INTERVIEW: Ryan Hurd on Pelago, Production and Michigan

Ryan Hurd will release his debut record – Pelago – on the 15th October. Here, we interview Ryan Hurd about the journey to its release, being inspired by Michigan and how the record came together. Pre-save Pelago here. 

Hello How are you doing? It’s the final countdown, so how are you feeling for the album release?

I feel good, I’m ready for people to hear it. It’s going to be a really exciting couple of weeks.

Yeah, I can imagine it’s been quite a few years that you’ve been crafting and making your way through the Nashville industry. Are you glad that this is happening now – the proper debut – and kind of allowing people to see the full scope of your artistry now?

Yeah, I made an album for RCA Records a couple years ago that never came out, I think now looking back on it now I’m really glad that this is the record that’s first. I’m really happy that we’re doing this, I’m so much better and so much more natural, I guess, and I feel like the timing might feel weird to wait a few years to do it, but the way this town works and the way it all goes down, I am really thankful that it’s happened the way it has.

You’ve spoken a lot about how this record’s been inspired by Michigan and that being important to you. Can you talk about that, because I can imagine as much as you love it, you must feel a sense of responsibility almost to bring your love of that place and sum it up in a record?

I feel like what we do in country music and in Nashville specifically is so South-centric. I’ve always tried to put other imagery into these songs, especially because our fan base in America – our biggest markets are Ohio and Michigan, Chicago and Minneapolis – and it’s just funny how that all works, even the Northeast in New York and Boston are always the biggest shows of the year. So, I have always tried to put more imagery in the music that’s closer to my experience. I like to name drop Chicago, Michigan, the West Coast and even the Gulf. I love the water and the air down there, it’s very cool to get the opportunity to sort of craft your own narrative.

Yeah, I mean even the imagery that you’ve released with the album is making me think I need to add Michigan to my list of places to visit. Obviously you’ve released quite a few tracks already and the response has just been phenomenal, particularly for ‘June July and August,’ with people sharing snippets of their lives. How has it been getting to engage with the fans and get that immediate reaction?

I guess the other half of that coin is this is the first time I’ve ever had to. Generally I’m more on the creative side and not as much on the promo side, but having an album come out means you got to engage a little bit more. That has been really cool to see people really react and love not just the one that’s on the radio, hopefully it’s the kind of album that top to bottom has something for everyone.

Oh 100% and I guess that goes alongside the fact that you’re finally able to get out and play these songs again, which must be nice to have, you’re not releasing them in front of a zoom screen anymore you can actually get out in front of fans and see the reaction.

The shows that we have had, the new songs have gone really well and the super fans already know the songs, then even the casual fans seem to be reacting well too. It’s been really an enjoyable thing. I think that like every reaction I’ve gotten so far to this record is positive and I’ve never had that. I don’t know if I ever imagined that and it kind of makes you take a deep breath and just sit back and enjoy it a little bit, takes some of the nerves away.

Well, it’s also the result of a lifetime’s work, so it must feel very reassuring. Obviously, you’ve released ‘Tab With My Name On It’ and one of the first things that jumped out to me the most about that was this production – it’s huge and very unique, with the gorgeous string part and intro. From the first time you wrote the song to now, how important has that been to see that evolution of the track with that production?

When we wrote the song, it felt like a movie. It’s just a song that is very unique to our format, where you see this guy going through an entire range of emotions just sitting on a barstool. We write bar songs all the time in Nashville, but it felt like my version of that. It felt like I’m telling a really creative and cinematic story that’s been told before, but not in this way. I never liked the production on that song, it just never really clicked for me until we added the orchestra. It made me really happy that you would notice it and it makes me happy how forward the strings are so that you can actually hear them – they’re not just hidden in the back, it’s very obvious what we’re doing. That’s when the whole thing came together and it got really special.

Well you started as a songwriter and you’ve always excelled there, but it’s been cool to watch your evolution of the sound of your music. 

Writing is the hardest part, I mean you write 200 songs to get 9 that you like, so I guess when I was thinking about what we’re doing and which songs fit for this record, I wanted it to be a very song-forward record. I wanted it to be something where even the fun songs were well written. They have things that you think are just fluffy and there’s still these Easter eggs in it, if you pay attention you realise that how much work went into putting that puzzle together. The second verse of ‘Coast’ is a really good example – that took us two months to write –  and there’s this bit about Kate Hudson and pictures of ukuleles, there’s an amazing amount of thought and work that went into that one little piece. It’s a good example of trying to do something, without even trying to do something special like really like caring about it being unique and and trying to make something that fits the format but it’s something you’ve never heard before.

