The Sit Down with Garrett Bradford
Texas native, Garrett Bradford is kicking off what looks to be a busy year now with the release of the first part of his double-album, Honkiest of Tonkers (Part One), Out now via H.O.T. Records and available on all streaming platforms (Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, and more). With Act Two set to follow on April 11th, we sat down with Garrett to talk more about the album, his hopes to play some UK shows soon, and how it felt to have his song featured on Yellowstone.
Hey Garrett, how are you?
Hello Nikki. I’m doing great – it’s nice to meet you, virtually at least. I’ve never been over to the UK, but over the last couple of years I’ve had a lot of people listen to my music over there and I wanna get over there so bad.
I think you’d love it – a lot of the international artists I’ve spoken to always seem pretty surprised when they do get over here because the fanbase here is passionate – not just for the singles, but album tracks, YouTube covers – we go all in, and that seems to be what international artists notice and appreciate the most.
It’s kinda cool. This is the first time I’ve ever had a real PR campaign for my music and I’ve done maybe 20 interviews so far and I have to say, the UK folks, y’all are the best. I’ve been really impressed with their knowledge of country music, and I guess surprised because I didn’t realise until recently there was such a fanbase over there for country music.
I hear that a lot, and then artists say they can’t wait to come back because they didn’t realise the passion for it until they’ve experienced it firsthand.
It’s awesome.
And there’s a lot more festivals popping up now, particularly over spring / summertime, so there’s a lot more opportunities for emerging artists to get their music out over here.
Yeah it’s something we’ve been talking about, to start looking at [booking] some shows. I’ll have to get my passport, because I don’t have one, so I better work on that.
Yeah, you need to get on that.
Exactly
Hey Garrett, how are you?
Hello Nikki. I’m doing great – it’s nice to meet you, virtually at least. I’ve never been over to the UK, but over the last couple of years I’ve had a lot of people listen to my music over there and I wanna get over there so bad.
I think you’d love it – a lot of the international artists I’ve spoken to always seem pretty surprised when they do get over here because the fanbase here is passionate – not just for the singles, but album tracks, YouTube covers – we go all in, and that seems to be what international artists notice and appreciate the most.
It’s kinda cool. This is the first time I’ve ever had a real PR campaign for my music and I’ve done maybe 20 interviews so far and I have to say, the UK folks, y’all are the best. I’ve been really impressed with their knowledge of country music, and I guess surprised because I didn’t realise until recently there was such a fanbase over there for country music.
I hear that a lot, and then artists say they can’t wait to come back because they didn’t realise the passion for it until they’ve experienced it firsthand.
It’s awesome.
And there’s a lot more festivals popping up now, particularly over spring / summertime, so there’s a lot more opportunities for emerging artists to get their music out over here.
Yeah it’s something we’ve been talking about, to start looking at [booking] some shows. I’ll have to get my passport, because I don’t have one, so I better work on that.
Yeah, you need to get on that.
Exactly
You said this is your first time having a PR team around you, how are you finding that experience?
It’s been phenomenal; Christy and everybody at Aristo. I’ve been releasing singles for a number of years now and just doing everything on my own, and I’m still an independent artist, and I’d like to be for as long as I can, ‘cause I love having control over what I record, but just having Christy and Aristo onboard has done so much. It’s been really neat, honestly. It’s been a totally different experience having someone of that calibre push the record and push the singles. I love writing songs and that’s one of my goals going forwards now, that’s why I’m doing a double album – I think there’s 19 songs altogether between the two records, and I’m planning on releasing something, maybe even another album in summertime, so I wanna put out a lot of music.
‘Cause you’ve been writing songs since you were in high school, is that right?
Yeah. I’ve been writing songs since I was 12 years old. As soon as I started playing guitar, I was just off to the races. When I was about 17 in high school, I really started getting out. We have a really great music scene in Texas for young people to get out and play; county fairs, rodeos, restaurants – even restaurants that don’t sell alcohol - it’s not uncommon for someone to be playing a little acoustic show, and that doesn’t really exist everywhere in America. It’s kind of a Texas thing, so I’m very thankful for that, that I was able to get out and play so young.
