Canadian Country Music Association Award winner Bobby Wills is making the move from Canada to Nashville and is getting ready to release an EP in the US. He recently took the time to talk to New England Country Music about the move, songwriting, and his EP.
Bobby said he has been making trips to Nashville since 2007 to work with songwriters and to “continue to learn and grow” as a songwriter. When it comes to songwriting Bobby said he likes working with co-writers because of the “filters that happen when you’ve got other guys in the room.” He said they usually start out with a title and the song goes from there.
His new single and the title track of his upcoming EP, ‘Crazy Enough,’ is a song that came about from a conversation about his “crazy teenager.” Bobby recalls that someone said “crazy enough,“ and the song went from there. Bobby also says that his crazy time was also when he was a teenager, and that “Manchester (by-the-sea), Mass is kind of a second home for me and that’s where we did all of our crazy stuff.” Bobby went on to say that songs are like “your children, you love them all” but right now ‘Crazy Enough’ is his favorite because “it really epitomizes all of the craziness that I think all of us go through in life as we grow up.”
When it comes to co-writers Bobby said there are two guys he works with a ton; Michael Pyle, who is producing his record, and Walt Aldridge, “a legendary songwriter in Nashville,” as Bobby says. Aldridge has written many songs including ‘I Loved Her First’ (Heartland), ‘(There’s) No Gettin’ Over Me’ (Ronnie Milsap), and ‘Modern Day Bonnie and Clyde’ (Travis Tritt) just to name a few. On the EP, Bobby co-wrote each of the five songs with Michael and Walt. In addition to the title track ‘Crazy Enough’, the EP also includes the Top 30 hit ‘Never Didn’t Love You.’ The video for ‘Never Didn’t Love You’ was immediately added to Great American Country, CMT Pure, and CMT.com when it was released.
Bobby is currently making the move from Canada to Nashville and says that Nashville is the center of music and “we spend a lot time here now and it just started to make sense to continue to do that, to continue to be a part of things here.” He goes on to say the part of being in Nashville that he is looking forward to the most is “just the creative process, there are so many talented people around here.” With the weather as it is in Nashville, he won’t miss the snow but, “we are gonna keep a place in Canada as well, so we’ll be back and forth a little. I’m happy to say that I have the opportunity to do both. I would really miss Canada if I just left and didn’t have plans to be back on a regular basis.”
Some of the best advice Bobby has gotten so far is to, “always, always, choose the best song first. The second thing is to just stay with it. It’s a really, really tough business and it’s not for the faint of heart and it can be hard on a person’s head and heart,” and like any business it does get easier over time. The country industry has allowed Bobby to travel and play music and after taking a minute to think it over, Bobby tells us that he cannot pick one venue that he has performed at as his favorite but instead said, ”there’s a couple of really big festivals in Canada that we’ve played the last couple of years that have big crowds, it’s hard to beat that.” And like so many artists, the one place that Bobby really wants to play someday is the Grand Ole Opry, “I’m hopeful that one day we get the opportunity to do that.”
In 2013, Bobby was awarded the Canadian Country Music Association Award for Rising Star and it was recently announced that Bobby has been nominated for the 2015 Canadian Country Music Association Awards Songwriter of the Year award.
We here at New England Country Music wish Bobby the best in the future and thank him for his time!
You can purchase Bobby’s EP, ‘Crazy Enough,’ on iTunes here.
‘Crazy Enough’ Track Listing
1.) ‘Never Didn’t Love You’ – Written by Bobby Wills, Mike Pyle and Walt Aldridge.
2.) ‘Crazy Enough’ – Written by Bobby Wills, Mike Pyle and Walt Aldridge.
3.) ‘Still Something There’ – Written by Bobby Wills, Mike Pyle and Walt Aldridge.
4.) ‘So Much For Taking It Slow’ – Written by Bobby Wills, Mike Pyle and Walt Aldridge.
5.) ‘With You’ – Written by Bobby Wills, Mike Pyle and Walt Aldridge.
Main photo credit: John Gaucher.