What does it mean to evolve as an artist while navigating the complexities of the music industry? Join host Buzz Knight on this exciting episode of takin’ a walk as he welcomes the incredibly talented Hunter Hayes, a multi-faceted artist celebrated for his Grammy nominations and collaborations with some of the biggest names in music. Dive deep into Hunter's latest project, Evergreen, which completes a conceptual trilogy that began with Wild Blue and Red Sky. This conversation is not just about music; it’s a journey through Hunter's artistic evolution, emotional resilience, and the creative processes that fuel his passion for songwriting.
As Hunter Hayes shares his insights, listeners will discover the themes of optimism, conflict, and resolution that resonate throughout his work. He reflects on the challenges of maintaining artistic independence in a landscape filled with pressures and influences, offering a candid look at his journey as an artist. Buzz Knight engages Hunter in a thoughtful discussion about the significance of personal growth and the lessons learned along the way, making this episode a treasure trove for anyone interested in the music journey.
Throughout the episode, Hunter Hayes expresses profound gratitude for his fans and the joy that live performances bring him. This heartfelt connection is a testament to the power of music in fostering community and emotional healing. As they explore the music history behind Hunter's work, Buzz Knight and Hunter delve into the stories behind albums and the experiences that have shaped their respective careers. This episode is rich with music history insights, making it a must-listen for fans of indie music, country music, and all genres in between.
Whether you’re a long-time fan of Hunter Hayes or new to his music, this episode of takin’ a walk promises to inspire and entertain. Join Buzz Knight for an engaging conversation that highlights the resilience and creativity of an artist who continues to redefine his legacy. Tune in to hear Hunter's music stories and the inspiring artist interviews that make this podcast a standout in the world of music history podcasts. Don't miss out on this incredible journey through the Nashville music scene and beyond!
#hunter hayes interview #music legends #country music #pop music #inspiring icons #music history on foot #nashville music scene #Iheart podcast network #artist interview #career breakthrough #legendary musician interview #live music history
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Buzsnight and welcome to the Taken a Walk Podcast.
I'm really excited today to be joined by somebody who's
been redefining the boundaries of modern music for over a decade.
He's a five time Grammy nominee, multi instrumentalist and platinum
selling artist who has shared stages with everybody from Taylor
(00:22):
Swift to the Flaming Lips. But what makes him truly
special is his refusal to stay still artistically or emotionally.
He's releasing a brand new project, Evergreen, the final chapter
of a conceptual trilogy that's traced a remarkable journey from optimism,
through conflict to resolution, and he's taken that story on
(00:44):
the road for the twenty two city tour across the
United States. Coming up next, welcome the incredible Hunter Hayes
to Taken a Walk. Taken a Walk, Hunter Hayes, Welcome
to the Taken a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
My friend, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Good
a chat with you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So I want to take you back to a country
radio seminar event, which I believe was one of your
first events out in public. I got to watch you
perform in a little hotel room there where CRS takes place.
And I was mesmerized at that moment at what I saw,
(01:26):
And as I reflect on it now, as we're going
to talk about your new project, Evergreen, I'm even more
mesmerized by that moment in terms of what I have witnessed,
in terms of your evolution and what you are up to.
Do you ever reflect back to that moment and think
about where you are today.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Thank you for saying it, For saying that, all of that,
I really appreciate it. I do all the time in
different formats, with different lenses. I think recently having spent
some time and reflection, I mean spent the beginning of
this year kind of hitting a massive reset button for
(02:06):
myself mentally and emotionally, and it got kind of naturally
and surprisingly came with a lot of reflection on that
time and how so many of those moments have shaped
me as a human because I mean, that was what
would be the equivalent of college years for a lot
of people for me, So I do. I reflect on
(02:28):
it a lot, and in different like I said, in
different lenses and learning different things still from experiences. Then
it's crazy how busy things got so fast after spending
so long just trying and working and just doing everything
that I could. Yeah, I think about it a lot. Actually,
Now what.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Drives this trade of yours, which is this refusal to
stay still artistically and emotionally?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Oh man, I don't even know how I answered that,
because that just feels like such a compliment that I
just feel like I need to sit and just appreciate
the I mean that, like, first of all, I'm so
spoiled in that I fell in love with the thing
that I do before I had to figure out the
thing to do. I was so enamored by the studio process.
(03:23):
I was so in love with performing, And like, my
relationship with performing has definitely changed and and it's it's
it's it has a whole new meaning I think at
this point in my life. But I was always in
love with performing, even when I was, you know, four
or five years old.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I just loved it.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And then finding the studio world and the sort of
safety of creativity where my little brain could like hyperfixiate
on details and like I could work on the song
form start to finish, And so much of that was
by necessity, but also by just the way that I
work and my ability to obsess over things and and
so like so much of what I get to do
(04:01):
is just it's all. I found the perfect career before
I had to find the career because I get to
be involved in all of it when I need a
shift in my brain, like I get to wear a
different hat. Learning how to manage that in time management
category has been you know, I think the steepest learning
curve for me as I grow, But I just I
(04:22):
love it, like it's it's the one thing. Like I'm
just so grateful that even on the days where I'm like,
what is this industry? Why is it the way that
it is? What am I even doing in this industry?
Even on the whole, and those are very few in
part between, but the hardest days, I guess that'll trying
to say, I still I have this sort of like
(04:42):
assurance that I can walk up to my little room
up here, I can work on music, and I can
leave happy and fulfilled if I'm if I'm depleted, if
I'm broken, like I feel like the last two days
have tried to break me in Nashville with the fraising
and you know, running away from frozen world of it all,
(05:03):
even with the chaos of all that I got home,
I was just like, I just want to sit and
work for a little bit because my heart needs that.
