Giovannie Yanez Discusses Roots of Giovannie and the Hired Guns, Shares Hints of New Album — Interview

"It's truly amazing that we're still able to travel and fans still come to our shows."

On Wednesday (Oct. 14), Giovannie Yanez of Giovannie and the Hired Guns joined Loudwire Nights and spent time reflecting on the band's career while also celebrating their latest song, "Cheap Date."

Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

Though Giovannie and the Hired Guns have been active for quite awhile, it wasn't until around 2019 that Yanez really felt like the band was doing something that would allow him to travel, play live shows and make this his job.

"I used to work at a pawn shop, I had all these miscellaneous jobs," Yanez shared with Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong.

"My buddy owned this pawn shop in Stephenville [Texas] and I worked there. People started asking me to come perform at parties or whatever and then that turned into getting booked in venues. And then that turned into getting signed by a booking agency. Now it's just like, crazy, man. 2019 was that moment of like, holy crap dude, I don't have to work anymore?"

For Yanez, though, even as he worked those miscellaneous jobs, he always knew he wanted to be involved in music in some capacity.

"My uncles all did it, they all had Tejano, Norteño bands," he said.

"It was just kind of feeling natural, man, honestly. I probably picked up a guitar around 13 years old, it was my uncle's classical guitar that he had in his closet. I learned on those big old frets, dude."

When his uncle left for college, he gave Yanez a book full of chords and different songs and that's how he learned to play the guitar. And even though he was learning on a classical guitar, he used a pick to strum, just like Willie Nelson.

"From there, I started to yell and that turned into singing," Yanez recalled.

"And then, yeah, here we are."

And where Giovannie and the Hired Guns are at right now is playing live shows across the country while celebrating their latest song, the instantly memorable "Cheap Date." Yanez said they started working on this track after 2025's Quitter.

"After the whole Quitter thing, we came back and I was kind of in my head a lot about it," he expressed.

"I felt like I needed to get in the studio. We went in the studio and we were writing, we're doing this writing sessions and we're recording and out of nowhere this guy's like, 'Hey man, one of your buddies was in here not too long ago and he has a song and he hasn't finished it. He wrote it like two years ago and he hasn't found the right guy to sing on it and he hasn't found the guy to finish the song.'"

When Yanez heard that, he responded quickly, "Load it up. Let me hear it."

As he put it, everything fell into place.

"It was one of those songs," he said.

READ MORE: Myles Kennedy Preps South American, U.S. Tour With Alter Bridge — Interview

"We did our writing session, we were there [all day], and it was like, 'Hey, by the way, we have this song,' and we did it literally in like 15 minutes. Maybe 15 to 30 minutes. It was just like, boom, boom, boom, done."

When they sat down to listen to it, they all knew they nailed it.

"We just kind of all looked at each other like, 'Holy crap.' It was really awesome."

What Else Did Giovannie and the Hired Guns' Giovannie Yanez Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

• His typical writing process:" "It depends on the day or what I'm doing. A melody could literally just hit me out of nowhere, you could start with a melody or I could be thinking of some word or a song title or just anything, man. I could look at a bird and be like, just out of nowhere, getting an idea or something like that. I don't know. The writing process, if I really need to dial in, I will. It's just always about ideas, it's always about storytelling ... If the opportunity or the moment presented itself, I personally think that's just not coincidence, you know? Nothing's a coincidence, man."
• What fans can expect from Giovannie and the Hired Guns' next album: "['Cheap Date'] is a really good taste, man. I think we've matured — or I've definitely matured in my songwriting. It's really great. I feel like I wanted to say so much on the Quitter album that I didn't know how to say. I was going through what I was going through. And now that I got to go into a studio, in a writing room or just by myself with a clear head and a vision that I have, that we all have, it's just a beautiful thing. Everything that I wanted to say, I now said on this album. I'm super, super excited, bro."
• When he hopes to release the new album: "How much time we have left for the rest of the year? October, November, December. Alright, cool. It's going to be before summer of next year."

Listen to the Full Interview in the Podcast Player Below

Giovannie Yanez joined Loudwire Nights on Wednesday, Oct. 14; the show replays online here, and you can tune in live every weeknight at 7PM ET or on the Loudwire app; you can also see if the show is available on your local radio station and listen to interviews on-demand here, as well as on Apple and Spotify.