This one was an interview eight years in the making. Since we heard Chris Janson’s ‘Buy Me a Boat’ back in 2015 we’ve been big fans. Of course, he has been writing & recording music, though, for much longer than that, which he talks about in the interview below. Four great albums with Warner and big hits like ‘Drunk Girl’, Good Vibes’ and ‘Done’ along way the way have brought him to now – a new label in Big Machine and a new album due this summer. We were thrilled to grab some time with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today Chris, it’s great to catch up with you and talk about your exciting new venture with Big Machine.
Oh, I appreciate it man, thank you.
I can’t believe where the last eight years have gone. You’ve been releasing albums with Warner since 2015 but were obviously writing and performing before then too. How do you think you’ve grown and evolved as a writer and a performer in the last decade or so?
I got to say that even before the Warner days I’d been through two record deals and had been performing professionally since I was 9 years old! It’s all I’ve ever done my whole life! To evolve as a writer you’ve got to evolve as a human, first and foremost. The songs will come after that.
I’ve always been a performer but I’ve not always been a songwriter. That is just a learning experience that never stops, writing a song. You are never too good to learn something new. A lot of it is just discipline – I often say that if you write a million songs you’re bound to have one or two of them turn out as hits, so it’s something that you have to work hard at and not give up on.
With the performing side, I was just born with it in my blood, it’s all I’ve ever wanted to do so there’s really no evolution to it, I just get up there on stage and let the music lead!
You have such a great reputation as a live artist. Your boundless energy and your flair for showmanship is well known. Were there artists you watched growing up that you learned that from or is it something that just comes naturally to you?
Thanks for the compliment! To answer your question I’d say yes, and yes! (laughing) I mean this with all humility so please take it as such but I’ve always had entertaining in my blood. It is something that came very natural to me and something I’ve always enjoyed. I mean, I’ve literally been making & playing music and getting paid for it since the age of 9 years old!
I’m just so grateful to be where I am in my life and my career to have garnered such a reputation – I think part of it might just be god-given, you know? You either have it or you don’t. Hell, man, it’s such an easy thing to do when you love your job and I sure do love my job! (laughing) I’m incredibly grateful for that.
Alongside your own songs, you’ve written songs for the likes of Cody Johnson, Tim McGraw, LoCash, Randy Houser and Holy Williams to name but a few. Do you have a favourite cut that has been recorded by another artist?
Yes I do, thank you for asking that question. One of my most favourite songs is ‘How I’ll Always Be’ by Tim McGraw – it was on his ‘Damn Country Music’ album from 2015. I love that song, it surpasses all the other cuts for me. I still play ‘I Love This Life’ by LoCash in my live set sometimes if we’re feeling it. A lot of artists follow a set list and have these great, grandiose planned out shows but mine are not like that, they are more off the cuff where I play what I feel like playing in any given moment. So sometimes I’ll play ‘How I’ll Always Be’ but sometimes we don’t.
You released four albums with Warner since 2015. I think ‘Everybody’ might be my favourite of a very strong set. Do you have a favourite album or is that like asking to choose between your children?
Every album is different. ‘Everybody’ might well be my favourite one too. I like them all, honestly, and they all had hits and all had something special to say during different phases of my life. I will say that I have a whole new revised energy and happiness about recording music since I have signed to Big Machine. We’ve just cut a new album, which should be coming your way in June, and, to be frankly honest with you, I’m most excited about that one.
There’s a new energy that comes along with a new record deal and with change and it’s all been such a positive transfer that it’s been amazing. Working with my producer, Julian Raymond, has been fantastic. For the first time I’ve given the reins over to someone else and put my trust in them as far as producing the album goes. I’ve produced my stuff in the past so this has been something different but I feel like we are on the right path to great success.
What were the drivers and motivations behind the move from Warner to Big Machine? Was it the ability to have your own record label imprint with Harpeth 60 and reasons like that?
Absolutely! That was a big motivation and I appreciate you mentioning that. I always wanted to have my own record label and to be partnered with such a big label like Big Machine is pretty awesome, what a blessing that is. I loved that opportunity but I also loved the people I met and who work at the label. Julian Raymond is such a cool guy, he’s a brilliant music man. The staff at the label are people you may not know and not necessarily people the fans care about as much but they are good people and they let me be not only who I want to be but who I am, you know?
I’m enjoying being completely creatively uncontrolled! (laughing) I will say, for the record, that my years at Warner were great. We broke apart on great terms – there was nothing weird or no bad blood there at all, the people there are still close friends of mine but I just needed a change and this felt like the right time to make that change.
