The sit down with wynn williams
Indie recording artist Wynn Williams is set to release his latest album Country Therapy on August 29th. The Texas native teamed up with producer Brandon Hood for his latest record that features the songwriting talents of country music legends–Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers alike–including Carson Chamberlain (George Strait/Alan Jackson/Zach Top), Dean Dillon (George Strait/Kenny Chesney/Keith Whitley), Rhett Akins (Brooks & Dunn/Luke Bryan/Parker McCollum), Lydia Vaughn (Jason Aldean), Josh Dorr (Blake Shelton/Jordan Davis), Chris Stapleton (George Strait/Kenny Chesney/Josh Turner) and Jon Pardi. Fresh off a trip to perform at Festival Country de Craponne in France, Williams released the final single in the buildup to Country Therapy with the release of Here For The Beer (Randall King, Jimi Bell, Bryan Simpson). We caught up with Wynn on release day to find out more about the upcoming release
Hey there, Wynn. How's it going?
Not bad yourself?
Good, man. Dare I ask if you know even what time zone you're in or how the jet lag is?
Man, it is actually pretty bad. I woke up yesterday at about 4 o'clock. Today I woke up at 4.30. I'm pretty tired, but you know, I got to keep on pushing through. That's the only way to get through it.
I would say thanks for getting up early for us, but it sounds like you've been up for ages!
Yeah, it's been it's been a good morning already, a productive morning!
Obviously congratulations first off because Here For The Beer is out today.
Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Is it nice to have that next release in the build-up to Country Therapy being out?
It is, man. We've got a bunch of music that we put out over the course of the past couple months and this particular song is one that I might be the most excited about before the album just because it's right down the middle of my kind of country music. This one means a lot to me and it was written by Randall King, Jimmy Bell and Brian Simpson. Randall is a friend of mine and obviously another artist, so it means a lot to get to record and release this one and hopefully everybody out there loves it.
Is it nice to see it out on the streaming platforms and hearing people are listening already in the first few hours of release?
It is, man. You spend so much time, effort, energy and money recording these songs and when they finally get out, it's kind of a little bit of a relief! Then as an independent artist you hope that people listen to it and hopefully people dig it.
I've seen it is on the Spotify All New Country playlists amongst others. How important as an independent artist is it to get on those playlists on release day?
It's really important. The algorithm on Spotify and Apple and all that kind of stuff is ever-changing. A guy like me who doesn't know anything about algorithms at all and just wants it out there, but fortunately I have a great team working behind me on the management side and we've got a good distribution channel as well. My team has done a pretty good job, I haven't done anything! They’re the ones getting the songs out there and getting them heard and we're just about to cross over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, which is exciting because in my whole career, I've never reached that hundred thousand monthly listener mark. If we can achieve that before the album comes out, then, you know, we're already way ahead of the game for the actual full record to come out.
You started releasing tracks from this album back in 2024. Does that almost feel like a lifetime ago in this cycle?
It does. We actually started last year because we recorded five or six of the songs for the project a couple of years ago. We recorded them, I don't know, in 23 probably and then we put out Hear You Say It, Country Therapy, and A Woman Can Do That to a Man in 24 and then Denver to Dallas came out in January. It has felt like a lifetime because it kind of has been! It's good to get them out there and also be able to come back and revisit some of the songs, too, when the whole album drops.
Is it going to be excitement or relief come August 29th?
Probably a little bit of both to be honest with you! There’s excitement because there are going to be new songs that people have never heard before. Then you have this pinnacle moment where you've been working so hard for so long on a project and then it comes out, so it is a bit of a relief. That though doesn't mean you get to take a break because you've got to market the record and there's a little bit more weight on your shoulders to make sure that it actually gets heard. It’s a bit of a challenge as well as an independent artist because I don't have the huge conglomerate or the Big Machine’s behind the project. There is some bit of a heaviness to it as well to get back to work as on top of promoting this album, I'll be starting to work on the next one!
Hey there, Wynn. How's it going?
Not bad yourself?
Good, man. Dare I ask if you know even what time zone you're in or how the jet lag is?
Man, it is actually pretty bad. I woke up yesterday at about 4 o'clock. Today I woke up at 4.30. I'm pretty tired, but you know, I got to keep on pushing through. That's the only way to get through it.
