Shane Profitt may still be relatively unknown to many UK country fans, but that could all be about to change.
After getting a career boost from a chance encounter with Chris Janson – who later cut two of his songs – the Tennessee-born artist signed with Big Machine Records in 2022 before releasing his debut EP, ‘Maury County Line’. The project featured his breakthrough single, ‘How It Oughta Be’, and since then he’s been steadily putting out new music as well as wowing audiences on both sides of the pond with his fantastic stage presence and powerful vocals, including at C2C last month.
I spoke to Shane whilst he was here about his experience of visiting the UK, recent single ‘Two Down’ and new track ‘Back Home’, how he approaches his songwriting and what the rest of 2024 looks like for him. Read on to find out more…
Welcome to London!
Thank you very much.
How have you found it?
It’s a lot. It’s a lot different, but also a lot similar to the States in its own ways. And honestly it reminds me a lot of New York City. Just with the traffic and everything. Probably the biggest difference for me so far that I’ve noticed is the accents, and the driving on the other side of the road.
Will you have any time to explore whilst you’re here?
I’ll have a few hours here and there each day. I’m excited to get out and kind of explore on my own without my tour manager or security or anything like that.
And is there anything you’re particularly looking forward to doing – places you want to visit, British food you want to try or anything like that?
Yeah, I love to eat [laughs] and so I wanna get a proper English breakfast. I was told a proper English breakfast has baked beans. See, that’s wild. ‘Cause I’d have baked beans for supper back home, for dinner. So that’s gonna be a big change of pace for me. That’s crazy, that’s wild.
So for people who may not have listened to you before, can you tell us a little bit about your music and your influences and so on?
Yeah. So my music, actually what’s crazy is I didn’t even pick up a guitar until I was a senior in high school. I just turned 24 so roughly about five years ago I picked up a guitar first. I started writing probably about three and a half years. I would say definitely, some of my influences is people like Justin Moore and Jamey Johnson, stuff like that. My mom, she’s a huge fan of the older country, and once I started listening to music on my own, that’s when I ran into stuff like Justin and Jamey, stuff like that. Really and truly I think I’m kind of a mix of everything because I also like that rocking side. So I like to think I have a little bit of the rock, little old school and a little of the new country too.
I also know that you ended up being discovered by Chris Janson – tell us more about that…
Yeah, so I was on a first date with a girl I’d never been out with before, and I ran into Chris on a sushi restaurant on that date. I ended up going up to him and his wife gave me her email, and I ended up emailing ‘em with some songs that I’d written, that I thought was my three or four best at the time. We ended up keeping up with each other and two weeks later I got to quit my job to go out on tour with him. So I’m very, very blessed.
You’ve mentioned touring with Chris and I know you’re out with Aaron Lewis in the US at the moment. How are you finding that whole experience of being on the road?
It’s nonstop. Like, I mean, I was on the road with Aaron just this past week for five days, and then I went home for half a day, washed some clothes and put new strings on my guitar and hopped on an airplane and got here at 6.30 this morning. Yeah, it’s nonstop. And there is times when I’m tired. But at the same time, whenever I yawn or anything like that I’m just like, “well, I’m very blessed to be here, it could be a lot worse than it is!”
Is there anything you’ve learned from being on tour that maybe you’re applying to your own performances?
I think one of the biggest things for me, being out on the road, is just how different everybody is but similar in their own way. I think what’s cool for me is, like I never thought I would get to come to London, playing my songs that people wanna hear. Growing up in a small town I just never thought that would be an option for me. So I think that’s probably the coolest thing for me, that no matter where you go there’s somebody listening to your music. That’s really humbling.
How did you find the reaction from UK fans when you announced you were coming over?
Oh, it’s awesome. And it’s kind of a shock thing for me, because when we first announced that I was coming to London and we posted it on socials, there was people messaging saying, “hey, I can’t wait to come to see you play in London”. It’s just unbelievable. Like I said, I never thought that would be an option for me.
And what’s a typical Shane Profitt live show like?