And I just I found something that's incredibly fulfilling, and
it's so fulfilling that it far outweighs the parts that
tried to drain me faster, and I'm just learning how
to manage out the outgoing energy.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I guess you know what I mean, But I.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Just the short answer, which I'm incapable of giving you,
is I'm just like, I just love it, and it
just gives so much to me.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It gives so much more than I give than I
give to it.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You know, it shows, and that's one of the reasons
why fans all over the place connect with you and
they can't wait for you to go out on tour
and release new music. So let's talk about the new
music part of it. First, Evergreen completes a trilogy that
began with Wild Blue and Red Sky. Can You walk
us through? Notice what I did on taking a walk?
(05:59):
I said, can you walk us through? Betty? That emotionless,
that emotional art of these three albums, and what has
been like living inside this journey for however many years
it's taken.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I so badly want to, like, every time I talk
about this, I so badly want to like take credit
for the intentionality, but it's it's so fifty to fifty
and that it was an idea. And then in desperation,
I think I was looking at timelines and figuring out
sustainability far before I had the tools to do it,
(06:35):
and kind of in the chaos of Lord, I mean,
just to be candidate, I was writing hundreds of songs
a year and writing some of my best work and
in some cases some of my least favorite work in
the effort to like try to figure out who I'm
trying to plead, and like why isn't movement happening, and
just kind of feeling, I think, stuck in a machine
(06:55):
with a lot of pieces, you know what I mean.
And that's I don't blame anybody at all. It was
just a one of those circumstantial struggles and I had
gotten to a really kind of potential breaking point and
I was like, well, I always have music, I can
always make something, and I can always I don't know.
I felt like that was my way out of being stuck,
(07:16):
was just to make things. And this idea came to
make a trilogy, and it started as just like I'm
going to work on an album. Wile Blue was the origin,
the origin of the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And wile Blue was was was me being I.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Want to be pilot. I'm a big aviation nerd, and
I want to give a pilot's license. I love the sky.
I think there are so many metaphors and comparisons to flight,
between flight and life and how I handle things and
how everything appears to me the same. It's just there's
so many common threads, and so the Wild Blue Yonder,
(07:54):
you know, off we going to the Wild Blue Yonder.
The Air Force theme song that's Spray kept getting stuck
in my head for years, or like I've found I
know I wrote it. The whole thing was optimism. I
was trying to make an album without any outside influence,
just for the sake of making it. I think it
was therapy for me. I think it was just something
(08:15):
I needed to do. I had a basement studio where
I had finally collected all the pieces that I needed
to be kind of in my eyes at the time, unstoppable.
I knew that nothing was between me and a finished song,
and so I was just like, bug it, I'm gonna
do it. I'm gonna make everything I feel drawn to
and magnetized towards it. I'm just gonna go and do it.
(08:37):
And I worked with Sam Ellis, who I had known
in so many different capacities. He came to Nashville ten
years before we wrote together. He ended up on the
road with me. He was part of so many like
production conversations in music, both with working and writing and
demoing and making songs, so many live conversations. He was
(08:58):
part of arranging and the and the whole band that
I had at the time was very much a band
like we worked together, and I loved the checks and
balances of that and it kept me stable, and so
I brought him in to produce the Project book band.
It was kind of one song at a time, letting
people hear what I was excited about and just holding
onto that excitement, using people like Don Bellian as an
example of how to keep your fire lit. I was
(09:20):
just watching people like that on YouTube and going, that's
the energy that I want to have about the thing
that I'm doing, and maybe that at the time, I
thought like, maybe that's what was missing. So I started
with Wablu, and it felt like this optimistic sort of
I created it in Missafe sort of bubble if you will,
and songs from that project ended up finding their way outside,
and like, much to my surprise, my label went nuts
(09:41):
over Dear God and I never thought they were going
to let me put that out, and that was the
song that we're most excited about. And then One Heartbreak
to me felt like, man, this is me honoring all
the things that I love about country music while absolutely
bringing in things that I feel like are pushing things
forward and things that I'm inspired by and things I'm
hearing more people do. And one Shot was kind of
my like laughing, this is me writing by myself, and
(10:04):
this is what happens when I tell the whole truth.
And then While Blue was this experiment. The song While
Blue was just such an experiment. And then my song
Too was this sort of like homage to just like
great acoustic storytelling, and so I was just I was
just putting it all and Still was my way of
saying I'm Madness was my YouTube rock song, honoring mercy
(10:27):
Me in some ways, right like, and then Still was
another mercy Me tie in, and that it was like
a message of hope, a message of groundedness, and like,
I'm going to close this chapter with something intentional. And
so I got to do a lot of things, I think,
without anyone else's approval or input, and and followed my instincts,
my gut, all the things that were pulling at me
(10:49):
and made something I was proud of. Red Sky became
a very natural sort of place for the other feelings
that I had to go and the other things I
wanted to try. Red Sky was about, okay, you know,
while Blue was the optimist, the dreamer, red Sky was
kind of this project that evolved and became a plant
in the corner that I was kind of starting to
pay attention to of, oh maybe this is where all
(11:10):
the angst goes. And then I worked on red Sky,
and I did a bunch of crazy stuff and had
so much fun, like making something so so full of
honesty in that, like I was trying new musical things
that I'd never done before, and like really hammering home
the like, you know, this isn't about approval, this isn't
about this is just about me letting stuff out, you know,
(11:34):
and trying things. And then you know, all the while Evergreen.
I wrote the song Evergreen first, and Evergreen just kind
of sat as this like I think I know what
that is, but I don't think I've lived enough life
to understand what it's what it wants to tell me yet,
and all of these things kind of felt like obvious,
like messages from the future. Red Sky was this sort
of a place to put things, but also I was like,
(11:55):
I don't know that I know what this is yet.
