Robert Rolfe Feddersen and his wife, Terri Ann, have been playing music together for years. When I saw them play a few months ago at an event at Right Brain Brewery, the energy emitting from the stage during their set was undeniable. They told stories, played fun songs, and formed a connection with the audience that you don’t always find when you see live music being performed.
When I set up the Zoom interview with the Feddersens I had no idea that the connection made between musician and audience member would transcend into something closer. I felt such a kinship with these two that I soon dropped the interviewer mask and engaged in a conversation with them like I had known the couple for my entire life.
The following is that conversation and has been slightly edited for length, context, and clarity:
The Jam Files: How did you two meet?
Robert: Terri Ann and I met at a Suregard Storage facility where my old band Loudmouth was rehearsing. She was in another band called Missunderstood, and she wanted to meet my guitar player, Kurt. When she came out to see us I said, “Kurt can hit the dirt! That’s it!” I went right for it. I beelined for Terri Ann.
The Jam Files: I love the album My Terri Ann. Can you tell me a little bit about the song “The Third Coast”?
Robert: “The Third Coast” was written after I performed a gig at Paw Paw Brewing Company. When I started playing music again full time I hit Michigan pretty hard because they are receptive to originals. Some of those places we really started getting fans and friends out of. I wrote that song after playing at all these different places. Like heading up to Right Brain and meeting people there. Bridgeton, Paw Paw, Kalamazoo…just having some solid friends and fans that would come out to see us no matter what. It’s really something amazing and I don’t take that for granted, so I always dedicate that song to Michigan people who have embraced my music. You’ve got the east coast and the west coast, and then there’s Michigan, which is the third coast, and my favorite. I’m throwing up an ‘M’.
The Jam Files: It’s my favorite too. I just moved back here after being down in Florida and being out west for way too long. I love finally being back home.
Robert: I think it’s great to go to other places and see things and experience things but I also have a “Midwest heart”. Terri Ann and I both love California and we love going there. I was on The Price is Right out there! California definitely tugs my heartstrings, but I love the Midwest. I just feel at home here in Northwest Indiana. It’s nice to get out, but also nice to come back.
The Jam Files: Your song “Leaving Indiana” mentions going out west.
Robert: Yeah, that was written when we moved from Indiana to Chicago. We had already been out west and I was having a hard time leaving the city. Things were getting too expensive for us to live there and to own a place, and we didn’t want to be homeless musicians. We found a place here in Crown Point 24 years ago. I had a hard time not getting good pizza, craft beer, and not having a local coffee shop that I could walk to. There were a lot of things that weren’t here then that are here now. So I wrote that song with a little bit of venom for Indiana.
The Jam Files: Speaking of “a little bit of venom”, listening to some of your music I got a taste of that kind of venom especially in the song, “Vicariously Rock ‘n’ Roll Died”. Is that about the changes in how music is received now in our digital age? I know streaming affects independent artists the most.
Robert: I think that song is multifaceted in the sense that I would love to see more young people forming bands and not being good for a few years, and then getting good and getting a following. I think the hard road of being a punk or rock band, is there’s not as many artists touring and giving it the real try. You can have fans on YouTube and Spotify, but who comes to see your shows? That’s like the essence of being an artist, at least a musician. Having shows and having people come out to them. I feel like Rock and Roll has turned into television programming. And those music shows are dramas, not truly the music scene. Who won The Voice five years ago? No one knows or cares. It’s a TV show. What was the latest band that you saw that you loved? “Vicariously” is about hope that rock and roll, punk rock, and folk rock –whatever the genre – doesn’t go away, and that people understand that you can do this for real if you put in the work. It’s a lot of work, but people do it, and I’d like to see more of it with young people instead of every dinosaur band that comes through and plays arenas for 900 bucks a ticket. I think that’s ridiculous and seems to be the norm for what’s going on today. There’s so many great artists that you can support that you can see for 10 to 30 dollars and I like that a lot more.
The Jam Files: Do you prefer playing shows live as opposed to being in the studio?
