Interview: Feel It With John Willard Ferrell
Interview by Lindsey V. Britt / Photos by Jess Tolle
Tulsa, Oklahoma, singer-songwriter John Willard Ferrell, known for his hits “Found Soul”, “In My Mind”, and “Ain’t A Sin,” is currently working on some exciting new projects in the folk scene under John Ferrell, as well as pop music under WILLARD.
How did you start getting into music?
I started when I was 18, it was my freshman year of college, and my brother and my dad had been playing guitar their whole lives, through my whole life. I don’t know why I didn’t get into it till late but that’s when I started.
What inspired you to release your first WILLARD song “Ain’t A Sin”?
I was at the lake with a bunch of buddies, and we just had a good time. Then when we got back from the trip, I had a studio day and I wrote the song about the lake day that we had and it panned out, it went well.
I’m a big fan of your song “Feel It”, What’s the story behind it?
Well, I wrote that after getting back from New York one time, I was there seeing some buddies and we went to a club. It was my first time at a rooftop party club in New York and that was something that was very foreign to me being from Tulsa, Oklahoma. So when I got back the same kind of deal, I was in the studio and I wrote about that.
I’ve noticed that you refer to making music as “The Willard Project”, why is that?
The main reason I do that is because I have another music project called the John Ferrell, my full name is John Willard Ferrell, so John Ferrell is more folk music, kind of like James Taylor or Neil Young, as to where WILLARD is my middle name and it’s like big pop music.
Do you have anything in the works under John Ferrell?
I do, I wrote for a TV show that comes out this summer and I’ll be releasing a song under John Ferrell, it’s called “Mountain Top”, and it’ll be out in a couple of months.
Typically, when you hear about artists from the south you think of country music, what made you decide to go pop and folk, and was it a little challenging being more of a pop/folk music person growing up?
I grew up in folk so that was what came most natural, and then when I was in the studio recording my folk songs. I just always wanted to try out the synths and the drum machines. I‘d always just wanted to give it a try so that was what The Willard Project was, just trying to make some more upbeat, fun, party songs.
Who are some of your favorite artists that inspire you?
Kings of Leon, they are from around where I’m from, so that’s always cool seeing somebody that came from where I came from make it that big. Also a guy named Matt Maeson, I look up to him big time. With WILLARD, it was definitely a big influence from Jon Bellion, I love Jon Bellion. A little Billie Eilish in there as well, which the whole world was influenced by Billie Eilish, that’s what is so cool about her.
Recently you opened for Kylie Morgan. How was that experience?
It was fun! She’s a cool girl, it was outside of the BOK center here in Tulsa, Blake Shelton was putting on a fundraiser for the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum and they asked me to play and I got to meet Kylie.
Is there an artist you would love to tour with?
Ooh well, I consider myself more of a songwriter than anything, so that being said with like current songwriters I would really like to work with Julia Michaels, I’d also like to work with Ryan Tedder cause for the same reason as Kings of Leon, he’s from Tulsa, he’s the lead singer of OneRepublic, he’s the guy making Tate McRae’s record right now, good stuff, but he’s from Tulsa, we went to the same schools ten years apart.
You live in Tulsa, Oklahoma. How do you think the music scene is there compared to other cities like Nashville or L.A.?
The cool thing about Tulsa is it’s kind of a hidden gem, like we’ve got so many people that have come out of Tulsa as some very strong songwriters and Oklahoma in general but Tulsa is kind of the music center in Oklahoma. Going back to the 70’s we have Leon Russell, more lately we have Ryan Tedder and he’s one of the most prolific songwriters of our generation, you’ve got Paul Klein from LANY, Sports, which is a big band right now, they’re out in L.A. but they are from here. There’s a lot of music, a lot of rumblings, I keep hearing of Nashville companies moving to Tulsa for the music like publishers and distributors, so that’s fun.
Would you consider moving to a bigger music city?
I’m currently thinking about moving to Nashville, but Tulsa has been good to me, and I like the venues here, and the people I get to work with here are awesome. However, I do think I need to get to Nashville just from a songwriting perspective, it’ll make me a lot better of a songwriter to be able to do it on command a little bit earlier. Also, if I can go to Nashville and make something of myself, I can bring something back to Tulsa hopefully.
So, are you an Oklahoma Sooners Fan?
Of course! I graduated from OU.
So I’ve heard people from Oklahoma being referred to as Okie but I’ve also heard them be called Oklahomies. Since you’re from Oklahoma, which one do you prefer to be called?
Okie for sure. As a matter of fact, it’s funny you’d ask that, I have a buddy from high school Logan Rogers, who was telling our friend group, hey man I really want to be a tattoo artist, and so we all through our money together and bought him a tattoo gun, and we let him give us tattoos. Now he’s a successful tattoo artist, he does really cool tattoos for a lot of cool people. I have one of his first tattoos on my hip and it says Okie.
What’s the last song you listened to on Spotify?
It was actually as you called, “Pink + White” by Frank Ocean.
Do you have any projects currently in the works?
We’ve got a few demos for WILLARD, there’s no timeline on those songs at the moment. But John Ferrell, I’m producing 25 songs right now for a double record type of a situation, and we just got a publishing deal for that, so that’s cool, I’ll be working pretty hard the next couple of years, haha.
And my final question is, do you have a recommendation? It can be anything from a book to a place, another artist or advice.
You know what I implement into my life, I wouldn’t say it’s the most common for guys but it’s a skincare routine, I absolutely love it, I do it every day. As a recommendation, there’s this guy RYMAN, I just found him on TikTok and his music is absolutely killer, my favorite one is called “Think”, it’s his latest one, but his song “Young” is really good.
Be on the lookout for all of John Willard Ferrell’s upcoming projects and check out his awesome discography on your favorite music streaming platform.
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