10 Questions with ... Brett Young

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Brett Young was born in Anaheim, California and grew up in Southern California. Young was a highly-decorated baseball player, turning down pre-draft selection from major league teams before beginning his college career. It was in college that his pursuit of a professional baseball career was cut short by an elbow injury in 2003. Young, always a writer, spent ten years in Los Angeles pursuing music and releasing independent albums before making the move to Nashville. Following a serendipitous pitch of his music to Big Machine Label Group in hopes of Thomas Rhett cutting one of his songs, Young was offered a recording contract of his own. His debut single, "Sleep Without You" rose to the top of the charts in late November 2016. On Monday, November 28th, Young was celebrating his #1 single and announcing the release of his first major-label debut album when he took time to sit down with All Access Nashville to discuss the whirlwind 2016 he's had and all he hopes to accomplish in 2017.

1. Thank you for taking time to talk to us today, Brett! We know you're spending some time celebrating a huge accomplishment today - your debut single on BMLG Records, "Sleep Without You," is sitting at #1 on the Mediabase charts this week! Can you tell us where you were when you found out you'd hit #1? And since it was your first single out at radio, did you spend a lot of time watching the charts as it was rising?

This is the first one. The first #1! Me, my management, and a couple of my buddies got on a bus Friday night and drove down to Oxford [Mississippi] for the Ole Miss versus Mississippi State game - I don't know if you know, but I played baseball my freshman year [of college] at Ole Miss. My center fielder from high school and college is now the Associate Athletic Director at Ole Miss. So, there was bus parking at the baseball stadium, and suite passes for the football game for us. I expected to find out if we got the #1 by around midnight on Saturday night, but we woke up Saturday morning in Oxford, and my manager said, "Hey, it's not official, but I've been doing this for 20 years - they aren't going to catch you. You've got it." That was Saturday morning, and we may or may not have started drinking at 10am. I mean, it may not have happened, but it also might have totally happened. But, the funniest thing about all of this for me is that I try to be pretty good about managing my own expectations, because I don't like to be disappointed - I think that's the athlete in me. But, nothing about this has ever been a question mark. Even without expectations, the song never stopped moving. At first, you're like - "Really? We're inside 20? Now we're really inside 10?" Then you get to a point where it's like, "Well, I don't know why it would stop now!" So, I think it was right around the time we hit #6 or #7 that I got to a place where I knew who was around us on the charts, and I thought, "I think this thing is going to go all the way." The crazy thing, though, is that I've known since Saturday morning, and I still don't think it has completely set in yet. I never was a chart watcher until the time we got up around the teens, then I started really learning how it works and wondering where everyone was, and if there were superstars behind me that could screw it up for me. Haha! I don't have access, and I don't have my own log-in or anything like that. But I do ask my manager if there's something I want to know about the charts. For the most part, though, I try not to look.

2. It has been just over a year since you first signed your deal with Big Machine Label Group. Things seem to have taken off quite rapidly for you, but everyone knows there are always years of hard work behind the scenes to get to this level. So, can we rewind a bit and talk about where you started, how the partnership with BMLG came to be, and how you knew this would be the right label home for you?

I was working with an investor for about three years before I signed with the label. They're out of Atlanta, but they met me in Los Angeles. And, when we first started working together, it was, "Well, we'll make a record in Nashville, so fly to Nashville." It seemed like all the work we were doing was here, and not there. So, the decision to move here was based on the fact that every time I came here, I'd make relationships, but when I came back a couple months later, I'd have to start all over. That decision - [the investors] kind of pushed me - they told me, "Hey, when you're here [in Nashville], you're having success, but when you leave, you have to start all over." I did music for ten years in L.A., and nothing happened. When I moved here, I think it was a year and two months later that I had a record deal. So, it made the decision feel - very clearly - like the right decision. In the last year and a half since we signed - I just posted a picture today of me, [Big Machine Label Group EVP] Jimmy Harnen, and [Big Machine Label Group Mgr./A&R] Laurel Kittleson in the pool the day I signed, when Jimmy offered me the deal, which was late May or early June of last year - it feels like yesterday. When they're ready, they're ready. You get in the studio, you make a record, and then I've been on the road at least six days a week since March. This has all gone really fast, and it feels like a whirlwind, even with the #1. It hasn't all sunk in, because I never stop! It's the coolest thing ever to feel validated. Something like a #1 record makes you want to work harder to have that again. But, in terms of the last year and a half - when we signed to where we are now - it really does just feel like a whirlwind. It was fast and super unexpected. I moved here, because I was getting really burned out doing music in L.A. I moved here to write, because this is a writer's town. At the end of the day, we needed someone to sing the demos after we had written something, so I was singing on demos, and thank God Laurel [Kittleson] heard them over in A&R. I was trying to pitch songs to Thomas Rhett! Laurel heard it and brought me to Jimmy, and it happened really fast. I hate to say it, but it happened kind of by accident - that wasn't my plan when I moved here. People are probably tired of hearing this, but I always say, "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans." This felt like a fit for me immediately - from the first day I played upstairs here in the building for Jimmy to when he offered me a deal was less than two weeks. Four days later, I was at his house playing for the promotion staff, and a week later, he invited me to a pool party to offer me the deal. It feels like a family.

