Talking with Rocky Votolato is an engaging experience. The 33-year-old Seattle-based songwriter has been on the scene for the better part of a decade and recently came out of a dark period of drug and alcohol use that nearly cost him his own life.

He’s managed to take what’s he’s learned from the experience and turn it into a way of life that is disciplined and completely informed by wanting to live up to his own ideals, and he’s not perfect by any means. He’s just trying his best.

“I think that habits are really, like, 95 percent of what ends up deciding the outcome of your life,” he said when asked about what he’s learned from life, “If you stay away from the things that are bad for you and try to adopt some habits that are good for you, then it might have an amazing impact on how things are going for you.”

REAX caught Votolato at a bad time – checking out of a hotel – so he called us back and we had a chat as he and his wife prepared for the drive from Massachusetts to New Jersey. In thirty minutes, he managed to quote Bruce Springsteen, Eckhart Tolle, Gandhi, and Robert Frost. We talked about his writing process, his fans, and even a little “Generation, Organization, Distribution.” All the while, Votolato remained humble, giving thoughtful responses to all of our questions.

You can catch him at a rare Florida stop on Thursday, October 28 at Backbooth in Orlando. Ha Ha Tonka will play support and tickets for the show are only $12 in advance and $14 at doors, which open at 8 p.m.

REAX: Hey Rocky, how are you?
Rocky Votolato: Hey, I’m good. I’m just checking out of a hotel, can I call you back in five minutes? Is that cool? I don’t want to mess up the interview times, so I’ll call you in five, ten minutes at the most, just getting out of this hotel.

(Five minutes go by)

Votolato: Hey how are you?

REAX: I’m good, the weather is nice down here. You guys are headed towards Jersey today right?
Votolato: Yeah, we just got out of the hotel, and that’s what we’re doin’ today.

REAX: Is it possible to ever get sick of driving though the Northeast at this time of year and seeing the seasons change?
Votolato: Aw man, it’s awesome. I really dig it.

REAX: I wanted to talk about who you travel with on tour. Family has always been a theme in your songs, and you’ve mentioned how hard it is being away from them, do they ever get to travel with you?
Votolato: You know, I just started doing that a little bit more. This last summer, the whole family went for a two-week West Coast tour, and it was awesome. It was really cool. We just, you know, stayed in a little nicer hotels than I normally stay in. But yeah, it was cool.

My kids are getting older now, I’ve been doing this a long time and my wife is with me on this tour because my mom is helping out a lot. She’s got my son and he’s 11 now, and my daughter – she’s getting older too – she’s 17, almost 18 now.

My wife had her when she was pretty young, and I adopted my daughter, so I would’ve been 15 when my daughter was born. That’s why we have a kid that’s about graduate high school now. So she’s pretty self-sufficient, and that’s made it easier for us to start traveling together.

REAX: So this is like a little honeymoon for you guys?
Votolato: Yeah, it’s cool that we get to, you know, go do thing together, but I wouldn’t call it a honeymoon just because of the stresses of the road. She does tour managing and merch, stuff like that, so get to kind of balance out the work. It’s really cool that we get to travel together, and I’m thankful for it.

REAX: So it’s just you two in the van?
Votolato: Yeah, we just have a car since all I have to bring is my guitar.

REAX: Cool, I was going to ask you how unbearable the distance is for you, but it sounds like you’re in a pretty good situation for this tour.
Votolato: Yeah, you know, it’s gotten a lot more bearable over the past few years, and we’ve managed to make it even more bearable. One thing I did this last year, too, is break up the tours so they would only be two weeks long and then have a little break off. This one is a little bit longer – it’s four weeks – but it’s not as bad as when your out for a couple months at a time, you know?



REAX: You are 33 years old. What is life like for you as a working musician? How does it feel to know that you’ve been able to build a life around the art that you would’ve probably made anyway?
Votolato: It’s been really great, and I feel really, you know, just grateful that I can continue doing this. I think that’s a good way to look at it. I probably would’ve been making music either way, so to be able to affect peoples’ lives in the small way that I have, and have a group of people all around the country and in Europe that care about what I’m doing is both humbling and awesome, so I feel really grateful for it.

