UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – Brent Cobb: “Songwriting always came natural.”

11 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on UCN Interview at CRS 2013 – Brent Cobb: “Songwriting always came natural.”

Brent Cobb‘s easy-as-Sunday-morning vocal delivery and charming, folksy songwriting is winning him a lot of high profile fans, among them country superstar Luke Bryan! At CRS 2013 Cobb talked with UCN about the craft of songwriting, how it came more naturally to him than being a performing artist, and his possible relation to ‘The Singing Brakeman’ Jimmie Rogers.

 

UCN: Tell me about what you’ve got going on right now, as far as your record goes.
Brent Cobb: Well, we released the Brent Cobb EP last September. ‘Course, I’ve had cuts by a few artists here and there, and now we’re working on putting out the full length album in the spring, and we’re pushing the single ‘Love On Me’ to radio. We’re number 45 or 46 on the Music Row charts and that’s where we’re at right now man.

UCN: Congrats on that.
BC: Thank you!

UCN: I read somewhere that you’ve always had a bit of a struggle over being an artist vs. a songwriter. Tell me about that.
BC: Well, songwriting always came natural. I didn’t have to sell myself or even pitch myself to anyone. So that was something I already knew I’d always do. And the artist thing…sometimes everyone gets in an off mood, and it seems like a mainstream artist has to be on all the time. I don’t know. I’ll always sing and perform and stuff, but it’s hard sometimes. And you have to be away from your family, and it’s hard to be away from folks you love. But I have the time right now to do it and I’m enjoying it and we’re busy and I’ll do it for as long as I can.

UCN: I’m an artist and writer myself so I completely understand. I had a point back in September where I was just like, “This is stupid, I don’t know why I’m doing this anymore.” It made me appreciate the craft of songwriting more, because I could just sit in a room with someone and create something without having to be traipsing all over…
BC: But isn’t it crazy…it’s kind of like when you’re hungover and you wake up that morning and go, “I’m never drinking again…”

UCN: [laughs] Exactly!
BC: But then, by the weekend, you’re like, “I’m think gonna have a drink!” I think it’s the same way. I love going out and playing!

UCN: [laughs] Exactly! I’m the exactly same way. It’s kind of like the third Godfather movie…”I try to get out, and they pull me right back in!”
BC: It’s addictive.

UCN: It truly is.
BC: So that’s the dilemma.

UCN: But in some ways it almost seems like a better deal to be the songwriter because you make a good portion of the money…
BC: Well, you can, but gosh it takes so long to even do that now. I don’t know why anybody gets into this! [laughs] You have to love it, you have to love what you’re doing. It’s just hard to make a living.

UCN: I think with the way the industry is now, you’re going to get more people who are in it because they love it.
BC: That’s it. So the music has to get better too.

UCN: Yeah, and all those folks that used to come in like, “I just want to make a million bucks…”
BC: It weeds them out.

UCN: Tell me about your ‘Fireside Sessions.’ I think that’s a really cool idea!
BC: It was just one of those deals where I was thinking, I wanted to make sure that who I am comes across, and what country music and country living is to me, and how it’s not all about hunting and stuff like that.

UCN: [laughs] BC: That’s what we did growing up, we’d have a Friday night fire from the time I was 13. That’s just what my family does. But when I was 13, me and a buddy of mine, we’d get together every Friday night and we‘d have a fire and get guitars around the fire. I just wanted to capture that now too, and that’s what we did. We got the band together, sat around a fire, mic’ed it and that’s where it came from. I just wanted to capture the real thing.

UCN: I think that’s cool because I think especially people who live in cities miss out on that. We used to have a lot of fires when I was growing up too.
BC: See that’s the thing, I’m half Yankee, my mom’s from Cleveland, OH. Her brothers would come down every Thanksgiving and they loved sitting around the fire and picking guitars. They all played too. So there’s definitely something magical about being in the woods, sitting around the fire, and playing a guitar.

UCN: Your music is a lot more traditional than some. Has that impacted your success on the radio in any way, positively or negatively? Some stations might be more inclined to add more traditional sounds than others, but have you run into that at all?
BC: Everybody always says something about it being more traditional but I don’t think it’s affected it one way or the other really. Liv, as you walk in… [to Liv] You’re wearing a Cadillac Black shirt? That’s awesome! [smiles] But yeah, I don’t think it’s affected it in one way or the other. I know it’s maybe a little more traditional than someone more modern and mainstream, but I really don’t think it’s enough for anyone to notice, and if they do notice, they notice it in a positive way. I don’t think they notice it and say, “Well, that’s too traditional!”, because I think it’s also mainstream too. So the folks who don’t realize that say, “That sounds like a hit!” I hope! That’s what it seems like right now and I hope it continues to be that way.

UCN: Luke Bryan has played a role in introducing you to folks. How did you guys get to know each other?
BC: Well, before this EP, I did my first record in 2006. I met a distant cousin I never knew and he produced Shooter Jennings’ first 4 records. I was a huge fan of all that stuff! So my grandma gave him a CD. He and Shooter listened to it and they loved what I had, and they wanted to do a record with me. So I recorded that record first with Shooter and Dave. If I’d never recorded that, Luke would have never heard it and become a fan. And because of that record, he became a fan of what I did and then he was like, “Hey, why don’t you come to Nashville and come hang out?” And that’s kind of how Luke got be in the loop. I was happy to have something to give him.

