HomeEF CountryInterview: Jason Petric opens up about PETRIC's new album 'Flashbacks'

Interview: Jason Petric opens up about PETRIC’s new album ‘Flashbacks’

Canadian Country trio PETRIC – brothers Jason and Tom Petric, and third member Jordan Day – started 2021 off strong with the release of their album ‘Flashbacks’.

One of the most exciting bands to emerge from the Canadian Country music scene in some time, PETRIC capture the uplifting vibes of 90s Country and put their own fresh spin on them.

I spoke to Jason recently about ‘Flashbacks’ to find out more about the making of the record, discuss new single ‘Kids’ and find out about their plans to come to the UK in the future…

You recently released ‘Kids’. Why did you choose that song as a single?

I think it’s got that energy that everyone thrives on, and that everyone gravitates towards. At the same time, I also think it’s a perfect representation of PETRIC and our music. The harmonies, the guitar licks, the nostalgic lyrics… it just seems to be everything that PETRIC is about. It was a very easy decision to go with that as our lead-off single.

How excited are you for fans to hear the new album ‘Flashbacks’?

Oh, man, it’s a great feeling to be where we’re at right now. It’s been two years in the making and we got to make it with our best friends. I think PETRIC, our band, has never been as tight of a unit as we are right now. Regardless of what happens with this album, and what type of success we may or may not see with it. It’s a chapter of our life that I think has been really, really good to us so it’s exciting to be able to share it with people finally.

‘Flashbacks’ takes me back to the halcyon days of Country music in the 90s, when everything sounded so good and radio was full of fantastic songs. How did you go about picking the songs for this record?

Ah, man… for us, we held a very high standard for song selection. We didn’t want any fillers. We wanted each song to say something and represent us. If anyone in our band at any point in time did not like a song, that was addressed. If it got four out of five votes, it didn’t matter – that one vote had more power. We wanted to have every song in this album be a five out of five for us with our band, and feel like this is PETRIC. For us, it’s genuine. If you like it great, if you don’t, that’s fine but this is who we are. We worked with a producer named Chris Baysford, who is is a band member in every single way. He’s such a great dude. He helped us so much with this album. He’s a very talented producer, every word he says we trust. I think he helped us trust each other in this process more than we ever have in the past. Regardless of what people think of this album, you’re getting a genuine PETRIC. I think in the 90s and early 2000s, Country music was more genuine. I think artists put out better albums. You go back to early Keith Urban and Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw; those albums are still some of the best out there. It’s nothing against what’s come out in the last five or six years but there’s an era of music back in the late 90s/early 2000s that, for me, that is Country and always will be. I can always listen to those albums start to finish, that’ll never change and I hope this album can become that for some of our listeners.

This album is so upbeat and positive, and it’s perfect to soundtrack this endless pandemic that we don’t seem to be able to get out of. Was there any consideration of putting this out during a pandemic or was it just a coincidence?

Just a coincidence. It’s what we like to sing. I think we record the album that we want to play live as well. When we go into a studio, yes there are some songs that I think find a little bit different energy than what will be played on stage, but I think for the most part, we’re always looking at songs and picking songs and thinking, ‘Oh, man, that would go great here’ and ‘oh, we could do this with our fans right here’. There’s always a lot of wheels spinning in all of our brains. We want to create the album that we want to perform for our fans. It kinda sucks that we can’t do that right now but that’s still the album you’re hearing. There’s a lot of positivity. We’re a happy group of guys. We’re not a death metal band, and maybe if we ever do a death metal album, it’ll be a little more aggressive but I doubt that.

I couldn’t imagine you guys making that kind of record but I’d be interested to hear it…

You know, what’s really funny is my wife… I don’t want to say she hates Country music but you’ll never catch you’re listening to it. She is nothing but death metal, like the hardest, heaviest rock and roll metal that is out there. That’s my wife. So you got the singer-songwriter in me, who sings and writes sweet Country songs and then the head bangin’ as hard as you can rock and roll mama there. It’s kind of funny.

You mentioned about how touring isn’t possible right now and that must be really frustrating, especially with a new record out…

You know what it is what it is. We can’t do it so there’s no point in worrying about it. We’re still making plans. We’re making proper plans. We’re not under the assumption that in the next three months, we’re going to get out and play again but we’re optimistic that the world is going to be in better shape in three months. The sad thing is live music is going to be the last thing to come back. That’s the real unfortunate thing. I think for me, that’s the frustrating thing when I see people who are a little anti-vaccination or they don’t necessarily want to follow what’s being implemented right now. It’s great you might get your store opened up a little bit sooner, but unfortunately, music is going to be the last thing that comes back. I do hope that happens sooner than later. We are optimistically making realistic plans, hopefully for 2022, where we can get back in action and really let this one rip. Maybe we’ll even have some other music out by then as well.

I hope you can get over to the UK because you’d go down a storm over here…

I hope so. I’ve never been to the UK. It’s an absolute dream. My wife’s already given us permission to go as long as we take her so that’s a good thing! That means we’re allowed to go and make some noise and have some fun. It’s absolutely on our bucket list and we will be there.

What’s the Country music scene like in Canada? Tell us a bit about it…

It has never been stronger and never been better. I feel like our band is actually part of a whole new wave of the next generation of Canadian Country music, which has been really exciting to be a part of. At the time, we were like, ‘hey, we’re gonna be like the first new band’ and then (laughs) three of them came out so it’s become tougher than ever, but at the same time, more inspiring than ever before. I’d say it started in about 2014/2015, where production level just came up on songs and quality of artists really took a rise. Our community is great. It’s not very big, but there’s probably 40/50 festivals right across our country. We have a huge Country music awards that is thrown every year, which ends up being just an amazing get together with everybody once a year. Each of our individual provinces have their own Country music awards, which is also very cool. It is thriving. It’s a very, very cool industry right now.

PETRIC’s album ‘Flashbacks’ is available to stream and download now. Watch the music video for ‘Kids’ below:

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Pip Ellwood-Hughes Editor / Owner
Pip is the owner and Editor of Entertainment Focus, and the Managing Director of Piñata Media.

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