3. In the year and a half since you signed with Big Machine Label Group, what has 2016, in particular, been like for you? Were there any milestone moments you hope to remember and look back on fondly?

Most of [2016] has been radio tour, and that's why I have been gone so much. I haven't really gotten to do a lot of stuff in this town since probably CRS. There have been a lot of things that I would call milestone moments or whatever, but I think one that sticks out the most for me was the first time I was a hard ticket. Which, for anybody who isn't familiar, is when someone goes to buy a ticket, and my name was the one on the ticket as the headliner. It was in Omaha - a town I had never played before - and the room held about 600 people. I remember saying, "There's no way 600 people are going to come out for me." The station had just started playing my record, so I hadn't been on very long in Omaha. We showed up, and the Program Director said we had been pre-sold out for three weeks! I think that was a moment when I looked at my tour manager, who is one of my best friends, and I went, "Is this for real?" He said, "I know. It feels different, right?" I think that's when we started to realize that we were making an impact, and that people were coming out to hear our music. We just played Salt Lake City last week, and I've also never played in Salt Lake. It was about the same sized room, and it was just a trio of three of us playing - and I couldn't hear myself over the crowd singing - not just the single, but all six songs from the EP! Wow. It really feels different. So those were some of the handful of moments where we realized it was really picking up, and we were starting to feel the momentum.

4. I first saw you perform during the Albright & O'Malley & Brenner pre-CRS 2016 discussion earlier this year. You played some acoustic versions of the songs that are now available on your self-titled EP, and you shared some of the stories behind your songwriting. Have you always been a storyteller? Where and when did you find your passion for music, and more specifically, for songwriting?

I've always been a sappy, hopeless romantic. Even in high school, if there was a girl I liked, I'd pass notes. I was a writer, always. That was pre-text messaging, and pre-cell phones; I had a pager at the time! Ha! But, I always liked to write, to the point that I would write poems. The girl that I was in love with for six years through junior high and high school, I wrote her this big, long poem in her yearbook. That was always kind of an outlet for me. I was never really good one-on-one, so writing it down made it easier. I think that when I started writing songs, that's why it came naturally for me. It was later in life, I suppose, but it has been twelve years now! That's so funny to think about. One of the co-writers on my song, "Sleep Without You," has been here writing for 16 years, and this is her first top ten, let alone #1. Someone commented on our picture as a joke, "Just another typical Nashville 16-year overnight success!" And this wasn't just my first #1, it was my first song on the radio. For people who don't know, I've been shooting for this and working toward this for 13 years now. I always wrote. That will always be me - when my artist career is done, I will continue to write. That is my #1.

5. Music wasn't your only passion growing up. You are a very talented athlete, as well, having been a pre-draft selection of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays straight out of high school. How do you think sports and music are connected, and how have they each played upon each other for you throughout life?

Those absolutely cross over. I don't think they play against each other as much as they work together. We're seeing it a lot in Country music - Sam Hunt, Tucker Beathard, Chase Rice, Chris Lane, Lee Brice - these were all talented athletes at the very highest level, before professional. I think it's easy to look at that and say, "Well, what a coincidence." But, I don't think that's a coincidence at all. When you look at any entertainment field - I come from Southern California, so in Los Angeles, you're talking about actors and models - when you look at that, you think it just looks glamorous and fun and easy. The fact of the matter is, it's not easy at all. It takes up your whole life, and if you're not willing to give it your whole life, there's someone waiting behind you that is. I think this insurgence of athletes that are having success in the music business - looking from the inside out - I think it's that they are just willing to work hard for it. I think my background in that has been a catalyst in getting here. [Monday], March 14th, [2016] was my first radio station visit, and it has been six days a week since then. If you're not willing to hurt yourself in the name of what you want, you're probably not going to get it.

