Former college baseball player and California native, Brett Young signed with Big Machine Label Group in August 2015 and hasn’t looked back since. In February, he released his self-titled debut EP before talking to New England Country Music about writing and recording this project.
After college, Brett heard Gavin Degraw’s first album ‘Chariot’ and he realized he wanted to write songs. “I had been playing music for awhile and never really attempted to write my own music until I heard Gavin.” When it comes to writing songs, Brett said that he likes to start with whatever the hook of the song is and build the song backwards from there. The best advice he’s ever gotten is to not over think it and to “stay out of the way of the song.”
On February 12th Brett’s debut EP released. He said “making the EP was incredible.” He even got to work with 2-time ACM Award winning Producer of the Year, Dann Huff. Brett said he was a little nervous and intimidated at first but he quickly realized he didn’t have to be because Dann couldn’t have been any more approachable and down to earth. In fact, his favorite part of the entire recording process was when it was time to record the vocals, which was done at the studio at Huff’s house. He told us it was really great getting to know Dann on a more personal level and to work with him at his studio.
Young told us, “you learn a lot about yourself making a record.” During the process he learned that he is a perfectionist and that “when it’s something personal to you, the recording process becomes extremely important that you get it right.”
The EP includes six songs that were all co-written by Brett and he told us when it came to choosing which songs to put on the album, it was really a group effort. He got together with the label, publishing department, and Dann to choose the songs. “We tried to make sure we covered a handful of topics, but that while they were different seemed like they all belonged together. The best songs should always win.”
When it came to picking the lead single off the album, ‘Sleep Without You’ was an easy choice. They were able to send out some demos before they started recording the album and people were gravitating towards it pretty unanimously. Brett explained that the idea for this song came from listening to pop radio and hearing three songs in a row that were men talking about sleeping with women. He thought “that is so overdone. I’m tired of hearing that. What’s a sweet twist we could put on that?” The result is an upbeat song based off Brett’s own experience in a former relationship that he felt “everybody could probably relate to.” Young said they would “always text or call goodnight and on nights when she would fall asleep on the couch and forget to text me, I would notice that I was up tossing and turning because that didn’t feel right to not say goodnight.”
The song on the album that is the most personal to Brett is ‘You Ain’t Here to Kiss Me.’ The idea for the song came from how Brett spent last New Year’s Eve on a plane trying to get back to Nashville to spend it with friends after ending a six year relationship. A couple of days later, he took the idea to his co-writers Matt Alderman and Tiffany Goss. “I think it’s the most personal because we didn’t stretch any details. It is exactly how the story happened, very honest and personal.”
Brett is going to have a busy summer with the festival circuit, including a stop at a venue on his bucket list, The Stagecoach Festival in California. Until then, his first single, ‘Sleep Without You,’ is set to release to radio on April 11th and his EP is available now.