I would say thanks for getting up early for us, but it sounds like you've been up for ages!
Yeah, it's been it's been a good morning already, a productive morning!
Obviously congratulations first off because Here For The Beer is out today.
Yeah, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
Is it nice to have that next release in the build-up to Country Therapy being out?
It is, man. We've got a bunch of music that we put out over the course of the past couple months and this particular song is one that I might be the most excited about before the album just because it's right down the middle of my kind of country music. This one means a lot to me and it was written by Randall King, Jimmy Bell and Brian Simpson. Randall is a friend of mine and obviously another artist, so it means a lot to get to record and release this one and hopefully everybody out there loves it.
Is it nice to see it out on the streaming platforms and hearing people are listening already in the first few hours of release?
It is, man. You spend so much time, effort, energy and money recording these songs and when they finally get out, it's kind of a little bit of a relief! Then as an independent artist you hope that people listen to it and hopefully people dig it.
I've seen it is on the Spotify All New Country playlists amongst others. How important as an independent artist is it to get on those playlists on release day?
It's really important. The algorithm on Spotify and Apple and all that kind of stuff is ever-changing. A guy like me who doesn't know anything about algorithms at all and just wants it out there, but fortunately I have a great team working behind me on the management side and we've got a good distribution channel as well. My team has done a pretty good job, I haven't done anything! They’re the ones getting the songs out there and getting them heard and we're just about to cross over 100,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, which is exciting because in my whole career, I've never reached that hundred thousand monthly listener mark. If we can achieve that before the album comes out, then, you know, we're already way ahead of the game for the actual full record to come out.
You started releasing tracks from this album back in 2024. Does that almost feel like a lifetime ago in this cycle?
It does. We actually started last year because we recorded five or six of the songs for the project a couple of years ago. We recorded them, I don't know, in 23 probably and then we put out Hear You Say It, Country Therapy, and A Woman Can Do That to a Man in 24 and then Denver to Dallas came out in January. It has felt like a lifetime because it kind of has been! It's good to get them out there and also be able to come back and revisit some of the songs, too, when the whole album drops.
Is it going to be excitement or relief come August 29th?
Probably a little bit of both to be honest with you! There’s excitement because there are going to be new songs that people have never heard before. Then you have this pinnacle moment where you've been working so hard for so long on a project and then it comes out, so it is a bit of a relief. That though doesn't mean you get to take a break because you've got to market the record and there's a little bit more weight on your shoulders to make sure that it actually gets heard. It’s a bit of a challenge as well as an independent artist because I don't have the huge conglomerate or the Big Machine’s behind the project. There is some bit of a heaviness to it as well to get back to work as on top of promoting this album, I'll be starting to work on the next one!
You have got some shows in North America to finish up the year. Was it important to get those shows booked in around the release?
Man, it's so important. Touring as an independent artist is bread and butter. That's what moves and what turns the wheels. It is so important to be able to have all these dates on the books. And I'm super thankful to have all these dates. We're going out of state a lot and I just came back from Europe. In August, I think I'll be home for like five full days and then September rolls around and it's kind of the same story. We've got several fly dates in September, we're going up to Canada as well, getting up to the Dakotas and Nebraska too. It's a lot to think about and coordinate, but there was a time when I wasn't so busy, so I'm thankful to have all these.
As you said, you’ve just got back from France where you played Festival Country de Craponne. How is your French?
Man, I just kind of winged it because my French is not very good. I know a little bit of Spanish - enough to get me by - but I don't know any French. It was kind of tough, but I've been there before at least, so I know thank you and please and hello and all that kind of stuff. I do though know how the French culture is, which makes it a little bit easier for me to adapt this time around. Anytime you're going to a new place, you've got to prepare a little bit and I would say that France is one of the more difficult ones just because of the language barrier. Germany, too. Fortunately, a ton of people over there speak English!
As an independent artist, kind of when you get offered things like this show at this festival in France, is it important to say yes and keep your name out there? Or is there always that thinking of how much is it going to cost you to get there and is the cost outweighed by long term goals?
