Back in May 2002, Texas artist Wade Bowen released his first album – Try Not To Listen. Fast forward to May 2024, and more than 4,000 shows Wade has just released his tenth studio album, the 12 track Flyin. Bowen recently won Texas Male Vocalist of the Year at the 2024 T3R Awards for the second year in a row and we caught up wit him this week to find out more about the self-produced album
Hey Wade, how are you doing today? I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for your time.
No, problem. So, we're here to chat about the release of Flying. Is it crazy it's been out now for kind of a few weeks already? Yeah, it is. It's crazy. You know, so much of the album process is you hurry up and get it done, and then you sit around and wait for it to come out! With Flyin, I was so excited when I got it done and felt ready for people to hear it.I'm so excited that it's finally out and ready for people to keep hearing it and keep embracing it like they have been. This has just been so much fun for people too, the response we've had has just been a little overwhelming from my end.
After so many years of releasing music, do you still get those nerves in the build-up as you push the promos a bit more and know that it's getting closer to release day? Yeah, I do. You know, I get nervous - I get excited.All of those emotions that build up. I think when you have a record like this, at this time of my life and time of my career, it's very interesting because I think I have more confidence now, and it has nothing to do with ego. I have more confidence in what I'm doing now than I've ever had.I think you hear that in this project. I think you hear this overwhelmingly happy, proud, confident, and just excited, very excited Wade Bowen, more excited than I've ever been! I really think you hear that in this album,and I think it came across in the songs. I think it came across in the production. This is the second record I produced on my own, and I think you hear that in this album. I didn't really mean to do that! It's funny how I just naturally did it and then I got through with the record, produced it, and listened to it as an artist. I was like, wow, I sound really happy! I sound really like I'm having a lot of fun in this record and I'm so excited to hear that, and I hope people hear that in the project. It's a lot of fun for me to hear that for myself.
You just mentioned about producing Flyin. Did you always plan on producing this one again yourself? Or is that just the way it kind of worked out in the end? No, I really wanted to. You know, I learned so much from producing the last one, and I was like, okay, well, you know, when you learn so much, I want to really produce the next one because it really helped me a lot. Of course, it was a little bit more difficult than the first one. Surprisingly, I thought it'd be easier, but it was more difficult because when you learn more, I found myself deeper down the well, right? And I was like, oh, no, this is a little bit more difficult now because I have more knowledge. Now I'm hearing things that I didn't hear before and seeing things that I didn't see before. It was way more of a challenge than last time, I had to kind of dig out of the hole a little bit more, but it was so much more fun, so much more of a challenge.But, man, I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed the process plus I learned a lot more, obviously, this time than last time, too.
So, I'm anxious to see what continues to come from that side of the thing. I really love being on that side of the process way more than I thought I would. I really thought I would enjoy producing, but I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I have.I really hope that translates into producing other projects for other people. I really enjoy that. I really enjoy sitting in the studio for 15 hours a day!I really never thought I would enjoy doing that, but I do love just digging into the songs and getting into the middle of them and trying to get into the intricate little parts of them and details and stuff. I really never thought I would enjoy that, but I really do. It's fun to come out on the other side of it and then listen to it again as an artist.It's really fun to be on both sides of the fences.
Do you think it's something you wished you had done slightly earlier in your career as well, or do you think you've got a good point now with this being album number 10? I'm glad I didn't do it earlier in my career. There's no way I could have done that. There's no way I could have done this earlier in my career.There's no way I knew how to do this earlier in my career. This is my 10th studio record, and I really needed those first eight. I've had a lot of time in the studio to really learn those things and learn from everybody else, learn from the musicians, learn from the engineers. I've spent a lot of time in the studio to get to this point.There's no way I could have done this earlier in my career. I just did not have the knowledge. I barely have the knowledge now!So, there's no way I could have done this earlier in my career.
You’re now on studio album number 10, does that still kind of feel a bit unbelievable that you've got to that kind of mark? Because so many artists wouldn't even come close to releasing that many albums and would be happy with just one or two. Yeah, doing all these interviews for this album, someone actually brought that up to me. I can't remember who it was, but someone actually brought it up. They said, do you realize, what does that feel like to say 10 studio albums?And I had not even thought about it until someone brought it up. And you just did too. I guess it never crossed my mind until you say it.It's like, wow, that is quite an honour. Most people don't get to do that. Most people don't get to say 10 studio records.They don't get that far, I guess, or maybe. They don't get to that point in their careers where they hang on that long. I tell everybody, this industry has tried like hell to get rid of me many, many times, andI just hang around like a stubborn mule. My voice has tried to give up on me and I've had many late nights where I pondered, what the heck am I doing here?I need to hang up the hat and give up. But 10 studio records is something I'm very, very proud of. I’m even more proud now that people have brought it up to me that I'm doing it.