You know, every tour I just remember, you know, you never know where this kind of life is gonna take you. You just have to kind of make the best of it because you never know. This could be the last tour, you know?

REAX: You talk about having fans all over the world and what not, and I think your fans connect with you because listening to you tell stories through your songs is sometimes like a meditation. It gives them a chance to cool out, listen to you, and relate it to what’s going on in their lives. Do you ever feel any kind of pressure when you think about the effect your music has on some people?
Votolato: You know, over these past couple of years, I’ve thought about it more and more because, for me, music has always been kind of therapeutic. It was what I kind of needed to do to get through my own life, to express the things that I needed to say to keep myself from going crazy. Then as I started to have more of a career and started receiving messages from people about how the music has affected them, I started to consider that a little more.

It was like “Oh, there is kind of a responsibility to the people who are paying attention to what I’m doing,” but I think Bruce Springsteen said it best. He said something like “When you write music, people deserve honesty, and when you make music you’re just really giving people something to face the day with, you know?” Something to get up and keep slugging it out because the challenges of being human in general are pretty great, I think.

So music is just one of those saving graces for people because – I mean, I did it for years before I was able to break into a music career – they get up early, go to work, and just do the things they have to do to get through the day. So being able to throw on a record at the end of the day that you can relate to, and that says something sticks to you is extremely valuable. So I kind of see it like that, and if I can give that to people, then I’m doing some kind of service that I can be proud of with my life. Hopefully that’s what’s happening.

REAX: Yeah, it kind of seems like that’s happening. I mean, people read your story – and it’s a pretty crazy story. You’ve been in it for ten years, and you talked about recently coming out of funk where you made some bad choices as far as how you were dealing with life on the road, but you’ve been able to refocus on what’s important to you.

Besides being able to focus on that and find what meant the most to you, what was the most profound thing that hard time in your life taught you?
Votolato: Well, I guess to be totally honest; I feel like it kind of changed my whole philosophy on life itself, what the point of it is, and what we’re all doing here. It’s gets into that territory. You know, I’ve always explored kind of philosophical ideas with my lyrics and they’ve always had some kind of an existential approach to understanding life and really existential suffering – just the fact that the human condition is suffering.

There’s this guy – Eckhart Tolle, a German philosopher – he talks about, you know, basically at a certain point you can wake up from this dream of life that we’re all experiencing. I guess some people call it “enlightenment,” some people have different terms for what it means. I think the way he puts it is like you’re more inclined to wake up to the truth of reality and what’s going on here if you’re caught in a nightmare versus just the ups and down of a normal dream – and that’s kind of how my life had sort of become for whatever reasons: severe depression, drug use, alcohol, all those things that I was doing to try and self-medicate that.

I think that because my life had gotten into that bad of a place, I think that put me in a situation where I really looked at the things I believe and what I thought life is. So the most profound change, really, has been that I started meditating, and I think that to other people who are going through those issues, or have dealt with that kind of thing – that’s what I recommend because it’s had the most profound impact on my life, just daily mediation.

There’s so many different ways of doing it, you know? There’s transcendental meditation, etc. And I’ve studied all kinds of different religion and thought, just lines of thinking – you know, I’m not a religious person. I don’t have a specific, dogmatic line of teaching that I stick to, or anything like that. I’m not about tradition, or ritual, or anything like that, but I think that habits are really, like, 95 percent of what ends up deciding the outcome of your life. So, if you stay away from the things that are bad for you and try to adopt some habits that are good for you, then it might have an amazing impact on how things are going for you.

It’s sort of a blend of Taoist and Hindu practices and meditation that I started to use, but different people have a different approach to it, and something different works for everybody, but doing some form of meditation – I think – is extremely valuable.

REAX: Yeah, it is definitely more conducive to growth than being a guilty Catholic.
Votolato: Well, I think guilt is kind of the opposite of what the teaching probably wanted you to feel. I just think guilt doesn’t make anything better in your life. I think it might continue the cycle of whatever is making you feel guilty, and I think a lot of that can happen in any tradition and isn’t exclusively Catholic. It tends to happen when people get too heady about the dogmatic teachings or the rituals – basically just misinterpretations of what the original teachers were trying to teach. I think it happens in all different lines of thinking, in all different religions.