Yeah, you're always trying to figure out, OK, does it make sense? To be 100 percent honest with you, going to Europe is it's certainly not a money-making venture for me just yet. I'm not really able to put a bunch of money in my pocket going to Europe, but it is an opportunity for me to go over there, meet a new audience and expand my horizons on the listenership and the awareness. Hopefully, over the course of a few years, if I can get over there more often, then we can go over there and actually make some money. I've just used these opportunities playing Europe so far to make memories. I've gotten to travel to seven or eight different countries with my wife and on this most recent trip I took my dad. We got to go all through Normandy and see a bunch of the World War Two history. After the festival, we went up to Belgium and we went up to Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge took place. It's one of those things where it's like this is living. Of course, I want to make money from music as that’s my job, but this is the life part of it where you get to make the memories that are going to last a lifetime and you get to do with people that you love.
What made you want to go to see those areas and focus on the World War routes?
Well, I'm a big history buff anyway, and my dad is as well. He was in the army for 21 years and he is fascinated with World War Two and World War One history. When my wife and I came over there in 2023, we took a day trip tour to Normandy from Paris and it was it was amazing. When the opportunity came up to go back to France, I asked my wife, so do you want to go back to Europe? And she was like, well, maybe I'll skip this one and go on the next trip with you. I said, well, I'm going to take my dad and we're going to go do all the World War Two stuff that we can. It was a once in a lifetime trip for him. Right before we got on the Zoom, he called me and he's like, man, that was an awesome trip. Thank you.
Living in the south of England we’re very lucky that it’s within a few hours drive and places like Dunkirk can be done as a day trip.
That's awesome. Every time I go over there, I'm amazed at the history. I mean, even in Normandy specifically as all the World War Two history is there. The Normans were there in the ten hundreds with William the Conqueror, I learned a bunch of history about this just being there. Many of the churches and some of the structures are from way, way ahead of our time. We went to a place in Lyon, and they had some Roman ruins and it was an amphitheatre that was built. One part of it was built, I think it was 20 BC, and that was still there. It was just fascinating seeing all that stuff. We've been to Rome before and seen the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, all that stuff. It's just awesome to see it.
That's definitely one way to get you to keep coming back to Europe and play some shows while you’re here!
For sure. I'm going to be over in the UK for a wedding in April, so I'm working on a couple of things right now to see if we can play a couple of shows too.
Was it always your intention just to play the festival and then travel and then head home? Or did you look at other shows and it just didn't work out?
Yeah, we always try to get more stuff going on. It can help financially to add more shows, of course, but it's one of those things where I'm brand new over there and obviously that means very few people know who I am and that makes it a little bit more challenging, much like it is over here. We're going out of state and maybe the buyers or the venues don't know who I am just yet and that's OK. We got to go over there and we’ve got to build no matter where it is. We always try and get more than one thing, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. I'm fortunate to have a couple of different bands over there that I've played with in the past, so I can reach out to as well.
Man, it's so important. Touring as an independent artist is bread and butter. That's what moves and what turns the wheels. It is so important to be able to have all these dates on the books. And I'm super thankful to have all these dates. We're going out of state a lot and I just came back from Europe. In August, I think I'll be home for like five full days and then September rolls around and it's kind of the same story. We've got several fly dates in September, we're going up to Canada as well, getting up to the Dakotas and Nebraska too. It's a lot to think about and coordinate, but there was a time when I wasn't so busy, so I'm thankful to have all these.
As you said, you’ve just got back from France where you played Festival Country de Craponne. How is your French?
Man, I just kind of winged it because my French is not very good. I know a little bit of Spanish - enough to get me by - but I don't know any French. It was kind of tough, but I've been there before at least, so I know thank you and please and hello and all that kind of stuff. I do though know how the French culture is, which makes it a little bit easier for me to adapt this time around. Anytime you're going to a new place, you've got to prepare a little bit and I would say that France is one of the more difficult ones just because of the language barrier. Germany, too. Fortunately, a ton of people over there speak English!
As an independent artist, kind of when you get offered things like this show at this festival in France, is it important to say yes and keep your name out there? Or is there always that thinking of how much is it going to cost you to get there and is the cost outweighed by long term goals?