And you need that, right? All that experience handling a crowd, you mentioned restaurants where maybe people aren’t there specifically for the music, but getting them to listen to you, is vital for when you do start booking those bigger rooms.
It really is. In Nashville, meeting music business people, I’ve heard stories about people who have blown up on TikTok and they’ve never really played a show and then they have a record deal all of a sudden and they’re expected to go on tour and entertain and as good of an opportunity it is, it’s kinda setting them up to fail because I don’t think that comes naturally to very many people. You gotta learn those things, and you do learn from playing restaurants where nobody’s listening.
Your latest single, Watching You Burn, has just come out. Can you talk a bit about that and the reception so far?
It’s the first single off the record and, that song’s funny – it’s definitely personal to me – I wrote it after I’d just gotten out of a relationship, and it’s not as dramatic as the song makes it sound, but that’s how I felt as I was writing it [laughs]. I didn’t necessarily think about releasing it as a single, but I was playing it live and the feedback I got from other people is why I did that. People kept saying, ‘you’ve gotta record that’ and it’s funny because sometimes you don’t realise which songs people will like the most. The response has been so good – I think I’ve gotten the most first week streams on that song than any song I’ve recorded before, including the song that was on Yellowstone, and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to surpass that.
What a way to kick off the album with that being the response to your first single. And ‘The Honkiest of Tonkers’ – what a name. How did you land on that name for the album?
[Laughs] Well I always wanted that to be the title. The first single is a kinda more serious, introspective, sad song, but I like to write fun songs too. I think that’s something that’s missing from a lot of country music nowadays. There’s definitely fun songs, but I guess quirky is the word I’m looking for, almost a little bit weird where you scratch your head and be like, ‘what did he just say?’ I love stuff like that.
Yeah well when I first saw the album title, I was like – it’s what? [Laughs]
[Laughs] Perfect – that’s what I was going for.
It definitely stands out. You said you’re releasing the album in two parts – what was the thought process behind that? Is it just because there are so many songs?
Yeah, that’s part of it. I kinda thought if I just put all of these onto one record; I’ll have a few singles and then the record will come out and I won’t have the time to promote ‘em and I love all these songs. So I thought if I did a two-part album, that would spread it out and give me more time to focus on getting the songs out there ‘cause I’m really thankful that I have a lot of people listening to my music now, but I want a lot more to be listening and that takes time and effort and promotion, so I thought that would be a better way to do a part one and then a couple months later do a part two. And just as a fan of country music, as a listener, if someone releases 19 songs all at once, that’s a lot to sit down and listen to, so I think breaking it down into more digestible chunks is a better way to give people time to actually listen.
So your second single from this record is ‘Do You?’ – is that sonically in a similar vein to ‘Watching You Burn’ or is it different?
Sonically I’d say it is different, for sure. It’s got that traditional smooth sound to it, but it’s a bit more, stylistically is a bit more of a dancing song. We like to dance here in Texas, so it’s a bit more of a toe-tapping, happier song. The first single is about a bad relationship, but this second single is like a happy / sad song, because it’s talking about a relationship that did go bad but a bunch of time has passed and you’re thinking about maybe you still have feelings there and do you try again? So it’s got a happier tone to it.
It’s been phenomenal; Christy and everybody at Aristo. I’ve been releasing singles for a number of years now and just doing everything on my own, and I’m still an independent artist, and I’d like to be for as long as I can, ‘cause I love having control over what I record, but just having Christy and Aristo onboard has done so much. It’s been really neat, honestly. It’s been a totally different experience having someone of that calibre push the record and push the singles. I love writing songs and that’s one of my goals going forwards now, that’s why I’m doing a double album – I think there’s 19 songs altogether between the two records, and I’m planning on releasing something, maybe even another album in summertime, so I wanna put out a lot of music.
