The C2C Sit Down with Spencer Crandall
Whilst Denver, Colorado native Spencer Crandall may not be a completely new name to country music fans on this side of the pond, he will finally make long-awaited live performances in Europe as he is set to appear at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin, Germany at next months festival. A shoulder injury cut short his college football career so music became the real calling which has led to multi millions of streams and social media interactions of the back of a quartet of albums with his most recent offering ‘Changed Man’ being released last September which he will be able to showcase in the German capital which was amongst the topics of conversation when we recently caught up with Spencer over Zoom ahead of the trip overseas.
Hey man, thanks for hanging out, looking forward to seeing you next month, have you actually been over to Europe before?
“I’ve been to Europe, but never to London or Berlin so, you know, I’m really excited to play these shows. It’s so crazy that in today's day and age, anyone outside of United States cares about country music. It was so niche for, you know, my whole life, like my friends were making fun of me saying oh, you listen to country music so now it's cool that it's kind of worldwide.”
From what you hinted there, is there a possibility that we might see you in London as well after Germany?
“I would love to! We talked about maybe looking to try and do a pop-up show but we didn’t know how to go about it although it’s not out of the question. We’ll certainly be in Berlin and obviously any international stuff that we can play, we will play and would be so fun.”
I think one of the cool things about Berlin and a lot of people who have played C2C there or in London seem to really enjoy is doing the multiple sets. When you play a festival at home, you come in, you play your set and generally you’re straight back out again. Whereas there, you're going to be doing two, three, four sets across a couple of days, which firstly makes the trip more worthwhile, but also you can do a different set each time. People will come up to you after the first one and they'll talk about a song that was like, I don’t know, track sixteen on the ‘Western’ record or a song you hadn't even thought about for a couple of years but what are you looking forward to most about the festival and getting over? Are you someone that likes to be a tourist and explore around where you're playing?
“Yeah, I’m really excited for that, my manager and I are planning on booking a whole trip around Europe out of it because it’s like if we are going to be over there, why not? I've been to Italy, I've been to Prague and Amsterdam but I've never been to anywhere in the UK or France or Germany, so I'm excited. I think we're gonna hit a bunch of those so there's obviously the tourist aspect and then the fans aspect too. I had a song called ‘The Right One’ come out a little over a year ago and it was like number two, number four or whatever on Spotify in like the Netherlands and Germany, so I'm curious to see if that stuff is real and if it's translating like the numbers say because it's cool. The brand of country music I do, I think, in particular, is this kind of bridge where I'm one foot in and one foot out sometimes, so it's really cool. Like I said, if you told me when I first started my career, I'd get to go play shows not just in America, but like around the world, I would have told you, like, stop lying to me so, I'm pumped.”
Hey man, thanks for hanging out, looking forward to seeing you next month, have you actually been over to Europe before?
“I’ve been to Europe, but never to London or Berlin so, you know, I’m really excited to play these shows. It’s so crazy that in today's day and age, anyone outside of United States cares about country music. It was so niche for, you know, my whole life, like my friends were making fun of me saying oh, you listen to country music so now it's cool that it's kind of worldwide.”
From what you hinted there, is there a possibility that we might see you in London as well after Germany?
“I would love to! We talked about maybe looking to try and do a pop-up show but we didn’t know how to go about it although it’s not out of the question. We’ll certainly be in Berlin and obviously any international stuff that we can play, we will play and would be so fun.”
I think one of the cool things about Berlin and a lot of people who have played C2C there or in London seem to really enjoy is doing the multiple sets. When you play a festival at home, you come in, you play your set and generally you’re straight back out again. Whereas there, you're going to be doing two, three, four sets across a couple of days, which firstly makes the trip more worthwhile, but also you can do a different set each time. People will come up to you after the first one and they'll talk about a song that was like, I don’t know, track sixteen on the ‘Western’ record or a song you hadn't even thought about for a couple of years but what are you looking forward to most about the festival and getting over? Are you someone that likes to be a tourist and explore around where you're playing?
“Yeah, I’m really excited for that, my manager and I are planning on booking a whole trip around Europe out of it because it’s like if we are going to be over there, why not? I've been to Italy, I've been to Prague and Amsterdam but I've never been to anywhere in the UK or France or Germany, so I'm excited. I think we're gonna hit a bunch of those so there's obviously the tourist aspect and then the fans aspect too. I had a song called ‘The Right One’ come out a little over a year ago and it was like number two, number four or whatever on Spotify in like the Netherlands and Germany, so I'm curious to see if that stuff is real and if it's translating like the numbers say because it's cool. The brand of country music I do, I think, in particular, is this kind of bridge where I'm one foot in and one foot out sometimes, so it's really cool. Like I said, if you told me when I first started my career, I'd get to go play shows not just in America, but like around the world, I would have told you, like, stop lying to me so, I'm pumped.”