I just think this has a this this is a
room I haven't into, and once I get there, I'll
get there. And I did, and I had so much fun,
and then Evergreen kind of started to takeet closer, and
then eventually we went on tour with Red Sky, and
I finally got to experience what it was like to
make an independent record, to put on a tour as
an independent artist, and to see people showing up like
(12:17):
much to my surprise, if I'm being totally honest, singing
the new stuff, like I sang all of Red Sky,
and people knew about a boy, And that's when I
was like, like, I think we're gonna be okay, meaning
like I'm not crazy for chasing this down and continuing
this path.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I think there.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I think there are people who are connecting with what
I'm doing, and now my challenge is to find them
more efficiently, you know, to optimize all of my channels here,
to figure out how to reach more people who are
who are connecting with this. And so that just inspired
and then Evergreen became a very clear like sort of
(12:53):
a series of letters and lessons, lessons from the past
and letters from the future. Okay, I'm not exactly where
I want to be yet, but that's not what this
album is about. This is about becoming the person I
wanted to be, and about the future I want to build,
and the mean that I want to be in that
the partner that I want to meet, and the partner
that I want to be for my partner, and the
friend that I want to be, and the steadfast sort
(13:13):
of convictions that I want to have and the growth
of that I want to challenge myself with. So it
was a kind of it was an intentional thing and
that I created these I feel like my brain created
these worlds, but I had.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
No idea what was supposed to be there until I
showed up for him.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I think you would agree that independence breeds defying genres
and that breeds really a sense I'm sure as a
creator of tremendous exhilaration in that process. Can you talk
about you mentioned a few earlier, but can you talk
about some of the artists maybe that help lead you
(13:55):
down that path of independence and of defying genre.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
I don't even know if it began. I think, like, so, okay,
so I'll start with this because I just spent a
day last week with one of my heroes. I grew
up listening to Mercy Me. You know, there's there's so
many levels to their music in that there's sort of
the things that we hear on the radio, the hits
and the big moments, but like the amount of intentionality,
(14:24):
and it's so awesome meeting your meeting. At least my
experience with meeting my heroes has been great because they've
all been exactly who I hope they would be, and
I think I get to see.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I get to connect with them. Anyway. Bart is somebody
that I met.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
He became a mentor, and we just recently kind of
reconnected after like just kind of you know, I think
COVID just we were all just and I was in
a different place and so I we reconnected, and he's
a great example and had like one of the things
that I loved about their band and his his work
was that every album was a different genre.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And I think that's what drew me to like Christian
muse Zick.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
For a while.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I was like, Oh, you get to kind of do
whatever you want. It's all about the message, and I like,
I get chills thinking about it because I still think
that is stuck in my brain. If you if the
message is clear, and if I'm clear, then I feel
like I have the freedom to explore. I feel like
I can. I can if that structure is there. There's
(15:23):
if those roots are planted. And that feels like my
roots is the hopefully what other people see as the lyricism,
but the messaging and where I'm coming from and who
I am being and how vulnerable I'm trying to be,
and but like the human connection of it is my
root roots system, and so I feel like I can
kind of stretch a little bit. My branch just can
stretch into different genres or pull everything in.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I'm not.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I'm never trying to be another genre.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I am.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
And I'm also like it's too daunting to think that
I'm going to create one could create their own. I
think it kind of happens by accident, but that's just
my opinion on it. But I think following Barton Mercy
me with a big inspiration because there was so much
freedom and every album was a new scene and a
new movie to watch, and it was so cinematic in that,
(16:11):
like there were just these beautiful storylines like all that
is Within Me, That whole record so cinematic, and then
like coming up to Breathe before that it had like
changed my life because it was like angsty, but it
was hopeful and it was healing, and then all to
like welcome to the New That record found me when
I was on tour in Japan and then I ended
(16:31):
up connecting with them. So I think people like that,
people like Coldplay, who like every album you know is different.
You know, there are so many challenges with that. You
create expectations with the people who doesn't do new music,
and obviously you have to sort of navigate and negotiate
through expectations and reality. But I love the fact that
they're just always pushing, They're always trying, and like I
(16:53):
think every Coldplay fan that I know has a different
Coldplay record that is their favorite and in their opinion,
the best, and that to me is a success. That
is when you know you've done it right as an artist.
Everyone that loves you loves you for a different thing.
But it's all real, it's all actual. It's all songs
that you'd be more than happy to put in the
setlist right now. You know, it's not chasing trends. It's
(17:14):
not reinventing yourself. I've never loved that description of working
because it's like you're constantly growing. I don't think you
have to reinvent yourself. I think the world does that
for you. But yeah, Cole plays a great example. You
know John Mayer. I think of John Mayer too, like
how many different evolutions his music has made. I think
he's done a great jobs like really weaving the lines.
(17:37):
You can really see the thread through through his work
and how it evolves and changes. You can follow it
really easily. Yeah, those are like the three that come
to mind right now, because that's kind of my north
star of like, oh, okay, you can you can stretch,
you can change, you can evolve, and you can take
(17:58):
people along on the journey. It doesn't have to be
this scary, like what if they don't like If I
do this thing, you can feel planned, you can feel
convicted in what you're doing and feel good about bringing
people along for it.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
As a multi instrumentalist, who is I would say deeply
involved in the production aspects of the work. How do
you know when a song is finished?
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You don't. I don't.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I mean I know when I I know what I'm
finished with my version of it. But also I don't
because I still have mixed revisions on Around the Sun,
and that came out nearly a year ago. So I
do think that there It's such an excellent question because
I think that's something I'm still trying to figure out
for myself.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Is there ever a point that you say, cheez, I
have to stop tinkering?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Though luckily I don't think there's a tank or moment.
I think there's sort of the you sort of circle
like for me, like I'll circle. I'll use Around the
Sun as an example, just because it's I wrote it
by myself, and I worked on it by myself for
a long time before I brought anybody else in. And
when I brought Alex in, it felt like I was
(19:22):
presenting him a picture that was a sketch. But I
was like, these kind of feel like the characters. This
kind of feels like the lighting, this feels like the presentation.
And then we just like dug down into the presentation.
I think that, like, so the riff, you know, it
was pretty obvious what the riff was, and then it
was I played it on like seven different guitars, and
(19:44):
then we realized, oh, it should progress through the song.
