Drawn to the storytelling aspects of country music, Dylan Schneider started performing and writing songs at the age of 14, after meeting Brett Eldredge and singing with him on-stage during a concert. Since then, Schneider has made a name for himself in the Country music community, forging a sound that merges modern pop sensibilities with a down-home feel. He’s toured with Florida Georgia Line, Morgan Wallen, Kane Brown, Scotty McCreery, Dan + Shay and more, co-wrote Dustin Lynch’s Top 5 hit song “Momma’s House,” scored two RIAA-certified Gold records, accumulated over 1.9M social media followers and banked an upwards of 384M on-demand streams (and counting). The Terre Haute, Indiana native first came to the UK in 2018 where he performed at Nashville Meets London in Canary Wharf and then made his long awaited return to the capital earlier this year to perform at C2C: Country to Country. With the release of his debut album “Puzzled” via BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville in late September and really busy tour schedule to round out 2024, we had plenty to talk with Dylan about when we recently caught up with him over Zoom.
It’s great to see you Dylan. I feel like I’m getting a big old dose of Indiana boys today as we’re off to see another Hoosier tonight as Stephen Wilson Jr. is in town. The last time we saw him was back at C2C which was when you came to see us again. We saw you firstly in Berlin because we love Germany and cover their festival too which has a very different vibe to what happens in London and it feels a lot less intense. We hear a lot of people from the States talk about the receptiveness, level of attention and respect for performers here in the UK but on the continent it really is next level. “I would agree with that, it feels way more chilled and relaxed than it even is in London. Both places are really receptive but y’all are a little bit rowdier in London.”
It was quite a few years since you first came over and you played Nashville Meets London in Canary Wharf, where a lot of people including myself, got a first introduction to you so, to focus on a debut album which “Puzzled” is feels weird because to us we’ve known about you for quite a while. “I know, it was like six years ago since I first went over there so, it’s pretty crazy and to finally bring out my debut album is a big deal. I’m really excited about it and the time that I took to wait for it was important. I’ve obviously put out a lot of good music in between and I’m proud of it all but it’s cool to feel like I finally have something put together that I was really excited about, had a hand in every song and I think it’s the best music overall that I have put out collectively. I think it was important to wait for that and have a little bit of patience.”
You’ve steadily released music and put EP’s out over the last eight years which I suppose were snapshots of that time for you whilst you said that you kind of needed to wait to know what you are doing and really have to say for your first album. A debut record for anyone is your way of presenting this is your life’s work so far. “Yeah definitely. It wraps up a lot of that and shows a lot of the growth as far as being an artist and a writer. That’s cool how you put that, EP’s and all of that sort of stuff are little snapshots of what’s going on, how I was progressing and I think that all led to the end game of what that album became. I had a couple of years to work on the music overall, just with the world slowing down a little bit and then growing up over the years where I spent some time back in Indiana and then came back to Nashville. We wrote all of these songs, came up with the idea and it just felt like the right time so, it made perfect sense.” We had the “Bad Decisions” EP at the start of the year and all of the songs from that project live on the album so, looking across the sixteen track project where we have songs like “Momma’s House” on there which Dustin (Lynch) cut a couple of years ago so, it has been a long time work in process which you have gradually worked towards and getting ready for your first album has been a continual process. “Definitely, I always talk about staring all the way back with “Ain’t Missin’ You” and even not having a plan to release that song at first but trying it out on social media where it got a great response from everybody so, without even knowing that was kind of the beginning point and I guess the birthplace for creating the whole record. Then songs like “Daddy Drinks Whiskey” along the way where the more real, true story stuff about my life too I thought was definitely something that I wanted to put on the project. To have the whole theme of growing up, the struggles in my personal life and even some of the relationship songs so, there’s a lot of honesty in it and a lot more realness coming out of the songwriting than when I was younger and didn’t have as much life experience or things to talk about. It’s cool how it all came together and how it feels honest from me.”
I guess having a more complete body of work helps with being on the road where people know more of your songs and more about who you are before they come along. “Even just having a giant body of work like that to fill in the new setlist has made this The Bad Decisions Tour a lot of fun. To play every night with all of these new songs makes it feel fresh and it’s cool to see people get an understanding. I like to say that the new album and the new music is more of a new beginning of who I am too for people that might just be coming along because I think it’s a good representation of what I’m doing and where I’m going, then there is always the older stuff which people can listen to and hopefully they like that as well. It’s cool to have a solid foundation of where we are going from now into the future.”