Robert: I do. But I love being in the studio as well, and record all my records at Electrical Audio with Steve Albini in Chicago. When you record with Steve you set up and play live. It’s an analog studio so we record everything straight to 2 inch tape. I recorded there once in 2006, but since 2013 we’ve been making all our records over there. So My Terri Ann, American Loser, Pepper in His Heart...all those records were made standing up next to my wife, singing and playing together with drums, guitar, and a full band situation. You can go in and record five songs in a day, another five songs the next day, you can mix the third day, and have a record in three days. Then you can go out and play live shows. I do prefer live much better. There’s not a huge difference between hearing the albums and when you come see us at a show. It’s going to sound pretty similar.
The Jam Files: Unfortunately, my husband and I only caught the tail end of your set that day at Right Brain, but your energy wowed me. I was really drawn to your music. And I’ll tell you I actually got the idea to start The Jam Files music blog after seeing you play.
Robert: That’s so great to hear.
Terri Ann: Wow. That’s wonderful! He inspires so many people in so many different ways. It’s always really neat for me to see as his music partner and his wife because he inspires me too with his giving spirit, form of music and entertainment, and all the good vibes.
The Jam Files: I noticed there was a large group of “Feddheads” that came out that day. That’s what you call your fans, right?
Robert: Yeah! Ya know, there’s the “Deadheads”, the “Phishheads”, the “Parrotheads” and all that. A lot of people call me “Fedd” so I went with “Feddheads” and that was born in Paw Paw, Michigan. We had some friends from Northwest Indiana come out to our show probably in 2015 or 2016 and they brought these shirts that they made and they all said “Feddheads” on them. Like, “We’re Feddheads!” and I’m like, “Oh my gosh this is great! I think we should run with this.” It's a fun way to make a connection with everyone that comes out to the shows and enjoys our music. It’s a nice camaraderie.
The Jam Files: (laughs) I love it. Terri Ann, how long have you been playing together? Were you always a part of the music?
Terri Ann: Well, we met in ‘89 like Bob said. I was singing in a band and he was in his band and I was so enamored when I went to the practice because they were so good. I knew they were something really special. I had been in bands and was always around music and listening to it. I worked in a record store for four years growing up and played piano. I was just starting to write my own songs and Bob was over one day and he said, “Let me see what you have.” It was in the very beginning of my songwriting so I showed him a song I was working on and he said, “We’re getting you in the studio.” He had his band back me up and we started recording my songs which blew my mind. His band was always razor focused on what they were doing. They were all kids doing this. A true garage, neighborhood band of school friends for years. When I met him he was 19 and they were really at the point of just making this thing take off.
Robert: When I heard her sing and she showed me her song, “No More Roses”, it was incredible, so I had my band back her up and we played shows supporting her as well. There was a period where my band Loudmouth had gotten signed and were touring and doing all that kind of stuff and we weren’t able to collaborate as much as we used to, but once the whirlwind was over we got back to doing what we started doing. Sitting with an acoustic guitar, writing songs, and making those songs come to fruition and recording them. It’s been such a great journey with Terri to make records, and she sings backup and plays percussion on everything. It’s such a fun, easy, band situation because we’re together 24/7 anyway, so why not play music together and make it fun for the whole room or anyone who’s listening?
The Jam Files: Have you both been playing music from a young age?
Robert: I started playing when I was in 7th grade. I didn’t make basketball tryouts so I’m like, “Screw this, I’m gonna play music!” A guy down the street from me was selling what I thought was a guitar, but it was a bass guitar. So I bought this guitar not knowing it was a bass for 50 bucks, and it was great. I took it to the house of one of my schoolmates, John Sullivan, who was a drummer, and I opened it up and said, “Hey, I bought a guitar” and he goes, “Well, it’s a bass guitar.” I go, “Yeah, yeah! It’s a guitar!” And he says, “Yeah, but it’s a bass guitar.” I just said, “Well...cool!” and I started playing bass with him. We had a little band called Full Force and we took music really seriously from a young age. We really wanted to be good, and we worked hard at it. So I can say I’ve been doing this seriously since 7th grade because we were serious kids when we were playing together.
