YOUTHYEAR Talks About “21 Ways My Life Is Great” + More
Photography Credit: Gabbi Rae
Nashville singer/songwriter, producer, and artist YOUTHYEAR dropped their 2nd single of 2024, 21 Ways My Life Is Great off his upcoming summer “There’s Gonna Be Hell To Pay” EP release. Immediately listening to this single you’re hooked, it might be because Eric Paquette is a genius when it comes to making songs you can’t stop putting on repeat. This is the ultimate breakup song we didn’t know we needed. It’s an ode to remembering to put yourself first and get out of toxic relationships that only hold you back, something many of us can resonate with. Before the release, he went online daily to document all the ways his life is great including being sober and doing things that make you genuinely happy to be without someone who only brought them down.
Ahead of this new release, I had the pleasure of talking to YOUTHYEAR aka Eric Paquette and asked questions about himself, his music, and what to expect this year.
Photography Credit: Gabbi Rae
Can you describe your background and how you discovered and developed your musical influences?
I became absolutely OBSESSED with Elvis and the Beach Boys and the music of the 1950s and early 1960s around 9 years old. I think this is a big reason why I am so melody driven in my approach to songwriting today. It wasn’t necessarily a choice at first to listen to artists like the Ronnettes and The Everly Brothers, as I was raised with a lot of restrictions around what I could listen to, so it was oldies and pop radio in the beginning for me! Anything more questionable to my parents, I had to listen very secretly late at night with the volume down low and my ear pressed up against the speaker. Which is how I discovered rock and hip-hop as I got a little older and started to rebel.
The obsession continued further when I bought a guitar off my friend for $10 and right around that time heard the first Third Eye Blind album which absolutely FLOORED me. It expressed things that I never knew I felt. It was that first time I think I cried to music without really knowing why. It struck something in my core. That’s when the obsession turned to passion and the fire was lit. I had to do this, music gave me a voice, and it became my identity and it set me on the path I’m on today. Punk rock and pop punk hit me next like a fucking hurricane and I was off to the races playing my first shows at 11 years old. I played and wrote the songs in my childhood band all throughout highschool and what would’ve been my college years if I actually went to college. We partied a little too hard to say the least (which is why it didn’t work out) but we also did some really fun shit. We toured a bunch and got to share the stage with bands like the Misfits, Imagine Dragons, The 1975, My Chemical Romance, etc.. When that band fell apart, I shifted gears for a bit and spent a ton of time getting into songwriting. The goal was to find collaborators for a new project, and while doing that I was having so much fun I kept exploring that world deeper and deeper. Along with writing, I started producing and had my first major label cut in 2018. Since then producing & songwriting has become a huge part of my life and my job. Paying the bills off music is cool and all, but it’s also what’s fueling this project and all my releases right now being an independent artist. Very grateful to have a life that’s fully centered around the things I love to do.
You co-wrote and produced a single for another artist, is that something you do often and if so, what other artists have you done this for?
Yup! I guess I gave that away in the question before haha. 2018 I had my first major label cut and I’ve had releases every year since then. Some of my favorite artists I’ve gotten to collaborate with recently are Letdown. (Death Moth did a feature on his song “Hate Myself” that I co-wrote/co-produced), Michigander, Sam Tinnesz, Dashboard Confessional, and Lit who I co-wrote and co-produced their last album with Carlo Colasacco. Making the Lit record was a really cool full circle experience for me as I was a fan of the band and covered their big hit “My Own Worst Enemy” at one of my first shows when I was 13 years old.
Photography Credit: Gabbi Rae
Tell us about the album you’re working on and your latest single. What messages are you putting out and hoping fans will receive when listening to your music? When can we expect it to be released? What is the creative process like for you?
Right now I’m releasing singles that will be a part of an EP called “There’s Gonna Be Hell To Pay”. The full EP will be out this summer. While this collection of songs is a new beginning and start of a new project for me, it’s also a closing of many chapters. There’s some fun “I'm so glad it’s finally over” breakup songs in there but most of the overall themes are centered around my struggles with alcoholism and addiction. I’m in recovery now and have been sober for a bit, but a lot of the timeline of that journey in these songs takes place before I found a way out. It’s mostly from the perspective of someone who is just finally starting to address their demons and self destructive tendencies. It’s the beginning of the awareness that “hey…I think I might have a problem…” but there isn’t quite a solution in there yet. As far as the creative process goes. It’s never ending..which is a good thing haha. I’m very grateful that I have the means to chase an idea in a day and be able to record it in my studio at my apartment. For this EP in particular I chased a lot of those ideas with my close collaborator Carlo Colasacco who I co-wrote and co-produced everything with. We always send stuff back and forth and usually if there’s an idea that we’re both hyped about, it comes together pretty fast. I think we wrote “21 Ways My Life Is Great” in an hour and were laughing the whole time. Also I’m pretty sure we wrote the verses to one of the other songs over the phone.
