The Sit Down with Brooks Herring
U.S. Navy veteran, award-winning songwriter, singer, recording artist, actor, and dynamic live performer Brooks Herring hails from Conway in South Carolina and is now based in Nashville, Tennessee. With a sound that blends Country, Alt-Rock, and Blues, he crafts music rich with authenticity and patriotism which is deeply influenced by his military service. A passionate storyteller both on stage and in the studio who brings raw emotion and grit to every performance like when he appeared on this side of the pond at Hylands Park in Chelmsford to perform at Country Calling last month where his original work resonated with those who value truth, resilience, and the American spirit.
Great to have you here in the wonderful city of Chelmsford.
“This is one of the first places I ever came here. I came to the UK in 2013 where I was in London and then Chelmsford. I came to Chelmsford because I was chasing down a tattoo artist, a place called Immortal Ink, so this is one of the first places I ever visited in the UK.”
Ah that’s cool, so do you like it over here then?
“Yeah, it's great. I mean, I love travelling, I love meeting new people, experiencing different cultures and everything like that. You know, my whole life, like being in the military or whatever, it's just kind of been a part of my life.”
I was going to say, you’re a very well-travelled man, you've served in a lot of places and seen places far more interesting than here in Essex.
“Yep, I’ve been to six of the seven continents and I’m just missing the cold one.”
That’s so cool! From your set earlier, I really liked the way you're telling stories and kind of the way you set “Not Country” where it’s almost like your biography in song. Was that an idea that you'd had for a long time and it’s like, this is a song I want to write?
“It was one that I had most of it just kind of in a note, just that idea and I was actually writing with Matt McKinney. He's a writer for Sony and was one of the writers on “Dicked Down in Dallas” that Trey Lewis put out. He and I, in true Matt fashion, we wrote a funny song that morning. Then we had the whole rest of the day and it was like, well, we’ve got plenty of time, let’s write another one. He's like, you got anything been working on or whatever? So, I pulled that one out and he helped me, you know, tidy it up, get it finished it up, organised it and everything else. I felt like I needed a song that that was more of like a story of me, just like this is who I am.”
Are you generally kind of like a journal type person, making like lots of voice memo’s as you go rather than someone who needs to sit down to be like, I'm going to write now.
“Oh yeah. I do like organised writes with other writers, but I mean, as far as like my daily, on the day, I'm always writing hooks, lyrics and just coming up with like little ideas where I'll do voice recordings. Sometimes I'll sing and sometimes I'll just find something on the guitar that I like and I'll just record myself playing it then I'll go back and write lyrics to it later. Then sometimes I just record little melodies into my phone, like with no lyrics at all. My writing process is different almost every time, you know it’s just like it comes to me, when it comes to me and I just take it as it comes.”
Great to have you here in the wonderful city of Chelmsford.
“This is one of the first places I ever came here. I came to the UK in 2013 where I was in London and then Chelmsford. I came to Chelmsford because I was chasing down a tattoo artist, a place called Immortal Ink, so this is one of the first places I ever visited in the UK.”
Ah that’s cool, so do you like it over here then?
“Yeah, it's great. I mean, I love travelling, I love meeting new people, experiencing different cultures and everything like that. You know, my whole life, like being in the military or whatever, it's just kind of been a part of my life.”
I was going to say, you’re a very well-travelled man, you've served in a lot of places and seen places far more interesting than here in Essex.
“Yep, I’ve been to six of the seven continents and I’m just missing the cold one.”
That’s so cool! From your set earlier, I really liked the way you're telling stories and kind of the way you set “Not Country” where it’s almost like your biography in song. Was that an idea that you'd had for a long time and it’s like, this is a song I want to write?
“It was one that I had most of it just kind of in a note, just that idea and I was actually writing with Matt McKinney. He's a writer for Sony and was one of the writers on “Dicked Down in Dallas” that Trey Lewis put out. He and I, in true Matt fashion, we wrote a funny song that morning. Then we had the whole rest of the day and it was like, well, we’ve got plenty of time, let’s write another one. He's like, you got anything been working on or whatever? So, I pulled that one out and he helped me, you know, tidy it up, get it finished it up, organised it and everything else. I felt like I needed a song that that was more of like a story of me, just like this is who I am.”
Are you generally kind of like a journal type person, making like lots of voice memo’s as you go rather than someone who needs to sit down to be like, I'm going to write now.
“Oh yeah. I do like organised writes with other writers, but I mean, as far as like my daily, on the day, I'm always writing hooks, lyrics and just coming up with like little ideas where I'll do voice recordings. Sometimes I'll sing and sometimes I'll just find something on the guitar that I like and I'll just record myself playing it then I'll go back and write lyrics to it later. Then sometimes I just record little melodies into my phone, like with no lyrics at all. My writing process is different almost every time, you know it’s just like it comes to me, when it comes to me and I just take it as it comes.”
