Artist To Artist: Stanley and Quiggle
Stanley and Quiggle are a folk duo from Michigan formed by Jamie Quiggle and Owen Stanley. Although they’ve embarked on this musical venture not too long ago, they’ve already begun to make headway with performing at venues and festivals all over Michigan as well as releasing a full album.
During my conversation with them, we discussed topics such as how they became immersed in the world of folk music, their influences, and how their faith impacts their outlook on their music career.
Pictured left to right: Jamie Quiggle, Owen Stanley
Credit: Courtesy of Stanley and Quiggle//https://www.instagram.com/p/DPCoWrHEZ2M/?img_index=1
Q: How did you guys start making music together?
Jamie: We’ve been friends for a long time. I think for six years or so now we’ve been best friends. He played music, I played music...we were kind of in different genres...he was really intense in the rap genre and I was really into rock and roll when we first met. So we didn’t really align with our musical tastes, but I played a couple of instruments, he played a couple of instruments...and eventually just hanging out with each other...I don’t know which one of us discovered folk music first...
Owen: I think it was you...you introduced me to groups like The Ballroom Thieves. I was listening to soul music at the time...old R&B and soul.
Jamie: And Andrew Bird.
Owen: Oh yeah...love Andrew Bird!
Jamie: He {Owen} posted a cover of Andrew Bird, and I saw it and was like, ‘no way, he knows Andrew Bird...I know Andrew Bird! And the next time we hung out, we talked about it. I was like, ‘’Dude, I’ve been listening to a lot of music like Andrew Bird recently’ and I showed him another folk artist called The Ballroom Thieves. We just really bonded over that, and since then I think we’ve both been a little obsessed with folk music.
Owen: You’re totally right...it started with Andrew Bird, ‘cause shortly after that conversation you saw that he was playing in Michigan and we went and saw him live. I was the only one that had music out at the time...I had a solo thing, and we talked about putting it on a flash drive and giving it to Andrew Bird but we wimped out.
Q: I know you’re now more immersed in the folk type thing with the music that you create, but do you feel like other genres have fed into the stuff that you’re writing?
Owen: I don’t know...I feel like we might have different answers on that one.
Jamie: I think yes, not in a writing sense, but in a production sense; like the way that I want the song to sound when it’s finished. I have rock and roll roots, but at the same time I love the simplicity of folk music. I also look to classical music when it comes to forming chord progressions and melodies. When I started playing music I started with classical piano and that’s what I did for years; so I think that played a lot into firstly, receiving folk music ‘cause I like the gentleness of it, but also with writing folk melodies, I think a lot of it stems from that classical background.
Owen: I think for me, it’s hard for me to be influenced by something and not almost entirely replicate it sometimes. So if I were to think about a rock and roll musician while writing a folk song, I would end up writing a rock and roll song. In the moment, as I’m writing the song, I’m only thinking about folk music and I’m only being influenced by anything that I’ve been exposed to in the folk atmosphere. I don’t know...I don’t see any places in our songs that show any of the Al Green I’ve listened to or any of the Lil’ Baby I’ve listened to (laughs). So inspiration, yes, but influence, I’d have to say no.
Q: You can be inspired by just listening to something that someone else created to go and create your own thing. It doesn’t necessarily need to be inspired to go create something similar.
Owen: Yeah, absolutely. I mean all musicians that have had any success or that we could talk about in a conversation have all been super driven...they are inspired themselves and probably have influences outside of their style of music. So, that alone is inspiring.
Q: Is there a big scene where you guys are as far as other musicians?
Owen: In Michigan, yeah. And in West Michigan too, you’d be surprised...there’s a lot of really good music that we’ve been tapping into right now, and we’re trying to collaborate with a lot of Michigan artists.
Jamie: A lot of the festivals around here are centered around folk and bluegrass music.
Owen: Because we have so many huge music festivals here in Michigan, a bunch of touring acts from all around the country come around and you can get introduced to some really cool artists. We’ve even talked to a lot of artists from outside of Michigan that have played a lot of the festivals that we’re looking to get into this year.
Jamie: There’s a lot of venues too...there’s this one venue that we always go to. It’s called The Ark…it’s in Anne Arbor...they host this big folk festival every year, and their all about folk acts; so they do three hundred concerts and they host tons and tons and tons of folk artists. We go there to meet these people, so we’ve met a ton of really cool people at The Ark.