‘Cause you’ve been writing songs since you were in high school, is that right?
Yeah. I’ve been writing songs since I was 12 years old. As soon as I started playing guitar, I was just off to the races. When I was about 17 in high school, I really started getting out. We have a really great music scene in Texas for young people to get out and play; county fairs, rodeos, restaurants – even restaurants that don’t sell alcohol - it’s not uncommon for someone to be playing a little acoustic show, and that doesn’t really exist everywhere in America. It’s kind of a Texas thing, so I’m very thankful for that, that I was able to get out and play so young.
And you need that, right? All that experience handling a crowd, you mentioned restaurants where maybe people aren’t there specifically for the music, but getting them to listen to you, is vital for when you do start booking those bigger rooms.
It really is. In Nashville, meeting music business people, I’ve heard stories about people who have blown up on TikTok and they’ve never really played a show and then they have a record deal all of a sudden and they’re expected to go on tour and entertain and as good of an opportunity it is, it’s kinda setting them up to fail because I don’t think that comes naturally to very many people. You gotta learn those things, and you do learn from playing restaurants where nobody’s listening.
Your latest single, Watching You Burn, has just come out. Can you talk a bit about that and the reception so far?
It’s the first single off the record and, that song’s funny – it’s definitely personal to me – I wrote it after I’d just gotten out of a relationship, and it’s not as dramatic as the song makes it sound, but that’s how I felt as I was writing it [laughs]. I didn’t necessarily think about releasing it as a single, but I was playing it live and the feedback I got from other people is why I did that. People kept saying, ‘you’ve gotta record that’ and it’s funny because sometimes you don’t realise which songs people will like the most. The response has been so good – I think I’ve gotten the most first week streams on that song than any song I’ve recorded before, including the song that was on Yellowstone, and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to surpass that.
What a way to kick off the album with that being the response to your first single. And ‘The Honkiest of Tonkers’ – what a name. How did you land on that name for the album?
[Laughs] Well I always wanted that to be the title. The first single is a kinda more serious, introspective, sad song, but I like to write fun songs too. I think that’s something that’s missing from a lot of country music nowadays. There’s definitely fun songs, but I guess quirky is the word I’m looking for, almost a little bit weird where you scratch your head and be like, ‘what did he just say?’ I love stuff like that.
Yeah well when I first saw the album title, I was like – it’s what? [Laughs]
[Laughs] Perfect – that’s what I was going for.
It definitely stands out. You said you’re releasing the album in two parts – what was the thought process behind that? Is it just because there are so many songs?
Yeah, that’s part of it. I kinda thought if I just put all of these onto one record; I’ll have a few singles and then the record will come out and I won’t have the time to promote ‘em and I love all these songs. So I thought if I did a two-part album, that would spread it out and give me more time to focus on getting the songs out there ‘cause I’m really thankful that I have a lot of people listening to my music now, but I want a lot more to be listening and that takes time and effort and promotion, so I thought that would be a better way to do a part one and then a couple months later do a part two. And just as a fan of country music, as a listener, if someone releases 19 songs all at once, that’s a lot to sit down and listen to, so I think breaking it down into more digestible chunks is a better way to give people time to actually listen.
So your second single from this record is ‘Do You?’ – is that sonically in a similar vein to ‘Watching You Burn’ or is it different?
Sonically I’d say it is different, for sure. It’s got that traditional smooth sound to it, but it’s a bit more, stylistically is a bit more of a dancing song. We like to dance here in Texas, so it’s a bit more of a toe-tapping, happier song. The first single is about a bad relationship, but this second single is like a happy / sad song, because it’s talking about a relationship that did go bad but a bunch of time has passed and you’re thinking about maybe you still have feelings there and do you try again? So it’s got a happier tone to it.
