INTERVIEW: Who Is Chase Bryant? | Everything You Need To Know

For rising Country singer and songwriter Chase Bryant, music is in his blood. Chase's grandfather, Jimmy Bryant, performed with the legendary Roy Orbison & The Teen Kings, not to mention his uncles Jeff and Junior were co-founders of country band Ricochet. Now, it's Chase's turn to take center stage with his own music career, and it's already off to an amazing start with several hit singles under his belt. The 22-year-old recently stopped by iHeartRadio HQ in New York City where he told us about his musical beginnings, learning how to play guitar as a lefty, his new music, and more during an exclusive interview.

[Buy "Room To Breathe" on iTunes]

As we mentioned before, there was no escaping music growing up in a musical family. Between his grandfather and two uncles, as Chase says himself, "It's a part of my genes. It's just been a part of what I've done for so, so long, and there's no way to escape it. They're my family, and music seems likes it's been the biggest part of my life since then."

One of the greatest aspects of growing up in a musical family, especially with family members who have played and toured professionally, is having them to guide you in your own music career. Chase explains that he's heard a lot of great stories from his family from being on tour, and when he was headed out on the road for the first time, they prepped him for what was to come.

On how his musical family helped him prepare for life on the road

"They prepped me for what it was gonna be like, and kinda prepped me for what to look out for, and where not to make a mistake. And maybe which mistakes are okay to make, and which ones aren't okay to make. And when you make a mistake, how to recuperate from it. Because we all do that. You're on the road all the time, and you need people to keep you grounded, and thankfully I had a family who understood it and has kept me grounded."

Chase may live in Nashville now, but he grew up in Orange Grove, Texas. But before getting to Tennessee, he moved to Los Angeles, California at 16 years old (on his 16th birthday, actually) after signing a small record deal. Upon getting to L.A., with very little money, and only a backpack and his guitar, he quickly learned the difficulties of living on your own, especially from such a young age.

On what it was like moving to Los Angeles from Texas

"My 16th birthday I moved to L.A. and I made a lot of mistakes and it was a hard time for me, because I moved out there with a couple hundred bucks, a backpack, a guitar, and on my own. I was just a dumbfounded kid from Texas that didn't know what he was talking about. I was smart musically, but I didn't really know how to live on my own yet. I didn't really have it grasped. But you gotta figure it out pretty soon when you're showering in a coffee shop somewhere on Ventura Boulevard, you know? I mean it's tough. So, I learned very fast, my parents were super supportive and helped me out a lot through the way, I had a lot of help, I can't say I didn't. But, I moved to Nashville when I was 18 and I've been there for about five or six years ever since."

Something you might now know about Chase, is that he's left-handed. So, being left-handed, it was a very different process for him to learn to play the guitar. Chase explains that he first picked up a guitar at the extremely young age of two, but didn't really get into playing seriously until he was in middle school. And after trying to learn to play the guitar as most people do, Chase eventually learned how to play the way the worked for him: Upside-down and backwards.

On how he learned how to play the guitar as a lefty

"My mom and dad tried to send me to music lessons, and nobody would teach me because I played upside down, or I was teaching the teacher. So it was kinda hard. And then I moved to Nashville and there was somebody who said, 'You just need to turn it around.' I went to somebody to learn theory and stuff like that, and this lady said, 'You need to turn the guitar around and play left handed, or you're never gonna work here.' And so, thanks her, it ended up working. My parents always wanted to see me play right handed, or see me play guitar the right way, because they didn't understand exactly how it worked. And that's okay, but I had people tell me it would never work. People saying 'Fix that bad habit. That's a bad habit. Fix it,' and the bad habit turned into one of the best things that ever happened to me. So, sometimes bad habits aren't always so bad after all, I guess."

Having grown up in Texas, he had a lot of great inspirations when it came to the guitar. He told us with guitar players like Stevie Ray Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall, Gary Clark Jr., and Radney Foster, and more, he had a lot of strong influence at an early age -- not just as as a guitar player, but as a songwriter as well. "These Texas cats who are just really phenomenal song writers, great guitar players, great singers, those kinds of things inspired me very early because it was what I was around, what I was exposed to from such an early age. So for me I took after that, and kind of watched after it."