You know, it should feel light and airy for this version.
It should feel more personal and intimate for this section
of the song. And then at this point in the song,
it's the electric guitar player on stage performing. It's the
vin skill kind of you know, confidence and smooth swagger,
you know. And then at the very end of the song,
(20:07):
it's just a party and everybody's invited.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
That's how I like to work.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
I love to find like the thing I want to do,
and then I start finding the sounds and the versions
of the thing that feel best for that section. I
think there's a lot of people working right now in
a new kind of I call it like an ADHD
kind of way, which speaks to my brain. But like
every section of the song kind of presents a different
lens of the band and I love that. So for me, yeah,
(20:36):
I don't have an answer to that question. I just
I think there are moments when you sort of hear
the part and the sound and the vocal and it
feels and honestly, like every time I feel like I'm
doing too much in production, I'm just like I need
to sing it, I need to get in and like
I need to get the vocal. And once I get
the vocal, it's just like okay, out of step away
(20:56):
because that all feels like it's serving the vocal. And
that's the advantage of working so much on my own.
Is my whatever you want to call it, and a
lot of people call it things, but like my energy,
I feel like what naturally happens is I lead to
the story right off until the moment I tell the story.
I want to tell the story, every player kind of
(21:17):
falls into place and it all starts to make sense,
and then it's then it's off to you know. I mean,
we're you know, mixing and fixing the whole time. But
that's that's my current process, and I like it works
right now.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
What was the most challenging song to complete on Evergreen
and why?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Well, from a writing perspective, because like I see them
differ so separately writing, Like when I schedule a writing session,
it's just me the writers, guitars and like laptops, but
for typing purposes, I don't like. I actually love when
we don't make a track in the room. I also
(22:03):
love when there's a great you know, producer in the
room that is like kind of working on the track
as we go, Like that is really fun and I
just so appreciate that craft and I love to do it.
But the only thing I don't like about doing is
I'm not capable of making the track and working on
a lyric. And to me, I love like to me
the tests and when the only way that I feel
(22:23):
constant in a song is if I'm sitting with a
guitar and a lyric and it feels great, and then
I start getting excited about parts. And then I love
going into the studio with a clean slate and a
voice memo because I feel like the song just is
so obvious by that point, all the parts I'm hearing
pieces and drum patterns and you know whatever, like it
(22:45):
all presents itself. So like, from the writing perspective, Around
the Sun was the hardest. It took me two days
to write that, and that's not normal because I think
when I get in flow, I like to hyperfixate and
focus on lyrics, and that's why my process is the
way that it is. And like, if it's not there
in like two hours, I've lost it. I feel like
I've I've lost the plot and I've I've drifted from
(23:07):
where the intention was and the feeling was with Around
the Sun. It was kind of an exercise and it's okay.
It's okay that it's not done. I got the coorse. First,
I walked away. I went to my neural feedback appointment,
you know, worked on my brain a little bit, came
back home, it became more clear, the verses started showing up.
(23:29):
And then the next day the key changed and I
was like, oh my god, there is and then I
started working on the trap for the next four days.
But I'd say that was the hardest just because it
felt like the one I had to be patient and
wait for. It was like it was in the room
waiting for me to listen, and I just had to
practice listening. It's one thing when you have different writers
(23:50):
and they're all listening, you know what I mean. We're
all kind of listening for the song in the sky,
which is kind of how I see it the rest
of these, I mean, Evergreen was so fun and so
artistic in the room, and working with Gordy's always been
easy for me because he's one of my heroes as well.
Until She Comes Along was really fun and just like
to me, felt like swamp pop, which is when I
(24:11):
grew up around music. Swamp pop music is my Louisiana
version of saying like retro pop, like very sort of
fifties sixties inspired.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Waite was a.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Total tribute to the rock. Even though we wrote it
as like an acoustic song, it felt like a rock song.
Dream About was a beautiful I mean, yeah, I think
everything was pretty easy. Everything everything here happened in flow,
except for around the Sun. I had to be very
patient with that and then it showed up one piece
at a time, and I've really learned the value of
(24:47):
appreciating the seeds, you know, and letting them grow when
they're when they want to.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Thankfully for all your fans. You're hiading on the road
and you're gonna be with Franklin, Jonas and Blue Eyes.
You've toured with everybody from Taylor Swift to Carrie Underwood
to Dan and Shay. How have those experiences shaped you
in your career.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
My first tour was Taylor and to see an operation
so well run and so tight and also so human
like just in my opinion at that time, this was
the Speak Now tours. This is a while back, but
they were in arenas. We did a couple of stadiums,
and it was just so clear that there was an
(25:32):
artist with the vision, a team that worked well together,
and it was just so I don't know, everything just
felt so well handled and like we all knew the mission.
Everybody knew the missions, and there was space to be
human and I think that set the bar really, really high.