I think it’s just like when Gandhi said, “Religions are different roads converging to the same point. What does it matter that we take different road, so long as we reach the same goal…,” and that’s what’s come out of it for me, I think that’s the most profound thing: A deep profound faith in God, and I stick by that from a spiritual perspective.

I mean hate to even use the word “God” because it’s so misinterpreted by so many people. To me it’s a good acronym. It just stands for “Generation – Organization – Distribution.” I mean, I think god is personal and impersonal. It’s more of an Eastern perspective that I have. God is everything and is in all things.

It’s real touchy to start talking about these things. I’m not afraid to talk about it, but I just go slow because it’s so easily misinterpreted, you know?



REAX: Yeah, it’s hard to fully explore, especially during a 30-minute phone conversation. It’s more like something reserved for books and long conversations on the porch with your friends.
Votolato: Yeah, totally. I usually stay away from talking about it unless I can tell that somebody is earnest in their desire to understand.

REAX: For sure. Well let’s change the subject. You were talking about habits, and you’ve always made a habit of trying to keep your audience in tune with the fact that despite the very personal nature of music, there are other things going on in the world.

You’re donating ten percent of your royalties from True Devotion to an organization called One Day’s Wages. Why is it important to remember others less fortunate than ourselves, when many of us are going through hard financial times of our own?

Votolato: Yeah, you know, and I’m experiencing that myself too. It seems like it’s been kind of a uniting force because all of the economies are doing bad.

I had been really searching around for something, like some kind of daily reminder, a consistent reminder – it’s more for me, I think, than anything – to help me have a larger perspective, and just say, “Well okay, I’m doing this thing, but it’s a reminder to have a wider perspective of the world versus getting into an egotistical, selfish…”

REAX: Like a “Hey! Look at me kind of thing?”
Votolato: No, I mean I definitely didn’t want it to be anything like that. I definitely don’t have any kind of that type of motivation for it. It definitely was just about trying to do something to help others – and that being important to me – and wanting to align my life with those types of things. And I think that a lot of what I went through over the past couple of years – battling the depression and suicide, and those ideas that were so painful to deal with – I think that when I came out of that, I just felt so good that I wanted to do something give back to the people and to the world in general. I mean it sounds kind of cheesy when I talk about it.

REAX: No, the basis of it is pretty cool. Just a reminder that there are a lot of other things going on, and that you’re not just doing this for yourself.
Votolato: Yeah, and I think that leads to happiness. I think happiness is an inside job. You get more of it when you’re less selfish, and when you’re less concerned about your own personal needs, and worried about what you can do for others in there as well. I’ve just experienced that in my own personal life.

It’s kind of a paradoxical idea. You know, you would think that the more you get for yourself, the more happier you’d be, but with a lot of the things in this life it’s just the opposite of what you would think. So really it’s more you trying to learn to care for others, and to give, and to serve. It’s really just me trying to practice what I think and trying to live up to some of the ideals (that I have).

That’s another thing that I’ve learned from Gandhi. He said something about not really being able to be set to have an ideal unless you’ve been making an effort to live up to it. I think I just butchered that quote, but it’s something like that, but you get the point of it right? That’s where I was at in my heart when I was trying to find somebody to team up with, and it’s been a good thing so far.

I don’t want any kind of backlash where people think that I’m just doing it to try and have it by like a publicity move, I mean I just did a show for the organization in Seattle where we split the money from the show. I’m just trying to do my part for them. It’s not about me, man, it makes me almost not want to something like that publicly again because I don’t want it to be looking like I’m just trying to make myself look good.

REAX: I mean, I kind of disagree because here you have an artist like yourself that affects people the way you do – and sometimes I feel like the younger generation is often a bit apathetic to the other things going on outside of their world – and when they see you doing that it may inspire them pry themselves away from their lives and do something small for others that may eventually lead to bigger things.
Votolato: Well, yeah, I agree. That’s why I’m all about One Day’s Wages because they’re all about small giving. You don’t have to go be Mother Theresa to change the world. You can just do little things for the people around you, and anything you do is good. I think that any good effort is helpful for you, for your soul, and for the people around you. I think we’re all in this together, so hopefully if anything I do…actions speak louder than words, for sure.

