Delving Into The Demolition With Singer-Songwriter AJ Deiboldt: THE FULL INTERVIEW CUT

We last visited the world of AJ Deiboldt’s EP Demolition just over a month ago, when I released Part 2 of a roughly 72-minute conversation the artist and I had following the EP’s June 24th release. After briefly discussing putting out a Part 3, AJ and I ultimately agreed it was finally time for our entire interview to see the light of day. I’ve been very excited to get to this point, as I feel like what you’ll watch above is one of the best conversations I’ve had with an artist here on the Substack platform.

There’s discussion around the making of Demolition, power in creating for yourself, the art of playing resonator guitars, what’s next for AJ musically, and a bit about the state of music itself (along with so much more). But I think my favorite part throughout is how naturally our interview flows. There’s humor and a great back-and-forth exchange of dialogue that gets behind the music as well as the musician. I’m not looking for any conversation to be perfect, just real, like you could sit down and join us even from behind your screen.

This moment kinda encompasses part of a full-circle moment for the Demolition release cycle, which is a set of strongly written songs stripped down to the very bones of their humanity. Featuring nothing more than AJ on resonator guitar and vocals surrounded by a handful of microphones, Demolition is the musician working his skills as a performer at the highest level. You feel like he’s right in the room with you playing a show. Intimately human, with no trace of robotics to be found.

And while I can’t promise quite the same level of deep personalization, consider this the… Demolition pre-show. Learn more about the EP, AJ himself, explore conversations of artistry, then go put on Demolition. It remains one of my favorite releases of 2026, and I can’t wait to see what AJ Deiboldt’s gonna do next.

Listen to Demolition below, though you can also find it in quite a few other places including streaming websites. You can also catch up with AJ most prominently here on Substack, where he regularly performs his Wednesday Night Lives. Be sure not to miss them!