Gaining her start in the DIY scene of Detroit at the age of 12, Jax Anderson a.k.a. Flint Eastwood has been surrounded by music her entire life. Anderson has combined the catchy sound of pop music with the energy of a hip-hop artist to truly create something that is different in an age where music can often blend together at times. We sat down with Anderson to discuss tour with PVRIS and Cherry Pools, Assemble Sound, and her most recent release – Broke Royalty.
So how’s tour been going so far?
FE: It’s been going great man, we’ve been tour hopping since Christmas. We started in Austrailia, so we did a few weeks in Austrailia then we did a couple weeks headlining and now we are out with PVRIS for a month.
So what are some of your favorite experiences from touring these past few months?
FE: I think just being able to have different mini adventures in every city it’s cool, and being able to just meet everybody and hear their stories. I really love touring.
So is this your first huge tour? I know PVRIS is a pretty popular band, so it must be different compared to touring on your own
FE: Yeah this is our first theater tour. We toured with PVRIS in the fall so that was technically our first bigger tour, but yeah this is our first theater tour.
So where did you get started with your music?

FE: So I’m from Detroit, and my dad was just one of ten kids. All of them played guitar and sang, so I come from a very musical background. My parents actually met because my dad was actually a part of the traveling choir, and so music has always just been around. When I got to my teen years, my brother was in a punk band and I used to go to all of his punk shows. And so I started writing music, and I never stopped.
How old were you when you were going to punk shows?

FE: I was young, maybe 12 or 13? He would take me to shows all the time, whether it was just house shows or local clubs.
How was Detroit’s music scene when you were getting started?

FE: It was a good local scene like any scene, but Detroit’s scene is different because there’s no distinguished sound. In a lot of cities, there’s that sound of the city and Detroit has a lot of different sounds. We have Mo-Town, we started techno, and we got Eminem and Kid Rock like where the fuck do they fit? You didn’t play at this specific club for this music and this club for this music. You kind of just played wherever. It was really cool, I started off making garage rock music and it eventually became pop music. When I was playing garage rock, I had the energy of a rapper so they would put me on bills with rappers but also metal bands. Detroit was all about energy, not necessarily what you sound like. What’s your vibe? Then we’ll fit you with your vibe.
So you started out as garage rock?

FE: Well it was branded as garage rock since we had an electric guitar player, I always wrote pop songs. I always had synths and pop beats. That was just what a lot of Detroit’s music scene was doing at the time. After that first EP though I decided that I didn’t want to do that anymore.
When did you release your first EP?

FE: Man I don’t even know honestly. The last was one was 2017 than before that was 2014, I want to say 2013 or 12.
What was your approach with this most recent album?

FE: So I started this music collective in Detroit with a couple artist friends. We saw this gap in the Detroit scene where people were making amazing music, but weren’t working together. Well they were working together but there were very exclusive pockets of people. It wasn’t an overall scene and I’m a very big advocate of the idea that artists should be working together. So we basically decided that in order to fix that we needed a space that everybody could work out of. We ended up buying a church built in the 1870’s and set it up so everyone could work together. It’s called Assemble Sound. A lot of the record revolved around community and following your dream even if you don’t have the funds to do it. None of us had the money to do it, we just figured it out.
What is the message that you want to achieve with your most recent release, Broke Royalty?

FE: A lot of the EP is about following your dreams and going full force into something. Also just noticing life around you, I write about that a lot. The little things in life mean a whole lot. People don’t really pay attention. There’s a song on the EP called “Slipping Away.” The whole thing is just about people slipping away into stupid stuff and there’s just so many little things that we don’t notice. We don’t notice the old man drunk on a train that needs help, and nobody will help him because they’re too involved in their own selves. It was just focused around hearing wisdom from friends and really appreciating the small things around you.