INTERVIEW: Teddy Robb on New Single ‘Whiskey Can’t’

With over 100 million worldwide streams, Teddy Robb has already built a strong following, bursting onto the country scene. Here, we interview Teddy Robb about his new single ‘Whiskey Can’t‘ and his experience over the past year.

Hey, how are you today? Congratulations on the new single! The nice part of the pandemic has been discovering new artists and you’re definitely one of the ones on our radar. How did it feel to release? 

I feel very excited right now, I’m glad to see that people are accepting the song. With every release, you’re kind of at bat, you put so much into a song before it gets released and it goes through so many stages from the day you wrote it to the day you find out somebody on your team likes it besides just you. Then you make a demo and then you record and master it and then you finally put it out.

People never really think that much about what actually goes into a song before it’s put out and then it’s put out and you’re like ‘Alright I wonder what’s gonna happen?’ please like it.

Pretty much. You just have to be unapologetically yourself. This song, for me, is one that I really believed in that lyric and it’s something that I live for – that’s kind of my motto and how I’ve lived it, if I can feel it, maybe somebody else will.

You released your EP last year, when all this craziness was just starting. How has it been to see that immediate response from people, in person, this time around – it must be a very different release process?

Very weird. I had a lot of stuff on the books to go play shows. That’s how we as artists, in a big way, promote our stuff as we go. We get to perform for people who’ve never heard us and I can’t say the timing in my career has been great, but as far as the pandemic hitting, life isn’t so much about what happens to us, but it’s about how we respond. So I tried to take every bit of that time during the pandemic and improve on things, things start moving so fast and I’d be on stage once in a while and think ‘ I really wish I was better at this’ but it just seemed like the time would always evaporate. I didn’t really have that time to put into my craft. When the pandemic hit, it was like ‘well okay, I’m not playing shows, I’m not doing the things that I normally would be doing, so to me the best thing I could do with my time was to improve some of those things that were my shortcomings as an artist – my weaknesses. I took a lot of that time and worked on my craft along with some adventures – along with drinking some whiskey. That was kind of my year and it definitely put a stop to some momentum for so many people, so many people lost their jobs and businesses, some people lost their lives.

At the end of the day, we’re all cognisant of the hardship of the past year, so it’s refreshing to kind of see it as an opportunity in some ways.

Yeah, I personally dove headfirst into electric guitar. That has been my obsession that really started in like 2019, I started playing guitar in 2009, or 10, but electric guitar is a whole different animal than acoustic. So, I dove headfirst into that during the pandemic and it’s just been so fun. Like I said, I tried to make the best of the time that we had, by working on that craft. Things are starting to open back up and I’m feeling that confidence thatI’ve put a couple 1000 hours into my craft, so I’m feeling that on stage now.

What a weird year. I hope we never have to do it again. I hope that anybody that got to really evaluate and go ‘Okay, well, how can I make some lemonade out of these lemons?’ That’s what I tried to do the best I could.

I want to go back to talking about the EP because it was such a strong all-round project. You clearly put a lot of thought into the selection of songs. How long did it take to select the songs and for the project to come together? 

The first EP came together pretty quick. I signed my publishing deal in the spring of 2018 and we were recording that pretty quick. That one, I wrote a couple of them, we found a couple outside songs, it came together pretty quick and we went with it. It did some amazing things, I just felt like that one fell together real quick. Since then, we recorded that in the spring of 2018, maybe summer. So we’re over three years since I’ve recorded a piece of this one. I put a lot of thought into it – three years worth of writing songs and finding out who I am as an artist going on a radio tour, being all over the country, playing music, going through some evolutions that maybe people didn’t even see. Now to be able to start putting songs out from this EP, I’m just so proud of it, it really does feel like – as proud as I am of the first EP – this is like three years of growth and working every day to figure out who I am as an artist. I’m now starting to put that stuff out, which is pretty exciting. I hope people can appreciate it and enjoy the songs and feel something from it.

Having been signed to Monument Records and working with Shane MacAnally and legends like that, how much have you learned from them and how have they shaped your career, I guess being in Nashville and being around this mega talent?