Terri Ann: I started playing the piano when I was 5. We had a great piano teacher in the small subdivision I grew up in. My older sister was learning songs and I would sit at the piano and emulate them. This piano teacher wouldn’t take you in until you were in 2nd grade, and I was in kindergarten, but she told my sister to have me come to her lessons because she wanted to make sure I was learning the right way. When she saw what I could do she took me in young. So that’s how I started playing piano. We had a musical family. My mom played and my younger sister too, along with my older one. I just loved certain artists’ singing. I remember in 3rd grade I loved Olivia Newton John and I would always listen to her. I loved her style and the way she pronounced words, and then when I heard Pat Benatar in 7th grade, I just lost it. “I want to do that! I want to sing!” So in 8th grade, in my small community, all the high school bands in my sister’s grade would let me come and sing some Pat Benatar songs with them. I just always wanted to sing rock music. That’s where it kinda led. I tried to play guitar a little and knew a few chords. I can hear all the songs in my head. I hear the parts, sit down with Bob, tell him what’s going through my mind, and we work together. I was also the only girl percussionist from 5th grade through 12th grade, so that put me playing percussion for him into the mix.
The Jam Files: What’s your songwriting process like? Do you write together?
Robert: Very rarely. I usually just bring a song to Terri. I’ll show her what I wrote and I never tell her what to sing or what to play. I’m just like, “Here’s a song I have. Do you like it? Okay, well, let’s play it out on Friday.” She’ll come up with her own harmonies and her own percussion parts, what instruments she wants to use, whether it’s the tambourine, cajon, little drumsticks, or brushes. She has a myriad of percussion instruments. So I just show her a song and let her do whatever she does. I don’t think I’ve ever told her what to do in a song.
Terri Ann: I try to add to what he has written and make it make sense to me. Make a lot of noise and do some cool things that I can do. Sometimes I’ll say,“I don’t know, should I do this hit here or not? Is it taking away from this part?” I’ll come to him and ask him.
Robert: Yeah, she asks me my opinion on something, and I’ll give it, but I don’t initially say, “I want you to do this and this, and sing that part or this part" because our marriage would be over. (They both laugh.)
Terri Ann: When we started playing together he’s like, “I want you to sing and play percussion”. And I’m like, “I haven’t played percussion since I was in high school, but I’ll sing harmonies on all your songs if I can sing my own harmonies.” Because he can hear all these crazy harmonies that I don’t hear, and I hear things that he doesn’t. So he just lets me have free reign to do my part which is really cool.
Robert: And now he can’t hear at all! (laughs)
The Jam Files: It’s really neat to have that musical relationship where everything flows naturally.
Robert: It’s nice to not have an arduous situation. In my old rock band, it was arduous to rehearse, get parts down, and have everything be perfect. It was a hard rock band so the dynamic was a little more precise. With Terri Ann, it does fall together pretty naturally. I can honestly say we don’t labor over the songs. If she likes the song I wrote then we’ll play it out and record it.
The Jam Files: How would you describe your sound?
Robert: I would call it folk rock because there’s stories in all the songs and most of them come from a real place. Like a true story, a place I’ve been, or a person I’ve met. I definitely have that rock energy. I’m not the folk singer who sits brooding in a corner and doesn’t care if anyone listens. I want people to listen and I want to engage and I also want people to know what the song’s about so before each one I’ll always tell a little story about it. I have a song called “Black Oak, Indiana”. I knew these lunch ladies from there, and they were just awesome. They were from the town, and they were never leaving the town. Really neat people. So I wrote it for my lunch ladies at Grissom Elementary School. They were just hardcore Black Oak gals and I’m like, “They need a song.”
The Jam Files: How has your music evolved over time?