I love playing music. I love writing songs. I love making records.I love playing shows. I've always loved this job. I hate to even call it a job because I just love it so much. It's really, really fun for me to say this far into my career that I love it more than I ever have. I can say that with the most sincerity. I really am enjoying this more than I ever have, and that's really fun to say. Even for a job, I don't know how many jobs you can say this far into their jobs, this many years into a job, that someone can say they love their job more than when they first started. So, to say 10 albums, 10 studio albums, it's really fun to say that and to feel like I'm at the top of my game at 10 studio records. That's a monumental number to me. So, to feel like we're at the top of our game feels really good.
I do not blame you at all. But I guess you're also at that point in your career now where so many up-and-coming artists are obviously now probably looking to you and coming to you for advice, especially from the Texas area. Is that now like something you really take on board and are quite proud of that position you're in? Yeah, I love that. I love when people call me, and I hope anybody reading this right now know that they feel free to call.I love it. I love helping younger artists. I was lucky a few people helped me, and I wish more would have.You know, I think there's a good group of us that are willing to help younger artists. I think that's something I really take a lot of pride in. I mean, even this past weekend, playing some shows with Miranda Lambert here in New Braunfels.There was a couple of the openers. I was just simply helping them put their in-ears. They had never worn in-ears before.I was helping them put their in-ears in. I mean, just simple things like that. I love helping out the younger artists.I love giving advice. I joke around with them, I tell them I'm happy to give terrible advice whenever they want it.Do as I say, not as I did! That's what I tell them. But I love helping and talking and giving advice to young kids.I love it. It's so much fun for me. Being a mentor to anybody I can that wants to listen, I love doing it.I take a lot of pride in that and really, really, really enjoy it.
You just spoke about the Miranda Lambert shows. How good was that timing wise to get a show like that within three weeks of the new album being released? So much fun. I mean, yeah, the timing couldn't have been better, for sure. At the same time, we've been friends for 20-something years and every single time we pick up right where we left off, we just immediately start laughing as hard as we ever have. She's one of my dearest, best friends in the world and at the same time, I mean, for being such a massive star, I forget, you know, because she's such a close friend, you just forget what a massive superstar she is. At the same time, she's such an unselfish, kind, massive superstar. I mean, the moment we get on the show, she's immediately started to talk about what songs we're going to do together and how to get the openers involved that are on the shows with us. How do we get them involved in singing with us?And she's wide open with her shows. How do we get everyone involved up there on stage with her? I mean, she's hanging out before, all day long with everybody and after the shows with everybody.I mean, she's just, I can't say enough great things about her as an artist and then obviously as a friend. There's very few people in this business that I have more fun with than her playing shows and I can honestly say that because she's a great friend, a great pal and my favourite voice probably in the entire industry.I just love hearing her sing and her show is a phenomenal show, with a great band. I wish we could do so many more shows together. I just love the hang and the music is great.The music fits together. We have so much fun and mutual respect for each other. It's so much fun.So for three wonderful days together in my hometown and we got to sleep in my own bed. So nice.
Does it make that even a bit more special being those hometown shows as well? Yeah, it is. You know, it's nice. It's a little more difficult too because you got everybody calling you.You know, I told her, there was at one point where I was like, man, my phone won't stop ringing. Maybe we should do three shows together like in Montana or something where nobody knows us so we can just hang out more. But because she had a lot of friends and family coming in because they were all Texas shows for her as well.So we know that I joke around. That's not true at all. We love all of our friends being there and family being there. Everywhere you turn, there was somebody familiar, somebody, you know, a family member or a friend close by that we could hug and hang on to and drink with, smile with and laugh with. It was truly an amazing weekend. It really felt like a huge family reunion for both of us and each other as well.You know, it just really was an amazing weekend all the way around. One for the books for me, one that I'll never, ever, ever forget as long as I live.
How has the live shows come across to the crowd? Yeah, I really believe my live show right now is the best, really the best it's ever been. I really do believe that. And I do think it comes across with everything I've been saying so far with this interview, you know, like when I wake up and I'm happy like I am right now and I'm feeling good about what we're doing.And I think that just is the umbrella effect, right? Everything filters down to everything else. The songs from this record, I think they translate really well live, so when you throw these songs into what we already have, you add those into the show, it just feels good. It adds so much to what we already have built over the years and it’s bringing a cool dynamic to our show. We're really having a lot of fun right now with our show. It's a really cool show.
