The Deep Shallow Band | Rusty Stevens & Jackie Fallar
Local Music Somewhere welcomes, Rusty Stevens and Jackie Fallar, of The Deep Shallow Band, to the rBeatz Radio and Media Studio. Join them and Greazy Keyz on the latest episode as they dive into their album and their newest music in the making.
Get in touch, learn more!
The Deep Shallow Band Live interview with Greazy Keyz
Rusty Stevens: A Musical Journey from Fayetteville to The Deep Shallow Band
Jackie Fallar: The Vocal Powerhouse
The Deep Shallow Band performance | "Andrea"
The Deep Shallow Band Conversation with Greazy Keyz
Welcome to rBeatz with another session of Local Music Somewhere. I’m your host, Greazy Keyz, and that was The Deep Shallow Band. I’m welcoming into the studio today, Jackie Filar and Rusty Stevens of the Deep Shallow Band. Tell us about what’s going on with you guys. Welcome to the studio.
Hey, thanks for having us.
Absolutely. So Deep Shallow Band, you guys have been around for a long while, right?
Well, not as this unit.
Right, right, right.
So, like, if you go back to the acoustic side of it, probably seven years. Then 2022 in October is when I formed this unit. Jackie joined in, I think January 23.
Right on, I’ve been very fortunate to know Rusty for a very long time. He and I have been playing music off and on for 25 years or so.
More, probably.
More than that, so I’m thrilled to have you here and Jackie, just thrilled to have you here as well to talk about really kind of helping breathe new life into some of the music that Rusty’s written and performed over the years. So, the Deep Shallow Band. Tell us a little bit about the band itself.
Well, three of us are from Satchel Foot, which was my 90s in 2000 band. Jason also played in it for a while there. So I kind of brought those guys, but for a while, you know, I was in Satchel Foot for that long, and then I played drums in a band called the Driftwood Project. Then bass in that band as well. We took a long hiatus, came back acoustically with Mike Van Hoy, after I saw him play. You know, it just took me a little while to get myself back ready again. Started writing and brought Mike on and then decided we wanted to do a full band because I forgot how cool it was.
Right?
And then I realized it’s like herding cats. I forgot how much of a pain it is, you know. So I brought Rob Conrad and Chip from Satchel Foot back into the band and then got Trey Walker, who’s a Charlotte native, who played in Dalai Lama and Muscatine and a bunch of other stuff. And he really kind of put it, you know, getting him was the big deal is. There’s not that many drummers like that cat, you know.
Oh, I agree 100%. Trey Walker is a unique drummer, unique person.
Yeah.
And, yeah, to have them in the band has definitely been a boost.
Yeah, yeah. And then, you know, obviously you’ve recorded on all of our recordings so far and played multiple gigs with us. So that’s been great, you know. And then I found Jackie on Facebook. I stalked her.
Super creepy. Just kidding.
I knew her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s sister real well. And she would always post Jackie. And I was like, wow, I really want to sing with her. So It took me a while to grab her, though. She ignored me. She was giving me the hand for a long time. Talk to the hand, huh?
I was so busy.
Yeah, let’s talk about you, Jackie. So, you know, you are a native Charlottian, correct?
Yes, I am.
So tell us a little bit about your background and where you come from musically.
So my mom’s side of the family is Filipino, and it’s just like a stigma, like all Filipinos can sing. You either you get the gene or you don’t get the gene. So it’s like, I was the one in the family that got the genes. I was always pushed into karaoke and doing all these things. We were singing the national anthem at our events for the Filipino community or anything like that. But when I was younger, my mom let me audition for the St. Peter’s Episcopal Choir, downtown Charlotte, right next to the Discovery Place. And I was with them training vocally with secular and sacred music for about four years, maybe like 11 to 15.
Yeah.
