Last year, Drew Green released Volume II of his Dirt Boy project. Here, we interview Drew Green about the project, his single ‘She Got That,’ getting back on the road and what is up next.
Hi Drew, how’re you doing?
Not too bad thanks!
You’ve had the craziest few years, when everyone else just sat at home, you were so productive. How has the experience of the past few years been for you?
It’s been pretty chaotic, it’s been pretty crazy. At the same time, it feels like everybody else because I still had the same quarantine situation. Luckily for me, I have a job where I could just sit down and write a song, it’s more of a creative thing, so I’ve been I’ve been working really hard.
It’s been nearly three months now since Dirt Boy: Volume II came out. How’s the response been, having that project out in the wild? It feels so authentic.
We just let it be organic right now. We didn’t push it toward or anything. We just like seeing how the world took it and it’s been really great, with ‘Dirt Boy’ I thought nobody would want to listen to it because it’s just about me, but it’s so relatable to so many people. I’m excited to have that song out there in the world.
Can you talk a bit about the creative process behind it, which songs you wrote during the pandemic and are there any you’ve been waiting for the right time to release?
Every day is a little different. I mean, I’ve got some songs or ideas that I’ve had in my phone for a long time that I’ve tried to work on, I just can’t figure out what one little puzzle piece is missing in my head. ‘Dirt Boy’ was one of those songs, one of the first ideas as a songwriter I ever had. It was one of those things where you write something down one day, you come in and somebody else has an idea and then you split your feed off that. Every day is different. Every song is different.
Obviously one of the only songs on that project that was an external cut was John Deere Blue, can you talk a bit about hearing that song for the first time? I can imagine as a songwriter yourself, you have to be very specific with which ones you take externally.
It’s a big thing in Nashville as a community and as artists to cut other people’s songs, that’s how people have jobs as songwriters and make a living. I’ve always wanted to say that no matter if I write 200 songs a year, I want to cut someone else’s song if I like it enough. I was in a write with a girl that I didn’t know and she had some songs from a producer that I’ve worked with once before and I thought was good. She showed me the song and turns out one of my best friends was a writer on it – Smith Ahnquist and as soon as I heard the title ‘John Deere Blue’ I said ‘What can this be about?’ John Deere Green is a big classic country song and the colour of the tractor, I thought it’s got to be some sad tractor or something, but as soon as I heard it – I grew up on a farm and tractor – it really hit home to me, remember being sixteen and driving a tractor and getting over a girl, so it home to me.
My son is four now, he was about two and he loved singing it, so that pushed me to cut it.
I feel like children are usually the biggest critics. Obviously, you’ve had a huge amount of streams on ‘She Got Thtat’, did you think that that song would have the reaction that it did?
Absolutely not, it blew my mind. That was the first song that we showed Sony to get the record deal, it was the first song and it’s always been the first song that we show people, we weren’t necessarily saying it was our best song. It’s just it’s been like The Little Engine That Could for me, it’s come with me a long ways – it’s very surreal though. I grew up singing honky tonks, so I was singing everybody else’s songs for four years. It’s really cool to be out on the road and having someone sing my songs and watch someone sing my songs is the best feeling in the world.
The other massive milestone you had last year was your Ryman debut. Can you talk a bit about what that meant to you?
I grew up in a town in Tennessee. I would walk literally past the Ryman and rub my hand on the brick everyday. It took four and a half to five years to take the next five steps and go into the building. It was a big moment for me, for sure. It has the best sound in the world, I was really nervous and the show went great.
This year, starting off 2022, I know you’ve got music in the pipeline but what is that going to look like? Can you tease new music and what it will look like?
I teased one last night, I’m literally up to a million views on TikTok this morning. We’ve recorded some songs and we’re still recording a lot of songs. I just want to record as many as I can and put them out. I want to put out as many as I can. If I had it my way, I know it makes no sense, I would put a song every week.
I mean, it’s a business. It takes time to get to all the people out there. It takes a bit of research, it’s cool.
Being able to have that instant communication with your fans on TikTok, it must be a very comforting thing going into new releases, people are already relating to the song and they’re loving and engaging with it.
When you’re an artist and you want to have a record deal, I want to be on the road, I wouldn’t be able to do this forever. When you have that dream, you think about it all the time and you’re obsessed with it, you create like this character. At the end of the day, when it all happens, you’re just the same person. I still get to be me, which is awesome. I’m in touch with me, so it’s a little bit different. I really get to be me. I’m a video gamer. I’m a musician. I’m a singer, and I’m a dad. I get to do all those things but I also get to play amazing stages like the Ryman and do all the super cool things.
You’ve got new music coming out, but are there any more bucket list items coming up this year?
This year, I’m not sure about. We’ll see what 2022 entails, I’m just riding the wave with everything. We just got off the tour with Mitchell Tenpenny and literally every city that we went to, except like Atlanta, I’d never been to those cities. I saw 15 new states and 15 new cities. It’s been awesome. It’s really good to see everything. Everything for me right now, it’s brand new.
Well we’re super excited to hear the new music when it comes out. Have a wonderful rest of your day.
Thank you so much.
