Q&A: Landon Conrath is Working Overtime on New Album 'Employee of the Year'
☆ BY Faith Luevanos ☆
AFTER RELEASING AN EP THIS PAST APRIL, Minnesota based singer/songwriter Landon Conrath is already back to grace your ears with new single, “Will Nye”, out now! While you may think this year of new music is exciting, it gets better. With the new single also comes an album and fall tour announcement. The tour consists of 31 shows across the US from the end of September till mid November, and you don’t want to miss it.
Heard in every piece of work, Conrath creates memorable music with a style that bridges the gap between indie rock and pop. His innovative approach to songwriting, inspired by artists such as Bon Iver and The 1975, combined with a distinctive voice, has helped him establish an evergrowing fanbase. His newest single, “Will Nye”, is an ode to authenticity and emotional depth.
The song captures Conrath at one of his most vulnerable moments, which he was kind enough to share with us, along with his experience touring, the creative process of the new album, and more. Read the full story below.
LUNA: You seem to be on a roll with touring recently. How has the touring life been?
CONRATH: I wanted to play my music live for so long - that’s always been my favorite part of this. Being an artist that started in 2020 was not a great time for that unfortunately, so for years that desire to play was just building up. I ended up going on tour as support for Yam Haus eventually, which was great because they have a really successful touring audience so it was perfect. That tour gave me the confidence to try it for myself, so last fall I booked a headliner tour on my own. It was weirdly successful, and I’m still dumbfounded as to how it worked out. I didn’t have a moment on Tiktok, nothing had gone viral, people just came to the shows on their own which was really encouraging for me.
LUNA: Definitely. Selling out shows organically must be such a confidence boost! So, what can we expect to see on this upcoming one?
CONRATH: My band and I really just want to keep adding on to the production value and make it this incredible experience. I want to find ways to add more visuals, so I’ve been doing a ton of work and research on that. Part of the ethos of my live shows, touring, and fan-building in general is that we try to be as accessible as we can to fans. As we’re continuing to upgrade venues, I want to keep that idea at the center of it all. I love being able to talk to fans. I’m trying to get to the point where the band is even better live than they are on Spotify.
LUNA: Do you have any artists that inspired you to be as driven as you are to have a great live performance?
CONRATH: I’m really interested in seeing artist’s creative process videos. I went through a huge Bon Iver phase. It’s funny because I tell people that he’s a huge inspiration to me and they’re confused because that doesn’t really translate to my music at all (laughs). Him being a fellow midwestern based artist who has also stuck around in the midwest and has tried to bring attention to where he’s from - I think that’s really cool. Fans are able to connect with his music and not even know what he’s saying! If you can sing a Bon Iver song word for word, I’ll be so impressed. (laughs)
LUNA: You just released “Songs of a past life” in April, and are set to release an album this year as well. Are these two in the same era would you say or is this album the start of a new chapter for you?
CONRATH: They’re extremely different eras I would say. That EP was basically a couple songs that were dying on my hard drive - most of those songs were written in 2020, 2021. I wrote those songs at the beginning of my career and they just never really seemed to have a place anywhere. It’s kind of funny being an artist because you can kind of just attach meaning to anything and people will think it’s cool. It was a product of necessity, I needed six songs to put out, so I picked those and forced some meaning onto them. This new album was pretty similar to that, but I think it signifies the end of an era. I want to hold off on releasing music until 2025 to have time to write a bunch of songs and not have to feel so pressured by labels. I want to make memorable music but I don’t even know what that means yet, so I’ll be taking the time to figure it out.
LUNA: So then would you say then that pressure of constant releases and deadlines is what inspired the album name and creative direction of “Employee of the Year”?
CONRATH: Absolutely. I felt like everything had to be finished so quickly. People think I’m deeper than I am sometimes. (laughs) The name of the record came about from a line in one of the demos that said “employee of the year” and I just thought that was cool. I got a shirt from Goodwill that looked like a Dwight Schrute shirt, my friend got us into their mom’s office, we took a bunch of pictures in a cubicle, and it was done. I think I’ve built my career off of happy accidents, but I’m very grateful for how it’s all worked out.
LUNA: Will Nye comes out June 14th, can you talk a little bit about what led you to choose this song as the first single release?
CONRATH: Going back to how I create these storylines out of necessity, the reason it’s the first single release is because it’s the first song that we finished. (laughs) I think this song also brings in the sound of the record well and showcases what I was going for, so I’m excited for people to hear this one first.
LUNA: The song talks about cutting out the people in our lives who waste our time, which I know plenty of listeners can relate to. What did the writing process look like for this? Is there a personal experience you can share about it?
CONRATH: This song is going to be funny to put out because I haven’t put out a specific, real life song in a long time, and this one I was writing from an exact experience. It’s basically about one of my closest friends. The song talks about our relationship and how it struggled while we were on the road together. Touring is such a stressful experience for everyone involved, just a whirlwind of experiences. It just doesn’t work with some people, and that doesn’t mean they’re not your friend, it just means that touring isn’t healthy for the relationship. It started as a joke of a song, but then I just kept going with it. I will admit though, I do have mixed feelings about putting it out because I don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to monetize our disagreements, but it really connected for me and I’m still really proud of it. It always feels weird to write music about real people.
LUNA: What do you hope listeners can take away from either Will Nye or Employee of the year?
CONRATH: My overarching goal with my music is to help people realize that they’re not the only ones experiencing what they’re experiencing. When I was in college, I felt super isolated and crazy because I had so many different thoughts about life and genuinely believed that I was the only person who did. I wanted some connection point and I felt like I couldn’t find anything. I want my fans to realize that I’m writing from a real place and I’m a real person. I hope they know that the experiences they’re having, I also had them too and they’re not alone in that.
