Warren Zeiders is in Europe on his ‘Relapse' tour right now with UK dates to follow, starting in Belfast on February 7th. You can grab tickets for those shows right here. Zeiders has taken Country music by storm in the last few years, culminating in his first number one radio hit with ‘Pretty Little Poison.'
In his middle twenties, Zeiders has already established himself as Nashville's newest headliner, appealing to a generation of music fans who embrace a blend of country, rock, and Christian music. Raised in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and later relocating to Tennessee, Zeiders' diverse musical influences shaped his unique sound and powerful voice and with new album, ‘Relapse, Lies and Betrayal' due next month we were thrilled to catch up with him to talk all about it.
Thank you for your time today Warren, I know how busy tour days can be. (Warren is in Germany as we did this interview) How's Germany and how's the jet lag?
Oh man, it's been good, it's been a barnburner being over here and trying to get adjusted. I thought the jet lag was getting better but then……… I'm trying, man, I'm trying! (laughing) The shows have been awesome, which is great.
We last spoke in July 2024 when you were gearing up for the ‘Relpase' release and the tour with Jelly Roll. How was that tour?
It was phenomenal! Long. It was definitely a different way to tour in terms of shipping out for two months rather than just doing shows at weekends and then coming back home in between. Just being gone for two months is so different to the normal ‘weekend warrior' way that Nashville usually works.
It was hard to beat being infront of 15,000 people a night, for sure! (laughing) I definitely think the stage felt right for me to be on and it gave me a taste of what I want and aspire for me in my own career.
Did you learn anything new about yourself on that tour?
You know, there was a lot of adjustments I had to make with handling my career in a new way. Being gone for two months and not being able to reset or come home was certainly an eye-opener. The fun thing about touring in that way is that you get to come home, briefly, every now and then and it makes you both realise how great it is to grab a night in your own bed but it also gives you that itch to get back on the bus and get back out there in front of big crowds.
It was a great experience and a big learning process for me. Waking up on a day off and not really knowing where you are – that's a new one for me too! (laughing) I learned a lot about what I want for my future shows, on production and on how to control a crowd – watching Jelly do that was awesome – and how to connect with your fans on massive stages but making sure you reach the people at the back of the arena too. That connection, in such a big arena, was what I probably focused on the most.
Does the gym routine suffer when you are out on a tour like that or do you still find ways to work out?
Instagram would tell you that it did not suffer! (laughing)
Your ‘Relapse' album is becoming ‘Relapse, Lies and Betrayal' next month. Tell me about the process and decisions behind that.
‘Relapse' is our current single right now at Country radio. So we wanted to call the first part of the project that. It's like the side 1 of the whole project and that's why we kept calling it a project last year and not an album – I wanted to let people know and foreshadow the fact that there was more to come this year.
I kinda did that with the ‘Pretty Little Poison' era too. We had the song, the tour of the same name. We're now on the ‘Relapse' tour over here in Europe and then we kick start the American version at the end of March. ‘Betrayal' was a song that I released last year but it was an experimental experience for me because I wrote that song with some new writers and between that song and the others that have come since there's a kind of new sonic sound that we are playing with that has been influenced by those sessions and writes that came out of the Miami retreat that I went on last year – they have formed the large part of the album that is coming out next month, the full project.
Those three words – Relapse, Lies, Betrayal – are heavy hitting words, right? It's definitely an attention-grabbing title, which is what we wanted – we want fans and people who haven't heard of me yet to be intrigued by what the record might be about. Those three words are words that echo what I've gone through in the last year of my life – there's been a lot of learning experiences, a lot of saying goodbye to people that I trusted once and held close to me. That's life, you live and you learn as you grow up.
A song like ‘Relapse'……. she was a good one, a fun girl to hang out with but we weren't meant to be. We still see each other from time to time and life is all good. (laughing)
Your fans have had so many songs and such a lot of content from you in the past few years. Do you consider yourself to be a prolific writer?
I would say that I'm always chasing perfection without ever thinking I'm going to achieve that in my craft, which is what makes life so much fun. It's up to the fans to decide which songs they fall in love with, you know? That makes writing songs so interesting.