Robert: I think that as an artist you always have to evolve. It makes it interesting for me to create, and also doesn’t keep it stagnant where I know what I’m going to do. Like, “I’m gonna go write about Jim Bob down the street. He took his garbage cans out.” I have to challenge myself to continue writing. I think as you go through life, it’s constantly changing so the music changes with it.
The Jam Files: There’s a lot of variety throughout your music. There’s high energy songs and then slow ballads. It’s all really great.
Robert: Thank you, I appreciate that. I like to capture a moment or a mood and I kinda have to get it off my chest so I can have a normal day. If there’s something going on, something sad or melancholic, or something great and amazing is happening, I like to capture all of it as real as I can get it. I don’t like to filter or edit. I like to get that first feeling on paper and on the guitar so I can have that moment, and then I can emulate that moment again later on because I’ve got the authentic feeling the first time. So then I feel it’s believable to play it again for people when I perform it.
Terri Ann: I’m always in awe of how he’ll just come back here and have a song. Like it’ll be right after breakfast, or while he’s making breakfast, and I’ll see him coming up with something in his head. He’s humming it, and I know he’s going to be going in the music room, getting it down, and then coming out with a song. He writes pretty quickly. He has such a vast array of different types of songs like you were saying. He’s really become such a prolific songwriter. We’ve been together for 34 years so he has songs that you hear on Spotify and everything, but there’s also so many that he hasn’t released. It’s really neat being together this many years and seeing the process and where he’s at with things now. We have stories where he would be writing a song and I’d be out laughing at the funny ones like “My Terri Ann”. I’m laughing and laughing and he opens the door and is like…
Robert and Terri Ann: “Why are you laughing?!”
Terri Ann: Well, the song is full of funny stories about me, ya know? I get the humor of the songwriter within the song…the folkiness. It’s a true talent to capture something like that and put it to words, meter, and melody.
The Jam Files: I agree. The humor really does shine through. While listening I thought, “I know he’s a funny guy”. I could just tell.
Robert: Laughing is just the greatest thing. If you can laugh at something, appropriately of course, I think finding the humor in life is a gift that we all have. To be able to find that and just be together on something. Like,“Isn’t this ridiculous?” A kid built a go-cart out of milk crates and the go-cart’s gonna crash, you know it is, and when it happens, if the kid’s not hurt, it’s hilarious! Ya know, there’s a lot of humor in everything so I like to incorporate it, from observations or meeting people or going somewhere. Whatever the situation is, I think that life can be pretty funny. I try to translate that into something that other people can relate to as well. I’m a big comedy fan.
The Jam Files: Exactly. I grew up in the “America’s Funniest Home Videos” age. That kinda stuff was always entertaining. Who are some of your musical influences? Terri Ann mentioned Pat Benatar.
Terri Ann: I always loved singers and certain people that can annunciate a phrase. I loved that with Olivia Newton John. I came in on her country stuff, before Grease, and when it did, of course I was a super huge fan. I just always loved the way that she could take a phrase, and it didn’t sound the way anyone else could sing it. Little influences like that. I felt like Pat Benatar had the same thing the way that she could phrase things, and she could belt it out. She had such an incredible range. It all really stuck with me, and I like that energy. I also like a lot of country music and rock and roll. My piano teacher was really innovative where she had you do all scales and you had to have a classical piece, but she also had you request a pop piece. So you could be working on something by Beethoven and then you could pick whatever pop song you wanted. At the time we had all this sheet music so whatever pop or rock songs I was listening to I’d get the sheet music and we would work on that. I had a great influence there. I love a lot of the rock bands that were out in the 80s when I was in junior high. There were some crazy pop songs out in the 80s. I wasn’t really into Duran Duran and music like that. I was more into Billy Squier and Journey.