A typical Shane Profitt show, I would say, therapy in a way. Because no matter what you’re going through, no matter what you have going on at home, whatever struggles you’re dealing with, I want you to escape your problems. And for however long I’m on stage, I just want you to enjoy it. And I think that’s probably what’s so cool with country music for me, is it brings everybody together in that moment. If you’re really really into the music, you’re not worried about anything else that time.
Are there any songs you’re particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
Oh yeah, for sure. We’ve released several songs here lately, ‘Good Luck And God’, ‘I Am Who I Am’, ‘Two Down’, and one that I’m really enjoying playing live is a song called ‘Back Home’. It’s a very uptempo kind of hype song, and it seems like people are really relating to that song. I’ve also got some stuff that we’re gonna be recording soon that is a lot of fun to play live too.
I did want to ask you about ‘Two Down’ – can you tell us a bit more about that song?
So ‘Two Down’, actually when I first got my record deal, I went into the studio and I started cutting music, and my producer goes, “Shane, you have all these kinds of songs but the one thing you don’t have is a love song”. And I said, “well I’m not in love right now” and he said, “well we just need to get you a love song”. So I sat down and I had this idea, two down one to go. And I didn’t have a girlfriend at the time. The hook was “two down one to go” and it was supposed to be a drinking song. So anyways I sat down with a couple of buddies and we kind of flipped it around and made it into a love song.
You also got to make your Grand Ole Opry debut last year. How was that?
The Grande Ole Opry debut – there’s multiple, multiple, multiple moments in my career I’m very blessed to say that I’ll never forget. And stepping in the Grand Ole Opry circle, where everybody that’s paved the way for country music has, it’s a feeling I’ll never forget.
We’ve touched on your songwriting already so I wanted to ask you about how you approach that. Is there a typical way that you write or does it depend on what the song needs?
I’ll say this – I’ve wrote several hundred songs in the last few years, and I think what’s so cool about it is not a single song has been written in the exact same way as another one. Each song is different in their own way. Depending on who I’m writing with or depending on the vibe we might start with the verse or we might start on a second verse or a chorus or even a bridge. And it all starts with an idea, whether that idea be a title or a hook or a line, they’re all different. So I would be lying if I sat here and told you there’s a particular way I go about writing a song, ‘cause it just kind of spills itself out.
Is there a song you wish you could have written?
Absolutely. It’s a Merle Haggard song, it’s called ‘Misery and Gin’. There’s a line in that song that says, “sitting with all my friends and talking to myself”, and if you kind of sit back and you listen to the song and you listen to that line, it’s just one of the most clever lines I’ve ever heard. It’s a great song.
What’s still on the bucket list for you? Are there places you’d want to play, people you’d want to work with etc?
There’s several things. I wanna travel all around and play my songs. You know, it would be nice to have number ones or a certain amount of plays or plaques or anything like that, but I’m not really worried about that. I just want my music to touch as many people as it possibly can. That’s the big thing for me.
What does the rest of the year look like for you?
Yeah, I’ve got the tour with Aaron, and I’ve got a bunch of shows that I’ve been very fortunate to get put on with some of my musical heroes, that we haven’t announced yet but will be announced very soon. And yeah, I know in the summertime we’re very, very busy, and as always things start winding down towards December. But yeah, pretty much until December I’m running wide open.
You’ve mentioned you’re working on new music as well. Is there another EP in the works? Or maybe an album?
There is gonna be an album. I don’t know when exactly it’s gonna be. I’ll say sooner than later, and hopefully I don’t get in trouble for that. But sooner than later, and I’m very excited for that.
Is it going to be a similar sound to what you’ve been putting out recently?
It’s gonna be similar but it’s also gonna be different, because I feel like as I’ve gotten more comfortable with my record deal and my publishing deal and everything like that, I’ve really got to dig down to my true roots and come up with the best version of Shane Profitt that has been found yet.
I know you said you’ve written several hundred songs – has picking what you’re going to record been a challenge at all?
It has. It’s been very challenging to pick what I’ve wanted to cut and record. But that’s a good problem to have.
And lastly – have you got any plans to come back to the UK?
Absolutely! I definitely want to. That’s for sure. Yeah, actually I’m over here for work right now, but I think it would be really cool to come over here and not even bring a guitar and have a vacation.
