Virginia to Vegas is Derik Baker, and Derik Baker is thinking about the passage of time and living in the present on his newest single, aptly named “TIME!” Baker sat down with American Songwriter recently to discuss his newly dropped album, the greatest hits, celebrating a decade making music. He also talked about the inevitable finitude of existence, how he’s changed in the last 10 years as Virginia to Vegas, the romantic lens through which he sees the world, and why it’s so important to live in the present.
American Songwriter: First of all, congratulations on ten years in the business.
Derik Baker [Virginia to Vegas]: That is wild when I look back, it’s pretty weird to think of a pocket of 10 years of your life doing one thing.
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AS: How have you or your art changed in the last 10 years? Or how have time and experience altered your work [in those years]?
DB: Well, I guess that’s kind of like two things because if you think about the way that music was distributed when I started, CDs were still really prevalent, iTunes was like the number one way people downloaded music, and streaming had maybe just started, like there was some platforms. And now it’s like, social media drives streaming. So I think that the way music makes its way to fans or listeners has completely shifted maybe three or four times during that process. So I feel like just in that sense, the way that you think about promoting your songs or your album or whatever, that completely shifts. But I think in general the overall concept of Virginia to Vegas, or the way that I like to approach songs has kind of remained the same. I mean, “we are stars” to “TIME!” are kind of talking about the same things. I mean, “we are stars” is very hopeful and very much from a young, 20-something’s perspective about, you know, the world is pretty big. And 34-year-old Derik, in “TIME!,” says, the world is pretty big but it’s moving fast, so enjoy it.
And there’s love songs sprinkled in there, but I think, overall, the concepts are kind of the same. I like to look at life and the world through the romantic lens that I have, you know, life is a gift, it’s beautiful. It’s wonderful to think of the opportunities that can come if you open yourself to the universe, like, if you let good things in, good things come. And so I think it’s kind of remained the same, just as you get older you get a little more insight. And you realize, the more you think you thought you knew, the less you did, and there’s some comfort in that as you get older and a little bit more mature.
AS: So this is a bit existential, [but] how does the passage of time affect you, and how do you deal with the inevitable finitude of existence?
DB: Time is such a funny thing, because I feel like you don’t realize how quickly it moves when you’re in it. And especially doing what I do, I kind of live six months in the future always. Because I’m like working on a project that’s going to make its way to people six months from the time that I’m working on it, and I’m always looking forward to the next thing. So I feel like over the last decade it’s been really important for me to find comfort in the here and now and being present. But yeah, I think if you really start to think about time, it can be a little bit consuming. And, you know, it can put you down a rabbit hole. I heard a quote a couple of days ago that basically just talked about, like, time happens through you. And if you’re always focused on the future, you’re never going to be in the actual moment, or if you’re always focused on the past, you’re never there.
And it’s just kind of really important to try and really be present with what you’re doing. It’s just like, it’s here. It’s the experiencing of the moment. Not the reminisce and not the looking forward, it’s the enjoyment of what you have here. And now, I think back to the existential, the last movie I saw with my dad was Interstellar. That movie really deals with the theory of relativity and time and it goes into some pretty extreme concepts. And when my dad was passing away, we went to go see that, and we didn’t realize that that’s what it was about. We just thought it was a sci-fi movie. And I just remember, my brother and my dad and I, all walking out of that theater being like, whoa what was that? And that kind of gave us some beautiful things to talk about.
AS: What have you learned about yourself in relation to your craft in these past 10 years [as Virginia to Vegas]?
DB: I think the world of the music industry appears to be really frightening and difficult. And it can create a lot of anxiety for a new artist. Because that question of like, the chicken and the egg, is so prevalent, it’s like, well I need this first in order to do this, and I need this thing to be rolling, you know, I need a hit song in order to get on tour, and I need a tour in order to get a hit song and I need this song to do this thing at this moment in order to get this agent to move this thing along. And if you think of the industry like that, it’s very stressful.
But something that’s kind of given me a little bit of relief—maybe like 2019, I kind of just realized, [I] just kind of put my head down and focused on my craft, just work on music production, songwriting, just be a better guitar player, work on singing, practice the show, organize the lighting. And when you focus on the small details of the task the bigger stuff comes together. And if you set manageable goals, like, I’m going to work on the mix of this song until it sounds perfect, well, maybe that song will be more listened to because you poured more energy into it. I think, for me, it’s just been about setting manageable goals and really working on the actual craft of artistry, like, creating a show.