It's the most difficult set list I've ever had to make. Every night is very different from the next because I've got so much to dig from. You know, we've got so much old stuff and now so much new stuff.Just over the last three years, I think we have we've released like 50 something new songs that we put out there to the world. So that's a lot of new stuff and a lot of old stuff to dig from the people. We know they're showing up to the shows wanting to hear the old stuff.You know, I know how it is. I'm a fan first. Everybody wants to hear the stuff they're familiar with. It's been an interesting thing, but I literally am having so much fun right now with my show that I have to ask, what is the curfew? When do I have to stop playing?Because I will play for sometimes almost three hours, man. It's crazy. We're playing for two, two and a half hours sometimes.And they sometimes cut the lights on sometimes in these bars that we're playing - I don't want to stop. We're having so much fun playing music and we have so many songs that I want to play!It's just a really good feeling right now and I hope that's coming across to people when they leave the venue or leave the bar or leave the festival. I hope they feel that walk away going, man, they're having a lot of fun out there.
Looking at the new album, I think Friday Night is probably my favourite track on it. I love the intro with Troy Aikman featuring on it. Was that a tough phone call to make to get him to do it? Or was it a bit of a no brainer that that was the voice you wanted? Man, surprisingly, it was very easy. Troy is a huge country music fan. He and I have been friends for a few years now and I still can't believe I'm saying that, that he and I are friends!It's very surreal to say that. He's a great guy, a good friend and when I thought of having the high school football announcer, I couldn't think of a better idea than having Troy Aikman be that.I was really keeping my fingers crossed that he would say yes, but he's such a country music fan overall that I figured it would be a pretty simple ask and he jumped on it. He gave me multiple options and just was all in, man. We've done some stuff back and forth. I helped him with his charity a few years ago with his charity event and things like that.He's a good friend. I feel like we have a good mutual friendship back and forth. It's pretty cool, man.I had his posters on the wall as a kid! To have Troy Aikman on my record is a dream come true for me. To call him a friend.He's a great person, a great guy and that's even more important than being a great football player or Hall of Famer. That's even more important, to be a better human and that's what he really is. So, to call him a friend and have him on my record is a lot of fun. It's been cool.Every time I hear that, I'm like, man, that's pretty cool. Troy Aikman on my record.
Is that one of those moments where you kind of wish you could go back in time to when you're eight, nine years old and he's the star quarterback and just to go, yeah, by the way, he’s going to be a friend one day. Yeah, my 10-year-old self would not believe it for sure. I would be like, no, you're lying. No way that's going to happen.
Elsewhere on the album, it kind of closes out with hiding behind this microphone. Is that kind of towards your own journey of being on the road? Yeah, I loved my heroes, you know, Haggard and Jones and Johnny Paycheck. A lot of those guys, they recorded songs and wrote songs that were, felt like they wrote songs at four in the morning and recorded on the next morning. They weren't scared to say things.They weren't scared to talk about things, even if it showed how vulnerable they were at the time or messed up it might have been or whatever. You know, they just were not, they weren't afraid to talk about real things in real life. I think we're missing a lot of that or some of that nowadays at times, and that's what I really wanted this song to kind of represent. I wanted to show a vulnerable side of myself. This happens.I think it happens to all of us, no matter what industry you're in or what business you're in or what, no matter what you're doing in your life, you're going to have some vulnerability where you're just kind of down or having some moments. Hopefully this shows a side of that to people that says, hey, hopefully they like seeing this side of artists. You know, I really, I really feel that.
It's not all just happiness and drinking beer and seeing the thing on stage of us being happy all the time. You know, I think they really like seeing the side of us. I think also like someone brought up, I never really thought of it, but someone brought it up the other night and said, hey, it's the fans that really need these songs also to know that they're not alone when they're going through rough times.They like to hear these songs and know that they're not alone, that there's other people going through rough times as well. I think these songs serve multiple purposes, and, I think the song is that, it means a lot to me and that's why it's the final track on the record and a very special moment for me on the record. One of my favourite songs to ever record.
I know you've got a lot of live shows kind of coming up stateside. Is it kind of next plans to look to come to the UK and Europe and further afield? Yes, I really hope so. You know, we really had started coming out there a lot before 2020 happened and ever since then, we just kind of hit the pause button.We're still kind of gathering our feet here. I don't know why. We need to kind of get back and just start doing it again.I'm still so cautious financially, like, oh, no, we're still gathering our feet. No, we're past that now. I need to just commit and start coming back because I do miss it.The trips that I've made over there have been absolutely remarkable and just trips that I'll never forget. We have so much fun and I brag and brag and brag to everybody about the crowds and how amazing they are and how much respect everyone has for music over there, how much they have for lyrics and just what we do as songwriters and artists. It's really unmatched for anywhere I've been.I'm really, really hoping we can. We've just been working so hard here with the new music. The last three years, we've just kind of had our heads down, working so hard, traveling through the mess that we haven't really made time for it.And it's my fault. I need to get back. I will make it a point now. Now that we've got this new record, we need to make it a point to get back for sure. So, I miss y'all for sure.
Seems like as good a time as any to come over. One thousand percent. We need to bring this record over there and bring this energy and have some fun for sure. We miss y'all.
Thank you so much, Wade, for your time today. Back at you. Thank you. And hopefully we'll see you soon.