Tyler Braden, a powerhouse vocalist and expressive songwriter from Slapout, Alabama, is carving his place as one of country music’s most compelling emerging artists. Balancing his passion for music with his career as a firefighter in Montgomery and later Nashville, Braden honed his craft playing four-hour cover sets and performing between shifts, eventually gaining attention with a pivotal set at Whiskey Jam in 2017.
Known for blending heartfelt country storytelling with rock-infused energy, Braden has amassed nearly 30 million streams and earned acclaim with his Warner Music Nashville EP ‘Neon Grave.' The project features the standout single ‘Try Losing One,' which topped SiriusXM The Highway’s Hot 30 Countdown. In 2024, Braden continued his rise with the now gold-certified hit ‘Devil You Know,' a defiant anthem that garnered over 10 million views in just two weeks, solidifying his reputation as a raw, relatable, and electrifying artist. Towards the end of 2024 Braden released ‘Above the Water' and ‘Call Me First,' two deep, impactful and meaningful songs about asking for help in different places when times are tough.
Braden is out on tour in Europe with Brothers Osborne and we were thrilled to catch up with him to talk about music, touring and the exciting 2025 ahead.
Thanks for your time today, Tyler, I know how busy it is when you are out on tour. How's the jet lag? (Tyler was in London, just about to head to Dublin.)
We've been here two days and it's been a little rough! I didn't hardly sleep at all last night! We'll get there, give us another day or so and we'll be firing!
We last spoke in 2023 when you were over in London for the C2C festival and you had lost your phone on the tube! (Read that interview here)
(laughing) Yeah, we still talk about that! I haven't been on the tube this trip yet but I'm gonna hold on to my phone when I do! (laughing)
Back then you'd just released ‘Neon Grave' and was gearing up for shows with the likes of Brooks and Dunn, Luke Bryan and Dierks. Is there one thing you've achieved or that has happened to you since then that you've been most proud of?
We had our very first gold record with ‘Devil You Know.' I think it might even be platinum now in Canada. That song made 2024 a great year for us.
You released a number of great songs last year like ‘Devil You Know,' ‘More Than a Prayer' and ‘How It Starts.' Did you spend the year intensively writing?
Yeah. We wrote a lot last year and also did a lot of planning out what we want to achieve and what we have coming out this year too. We have a new song coming out today (Friday 17th January” called ‘Me or the Dawn' and we have a lot more stuff coming down the line, music-wise, for the rest of the year.
I loved the ‘Twelve Days of Demos' feature you did on your Instagram over Christmas. ‘Me or the Dawn' was one of my favourites from those 12 demos.
I appreciate that. Last year I did '25 Days of Choruses' and I did a load of cover songs. This year my manager had the idea of putting out some of the demos from my phone, which was pretty cool. We wanted to see how people would react to some of these songs – some of them might be released, some of them might never see the light of day but it was cool to see the reactions to them from people.
‘Me or the Dawn' seems to be you leaning into your rock influences a little again.
For sure. If you take what we released last year and what we are planning to release this year, it is probably the heaviest of all the songs we have.
I also really liked ‘To Tell You the Truth' from the '12 Days of Demos' feature.
Oh, cool, I appreciate you saying that. That's one of my wife's favourite songs and there are people at the label that love that song as well so if there are people at the label enjoying it that song might well be one of the songs we end up releasing later in the year.
I'm not surprised that ‘Devil You Know' did great things for you. In that song you sing ‘don't mistake my kindness for weakness or I'll flip that switch.' You also sing about being a loose cannon – Can you remember the last time you had to be that guy?
(laughing) It's pretty rare. I can't remember the last time, that song was really more about my younger days, for sure! (laughing) To me, that's what I like about that song the most, the different things the sentiment can mean – it comes across as being ‘If I have to whoop some ass I might just do that,' but it's also about showing a different side of you that people might not know about. It's relatability is one of my favourite things about that song.
‘Devil You Know' and a song like ‘More Than a Prayer' must be really satisfying to play live. When you write a song do you have half a mind on where it will fit in your live set or do you just let the muse play out as it will?
They are both really fun, for sure. We opened most of our shows last year with ‘More Than a Prayer.' The idea of where a song fits in the set definitely does come along somewhere in the process of writing a song, for sure. It's always in the back of my mind but when you get in a writing room and you get to feel the vibe of the song it begins to tell you itself where it will fit in with the rest of your songs in your live show.