Speaking of the record sonically, is there a big difference between the sound or tone of part one versus part two?
Sonically it’s not such a major split, some people might notice a little difference, but I think part two is definitely more heartfelt, introspective. I’ve got a song on part two called ‘Give Dad a Call,’ and it’s about wishing I could call my dad. He passed away about three years ago, and I’ve got another one called ‘Firefly’ about my grandpa and a conversation I had with him about how he grew up on a ranch here in Texas. We were sitting on my porch one day and he said, ‘you know when I was a boy, the only lights we’d see at night were fireflies,’ and I think part two is just a deeper dive into me as a person and an artist and my life.
And it must be cool for you, as a songwriter, to take something like that personal moment with your grandpa and turn it into a song that’s gonna be enjoyed by a lot of people who’ll resonate with it in their own way?
It’s probably my favourite part about it. I love writing songs, and they’re all personal. It’s very rare that I’ll write a song that doesn’t have some connection to me, but those ones in particular when you can convey something and have people think about their grandpa or their dad – to me that’s what it’s all about. It’s the most important part and I’m excited by part two for that reason.
I’ve noticed that you’re either the sole writer, or at least a co-writer on all of your songs – is that something that’s important to you?
It’s really important to me, especially right now; I’ve been writing songs most of my life and I’ve got so many that I’ve written – I write a lot – I’m just writing songs all the time. I’ll write songs even if I’m never gonna release ‘em, so I’ve got so many songs that I’ve already written and I’m still writing so much now. I’m not opposed to recording other peoples’ songs at all. If I ever get to be really big as an artist, I would do that on purpose, two or three songs every album just to support the songwriters, but for the most part, I wanna record the songs that I’ve written.
Who are some of the songwriters that inspired you growing up, or still inspire you now?
I really love classic country music, even going all the way back to the 50s with guys like Lefty Frizzell, he’s a prolific, awesome writer. I love Merle Haggard, not just the hits but the deeper cuts. I love studying his songwriting and there’s a lot of guys here in Texas country music. We have a lot of cowboy music; old-school sounding, tried and true story songs that are made for cowboys and they’re not always big hits but they resonate. Artists like Red Steagall was a huge influence on me – I started opening shows for him when I was in my teens.
Sonically it’s not such a major split, some people might notice a little difference, but I think part two is definitely more heartfelt, introspective. I’ve got a song on part two called ‘Give Dad a Call,’ and it’s about wishing I could call my dad. He passed away about three years ago, and I’ve got another one called ‘Firefly’ about my grandpa and a conversation I had with him about how he grew up on a ranch here in Texas. We were sitting on my porch one day and he said, ‘you know when I was a boy, the only lights we’d see at night were fireflies,’ and I think part two is just a deeper dive into me as a person and an artist and my life.
And it must be cool for you, as a songwriter, to take something like that personal moment with your grandpa and turn it into a song that’s gonna be enjoyed by a lot of people who’ll resonate with it in their own way?
It’s probably my favourite part about it. I love writing songs, and they’re all personal. It’s very rare that I’ll write a song that doesn’t have some connection to me, but those ones in particular when you can convey something and have people think about their grandpa or their dad – to me that’s what it’s all about. It’s the most important part and I’m excited by part two for that reason.
I’ve noticed that you’re either the sole writer, or at least a co-writer on all of your songs – is that something that’s important to you?
It’s really important to me, especially right now; I’ve been writing songs most of my life and I’ve got so many that I’ve written – I write a lot – I’m just writing songs all the time. I’ll write songs even if I’m never gonna release ‘em, so I’ve got so many songs that I’ve already written and I’m still writing so much now. I’m not opposed to recording other peoples’ songs at all. If I ever get to be really big as an artist, I would do that on purpose, two or three songs every album just to support the songwriters, but for the most part, I wanna record the songs that I’ve written.
Who are some of the songwriters that inspired you growing up, or still inspire you now?
