THE REKLAWS Q&A

With the recent release of their most vulnerable EP to date, Outliving (For Mom), The Reklaws love note to their mom in the aftermath of losing her to mental health elevated heartfelt transparency in its prayer like songs while heightening awareness for mental health. Through their Flo Walker Stardust Fund and its partnership with Kids Help Phone, they’ve become difference making advocates and a strong voice for the often voiceless. We had the chance to check in with The Reklaws and talk with them about the new EP, the importance of each song, dealing with the loss of their mom, the foundation and its recent fundraising event, and more!

1) You’ve recently released what is your most vulnerable EP, Outliving (For Mom), on what would have been your mom’s 60^th birthday.  Tell us about the importance of this release for you personally?

Jenna – It was a lot for us. We lost our mom 2 ½ years ago to mental health and it was terrifying for our family. We didn’t know where to turn or what to do. Stu and I didn’t even really talk about writing about it, but it just sort of happened. He would write some and I write some; We didn’t even know each other was doing it. We came together one day and showed each other these really vulnerable songs we had written about our mom.

It’s so crazy how it all kind of lined up that when we had finished recording them, it was going to be her 60^th birthday. It just made sense. The timing seemed perfect.

These songs are really special to us. They’re different for us. Usually, we’re singing about drinking and partying and not so sentimental, but this is part of our life story, and it felt important to talk about it.

2) Focusing on the tracks. “Outliving” plays like an open letter from you to your mom, almost like a prayer conversation to keep her up to speed on your lives. Was that how this initially started before turning into a song or did you enter a writing session with the idea and go from there?

Jenna – I wrote that in LA with my good friend Emily Reid. I had this idea in my head of outliving; like outliving somebody felt so weird and gross. I didn’t like that idea, but everything was happening. I was getting married, we were having the biggest summer ever, and it was just like what is happening.  She wasn’t there for any of it, and I couldn’t believe it. I came into it from more of a negative. I was mad that I was outliving.

My friend Emily was like, “let’s sleep on this title.” She woke up the next morning and was like, “I got it. It needs to be good. Like you’re out living your life and that’s exactly what that person would want for you.”

So, we wrote it more from that perspective, updating the person that has passed of what’s been happening. It was so healing to be able to have it be a hopeful song and not a sad song.

3) Likewise, “Don’t Quit Your Daydream” carries a similar feel, but shifts focus to the solid advice your mom instilled in you. I smiled thinking about how much advice my own mom had given to me that I kind of brushed off only to realize later in life how right she was. Was that a similar feel for y’all here?

Stuart – Absolutely! I wrote that one. Like Jenna said at the beginning of this, we wrote the songs separately, but we actually wrote “Outliving” and “Don’t Quit Your Daydream” with the same people and the same guy who played piano on all those songs.

I came in with that title. My mom had always loved the song “My Wish” by Rascal Flatts and I wanted to write a version of that. All she ever wanted us to do was to not work in an office. She wanted us to be interesting, different people who had cool jobs that she could brag to her friends about because she never had that opportunity. She wanted to be an actress and move to LA, and her parents were like “Come on. Get a grip. You’re not gonna actually do that. No one does that.”

Her whole life she was told that she couldn’t do things, and so she told us growing up that we could do anything. I definitely resonated with that when I wrote that song.

The funny thing about the vocals on both those songs; funny that you brought up those two in a row. “Outliving” on Jenna’s side of it, was all sung on the day she wrote it because we couldn’t capture the emotion again. There was no way to replicate what she sang, and then the same thing happened with my vocal on “Don’t Quit Your Daydream.”

It was recorded with the same guy at the same place. We just couldn’t replicate it, and it was the first time in a long time that we had done that. Most time we spend weeks and months redoing vocals.

Jenna – And singing those live on stage was like, “Whoa…how do I do this?” We had only sung it that one time, so it was kind of wild.

4) “Stardust” takes an often-written idea of visiting heaven, but intriguingly flips it into the understanding that while you can’t your heart connection can, and does, continue to grow through the separation and distance. How much healing did this song provide with its faith led hopefulness of someday seeing her again?

Stuart – It’s kind of funny because we wrote that song with our good friend Emily Reid and her husband, who produces like Carly Rae Jepsen. He’s very much a pop producer from LA and it was the first time he had agreed to write with us. The track sounded like “Hold On, We’re Going Home” by Drake.

Jenna – It was like a party mix.

Stuart – When we played it back the day we wrote it, I was sitting on the couch listening to this Drake beat and I was crying. I knew that there was still something to this song.

Jenna – And so, you played it on piano.

Stuart – Yeah, I spent a few days on it. What you hear on the record, almost everything except for the pedal steel, I had played myself.

Jenna – Stuart was alone and sent us a voice memo of him just playing the piano and singing it slow, and we were all speechless. We were like, “Oh! This is what this song is.”

Stuart – When we were trying to decide the name for the charity and everything, we were gonna call it “Outliving,” “Don’t Quit Your Daydream,” “Yee-Haw”… My dad was the one who said, “Stardust resonated with me so hard. All I ever hope for your mom is that she’s up there enjoying herself again.”

She had such a tough end to her life and so he chose the name of the charity through that song.

5) You also included a live version of “People Don't Talk About.”  This song reached so many people upon its initial release and led to them sharing their stories with you. Were you expecting that kind of impact from the song, and in what ways is this live version even more emotional than the studio recording?

Jenna – That song has such a journey. We wrote it while our mom was sick but still alive. We never showed her it because we didn’t want her to get, I don’t know, too sad that she was hurting our feelings or something. It was kind of complicated.

