Humans are fundamentally instinctual creatures. Often we will follow our gut and listen to our hearts. This innate decision-making is what lands us a job promotion or solidifies a relationship. For Jeremy Shada, the midwestern-born polymath, it isn’t difficult to trust his intuition. As a result, Shada has found success through his roles as Reggie Peters in Netflix’s Julie and the Phantoms and Cartoon Network’s Adventure Time as the voice of Finn. Recently, decorated with several acting awards, Shada stepped into his musical aspirations and it just feels right.
Videos by American Songwriter
Shada released his latest single “This Feels Right” on August 24, and the track’s DIY music video debuts today (August 27). The popstar also announced that the single is the third track off of a forthcoming album titled Vintage. Amid dropping these musical bombs on the music industry, Shada sat down to explain his creative process for American Songwriter.
“‘This Feels Right’ is all about that feeling of knowing you’ve found the right person and you can’t describe how you know they’re the right one or even put into words why you love them, you just know that it feels right,” Shada says. “It’s the feeling I have with my wife and I wanted to write the song in a way that describes so many people’s relationships and hopefully gives someone the words to use when they can’t fully express their feelings for someone.”
The popstar’s words bubble up among effervescent melodies and upbeat instrumentals. Shada drew specific inspiration from ’70s pop songs for “This Feels Right.”
“Whenever I want to put a smile on my face or just put on something that makes me want to carelessly dance in the living room I’ll play songs like ‘I Want You Back’ or ‘ABC’ by the Jackson 5. There’s just a fun wholesome vibe to those ’70s pop songs and you can’t help but get swept up in wanting to dance,” Shada explains. “I’d been wanting to make a song that paid homage to those for a while. So naturally when I started writing ‘This Feels Right’ it just made sense to combine that with the ’70s vibe. I just wanted to make a song that would make people smile, dance, and think of their special someone!”
Shada kept this sunny energy when deciding the direction of the “This Feels Right” music video. Instead of sketching out a formulated scene-by-scene visual experience, Shada opted for a more organic approach. While on a trip to Disney World with his wife, Carolynn Rowland, Shada sang a capella for a vlog camera while dancing around the park. “I was so nervous that we were gonna get kicked out of the parks or something at first haha. But once we got there we realized everyone has a vlog camera out so no one really cares. It was honestly just so much fun. We just filmed our getaway weekend and that’s what’s in the music video,” Shada states.
Outside of her obvious appearance in the music video, Rowland’s influence is tucked into every corner of “This Feels Right.” Shada explains a few of these Easter eggs by pointing out his favorite verse from the track.
“I think the second verse/second pre-chorus has my favorite lyrics in the song. Specifically, the lines; Your lips are wine, Vintage 1997, Straight from the vine, Handpicked for me, fermented in heaven, My wife Carolynn was born in 1997 so it’s always fun to have references like that and it hits home the idea of being meant for each other long before you even knew each other,” Shada shares. “Additionally, my entire upcoming album is called ‘Vintage’ and I reference the concept of being vintage in a variety of different ways but it’s the only time I use it in the context of a wine vintage so I’m glad I was able to sneak that in there.”
“This Feels Right” is just one part of Shada’s long love story. Vintage sonically narrates Shada’s journey of finding love. “If you listen through the album tracks chronologically you’ll hear that story play out. The first half of the album has all of the romances that didn’t work and all the ups and downs of hitting emotional rock bottom and realizing you need to make a change (which is the main point of my previous single ‘Dancing With Strangers’). So the second half of the album (where ‘This Feels Right’ is located) is all about finally finding the right person and what life looks like once you’ve found that person. All of the songs still have to work by themselves but it added so many layers once I looked at the album as one long story and in a sense one VERY long song,” Shada says.
Vintage drops on October 1st, and we can’t wait for this love story to be complete.
