INTERVIEW: Parker McCollum Talks About Debut Album

I feel like it’s all kind of mixed in together now. I feel like this new batch of kids that are coming up in the Texas scene, I mean, I feel like they’re probably spending more time in Nashville, writing more songs in Nashville. A lot of these kids are coming here to do a lot of their creative process and production and songwriting and stuff. I think there was kind of this rift back in the day between Texas and Nashville and kind of all that stuff going on and it just doesn’t exist anymore. Texas is super special. It is different, certainly, in a good way. The youngest I can remember being and being in love with country music, so much of those guys were considered Texas country artists. When I was little, I was like, “Man, I want to play Texas country,” and as I got older, I was like, “Man, I don’t want to just play in Texas, I want to go all over, see the world, tour everywhere.” The thought was in my mind of walking that line between being a Texas singer/songwriter or just being a country singer/songwriter. Both are very unique and both have a lot of talented people coming out of both places.

I mean, that’s one I’ve been thinking about since I was 10 years old, literally. I grew up just 40 miles north of Houston, so I’ve been a Houston Texans fan my whole life, the NFL football team, and that’s their stadium that Houston Rodeo’s in is NRG Stadium. I’ve been going there my whole entire life, just always dreaming, just wondering all the time. Every day I’d be like, “That’s the goal is to headline that thing.” It’s 85,000 people. It’s absolutely the biggest thing I could have ever thought I would get to do when I first picked up a guitar. When I got the phone call, I don’t know, I’m not an emotional person at all, but so many nights on the road, I mean, just so much uncertainty through this whole thing since I started, and always working so hard and missing everything important in life to go play shows and be on the road and chasing this dream, and then you get a phone call like that. It was all worth it.

Parker McCollum: Now, I feel like on this next album, I’ll really have a good idea of, “I need to put my foot down here and make sure this is driving the ship a little more,” I guess, for lack of a better term. I really was kind of following John Randall’s lead a lot on this album, and I’m really glad I did. He was right about 99% of everything we did, and he has such great ideas and was so talented. But I just felt like I didn’t give these songs the time and the critique that I did to my two earlier albums. I didn’t necessarily pick all these songs apart like I usually do. I think I’ll probably get back to that on the next album.

Morgan Evans: Yeah. Are you a rewriter? You write it maybe in one day, and then go back and edit and edit?

Parker McCollum: No, man. I usually write a verse and a chorus and won’t even think about the idea for two years until I stumble back across it. But, some of these, I felt like I just rushed them. I was a little frustrated with the process, and I was kind of like, “Nah, doesn’t matter. Just record it and put it out there.” And I just kind of wish I wouldn’t have done that on a couple tracks. But I think the record turned out great. I don’t know what it sounds like. When I listen to any album I’ve put out, I can’t really figure out who it sounds like, and I think that’s a good thing.