(25:54):
My experience with Carrie was that was my first time
doing like you know, I guess what they call it
or LA routing, where like you're out for six months,
seven months at a time, the longest I've ever been
on the road before, and kind of a privilege that
like we had a forty five minute show that we
got to have fun with and then I was doing
a lot of I mean I was doing five meeting
and greets a day, and you know, we were busy
(26:15):
at the time.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
I was doing radio a ton of radio.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Visits, and like it was busy, but I think it
was the perfect way to experience a little bit of
everything that I'm going to do for the next ten
years in like small concentrated chunks every day. So that
was really fun. That was also where we grew from
like one bus to two buses, so the crew doubled
in size literally overnight, and we got in a truck
and so I got to start making productions and you know,
(26:39):
the forty five minutes show then informed every other show
that we would do outside of that tour that year
that was ninety minutes two hours. And then those shows
were even more fun because we got to spread our
wings a little bit. And then, yeah, it's nuts to
think that, Yeah, the first time I got to play arenas, right,
the first time I got to a headline what I
mean by that as.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I had so much fun with that set.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
And we were in so many challenges because we were
it was my first arena tour and like we didn't
really have like the arena budget, but we were doing
arenas and so we got creative. It's like, okay, well
we need to let it be the house stage. Okay, great,
can we just turn it forty five degrees and make
it a diamond? Yes we can't, Okay, great. We got
a new shape. We had a new thing. It's a
new thing that you know, we've not seen. And then
we got to do like the half of the h
Shape stage on this on the Tattoo tour and and
(27:25):
that was like, that was when we brought out at
the time. Yeah, I mean, getting to pick your openers
for for an arena tours is kind of a you know,
it's funny big boy jacket, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Like it it just that I think cool. I felt
like I felt like an adult.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
And that was the tour that you know we had, uh,
Dan and Shay was first, and then it was Daniel
Bradbury and she had just come off the Voice so
the energy around like her set was super fun. And
Dan and Shay we're just kind of getting into Nashville,
so you could feel their excitement for music and the
music nerd environment that.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I like to create.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
That was the first time I think I got to
see it sort of at the highest level, you know,
we had I was surrounded by people who loved what
they did, and I had seen my crew and my
team grow and the band and I kind of were
just finally just enjoying the fruits of our labor for
five years, just like in the rooms we wanted to
be in, and I was making the productions I wanted
(28:17):
to make, and yeah, it was I learned a lot
in those in those in that year because that was
the Arena run was kind of a whole year of
like two different tours.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
So yeah, under inclosing, since we call this little podcast
Taken a Walk, who would you like to take a
walk with? Living or dead?
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Oh Man, A few people, I mean everybody like on
on my like artists influenced list, right, So, like, I'm
grateful that I've you know, Bart's just been such a
huge sort of mentor for years. Chris Martin. I'd love
to spend some time with Chris Martin. Every time I
(29:01):
need a like recenter, I just watch his interviews because
I feel like I get back to the version of
me that I want to be as well. I think
it's fascinating to hear people like John talk about his
music and his career. But I love talking to people
in bands because there's such a you know, the checks
and balances, right, but like balance of I don't know
(29:22):
collaboration too.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Like maybe at the top of that list right now
is Chris Martin.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Hunter Hayes. I'm so happy are on Taking a Walk.
It was a real thrill to have you. Congratulations on Evergreen,
and congratulations on the tour and on everything. It's so
well deserved. And come back anytime.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Thank you so much, Thanks for having me chures.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
I'm Buzznight, and thanks for listening to the Taking a
Walk podcast.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Please check out our companion podcasts produced by Buzznight Media
Productions with your host Lynn Hoffman. Music Save Me showcasing
the healing power music and comedy Save Me shining a
light on how laughter is the best medicine. All shows
are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and are part of
(30:12):
the iHeart podcast network.
Taking a Walk.
Speaker 2 (00:01):
Hi, I'm Buzsnight and welcome to the Taken a Walk Podcast.
I'm really excited today to be joined by somebody who's
been redefining the boundaries of modern music for over a decade.
He's a five time Grammy nominee, multi instrumentalist and platinum
selling artist who has shared stages with everybody from Taylor
(00:22):
Swift to the Flaming Lips. But what makes him truly
special is his refusal to stay still artistically or emotionally.
He's releasing a brand new project, Evergreen, the final chapter
of a conceptual trilogy that's traced a remarkable journey from optimism,
through conflict to resolution, and he's taken that story on
(00:44):
the road for the twenty two city tour across the
United States. Coming up next, welcome the incredible Hunter Hayes
to Taken a Walk. Taken a Walk, Hunter Hayes, Welcome
to the Taken a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
My friend, thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Good
a chat with you.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
So I want to take you back to a country
radio seminar event, which I believe was one of your
first events out in public. I got to watch you
perform in a little hotel room there where CRS takes place.
And I was mesmerized at that moment at what I saw,
(01:26):
And as I reflect on it now, as we're going
to talk about your new project, Evergreen, I'm even more
mesmerized by that moment in terms of what I have witnessed,
in terms of your evolution and what you are up to.
Do you ever reflect back to that moment and think
about where you are today.
Speaker 4 (01:46):
Thank you for saying it, For saying that, all of that,
I really appreciate it. I do all the time in
different formats, with different lenses. I think recently having spent
some time and reflection, I mean spent the beginning of
this year kind of hitting a massive reset button for
(02:06):
myself mentally and emotionally, and it got kind of naturally
and surprisingly came with a lot of reflection on that
time and how so many of those moments have shaped
me as a human because I mean, that was what
would be the equivalent of college years for a lot
of people for me, So I do. I reflect on
(02:28):
it a lot, and in different like I said, in
different lenses and learning different things still from experiences. Then
it's crazy how busy things got so fast after spending
so long just trying and working and just doing everything
that I could. Yeah, I think about it a lot. Actually,
Now what.
Speaker 2 (02:50):
Drives this trade of yours, which is this refusal to
stay still artistically and emotionally?
Speaker 4 (03:00):
Oh man, I don't even know how I answered that,
because that just feels like such a compliment that I
just feel like I need to sit and just appreciate
the I mean that, like, first of all, I'm so
spoiled in that I fell in love with the thing
that I do before I had to figure out the
thing to do. I was so enamored by the studio process.
(03:23):
I was so in love with performing, And like, my
relationship with performing has definitely changed and and it's it's
it's it has a whole new meaning I think at
this point in my life. But I was always in
love with performing, even when I was, you know, four
or five years old.
Speaker 3 (03:37):
I just loved it.
Speaker 4 (03:38):
And then finding the studio world and the sort of
safety of creativity where my little brain could like hyperfixiate
on details and like I could work on the song
form start to finish, And so much of that was
by necessity, but also by just the way that I
work and my ability to obsess over things and and
so like so much of what I get to do
(04:01):
is just it's all. I found the perfect career before
I had to find the career because I get to
be involved in all of it when I need a
shift in my brain, like I get to wear a
different hat. Learning how to manage that in time management
category has been you know, I think the steepest learning
curve for me as I grow, But I just I
(04:22):
love it, like it's it's the one thing. Like I'm
just so grateful that even on the days where I'm like,
what is this industry? Why is it the way that
it is? What am I even doing in this industry?