Robert: She’s a rocker, that’s for sure. I run the gamut on my influences. One of my favorite artists is Tom Waits. I love him and those unorthodox sounds that he gets from his voice and his records. It’s always an adventure to listen to him and I always feel captivated. I love Americana music. Steve Earle is one of my favorite writers. I think he’s got a lot of grit to his writing and a lot of honesty. When I was younger, I simultaneously loved The Beatles and Motorhead. Lemmy’s one of my heroes. The Beatles pretty much taught me how to write a song with melody because I’m a big fan of melodies. But I’m not a big fan of wimpy singing. I like to really dig in and put it out there. So those are some of my favorites right there. I love the band Son Volt out of St. Louis. Jay Farrar is the singer and songwriter for them and he writes some pretty prolific stuff. Once in a while we’re driving to a gig and I gotta hear Motorhead, especially on the way home when we’re fading. I gotta put some of that on. I love it all. I really do. I don’t know if you can see behind us but we’ve got a pretty massive record collection.
The Jam Files: It’s very impressive! My husband and I got into vinyl 4 or 5 years ago, and we just have a small collection so far. Here in Traverse City, the library has a great collection you can check out and take home to listen to. That’s so awesome, especially in these difficult economic times where you can’t always afford to buy records.
Robert: Man! That is great! I agree with you there. This is from a lifetime of collecting so it’s not like we just went out and got it all at once. This is from years and years of collecting. We’re very frugal. We do music for a living so we’re definitely not wealthy by any means. Any extra money that I would ever make always goes to buying a record. It’s been that way since I was 11 years old. My mom worked at Montgomery Ward and they had a record section. Every Friday I would take my allowance and would get one record while she worked there, which was for at least four years, and then the collection has increased since then.
The Jam Files: I think it’s cool that vinyl made a comeback. Streaming music is great for the access to it, but I feel a lot of bands get lost in all of it. We’re so bombarded by all types of online media. I really love physical copies. I can hold it in my hands. I’m just more into that.
Robert: Yeah, I agree. I love that it’s tangible. Like I have this Dylan 45 right here. (holds it up to the camera) “Love Sick” and “Cold Irons Bound”, one of my favorite Dylan songs. I’ve got the 45! Now, I could get my phone and say “Hey, check out this Dylan song!” or you could come over and I’ll be like “We’re gonna listen to this incredible 45 that Dylan made, and that Daniel Lanois produced.” It’s a tangible experience, instead of just streaming on your phone where it can become disposable.
The Jam Files: The sound quality of most phone speakers is pretty terrible too. I’d much rather listen to a vinyl recording.
Robert: I agree 100%, and I’m also going to agree with your sentiment about vinyl coming back because I saw it go away. It was awful because it was always my favorite medium for listening to music. When CDs came out, even as a teenager I was like “I can’t read the liner notes. I don’t know where it was recorded. Who played drums on this record? I don’t know!” With a record you could see all the different things that went into it. Where it was recorded, where it was pressed, the manufacturer, who mixed it, what the personnel was on it. There’s a whole journey to a record.
The Jam Files: I grew up with cassettes. So when CDs started coming out I was like “No, I need my cassettes!” It was so strange to me. I’ve never been one that was able to adapt to new technology. It took me forever to even get a cell phone. I fought it for as long as I could.
Robert: I’m with you on that. I hold on to the technology that I love and that’s records, and now they’re back.
The Jam Files: Cassettes are making a comeback now too. I’ve seen some bands releasing limited versions of their albums on them. I’ve still got my old, dusty tape player that still works.
Robert: We’ve seen that! We have a pretty large cassette collection too because that’s what was in cars when we were first together in ‘89. Every car had a cassette deck in it, and then it all switched to CDs. And there was that panic like “Oh, man! Now I gotta buy everything all over again on CD because I got this car!”
Terri Ann: I saw the CDs first come in because I was working at the record store from ‘84 to ‘89. When I first started, there was a section of vinyl, but then everything went to cassette. We had walls of cassettes that we were selling. And then I remember when the first CDs came to the store. It was wild. I was like, “What is this?” Weird cases, and they were expensive.
Robert: Times they are a’changing!
The Jam Files: My first car was an ‘86 Buick Century and I had a tape deck and my friends were like, “What are you doing?” I’m like, “We’re listening to cassettes cuz that’s all I got!” I think later when I upgraded to a 2001 Toyota Corolla, they all bought me a CD player and I said, “No, I don’t want it!”