Owen: I feel like one of the areas we’ve probably fallen short is going out to experience a lot of the smaller artists in Michigan and going to the smaller venues when we’re not playing, and actually going to see more bands live. The way we’ve collaborated with a lot of other artists in Michigan has mainly been social media. I feel like it’s so easy to get focused on your own music and on ‘where can I play’, ‘how can I get this out to people’, and ‘what kind of small venues can I play at’, vs. ‘what kinds of people can I find that I could become friends with and make music with until the sun goes down?’
Every person that we’ve collaborated with so far, we just love. They’re just so friendly and we just want to help each other out. It’s just so beautiful and magical every time.
Jamie: A lot of the coolest stuff we’ve done too has come from collaboration and meeting people. It wasn’t from sending cold emails. There’s actually this one band called Francis Luke Accord from South Bend Indiana...they were the second concert we ever went to see together, and they played a much smaller venue. We went in there and we were like, ‘Hey, you guys are a folk duo, we’re talking about starting a folk duo...can you guys give us some advice?
We traded numbers, and over the last year and a half, we’ve consistently talked to them, and they’ve been with us through the whole developing process. They’ve been with us the whole time...through the first album release and all of that.
Francis Luke Accord continues to make a big impact within the duo’s journey. In fact, they recently had Stanley and Quiggle join them on tour which they both agree was one of the coolest experiences they’ve had as performers so far. Some of their other favorite memories came about from simply meeting people who have a love for music. They’ve gotten to play house concerts, parties, and other events where people are able to fully enjoy what their music performed live can add to the atmosphere.
“We played a dude’s birthday party because he really loved our music, and that was one of the coolest shows because he brought out fifty people into this barn and we played for fifty people” Owen recounted before continuing,“Every single highlight that I think we could say about our short careers so far, you could trace back to a moment where we met that person...somebody that we just met at a festival, online, whatever. I can’t think of one that didn’t start with a story.”
Along with meeting an array of other musicians and making connections, the duo has been working on new music (some of which they’ve already shared since this interview was done).
Q: Is the upcoming album similar to what you guys have put out before, or are you thinking about changing up some stuff?
Owen: A little different...
Jamie: With our first album we didn’t really have a designated sound with our live sound...we were still exploring stuff. So a lot of the first album really was just kind of whatever we felt like in the moment whereas with this next album we wanted to approach it with trying to capture our live sound and the duo feel, and then adding everything else around it. Also, at least for my songs, we want to strip them down to mostly just folk songs...keeping them a lot more calm and letting the beauty shine in the songwriting itself rather than the mass instrumentation.
Owen: We write separately...we struggle to co-write and completely share the songs. That’s where we struggle to be honest with you. So, I like the songs that I wrote for our past album, “In All of This”, and Jamie has expressed...
Jamie I don’t really like the album that much...
Owen: He doesn’t like the album that much (both laugh). So this next album...we’ll see. Maybe we’ll fist fight over it...
Jamie: I love it so far. I’ve been listening to the demos of the songs that we have and I love them! I don’t hate that first album...I think we could’ve done a better job. I don’t think the songs that I put on the album were the songs that I wanted to hear. There’s an image that you have when you write out a song and create an album, and I don’t think that the album has the image that I had in my brain. I think this next album will, because the whole focus has shifted, and I really love our live sound a lot. I’m really excited about it. I love our demos so far of the new songs, and I love playing them live, so I’m quite excited.
Owen: In all fairness too, by the time we wrote songs for “In All of This”, it was me preparing for technically my second project, and I had already gotten one sort of crappy one out of the way. That was Jamie’s first time writing songs for an album recording.
But we feel confident in this next one because we feel like we have everything put together, we are experienced, we feel a little bit more seasoned...now we’ve got some flavor. And we’ve played a lot of shows since then.
Jamie: Yeah, and a lot of the people that we’ve talked to about recording this album and producing it have taken it pretty seriously too, and seem to be pretty excited. We have a few guys out in Boston; Don Mitchell from Darlingside, there’s Andrew O’dell, and then there’s Joe Henry (Located in Maine...multiple Grammy’s; super accomplished producer and songwriter.)