Even on the whole, and those are very few in
part between, but the hardest days, I guess that'll trying
to say, I still I have this sort of like
(04:42):
assurance that I can walk up to my little room
up here, I can work on music, and I can
leave happy and fulfilled if I'm if I'm depleted, if
I'm broken, like I feel like the last two days
have tried to break me in Nashville with the fraising
and you know, running away from frozen world of it all,
(05:03):
even with the chaos of all that I got home,
I was just like, I just want to sit and
work for a little bit because my heart needs that.
And I just I found something that's incredibly fulfilling, and
it's so fulfilling that it far outweighs the parts that
tried to drain me faster, and I'm just learning how
to manage out the outgoing energy.
Speaker 3 (05:21):
I guess you know what I mean, But I.
Speaker 4 (05:24):
Just the short answer, which I'm incapable of giving you,
is I'm just like, I just love it, and it
just gives so much to me.
Speaker 3 (05:34):
It gives so much more than I give than I
give to it.
Speaker 2 (05:37):
You know, it shows, and that's one of the reasons
why fans all over the place connect with you and
they can't wait for you to go out on tour
and release new music. So let's talk about the new
music part of it. First, Evergreen completes a trilogy that
began with Wild Blue and Red Sky. Can You walk
us through? Notice what I did on taking a walk?
(05:59):
I said, can you walk us through? Betty? That emotionless,
that emotional art of these three albums, and what has
been like living inside this journey for however many years
it's taken.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
I so badly want to, like, every time I talk
about this, I so badly want to like take credit
for the intentionality, but it's it's so fifty to fifty
and that it was an idea. And then in desperation,
I think I was looking at timelines and figuring out
sustainability far before I had the tools to do it,
(06:35):
and kind of in the chaos of Lord, I mean,
just to be candidate, I was writing hundreds of songs
a year and writing some of my best work and
in some cases some of my least favorite work in
the effort to like try to figure out who I'm
trying to plead, and like why isn't movement happening, and
just kind of feeling, I think, stuck in a machine
(06:55):
with a lot of pieces, you know what I mean.
And that's I don't blame anybody at all. It was
just a one of those circumstantial struggles and I had
gotten to a really kind of potential breaking point and
I was like, well, I always have music, I can
always make something, and I can always I don't know.
I felt like that was my way out of being stuck,
(07:16):
was just to make things. And this idea came to
make a trilogy, and it started as just like I'm
going to work on an album. Wile Blue was the origin,
the origin of the whole thing.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
And wile Blue was was was me being I.
Speaker 4 (07:30):
Want to be pilot. I'm a big aviation nerd, and
I want to give a pilot's license. I love the sky.
I think there are so many metaphors and comparisons to flight,
between flight and life and how I handle things and
how everything appears to me the same. It's just there's
so many common threads, and so the Wild Blue Yonder,
(07:54):
you know, off we going to the Wild Blue Yonder.
The Air Force theme song that's Spray kept getting stuck
in my head for years, or like I've found I
know I wrote it. The whole thing was optimism. I
was trying to make an album without any outside influence,
just for the sake of making it. I think it
was therapy for me. I think it was just something
(08:15):
I needed to do. I had a basement studio where
I had finally collected all the pieces that I needed
to be kind of in my eyes at the time, unstoppable.
I knew that nothing was between me and a finished song,
and so I was just like, bug it, I'm gonna
do it. I'm gonna make everything I feel drawn to
and magnetized towards it. I'm just gonna go and do it.
(08:37):
And I worked with Sam Ellis, who I had known
in so many different capacities. He came to Nashville ten
years before we wrote together. He ended up on the
road with me. He was part of so many like
production conversations in music, both with working and writing and
demoing and making songs, so many live conversations. He was
(08:58):
part of arranging and the and the whole band that
I had at the time was very much a band
like we worked together, and I loved the checks and
balances of that and it kept me stable, and so
I brought him in to produce the Project book band.
It was kind of one song at a time, letting
people hear what I was excited about and just holding
onto that excitement, using people like Don Bellian as an
example of how to keep your fire lit. I was
(09:20):
just watching people like that on YouTube and going, that's
the energy that I want to have about the thing
that I'm doing, and maybe that at the time, I
thought like, maybe that's what was missing. So I started
with Wablu, and it felt like this optimistic sort of
I created it in Missafe sort of bubble if you will,
and songs from that project ended up finding their way outside,
and like, much to my surprise, my label went nuts
(09:41):
over Dear God and I never thought they were going
to let me put that out, and that was the
song that we're most excited about. And then One Heartbreak
to me felt like, man, this is me honoring all
the things that I love about country music while absolutely
bringing in things that I feel like are pushing things
forward and things that I'm inspired by and things I'm
hearing more people do. And one Shot was kind of
my like laughing, this is me writing by myself, and
(10:04):
this is what happens when I tell the whole truth.
And then While Blue was this experiment. The song While
Blue was just such an experiment. And then my song
Too was this sort of like homage to just like
great acoustic storytelling, and so I was just I was
just putting it all and Still was my way of
saying I'm Madness was my YouTube rock song, honoring mercy
(10:27):
Me in some ways, right like, and then Still was
another mercy Me tie in, and that it was like
a message of hope, a message of groundedness, and like,
I'm going to close this chapter with something intentional. And
so I got to do a lot of things, I think,
without anyone else's approval or input, and and followed my instincts,
my gut, all the things that were pulling at me
(10:49):
and made something I was proud of. Red Sky became
a very natural sort of place for the other feelings
that I had to go and the other things I
wanted to try. Red Sky was about, okay, you know,
while Blue was the optimist, the dreamer, red Sky was
kind of this project that evolved and became a plant
in the corner that I was kind of starting to
pay attention to of, oh maybe this is where all
(11:10):
the angst goes. And then I worked on red Sky,
and I did a bunch of crazy stuff and had
so much fun, like making something so so full of
honesty in that, like I was trying new musical things
that I'd never done before, and like really hammering home
the like, you know, this isn't about approval, this isn't
about this is just about me letting stuff out, you know,
(11:34):
and trying things. And then you know, all the while Evergreen.