UCN: You were out in California for a little while too. How did that affect your sound?
BC: I’m so thankful that I was in California first, because I think a lot of people come to Nashville and they have a certain way that they think music has to sound and what you write about. And California is so different with everything; it’s wide open. If you have just a little bit of “ruralness” in your music, then it’s country in California. Here it’s not that way. So if I had come here first I would have thought you could only write a certain way or perform a certain way, but with California man, it’s just so free. It let me know that there are a lot of different ways to write a country song. And that’s had a lot of impact on the way I write now.

UCN: I read that you come from a family of musicians, that your dad is a musician.
BC: Yeah my dad and all my uncles and his uncles. We are supposedly related to Jimmie Rodgers, the first inductee into the Country Music Hall Of Fame! I gotta confirm that, but we’re akin to a lot of Rogers and there’s this old picture from back in the day with my uncles and there’s a guy in it named Jimmie Rogers. I don’t know if it’s the Jimmie Rogers. It’s a pretty cool picture. So yeah, from a long time ago, everybody plays and sings on both sides of the family.

UCN: Just growing up around that I’m sure helped you coming up.
BC: Absolutely. Just gave me the bug.

UCN: My parents are musicians too so…
BC: Ain’t it crazy the way that is? You feel like you’re onto something nobody else knows about growing up that way, when you grow up with people playing and they’re your influences. It’s a cool feeling.

UCN: Did you ever find yourself playing or singing things that sounded like things your dad played? Like, my dad’s a piano player and I grew up hearing him play and so once in awhile when I play piano, I’ll play something that sounds like something he’d play.
BC: Absolutely. I still do that, I try to do that. I try to write the way my dad would write.

UCN: I didn’t think about it until a few years ago, but it’s an interesting thing.
BC: You know what’s crazy about that, getting back to Shooter, it’s funny how a lot of people wouldn’t embrace Shooter because they said, “Oh, he’s just trying to sound like his dad.” I can’t help that I have my daddy’s voice, and I don’t know if you sound like your dad, but you play like him sometimes and don’t mean to, it’s just natural. It’s funny that he caught flak for that because everybody knew his dad, but I sound just like my daddy and no one cares. Isn’t that crazy?

UCN: I almost kind of feel bad for guys like Shooter, Hank 3, or Julian Lennon because they have this real famous parent, and no matter what you do, people will be comparing you to that. Julian Lennon could write the greatest song on earth, but in everyone’s mind he’ll never be as good as his father.
BC: Right. He’s an artist of his own.

UCN: And same with Shooter. I don’t think he sounds anything like his dad.
BC: I hate that, man, ’cause they’re such good artists.

UCN: So you’ve got a tour coming up, yeah?
BC: Yeah we’re doing 4-day runs every weekend.

UCN: So where is it taking you? Are you doing mainly the continental US?
BC: It’s mainly the Southeast and the Midwest, but that’s the main thing. We’ve got 44 dates on the tour schedule. 44 looked really good on paper.

UCN: As someone who has played a lot of Georgia clubs, have you ever played Kerrigans?
BC: Ahhhh…why do I know that place so well? I know the name and I’m sure a lot of people who  played there.

UCN: [laughs] It’s infamous. It’s probably the bottom of the barrel club. It’s in Lyons.
BC: I know I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never played it. Is it just, dive, dive, dive?

UCN: Yeah. That’s the club that made me appreciate all the other places I got to play because six nights a week you play five 30-minute sets a night, with hip hop in between, and the place they put you up is in this weird trailer park.
BC: Ahh, man that sounds like Whiskey River.

UCN: Whiskey River was a good club. They had a band house. That place is notches up compared to Kerrigans.
BC: Sounds like the Bama Club. Ahh man…! [smiles]

UCN: Where’s that?
BC: That was a hell of a weekend. [laughs] It’s in Silas, AL, which is right outside of Jackson, AL which is still nowhere. They put you up in this brown recluse cabin, and it was bad.

UCN: [Laughs] BC: I was staying in Jackson and my transmission went out on me. I was ready to be done with this run, and I was like, “I’m fixin’ to go back home and take it easy.” And my transmission went out. I was stuck in Jackson, AL for four days. It was pretty bad.

UCN: I actually had that happen the last time I was in Macon. I drove my car down and the engine died. Fortunately there was a dealership and garage next door that the club owned.
BC: It was not that way for me, man… [smiles]

UCN: I felt fortunate, but I ended up having to get a whole new engine put in and rent a car to get back home.
BC: I had this Town & Country and there was this old man who worked on transmissions and I didn’t know any of these people and was like, “Don’t take me, man…”

UCN: [Laughs] BC: And they had my truck and every day he’d be, “Well, we’ll probably have it rebuilt tomorrow  or the next day” and every day it was like, “Well, it’s going to be a couple more days.” And I have to go because I had another run to do in Baton Rouge or something. So I had to drive to Georgia to get a car to drive to Baton Rouge, then go back to Georgia because I had to play a gig in Georgia, get a rental car to drive to Jackson and get my truck. That was terrible…terrible! God, Jackson was fine but man that was an awful run.

UCN: Like I said, I’ve had those myself and every time you end up having to go back you think ”Man, I hope everything stays together, I hope it’s not like last time.” So what are your hopes for this EP?
BC: I don’t know man, I hope ‘Love On Me’ keeps climbing and I hope we can keep jackin’ it up the Music Row Chart. I hope more people keep getting the EP and saying, “This is great, this is something I haven’t heard before.”

UCN: To finish up, give me either another cool road story or an inspirational quote that’s stuck with you.
BC: My great grandma used to say, according to my dad, “Never trust a man who doesn’t drink, because if he doesn’t drink, what does he do?” And that’s what I live by.

UCN: That’s great! Man, thank you so much, I really appreciate it!
BC: Thank you!

 

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

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