It's so cool when you meet a fan who says that their favourite song on an album might be a deep cut or one of the least streamed because those kind of songs might well be up there amongst the favourites of what I've written and that is a big motivator too. I've only been touring for three years and putting out music for four years and I would say that I've definitely honed in on the craft of writing a lot in that time – I've had good direction on what I want to say, on the melodies and the lyrics and the approach to writing a song and what I like doing is always having a door open to try new things and to get into rooms with new writers who can bring out new sides to me and my music.
Let's pick up on that deep cut idea. Is there a song on the ‘Relapse' project that people like me aren't asking you enough about? I really love ‘Death of a Cowboy.'
That song is great and a fun fact here, ‘Death of a Cowboy' was actually going to be the original title of the album. My right hand man and content creator, Austin, and I wanted fans to ask the question ‘What's going on with that?' ‘Is he leaving his cowboy era behind?' You know? It's marketing and getting people to talk about it, which creates interest and buzz.
Things evolved and we pivoted and changed to this new direction in the end. A song that I've held dear to my heart for quite a long time is my song ‘Addictions.' That song is one of my favourites and it fits so well into this record alongside the other attention grabbing titles like ‘Withdrawal',' Relapse,' ‘Lies' and ‘Betrayal.'
The very cinematic video for ‘You For a Reason' comes out today. (Friday 31st January) What can you tell me about that shoot and do you like being in front of the cameras?
I'm glad you used the word ‘cinematic' because that is what we were going for. When it comes to my imaging and branding and stuff like that, that video is a great way to sum up what we imagine when we plan out the visuals for me and my songs. It's how I want to be portrayed to the rest of the world – that video is probably the favourite one we've done to date. I worked so closely with my content creator, Austin Screws, on that video: we worked tirelessly on the bus bringing that video to life.
‘You For a Reason' is a very special song to me and comes from a very special time of my life with the woman I was with at that time. I do believe that the good Lord brought her into my life for a reason, even if it was for just a season. It was crazy to see how quickly people reacted to that song on the Jelly Roll tour and now we have the music video and we've also released a stripped-down piano ballad version of the song too.
Tell me about one of the new songs on the new album next month that we haven't heard of yet – can you give us a heads up on a song that we should be looking out for?
Ok. Let's try and think of one that I haven't teased on social media yet. I have been teasing a song called ‘Without You' on my socials quite a bit recently and fans have really bought into that song and so that's been cool. One that I think is going to be really popular is a song called ‘Crying Whiskey.' That's one of the songs that I wrote on the retreat in Miami last year that I can't wait for people to hear. There's a huge hook and the idea that two people can be attracted to one another but not good for each other either. The girl in the song only rings me when she's been out drinking whiskey with friends and only then is it convenient to talk to me, right? The production on that song is high-energy, crowd engagement so I can't wait for people to hear it.
Will we get to hear ‘Crying Whiskey' on the UK tour next week or are you still keeping that song under wraps for a little while longer?
It'll probably still be under wraps. With the UK and European tour we wanted to do some thowback stuff because I have never played over here before so the fans haven't heard the older songs live. We've got ‘717 Tapes' stuff on the set list, we've got some songs from the ‘Pretty Little Posion' record and we have some of the new songs like ‘Intoxicated' too.
The one songs the fans have been loving over here that I wasn't expecting them to sing so loud has been ‘Fight Like Hell.' They've been screaming that one back to me every night!
Have you seen anything cool in Sweden or in the other European countries that you've stopped in so far?
We've had a couple of days off and we've gone out and explored some. I'll be honest, I'm something of a shopaholic. (laughing) I'm notorious for finding good shopping spots so when we were in Stockholm we found this really cool mall with a Carhartt and Ralph Lauren in it! What's so cool being over here is just exploring the cities and looking at the buildings and the architecture. We've got some beautiful photos despite not really seeing the sun for about the first week! (laughing) We've been out and bought vitamin D!! (laughing)
Check out Warren Zeiders UK tour dates right here and check out ‘Relapse, Lies and Betrayal' when it drops next month on March 14th. Vinyl pre-orders here.
