(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
Mike Landess: For UT Tyler Radio I’m Mike Landess. When we last spoke to Tyler’s “American Idol” finalist Fritz Hager III, he had just finished that show, and he talked of moving to Nashville to continue his musical career. While he’s done that and more with new songs, he’s kept in touch with his Tyler roots as well. Most recently doing a free concert for a UT Tyler Homecoming event. Welcome!
Fritz Hager: Thank you for having me.
Mike Landess: You live and work in Nashville these days, but you didn’t come home with your dog on a private jet, right?
Fritz Hager: No. No. We, I, came here in a van actually, so I’m up there with my brothers now. So, Henry drove down with Tex. Like the 10-hour drive, big old German Shepherd in the back of a Prius.
Mike Landess: Oh, goodness. And there was room for all of you, that’s quite amazing. Well, now you have a Nashville address. You’ve got your second new song of the year that just dropped. Tell us about that. Tell us about “Caroline.”
Fritz Hager: Caroline. Oh boy. You know, after “Idol” ended, I was really looking for what’s the first song gonna be, you know, because whatever that is, it’s what people are going to start identifying me with after the show. And you know, I wanted to make sure that it was a great song that sort of could point to like the direction I’m heading artistically in the future.
So, yeah, I wrote Caroline, and it just sort of felt like the one. I’m really glad to that we were able to get it to a good point and get people to listen to it.
Mike Landess: It’s a great song, and I love the videos, the animated videos.
I noticed that in these videos, you, they are animated. They don’t have Fritz in them. There’s no pictures, there’s no actors, there’s no girls and outfits running around, that sort of thing.
Fritz Hager: Well, yeah. So for the lyric videos, yeah, we sort of wanted to take it in a more, I don’t know, cartoon-y way.
The songs that I’ve been writing recently have been pretty like satirical in nature. So sort of a cartoon, like a South Park vibe is sort of what we what we were going for. But we did shoot a live music video for Caroline, which was super fun. And we have a music video coming out.
I don’t think we’ve announced the release date for the music video yet, so I don’t think I can say when it’s coming out. But, for “Two step,” our newest single, it’s, you know, I describe it as like a satirical, sort of critique on the male fantasy and how we perceive relationships because of the media that we consume, whether that’s like rom-coms or you know, whatever.
On the surface, it’s, you know, it’s just a fun song. but I love to sort of layer in, you know, deeper meanings that aren’t necessarily said, you know, like verbatim. I just don’t like being too specific.
Mike Landess: It’s the unspoken.
Fritz Hager: Exactly. And the implied. Having that layer of subtext, like underneath the song. I think that’s what allows people to take different meanings from songs that they love. You know you can play, I don’t know, “I’m in love with you” by the 1975 for one person, and they’ll take something from that.
And then play it for another person, and they’ll know, just because of the way they experience the song, they’ll take something completely different out of it. So yeah, that’s sort of the approach I take to writing.
Mike Landess: It was interesting to me that the Fritz Hager that I first met on “American Idol” had a guitar played with some backup and sometimes voices and sometimes more instruments, beyond that.
“Caroline” certainly sounds like the rocker song that I’m used to seeing you do, but I thought “Two Step” was a big departure from that. Did I misperceive that?
Fritz Hager: I don’t think so. You know, whenever I’m writing, especially recently coming off the show, I’ve been able to experiment with a lot of different sounds and, you know, I think there is a through line, through every song that I write, but definitely like stylistically things change.
And I’m a big believer that like genre in general is super fluid. ln the music that I write, for example, you (hear) inspirations from like from hip hop to like early 2000’s, pop like Katy Perry and all that. And then like, back to like the strokes and you know, more like alternative rock and stuff like that.
You know, it, it all blends together. So it’s been really fun to be able to experiment with a bunch of different sounds and not really figure out where I wanna land, but just figure out what I enjoy playing the most. You know?
Mike Landess: And that’s going to be as you grow musically… whatever road you take is going to be the one that’s the most attractive at the moment.
Fritz Hager: Yeah. Yeah. And like music’s always changing and people always change, too. So yeah, I think the music reflects that.
Mike Landess: Tell me what influence living in Nashville has had on you since you got there. Got your brothers up there, got your dog up there, settled in. Has that changed you in any way, do you think?
Fritz Hager: I don’t think it’s like changed me as a person as much, but I think it’s changed a lot of how I work, you know, like being able to live in the place where you work. Like, I mean, before that, you know, when I was still living in Tyler, taking month-long trips out to LA and then coming back, or then going to Nashville and coming back, you know, it can be sort of like sort of jarring and it doesn’t really feel real. It doesn’t feel like it’s a job.
But you know, moving to Nashville and being able to set up consistent writes every week, you know, I’m writing like three, four times a week usually. Sometimes more. Being able to drive 20 minutes to a write is just more consistent. And it lets me have like a normal sort of work-to-life schedule.
Mike Landess: Are you doing any local performing or are you planning any tours coming up?
Fritz Hager: Not too much local stuff. Right now, the priority’s been writing and being in the studio. Releasing music and, you know, pushing it on socials. That’s always a big thing because it’s so important now. I’m really just focusing on defining who I am as an artist so that other people can understand that.
Mike Landess: How do you feel about where you are today?
Fritz Hager: I feel great. You know, I’m working. It’s great living with my brothers, to be honest. You know, it doesn’t feel like too big of a life departure, you know, having a dog, having Tex there.
I mean, it’s just the best thing ever. And just being able to do what I love, you know, being able to write every day. It’s a dream.
Mike Landess: Our guest has been Tyler’s favorite musical son, Fritz Hager III. To keep on top of all things Fritz, we have a link for you on our website, kvut.org.
For UT Tyler Radio, I’m Mike Landess.