We put it out after she had passed but it felt too soon for us to have that song out. Just on a grief level, the conversation that came along with that was too heavy for us at the time. Our team was kind of like, “Well okay, what are we gonna do?” Then it felt kind of sad, like that song was never going to have the life that it deserved because we weren’t ready to talk about it.

We did America’s Got Talent. We were asked to come and audition and almost said no, but then were like, “Let’s just do it. Who knows what could happen and what could come of it.”

We decided to play “People Don’t Talk About” because we didn’t know if we’d make the next round, so if we had only one opportunity to sing a song  that might hit somebody at home who could be going through the same thing, it was important for us to do that.

And then all of a sudden, it was like, “Oh! This is where this one is supposed to live. This is where it’s supposed to connect.” We didn’t know it was going to be through that show, but then millions of people were hit by it and started reaching out to us to tell us their story. It was mind blowing.

So, it just made sense to put out the AGT live version. We had the original version up after, but people were asking for the America’s Got Talent one. They wanted to connect to it the way they did when they first saw it live. We felt it was important for it to come out again now that we feel more comfortable talking about it.

6) You lost your mom to a mental health battle in 2022. Can you tell us about navigating your loss and the up and down affects that you’ve faced, and are facing still, as individuals?

Stuart – Definitely! Jenna said, and I agreed with her, that all we wanted when we lost her was to meet somebody who had gone through a similar situation with a parent or a loved one. I think that these songs really have helped us have an outlet and a way of explaining it. I definitely express my emotions more through song.

Just the amount of people that have reached out, especially with the America’s Got Talent thing, telling their stories and explaining their own battle or parents battle, sister’s, brother, whoever it was…it was just so so enlightening. It was so amazing to see the people who because we told our story, and weren’t afraid to tell it, that they now had the ability and the freedom to. It immediately connected it us with so many people. It was incredible to see.

7) You’ve courageously been strong advocates for mental health care ever since. Though conversations on these struggles can often be awkward, what have you found to be the most effective way to encourage people to open up about their struggles?

Jenna – I think the most important thing is to just literally say it out loud. Whatever it is, whatever that monster is that’s in your head telling you you’re weird or something’s not right, as soon as you say it out loud it become less big. It’s not as big of a monster and you’re able to see it for what it is, and you’re allowing someone else to hold it for you to. That for sure is the first step.

We’ve seen it. We’ve seen that all go down, so it’s such a huge honor to say that we’re mental health advocates. You know, we’re still learning to. This is part of our story, and I think we’ll always advocate for mental health. We’ve seen it all go down, have seen the amount of people reaching out, and how this world is affected by it so if we can stand up and help people then that’s what we’ll do.

8) You not only put out the EP, but you and your family also launched the 'Flo Walker Stardust Fund' in partnership with Kids Help Phone. Tell us a little bit about the fund and how people can get involved?

Stuart – We launched the fund on what would have been our mom’s 60^th birthday. When she passed away, we started a GoFund Me because we knew we wanted to do something mental health related. We had no idea what to do, so the money sat there for two years. We started getting, not pressure, but people being like, “I gave five grand…where’s the cash? What are you guys doing with that?”

Then a guy named Craig Senyk called us the day before the charity and was like, “If you guys raise up to $150,000, I’ll match it.” We were like, “that’s insane!” But we ended up being able to give $350,000 to Kids Help Phone for their peer-to-peer community.

The point for the partnership with Kids Help Phone was to emphasize how kids need help. Our mom definitely went through a traumatic event. We knew this once she was gone, but in her childhood, things like Kids Help Phone were not available. We wanted to encourage kids to call in. She battled mental health her whole life; we saw it when we were teenagers. I had Kids Help Phone as option to call and I never did because I just thought I was too cool for it and I didn’t have a problem, she had a problem so why would I call. But as time has gone on, I wish I did call. So that’s why we chose that initiative and partnered with them. It’s so important and kids are so vulnerable these days to so many awful things and we’re trying to help them avoid that.

9) You touched on last week, raising $350,000 for Kids Help Phone at your event in Toronto, the YEE HAW Fun-Raiser. What’s next for being able to help them through your music and events like that in the future?

Jenna – That was the number one question we got that night after the event. We were like, “Oh! Give us a second cause this was a big night for us.”

Stuart – We still haven’t recovered.

Jenna – I can’t even open my eyes. But no, it’s something we’re gonna advocate for. Kids Help Phone has been amazing, and as we start to learn more about mental health, I hope we can expand and learn more about how we can help people. We’ve seen people not get help and I think it’s important to really dig in and ask the right questions.

Stuart – It’s such an unexplored area still. There’s so much research and investment, physical compared to mental. There’s no pinpointing it, so every way we can, we’re just trying to be involved. Like Jenna had said, talking about it is the first step to healing. 

10) We have so many aspiring songwriters and artists that read our website, so we always like to end by asking this…what is the best piece of advice you can offer?

Stuart – Number one…don’t sign any stupid deals and get a great lawyer. Be best friends with your lawyer and really iron out the deals. Don’t just sign them because you’re excited.

Jenna – About opportunities and stages; say yes to everything! Even if it’s like, “That was a lame show” or “I wish we didn’t do that,” you don’t know what can come from these things. You don’t know who’s sitting in the crowd. It’s just connections, and the more you can do it, then the more those doors open. So, keep saying yes and showing up.

Stuart – Everyone starting out, you’re not going to start out playing for 10,000 people right away. You’re going to play in bars with 5 people watching you. But when you’re up there, pretend there’s 10,000 people and keep on going until that’s the situation you are in.

(Interview by: Jeffrey Kurtis)