RJ Vocal will be releasing his intimate, yet bombastic new single Ambushed on May 15 at the Aster Cafe. There’s a natural storytelling element to the music and some surprisingly different melodies and vibes. Each song its own chapter!
Please tell me about you and how you came to music?
I grew up in Hopkins MN and currently live in Minneapolis. I have been a musician since I was 6 years old, being required to take piano lessons by my parents. I was not a motivated student, rarely practiced, and became the only one of five children in my family to quit lessons when I was in 6th grade. I started playing again in 9th grade and have continued ever since, now playing professionally. I guess I needed to come to the piano on my own terms! I have always loved to sing and have been in various cover bands as a lead singer from the time I was age 17.
My songwriting and guitar playing are pretty new for me, starting in June 2019 after a searing heartbreak. The words of my first song poured out in about an hour on a hot summer night on the screened porch at the end of June. Three days later I decided that if it was going to actually be a song, then I had to sit down at the piano and write a melody and chords, oh my! That took about two hours. Three months later I wrote my second song, this time on my new instrument, acoustic guitar. Five months later I wrote my third song, writing the lyrics while sitting on an airplane over the ocean, coming back to America from a 3-week visit to New Zealand.
It wasn’t until I wrote my 10th song that I really believed that I was a songwriter. I kind of thought that just a few songs came out, and then it would suddenly stop as quickly as it had begun. I just wrote my 29th song in April 2025! I have both my FIRST Single Release Show and my FIRST Gig in Chicago in May 2025. Things are moving along slowly but surely in my music career😊
Ambushed has such a bombastic and joyful start that slides into smaller life size, heartfelt love story. Did you imagine the big start as we you were writing the song?
I wrote Ambushed in 2020, which is still my most productive songwriting year. I think the isolation from Covid actually helped me focus on songwriting. Songwriting was also new for me, so maybe there were just pent-up ideas.
When I started thinking about producing and recording Ambushed in 2023, one of the ideas that came to me was that I wanted a dramatic beginning to the song. I wanted to “ambush” the listener, modeling how I was ambushed in real life! My first thought was to start with a cymbal crash. Later I decided to start with a horn section, a fanfare. I have played trombone since 4th grade, though I hadn’t picked up a trombone in eight years before playing on this song. And by the way, four days was not enough practice to get my embouchure back! Lesson learned. I wrote the parts for two trumpets, saxophone, and trombone, adding a second (bass) trombone part as well during the recording.
Ambushed is a song I think many of wish we could write about secret or borderline crushes. How is it going now – in real life? Or maybe this isn’t based in real life?
Ambushed is based on a story from my life. We had been friends for two years before she surprised me. There are many lyrics in the song that are very literal about how things happened, as well as some lyrics from my imagination. It was truly a “whirlwind of joy.” We are not together anymore, not by my choice. I’m not sure if I’ll ever completely be over that heartbreak, but it is very therapeutic and joyful to write more songs about my experience.
Any relation between the songs You Never Knew and Ambushed? It seems like making of a romantic comedy soundtrack.
Haha, well as a matter of fact, those two songs are written about the same person. I don’t have any experience in theater, but I have had a few people tell me that my songs could be in a play. Hopefully that means they tell good stories and that my singing is theatric. I love to use my voice in a dramatic way, mostly because it’s interesting and fun for me. I also think it draws people into listening to the story I am telling. Theater is not my focus in my music career at this point. I think I’ll leave that to someone else to write a play using my songs! My focus is on performing concerts and connecting with people.
Please tell us about the upcoming single release show.
The Single Release Show for Ambushed will be my FIRST song release show I have ever done. I’m super nervous and super excited about it! It came about through the help of Nick Hensley, who asked me to be part of a songwriter music series he curates at Aster Café, called MNAKED. I thought I could also promote it as a Single Release Show and Nick agreed that would work well. I am thrilled to have Lisa DeGuiseppi as a co-bill with me. She is such a wonderful songwriter and singer. It’s going to be the best show I’ve ever done!
Mostly Minnesota 