I saw that you have a little break coming up from your own shows as you are jumping on with Mitchell (Tenpenny) for a little bit, then you’ve spent some time out with guys like Luke Bryan, Kane Brown and Nate Smith too so, being on the bill with artists like that gets your name out out in front of new and talking about those four guys, pretty big audiences who might not know anything about you. I suppose it is not just the expose to their audiences but they are all road dogs so, there must be plenty that you can pick up for your own performances from the right support slots. “It’s great to be around people like that, some of them I’ve looked up to since I first started getting into music. The experience of being out with Luke was awesome, Nate has been a friend for ever as well at Mitchell, so just getting to watch them do their thing every night, there is definitely always something to pick up on. They all remind you how to be a respectful person out there and be grateful for what you’ve got and Kane too. I’ve known Kane since I first moved to town because we have mutual friends so to be sharing the stage with him has been super fun. They are always providing great insight, good energy and showing me how to do my own thing when I have my own shows. I feel like my tour so far has been going great and I’m thankful for the relationships with all of those guys.” Then now, you are headlining your own tours and getting to bring people out on the road with you where you can introduce your fans to new artists like where you have MaRynn Taylor opening up for you at the moment and you can be the person sharing what you have learnt before. “Yeah it’s wild but it’s fun. Having MaRynn out has been great, she’s been super cool, all of her band guys are fun and it’s fun to make relationships like that on the road. It’s cool to be the one bringing people out like you said to give people the opportunity and hopefully I can be like the role model in some way and pass on a little bit of good advice or just how to be a good road experience to somebody and they learn from it in some way.”
Fingers crossed, we aren’t going to be looking at another six year gap before you next come and see us to bring some shows over here though. “No way, it will be way sooner than that for sure. I’m excited to come back and I don’t know, it may be in the next year or two years but we will definitely get back real soon.”
Lastly, I know you are from south-west Indiana and I have family in that great state of yours so I'm guessing you grew up a Colts fan cheering for Peyton (Manning)? "Yeah dude for sure, like everyone else, I loved Peyton."
You must have some fun and some banter being on the road with Mitchell because he's fully dialled in to the Titans so, nice bit of divisional rivalry there. "Ha ha yeah. These days being in Nashville, I root for the Titans but I want the best for both and I'm not too headstrong on it so that's good and I don't really get back and forth, I was more into it when I was younger but these days and being in Nashville, I want to see the Titans do well and it be an exciting time for them where they go on a good run."
I guess your home town is more college driven with Indiana State being in Terre Haute. "Yeah, I liked Indiana State and my dad is from Bloomington, Indiana where IU is so I root for all of them but Indiana State is like fifteen minutes from where I grew up. My sister went there and my brother went to IU.”
Well, the Hoosiers under Curt Cignetti are absolutely rolling right now which is awesome for everyone at IU. I’m pretty dialled in to Indiana football as I have people on the other side of Indianapolis in Muncie. “Ball State territory!”
Exactly! Big time party school vibes run through the family over here too! Anyway man, appreciate your time today and love the record. It was great to get to see you come back this year and hope you will come to see us again real soon. “Definitely man. I appreciate you taking the time and I hope to get back there real soon.”
‘Puzzled’ (Produced by Zach Abend except where otherwise stated): 1. Carhartt (Dylan Schneider & Gabe Foust) 2. Country Right (Schneider, Foust, Jaxson Free & Taylor Phillips) 3. Without June (Schneider, Foust & Micah Carpenter) 4. Bad Decisions (Schneider, Foust & Jacob Hackworth) – [Produced by Lalo Guzman and Gabe Foust] 5. Here Comes The Sun (Schneider, Foust & Steph Jones) 6. Bad At Breaking Up (Schneider, Zach Abend, Thomas Archer & Michael Tyler) 7. Ain’t Missin’ You (Schneider, Lalo Guzman & Brett Tyler) – [Produced by Lalo Guzman] 8. Truck I Grew Up In (Schneider, Guzman, Josh Phillips & Joshua Dorr) 9. Buy That Girl A Beer (Schneider & Foust) 10. Ruin This Town (Schneider, Zachary Kale & Lindsay Rimes) 11. Put The Whiskey Away (Schneider, Guzman & Archer) 12. Gone Is What I Get (Schneider, Foust, Free, Hackworth & Russell Sutton) 13. Momma's House (Schneider, Justin Wilson, Michael Lotten & Rodney Clawson) 14. Better Than You Left Me (Schneider, Guzman, Tyler & Tyler) 15. Daddy Drinks Whiskey (Schneider, Foust & Nate Kenyon) 16. Puzzled (Schneider) ‘Puzzled’ is the debut album from Dylan Schneider which is out now and availableHERE. You can find the details of all of his upcoming US dates on his WEBSITE or you can keep up to date with Dylan socially on INSTAGRAMTIKTOKFACEBOOKTWITTER & YOUTUBE.