And, you know, I turned 15 and I was like, this isn’t cool anymore. I’m in a girls choir. So I kind of graduated to just kind of doing things on my own. And I think 10 years ago, I formed a band with my boyfriend, who Rusty knows. Eric and two of our other friends, Ron and Jessie, and we developed like a little four -piece cover band group and we’re still together. I love playing with them. They’re so much fun. It’s more like heavy rock music. And then I have an acoustic duo with my buddy Scott. I’ve just been playing music. I mean, I love all genres. I like singing all of it. I’m in a wedding band as well, so I just kind of like to dip my toes in all the genres. This piece of project that we’ve been doing is probably one of the coolest because I actually get to give my own input and I get to write music. It’s nice to just see something that you’ve thought up being put on paper and then being recorded and then hearing it on, you know, Spotify or whatever platform is just crazy to me.
So is Deep Shallow your first experience with an original band?
Correct. Yes. I wrote music when I was little, but I never had the platform to put it out. I never had the resources to do anything with it. When Rusty was like, oh yeah, we’re writing an album. And I was like, yeah, you know, people tell me they want vocals on albums and stuff. So I just kind of put it off, put it off and then Eric was like did you call Rusty? Did you call Rusty? I’m like no but okay, I will. Then I hit him up and he sent me all the songs and within like two weeks, I think, I was in the studio just kind of came up with my own harmonies. He was like I just need harmonies, I need a female vocal. I need that groove in there and I just kind of listened to it and I was like I love this music. It was like speaking to me. So I just kind of threw my little funk on it.
You sure did. You definitely put your groove on it.
It’s been really cool.
Stole my job.
A wise man doesn’t work his way out of a job. And so with songwriting, how do you guys formulate that? Because I know Rusty, you’ve obviously been a songwriter for a long time. And I mean, through Satchel Foot, it seemed like you would always bring the songs, and the rest of the band would kind of flesh out, musically, the ideas.
Same thing.
But lyrically, you kind of did a lot of the thing. So are you guys more collaborative with Deep Shallow now?
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think I come up with, you know, a lot of the parts. It’s probably the most creative space I’ve ever been in. I don’t know why, but I’m just slinging it right now.
Surrounded with definitely super talented musicians.
Yeah, that helps.
Yeah, yeah. And so when Jackie, you know, when I brought her in, the whole album was written, but then we started writing more for the, and not really, I guess we’ll compile it into an album, but we’re trying to release singles each quarter.
Right.
And, but she’s been writing on both of our last two releases. She had a big part of writing in especially Waiting on the Nighttime. That was kind of funny because we wrote a chorus to it and I couldn’t come up with a melody at all. I tried for days. So, I rewrote the chorus and just upset the whole world. When I did that, the band was like “we don’t like that, it’s awful!” I was like, I cannot come up with a melody or a cadence over this. Trey was like “that’s why we got her.” She’s sitting across the room and I was like man, this is her first time ever writing. Calm down. He was like “she’s going to be in this band, she needs to bring it” and she brought it like immediately. She slung it and all of us had goosebumps. I was like, all right, I can write some lyrics to that. Then I started working with her writing lyrics. It’s just having a compadre that you can sit down and actually do some stuff with.
Bounce stuff off with..
Bounce stuff off with. It was funny because when she first started doing it with me, she was like “is how people write you know this is awful. this is too-“
Looking up words. The words that rhyme. Thesaurus .com.
Just trying to figure out what we could do. And then she sent me a reel with Taylor Swift doing the same thing with her keyboard player. She was like, oh, my God, this is really how people do this. And I was like, it is. You just kind of bang stuff out. And I think the first release, finding my way back, I told her what that was about and what I felt about it. And I kind of had the first verse done and then I was like look, I’ve got to go. I’m going to Wilmington. On the way down, we’ll chat over the phone, tomorrow or whatever. I called her and she was like well, I got bored and I went ahead and wrote this. I was like wow, that’s a little spark inspiration.
Just threw the second verse together.
So, the second verse was hers. It’s just nice that not have to put it all on you and to hear what somebody else is going to bring to your idea or they have their own idea, whatever.