That's one of the things that you have probably noticed about the audiences over here, how people will listen to what you have to say, dig in to a brand new song that you have never played before and really want to hear the stories behind them. That must be really validating as both a songwriter and a performer.
“I love it. I mean, I love playing in honky-tonks, playing with the band, getting people jumping and hooting, hollering and everything else, but you can hear a song, it can sound good and you can learn the words or whatever else, but to know the story of the song, where it came from, why it came about and to be able to feel the song in its entirety, I feel like is a whole different thing.”
In terms of here with what Donna and Pete have put together here, obviously it’s the first year they have been at this site.
“This is great, it’s incredible for the first year.”
Everyone is giving such great feedback but how does it feel so far compared to events back at home?
“This feels a lot like a show back home as far as the festivals go. I was just at the Mount Horeb Country Music Faire in Wisconsin a couple weeks ago. I mean, it’s like a very similar stage set up and it's great here, it's very well put together and everything was very well received. I love it, they've done an amazing job here.”
You've had quite a steady flow of releases in terms of putting things out recently. Do you find that is now the way you almost have to go with releasing music, because you know, people's attention spans are so short now and if you put twelve songs out today, people are like oh, well, when's the next lot coming? Also putting songs out this way allows you to give a lot more focus to each one and tell that story a lot more.
“Oh, 100%, yeah, to kind of like give more like a breadcrumb trail and just kind of like one at a time and really, really focus on one song. I mean, you know, obviously I keep every song that I've released, you know, in my repertoire but to be able to focus on the song that just came out, the song that is coming out or whatever, I think that’s great for what everybody's looking for. There’s just so much music available now, you know, you can get on your phone and listen to thousands of songs of completely different genres, different artists or whatever else. So it's good to try, I mean, you almost have to stay relevant to just kind of keep pinging it, you know?”
I guess now you've been here twice so you have dipped your toes into water a couple of times now, is getting back here as often as you can, looking to be something that's going to be a big part of planning going forward?
“Yeah, I'm excited to come back. Every venue that I've played over here has been amazing, just like the staff, the agents, the crowds, I mean, just everything has been incredible and I can't wait to come back over. So, I definitely want it to be a part of my planning.”
The latest track “Running Wild” from Brooks Herring is out now which you can listen to on all of your favourite streaming platforms with links to this and all of his other songs on his WEBSITE whilst you can keep up to date with all that he is up to socially over on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
This year’s Country Calling was a resounding success with next year’s event set to take place between the 14th and 16th of August so you can be the first to find out more details on their WEBSITE and relive all the 2025 highlights on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
“I love it. I mean, I love playing in honky-tonks, playing with the band, getting people jumping and hooting, hollering and everything else, but you can hear a song, it can sound good and you can learn the words or whatever else, but to know the story of the song, where it came from, why it came about and to be able to feel the song in its entirety, I feel like is a whole different thing.”
In terms of here with what Donna and Pete have put together here, obviously it’s the first year they have been at this site.
“This is great, it’s incredible for the first year.”
Everyone is giving such great feedback but how does it feel so far compared to events back at home?
“This feels a lot like a show back home as far as the festivals go. I was just at the Mount Horeb Country Music Faire in Wisconsin a couple weeks ago. I mean, it’s like a very similar stage set up and it's great here, it's very well put together and everything was very well received. I love it, they've done an amazing job here.”
You've had quite a steady flow of releases in terms of putting things out recently. Do you find that is now the way you almost have to go with releasing music, because you know, people's attention spans are so short now and if you put twelve songs out today, people are like oh, well, when's the next lot coming? Also putting songs out this way allows you to give a lot more focus to each one and tell that story a lot more.
“Oh, 100%, yeah, to kind of like give more like a breadcrumb trail and just kind of like one at a time and really, really focus on one song. I mean, you know, obviously I keep every song that I've released, you know, in my repertoire but to be able to focus on the song that just came out, the song that is coming out or whatever, I think that’s great for what everybody's looking for. There’s just so much music available now, you know, you can get on your phone and listen to thousands of songs of completely different genres, different artists or whatever else. So it's good to try, I mean, you almost have to stay relevant to just kind of keep pinging it, you know?”
I guess now you've been here twice so you have dipped your toes into water a couple of times now, is getting back here as often as you can, looking to be something that's going to be a big part of planning going forward?
“Yeah, I'm excited to come back. Every venue that I've played over here has been amazing, just like the staff, the agents, the crowds, I mean, just everything has been incredible and I can't wait to come back over. So, I definitely want it to be a part of my planning.”
The latest track “Running Wild” from Brooks Herring is out now which you can listen to on all of your favourite streaming platforms with links to this and all of his other songs on his WEBSITE whilst you can keep up to date with all that he is up to socially over on INSTAGRAM TIKTOK & FACEBOOK.
This year’s Country Calling was a resounding success with next year’s event set to take place between the 14th and 16th of August so you can be the first to find out more details on their WEBSITE and relive all the 2025 highlights on INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK.
