Editorial - March 9, 2019

Off the Top: DET | Flint Eastwood

Kevin Kosanovich

Kevin holds a Ph.D. in American studies and is an expert in American cultural history and hip-hop. He is the Senior Content Manager at StockX.

If you’re in Austin for SXSW this weekend, StockX will be there Sunday, March 10. Attendees can catch StockX co-founder and CEO Josh Luber’s keynote at 5 PM. We’ll also be at Michigan House from 6-9 PM for a fireside chat between Josh Luber and Aaron Levant, founder of ComplexCon and NTWRK. The fireside chat will be followed by a live performance by Flint Eastwood. This event is open to the public, so come say hi!

Before her upcoming performance at Michigan House, StockX caught up with Jax Anderson of Flint Eastwood. She talked about her lifelong love of music, Spaghetti Westerns, and what it means to live and create in Detroit.

The following interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

StockX: Please introduce yourself.

Jax Anderson: I am Jax Anderson, AKA Flint Eastwood, and I am an artist from Detroit, Michigan. I was born in Detroit but moved to a suburb, Harper Woods, halfway through my childhood. After school I lived in a bunch of places: lived near Atlanta, lived near Nashville, lived in LA, then after a while, I moved back.

Before we go further, please tell me the origin of ‘Flint Eastwood.’

I was obsessed with Spaghetti Westerns growing up, so Flint Eastwood instead of Clint Eastwood. There was one actor, in particular, Lee Van Cleef, who was such a sinister villain. He always wore this big ass black hat. I always thought that was the coolest thing and for the longest time I thought I wanted almost to create a character around what I was doing. But now, I just want to be me.

What was it like growing up in Harper Woods?

 It was interesting because I was in the middle of Detroit, which was an economically struggling city in the early 2000s, on one side. On the other side of Harper Woods is Gross Pointe, which is one of the wealthier suburbs. It was weird being on that dividing line and having friends from both areas. If anything, it gave me a wider perspective on things. But it was chill; it was cool.

Flint Eastwood

I was obsessed with Spaghetti Westerns growing up.

What’s your most vivid memory from growing up?

I grew up at a time when cable and internet existed, but my parents chose not to get it, so I was bored as fuck all the time. So my dad would leave a Taylor 12-string guitar that he got for a birthday present just out in the living room. Looking back it was like, “damn, you really left that nice of a guitar out for kids to play?” It was the one nice thing he had, so he just kept it out and let us use it. That was how I learned to play guitar and write songs. I just remember coming home from school and watching “That ’70s Show” reruns and playing guitar during commercials.

Why did you come back to Detroit?

For me, Detroit has an authenticity to it that other cities don’t have. Part of it is just the midwest, salt of the earth vibe. The other part of it is that everyone cares about what is important. People care about me as a person more than me as an artist. I wanted to come back because I love Detroit, it’s a really good city.

Tell me about your family history.

My dad’s family is originally from Detroit. They moved around a whole bunch because my grandpa was traveling pastor, televangelist kind of dude. My mom is from Alabama. My parents met because my dad was a part of a traveling choir that visited my mom’s dad’s church. Both of my grandfathers are preachers. My parents moved around a while before coming back to Detroit. They wanted to be close to my dad’s family.

It sounds like you come from a musical and charismatic family.

My mom passed away about five years ago, but she played gospel piano, and she was super into that. My dad was one of ten kids who all sing and play guitar. They were all very musical but not professional; they played in the church. I became obsessed with music because my oldest brother was in a punk band when I was a teenager. He played drums, and every weekend I would go to all of his shows. It just blew my mind that punk existed; I really wanted to do that! My other brother [Syblyng, who forms the other half of Flint Eastwood] was in, like, almost a power pop band for a really long time. Just seeing that made me want to play and learn how to create; that’s what I did. I spent my teenage years holed away writing about my feelings and stuff.

What’s your first memory of music? 