I wrote the song Evergreen first, and Evergreen just kind
of sat as this like I think I know what
that is, but I don't think I've lived enough life
to understand what it's what it wants to tell me yet,
and all of these things kind of felt like obvious,
like messages from the future. Red Sky was this sort
of a place to put things, but also I was like,
(11:55):
I don't know that I know what this is yet.
I just think this has a this this is a
room I haven't into, and once I get there, I'll
get there. And I did, and I had so much fun,
and then Evergreen kind of started to takeet closer, and
then eventually we went on tour with Red Sky, and
I finally got to experience what it was like to
make an independent record, to put on a tour as
an independent artist, and to see people showing up like
(12:17):
much to my surprise, if I'm being totally honest, singing
the new stuff, like I sang all of Red Sky,
and people knew about a boy, And that's when I
was like, like, I think we're gonna be okay, meaning
like I'm not crazy for chasing this down and continuing
this path.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
I think there.
Speaker 4 (12:32):
I think there are people who are connecting with what
I'm doing, and now my challenge is to find them
more efficiently, you know, to optimize all of my channels here,
to figure out how to reach more people who are
who are connecting with this. And so that just inspired
and then Evergreen became a very clear like sort of
(12:53):
a series of letters and lessons, lessons from the past
and letters from the future. Okay, I'm not exactly where
I want to be yet, but that's not what this
album is about. This is about becoming the person I
wanted to be, and about the future I want to build,
and the mean that I want to be in that
the partner that I want to meet, and the partner
that I want to be for my partner, and the
friend that I want to be, and the steadfast sort
(13:13):
of convictions that I want to have and the growth
of that I want to challenge myself with. So it
was a kind of it was an intentional thing and
that I created these I feel like my brain created
these worlds, but I had.
Speaker 3 (13:29):
No idea what was supposed to be there until I
showed up for him.
Speaker 2 (13:33):
I think you would agree that independence breeds defying genres
and that breeds really a sense I'm sure as a
creator of tremendous exhilaration in that process. Can you talk
about you mentioned a few earlier, but can you talk
about some of the artists maybe that help lead you
(13:55):
down that path of independence and of defying genre.
Speaker 4 (14:01):
I don't even know if it began. I think, like, so, okay,
so I'll start with this because I just spent a
day last week with one of my heroes. I grew
up listening to Mercy Me. You know, there's there's so
many levels to their music in that there's sort of
the things that we hear on the radio, the hits
and the big moments, but like the amount of intentionality,
(14:24):
and it's so awesome meeting your meeting. At least my
experience with meeting my heroes has been great because they've
all been exactly who I hope they would be, and
I think I get to see.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
I get to connect with them. Anyway. Bart is somebody
that I met.
Speaker 4 (14:38):
He became a mentor, and we just recently kind of
reconnected after like just kind of you know, I think
COVID just we were all just and I was in
a different place and so I we reconnected, and he's
a great example and had like one of the things
that I loved about their band and his his work
was that every album was a different genre.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
And I think that's what drew me to like Christian
muse Zick.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
For a while.
Speaker 4 (15:00):
I was like, Oh, you get to kind of do
whatever you want. It's all about the message, and I like,
I get chills thinking about it because I still think
that is stuck in my brain. If you if the
message is clear, and if I'm clear, then I feel
like I have the freedom to explore. I feel like
I can. I can if that structure is there. There's
(15:23):
if those roots are planted. And that feels like my
roots is the hopefully what other people see as the lyricism,
but the messaging and where I'm coming from and who
I am being and how vulnerable I'm trying to be,
and but like the human connection of it is my
root roots system, and so I feel like I can
kind of stretch a little bit. My branch just can
stretch into different genres or pull everything in.
Speaker 3 (15:45):
I'm not.
Speaker 4 (15:47):
I'm never trying to be another genre.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I am.
Speaker 4 (15:49):
And I'm also like it's too daunting to think that
I'm going to create one could create their own. I
think it kind of happens by accident, but that's just
my opinion on it. But I think following Barton Mercy
me with a big inspiration because there was so much
freedom and every album was a new scene and a
new movie to watch, and it was so cinematic in that,
(16:11):
like there were just these beautiful storylines like all that
is Within Me, That whole record so cinematic, and then
like coming up to Breathe before that it had like
changed my life because it was like angsty, but it
was hopeful and it was healing, and then all to
like welcome to the New That record found me when
I was on tour in Japan and then I ended
(16:31):
up connecting with them. So I think people like that,
people like Coldplay, who like every album you know is different.
You know, there are so many challenges with that. You
create expectations with the people who doesn't do new music,
and obviously you have to sort of navigate and negotiate
through expectations and reality. But I love the fact that
they're just always pushing, They're always trying, and like I
(16:53):
think every Coldplay fan that I know has a different
Coldplay record that is their favorite and in their opinion,
the best, and that to me is a success. That
is when you know you've done it right as an artist.
Everyone that loves you loves you for a different thing.
But it's all real, it's all actual. It's all songs
that you'd be more than happy to put in the
setlist right now. You know, it's not chasing trends. It's
(17:14):
not reinventing yourself. I've never loved that description of working
because it's like you're constantly growing. I don't think you
have to reinvent yourself. I think the world does that
for you. But yeah, Cole plays a great example. You
know John Mayer. I think of John Mayer too, like
how many different evolutions his music has made. I think
he's done a great jobs like really weaving the lines.