Yeah, you're always trying to figure out, OK, does it make sense? To be 100 percent honest with you, going to Europe is it's certainly not a money-making venture for me just yet. I'm not really able to put a bunch of money in my pocket going to Europe, but it is an opportunity for me to go over there, meet a new audience and expand my horizons on the listenership and the awareness. Hopefully, over the course of a few years, if I can get over there more often, then we can go over there and actually make some money. I've just used these opportunities playing Europe so far to make memories. I've gotten to travel to seven or eight different countries with my wife and on this most recent trip I took my dad. We got to go all through Normandy and see a bunch of the World War Two history. After the festival, we went up to Belgium and we went up to Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge took place. It's one of those things where it's like this is living. Of course, I want to make money from music as that’s my job, but this is the life part of it where you get to make the memories that are going to last a lifetime and you get to do with people that you love.
What made you want to go to see those areas and focus on the World War routes?
Well, I'm a big history buff anyway, and my dad is as well. He was in the army for 21 years and he is fascinated with World War Two and World War One history. When my wife and I came over there in 2023, we took a day trip tour to Normandy from Paris and it was it was amazing. When the opportunity came up to go back to France, I asked my wife, so do you want to go back to Europe? And she was like, well, maybe I'll skip this one and go on the next trip with you. I said, well, I'm going to take my dad and we're going to go do all the World War Two stuff that we can. It was a once in a lifetime trip for him. Right before we got on the Zoom, he called me and he's like, man, that was an awesome trip. Thank you.
Living in the south of England we’re very lucky that it’s within a few hours drive and places like Dunkirk can be done as a day trip.
That's awesome. Every time I go over there, I'm amazed at the history. I mean, even in Normandy specifically as all the World War Two history is there. The Normans were there in the ten hundreds with William the Conqueror, I learned a bunch of history about this just being there. Many of the churches and some of the structures are from way, way ahead of our time. We went to a place in Lyon, and they had some Roman ruins and it was an amphitheatre that was built. One part of it was built, I think it was 20 BC, and that was still there. It was just fascinating seeing all that stuff. We've been to Rome before and seen the Roman Forum, the Colosseum, all that stuff. It's just awesome to see it.
That's definitely one way to get you to keep coming back to Europe and play some shows while you’re here!
For sure. I'm going to be over in the UK for a wedding in April, so I'm working on a couple of things right now to see if we can play a couple of shows too.
Was it always your intention just to play the festival and then travel and then head home? Or did you look at other shows and it just didn't work out?
Yeah, we always try to get more stuff going on. It can help financially to add more shows, of course, but it's one of those things where I'm brand new over there and obviously that means very few people know who I am and that makes it a little bit more challenging, much like it is over here. We're going out of state and maybe the buyers or the venues don't know who I am just yet and that's OK. We got to go over there and we’ve got to build no matter where it is. We always try and get more than one thing, but sometimes it just doesn't work out. I'm fortunate to have a couple of different bands over there that I've played with in the past, so I can reach out to as well.
As you continue to build stateside, getting to do events like CMA Fest this year with Jake Owen must be so important too.
Man, it was awesome. That was my first CMA Fest. We had three different shows and getting to play on the big one of the bigger stages. The Ascend Amphitheatre was awesome. We did have a little bit of a rain problem, so I didn't get to play quite as long as I hoped I would, but I was thankful that we even got to play because outside of two stages, the Ascend Amphitheater and Nissan Stadium, everything else shut down. There were a lot of people that didn't even get to play that day. I got to play my 15-minute set and we gave them hell for 15 minutes!
As your catalogue gets bigger, is it tough to decide what to play in those shorter sets? Or have you almost got that this is the songs I want people to hear and have to know first?
It is really hard whenever you're deciding, especially if you're having to make a decision on the fly like that, because a 15- or 20-minute set is just not enough because you get three maybe four songs played. On one of the sets, we actually managed to play five songs because a couple of them were like two minutes long! You want to play the music for people, but you also want to take a little bit of time to say a few words and connect with people. Anybody can go up there and play music, but you have if you don't make that personal connection with the crowd then they may not come out and see another show or maybe they don't go follow you on social media or stream your songs. You want to introduce yourself and you want to talk about what you have going on and where you come from because maybe there's a common thread in there between you and someone watching. It's really hard whenever you're expecting 30 minutes and you get cut down to 15, but I would say the sweet spot set time is like 45 minutes. We typically do an hour to 90 minutes every night, which is a headline show. Sometimes, by the time you're going on it’s getting towards the end of the show and people are starting to yawn because we don't start playing sometimes till 10:30, 11 o'clock at night and people just get tired! You start to lose some folks a little bit on those 90-minute shows but it's all good.