6. Having spent a large portion of 2016 on a cross-country radio tour, what has been your biggest takeaway in regards to what you've learned about the radio portion of the business? Was radio tour what you expected it to be?

Yeah, radio is a huge undertaking! Trying to learn what goes on in that world - I had no idea! I like it, though. A lot of people talk about it like a game, and I see that - I guess it is. But, what I like is that it's about relationships at its core. I enjoy that; I enjoy getting to know new people, creating what I would call a business relationship. You're running a station, and you need me to send you great songs. I need you to play those songs. How can I help you, and how can you help me? That's not a game! If you're a good person, and you make friendships as an artist - I, as an artist, want friendship with radio where they are willing to tell me, "Hey, that's not a good song." I want that just as much as I want them to play it. So, I have enjoyed radio tour. My dad was a pastor, and there were over 3,000 people in his church. Every service, I would stand next to him, and we would greet anyone who wanted to come say hello. I spent my whole life meeting strangers and making new friends, so the process has been really fun and interesting for me. It's a lot - and it's not that the job itself is a lot, it's just that you can't believe there are that many stations! It's constantly me asking, "Wait, there's how many more tomorrow? And how many more the day after that?" But once you're there, sitting in the office playing for people and getting to know people, it has been so much fun. We did a little unofficial #1 party last night. There were a handful of Program Directors here in town, and we said, "Hey, come on down." I've made a lot of really good friends on radio tour!

7. Your vocal styling seems to lend itself to a variety of genres, and earlier, you mentioned that as a writer, you had been trying to pitch songs to Thomas Rhett, who also tends to meld genres in his music. What artists and genres did you most listen to growing up, who would you cite as your musical influences, and what made Country the most appealing for you?

I was listening to mostly Country music, even living in L.A. It was Tim McGraw's "Don't Take The Girl" that got me in to really loving Country music. I had been pretty much listening to only Country music from that point, but I did find a few artists who were in the singer-songwriter realm and kind of Pop. That first Gavin DeGraw record, "Chariot," is what really made me want to write music. I never co-wrote in L.A. My first five records, I wrote everything by myself, because that's not really the community there. The funny thing is, I didn't think I was writing Country music. I was listening to Country music and writing songs, but I didn't realize I was writing Country music, specifically, until my first trip to Nashville - then we took the songs and put my music that I had written alone on my guitar and stuck a great Nashville backing band behind it, and I went, "Oh, wow! I was writing Country music!" I guess it makes sense, because that's all I ever listened to was Country. And that's all Country music is - a dude and his guitar. But, I used to get frustrated when people would say, quote-unquote, "You should 'go' Country." Look, I don't want to "GO" anything! This is me, this is my guitar, and this is my voice. When we made the record, they put a little bit of fiddle and some lap steel on it, and I went, "So, see? I already was Country!" And, that's probably the best realization I have had - at least for me - because, going through an identity crisis as an artist is one of the most confusing things on the planet. You know why you want to do it, and you know why it's important to you. But everyone in this business - whether they like to admit it or not - they like to put things in a box. They want it to make sense to them. For me, I had no idea what I was doing, other than just making music. So, once we made that record - even though that record will never see the light of day - I'm super proud of it. It wasn't THE record, but that record is valuable to me, because it made me realize and proved to everyone that I already was Country, and that I didn't have to become anything, because that's just who I already was. Being able to know that was the most valuable thing about that experience.

So, do you feel like people try to put you in a box inside of the Country genre, or do you feel like the format is so wide open that there are no boxes?

There's a lot of freedom in Country right now, but I think that Country is one of the few that - even as it changes - it gets as far left or as far right as it can to go before it eventually gravitates and snaps back to center. With every other genre, it's all about pushing the limits. But with Country, I think it's like, "Okay, that'll fly. Okay, that'll fly. Oh, wait...nah. Nope, nope, nope!" And then suddenly, you've got William Michael Morgan. It'll always come back to center.

8. As you prepare for "In Case You Didn't Know" to impact radio, I was hoping you would share the story of how the song was written. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this was - in a way - written for Trent Tomlinson's mom, right?