The other thing with it and a lot of fans don’t realise this, back at home when you play a festival with your buddies, you are seeing each other as you are coming and going so don’t really have time to grab drinks and catchup but being in the same place for a couple of days allows you to do that a lot easier.
“Yeah, the hardest friendships that I have are with my artist friends because we are ships in the night. I’ll text someone like Ashley Cooke or even Tyler Rich who is gonna be at this festival too where we’ll all try to hang out and it’s like can you do Friday? I can’t do Friday because I’m gonna be in Texas. Okay, well can you do Monday? I can’t do Monday because I’ve got press, can you do Tuesday? I CAN do Tuesday! It's just so hard to like actually see people and spend quality time, so I saw a few people on the lineup that will be great to hang with. I think Jake Banfield's going to be there, Tyler Rich and Julia Cole, who are a couple people that I've known forever. I'll probably hang out with Tyler more there than I do in the States which will be great.”
I spoke to Jake for the first time last month and he seems a really cool guy and Tyler I’ve just caught up with too which was great fun as always so it’s awesome they are both over to play and hopefully have some beers with. Then Julia is probably how a lot of people know about your music, it’s funny that because of ‘Things I Can’t Say’ my friend group chat have known about you for a while and we know a lot more of your stuff than a lot of the guys playing the main stage in Berlin. She’s been coming to the UK for a long time and obviously has the family connection in London plus she has a very British sense of humour where she is able use banter as endearment like we do so we are really excited she will be there too. How long have you known JC and in terms of when you wrote that song, I know it was quite a long time back but were you writing something towards the album you were working for at the time and it just happened to be, this is what we've wrote today or did either of you have some things kicking around that you thought would be good for a duet?
“I don’t even remember who’s idea it was, I just remember it was me, Julia and Josh Ronen where we all got together and we wrote it when I was in the season of writing a tonne of music so I didn’t really think about it for a while. I send a lot of my music to my parents, so I remember my mom and dad going back and listening to songs, then when they were on vacation in Mexico, my dad texted me and was like, you're putting this one out, right? I was like, oh, I haven't even thought about that song, it’s a good one, let me listen a few more times. I listened and we were looking for one more song on the album and the way that I did these albums is they were kind of these concept albums where they would have these chapters north, east, west, south, about all these different things and I need one more love song. I was like, it'd be really cool because I wrote it with Julia and I'm pretty sure her vocals were on the original because we were like, this would be a cool duet, thinking of this person wants to say it and this person wants to say it, but they're not saying it to each other so I love songs like that. I texted Julia, I was like, do you have any answers to this and we're both like, sure, let's get it out there. It was one of my bigger moments, especially this is early TikTok, like when people, I still got made fun of all day by all my friends. You talk about a British sense of humour, my friends do lay into me and they were saying, dude, get off of the dancing app, that’s for thirteen year old girls dancing in their room, what are you doing? So, I got super lucky that this song started to do a thing and I texted Julia saying I think we should make some content, I think this has legs. Fast forward and it's still one of my biggest streaming songs, I was just on tour this last fall and we put that song up like at the top of the set and it was one of the biggest like phones up moments for me still, whatever, five or six years later. I think that's what's really cool about country music, the fans follow you for a long time and they love the same songs because they were there for a piece of their life, it's like a description of a chapter for them and it's nostalgic so it's been cool. Julia has a great song with AK (Alexandra Kay) too and she’s like a duet master, I'm always just trying to, you know, be around her and she's had such a great last year. I texted her not too long ago just saying you are a star, like, I hope you know that and I believe in you. I remember going to seeing her at Whiskey Jam early on in my career and looking around thinking why is everyone trying to sign this person. I think I should have signed her away earlier and I think she's a stud.”
“Yeah, the hardest friendships that I have are with my artist friends because we are ships in the night. I’ll text someone like Ashley Cooke or even Tyler Rich who is gonna be at this festival too where we’ll all try to hang out and it’s like can you do Friday? I can’t do Friday because I’m gonna be in Texas. Okay, well can you do Monday? I can’t do Monday because I’ve got press, can you do Tuesday? I CAN do Tuesday! It's just so hard to like actually see people and spend quality time, so I saw a few people on the lineup that will be great to hang with. I think Jake Banfield's going to be there, Tyler Rich and Julia Cole, who are a couple people that I've known forever. I'll probably hang out with Tyler more there than I do in the States which will be great.”
