Brett Eldredge joins Today’s Country Radio with Kelleigh Bannen for a look at his new album, ‘Songs About You.’ Brett describes his “flow state” over the two months it took him to write this album, taking risks with sexier songs like “Wait Up For Me,” and revealing more of himself than ever before.
Tune in and listen to the episode in-full this Friday (June 17) at 11am PT / 1pm CT / 2pm ET or anytime on-demand at apple.co/_TodaysCountry.
Brett Eldredge on writing most of the songs on ‘Songs About You’ so quickly
I just got in this groove that I’d never found. I found a confidence I think is what it was. And I just hit this window for two months to where I beat literally everything I wrote for the year and a half before that. And I’m so glad I wrote all those other songs and they might make a project later, but it’s just a special, I guess some people would call it a flow state… I found my sweet spot and I found confidence in that to where I was waking up every morning singing these melodies in my head, getting these lyrics in the middle of the night. It was just coming to me and it was so strange.
Brett Eldredge on the production of ‘Songs About You’
I think what really worked for me on this record is that the people I made it with really lifted me up to be the person and the artist that I could be by bringing what they bring to the table and allowing me to do the things that make me, me… I would have this whole chorus written, but I was like I want Nathan Chapman’s really great musicality to come in on this and take the chord structure to a way different place than I would… And then I go to Mark Trussell and Heather Morgan, Heather’s written nine of the songs in this record. And so I would bring her into every situation that also made me feel great if she’s going to catch out of thin air these things that I’m just rambling off and make it make sense… And that’s all you can ask for in anything in life is people you’re with, you can trust them with your whole heart and that they want to make the best thing for you and all of us together. And I think that that was where I went. And so I was able to be me 100%. And I think that’s where that this record shines through.
Brett Eldredge on the making and meaning of his song “Wait Up For Me”
Before I went on that Montana trip I was talking about, I had a goal of I want to write a really sexy, beautiful song and I want it to be broken down and stripped down to where it’s so intimate it just grabs a hold of you… And so we were writing at this cabin and we had a fire going and the fire’s set, it was perfect. we’re chilling by the fire and Heather was altitude sick…So she was laying in the other room… Mark and I are writing and he has this piano group. And just one of those things where it’s like the aha moment of this is why we came here for this. And he’s playing this piano part.
I just started singing along to this feel and it was so romantic and had the fire going and everything, it just took me to this place. But it’s not only sexy, it’s sacred in a way. And it’s about that weight of searching for somebody and that wait for you can’t wait to see somebody and that mutual feeling of, “I can’t wait to see you, you can’t wait to see me,” and the importance of that person to you. And I just think that’s beautiful. And it was so sexy and intimate. And Heather comes out of the other room by the third verse and she goes, “I’m going to keep you warm like a furnace in the winter. You could cool me off for a summertime breeze,” or something. I was like, “Where the hell did you come from?”
It was magic. And it’s exactly what we needed her for right there. And that’s pretty cool and you can have friends that can just show up like that. And the song is one of my favorites on the record.
‘Songs About You’ is available on all platforms now