I really love classic country music, even going all the way back to the 50s with guys like Lefty Frizzell, he’s a prolific, awesome writer. I love Merle Haggard, not just the hits but the deeper cuts. I love studying his songwriting and there’s a lot of guys here in Texas country music. We have a lot of cowboy music; old-school sounding, tried and true story songs that are made for cowboys and they’re not always big hits but they resonate. Artists like Red Steagall was a huge influence on me – I started opening shows for him when I was in my teens.
You mentioned your song that was on Yellowstone earlier – I saw that, they played a good chunk of the song in that episode, like it was a good minute and half or so.
Yeah, and I really had no idea how they were gonna use it. I don’t wanna say I’m pessimistic or anything, but I try to regulate my expectations. It can be tough being a musician, if you think everything’s gonna be huge, you can get discouraged really quick, so I was content in my mind and thought maybe they’ll just use a couple of lines, or there’s a little guitar intro that’s actually my proudest part of the song, I really like the way that guitar intro sounds. I think it fits really well in with the scene and I was kind of downplaying it in my mind so I wouldn’t be disappointed and they started playing it and it was a montage scene, so there was nobody talking over it and like you said, it was almost a minute and a half of it and when I was watching it, I was just like ‘oh my gosh!’ I couldn’t believe it.
You grew up on a ranch, so you’ve lived that life; the cowboy, rodeo lifestyle, so you know that way of life.
I love that song because I really identify with it, and the people I grew up around – my friends, my family – I think I love that song more than any of my other songs because it provided such an awesome opportunity. It’s such a great resume builder to be able to say you have a song on a show that big, especially in the country music business and in Nashville – it opens so many doors. It’s really cool that I got to have a song that means so much to me, that’s so personal, on a show that big. I was very thankful, that was a blessing, for sure.
I read in the 24 hours after that episode aired, you were the most Shazammed country artist or country song.
Yeah, that was unreal. I went from not having any music out to that. I was really discouraged because the next time I put out a song, after having that reaction to the first one I was starting to think, ‘this is really easy’ and then I got a reality check [laughs] but it was such a cool opportunity.
How did it feel to get that level of exposure and have that kind of immediate feedback of so many people loving your song?
It was really encouraging and it really helped me view myself as an artist; it helped with my imposter syndrome because I still fight that sometimes. I think should I even be doing this? Am I good enough? I think any artist that’s honest would probably say the same thing; I’ve talked to a lot of artists that are way bigger and more successful than me and they’re like, ‘oh I feel the same way, man,’ but I think it gives you a little validation and a little comfort. It was almost a surreal experience because I didn’t really know anything about the business, I didn’t have any contacts, and then in 24 hours had like 600 emails from people who loved the song and record labels and songwriters that wanted to write with me. It blew my mind.
It goes to show that it’s another reason why independent artists can really thrive – there’s people on labels that aren’t getting that kind of exposure on huge shows like Yellowstone right now.
I think Yellowstone like to use independent artists and up and comers ‘cause they could use any artist’s song – any artist on any label – ‘cause they were all dying to get their music on there when the show was running ‘cause it was the #1 show in the country and the fact that they would put an artist like me on there, who didn’t have any music out yet. They just heard this song and it fit and they wanted to use it, and they didn’t care that I wasn’t a big, famous artist. I think that says a lot about them and the spirit behind the show. I will always be grateful for them.
And it’s not done Lainey Wilson any harm; she was in that final season and now she’s coming back to headline C2C in March, which is one of our biggest festivals over here.
I’ve heard about that festival. That’s so cool – I’m supposed to meet her in a few months, we’re playing a private event and I just found out she’s gonna be there, and I’ve never met her and I’m such a huge fan of hers. She seems awesome.
Imagine if you ended up writing with her?
That would be so cool. Unfortunately I think she’s engaged because I did have a huge crush on her for a while, but hopefully we can be friends. If she friend-zoned me that’d be just fine with me [laughs].