Man, it was awesome. That was my first CMA Fest. We had three different shows and getting to play on the big one of the bigger stages. The Ascend Amphitheatre was awesome. We did have a little bit of a rain problem, so I didn't get to play quite as long as I hoped I would, but I was thankful that we even got to play because outside of two stages, the Ascend Amphitheater and Nissan Stadium, everything else shut down. There were a lot of people that didn't even get to play that day. I got to play my 15-minute set and we gave them hell for 15 minutes!
As your catalogue gets bigger, is it tough to decide what to play in those shorter sets? Or have you almost got that this is the songs I want people to hear and have to know first?
It is really hard whenever you're deciding, especially if you're having to make a decision on the fly like that, because a 15- or 20-minute set is just not enough because you get three maybe four songs played. On one of the sets, we actually managed to play five songs because a couple of them were like two minutes long! You want to play the music for people, but you also want to take a little bit of time to say a few words and connect with people. Anybody can go up there and play music, but you have if you don't make that personal connection with the crowd then they may not come out and see another show or maybe they don't go follow you on social media or stream your songs. You want to introduce yourself and you want to talk about what you have going on and where you come from because maybe there's a common thread in there between you and someone watching. It's really hard whenever you're expecting 30 minutes and you get cut down to 15, but I would say the sweet spot set time is like 45 minutes. We typically do an hour to 90 minutes every night, which is a headline show. Sometimes, by the time you're going on it’s getting towards the end of the show and people are starting to yawn because we don't start playing sometimes till 10:30, 11 o'clock at night and people just get tired! You start to lose some folks a little bit on those 90-minute shows but it's all good.
With this new record, I can imagine you’re definitely going to want to introduce some of the songs because the list of songwriters on this album is like nothing I’ve ever seen. You only co-wrote two of the tracks and the rest are all external credits. Was that always your intention with this release?
It wasn't necessarily my intention, but it just happened to work out that way because I have been so busy this year. It's been really hard for me to get into a writer's mindset as I go up to Nashville once a month for about a week at a time and I'll write; I’ll record; I'll have meetings and that kind of stuff. Then whenever I’m at home, I'm knocking out social media; tour advancing; getting logistics figured out; talking with the venues; knowing load in times; schedules all that kind of stuff. Then, I’ve got all the regular stuff of a house and wife. Nashville is my creative space and home is my business space. It should be really the opposite, but it's totally not!
How did you come across some of these songs? The credits have some huge household names of both songwriting legends and superstar artists.
Yeah, man, the songs that we were able to get are great great songs. I only wrote two of them and I'm happy to say that every track is a great song. The writers that are on these songs are people that I grew up listening to in Rhett Akins and Dean Dillon. Many of these writers have been around for a long time and have written so many hit songs that everyone knows. The truth is, there are thousands and thousands of songs in catalogues at publishing companies that have never seen the light of day. When you go into a publishing meeting, you say hey I'm looking for something that's really pure country and has this kind of feel to it. Maybe it's a certain tempo or a ballad. You go in and you give them your parameters of what you're looking for and they'll go through and they'll dig into that catalogue and then they go okay, this song was written back in 2004 and nobody ever recorded it. Maybe it was on hold for somebody for a period of time and then it never made a record - those are like gold for me. If a song gets put on hold, it's a good song. If it gets recorded and released, it's a great song. There are then some songs that just slip through the cracks and those great songs that slip through the cracks never get heard by the right artist. To me, I feel like we were able to go get some of those great songs that slipped through the cracks over the years and I just got lucky. It was right place, right time and meeting with the right people. All of these songs are great song, I can sit here and say that over and over again because I truly believe that. Some people have a chip on their shoulder about wanting to be a writer on every song and feel like they have to write the songs on their records and that's fine. I don't feel that way at all as some of my absolute favourite artists like Kenny Chesney and George Strait have recorded other peoples songs. Elvis Presley never wrote a single song of his that he ever put out! You've got people in Nashville that are writing all the time and they have really sharpened that that skill set, which I’m still developing. Being able to tap into the Songwriters Guild in Nashville has been really a blessing because otherwise who knows when I would have been able to have enough songs to go record because I’ve been so busy and you have to make yourself sit down and write which I haven’t been able to do. If you don't dot that, the song ain't getting written, so being able to have some of those outside songs has been incredibly important over the past couple years as we've tried to come up with this record
You worked with Brandon Hood as your producer on this release, who again his own credits are endless too. Was he quite important when it came to picking some of these songs and working together on that?