Haha! In all honesty, it might as well be Trent's mom's song! He just told this really sweet story about how every time he would leave the house as a kid, she would stop him and say, "Hey, Trent. In case you didn't know, I love you." And, we obviously weren't going to write a song for Trent's mom! But, when I heard that, I said, "Hey, that's a really sweet love song." It's what every guy in the world has failed to say enough, and what every girl in the world has wished she could hear more.

You've found early success with "In Case You Didn't Know" on SiriusXM, and there are already strong sales figures for the track, as well. How early did you know this would be your follow-up single, and how and when did this become the pick?

We didn't know what the second single was going to be, but when the EP came out, people got ahold of that song. We watched how it was selling and heard about how many people were using it at weddings. I was always told when I moved here that the right song would raise its hand, and this one totally raised its hand! Then, as we were trying to decide, SiriusXM "The Highway" came to us and wanted another song; they had been early on the first one. And I can't remember why we picked "In Case You Didn't Know" - I think we thought we were picking one that was definitely not going to be the next single! But, I guess the joke was on us. We gave it to Sirius, and the next thing I knew, it was #1 on "The Highway" and was being played in every wedding this past Summer. It was the best accident that could have happened! There was no question in our minds at that point. We were looking at sales figures, and for a while, it was out-selling ["Sleep Without You,"] which was on its way to #1 at the time. It will be exciting to see what it does once we get it going on [terrestrial] radio!

9. In addition to the EP, which is currently available, you are releasing a full-length project early next year. What can you tell us about the project, and when will it be available?

Yes! Full album will be out [Friday], February 10th. We just got the information today. [Friday], January 13th will be the pre-order, and [Friday], February 10th will be the street date. We'll take the six from the EP and put six new tracks with it to repackage it as 12 total tracks. We've started to play some of the new stuff out. I got to squeeze a ballad in that I wrote with Sean McConnell. We thought we were only going to get to do 11, but it turns out that iTunes has this pre-order rule that if you do an EP, your full-length has to be at least twice as long as your EP. So, I got to squeeze one more in - thank you, iTunes! [Producer] Dann Huff and I really wanted to have a moment on the record kind of like "Burning House" was for Cam - which ended up being a single for her - but something that, when you're doing it in the studio, you know that's going to be a moment for you. We really wanted one of those for the record, and it didn't look like we'd get to, but then iTunes threw a rule at us that we didn't know about, so we got to squeeze it in. I got a mix back on that today. So, yeah, new material. A lot of the same subject matter, though. If I'm going to write the songs on my own record, I want people to really get insight into me. You're going to see a lot of similar subject matter, because I'm writing about my life and the things I've been through. So, there's a lot of the same muse throughout, and a lot of the same stories. But, we've added some fun, tempo stuff, too - so for the live show, it should make people want to get up and dance a little bit. I'm ready for people to hear it.

10. Another cut from your EP that I personally love is "You Ain't Here To Kiss Me." It might be the most well-written New Year's Even tragedy I've heard, but I'm hoping you have better plans for this New Year. I know you're preparing to go out on the road again, so can you give us some insight in to the next few months in the life of Brett Young? What is on the agenda professionally, and how will you be spending the holidays this year?

The funny thing about ["You Ain't Here To Kiss Me"] is, word-for-word, I lived it. That is the story; I ended a six-year relationship on New Year's Eve. As we were writing it - I wrote it with a couple of friends over at Curb, Tiffany Goss and Matt Alderman - and as we were writing it, they kept wanting to be songwriters. I'd say, "Nope, that's not how it happened." I've never done that in a songwriting session; if what you're saying is cooler than what actually happened, then let's be cooler. But in that song, I couldn't do that. It had to be exact - and that was a huge undertaking, because you still have to be a songwriter, and it still has to sound good. So, we fought for this, and I am more proud of this than of any other song I've ever written, because it is the most honest I've ever been in three and a half minutes. Hindsight is 20/20, though. I probably come across pretty hurt and angry in that song, but I have a wonderful relationship with the girl that song is about. But, in that moment - three days after that break-up - I was definitely ready to write that song! That is what we thought the second single would be. It would have come out right before New Year's, and it's about New Year's Eve, so it would have made sense. But, "In Case You Didn't Know" was just a bull in a china shop. My parents are coming here for Christmas. This will be the second year in a row, now. I've got a little two-bedroom apartment here in Nashville, and my roommate is always gone for Christmas. So, they take his room, and we put up a little tree. Mom cooks, and me and dad watch sports. I think I get 13 days off, and I've not had more than three days off since March when we really started this. We're hitting the ground running between now and then. Obviously, we'll take a break for Christmas, and then I'll go out with [Brothers Osborne] for New Year's. At the top of the year, it takes off again. The official add date for "In Case You Didn't Know" is [Monday], January 9th. Pre-orders start for the album on [Friday], January 13th. The album streets in February. I'll be going out with Lee Brice and Justin Moore in March and April. We just confirmed six dates with Thomas Rhett in Canada right before that. We've got a really exciting summer tour that I'm not allowed to talk about yet! But, we'll be able to announce that, probably, in January. So, now until September [2017], I'm pretty much gone for half of my life! It's really exciting!

