“Somewhere between the horns, the pedal steel and the background singers you get a glimpse at what it’s like to make Country music from Atlanta,’ Kristian Bush declared about the first part of his mammoth 52 song project, ‘ATLxBNA’, to celebrate turning 52 years old. The Sugarland, Billy Pilgrim, Dark Water songwriter and musical impresario has now announced that part two of that journey, ‘In the Key of Summer’, will be released on June 24th. We caught up with him to talk all about it.
It’s always a pleasure talking to you Kristian, we know just how busy you are these days!
Thank you my friend, great to talk to you too.
I loved the ‘ATLxBNA’ album. If that is the first of four projects coming down the line, I cannot wait to hear the rest!
We’re primed and ready with the second part, ‘In the Key of Summer’, which will be out June 24th. The thing of trying to release 52 songs in 52 weeks is quite intense! (laughing) We’ve got to balance what we want to do against the current intelligence of the music business!
When did the idea of the whole project begin to emerge and is it not daunting?
It started towards the end of 2021. Usually at the end of the year I like to have a meeting with all the people who work on all the projects that I’m involved with. Whether it’s musicals, Dark Water, Sugarland or the solo stuff, we all meet so that we don’t end up stepping on each other’s toes with release schedules and things like that.
My support system often sees me frustrated that I have all these songs that no-one gets to hear. A lot of artists feel this way. It is often the rule that the more successful you become, the less music you get to put out. The labels often want you to release fewer songs, weirdly. That generates the kind of pressure that can break a heart, you know?
Our initial idea was to put out all 52 songs in one day! (laughing) The intelligence of Scott Borchetta (Big Machine label head) meant that he said, ‘Look, let’s at least put the songs out in four sections so we don’t overwhelm people, a lot of the songs will get lost.’ I trust him, he’s a smart man, so that’s what we’re doing.
We have all the songs, we just didn’t want to serve all the food at one sitting.
So are you currently still wiring songs? It seems like you have all the 52 you need.
Well, I’m speaking to you today from my studio so there’s a clue there! (laughing) Some of the songs I am going to back to and editing or updating a little because I want to make sure I’ve got the best version of them.
I’ve changed a few lyrics and remixed a few of them. That’s part of my process anyway, there are seven versions of every Sugarland song somewhere on my computer!
I didn’t spend my money on fancy cars or a huge house, I spent it on my studio and `I invested it in humans that can help me make more music. My Rock ‘n’ Roll good fortune helped me collect more songs!
Some of the songs on the first part of the project, ‘ATLxBNA’ seem like some of the most honest and raw songs you’ve ever written in terms of the subject matter.
I tried to open myself up a little more in terms of songs like ‘Heart of Yours’. One of the responses I got back from I first started to poke my head out as a solo artist during the ‘Southern Gravity’ phase was that I had such a sense of humour that people didn’t hear in, or wasn’t appropriate with, Sugarland. A lot of people connected with Jennifer but not necessarily me, even though I was there all the time!
I’d been writing a lot of personal songs in the 90’s with Billy Pilgrim, almost too personal! (laughing) Almost too dramatic! I was in my 20’s, everyday felt like I was in The Cure or something! I decided to write a little more like that again as a way of getting personal with people and help channel some of the things I was feeling. It was easier for me to write a song than it would be going to a newly divorced dad’s therapy group, you know?
‘After the Wine Wears Off’ also has a different vibe to most of your previous songs.
It does. I’m from Georgia, so that’s that song, it has shavings of Otis Redding in it! (laughing)
What is it about the Georgia sound that has influenced what you’ve done with the Nashville writers this time around?
I ask myself that question a lot. All those first ten songs ask that question and they don’t necessarily answer it. What’s great about music is that it’s an activity. I fell into the idea by going with my brother, Brandon, to an Independence Day performance here in Atlanta. We turned up to play a song with a group of musicians and when we got there they’d rehearsed ‘Trailer Hitch’ from the ‘Southern Gravity’ album. What they had done to it, as a performance, was fascinating. I’d never heard my music translated through the voices of five horn players and six background singers coming at it with R&B instincts.
It was so beautiful. Country music fans have always liked that song but what a breath of fresh air it was when we played it with those guys! So that was where the idea sparked. What happens when you play a Country music song but with a different or unique flavour that can only come from somewhere like Atlanta? A lot of the music business in Atlanta is built around the performance of the song. The song itself is an export – a lot of the great writers from Georgia also performed their own songs, unlike Nashville, where there is often a pretty clear separation between the writer and the performer.
So, writers in Atlanta are also performers who are concerned with making each performance better and evolving their songs to make the performance exciting. They often want to take the listener on a journey whereas in Nashville the song is often the primary driver and many different people can sing it. A song can be a hit no matter who sings it in Nashville, they aim for consistency.
I wanted to mix those two disciplines together and ask the question of what it would sound like.
With all the different projects you have going on do you ever wake up and wonder who you are going to be that day or do you write specifically for specific projects?
They kind of self sort, to some degree but I will tell you this, we are working today. We started something yesterday and played it for my brother, Brandon. He said, ‘Well, it doesn’t sound like Dark Water but there’s something super special there that we need to keep working on. Let’s take it forward thinking it’s a Kristian Bush solo song.’ So we’ll track it like that but at some point I might think, ‘You know, who would kill this? Let’s take it to Nettles (Jennifer, Sugarland lead singer) and see what she thinks about it.’
The next part of the 52 project is ‘In the Key of Summer’ which is out June 24th. It sounds quite self-explanatory.
It’s specific when I say, ‘In the Key of Summer’. The first album my son ever wanted was ‘Songs in the Key of Life’ by Stevie Wonder. He listened to it over and over again until he figured out you could buy other records! (laughing)
The experience of listening to that album imprinted a memory of that summer on him. That’s what I’m trying to do on this next release, I’m going to give you a soundtrack that you can use, the songs are all related, there are 16 songs coming, which will be the biggest release of the four I’ve got planned.
It’s mean’t to be put on and then you can let your summer time happen around it. It’s gonna be a fantastic opportunity to get out after we’ve all been locked away for two summers and enjoy a soundtrack alongside that.
We’d love to see you back over here in the UK playing all these songs at some point. Any plans?
I did hear a couple of conversations and offers floating around. I’m also going to be the broadcast voice for the BBC 2 coverage of CMAFest when that airs over there, so I have a feeling that the line from me to you is being drawn right now and I can’t wait to get there! (laughing)
‘In the Key of Summer’ will be out everywhere on June 24th