He just basically gave me keywords he was like “these are like the words that I want, the feel to be for the second verse and like I want these things to come together in it.” I just kind of pieced it together and tried to make it fit with the cadence that we had and vocals melody that we already had. I really thought that it was going to be harder than it is. For some reason it’s just kind of coming to me sometimes. It doesn’t happen naturally all the time but when I get in that groove, it’s just like I can do this for hours. I can just write and write and write.
That’s a testament to your talent.
Yeah, it’s crazy. I never ever thought that I would be able to do this.
That’s awesome.
Watching her grow and shine is the greatest thing in the world to me. You know, it’s like pulling that out of her. And I mean, it’s just been, it’s been a joy.
It’s the throne.
You’ve earned it.
I know, she got the throne. I got this thing here.
T
Right.
She’s winning it all right now, you know.
So, yeah, like you said Rusty earlier that you’ve been in music for a long time. You even said you kind of changed up instruments, started out singing, playing guitar.
Well, I started actually played drums in school. hen started playing guitar. I haven’t started playing guitar until college. Sophomore year. And I just wanted to pick and grin. I was like, if just somebody will hang out and drink a beer with me and play, you know, in the living room, that’ll be great. And the next thing I know I was opening up for Dave Matthews and hooting to blowfish and Aquarium Rescue Unit, Edwin McCain. I was like, wow, this is really going somewhere. I always wanted to be a drummer and I got tired of telling drummers how to play my songs, so I took lessons from Donnie Marshall for two years and became a drummer and then I got pushed into bass. So, I went and took lessons to play bass because I didn’t want to play bass like a guitar player playing bass. I want to attack it as a bass player because it’s a difference.
Absolutely.
Guitar players can play bass, but they sound like guitar players playing bass.
Guitar player doesn’t not equate bass player.
No, not at all. So, and then I did that, and, you know, it really helped me in writing as well.
Does having those different perspectives affect your writing?
Yeah, I think so, because I’ve always heard all the instruments. It’s really weird. I hear them all, I don’t know if it’s my attention deficit disorder, but I hear everything when I’m on stage, when I’m writing. I played a little bit of piano before, and I’m getting ready to get another one, because I want to write more from a piano’s perspective. I think on guitar, you get caught in patterns that you can’t get out of
See, and I feel the same way as a piano player. If I do sit down and write a song, I tend to write from guitar, yeah same perspective as like I find myself getting maybe a little too complicated with the piano as opposed to keeping it simple with three chords and the truth kind of approach.
The biggest compliment I ever had musically was from YOU.
Oh, really?
Yeah.
I’m going to cry.
I’m crying.
You came over to my house one day when the Quixter was there. And I think you got him from the bus station and brought him over there, you know.
Absolutely.
You never know what that guy’s going to be doing. Ricky, shout out to you, brother. I think he’s listening in Florida right now. I played a song for you, and I was like, what do you think about this? And you said, I think what I’ve always thought, you have an uncanny ability to write a really great melody over a simple chord progression. And I thought, wow, that’s, you know, wow.
Well, and it still holds true.
Yeah, I think so.
Without, you know, I mean, obviously you have great guitarists like Chip Cooper and Mike Van Hoi to sort of, you know, embellish the chord structure that you’ve written.
but yeah absolutely to me, if your song can be executed on acoustic guitar, just as well as with a six piece seven piece band, then that’s a—
That’s a win.
That’s a win and a testament to the song itself.
Our drummer tray i’ve never had a drummer that actually could get involved in the writing process
He’s very musical.
It’s insane. He’s like “I want the guitar to do this.”
Yeah, he’s like correcting us at practice. It’s like, no, no, no, why don’t we do it like this? Yeah. And we’re like, oh, that’s a great idea. You’re a drummer.
Yeah. So he’s, he’s massively involved in writing. And so it’s Rob. You know, Rob’s been on like five albums. Trey’s been like seven albums. Trey’s toured the country. So having all that talent in this band, it’s an insanely talented band. I’m probably the least good. But I think if you’re the weakest link and you’re good, then the band’s going to be great, you know.
