UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – Tracy Lawrence: “It’s been healthy for me to push myself into a new direction”

11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – Tracy Lawrence: “It’s been healthy for me to push myself into a new direction”

It’s always fun catching up with Tracy Lawrence. Over his very successful career he has gained insight into every aspect of the music business. Now, leading his own label, Lawrence Music Group, he is enjoying the creative freedom of an independent artist. He recently released his new single, ‘Stop, Drop and Roll,’ the precursor to his upcoming album, Headlights, Taillights and Radio, due out this summer. At CRS 2013 we caught up and talked about the process of puzzling together a new album.

UCN: Voice app is on. Anything you say…
TL: …can and will be held against me! [smiles]

UCN: First of all, I don’t think we’ve talked about the new single yet, ‘Stop, Drop and Roll.’ I don’t know if you saw the review?
TL: Did you give me a review?

UCN: Yes, sir, I did.
TL: Was it okay?

UCN: Yeah, I like it.
TL: It didn’t suck?

UCN: Yeah, you know, funny you say that because that was actually the review. It says “this doesn’t suck!” [laughs] TL: [laughs] That’s all I can ask for!

UCN: And it’s another Casey Beathard cut.
TL: First I gotta just say this. I love talking to people who actually know the music we’re talking about. [smiles]

UCN: You obviously have the established relationship with Casey. Did he bring you the song, or did you ask him for new material?
TL: No, I’ll tell you what happened. This album was done in two pieces, which was different than any project I’ve ever done. Usually by the time I get into the studio I have everything mapped out, all through the sequence of the record, I will have listened to everything and lived with everything and really wrestled with it for months. I started recording this album about two years ago and the initial concept was, I was planning on writing everything on the record with my staff writers. I was really going to make a retro album, a little more traditional, you know, maybe some road kind of songs that had a little Highway Men feel to it. I was looking in a completely different direction. I cut six things and then several months went by. We were getting the distribution deal going and trying to get the machine in place. Last January, my wife and I went to see Kenny Rogers at the Schermerhorn, with the symphony. I went backstage and talked with him for about 30 minutes, and we talked about how he had to reinvent himself several times throughout the course of his career. You know, he started off as a rock ‘n roll artist, and then he had his gambler phase, and then to duet phase with the ladies, where each time he had the challenge himself to do something different to remain viable in the format and to continue to grow. I left there really thinking about that, and I started second-guessing what I had already done. I decided that, hey, if I’m going to grow I need to challenge myself, I need to look for some progressive music, I need to look outside where my comfort zone is which is me and the people I’ve always written with. I started taking some publishing meetings and started finding some new songs. I found ‘Stop, Drop and Roll’ from Sony Tree, and Casey and I have had a lot of success over the last few years. I found some new things from other publishing companies, some younger fresher, more contemporary things. So, I went back in the studio and changed a couple of players in the section that I had used, and really cut an edgier portion of the album. Then I started to try to make it fit together and it really didn’t work. So I went back in with the original session group that I had, replacing the drums and the bass guitar, to make the whole album cohesive. But that being said, I really felt that if I’m going to go out there and put the money and the time in to try to play the radio game again and get back involved, I have got to challenge myself to be more contemporary. I’ve got to be relevant in the format with where things are. I mean, everything on this record when you hear it it’s rangy, it’s dynamic, lots of modulation, lots of keys. I mean there’s a lot of ‘chick keys’, like I call them. [smiles] There some stuff that if I had to do it for five nights in a row out there it would be a real challenge for me is singing, because it’s really rangy and dynamic. But I felt like if I’m going to do this I need to push myself.

UCN: I know we’ve talked about the importance of looking to stay relevant before, but I think it’s not just about being relevant really. It’s also about staying interested in it yourself. If you do the same thing for 20 years, that’s not fun.
TL: You know, you can look at it like. Yes, I need to do this to re-engage my fans. But it’s as much about re-engaging myself as it is about my fans. You’ve got to grow. If you just say, I’m going to go back in and cut the same stuff like ‘Time Marches On,’ what’s the point? If you’re not going to grow, not going to evolve, you might as well just stop, man. Just go write some songs under the publishing deal thing. I think it’s been healthy for me to push myself into a new direction.

UCN: So would you say that ‘Stop’ is representative of what the whole record sounds like, or is it on the more contemporary end of it?
TL: I think it’s probably the song that straddles the fence between some of the more edgier songs and some of the more traditional songs on the record. It’s up-tempo, it’s positive. I think it’s very commercial and it seemed to have the right feel. It’s the kind of up-tempo that people have grown accustomed to getting from me, because I’ve had hits with similar stuff like that, like ‘You Find Out Who Your Friends Are.’ But I didn’t want to go over the top, you know, I didn’t want to go Chris Gaines on everybody.

UCN: [laughs] Please, no…
TL: There has to be a balance to it and also, the first single is really important for establishing that you’re moving somewhere else. I have some friends at radio stations, and they would play it over the system in the studio to see how things were stacking up with other things that are out in the format right now. Put it next to Blake Shelton songs, put it next to Jason Aldean songs, and then see how the mix, not just the song, but the level, how things fit into context. We actually went back and remixed the record three times, because it wasn’t where I wanted it to be. It didn’t fit sonically into that place. And I think that’s a big part of it too.

