Ahead of the release of his new album Welcome to Prairieville next week, we interview Logan Mize about the concept, how his music has changed since moving away from Nashville and just what this project means to him.
Hello! It’s the final countdown to the album release – how are you feeling? I feel like this project more than any other has been years in the works and in your consciousness…
Yeah, it’s been floating around for a decade, so I’m pumped.
It must be strange, having had it for a decade, to finally be kind of giving it to other people – after that it sort of takes on a life of it’s own and it becomes theirs?
Yeah, it’s funny because some of the songs on there were written in 2011, then there’s songs that were written in the studio back in March. I can tell where I’m more polished and mature as a writer and I can tell when I’m really young – it’s interesting, I’m not sure a lot of people can hear that.
Yeah, from an external perspective, it’s hard to hear that – we just see a cohesive project, so it’s interesting that you say that. Can you talk about the actual concept of Welcome to Prairieville? I know you’ve worked with Blake Chaffin a lot on these songs, so how did that creative partnership come to be?
Blake and I have been friends since 2007, when we started writing together. We’re both from Kansas, out here on the Great Plains – we’re not Southern boys, we’re very rural Mid-Westerners and so we kind of speak the same language, we have our own dialect and our own character. So when we’re writing in Nashville, which is in the heart of the South, we felt like we’d found an ally – somebody who understood our little quirks and our mannerisms, and the way we tend to phrase it, stuff like that, and we found humour in the same things that other people might scratch their heads at. There are subtle differences and there are some big differences too. Well, we started figuring that out and then we just made up a town. We’re like, let’s just write about this town and the people in it and the happenings. It started out as a concept album that we were writing and it just kind of turned into discovering our inner voice. We kind of discovered that was started as a writing exercise turned into this way that we figured out how we write songs. 10 years after that it became less of a concept and more of just a theme, ‘Hey, this is me, this is the most authentic true to myself thing I’ve done’.
I find that interesting as well. You say that you’re not from the South, but I feel like Nashville right now is so diverse, you’ve got Canadian country artists coming down, there’s some Brits coming over – it’s more exciting because there are all these fresh ideas, and people bringing in this new material and sounds and all that kind of thing.
Yeah, Nashville is very diverse. That started happening a few years ago. I mean, it’s always been happening, right? People have always been going to Nashville, but it kind of became a well, and also got so commercialised. I kind of felt like, there was this mindset where it became a rat race. I left Nashville four years ago for that reason, now I’m back out here in the heartland and it felt like a great time to finally put this project out.
I love the fact that you’ve written all the songs, there’s a really consistent voice, which kind of makes the record stand out from what else is being produced. Often you do look through album trackless these days and the same guys crop up, but you’ve got really interesting unique voices on this project. Was that really important to you to have this voice that sticks out?
Yeah, for sure, it just had to come from a real place and had to be authentic. There’s some quirky stuff on there, like ‘Wine at the Church, Beer at the Bar’ where people were scratching their head and I turned that into one of my favourites. The best part about that song is it’s pretty deeply philosophical, but a kid’s book version – let’s all meet in the middle doesn’t have to be one or the other. I was really happy with the way that turned out.
‘Its About Time’ you wrote about your wife. I can imagine you write songs all the time that are immensely personal, particularly when they’re about your nearest and dearest. Is there ever a moment when you’re like ‘shall we keep this one for us?’
Yeah, there’s definitely that but ‘It’s About Time’ was a different song. I finally pulled the trigger and moved out to Kansas, like I said I always would and built the dream house and live on the farm. There’s not much out here.
Do you find you’ve been more inspired since being out on the farm? Being totally immersed in the farm, it’s not like you’re in Nashville, and you’re in the city writing about concepts which you’re not living in right now.
Yeah, it’s definitely allowed me to be more myself. I don’t feel like I’m one of the 500 dudes trying to make it in the country music industry. You know, I just feel like I live out here in the Midwest, I’m a dad, I coach baseball, I farm part-time, and I make records and try to make them as authentic to myself as I can. You can get so lost in Nashville and people are trying to steer you – music business people – so, being out here has allowed me to just do my thing.
Talking about the creation of this record, I know you said you’d written lots of the tracks a few years ago, but was the decision to actually record the record a product of the pandemic?
Yeah, it’s like I said with these songs, some of them were written the week before the studio. With the last project having some success, we had a bigger budget, so we wanted to do an analogue record on tape machines. We created the budget and we fully expected the label to go, ‘No, you’re not doing that’. Instead they were like, ‘Yeah, go for it.’ So, we booked the studio and we just went in and cut 12 or 13 tracks and came out with 11.
I guess that means that you’re keeping that raw energy, you can’t record a huge amount of takes.
Yeah, I mean, I think ‘Mike’ maybe had five or six takes, that’s the most we did, but everything else was like second or third take.
It’s interesting that people are going back to doing that approach, because I do think it makes it more authentic. You listen to really old records and hear those little imperfections, that’s what makes you love the live version more because you feel like you’re kind of at a concert with someone you like, where things are slightly off almost and those are the moments that you love.
The human touch, that’s what everybody’s craving and it’s weird because it’s moving in the opposite direction. I think you that’s what makes music special.
100% and I guess, for this release, what are you hoping that your fans take away, in terms of knowing who you are and as an artist going forward?
I remember being in seventh grade and discovering Third Eye Blind’s first album. That’s all I could think about at school was getting home, turning it on and doing my homework and listening to it over and over and getting lost in it and finding new favourite songs every time. Of course, I had a dozen or more of those records. Honestly, that’s the experience you want to create as an artist, you want somebody to have this getaway – that’s the ultimate goal with this.
Well, congratulations on the project. I’m so excited for you to have this out. Hopefully, we’ll get you back to the UK soon.
I know. I miss it so badly. I think it’s been two years and I was there three or four times in 2019, I just got so used to coming. I was having a great time and I miss it a lot right now.