AS: What would you say you’ve learned about yourself in that time, not about the craft but about you?
DB: I think I’m proud of my ability to focus, I’m proud of my ability to believe in a dream. And, you know, all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was, like, six years old, was be a guy who played guitar and people enjoyed his music. And so, for me, it’s the ability to do that is so gratifying, and it brings so much purpose to my life.
I was watching this video before we jumped on here, we’re going to China, and these YouTubers have this video called “Yes Theory” and one of the challenges was they were going to China and they were breaking the stigmas of, you know, political information. And one of the goals was to find a place to stay with zero dollars, get a meal with zero dollars, you know, join a dance party, silly stuff, but stuff that really feeds the soul. And I just feel like my experiences in music have really fed my soul. Like meeting fans and speaking to people after shows and writing a song that is so near and dear to my heart and it touches someone else’s. So just the fact that … I’ve been fortunate enough that that has been my work, it makes me grateful.
AS: Speaking about the single “TIME!” [there are] a lot of sentiments about aging and a certain nostalgia for childhood and moving on but also being present. What was the process of composing this and your mindset during the song?
DB: I wrote [this song] with two of my good friends, DCF and Geoff Warburton, and we wrote in a cottage up north during year one of the pandemic. At that time I had a stomach issue that I was concerned was going to be something more serious. So I was going through doctor’s tests and stuff like that, and I was really thinking about life in the world. And my mindset at the time was, wow, imaging if you were dealt with a set of cards that weren’t good, that your time was actually running out? How do you look at the world? What would you want your opinion to be? And I just think, sometimes you see people deal with hard situations with such grace, and I think if I were ever in that situation I would just want to deal with a hard situation with a sense of grace and the opportunity to inspire people to make the most of their other moments and to cherish the people they have in their life.
AS: I was listening through your recent [album], the Virginia to Vegas greatest hits, and you mentioned the romantic lens that you see things through … I noticed [the songs] “what are we” and “better with you” are just so romantic, softly romantic, but there’s a hidden edge to them. Where do you feel that stems from, that softness but also the edge that is hidden underneath?
DB: I feel like most of these songs [are] stemming from real life. You know, I lived in a big city, I lived in Toronto for most of my 20s and the dating world in Toronto is a very weird place, as I’m sure it is in a lot of big cities. And “what are we,” it was a pretty real story about trying to figure out where you are and the scope of a situationship without trying to scare someone off but also really starting to catch feelings for someone. And I heard someone explain songwriting that when you zoom in as detailed as you can in your own life to specific situations it somehow makes the listening experience broader. So I feel like, in those songs, there’s specific lyrics that [are like] what was going on?
AS: You feel like those [lyrics] are so specific to you, but then once you release that into the world it’s like, oh, a lot of people resonate with that.
DB: Yeah, because, ultimately we’re all going through the same stuff, you know, we’re not special [Laughs]. Pretty much everyone. Everybody’s trying to figure out where they sit in [a] relationship to someone else until they find someone else. There’s someone until there’s not. And then that starts again.
AS: That narrowing down of your life experiences … it’s so important [to art] to just funnel everything down as specific as you can get because then more people are going to relate to it. It’s a strange phenomenon but it’s very real.
DB: My friends in Nashville have a really specific term for it, they call it “furniture in the room.” It’s like, can you see the furniture in the room? Is there enough? First of all, is your setting vibrant and real enough to be in it? And I feel like if you describe a feeling that doesn’t put you somewhere but if you describe the exact situation, it can put you somewhere and give you the feeling. So I feel like that’s always been a goal.
There’s a new song on the next EP that we’re working on right now, that I think would be the next edition to those songs [“what are we” and “better with you”]. [It has] a really good title that I had sat in my phone notes for like two years. And I finally just wrote it and I’m so pumped on it because I feel like there’s Virginia to Vegas songs in my mind that are songs that are singles. And there’s another category … for me in my head that are, like, those are my songs that are really telling stories.
Featured Image courtesy of Alley Cat PR