Ernest is a songwriter with an almost unfathomable amount of credits to his name. Part of the vanguard of artists, who are changing the way that people think about Nashville, his musical palate is as diverse as his story – he was adopted at three weeks old and the victim of a freak heart attack in his senior year of high school. Rising against the odds, Ernest learned banjo and guitar, taking in the breadth of musical culture – from John Mayer to RnB, hip hop and country. Here, we interview Ernest about his rise and how he is helping shape the new face of Nashville.Â
Ernest is one of those artists who is breathing new life into Nashville, a trendsetter who manages to imbibe the musical spectrum in his music, while remaining squarely in the country bracket and appealing to the fanbase. Though Ernest uses some of the usual country tropes in his songwriting, it is cleverer and more interesting than that. Since beginning his songwriting career, Ernest has had a huge amount of success. He talks about the first truly special cut that he remembers – ‘Blessings’ by Florida Georgia Line, ‘that was a little guitar part I’d had since high school, so it was a good full circle moment when that song came along and I got to finish it with them. That was probably the first special one.’Â It seems that music was always in his destiny, even after his difficult odds that he underwent as a child. ‘Music was always something I sought out on my own everywhere I could. Everywhere there was an instrument. I would gravitate towards it for as long as I can remember…I guess you could say I was destined for it. I definitely was kind of on a one way path towards either doing this or I have no idea, or burning out. My mom was telling me that the other day, she always knew that I definitely didn’t have a plan B.’
Hooking up with the team at Big Loud and Joey Moi has been a match made in heaven, if Ernest’s flying career is anything to go by. Speaking of his creative relationship of Joey, Ernest divulges, ‘He’s taken me under his wing from day one, when I was rapping and didn’t really have an idea what my identity was, but I guess he saw through all that, and he’s helped polish me. He makes me think about songwriting, like symmetry, you know, things I didn’t think about when I thought I was writing great songs and now I go back and listen, it’s like, dang, he’s taught me to think about symmetry when I’m in the writing room. I’m five steps down the road, because I can hear what he’s gonna say when the song gets there. He’s just always been on my team and in my corner, I got nothing but love for Joey.’Â As a songwriter, it’s a strange trade-off to write the song and then to hear the finished result, but Joey has infused many of the tracks with his signature style. We spoke to Ernest about any tracks that have taken him by surprise in production. ‘A lot of my cuts have happened in house here at Big Loud and Joey Moi does a fantastic job getting the best out of whatever record that he’s got. So, if anything, it’s just been upgraded versions of the demo, but I don’t think I’ve ever been disappointed with production going from from demo. He upgrades everything. I guess my favourite example would be ‘Drink All Day’ for Jake Owen – the demo to that was super sketchy. You know, fake reggae drums and an acoustic guitar and then he brought it all the way to live with real instruments – it’s badass.’Â
The result has indeed been something phenomenal and Ernest is quickly ratcheting up a score of number ones, one of which is Chris Lane’s mammoth hit ‘Big, Big Plans.’ Ernest describes the origin of that particular track –Â ‘I showed [the idea] to Seth and he was like, ‘Hey, I think Chris is looking for something just like this. He wants to propose and this could be it.’ So, we called Chris to say ‘yo, come finish the song’ and we customised the second verse and bridge and we changed a couple things in the chorus to make it fit him perfect. That’s one of those special ones where farm to table didn’t take long, because he had to propose in three weeks, and then it was off to the races.’Â
Despite the immensity of his success, he’s one of those rare artists who is as humble and authentic as they come. Talking about the immensity of his success, he acknowledges that it’s a ‘dream come true for sure. because growing up in Nashville, even having a cut was a dream. My first cut was a dream come true, so to have a number one and then have three and then they all be on the back half of the craziest year of my life and a lot of people’s life… Yeah, God is good. I can’t explain it, but it was fun being able to call my mom and tell her I got it, that’s for sure.’
His new single ‘Cheers‘ is out everywhere now and racking up streams, and when asked about future projects, Ernest teases, ‘I think there’s a project down the line. Right now, we’re just going to be dropping singles every few weeks. With music videos, I have maybe four or five…Â We’re just gonna keep releasing singles and if something takes off, then we’ll pivot and go follow that lead.