And I think you’ve got a winning combination of personalities as well. There’s no super ego. You know, because I’ve been very fortunate to play with a lot of talented people. But then the most talented person could have the worst ego or personality problem. And then it’s like, why? You know, there’s no interest in it. That totally turns it off.
It kills it, yeah. And, I mean, everybody in this band loves each other. It’s like a family. I mean, it really is. I mean, you know, we all just get along. And before Jackie came in the studio, I was like, let’s go have lunch and make sure we vibe, you know, because I didn’t want to put her in a situation that she wasn’t comfortable. And then we were immediately kindred spirits. Then we went into the studio and I did my first cut. And Scavone was our producer. Jason and Mike Mitchley, both of those guys have been our producer. Putting those two together was the most brilliant thing I ever did. They were like “wow, we’re great together.” And then after I finished, he was like, “Alright, Jackie.” And I was like “whoa, whoa, whoa, she’s just here to observe.” He was like “Nope, I heard her sing, she can do it, get in there right now.” He threw her in there and she was like, I’m not scared. I’m in. And immediately I was like, wow, this is a win.
So was that your first experience recording in the studio, Jackie?
I think my first, like, real experience was, like, for longer than just one song. Because I recorded a Christmas song maybe 10 years ago. 12 years ago. But Chunky Daddy, the wedding band that I’m in, Oh my God, I can’t remember right now. He’s awesome. We recorded in his studio, and it was just like clips of songs. The chorus of this or like the verse of this. But I never actually got to experience a full album recording session. So that was very cool just to see, like, you know, how many takes you can do it in. And it’s almost like a challenge for me to get in there and get it done in one take.
Absolutely.
They pushed me to do more than what I was giving them and it was kind of like ‘Can I do this? like am I going to be able to pull this off?’ and then they hit record and stuff’s coming out of my mouth and I’m like I didn’t think I was going to be able to do that. They’re like oh we knew you had it in you, let’s try it one more time. Let’s see what else you got. I don’t know where it came from, it’s crazy.
So the album that we’re talking about was the latest release you guys did, Copy and Paste, correct?
Copy and Paste was the album. She came in just at the end of that for the vocals. Copy and Paste was already done by the time I finally got her to call me back.
Oh, interesting. I didn’t realize that in the timeline.
Yeah, I was at the tail end of that.
So Scavone was like, you know, hey, I got some girls that we’re going to, he was like, I hear female vocals all over this record. I want to bring somebody in. And he was like, I’ll even lend my voice to this. This is a really good record. And I was like, well, I’m courting this girl. And once she came in and sang, both Mitchely and Scavone were just like, man, we’re not putting anybody else on here that’s going to take away you two are way way too good together. I knew we would be, but nobody else did. I don’t know why I thought we would be, but we just harmonized really well together. It worked, so on the second song, I think she they gave her her own verse. So, they started putting her more into it from the get -go. The last two that we’ve released, she’s the lead vocalist. So I started writing more towards her at that point because she’s just going to be a big voice.
Those songs are Waiting for the Nighttime. And Finding My Way Back, which we saw a little bit of the video for.
Yes. The video for Waiting on the Nighttime will be released soon as well. Probably the next month.
So those are all singles, right?
Yeah, yeah.
So you guys have another single you’re working on, correct?
Yeah, we’ve got multiple, actually. We’ve got Andrea. We brought back one of my originals, the first song I ever wrote and did it into a reggae version. Individual plan. And so I wanted to do it again, but I was like, you know, Trey’s a really good reggae drummer and not many people are. I knew that from back when he played in the reggae band. So I was like, Trey, you know, I want to redo Individual Plan with a reggae beat. And he was like, oh, and started hitting it. I was like, there it is. That’s it. And then I wanted Jackie to sing it because I already recorded it before and I’d already sang it. I didn’t want to redo what I already did. I wanted something completely different. And man, it made it 10,000 times better.
Love that. Well, we’re going to hear a live performance here in just a couple of minutes. So we have about five minutes before take a break. Is there anything else you guys would like to add or talk about that we haven’t maybe discussed yet?