[laughs] That’s not a bad friend-zone to be in.
No, I can handle it [laughs].
Garratt, thank you so much for your time; I’ve really enjoyed getting to chat to you and I wish you all the best with this new album, both parts of it.
Thank you, Nikki. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
Yeah, and I really had no idea how they were gonna use it. I don’t wanna say I’m pessimistic or anything, but I try to regulate my expectations. It can be tough being a musician, if you think everything’s gonna be huge, you can get discouraged really quick, so I was content in my mind and thought maybe they’ll just use a couple of lines, or there’s a little guitar intro that’s actually my proudest part of the song, I really like the way that guitar intro sounds. I think it fits really well in with the scene and I was kind of downplaying it in my mind so I wouldn’t be disappointed and they started playing it and it was a montage scene, so there was nobody talking over it and like you said, it was almost a minute and a half of it and when I was watching it, I was just like ‘oh my gosh!’ I couldn’t believe it.
You grew up on a ranch, so you’ve lived that life; the cowboy, rodeo lifestyle, so you know that way of life.
I love that song because I really identify with it, and the people I grew up around – my friends, my family – I think I love that song more than any of my other songs because it provided such an awesome opportunity. It’s such a great resume builder to be able to say you have a song on a show that big, especially in the country music business and in Nashville – it opens so many doors. It’s really cool that I got to have a song that means so much to me, that’s so personal, on a show that big. I was very thankful, that was a blessing, for sure.
I read in the 24 hours after that episode aired, you were the most Shazammed country artist or country song.
Yeah, that was unreal. I went from not having any music out to that. I was really discouraged because the next time I put out a song, after having that reaction to the first one I was starting to think, ‘this is really easy’ and then I got a reality check [laughs] but it was such a cool opportunity.
How did it feel to get that level of exposure and have that kind of immediate feedback of so many people loving your song?
It was really encouraging and it really helped me view myself as an artist; it helped with my imposter syndrome because I still fight that sometimes. I think should I even be doing this? Am I good enough? I think any artist that’s honest would probably say the same thing; I’ve talked to a lot of artists that are way bigger and more successful than me and they’re like, ‘oh I feel the same way, man,’ but I think it gives you a little validation and a little comfort. It was almost a surreal experience because I didn’t really know anything about the business, I didn’t have any contacts, and then in 24 hours had like 600 emails from people who loved the song and record labels and songwriters that wanted to write with me. It blew my mind.
It goes to show that it’s another reason why independent artists can really thrive – there’s people on labels that aren’t getting that kind of exposure on huge shows like Yellowstone right now.
I think Yellowstone like to use independent artists and up and comers ‘cause they could use any artist’s song – any artist on any label – ‘cause they were all dying to get their music on there when the show was running ‘cause it was the #1 show in the country and the fact that they would put an artist like me on there, who didn’t have any music out yet. They just heard this song and it fit and they wanted to use it, and they didn’t care that I wasn’t a big, famous artist. I think that says a lot about them and the spirit behind the show. I will always be grateful for them.
And it’s not done Lainey Wilson any harm; she was in that final season and now she’s coming back to headline C2C in March, which is one of our biggest festivals over here.
I’ve heard about that festival. That’s so cool – I’m supposed to meet her in a few months, we’re playing a private event and I just found out she’s gonna be there, and I’ve never met her and I’m such a huge fan of hers. She seems awesome.
Imagine if you ended up writing with her?
That would be so cool. Unfortunately I think she’s engaged because I did have a huge crush on her for a while, but hopefully we can be friends. If she friend-zoned me that’d be just fine with me [laughs].
[laughs] That’s not a bad friend-zone to be in.
No, I can handle it [laughs].
Garratt, thank you so much for your time; I’ve really enjoyed getting to chat to you and I wish you all the best with this new album, both parts of it.
Thank you, Nikki. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.