‘Above the Water' and ‘Call Me First' are both very powerful and very meaningful songs. Tell me about the inspiration behind them.
‘Above the Water' was brought to me by a couple of friends. I added some parts to it but I wasn't there when it was initially written. I knew it was a special song the first time I heard it and that people would relate to it, from a religious aspect and also from a non-religious aspect in that everybody struggles with things from time to time.
The other aspect of the message comes in ‘Call Me First' which is a song about leaning on your friends to help you get through those tougher times. We tried to focus on mental health with that song – in the type of world I am from, mental health, particularly for men, is not something that has a light on it as much as it probably should. You're kinda taught to be tough and to be the one that has to take care of other people and that is not always the case. It's important to let your friends know that they have someone they can talk to.
You must have had some amazing feedback from people on social media from people relating to ‘Call Me First'?
Absolutely. I get a lot of heartfelt and emotional messages from people commenting on that song. Some are good but some come in a little after the fact, you know, from people who say things like they wished that song had been heard by people they had lost, which just leans into the importance of making sure that the people around you know that there is someone they can talk to if they are struggling.
You've got music out on Spotify that now dates back to 2017, which is 8 years ago now! How have you changed as a writer since ‘Little Red Wine.'
Oh man, there's a million different ways I've changed. I wrote ‘Little Red Wine' by myself before I ever even moved to Nashville – I'd probably only ever written about five songs at the time! (laughing) There are ways that you change, as a writer, that are good but there are some ways that you can change that are not so good too. If you lose faith in what you loved about yourself in the first place or what made you different to everyone else, that can be a problem.
I've learned to trust other people in the writing room over the past 8 years. I still like to write by myself sometimes but I've learned how to find that balance between allowing other people to input ideas and sticking to the ideas that I have by myself. I've realised that what is important is the song, not the people who wrote it – you need the song to be as good as it can be and sometimes that requires finishing it on your own and sometimes it requires taking it to co-writers and I'm blessed to have become friends with a lot of them in Nashville.
Do you have a trusted co-writer in Nashville that you take your best embryonic ideas and songs to?
Oh my gosh, there are so many. My producer, Sam Martinez, is a great songwriter. Over the years I've written with people like Jonathon Singleton and Randy Montana, who are also very talented. There isn't one specific person that I think of every time I have an idea – I've learned that different types of songwriters have different styles so, for me, it will depend on the kind of idea I've had or the song I want to write and then I go to the writer best placed for me to achieve that.
You are out on tour in Europe with Brothers Osborne right now. We'll be at the show in Birmingham. What does a typical tour day look like for you?
Normally a tour day means we get to the venue early and we start loading the gear in. We'll try and find a good coffee shop and have a good breakfast. Hopefully there will be a workout at some point in the morning too. If you get the opportunity to see the area around the venue or the town you are in, that's always nice but we don't always get to do that. Early afternoon there's some relaxing time on the bus and you start to slow down a little to begin the prep for the show in the evening. Soundcheck comes and then it's the run in to the show.
Are you one of those artists that struggles to come down after a performance? I think I would be an alcoholic if I was a performer because there must be large amounts of adrenaline at play?
You know, I don't really struggle with that. I'm not normally trying to go to bed right after a show anyways. It's not an issue for me. There is always some sort of post-show food and wind down although it's not always easy to eat healthy out on tour. I hang out with the guys and wind down that way – I've never drank alcohol in my life and I am the only one in the crew that doesn't drink at all so it can be kind of funny to be the one sober guy all the time!
I'm sure we will speak again this year but if we didn't speak until this time next year in 2026 what do you want to have achieved by then, what are your goals for 2025?
Growth. I want to sell more tickets than we did last year and play bigger shows than we did last year. I want to put out more music this year than we did last year too so I'd say growth is what I want to achieve in 2025.
We haven't 100% decided how we want to put out more music yet in terms of singles or a bigger body of work but we will be announcing something soon.
Listen to Tyler Braden's new song ‘Me or the Dawn' in all the usual places today and you can catch him out on tour in Ireland and the UK with Brothers Osborne RIGHT NOW! Tickets here.