I want to thank our sponsors, you know, in this world, in this music world,
you know, not selling records. You’ve got to create money from somewhere. So I’d like to thank BodyWorks Plus, Advanced Tech Systems and Automation. And I would like to thank the Bizpah. That’s our marketing team. And they kill it for us, man. They’re amazing.
And that’s really smart, too, for a band to have partners like that. You know, because like you said, it’s not very, it’s not easy.
No, not for an original band, yeah. And you’ve got to keep recording, you know, and when you have the momentum that we have right now, I don’t want to stop. I mean, because we’ve just got, we’ve got so many songs. We just bought the rights to a cover that we’re going to do acoustically with a string section. I’m really excited about that. Yeah, that’s going to be amazing. And then we have three or four of our own originals that we’re coming into. And we’ve got like three in the background that are still, it’s like I can’t get them done because we keep coming up with new stuff.
I love it.
We go to practice and he’s like, oh, I wrote a new song. And we’re like, we haven’t finished the last one. He’s like, let’s just play it anyway.
Well, it’s great to see you kind of revitalize Rusty in your songwriting. Because I’ve been around your songs for a long time and enjoyed them and enjoyed playing them. And it’s great to see those sort of, you know, that inspiration kind of refired in you.
I don’t know where it came from, but it’s there right now. I think you got to ride as long as you can.
The band that you assembled, I think you probably have years to come.
I hope so.
Great talent, you know great songs.
I would like to tell Charlotte to go find go find some of original music, man. I’m not putting out cover bands by any means, but you know Waiting on the Nighttime, we wrote that based upon the fact that we used to go out and just go into clubs and find whatever original band. We could and see if we dug them. And that’s what that whole song’s about is just go find somebody, man, go find that sound and go find some original music because, you know, they’re going to play covers too. You’re going to know something that’s out there, but find that next band because there’s plenty of us out there. A lot of good talent coming out right now, man.
And that leads to me to the question, you know, what is your impression or,
you know, with the change of the music scene in Charlotte. You know, you’ve been a part of it for 30 years and we’ve got to see venues kind of come and venues kind of go. So, you know, what does it like to navigate that for you now?
It’s tough coming back, you know, and building a new fan base. There’s a lot of tribute bands. I think original music has always been tough in Charlotte.
Right.
And I’m not sure why. You know, you get to the college towns. I mean, you know, that’s a little bit different because they’re younger. They’re looking for that. But, you know, it’s, I’m surprised, though, at how fast we have grown a fan base. And people really dig our music. And I told Jackie, I was like, wait until you see them singing your songs in the crowd, back to you. And first time that happened was at a Visualite. She was like, wow, that blew my mind.
Yeah, just playing there at all just still blows my mind because that’s one of my favorite venues in Charlotte I’ve seen so many bands there and it’s like I’m on the Visualite stage this is weird, like it’s full circle.
I love that.
Bernie was cool. It’s just like, Bernie hey we’re back and he was like yeah, you got a gig. He didn’t even listen to us, we hadn’t even go into studio at that point. I told Rob I was like call Bernie telling we’re back we need a gig you know and he gave it to us immediately. Shout out to Bernie and the Viz, man. That’s a great. It’s my favorite venue to play.
It’s a fantastic room. I know they’ve gone through a lot of challenges, but I’m just so thrilled to see them, you know, continue to have great shows and kind of do their thing.
And check us out on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, all that stuff. We always putting out stuff and we’ll be doing more, you know, fun stuff on that. And then the deepshallowband.com, that’s where they can find all our music. It’s on every platform, 250 platforms.
Jump in the pond, man.
Yeah, jump in the pond. Come on get the pond.
Hey, we’re going to take a quick break. We’re going to let Rusty get his guitar on, and you guys are going to perform a song here in the studio with rbeatzcom. Again, this is Greazy Keyz with Local Music Somewhere. Deep Shallow Band. We’ll be right back.
*Break/song
Fantastic guys. Thanks for coming in today.
Hey thanks for having us appreciate it.
Check out deepshallowband.com for when they’re playing out next.