I guess one of the ones which jumped out to me with those intricacies in the songwriting and playing around with different meanings were ‘The Knife and the Hatchet’ and ‘Hell Is An Island.’ Is that dual meaning something that you’ve always been drawn to?

I mean I think there’s there’s two things that work there – number one is we write so many songs that you get kind of bored, so half of it is playing games with yourself, I remember we wrote that song just because it sounded hard and ‘Hell Is An Island’ was a title I came up with in my head, I don’t remember why, but I remember wanting to write a fun song that was devastating and having just the sentence ‘Hell is an island without you,’ it’s just what you want. It’s the kind of thing that draws you in and then becomes something you totally don’t expect and that’s why I think it’s a really cool tune and can be really fun to play live. With ‘The Knife or the Hatchet’ you have that play on words and the whole song writes itself – once you say ‘twist the knife or bury the hatchet’ that’s it, everything else is easy. It’s just putting words in there that fit that narrative. I love how cinematic a lot of the tunes are, I wouldn’t say ‘Palm Trees in Ohio’ is a cinematic song, but I would say ‘Tab With My Name On It’ and ‘Hell Is An Island’ are like watching a movie. I think that’s when you know you’ve really done some of your best work, when you can visualise it in a specific way.

I think that’s the thing about this record, each song is a kind of puzzle in itself, but then they fit into the overall piece about ‘Pelago’ and Michigan. I think that’s what’s so particularly engaging about it, it feels very intentional the way that you put each piece together, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that’s right, everyone does it. It’s not like what I did, or what I’m doing is different from how other artists would approach their record. I think that because I’ve had enough time to develop as a writer and I haven’t gotten to put out my first record, this timestamps me in a big way. I think that having some time to sort of develop my expectations and develop creatively has made it the best work I could have done at this point in my life,

I guess, building on that, obviously, you’ve had so much success as a songwriter, you’ve had another number one with ‘Waves.’ When it comes to selecting songs which are going to go on this record, you’ve had so many songs that you could have taken as your own, do you feel like that’s made you more intentional and thoughtful with what you put out as your own.

I don’t think I’m the kind of artist that can take a song like ‘Waves’ and have it be an automatic hit.  I think that I have now a little corner of this format, for me, and what I think is interesting, and the songs that I really gravitate to singing. Then I get to participate in the rest of it by writing all those songs that I’ve written for other people, I mean, there’s songs that I love and maybe I could or maybe I couldn’t make them in the same way, but I just think that it’s never about whether a song is good or not, it’s about whether the song is right for an artist and I don’t know if the songs on this album are super pinchable. I don’t think that other artists would hear a song like ‘I Never Said I’m Sorry’ and think ‘I really want to put my voice on that’ because I think sometimes, it’s not about good or bad, sometimes it just has to be your voice. I think a lot of the songs on here have to be my voice and and I’m incredibly grateful for all the artists that I get to work with, I’m also incredibly grateful that a lot of these songs never got pitched.

And working with Aaron Eshuis, what has he brought to your music and the creative partnership you’ve developed?

He is kind of my safety blanket and he also does all the work, he makes the whole thing go, I don’t really do much on these recordings. I mean we didn’t have a studio day really except for the orchestral stuff. He really built this by himself in his studio, and I just said no or approved everything. Obviously I’m involved in every single part of it, but I think as far as having somebody that you trust that much, that’s the biggest deal and having somebody that you’re safe around to say no, if something’s not working, you have to be able to say this isn’t working. That did happen a couple of times in this record. so to have somebody like Aaron come back and be like, ‘I got it’ is incredibly special. Everybody knows that it’s my name on the front, everybody knows that I create, but at the end of the day, he makes it all go, he’s the one putting guitars and drums and having that creative push and pull. Our working relationship is probably the thing that I value the most about, he’s a good Michigan Dutch kid.

Well, congratulations on this record and the success also of ‘Chasing After You’ and your CMA nominations. Thank you so much for your time today, Ryan.

Thank you and good to talk to you again. Thank you so much.