Music is supposed to be fun and if at any point along the way, no matter who you are recording with, for or where, if it becomes ‘not fun’ then what’s the point of doing it? I’m having ‘new fun’ with Big Machine right now and it’s wonderful.
Are there any artists on your Harpeth 60 imprint that you are particularly excited about?
Hell yeah, dude! Shane Profitt is my first signing to that label. I love Shane – he’s so great and he’s killing it out there with his song, ‘How it Oughta Be’ right now. I can’t take all the credit for that, Big Machine have been great partners on this imprint so Shane is my first signing and hopefully there will be more coming down the line in the future. Part of my goal and mission is to try and find talent to sign to the label and, like I let the music lead me up on stage, I let my heart follow a lead when it comes to finding exciting new artists too.
You’ve touched on the new album that’s on the way and you’ve released two new excellent songs from it already with a third new song, ’21 Forever’ out today (May 5th). Is there more you can tell us about the album – it’s not going to be one of these monster, 36-track affairs is it?
(laughing) It’s not a 36 track album. It’s a tight 13 songs I think. I’m very excited about it particularly by some of the great collaborations I have on this record. I reached out to a number of people, artists and friends and they said yes. Slash was someone we reached out to and so he’ll be on there. Darius Rucker and Dolly Parton too will be on there: it’s gnarly how that happened! Brantley Gilbert is also on there too, I love him.
It’s been wonderful to work with these artists and bring them in to be part of this album. I’m very grateful for that. People have been asking me for years about me doing a duet with another female artist and I always made a joke, although I was serious about it at the same time, that I had so much respect for my wife and our marriage that I never wanted to make her feel weird about me working with another woman. We are both big fans of Dolly Parton, I mean, who isn’t, right? I’ve always said that Dolly would be my first and maybe only choice as a collaborator and duet partner and what do you know? (laughing) I’ve got the first female duet of my career and it’s with the one and only Dolly Parton! The queen of Country of music.
It’s easy to talk with artists about their big songs and number one hits but I think it’s sometimes more interesting to talk about the ones that got away. Are there any songs in your back catalogue that you feel don’t get the attention they deserve? For me it might be ‘Who’s Your Farmer’ or ‘You, Me and the River’.
Thank you man, I love the fact you look beyond my singles and big songs. I don’t really have any songs that I wish had done better on the radio or the charts because I’m a firm believer in that everything happens for a reason. However, there are some songs that coulda, shoulda, woulda been bigger, who cares, though, right?
When I play live, that’s the chance to play some deeper songs and we do have ones that weren’t radio singles that people seem to love. A few years ago I released ‘Holdin’ Her’, a song I wrote for my wife. It only hit 20 on the charts – which isn’t bad, but it was a big song for us in terms of engagement and people liking to hear it live. ‘Redneck Life’ is a HUGE song for us in the live set – it’s so popular that you would think it would have been a gigantic, five week number one song, right? You mentioned ‘You, Me and the River’, with me and Eric Church – that’s a song where we both had the creative vision to write it but we never really planned on it being anything else than that. That simple narrative of ‘let’s record a song together and make a video’ was about as far as any planning we had for it. It did its thing, it lived its life and it still lives out there even though it wasn’t a big radio song.
There’s another song I wrote with Eric Church for that last album I did called ‘Flag on the Wall’ that I’m really proud of. That’s a monster smash in the live set that didn’t get wider attention in the media or on the radio. Every song has its place somewhere, which is why artists like me and Eric Church still make albums!
I’m often told by artists from Nashville that one of the big differences between American and European listeners is that European listeners appreciate the deep cuts more. They are just as big a fan of tracks 6 and 7 as they are tracks 2 and 3. I get that with your music.
Oh man, that’s very kind of you to say. See, the more nice things you say, the more I think I’m gonna have to book a tour, right?
Anecdotally, I’d say yourself, Jake Owen and Blake Shelton are the three most requested, most hoped-for artists that European Country fans would love to see live who haven’t been over here and played yet. What can we do to convince you to come over?
Wow! That’s very humbling to hear, thank you. Man, you don’t have to convince me at all. There’s a lot of details that go into putting a tour together, even in the States. A lot of details that I don’t have a hand in until the final dotted line. Let me say this – I’m not opposed to it we just got to find the right times and the right places and then we’ll see if we can’t make it work. Hearing you talk about it and what you have to say, you’ve definitely got my radar up.
You’ve got to clear this massive tour you’re on in America right now first I guess? It looks like you are out on the road over there till August as it is!
Oh dude! (laughing) It’s so crazy but I’m grateful for it. You work so hard to get to this level of life and career and then when you are there you need to work, work, work to keep it! (laughing) That’s pretty much what we are doing right now.
To grab a ticket to see Chris Janson work his magic live head on over to his website here.