I remember falling asleep in church when church music was blaring. I was raised Pentecostal, that’s like, “throw your hands in the air, scream up-and-down the halls, like go crazy.” I remember snoozing, it was the most boring thing to me, and I just fell asleep. I remember waking up in the pew because my hips hurt because the pew was so hard and everyone was still going, and I was like, “what is happening.” It was cool, though.

Do you have an all-time favorite group?

Anything by Earth, Wind & Fire. I feel like I have so many childhood memories that are attached to them; man, they are just so good. They were my mom’s favorite band, and that’s what we would always play in the car: Earth, Wind & Fire, and Styx. What a combo [laughs].

Flint Eastwood

Detroit has an authenticity to it that other cities don’t have.

Do you have a favorite singer?

Stevie Nicks, she’s just badass, man. Everything, everything about her is great.

Do you have a favorite song?

I do. “Eleanor Rigby” by the Beatles. I feel like it tells such an intimate story about loneliness. It’s very beautiful. It’s also the first song I ever heard that’s strictly strings. I thought that was mindblowing.

Do you have a favorite musical genre? 

Anything that makes me feel. But I feel like right now Motown is following me. I was gone half of the last year touring, and I feel like every venue I went to Motown would be playing. Even during soundcheck, the sound guy would end up throwing on Motown. More and more in my songwriting, it’s seeping in; I’ve noticed the simple melodies seeping in. It’s cool; I like it.

Walk me through the development from your early project “Small Victories,” through your most current release, “This is a Coping Mechanism for a Broken Heart.”

I tend to write records around events that happen to me. “Small Victories” was made after the passing of my mom. My mom was my best friend. She was an amazing, amazing human being. I feel so fortunate to have had her as a mom because I know not everyone has that experience. Her getting sick hit me hard. It happened when I was a teenager and was very sick for a long time, and I had to become an adult very quickly. When she passed, it was this moment where I didn’t know what to do. So my way of grieving was to write different songs about it. I wrote my way through the grieving process. That was “Small Victories.”

“Broke Royalty” was about Assemble Sound, which is an artist collective I co-founded. I wanted to write a record explaining how it feels to feel like you could do anything while knowing you knew absolutely nothing. The music industry is such a beast, and we’re not in a coastal city, so we don’t have a lot of options or tons of people to mentor us. We knew we had to figure it out. It’s called “Broke Royalty” because we’re all broke, but we’ve created our own little kingdom.

Flint Eastwood

My most recent record, “This is a Coping Mechanism for a Broken Heart,” was written after the ending of a five-year relationship. It was the first long-term relationship I have ever had. One day I looked at my girlfriend and said, “We don’t love each other anymore. Why are we doing this?” I went into the studio, turned on the microphone, and I didn’t leave for twenty-four hours.

As I get ready for my first full-length, all the previous records are a part of me and influence me. The records are documents of moments in time, but they need to stay moments in time. This full-length, instead of a being an “event,” it’s who I am as an artist. It’s a step forward; it’s an evolution.

Flint Eastwood is also a very compelling visual project. How did you develop your visual style? 

I’m always creating. I’m very much involved in the art direction of every aspect of the band. Whatever we’re working on, I plan out everything. I shoot all my music videos. I’ve always loved things that are all-encompassing and telling stories through multiple voices, not just musically or visually, but both. I think there’s art in everything, and storytelling is very important to me, and you can tell stories in so many different ways that are outside of language.

So do you have a touchstone music video? 

David LaChapelle and Michel Gondry immediately stick out for me as my favorite directors. They’re such good directors. Man, there’s just so many. I’m the type of person that if there’s a TV on and music videos are playing, I’m done, I’m not paying attention to anything else. But when I was a kid, Daft Punk’s “Around the World” just blew me away: it’s so good and so weird.

Flint Eastwood

Stevie Nicks, she’s just badass, man.

How would you describe the current crop of Detroit musicians and artists?

They’re ready, and they have been ready for a really long time. There’s about to be a lot of pop off in Detroit. I’m excited about it.

What does success look like for you?

When all my friends can eat, that’s very important to me. When everybody feels comfortable and not have to worry about things. That’s very important to me.