Terri Ann: The one you could plug into the lighter, right? (laughs)
The Jam Files: Yes! I remember they had the anti-skips on the Discmans and it took me forever to get one of those too. I preferred my Walkman. I’d be riding the bus, holding my Discman over the bumps because it would still skip. I remember thinking, “Cassettes never had this problem!”
Robert: You’re right! Cassettes never had the skip problem, but every CD player in every car would skip. All of them.
The Jam Files: Do you typically tour around the Midwest area?
Robert: We mostly stick to the Midwest because we’re getting work here, which is great. We’ve sent stuff out too since we have a bit of a resume. We've played Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska…we’ve done the long treks like that, but we really find that it’s just not worth it to do when there are places here in the Midwest that want to book us. We’d rather play venues that really want us as opposed to begging venues to let us do another show. We’ve got a nice curriculum going where we can play Michigan, Northwest Indiana, play Louisville, come back up to Illinois, go up to Wisconsin...We encompass these four or five states to play in, and we feel grateful that there’s enough places that want to have us out. We’ve worked hard to get to that and it’s pretty amazing that we don’t have to travel to New York to go and play a show. As cool as it is to say “Hey, we’re playing Manhattan!”, I really don’t care about that. I’d rather play for people who want us to play their venues and people who want to see us. We’re building a nice following here in the Midwest.
The Jam Files: I continue to be blown away by the amount of talent in this area. In Traverse City alone, there’s live music pretty much every night. Do you have steady gigs?
Robert: We play around 3 to 4 shows a week depending on what’s going on. Summertime gets a little crazier but we play all year long. We usually take January off, but we got offered to go play in Frankfort and Grand Haven this year, so we broke our rule. We are independent artists so we appreciate you interviewing us. To have a forum like this is helpful because we’re only as good as our last show. Having the support while being an independent artist is incredible and is needed because it’s how we make a living and pay our bills. How we do everything is through our music. We have a lot of friends that are established, and have done and are doing really well in music, but we are not those people. We’re doing our own thing outside of the industry, and figuring out our own niche and places to play. When you do get that support, like talking with you right now, it means everything.
Terri Ann: We appreciate it.
Robert: It’s really cool that you’re taking a journalistic approach with this because music needs journalists big time.
The Jam Files: I think the world needs to connect more with each other by talking and listening. I always say, “I don’t want content, I want connection” with others. I want to get to know people rather than be focused on how much attention something I wrote is getting, or how the site is doing. I’ve never been interested in that.
Robert: I hear you with that, and we feel the same way. Unfortunately we have to do the social media stuff and post about shows and what we’re doing, all that kind of thing. But the real gist of it is to meet people and make that connection. I love that you said “not content, but connection” because that’s the only thing we’re trying to do when we play live is connect with people and be in the same room together as opposed to “Oh, these two people are off in the corner doing this thing, and we’re doing our own thing.” We want to bring everyone together through music. To have those connections in these times right now is so important. It’s amazing how easy it is to connect with people with these devices and all that, but also amazing how little people actually connect through them.
The Jam Files: What does music and being musicians mean for you both?
Terri Ann: I love that we can be together, and that he figured out a way for us to be together and do something that we love. We grow from it. I need to write more songs. He writes all the time.
Robert: You do a great job.
Terri Ann: I know, but I have so many in my head that I just need to get out and write, and write more. But it’s something we can do together and we enjoy each other’s company. We also have our bulldog.
The Jam Files: Jilly Bean!
Robert: Right? Jilly Bean’s here too. She’s right below my feet.
Terri Ann: We’re always writing about her, and if we could take her with us it’d be even better. I would say just figuring out a way to be together and do this is what’s most meaningful to me.
