assume it was a Spotify playlist. They've been very kind to me with that song.”

By Michael Easterling

Currently Van Cleaf is spending some time home in Nashville having recently gotten back from a long trip to Europe, and performing as a slot in his pal Briston Maroney’s festival Paradise. Music releases were sprinkled throughout his late summer escapade in Iceland, and excited fans can rest assured, there’s more on the way.

“I’m working on stuff, slowly, surely, but there's no concrete plans for release at this point,” explained Van Cleaf. “We recorded that one with the same guy that I did the last single with, ‘Terrestrial Man,’ his name’s Nate Cimino. He’s super talented, I love to work with him. It felt like kind of cohesive enough for those to be the kind of releases this year.”

While taking his life day by day, he credits rom-coms (he’s a “Crazy Stupid Love” person, of course), his best friend Ethan Fortenberry, also known under the artist name ETHANSROOM (who is always assists with inspiration and an open ear) and his “happy place” Austin, Texas for keeping him going. In the end, if the whole musician thing doesn’t work out for Van Cleaf, he can always turn to his childhood dream of zoology. Maybe that’s where the idea for Rattlesnake came from in the first place.

By Joey Wasilewski