Oh, yeah, totally. Having a producer that will listen to what you have to say, have a real conversation with you about songs and just have a real conversation with you in general about life, your career, personal things and being on the same page is so important. It makes the song process and the recording process so much easier whenever you do have that personal connection with them because it's art man and art is subjective. Brandon has had so much success and has this incredible repertoire of musical knowledge that he can provide a different perspective that I haven't thought of. You don't really want to surround yourself with a bunch of yes men, you want to have people that will put up a little bit of resistance and say you know, I don't think that this is the right way to go or think that this song beats that song. You want to surround yourself with people that have your best interests at heart and Brandon Hood is definitely one of those people. I'm so grateful to have started working with him over the past couple years, it's been a real pleasure and he is insanely talented. Way more talented than if I lived 10 lifetimes and I would probably never be as talented as Brandon! He's brought us some good songs and then whenever I hear a song or if I write a song and I think it's pretty good I'll send it to him and he'll tell me the honest truth. He will tell me I don't think it's strong enough or I love that. It's really crucial to have a solid producer partner.
Now you're both into that final four-week countdown until it's out,
Yes, and I’m sure he's happy too because he's worked so hard on this as well and he's texted me a few times or we've talked a few times about it recently. He's like man I love what we've been working on. This is awesome. It's so good. I can't wait. There's a lot of that going back and forth, especially right now as we get as we get closer to the project coming out.
How are you going to celebrate the track being out tonight?
We actually did a little bit of celebrating last night with some friends of ours. We went out to one of our favourite spots and had a few beers. I'm actually in the midst of moving house too, so I'm just eating food out at restaurants quite a bit and trying to get the last few things packed up. My amazing wife has done so much of it the whole time I was in Europe, she packed up the whole house and as you can see there's a few things that I still need to take care of, but it's I might have another beer or two this afternoon. At least after I get some of my stuff done and then we'll just keep on working man. I don't have a weekend off now until October 25th or something like that. It's going to be crazy, but I'm thankful to be busy.
Well, thank you so much for fitting us in in your morning. Again, congratulations on Here For The Beer and good luck for the end of the month when Country Therapy drops
Thank you for the invite. I would love to come to the UK and I’m really excited about the record. I hope y'all love it over there and spread the word for us.
For more information about Wynn, visit: https://www.wynnwilliamsmusic.com/
His new album Country Therapy will be release August 29th and you can Pre-save it NOW and be sure to follow him across social the usual social channels at Facebook and Instagram
It wasn't necessarily my intention, but it just happened to work out that way because I have been so busy this year. It's been really hard for me to get into a writer's mindset as I go up to Nashville once a month for about a week at a time and I'll write; I’ll record; I'll have meetings and that kind of stuff. Then whenever I’m at home, I'm knocking out social media; tour advancing; getting logistics figured out; talking with the venues; knowing load in times; schedules all that kind of stuff. Then, I’ve got all the regular stuff of a house and wife. Nashville is my creative space and home is my business space. It should be really the opposite, but it's totally not!
How did you come across some of these songs? The credits have some huge household names of both songwriting legends and superstar artists.