I spoke to Jake for the first time last month and he seems a really cool guy and Tyler I’ve just caught up with too which was great fun as always so it’s awesome they are both over to play and hopefully have some beers with. Then Julia is probably how a lot of people know about your music, it’s funny that because of ‘Things I Can’t Say’ my friend group chat have known about you for a while and we know a lot more of your stuff than a lot of the guys playing the main stage in Berlin. She’s been coming to the UK for a long time and obviously has the family connection in London plus she has a very British sense of humour where she is able use banter as endearment like we do so we are really excited she will be there too. How long have you known JC and in terms of when you wrote that song, I know it was quite a long time back but were you writing something towards the album you were working for at the time and it just happened to be, this is what we've wrote today or did either of you have some things kicking around that you thought would be good for a duet?
“I don’t even remember who’s idea it was, I just remember it was me, Julia and Josh Ronen where we all got together and we wrote it when I was in the season of writing a tonne of music so I didn’t really think about it for a while. I send a lot of my music to my parents, so I remember my mom and dad going back and listening to songs, then when they were on vacation in Mexico, my dad texted me and was like, you're putting this one out, right? I was like, oh, I haven't even thought about that song, it’s a good one, let me listen a few more times. I listened and we were looking for one more song on the album and the way that I did these albums is they were kind of these concept albums where they would have these chapters north, east, west, south, about all these different things and I need one more love song. I was like, it'd be really cool because I wrote it with Julia and I'm pretty sure her vocals were on the original because we were like, this would be a cool duet, thinking of this person wants to say it and this person wants to say it, but they're not saying it to each other so I love songs like that. I texted Julia, I was like, do you have any answers to this and we're both like, sure, let's get it out there. It was one of my bigger moments, especially this is early TikTok, like when people, I still got made fun of all day by all my friends. You talk about a British sense of humour, my friends do lay into me and they were saying, dude, get off of the dancing app, that’s for thirteen year old girls dancing in their room, what are you doing? So, I got super lucky that this song started to do a thing and I texted Julia saying I think we should make some content, I think this has legs. Fast forward and it's still one of my biggest streaming songs, I was just on tour this last fall and we put that song up like at the top of the set and it was one of the biggest like phones up moments for me still, whatever, five or six years later. I think that's what's really cool about country music, the fans follow you for a long time and they love the same songs because they were there for a piece of their life, it's like a description of a chapter for them and it's nostalgic so it's been cool. Julia has a great song with AK (Alexandra Kay) too and she’s like a duet master, I'm always just trying to, you know, be around her and she's had such a great last year. I texted her not too long ago just saying you are a star, like, I hope you know that and I believe in you. I remember going to seeing her at Whiskey Jam early on in my career and looking around thinking why is everyone trying to sign this person. I think I should have signed her away earlier and I think she's a stud.”
Well, hopefully things could work out with the fact that she's on that main stage Friday night and if you don’t take the banter too far so might ask you to come and play.
“You never know.”
Wouldn’t that be fun and definitely more fun than watching your Broncos in the AFC Championship game last weekend.
“Urgh, no comment.”
We won’t talk about the game itself because it was not the best to watch for anyone but the way things were going, this actually should have been your year! If Only Bo Nix didn’t get hurt, you would have won and would give Seattle a game to make the Superbowl worth watching.
“I really believe what you just said because we held the Patriots to ten but really Stidham, God bless him, gave them a touchdown by turning it over at the twenty so we really only gave them three points. I think if Bo was in, we are at least scoring fourteen, seventeen, twenty-one or whatever so it was a heartbreaker. It is one of the biggest what ifs of my sports life, for sure. I'm in a Broncos group chat with some buddies that I grew up with and we all just keep texting each other, like, are you guys ready to talk about it where it's like seventeen no’s. It stinks, but the good news is that I don't know if I would have picked us to be in the AFC championship this year, so I think it's up and up with nothing but great things to come.”
Well, it is definitely up and up as you will start to get some salary cap back after having to pay for your coach.
“We’re still paying all of Russ over there but we have nothing but blue skies ahead as I think we have the best ownership in football and Sean Payton is at his peak and prime. You know the Chiefs could keep being kind of like okay after the injuries, so I think we have a window here to really make this AFC run. If you're not careful I can talk about football all day.”
Trust me I can do too so let’s save that for when we’re in Germany because as a Cowboys and an Auburn Tigers fan there are not many positives about the ball I choose to watch but coming back to music, we had a record that came out in September which was the first full-length one for a couple of years. Were all of the songs on ‘Changed Man’ from the same pocket of time or were any of them things that had kicked around and weren’t really a fit for the previous projects?
