We interview Granger Smith ahead of his performance as part of this year’s digital Country Music Week about his new record ‘Country Things: Volume 1.’ The interview will also be available on the podcast in the coming weeks.
Hi Granger, how are you getting on? How’s the last few months been for you?
Good! Oh gosh, probably similar to how it’s going for you, we’re just hanging in there…
Sounds familiar. Congratulations though on the new record! You’ve put out nine albums before 2020, so I guess this one must have felt more than a little different, a huge milestone for your 10th album but in very different circumstances than you would have imagined…
Oh for sure, I’ll look back several years from now and I’ll always remember the 2020 year and the 2020 album and the stories that we had. I just hope that I can look back on all of this and realise that nothing should be taken for granted anymore.
If nothing else, I hope that’s what we all take away from this year.
Yeah absolutely.
You started this project over a year ago and a lot has happened in your life since then, how much has the meaning of this project changed for you and how much did it evolve as a project from its inception?
For sure, I started this project writing these songs early in 2019 and so a lot has changed in my life, I’m not going to lie, since early 2019. This album has been a bridge between the old life and the new life really, you can feel the difference in the songs from here to there, and I always liked the sequence of songs where when you listen to it in order, you take different emotional journeys along the way. I’ve mixed all the songs from the different months of writing, and I’ve mixed them all in together to try and create that rollercoaster ride.
I think that’s one of the things I loved about this record, it took you on a journey. You have those high moments and heavier moments, how much thought did you put into taking your fans on that ride with you?
A whole lot, there’s a whole lot of consideration in there, I’ll start with having a dry-erase whiteboard and markers, I’ll start writing out all the song titles of the songs I’m currently working on. For this record, it was about 24 or 25 songs on the whiteboard, I’ll go through and start categorising which ones feel the same and which ones are the same tempo, which ones have a similar context. I’ll start eliminating so that as I start eliminating songs from the group, the more diverse songs appear and it creates a stronger dynamic.
That’s so hard though to start eliminating songs!
It is very hard! I have to be sure of that decision, which is why this whole project ended up being sixteen songs, which is a lot. It’s also why I’ve divided it up into volume one and two, because I couldn’t go any lower than sixteen.
I love that you could have put it out as one record, but by dividing it up you’re allowing your fans to experience each part of the project and get that deep dive into both halves of your story.
Definitely, that was the goal, so that no songs were lost and nothing was skipped over on accident because there were too many to consume at once. I’ve always wanted fans to take that deep dive.
I guess sonically do you feel that your music has changed a lot over the course of the past few years. It almost feels like you’re going back to your roots and almost a return.
I hope so! In a lot of ways, I have to step back and maybe most of us do in our lives at some point, step back and stop looking at a micro level at what you’re doing over the course of a few years and think ‘this is how I’m trending.’ I either like the way I’m trending or maybe I should trend back to where I was a little bit, there’s a lot of truth and healing in going back to your roots. You don’t have to go back there, but you can reflect those ideas a little bit.
Absolutely, you’ve taken those elements, but taken them a step further. You’re a father now and that’s changed since the first record. How important was it to you to reflect that and your current circumstances without putting out stereotypical ‘dad’ songs and reflect on that in a way that felt unique and personal to you?
I never wanted to be the artist that is labelled as the ‘father’ guy and only doing one thing. I’ve always tried to paint it more poetically than that, it’s always been important to me to keep that poetry without it becoming too stereotypical in one area of my life – that’s the goal for sure.
One of the songs that was an easy stand-out for me on the record was ‘Heroes.’ Can you talk a bit about that track and what it means to you?
‘Heroes’ is a very special song to me and I wrote it several years ago to a different melody and tune and beat. It wasn’t until March of this year that I remembered that song and suddenly it appeared to me as a little more thematic, a little slower tempo and so I brought it back and changed all the melody and added some words and a second verse section about the nurses. All of a sudden it felt like the right song at the right time. It’s very special to me now.
Another easy standout was ‘Hate You Like I Love You,’ because it summed up everything I love about country music, in terms of it being a sad message but not realising that till halfway through the song. Does that idea resonate with you?
It does resonate with me, that’s exactly what I love about country music too, it’s a song that feels good and feels happy but the lyrics are saying something very sad and desperate. There’s this desperate attitude to that song about this guy who’s foolishly chasing something that can not be obtained, I love that about country music when you literally want to just go out and give the guy a hug.
In terms of looking toward the next half of the record, what can fans expect, is it going to be a continuation of this first one and that rollercoaster, or is it a different feel?
It’s definitely a continuation, from my perspective there was sixteen songs and I pulled them out depending on how they felt and what they said and mixed them all up. There’s no thematic difference between one and two, or timeline, I just wanted them to be able to live, if possible, as two separate albums, involving the same rollercoaster as you talked about.
Well I know fans will already be getting excited about that second half and congratulations again on volume one. Thank you for your time!
Absolutely, it was such a pleasure, thank you so much.