Yeah, man, the songs that we were able to get are great great songs. I only wrote two of them and I'm happy to say that every track is a great song. The writers that are on these songs are people that I grew up listening to in Rhett Akins and Dean Dillon. Many of these writers have been around for a long time and have written so many hit songs that everyone knows. The truth is, there are thousands and thousands of songs in catalogues at publishing companies that have never seen the light of day. When you go into a publishing meeting, you say hey I'm looking for something that's really pure country and has this kind of feel to it. Maybe it's a certain tempo or a ballad. You go in and you give them your parameters of what you're looking for and they'll go through and they'll dig into that catalogue and then they go okay, this song was written back in 2004 and nobody ever recorded it. Maybe it was on hold for somebody for a period of time and then it never made a record - those are like gold for me. If a song gets put on hold, it's a good song. If it gets recorded and released, it's a great song. There are then some songs that just slip through the cracks and those great songs that slip through the cracks never get heard by the right artist. To me, I feel like we were able to go get some of those great songs that slipped through the cracks over the years and I just got lucky. It was right place, right time and meeting with the right people. All of these songs are great song, I can sit here and say that over and over again because I truly believe that. Some people have a chip on their shoulder about wanting to be a writer on every song and feel like they have to write the songs on their records and that's fine. I don't feel that way at all as some of my absolute favourite artists like Kenny Chesney and George Strait have recorded other peoples songs. Elvis Presley never wrote a single song of his that he ever put out! You've got people in Nashville that are writing all the time and they have really sharpened that that skill set, which I’m still developing. Being able to tap into the Songwriters Guild in Nashville has been really a blessing because otherwise who knows when I would have been able to have enough songs to go record because I’ve been so busy and you have to make yourself sit down and write which I haven’t been able to do. If you don't dot that, the song ain't getting written, so being able to have some of those outside songs has been incredibly important over the past couple years as we've tried to come up with this record
You worked with Brandon Hood as your producer on this release, who again his own credits are endless too. Was he quite important when it came to picking some of these songs and working together on that?
Oh, yeah, totally. Having a producer that will listen to what you have to say, have a real conversation with you about songs and just have a real conversation with you in general about life, your career, personal things and being on the same page is so important. It makes the song process and the recording process so much easier whenever you do have that personal connection with them because it's art man and art is subjective. Brandon has had so much success and has this incredible repertoire of musical knowledge that he can provide a different perspective that I haven't thought of. You don't really want to surround yourself with a bunch of yes men, you want to have people that will put up a little bit of resistance and say you know, I don't think that this is the right way to go or think that this song beats that song. You want to surround yourself with people that have your best interests at heart and Brandon Hood is definitely one of those people. I'm so grateful to have started working with him over the past couple years, it's been a real pleasure and he is insanely talented. Way more talented than if I lived 10 lifetimes and I would probably never be as talented as Brandon! He's brought us some good songs and then whenever I hear a song or if I write a song and I think it's pretty good I'll send it to him and he'll tell me the honest truth. He will tell me I don't think it's strong enough or I love that. It's really crucial to have a solid producer partner.
Now you're both into that final four-week countdown until it's out,
Yes, and I’m sure he's happy too because he's worked so hard on this as well and he's texted me a few times or we've talked a few times about it recently. He's like man I love what we've been working on. This is awesome. It's so good. I can't wait. There's a lot of that going back and forth, especially right now as we get as we get closer to the project coming out.
How are you going to celebrate the track being out tonight?
We actually did a little bit of celebrating last night with some friends of ours. We went out to one of our favourite spots and had a few beers. I'm actually in the midst of moving house too, so I'm just eating food out at restaurants quite a bit and trying to get the last few things packed up. My amazing wife has done so much of it the whole time I was in Europe, she packed up the whole house and as you can see there's a few things that I still need to take care of, but it's I might have another beer or two this afternoon. At least after I get some of my stuff done and then we'll just keep on working man. I don't have a weekend off now until October 25th or something like that. It's going to be crazy, but I'm thankful to be busy.
Well, thank you so much for fitting us in in your morning. Again, congratulations on Here For The Beer and good luck for the end of the month when Country Therapy drops
Thank you for the invite. I would love to come to the UK and I’m really excited about the record. I hope y'all love it over there and spread the word for us.
For more information about Wynn, visit: https://www.wynnwilliamsmusic.com/
His new album Country Therapy will be release August 29th and you can Pre-save it NOW and be sure to follow him across social the usual social channels at Facebook and Instagram