On his biggest musical influences

While Chase may be a country artist, the music he grew up listening to transcend the genre. Bryant tells us he listened to music legends like Ray Charles, Jerry Lee Lewis, Tom Petty, Fleetwood Mac, Michael Jackson, the Jackson Five, and more. And on the country side, he was into musicians including Vince Gill, Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, and Glen Campbell. "I listen to a ton of different music, because I felt like, regardless of the genre, I needed to listen to it to be prepared for anything down the line."

Being a singer/songwriter in country music Chase's biggest influences are Keith Urban and Brian White. But he was also very into the '50s -- especially in terms of style. "Stylistically, the '50s were like cool for me. I bought the shirts, and the pants, and the boots. I was a big fan of the 1950s for style and for the singers. The singers, back then there was no like, 'Oh, can I punch that in? Can I sing right here? Can we tune that?' No, it was live into tape. So rock and roll I loved, and country and all those things."

Chase has a new single out called "Room To Breathe," and he's already had success with last year's "Little Bit Of You," and his 2014 single "Take It On Back," which he explains really changed his life and helped to kick off his career after struggling in Nashville. He tells us, "It kept me living." And following the release of the track, he toured with Brantley Gilbert, Tim McGraw, Lee Brice, and eventually ended up headlining his own tour.

On how his single "Take It On Back" launched his career

"I was hurting for money. I think my rent was like, maybe $280/$300 a month, something stupid. Something that you guys don't hear of up here [in NY]. That was a lot for me. So I just remember looking at my accounts and going, 'If I don't make something happen in a month, I'm gonna be living in my car.' So I write this song, and I cut a demo on it, and it came back. And I never thought in a million years I was gonna sing it. We were actually pitching it to Blake Shelton is what we wanted, we wanted him to cut it. So about a month later, I then meet with this guy that owns a record company. Comes out to a showcase, shakes my hand, and says, 'I'm ready to sign you.' And it was Benny Brown at Broken Bell Records, and he said that was gonna be the first single. And I wrote that single ... when I wrote it ... everybody used to say in town when I would go in to write I'd have a guitar lick, an idea, and a hook, and probably some sort of melody. So that day, I took in a mandolin, and he goes, 'Well do you have a guitar lick?' And I was like, 'No, I've got a mandolin.' And so I started playing, and then I played the [notes]. He picked up a banjo and started playing it. Walked out on the loading dock and he said, 'We've got this hook called Take it on Back.' And I walked back in, he was playing the thing and we started both singing, 'Take it on back, take it on back.' And I found the book I wrote that in the other day, and it's on a piece of paper, and I wrote it. Now, it's been almost five years since I wrote that song. And Tommy Lee James and Dylan Altman, and Tommy is a reason I write songs. He's my biggest influence as a songwriter, and man, I'm thankful for that song."

Chase also explains that his previous single "Little Bit of You" was also life-changing, and went into the Top 3 of the US Country Airplay Billboard chart, which is impressive considering he didn't think the song would even be a hit in the first place (despite support from his record label Broken Bow Records). He tells us the song is about an on-and-off relationship he had with a girl he had dated for three years who lived in California. Chase says of the song, "[It's] my first top three single and it's magical when you have a hit that's the top ten, and you follow up with with a top three single. Your life changes dramatically. And it's been really great."

An Update On His Debut Album

If you've been enjoying Chase's latest single "Room To Breathe," there is plenty more where that came from. The country singer/songwriter is going to be very busy out on the road performing at festivals and fairs, but he also tells us he recently finished his debut album, which he has been working on for three years. "I'm finally done with it. I feel like my story's been told, so far. And it's what I've got to say until this day. I produced a record with my best friend, and so that record will hopefully be coming out this fall."

Photos: Wendy George for iHeartRadio