Credits: Courtesy of Stanley and Quiggle//https://www.instagram.com/stanleyandquiggle/
Q: I’m guessing that you guys play multiple instruments because you had mentioned before about playing piano, and then I saw in the latest video that you were playing the mandolin which is cool. Any other instruments that you guys are into?
Jamie: (Pointing to Owen) Sick drummer.
Owen: I want to say my favorite instrument to play is the drums...I love playing the drums. It just feels so good to beat the crap out of something. You get to beat the crap out of it for fun, and it can still sound good. You don’t get that with guitar or anything like that.
I play a little bit of piano and of course I sing and play guitar, but other than that not really...I’ve played bass on stage a couple of times.
(Pointing to Jamie) This guy is a crazy piano player, and he can play almost anything that I’ve ever seen him pick up.
We’re learning more things though, ‘cause it’s always a cool skill. Plus, we like the idea of being a backing band for somebody else if we ever need to be, so we want to be well versed in multiple instruments.
Credits: Adam Briggs (Left)//Isabel Dowell (Right)
For both of them, music also seems to runs in the family. When asked if any other family members play music, Owen responded. “My sister does. My younger brother definitely can sing…I just don’t think he likes to admit it. My little sister sings. My mom has the voice of an absolute angel…it’s crazy. She plays guitar and my Dad plays guitar, bass, and piano.”
“He’s got the greatest feel” added Jamie, referring to Owen’s Dad. “He plays with us when we do full band stuff and so does my dad…we as a full band have six people and out of all the musicians in our band, I think Owen’s dad has the best feel for the song. He just fits right in that pocket. He knows exactly what to play and when to play it.”
“My dad is my go-to guy when we finish a song. I just want to show him and get his thoughts on it…I need to run things by him because of his feel; something about the way he recieves music…he has a good ear for things” continued Owen. “So any advice he puts out there, I try to take very seriously. With my mom, I love to show her videos of me singing and have her give me advice or sing in front of her so that way, she can tell me what to work on.”
This brought our conversation to the importance of utilizing the input and opinions of those who you trust and look up to as an artist…something that Owen and Jamie see as essential to growing in their craft.
Owen: …the biggest thing that I will never take for granted about having music parents is getting introduced to music through them. But also having people to lean on in music is huge. You need people to go to for opinions. As much as you think you know, not everybody can know everything about music. You have to lean on other people, you know? You have to run things through other people.
Jamie: Especially people that know more about it then you do…or people who have different opposing preferences. If you have people that prefer the same music as you, they’re not going to give the same advice as someone who doesn’t prefer the same music as you.
Soon after our conversation, Stanley and Quiggle officially launched their live music series called ‘Folk For Now’, in which they get the opportunity to be a backing band for different artists that they invite to perform, as well as performing their own set. This exciting new project has given them not only more content to put themselves out there, but also a way to build connections and simply enjoy the experience of making music with other people.
“Just stay busy and things will happen...I truly believe that.” said Owen when discussing the all too common obstacle that artists face in entering an overwhelmingly saturated music industry. “If you just keep creating and putting stuff out there, and doing little events or whatever, people do take notice of that.”
“ There’s this band called The Riverside who we collaborated with when we had gone out to California. And he [Jake, lead singer in The Riverside] has been doing it for thirteen years and finally broke through...now he has a big following on instagram” added Jamie. “He’s playing shows all around the country and he’s finally made it. And what he said was, ‘do so much, that failing doesn’t become an option. You literally have to make it impossible for yourself to fail.’ There are people trying to outwork you all the time. It’s a competition, which sucks. It’s a friendly competition, but it’s a competition.”
A promotional poster for the first Folk For Now show with fellow artists Jim Anderson and Sisterfolk
Credits: tinytv studios
Amidst these highs and lows of pursuing a career in music, both Owen and Jameson’s faith has been a foundation that provides them with trust in a bigger plan and the determination to continue.
“We believe that God has a hand in what we’re doing right now. Everything we’ve been doing so far has felt led by God, and felt like it is spiritually fostered” explained Owen. “This truly does feel like a calling. So we can’t take all the credit, you know, everything that’s happened so far…all of these highlights that we can talk about weren’t solely our work.”