I wouldn’t be at all where I’m at without the belief that they’ve had in me – the doors that they have been able to open for me, the people that I’ve been able to be around, just the rooms that I’ve been able to get into.’ For a lot of years, I’ve just kind of tried to have big ears and watch and listen and learn as much as I can and soak it all in. Maybe someday I’ll have something worth saying because of the really smart people I’ve been able to be around. I’ve always felt like you’re a product of your environment, so if you have five really smart friends, you’re probably the sixth one.

Basically just surround yourself with amazing people and you’ll get on the right track.

I’ve been very lucky in my life. When I met Shane and Katie and Jason and signed to Monument –  the doors that they’ve been able to open for me and the rooms of people that I’ve been able to write with and connect with. It’s been a fascinating journey the last few years and in a lot of ways, I feel like I’m just getting started, I’m just getting my feet under me. I was just a kid from Akron, Ohio, that’s like ‘I love country music and I want to be around it, and I have no idea what I’m doing’. Then to spend four years around really smart people and watch and listen intently, I’ve tried to listen to what these people say, because listening to your songs I felt you’ve already got such a strong sense of yourself and your own artistry in the material that you’ve released over the past year. Using that as a product, again, working in Nashville for years, and just knowing who you are, because I feel like some people do sort of adapt, and they’re still trying with their songs and trying to work out where they live and what they want to create.

I definitely felt that with this recent project, it was a lot of stuff that I was living, I was going through a unique time as far as my dating life, even ‘Lead Me On’  came from a night where a girl told me ‘I don’t want to lead you on’ and me just being in that phase of life. I think I was probably 26 or 27 and just saying something stupid, like, ‘I wish you would.’ I wouldn’t write that now. I don’t want to be led on anymore, but at the time I was thinking ‘Oh, I wish she would lead me on, I could write 100 songs about you.’

Not only dating but the songs I’ve written about home and life. It has just all evolved. So there was definitely some raw talent there and I was around some great writers even when I was writing that first EP and picking songs. I just feel like now I have a little more of a mature approach to my songwriting and maybe I will write another ‘Lead Me On’ someday, but at the time, I just was in that phase of wanting to write a bunch of songs about getting messed up over a girl – that was the the phase of life I was living at that time.

That’s just being an authentic artist – no matter what you’re going through, the messy, the easy, the straightforward, whatever it is – I think fans will always relate to the songs that are most authentically your experience in that moment.

Absolutely. I just think that’s what songwriting is, it’s just being vulnerable, being honest. I’m always gonna be that kind of artists that tries to put stuff out that is real to my life and hopefully it connects with other people.

I think that’s the right attitude to have, it will set you up for success to come because people do value that kind of approach. I guess what is next for the rest of the year? Obviously, you’ve just released ‘Whiskey Can,’ but have you got more songs in the pipeline?

So, we just recorded an EP, I don’t know exactly what the release strategy will be. If I had a crystal ball, I’d put them out tomorrow, but I don’t know if someone else will tell you what I’m gonna do, I don’t know how that all comes together, but I’m writing a lot right now. I am getting on the road and starting to play some shows and I’m really enjoying that but I’m on fire to write songs right now, I have a lot of inspiration. I just want to be writing, and going on adventures. I’m just kind of living that.

I want to go on a solo trip to wherever and just like taking things in. I’m kind of living that way right now. I just want to be creative and get ready for more music to record. I know that’s coming, so I want to have some songs that are even levelled up from the EP that I just recorded. I want to just continue to grow artistically. I’m obsessed with electric guitar, so I know that is going to do something.

By the end of the year, I definitely have mapped out what I want to accomplish and learn, I have a pretty good regimen I guess that I’m working towards stuff. I feel sometimes like I’m a 13 year old kid in my bedroom working on electric guitar, but I love it. That’s one of my missions in life – to be the guy that was like 30 years old and decided I want to be a great electric guitar player. I want to be able to play some of my heroes, so I’m working really hard on the electric, on writing songs, hopefully recording more stuff and putting the stuff that I just recorded out.

Well we’ll be listening out for that. Thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us. I really appreciate it and we will be supporting the music when it comes out.