INTERVIEW: Russell Dickerson on his new album Southern Symphony

We interview Russell Dickerson ahead of the release of his forthcoming sophomore album – Southern Symphony – to chat about the journey to the record, the trajectory of his music and his new collaboration with Florida Georgia Line. Pre-save the new record here.

Hello! It’s the final countdown, you’re in the final few weeks before the album release. How excited are you? 

It’s been like three years since I’ve put out new music, so I’ve been waiting for this album for a long time. I’ve been waiting so long to get these songs out there.

So much has changed since your last record, how far into this record were you when your son was born and how has being a father shaped this record? 

Yeah, as far as songwriting, we actually had already recorded this record for the most part before our son was born, I think even before we found out we were having him. It’s so funny because ‘Home Sweet’ – the second song on the album and that’ll be the new single coming out – was just right in time with exactly how we found out we were having a baby. We had just moved in and that’s what it says in the song ‘red sold sign, taking a picture’ and then ‘sitting on boxes in the living room, laughing and crying at those two pink lines.’ We had boxes everywhere, we had just moved in and Kails was like ‘hey, babe…’

I think the title track ‘Southern Symphony’ is my favourite song you’ve ever recorded. Can you talk a bit about the writing process? 

I love, love, love this song. It’s one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written, so thank you for saying that. I don’t know, I just really went back to my childhood and this song just came out so easily. We were writing it and I just started singing, ‘Where I come from, we wash up before supper, you don’t talk back to your mama.’ It just started coming to me, me and Parker Welling just wrote this whole song in an hour after we found the direction, she said something, ‘I was talking to this old man’ and something about that Kenny Chesney song ‘She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy’ and that old man was like ‘hey, where I come from, that’s a love song.’ I thought ‘woah, there’s something in that.’ I started thinking ‘where do I come from?’ I started unpacking my childhood and I hadn’t really dug that deep before back into my hometown and how I was raised. It just felt so good to dig up all those beautiful childhood memories of the magnolia trees and the ice cubes. We had sweet tea for dinner every night and at my friend’s house he had this huge bug zapper. All those little details came together.

I think that’s one of the things with this record, you’ve dug a layer deeper in terms of the person nature, it’s all from the heart. Did you feel that in the creative process? 

That is 100% right, to now have two complete works and to look back on the first album, it’s not necessarily that this album is heavier-hearted, the first album is light-hearted with ‘Billions’ and ‘Float’ and ‘You Look Like a Lovesong’ and ‘Would You Love Me?’ Those are fun songs…

I feel like you needed those songs for your live show, you have so much energy in those live shows that you needed those songs to show what a RD show is. 

Totally and it’s still the same amount of energy, but you’re right it’s a little more from the heart and the songs are a little deeper. They’re still fun, they’re still energetic and they’re still Russell Dickerson. I don’t know, I’m just so proud of these songs and how real they are and the story that they tell.

Well it comes through. I loved your first record but for me this record just hits a little deeper. In terms of the FGL song, you guys have been friends for years, you’ve also collaborated before on the Chris Tomlin record, so how did you decide that this was the song to bring you guys together? 

Erm, I mean I had this song idea and I threw it out in a co-write and nobody really jumped at it but my producer looked at me and he was like ‘you and me, we’re going to get to that later.’ So we did, me and Casey and Parker, it was kind of an eleventh hour song and it was a hype element that we didn’t have in the record. I never want to compare song by song from album one to album two but we had ‘MGNO.’ I listen to a lot of hip hop too, so this song was kind of my nod to all the trap music that I’ve been listening to. With the title and the sentiment of the song, ‘It’s About Time For A Drink,’ I was like ‘hey Tyler, I think I’ve got the song for me and you.’ So, he sent it to BK and he loved it and from there on, two weeks later we were in the studio recording it and it just turned out absolutely magic.

This must be one of the moments where you’re like ‘get out of here COVID.’ You probably can’t wait to play that one live.

Go away! Yes, I know, seriously. I want to be in amphitheatres and arenas, just singing this song. That’s the thing, it’s going to come back and they’re going to know these songs and I think my brain is going to explode.

I was thinking, the last time that I saw you live in concert was at the Royal Albert Hall, which was incredible. That must have been a moment, it probably feels like forever ago now but that must have felt like a big life goal achieved. 

Oh my gosh, I still can’t believe that we got to play there. I still feel unworthy of playing that stage. Hopefully, we can come back and headline sometime soon and that’ll be the moment. Headlining is the thing when you can slow down, opening it was like ‘play our songs and get out of the way and let Darius do his thing,’ but to sit down and play Southern Symphony on acoustic guitar in the Royal Albert Hall that would be one of my biggest dreams ever.

I guess what are you hoping then for this record, in terms of which songs are you hoping that fans relate to the most and which are you most excited to see their reaction to? 

‘Southern Symphony’ just to slow down the set, we’re always crazy on stage and super hype, but just to slow down the set and just to give that extra level of depth to my live set is definitely a dream. ‘Home Sweet’ – I just envision that one as the last song of the whole night and with confetti going everywhere. ‘Waiting For You’ – the last song on the album, I don’t know just all ten of them, top to bottom.

Well we can’t end without mentioning that you’ve got another number one under your belt, which is incredible. How excited were you for that track?

‘Yours’ was the wedding song and this one is kind of like the anniversary song, love is growing, love is getting better every single day. My wife was involved, I played her the song for the first time we wrote it and she was like ‘not good,’ straight up. She said that the title of the song was better than the song I had just played. We went back to the drawing board and just completely re-wrote the song, top to bottom and just to give that song a second chance and to give that title a second chance and then to come out with a two week number one. What’s crazy is that this is our fourth number one, from ‘Yours’ to here was four in a row, and Billboard said that me and Luke Combs are the only two solo artists to have ever done that since the history of the chart. This song was a huge monumental moment for us and that achievement was crazy.

It’s one of the cool things about country radio is that it’s a slog to get there, but it’s almost worth more.

For sure.

Congratulations on the new album and the new baby! We’re so excited for you.

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