Any touring plans to promote the new music you’re releasing? I’d love to get a chance to see you live and get some photographs of you.
I would also love that!! There are a few tours in the works but I don't have the exact dates yet! I know there’s one being planned for August - September. There will also be two EP release shows, one in Nashville and one in Massachusetts, which is where I’m from originally.
Do you have any pre-game rituals for touring/shows? What do you do before hitting the stage? What goes through your head?
Well I definitely don’t do my old rituals anymore haha - which usually consisted of drinking wayyy too much whiskey than one should before getting on a stage. I still need something to calm the nerves though. Usually it’s a lot of self talk to keep my perspective in check and a bit of prayer, and meditation to center myself. I try to look at the nerves as a good, healthy thing, and something that shows I’m alive and I care about what I do. The goal for me is to let go and connect with myself so I can connect with other people. If I’m all in my head up there thinking too much and not in the moment, then what’s the point? Music started as an escape and a place of peace and refuge for me, and it can still be that way even when nerves and anxiety are prevalent. I just have to do it the all natural way now haha.
Photography Credit: Gabbi Rae
If you didn’t make music, what other career opportunities would you take on?
Never really gave that a full thought haha. I decided pretty early on music was what I was gonna do and didn’t have a backup plan (still don’t haha). I think I would still be in some form of art though because I was really into drawing before I found the guitar. And I still am passionate about making things with my hands in art. I started painting on leather jackets and posting little clips on socials. People started asking me to make them for them and started commissioning me for custom jackets. I’ve probably made 20 or so in the last year and have 4 in the works as we speak. It’s an awesome creative release for me that is now blossoming into something I didn’t quite expect!
What’s the best advice you’ve been given and would give to anyone else?
Probably all the clichés that are actually true haha. You can do literally anything you want in this world, and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT listen to people that tell you you can’t. It all starts with the belief in yourself. Find the people who are doing it and learn from them, study them. We get one life as far as I can tell (maybe more who knows haha) and no one else can live it for you. Do you wanna follow your dreams or always wish you had? Oh and also. Fear is normal and a part of the process. Don’t let it stop you, do it anyway.
Is there anything you would like to tell our readers that you haven’t yet?
Ummmm..check out my new single and music video “21 Ways My Life Is Great”!! We had a ton of fun shooting the video at Ajay (singer of Lit’s) airbnb The Atomic Bungalow in Nashville.
A summer tour is in the works but until those dates are announced, you can catch YOUTHYEAR on a handful of set live performance dates:
5.06 Nashville, TN @ Exit/In
8.23 Northampton, MA - EP Release Show
TBA Nashville, TN - EP Release Show
Photography Credit: Gabbi Rae
YOUTHYEAR has collaborated with alt giants Lit, Dashboard Confessional, Letdown, and Michigander along with Butch Walker, Desmond Child, Colin Brittain, members of No Doubt and more. Eric’s debut single “Basement” was the first step outside of the writer/producer chair and into the artist spotlight. YOUTHYEAR & rock legend Carlo Colasacco (Shinedown, Sueco) co-wrote and co-produced the song which features a music video that tips its hat to Nirvana’s “In Bloom” and Weezer’s “Buddy Holly” videos and their satirical portrayal of the late ‘50s early ‘60s. Sonically the song also draws influence from both bands and the more melodic side of grunge and pop-rock of the ‘90s. Upbeat and all-things-alt-rock, it’s bursting with bright melodies that sit next to melodic powerhouse classics like The All American Rejects and new acts like The Band Camino. Late ‘90s icon Ajay Popoff of the band Lit (My Own Worst Enemy) joined in on group vocals as well as makes a feature in the music video, co-directed by Nick Stafford (The Maine, Charlotte Sands, Boys Like Girls) and YOUTHYEAR who also co-styled the video. Lyrically “21 Ways My Life Is Great” is a “so glad it’s finally over” breakup song that captures the explosive joy of finally being free of a toxic relationship.“Guess my mom was right bout your type” is just one of the playful “Ways” Eric is grateful to be onto better things. Bottom line, there are no regrets in this song.
You can check out the previous review we had done of YOUTHYEAR’s first single Basement here, single below.