If you’re willing to put your money where your mouth is and do something with your life, then that’s the example that people are gonna follow. When you preach about something, it doesn’t really matter. I think that in the end, your life is your lesson to the people around you.

REAX: You’ve been around for a decade now, and you’ve always had a pretty solid fan base. Obviously attendance at shows has been high and low at different times, but you’ve always had loyal fans come to shows. What’s it like to grow with your fans, and how does it feel to still have these kids coming to shows after all this time?
Votolato: It’s amazing. It’s like you said, I’ve seen the ups and the downs. Just having real interactions with the people who really care about what I’m doing not because it’s a fashion show or because they want to get drunk at the bar, but because they care about the music, the art. Those are the people who are still around now, who come to the shows because, you know, True Devotion was more of a fan album, it wasn’t real flashy.

It was definitely very sincere and based on what I as going through with my life, and it didn’t really have any radio hits. It’s been out for nine months now, and it’s been very well received by fans – and I think by critics too. The reviews were good, but it’s not like exploding with hits, you know? It’s more like a career artist and hardcore fan record, so what I’ve seen from that is people being really loyal and still coming out even though I’ve been to their city maybe two or three times that year.

It’s really just great. Like I’ve said before, I’m just really grateful that I get to do this, and hopefully, in some way I’m doing some kind of service for people by bringing music. Music has been such a healing force for me; so hopefully, in some ways it’s that for other people. That’s how I can justify keeping on doing it.

REAX: I’ve definitely seen it in people. Some kids just latch on to something. Have you ever thought about what it is about your music that your fans have latched on to?
Votolato: I think it’s more like music stamps a period in your life, you know? People have come up to me and been like, “Yeah, I went on a trip and I listened to this record,” or they’ll say, “This is what was going on in my life when I got attached to this record.” For a lot of people, Makers is really that album from me that really broke through and got the most people excited about what I’m doing, which is cool because that’s my favorite album that I’ve made too. It’s the one that came together in a way that I’m happiest with, from the songwriting to the production; just everything about it was good.

So I think that’s really what it is. It’s just stamping a certain time in peoples’ lives, and then they can relive it every time they hear the music.



REAX: Speaking of the music. You mention writing your inspiration down in notepads when it strikes you then having to sit down and filter through all that before you put lyrics, chords, and melodies together. How long does that process take? From the time the muse kind of hits you, then remember writing all these things down, then finally getting a song done.
Votolato: Well usually it’s pretty quick. Usually I’ll know right away if there’s something that’s really striking me and I wanna write about it. My favorite songs that I’ve written – they don’t take too, maybe an hour, maybe two hours. Maybe I’ll get an idea, and maybe it had been kind of building up in my head for quite a while. It may be one line, or I may have had a piece of the inspiration come out a week before, I may have put together a few lines about it, but usually the actual song getting written doesn’t actually take that long.

It’s waiting for those moments and kind of capturing them when they do happen that’s the tricky part of the job of writing, I think. It’s keeping your mind open to those things. That’s why I use the tool of having the notepad with me. For anytime I see something like that, which is moving and meaningful for me. I think Robert Frost said it right when he said, “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader.”

I think that’s it for me, I think it’s that way. If something is impactful to me, and I can express that, then maybe somebody else will be able to see the truth in that, the honesty in that, and be able to relate it to their own life too.

Part of my job is to find those things and capture those things when they come up, but it never really takes a long time. Every time I write a song it’s different though. I’ve had it sometimes take a month to finish a song, but those ones I feel that I always sort of butcher by the end.

REAX: Yeah, does it ever tick you off when you have to scrap a good idea because you can’t find a chord progression or melody to scrap the mood of what you’re trying to write?
Votolato: Yeah man, It’s a painstaking process sometimes. It can be mind numbing.

REAX: So there’s no book of poetry of rejected Rocky Votolato songs coming out soon?
Votolato: No, not yet. I think I’m sticking with being a songwriter for now.

REAX: Alright, well thanks for taking the time to talk to us, and we’ll look forward to seeing you in Orlando.
Votolato: Yeah, thanks for taking an interest in what I’m doing, and helping get the word out about the show. Thanks for the support, appreciate it, man.