Words By Zach Collier
Photos by Dimitri Tzoytzoyrakos @dimitritzoy
In many ways, chasing your dreams is like dancing with a rattlesnake. It’s winding, unpredictable, and dangerous. But for indie duo LaFrantz, that’s what they do: they dance with rattlesnakes and come out okay.
Don’t let the cowboy hats and cowboy boots and lassos and harmonicas and square dancing fool you. LaFrantz is “not a cowboy band.”
Really. They’re not.
LaFrantz is the California-based husband and wife duo Meg and Jack Larsen. And while their debut single “RATTLESNAKE” features traditional Western musical textures, it’s a prime example of Meta-Pop: the kind of post-post-modernist music that not only ignores genre conventions, but ignores time itself. In the internet age, all instruments, genres, and eras are fair game. “RATTLESNAKE” is a prime example of how to take something old and make something infectiously new.
The song’s main refrain is “You don’t wanna dance with a rattlesnake.” It’s both a warning and an invitation, and the way Jack Larsen delivers it, you know he’s danced with a rattlesnake or two and lived to tell the tale.
Though they’re now successful industry songwriters, that wasn’t always the case. Pursuing music as a career was the rattlesnake for Meg and Jack, and they almost didn’t survive the dance.
“We were in a band in Utah for a bit,” Jack tells me. “You know, it kind of got to a point where we either probably needed to tour or move to a big city.”
But that wasn’t in the cards for Westward the Tide. Despite millions of streams, their indie folk band didn’t continue. Their bassist's wife had begun to succeed in the fashion industry, prompting them to relocate to New York. With their bassist's departure, their drummer felt uncertain about his future and ended up joining The National Parks. The group’s other singer wanted to move to Nashville, but Meg and Jack felt a strong pull toward Los Angeles.
“So we all just kind of amicably said, okay, well, it's been a good run and we'll all just go on our own journeys,” Jack remembers. “And then Meg and I just like saved up money and took whatever we had and just manifested finding a spot in LA. We went and stayed in LA for a week, and the very last day we extended our flight one more day and we found our spot. Once we got there, we didn't know anybody, especially in the music scene.”
Fortunately, they quickly met their future manager, Coulter Reynolds, who appreciated their music and became a close friend. “I basically just played video games with him for four years,” laughs Jack. “We didn’t really do much music-related stuff, as funny as it is, until way later.”
In their initial years in LA, Meg and Jack pursued their music while juggling multiple jobs to stay afloat. They experienced the grind of survival, relying on gigs like Uber Eats and electric scooter charging, with Jack working as a graphic designer and Meg taking a job as a coffee shop manager and later as a nanny. Their finances dwindled rapidly, leading to overwhelming stress that stifled their creativity.
“When they say LA is a city that will make you or break you, that is so true,” says Meg.
“I feel like we came out here with stars in our eyes. Like, oh, we have success with our band in Utah and we can just like transfer over to LA and just keep the train rolling. That was not our experience at all.”
But despite the difficulty, they didn’t want to quit. “Meg and I just didn’t want to fully give in. We moved to LA to do music and then we just got full time jobs and then got swallowed up by that,” Jack says candidly.
“You can blink and all of a sudden, the whole moment has passed you by because you got into the grind.”
You see, Jack had realized just how quickly life had passed him by the day it flashed before his eyes. He was hit by a drunk driver on the freeway, and it upended their entire life. The serious car accident left the struggling couple without a vehicle.
During this challenging period, Jack decided to reach out to Coulter to explore songwriting opportunities. “So I hit him up and, you know, he's such a nice dude,” says Jack. “He was like, ‘You know, songwriters don't make any money.’ And I'm like, ‘Well, I'm not making any money anyway.’”
Jack didn’t have much to lose.
“We were riding around on bikes that we bought off Facebook Marketplace,” Jack says somberly. “No money, no car, no nothing. It was around that time I called Coulter.”
“I was like, dude, I don't know what's wrong or what I'm doing with my life, but I know I can write a song.”
Jack asked Coulter to call him if another songwriter dropped out or couldn’t make a session. He was happy to be second string, and swore he’d be there in a heartbeat. One day, opportunity came calling. Coulter called Jack and invited him out to a session. Somehow, wires got crossed and Jack assumed he was going to be producing this artist, when all they were looking for was an engineer to help record vocals.
“I didn't find this out until like a year later,” Jack laughs, still mortified. “I think I'm producing him. Suriel Hess shows up to our place and walks up the stairs and he hears whatever I was working on. And he just didn't ever say anything. He walked in, did the session, made the song. He teased the song online and it kind of went medium viral. Got a couple of million views or something. And then it made him want to put the song out. It was crazy. We still laugh about it.”
That song was “Still Something.” It did well, and started a long working relationship between Jack and Suriel. “He was kind of the first one that put me into songwriting,” says Jack.