They reccounted multiple times where they’ve seen God’s hand guide them forward; either through other fellow christians in the industry who provide encouragement or through perfectly timed occurences including the time when they played a smaller stage at festival only for the sudden rain to bring a whole crowd to the tent where they happened to be playing.
“It literally rained for the duration of our set and brought hundreds and hundreds of people. It didn’t rain like that for the rest of the weekend.” concluded Jamie.
Jake from the band Riverside also had advice for them concerning the subject of growing one’s faith in the midst of the music industry. “Jake’s biggest advice to us was like, ‘Listen boys, I believe in you and I think you’re going to do big things, but whatever you do, remain faithful. Keep believing, because it all means nothing at the end of the day if it’s not for the glory of God’” shared Owen.
“I think people can pick up on that too sometimes” he added when describing how this mindset impacts their music and how they perform. “You’ll hear multiple times, ‘there’s just something about your voice. There’s just something about the way you play and sing that song that feels deep.’ And to be honest with you, it’s because you’re glorifying the Lord. You don’t have to shout it from the mountaintops to find God in it. My hope is that whatever word I say or sing up there is spirit-led and that it really cuts deep and opens up a conversation.”
This driven sense of purpose is a big part of what inspired Stanley and Quiggle’s Folk For Now series, which they see as a way to build a supportive music community while being a light to everyone around them.
Owen: …I feel like we’ve met the same amount of christian artists as non-christian artists, and it’s just so refreshing. There’s just so much love in this industry. I love folk music…it’s just great. This feels like a nice big family that you get to be a part of .
Jamie: And people really invest in you too…
Owen: They’re gonna invest in you and they care about you. You can also be whatever you want to be and they don’t care as long as you’re making authentic music that speaks to who you are. There’s a lot of God in folk music; traditional folk music and the folk music that people love to sing. There’s a lot of God, you know?
So you be you, you know? You do whatever you want. You’re welcome with open arms and you know you’ll get support and we love that.
Q: I know you were talking about the new album that you’re planning for…any other goals for the future?
Owen: I feel like now more than ever we have the biggest dreams in the world and they just continue to grow . We’re so excited about a lot of things. One of them, like we’ve mentioned a couple times, is Folk for Now, which will start with a local concert series and then from there we want to open a recording studio , a venue, and offer live sessions for folk artists. With the fundings from that, we’d be able to keep our folk festival free for people to attend.
We want to basically be the tide that raises all boats and help the folk industry. That’s something that we feel very passionate and excited about as well as the album.
Jamie: And then we’re also collaborating with—I don’t know if you know who Leaden Valley is but they’re from the New England area. They’re really good. They’re good friends with The Ballroom Thieves {indie folk band from Boston} . They did the song“There Was a Light” with them——really cool song. So we’ve been talking with them…we’re setting up a collab with them and then talking about going back out to California.
Credits: Adam Briggs
Q: What would be something that you would want to say to people who are discovering your music or experiencing what you create for the first time?
Jamie: The songs that we write and the reason that we write and the reason that we write is with an incredibly deep meaning…I’ve eventually come to that. I used to write songs just to write songs, and in a sense it’s like I’ve started writing songs with the intention of experiencing something that is bigger than myself or more important than the novelties of my life. And so a lot of it is depth. And this is why I love folk music so much …the depth of the music and the meaning behind the music. The fact that you can hear what the people are feeling and the fact that you can hear it from the music itself. Not even from just the words, but even from the instrumental songs.
I would say to people that are maybe listening to our music for the first time, especially if they’re folk enjoyers, is try to find the beauty of the music that you’re listening to. Try and find some meaning in it that relates to your life because that’s the connection that I’ve had to folk music and it has entirely changed my life.
Owen: That can speak for the both of us.
Jamie: We love talking to people. So if you want to send us a DM, send us a DM so that we can talk to you.
Owen: Talk to us. We want to get to know you. Our songs are for you.
Jamie: We made them for you. We made them because we love music and we’re supposed to do this. We’re just following orders.
Since my conversation with them, Stanley and Quiggle have already begun their journey with “Folk For Now” which you can watch on their YouTube channel listed below! They’ve also begun putting out new releases which you can discover wherever you stream your music. Keep up with their journey by following their social media, keeping an eye out for new episodes of “Folk For Now, and checking out their new releases in the near future!