Up and coming singer-songwriter Renee Blair has unleashed her new single ‘Turn Up The Night’ out everywhere here now, a song born for the height of summer as a fun, amp-up jam. Here, we interview Renee Blair about the single, her songwriting process and her story of perseverance.
Your new single ‘Turn Up the Night’ is out on Friday 27th August and it’s an incredibly fun pre-game song, can you talk a bit about the first time you heard that song and how it came to you?
Thank you! I agree, it’s the perfect pregame or country-party-anthem! My producer played it for me after he wrote it with Kane one weekend out on the road and the split second I found out Kane wasn’t cutting it I jumped on it and begged them to let me take a stab at it before anyone else had the chance to take it. I’ve been using this song as my show opener in my live set for a while now and it’s wild to see how much it hypes up the crowd for the evening. It’s the only song I’ve ever released that I haven’t written, but I could not be more honored or proud to be a part of it.
You’re such a prolific songwriter in your own right, so how do you decide when is the right time to consider external cuts? Are you continually in the process of writing and listening to new music in tandem?
Songwriting is one of the most important things to me in the world. I’ve lived in Nashville for well over a decade and one thing this town really teaches is how to distinguish a good song from a great song. I take every single word in my lyrics very seriously (sometimes too much) and approach music with a very critical ear. When choosing songs I always try to think as a fan first, what would I want to hear if I was on the other side, and the first time I heard this song it instantly made me want to hit the town and party with my friends.
Over the past year, you’ve also released ‘Stronger Than Me’ that you wrote with Matt Alderman and Kyle Schlienger, can you talk about how that song came together?
That was the first write I had in person after zooming for about 4-5 months with the pandemic! I’ll never forget that. I was so excited to be back in the room with my friends and feel that energy again. I’d been saving this title for a while, I knew it was special, and I always get great material with Kyle and Matt so I knew they could help me bring the vision I had for it to life.
Obviously the past year has been very difficult for musicians, how have you found your creative inspiration and process and how has taking time away from the road impacted your music?
Touring is truly my most favorite part of my job if I had to pick one. It took me over 10 years to get my career to a place where I was out on the road nearly every weekend and I had really hit a stride in touring and then the pandemic happened. So feeling like I finally really got started on the touring front and then it all stopped was for sure the most devastating part of Covid for me. I noticed there were two types of people in my field—those that sat back and tried to wait it out, and those that dove into “what they could do” i.e. TikTok, Instagram lives, etc, so I really just tried to keep building on whatever momentum I had.
Your story is one of adversity and courage against the odds, where do you think that perseverance comes from?
My Grandpa went to West Point and was a Colonel personally in charge of over 17,000 troops in Vietnam. He always set the precedent to work as hard as you possibly could and to do it honorably. He was my hero and I lived to make him proud, however, he was also was the toughest person in the world it seemed to impress! I think that set the tone from a young age of loving a challenge.
Now though, we are getting back to live music, how has it been finally seeing the response to your tracks?
It. Is. Everything. I love live music, we need it. It’s so vital and important to our genre and the fans, I am over the moon to see all their faces again. I can tell they are soaking in every song, every note, and not taking it for granted.
You’re slated to release a full-length project and some collaborations this year, what can we expect from that record?
I’ve got some surprises up my sleeve still with some pop-artist collabs on the way! I’ve been working with BRELAND, Parson James and Teddy Swims a bit on some stuff and I’m really loving my class of new emerging artists so I’m honored to get to rise with them and work together!