“You never know.”
Wouldn’t that be fun and definitely more fun than watching your Broncos in the AFC Championship game last weekend.
“Urgh, no comment.”
We won’t talk about the game itself because it was not the best to watch for anyone but the way things were going, this actually should have been your year! If Only Bo Nix didn’t get hurt, you would have won and would give Seattle a game to make the Superbowl worth watching.
“I really believe what you just said because we held the Patriots to ten but really Stidham, God bless him, gave them a touchdown by turning it over at the twenty so we really only gave them three points. I think if Bo was in, we are at least scoring fourteen, seventeen, twenty-one or whatever so it was a heartbreaker. It is one of the biggest what ifs of my sports life, for sure. I'm in a Broncos group chat with some buddies that I grew up with and we all just keep texting each other, like, are you guys ready to talk about it where it's like seventeen no’s. It stinks, but the good news is that I don't know if I would have picked us to be in the AFC championship this year, so I think it's up and up with nothing but great things to come.”
Well, it is definitely up and up as you will start to get some salary cap back after having to pay for your coach.
“We’re still paying all of Russ over there but we have nothing but blue skies ahead as I think we have the best ownership in football and Sean Payton is at his peak and prime. You know the Chiefs could keep being kind of like okay after the injuries, so I think we have a window here to really make this AFC run. If you're not careful I can talk about football all day.”
Trust me I can do too so let’s save that for when we’re in Germany because as a Cowboys and an Auburn Tigers fan there are not many positives about the ball I choose to watch but coming back to music, we had a record that came out in September which was the first full-length one for a couple of years. Were all of the songs on ‘Changed Man’ from the same pocket of time or were any of them things that had kicked around and weren’t really a fit for the previous projects?
“It was really a pocket of time. I went through probably the hardest breakup of my life about a year ago, I had just turned thirty and this girl who I thought I was gonna marry, we weren't together anymore. It’s like every country song, she took the dog and it was just that kind of moment where I was looking back at my life. I was in such a reflective boat and so I had just written all these incredible love songs that I wanted to put out and I hadn't, you know. Then all of a sudden it’s like breakup songs, introspective songs and life songs so it just felt like this little moment where I just felt like, I literally said to my manager man so much has changed, man. I just kept saying it so much and I wrote this song called ‘Changed Man’ which was not exactly linear but the story throughout the album of, you can fall in love, you can feel this, you can fall out of love, you can find yourself, you can heal, you can be a better son, you can be a better, you can learn from your mistakes and these kind of bigger things that I haven't tackled as much in my music and then when I have, I think it's very intentional so it was really thought out. There's obviously some songs that you could sit around and be like, oh, I needed this song or whatever, I just also get to a point where if a song is something that I find myself wanting to listen to, I trust that gut feeling so there are a couple of those on there and then I did this big like orchestral, very no structure outro thing to end the album, which is very me. I love stuff like that, I don't even know if anyone else cares, but I think it's the calling card that I really enjoy as an artist and even if it never blows up or does anything commercially, it's cool when my fans come up to me at shows with a tattoo of the line and the last chorus of the orchestral no chorus thing that I do. I think ‘Changed Man’ was kind of like the last album of my first ten years in Nashville and now as I look at my next ten years in Nashville, the next project and batch of music I'm working on is almost like I have a clean slate. It's like okay, I've done a lot, I've said a lot, what else what else do you want to do? What else keeps you going? What else gets you up in the morning, if you will and I have a write later today and I have this really cool idea that’s kind of different and it's scary, but those are great places to be.”
Awesome! We’re looking forward to getting to hear some of it live in a couple of weeks and maybe even some newer stuff too, then can't wait to hang with you, man.
Spencer Crandall will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin over the weekend of March 6th to March 8th where you can further details on the festival WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK. Spencer will be releasing his new track ‘I Know’ on February 27th which you can pre-save HERE and to keep up to date with all that he is up to ahead of the festival, you can follow him socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
Awesome! We’re looking forward to getting to hear some of it live in a couple of weeks and maybe even some newer stuff too, then can't wait to hang with you, man.
Spencer Crandall will be appearing at C2C: Country to Country in Berlin over the weekend of March 6th to March 8th where you can further details on the festival WEBSITE or on INSTAGRAM & FACEBOOK. Spencer will be releasing his new track ‘I Know’ on February 27th which you can pre-save HERE and to keep up to date with all that he is up to ahead of the festival, you can follow him socially on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