Have you made any professional resolutions for the New Year?

I've said this for 13 years now, and I mean it from the bottom of my heart - I want to make a living doing something that I love. So, I have very high expectations of myself, and the fact that we just proved we can achieve a #1 song means that I pretty much expect to have that with every song now. I don't care how unrealistic that is, that's just the athlete in me. And, not because of what that means financially, but just because if I expect to get to do this for a living and pay my bills doing something I love, I better respect it and put the work in. So, I don't have bucket list goals; I just want to respect this and feel like I deserve this, and keep making enough money to pay the bills while doing it. For me, the most important thing is - going from playing bars and restaurants for ten years to doing it this way - is the fans. Fans are the reason this happens. I don't care if they buy it, or they come to the show, or if they stream it. I don't care how they do it, I just care that they do all of that because they like the music. I think that's the responsibility I feel, is to keep putting out honest music that people like. If I ever get to a point that I feel people don't like the music anymore, I'll stop. Just the fact that I get to do this for a living, I want to make sure I don't take it for granted. I want to keep working hard.

1. You are a SoCal guy, born and raised. As Shawn Mullins told me back in high school, Los Angeles is kind of like Nashville with a tan. Having spent time as a songwriter in both cities, what similarities - and what differences - do you see in the two towns?

It's not similar! It's really, really not similar! The people here are nicer. Southern hospitality is a real thing. L.A. is terrible for that. It took me ten years to find three friends! Ha! I'm joking...I had a great network of about eight or nine guys, but it did take ten years. You can't just trust people there on sight value. And the industry is very different here. Everything here is very accessible. In L.A., good luck meeting anybody that could ever help you; and if you do, good luck getting them to help you. Here, you might be sitting next to Blake Shelton at the Tin Roof! Everything is so accessible. It couldn't be more different than Los Angeles. I'll never stop missing the beach - people say, "Well, go to the lake." But why? You're trying to have that in the same conversation as the ocean? That's not the same thing! But you've got Panama City Beach 45 minutes here on a non-stop flight on Southwest. But, you can't argue with - if you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans - ten years beating my head against a door in L.A. A year here and a got a [record] deal; a year later, and I have a #1 song. This is definitely home for me, but the two towns could not be more different! I've been very fortunate to have a lot of shows in Southern California. Even some in Vegas, but that's only a three-hour drive, so I'll take a day after the show to go see my parents and friends. I flew back and was there for Thanksgiving. I get there as often as I can, and eventually that is where I'll set up shop when I have a family and settle down. That's the original home. But I'll always have a place here, and Nashville will always be where I work, and it will always be my second home.

2. Not to confuse anyone, but we feel the need to point out that you happen to share a birthday with another Country artist named Brett - and your birthday also falls on National Puppy Day! So, if you had to describe yourself as a puppy, what kind of puppy do you think you would be, and what traits to do you share with that breed of puppy?

Wait, National Puppy Day? Really? Ha! And [Brett Eldredge] and I both have puppies! I think I would be like - what are the dogs called? The big, dopey ones? Most of them are gray. A Great Dane! I think I'd be a Great Dane! Kind of big and sloppy, and kind of gangly and awkward. We'll give me credit as being an athlete, but really, I was a pitcher. I stood in once place and threw a baseball; I didn't have to run around and show my gangly awkwardness. You should see me on a basketball court - I scored a lot of points, but it didn't look pretty. I think the Great Dane is perfect. 100% loyal. Loyal, happy, and dorky.