With his debut record out tomorrow, we chatted to Filmore about ‘State I’m In’ and the journey to his debut record. The interview will be available on the podcast soon.
Hello! How are you doing? It’s a huge week for you with the release of your debut record, how are you feeling about it? It’s a different time to be releasing a debut…
(laughs) I wouldn’t know any different I guess. This whole digital era, I don’t know, I will say that I’m so excited and I’ve been so excited for a while. It’s almost like ‘finally!’ for me, I’m so ready for it to be out and to share my stories and for people to get to know me better.
It’s been so many years in the works I can imagine. Did you write all the songs though before all of this happened? Has songwriting changed in lockdown for you at all?
That’s an awesome question, we recorded the record last October, so almost a year ago. Some songs are obviously already out, like ‘Other Girl’ and ‘London’ that came out ahead of time and they’re all attached to the album but songs that I really wanted to be seen and heard and experienced by people without being bombarded by an 18 song album. There’s a bunch of new ones, which is exciting that they’re all on there.
It’s nice having such a lengthy project. Your music is so nuanced and so many different sides of it, particularly in your songwriting that you probably needed those eighteen songs to introduce you to the world.
I totally agree. I’ve really tried to touch on all those different parts of who I am as an artist and I will say that even the songs that I’ve written in the pandemic and having that time off the road to really focus on my craft, I’m already excited for album two. There’s so much different stuff on there but I’m going to keep evolving as an artist for sure, but it’s crazy. These songs have been waiting to come out.
Your sound is so fresh and unique and there’s so many different sides in there. I know you grew up in Wildwood, Missouri and started singing in choirs, but how much has your sound evolved over the years and how did moving to Nashville affect your sound.
First off I think my sound is going to continue to evolve, it’s hard not to, especially with all the influences around, particularly these days. Obviously everything I do is driven toward the country lyric, but there are so many influences from my parents that I take in and use for this. I think it’s going to continue to evolve though, everything I’ve put out to date is what has inspired me in that moment and putting the pen to paper and building that into the album.
Did you have a concept then for this record of what you wanted to say, or was it a collection of songs that evolved over time?
I think it was just trying to write the best songs I possibly could that really excited me, when I got toward the middle of the album and trying to piece in other styles of songs that really complimented those but that still felt really unique and special to me. I think when you’re building the album, you’re just trying to write the best music you can and then the rest is just trying to showcase different sides of me, so that’s where the fun comes in.
You moved to Nashville in 2011 and you’ve had years of independently releasing music and EPs. What did you learn releasing music as an independent artist – there’s obviously different focusses and things that you have to work on when you’re releasing that way?
I think I wouldn’t trade it for the world, I stayed independent on purpose for a while, just because I had total control of what I wanted to say and who I wanted to be without people trying to tell me what country music is or who I should be. When I eventually signed with a record label, it was with people who I knew were going to support what I had already built on my own and that weren’t going to try and change me. I think too often artists will sign a deal before they’re ready because it’s shiny and new, people will tell them how it’s supposed to be but that’s not really true to who you are as an artist, when you’re not true to who you are as an artist I don’t think people get the best music. Being independent was probably one of the best things to happen to me in my life, I wouldn’t change it.
Talking about the record itself, I feel like we could talk about every track for about half an hour, you wrote all the songs on the record so they must all mean something to you, but one of the ones that must be special is ‘Other Girl,’ co-written with Busbee. How much does that song mean to you personally and as an artist with all the success it has had?
It’s one of those songs that is probably my favourite on the record, not only because it’s the first song that I ever wrote about my fiancee (she was my girlfriend at the time and now we’re getting married and I wish Busbee was around to experience all that). He was such a huge part of my life for such a short period of time and just to see people react to that song has been something special that I want the world to hear. I think about it a lot.
It has been such a success for you that song, do you have that moment when you write a song like that and you know that it’s a hit or does it take a bit longer for you to get there?
Personally, I’m confident as an artist that my opinion might not always be right, but I can usually tell right away that it’s a hit, maybe some people can’t hear right away but it’s more or less you can tell. All my songs are my babies, I love all my songs, I want to say I wrote a hit every day.
You look down the list of people you’ve written with on this record and there’s so many incredibly talented songwriters on there from Josh Kear to Hannah Ellis. Are there any particular people you know to save ideas for – I’m sure you have that list of song titles on your phone – and always know to save certain ones for?
You know I do have the title list and recordings of melodies on my phone as well. Often I look down at it and think why did I ever write that down I must have been drunk… I will say that I don’t think I’ve ever saved them for certain people in the room, I like to think that I feel out the room then I try to pick the best one, but I don’t save them for specific writers. I usually have a good grasp of what I want to say and when I get in the room everyone just supports each other and whatever the vibe is that day that’s the titles I pull out. I think it’s more organic actually and a lot of those writers have become good friends, so it’s exciting. Often we’re chasing something that they haven’t even done before and we try to find something cool and edgy and different that people are really going to love. It’s fun, it’s always a fun experience with those writers.
One of the songs that stuck out for me listening to the record through was ‘Pictures on the Fridge.’ Can you talk a bit about that one in particular?
Yeah, it was more or less going through my titles and we kind of didn’t have the exact title written down that day – that was with Jordan Schmidt and Bob Shapiro. I love writing with those people, on album two I have a few with them two. With that one, it was getting in the room and talking about the shoebox of things I had when I split with my ex and all the stuff that we had had from living together, there was this box of all this crap that was on the fridge. I remember looking at this stuff and that inspired that song, all those images and stuff in that song were real things that were on my fridge. It’s all real things and real stories.
Another one that was so real and detailed was ‘London.’ You managed to film the visualiser over here before all this happened, was that fun to find all these niche places in London.
It was one of the coolest videos I’ve ever done, I actually shot that video in between touring 2019, that was a 48 hour trip we had. I booked the flight over, slept for maybe three hours and then we shot the whole next day. I had to then fly back, so we didn’t sleep for like three and a half days, but it was more or less going through all the places in London that I had seen when I had gone in 2018 – the first time I had left the country in my entire life. I played a headline show in Manchester and I had twelve hours before I came back to the US, we hopped on a flight to London and I had all these things that I’m listing in that song, all these things I was planning on seeing with my girl at the time. When I finally got to see it, it kind of inspired the whole song and the label said they’d fly me to London, then when I was on the way to the arena for C2C but then had to go back to the US, I just thought get me back to London. I really did see London though without somebody.
Are there any songs on the record you’re particularly excited for people to hear on this record?
A good amount of them are already out, but I think ‘Pictures on the Fridge’ is up there for me and the same with ‘Nothing’s Better,’ those ones I’ve been wanting to put out for a really long time. For them to finally be out, I think that people will really love those ones, obviously I hope that everyone loves the entire album.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… everything, my life.
Country music is… my entire life, it means everything to me.
Filmore is… anything but typical.