Robert: For me, definitely being together. Music means getting to express yourself. It’s something that I need as a person to be able to do to be a part of society. I have to get my songs out of my head, out of my body, onto paper, into a microphone, and recording. I have to express how I feel about things. I can’t function well without doing that. I can say “This is how I felt at a certain point in time and I want you to hear it.” To me it’s the same as painting, writing, or creating anything. I like to create in song. I’ve been doing it a long time so to not do it would really be detrimental for me, and also for my wife and our community of “Feddheads”. I think if people stopped expressing themselves in all these different ways it’d be a tough existence. I’m glad that independent art exists and that it’s still unfiltered. It’s nice to be out on the fringe doing what we really want to do, and saying what we really want to say.
The Jam Files: That’s the best, when you’re able to do what you love doing. You mentioned earlier that you “started to record music again.” Did you take a break from it?
Robert: I did. When I was with Loudmouth and we got signed, we toured with all kinds of different bands. I’ve toured with everybody from Megadeath to Godsmack. Kid Rock. All kinds of different bands.
The Jam Files: Was this from the 90s to early 2000s?
Robert: I’d say from ‘95 to around 2001 we were actually putting out records and touring with anybody and everybody. We played a bowling alley opening for Dokken one time in Grand Rapids. We played The Intersection in Grand Rapids a hundred times. I did a ton of shows with my old band and it was fun while it lasted, but I wanted to express more than just hard rock. I love hard rock music. I think it’s a great form of music, but it’s not all I wanted to do. There could never be an acoustic guitar in my old band. It just couldn’t exist, and it’s a huge part of what I love. I’m as passionate about John Prine as I am about Motorhead. I can’t just listen to Motorhead. I have to listen to John Prine, Steve Earle, or Tom Waits too. I really wanted to express that, so I got out of my band and then I didn’t want to play music for a while, but I wanted to keep moving. My beautiful wife here said “Why don’t you get your CDL?” So I’m like, yeah, that way I can drive and keep moving and I’m still on the road. I didn’t get an over the road CDL, I got a Class P CDL so I could drive a box truck, and I ended up delivering milk. The first job I applied for was at this place called Cloverpress Dairy and they hired me. So I’m like, “Okay, I’m gonna do this until I’m not doing this.”
Terri Ann: And you have a good song “Milkman” that you wrote. He’s always writing about his experiences. And he met some great people with great stories.
Robert: Yeah, so I got out for a while and what ended up happening was I got held up on the job. I’m like, “I’m not gonna die in the milk truck. There’s no way.” I got out of that situation, and I quit the job and immediately called Terri and told her what happened and how I’m getting out of this. “I’m gonna play music again.” And then I called Steve Albini and told him “Hey, this is what happened. I’m getting back into music and I want to make a record with you.” And that was the American Loser album. That’s when I really got back into music full time for a living. I got out of it and then it pulled me back in.
The Jam Files: Wow. It took a life or death situation. I’m glad you made it through alright and are still making music.
Robert: It was an eye-opening experience in the sense that I always thought I had it in my back pocket. Like, “Oh I can always go back to playing music, so let’s just drive around and deliver milk.” I’d go to all kinds of schools and different places. It was good to get out of music and gain perspective and also to get back into music and completely change everything. Not be the “former lead singer of this band”, or stuff like that. I started over completely from scratch. I’ve never asked famous friends or anybody for help like, “Listen to my record, get it to your A & R guy”, or anything. It’s been completely organic and we’ve done it from just starting out playing gigs at bookstores and coffee shops, then moving into breweries and wineries and some venues. We did it from square one.
The Jam Files: I really love that. And I love that you’re still able to do it and be so successful. You spoke earlier about younger bands. A lot of us were told as kids to not get into the arts and do something more practical by our parents and teachers, and I feel like that’s happening more so now. It’s refreshing to see talent of all ages. There’s a hope in art and music that still exists and it’s coming from artists like you and trickling down to younger people. I like all kinds of music from all genres and times. I don’t like to say what’s “good or bad” music. If I’m not into it, maybe someone else will be.