Though Jack was making strides in his career, Meg faced her own struggles, feeling isolated from the creative process. The couple’s dynamic became a test of patience and trust, as Jack encouraged Meg to believe in the bigger picture: if one of them could find success, it would ultimately benefit them both. Meanwhile, Meg worked diligently to support them, taking on multiple jobs while Jack navigated his new path in songwriting.
Coulter came calling again one night when Jack was helping Meg nanny. They were far away from home with no money and no car. “And he calls me and says, ‘I know that you don't have money or anything, but we just had a writer drop out of the session in Costa Mesa, which is an hour away from you. I don't know how you’ll get there, but I just thought to call you because of what you said to me. But I think that this artist will be worth your time. I think he’s going to be big one day.’”
Meg immediately said, “I got you. Go max out our credit card, rent a car, trust the universe, and just get out there.”
So he did. Jack drove an hour to the session, and that promising artist ended up being Benson Boone. You may have heard one of the songs they wrote together. It’s a little song called “Beautiful Things.”
“From that point on, that kind of snowballed me into songwriting full time,” says Jack. “So then Meg had to dig down full time to hold down the fort while I'm making zero dollars songwriting, but like kind of buzzing as a songwriter. When you're songwriting at the beginning, you work towards a publishing deal, but you gotta get cuts or whatever. And you're basically doing everything for free on the front end. So Meg had to keep working even harder and more just to keep our bills paid.”
“Obviously, I was so happy that Jack was having success and getting a foot in the door,” Meg says. “The whole plan was if one of us can get our foot in the door, then it can lead back to us doing music together, the two of us. And so Jackson taking that leap and like having that success was so incredible. And at the same time, I was more depressed than I'd ever been because I wasn't doing anything creatively. And from the time I was tiny, music has been it for me. So it was a huge test of patience and trust to be like, okay, I'm not writing. I'm not on stage.
I'm not doing anything creative.”
“But Jack just kept saying trust me, trust me, trust me. So I did. And it didn't come without tears and struggle and so much frustration on my part of feeling like I threw all my dreams away.”
As Jack’s connections deepened, a publisher expressed interest in both him and Meg. This led to opportunities to create music for TV and film and allowed them to return to the studio. Coulter also offered to manage Meg as a songwriter, which was a pivotal moment for both of them. The duo began writing for other artists while working on their own project.
Their foray into sync music sparked new creativity, allowing them to experiment without the pressure of commercial expectations. During this process, they started creating music that resonated more with their true artistic inclinations.
“It was really strange because being songwriters for pop music, there's obviously certain formulas and certain things that you want to implement,” says Meg. “There's a little more structure. And for the sync stuff, Jack and I just didn't care, because it wasn't going to be under our name or anything. We were like: let's just try a bunch of stuff! So we found new sounds, new ways to use our voices. And it was really strange and fun. And on the back end of that, we were sitting with the producer and we were kind of like, do we make a song for our project? And he was like, yeah, I would love to.”
This culminated in the writing of "RATTLESNAKE," a song that felt authentic and powerful, reflecting their musical roots and aspirations.
The writing session was filled with spontaneity. Jack, in a moment of inspiration, began tapping on his jeans, which initiated the groove that would form the backbone of the song. Producer Greg Hansen built on this energy, sharing a catchy guitar riff that had been a long-time warm-up exercise for him. Meg’s lyrics flowed like lightning, capturing the essence of the song in just a few takes.
The writing process felt effortless and invigorating, marking a turning point for their project. "RATTLESNAKE" became a defining, full-circle moment in their journey back into doing music as a couple. Now, with this new sound established, they’re continuing to explore and expand their musical horizons, grounded in what they love rather than what is commercially expected.
Being a musician is a thankless job full of constant rejection. Everybody always tells you you're never going to make it, likely because they’ve seen so many friends and friends of friends try, fail, and burn out. But Jack and Meg never quit. Even when things were dire, they never gave up on their dreams. And they never gave up on each other.
“Don’t stress,” Jack says, reflecting on lessons learned.
“Period. End of story. If you’re working hard, if you’re making good art, if you keep your head down and you keep doing that, people will find you and people will come.”
“You cannot give up, especially in those times where you feel like nothing is working,” says Meg. “I know it sounds so cliche. But the only reason why people don’t make it is because they quit. So even in those dark, dark times when Jack and I were struggling and had no money and no car, walking to the grocery store and bringing home armloads of groceries on foot, those were the times we knew we couldn’t quit. You have to have unwavering confidence and positivity. Believe in the outcome even if you can’t see how you’re going to get there.”
Most people shouldn’t dance with rattlesnakes, but some people have dreams too big to ignore. If you find yourself staring down a dangerous dream, make sure to tackle it like LaFrantz. Don’t give up, trust yourself and the ones closest to you, and work hard.
“You have to have a little bit of delusion,” says Meg. “But with unwavering positivity and hard work, you can’t fail.”
Make sure to follow LaFrantz on Instagram. You can watch the official music video for their debut single, “RATTLESNAKE,” below!