UCN: Yes, it is. Who else have you been writing with for this record?
TL: Well, gee let me think…

UCN: Let me put it this way. Any Rick Huckaby songs that I need to know about? [smiles] TL: [smiles] Yes, there are some Rick Huckaby songs on it, there’s quite a few. One of them is a very serious song called ‘Butterfly.’ I was watching the news, a 60 Minutes piece one night, and they were talking about the tornadoes that have destroyed Joplin, Missouri a couple of years back. And they were talking about how these ‘butterfly people’ came down. They had all these kids talking about it, how these butterfly people showed up and comforted them while they were waiting in the rubble, waiting to be saved. Spirits came down and they called them the butterfly people. They protected them and comforted them, and kept him from freaking out. So I started doing some research and found out that butterfly people have been seen at Chernobyl, had been seen in different wars and at different natural disasters around the world. They had been seen by a lot of people. Not only did they protect people, but they also came to collect the souls take people to the other side. So we wrote it from the perspective that butterfly people were angels. It’s really powerful actually. My wives grandmother passed away last year and they played it at the funeral, so it’s already been used at some special things. And the other song is completely different. If you go 30 minutes outside of Nashville it changes drastically. It goes from very urban to very hillbilly really fast. And I’ve played this bar one night…

UCN: Oh, I remember that song! [smiles] TL: ‘Cecil’s Palace’?

UCN: Yes, I love that song!
TL: We made the joke one night that this place was like Cecil’s palace. Not Caesar’s Palace, but more the dive on the other side. There were people in there who had probably never seen a dentist a day in their lives, you know what I mean? So we laughed about it being ‘Cecil’s palace’ and we joked that it would make a great song. When we got back and we wrote the song, me, Huck, and Flip. We joked about the title but we couldn’t really figure out a direction for East Tennessee, so we took it and moved it to Texas and wrote a swing melody for it. We made it about the most amazing honky-tonk that you could ever find in your life, where there’s a strip club in it, you can get sushi, you can have a shot of whiskey with some ice cream, it’s just freaking over-the-top! [smiles]

UCN: When you played the Tin Pan South last year the room just died laughing. It’s great that it’s on there!
TL: Yes, it’s really fun! And it’s probably the most traditional thing on the record. It’s Western Swing but we cut it more like The Stray Cats would’ve done it rather than George Strait. So it’s sonically different, but it fit the vibe of the record. We wanted to make a cohesive with everything else.

UCN: Does the record contained more outside songs or more that you’ve written with your staff?
TL: There’s about five or six, it’s about half-and-half. Let’s see, the new stuff, the last session we did ‘Cecil’s Palace’ and ‘Butterfly’ were in that section. And everything else on the other section I wrote, or it came from my staff writers.

UCN: Do outside songs get brought to you or do you still go out and find them?
TL: I didn’t do the cattle call and put stuff on the pitch sheet. I’m at a place now where I will call publishers. I will go sit down and go to lunch, and give them an hour to play me their best stuff. I’ll tell them what I’m looking for, but I don’t have on my album yet, and then they kind of show things to me. I can take ten publisher meetings and pretty much find everything I need for record in a pretty short period of time. There are some great songs out there!

UCN: Absolutely, you could easily make a four-disc record. There is so much great material out there. Do you have any criteria you use or is it just instinct by now?
TL: I do, but it’s also about balance. There comes a point where the child home where all note like I don’t need any more balance, I tried if there’s already one wall of the record. I tried to have those certain elements. The result was one waltz on the record, to balance, I try to have the record of balance with different temples in different styles. So once I get those slots filled, that’s it. I’ve never been that artist but, you know, you hear people say so and so is cutting so let’s run over to the studio and play it for the producer. They might cut at last minute. I’m not that guy. You’re not going to bring anything to me in the studio and getting it cut, because I’ve already spent months with the songs and wrestling things down. I will already have a mental picture of where the album is going long before again studio. A lot of people will cut things last minute, but I’m not that guy.

UCN: You’ve been on the road quite a bit recently. How has life on the road been? After all this time how do you keep that part fun?
TL: I do it in stages. I don’t stay out all the time. I’m like a weekend warrior now, so I’m out two or three days at a time. I did about 10 shows a month, but it’s about to get busy. I leave tomorrow to head to Denver, I have a couple of shows this weekend. Then I’ll fly from out there to Florida for a week and do five days of radio. So it’s about to get busy, I’m going to be gone for several weeks. So at about six weeks I’m going to want to run away and hide. [smiles] So just keep the alcohol hidden. [laughs]

UCN: When do you think the record will be out?
TL: It’s looking like the first part of August. It will be called Headlights, Taillights and Radio.

UCN: I look forward to hearing it, I need to come hang out at your office again soon.
TL: Yes, come on! Will go through it all, we’ll have a listening party!

UCN: We have to do that! Thank you so much for your time
TL: You’re very welcome!

 

Keep up to date with Tracy Lawrence via tracylawrence.com, and via Twitter, @tracy_lawrence.

 

Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

Latest posts by Liv Carter (see all)