Terri Ann: I do too. I see the good in it even if I’m not into it. I go more to rock, but I do love a lot of singer/songwriters and a lot of alt country and things that you wouldn’t hear on the mainstream radio. There are some pop songs that I really like too. When I worked at the record store I heard it all. Some things wouldn’t be my cup of tea but my coworker would be going gaga over some band and they’d try to point out good things about it and I’m like, “Ok I can hear that, I can see that, but how about you listen to this?”
The Jam Files: I don’t understand putting anyone down for what they like. Who am I to say something is “dumb” or whatever when someone else loves it so much?
Robert: I agree. And that was the hardest transition about being in a hard rock, heavy metal band going into what I do now. A lot of people said that. They were like, “What? What the hell are you doing?” This is what I’m doing. This is what I believe in as much as I believed in that. I think it’s a great thing having different genres of music in your life. It’s a diverse world and to say someone’s taste is stupid is the stupidest thing you could say to a person. I think there’s all kinds of music for everybody and whatever you gravitate to, great. You’re not hurting anybody. You’re not hurting yourself. You’re listening to music that you love. You can’t squash that, ya know?
The Jam Files: Do you have any new albums coming out or are you working on anything new?
Robert: Yeah, we’ve been in the studio and we’ve been working pretty hard on a new album. My latest record The Distance isn’t even a year old, but it took a year just to get the vinyl pressed. We love putting everything out on 180 gram vinyl and since it takes so long to get the actual records, we already started recording new songs. We have eight songs done. I think we’re going to do eight more to put out a sixteen song record probably in 2025. We were talking today about pressing a 45 because we never have before, and having like two songs on it. Cause 45s, cassettes, and a lot of different things are getting out there again. This woman keeps me busy and that’s good.
Terri Ann: One thing I loved growing up listening to was Motown. On this next album, Bob wrote a song called “Aretha” that we’re going to be recording. It’s about me listening to Aretha Franklin and exercising with my headphones on singing “Respect” and I sounded terrible. (laughs) He backed away and wrote a song about me listening to Motown and how I lose my mind when Aretha comes on.
The Jam Files: I love Motown. I was born in Detroit!
Robert: We have a song about our Detroit friend, Craig Brown, who we’ve played with at PJ’s Lager House. It goes,“If you’re going to Detroit, you gotta go see Craig Brown”. We’ve loved Detroit for forever. I played Harpo’s a few times with different bands and it was always a sold out, packed house. A real “Rock and Roll Town”. We go to baseball games in Detroit, and have stayed on Ferry Street for vacation. We vacation in the Midwest whenever we get a chance. When I say “vacation”, I mean like 3 to 4 days tops. We had our records pressed for Pepper In His Heart at Third Man and made sure we had a gig there when they were ready. So we played PJ’s with Craig Brown and Dex Romweber, had a great show, went to pick up our albums, and then headed back instead of paying for all the shipping.
The Jam Files: Are you going to be playing Traverse City again any time soon?
Robert: We are! We’re definitely going to get another gig up there. Hopefully in June we’ll be getting some shows up by you. We’re reaching out to Stormcloud Brewery in Frankfort and Right Brain in Traverse City. There’s all kinds of places in TC to play. It’s one of our favorites. Russell Springsteen booked us years ago when he opened up Right Brain and he’s been really good to us. He loves our American Loser record. It’s been really cool to have a go-to place in town. We love your city. One of our best friends, Rebecca, is from there so we love coming up to visit and playing. Traverse City has such a great vibe and anytime we’re up there it just feels magical.
Terri Ann: There’s healing in all that water too. I have MS and I’m so glad Robert and I figured out a way for us to make music together because I wouldn’t be getting out if we didn’t have this. Music pulls us together. We can influence each other, support each other. It’s wonderful.
Robert: We’re the same people at a gig as we are in real life. We’re unchanging.
Check out Robert Rolfe Feddersen on Facebook & Instagram. Visit his website at robertrolfefeddersen.com
Jennifer Patino lives in Traverse City and loves music. Visit her blog at thistlethoughts.com