(17:37):
You can really see the thread through through his work
and how it evolves and changes. You can follow it
really easily. Yeah, those are like the three that come
to mind right now, because that's kind of my north
star of like, oh, okay, you can you can stretch,
you can change, you can evolve, and you can take
(17:58):
people along on the journey. It doesn't have to be
this scary, like what if they don't like If I
do this thing, you can feel planned, you can feel
convicted in what you're doing and feel good about bringing
people along for it.
Speaker 1 (18:11):
We'll be right back with more of the Taking a
Walk Podcast. Welcome back to the Taking a Walk Podcast.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
As a multi instrumentalist, who is I would say deeply
involved in the production aspects of the work. How do
you know when a song is finished?
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You don't. I don't.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
I mean I know when I I know what I'm
finished with my version of it. But also I don't
because I still have mixed revisions on Around the Sun,
and that came out nearly a year ago. So I
do think that there It's such an excellent question because
I think that's something I'm still trying to figure out
for myself.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
Is there ever a point that you say, cheez, I
have to stop tinkering?
Speaker 4 (18:59):
Though luckily I don't think there's a tank or moment.
I think there's sort of the you sort of circle
like for me, like I'll circle. I'll use Around the
Sun as an example, just because it's I wrote it
by myself, and I worked on it by myself for
a long time before I brought anybody else in. And
when I brought Alex in, it felt like I was
(19:22):
presenting him a picture that was a sketch. But I
was like, these kind of feel like the characters. This
kind of feels like the lighting, this feels like the presentation.
And then we just like dug down into the presentation.
I think that, like, so the riff, you know, it
was pretty obvious what the riff was, and then it
was I played it on like seven different guitars, and
(19:44):
then we realized, oh, it should progress through the song.
You know, it should feel light and airy for this version.
It should feel more personal and intimate for this section
of the song. And then at this point in the song,
it's the electric guitar player on stage performing. It's the
vin skill kind of you know, confidence and smooth swagger,
you know. And then at the very end of the song,
(20:07):
it's just a party and everybody's invited.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
You know.
Speaker 3 (20:10):
That's how I like to work.
Speaker 4 (20:11):
I love to find like the thing I want to do,
and then I start finding the sounds and the versions
of the thing that feel best for that section. I
think there's a lot of people working right now in
a new kind of I call it like an ADHD
kind of way, which speaks to my brain. But like
every section of the song kind of presents a different
lens of the band and I love that. So for me, yeah,
(20:36):
I don't have an answer to that question. I just
I think there are moments when you sort of hear
the part and the sound and the vocal and it
feels and honestly, like every time I feel like I'm
doing too much in production, I'm just like I need
to sing it, I need to get in and like
I need to get the vocal. And once I get
the vocal, it's just like okay, out of step away
(20:56):
because that all feels like it's serving the vocal. And
that's the advantage of working so much on my own.
Is my whatever you want to call it, and a
lot of people call it things, but like my energy,
I feel like what naturally happens is I lead to
the story right off until the moment I tell the story.
I want to tell the story, every player kind of
(21:17):
falls into place and it all starts to make sense,
and then it's then it's off to you know. I mean,
we're you know, mixing and fixing the whole time. But
that's that's my current process, and I like it works
right now.
Speaker 2 (21:33):
What was the most challenging song to complete on Evergreen
and why?
Speaker 3 (21:39):
Oh?
Speaker 4 (21:41):
Well, from a writing perspective, because like I see them
differ so separately writing, Like when I schedule a writing session,
it's just me the writers, guitars and like laptops, but
for typing purposes, I don't like. I actually love when
we don't make a track in the room. I also
(22:03):
love when there's a great you know, producer in the
room that is like kind of working on the track
as we go, Like that is really fun and I
just so appreciate that craft and I love to do it.
But the only thing I don't like about doing is
I'm not capable of making the track and working on
a lyric. And to me, I love like to me
the tests and when the only way that I feel
(22:23):
constant in a song is if I'm sitting with a
guitar and a lyric and it feels great, and then
I start getting excited about parts. And then I love
going into the studio with a clean slate and a
voice memo because I feel like the song just is
so obvious by that point, all the parts I'm hearing
pieces and drum patterns and you know whatever, like it
(22:45):
all presents itself. So like, from the writing perspective, Around
the Sun was the hardest. It took me two days
to write that, and that's not normal because I think
when I get in flow, I like to hyperfixate and
focus on lyrics, and that's why my process is the
way that it is. And like, if it's not there
in like two hours, I've lost it. I feel like
I've I've lost the plot and I've I've drifted from
(23:07):
where the intention was and the feeling was with Around
the Sun. It was kind of an exercise and it's okay.
It's okay that it's not done. I got the coorse. First,
I walked away. I went to my neural feedback appointment,
you know, worked on my brain a little bit, came
back home, it became more clear, the verses started showing up.
(23:29):
And then the next day the key changed and I
was like, oh my god, there is and then I
started working on the trap for the next four days.
But I'd say that was the hardest just because it
felt like the one I had to be patient and
wait for. It was like it was in the room
waiting for me to listen, and I just had to
practice listening. It's one thing when you have different writers
(23:50):
and they're all listening, you know what I mean. We're
all kind of listening for the song in the sky,
which is kind of how I see it the rest
of these, I mean, Evergreen was so fun and so
artistic in the room, and working with Gordy's always been
easy for me because he's one of my heroes as well.
Until She Comes Along was really fun and just like
to me, felt like swamp pop, which is when I
(24:11):
grew up around music. Swamp pop music is my Louisiana
version of saying like retro pop, like very sort of
fifties sixties inspired.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Waite was a.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Total tribute to the rock. Even though we wrote it
as like an acoustic song, it felt like a rock song.
Dream About was a beautiful I mean, yeah, I think
everything was pretty easy. Everything everything here happened in flow,
except for around the Sun. I had to be very
patient with that and then it showed up one piece
at a time, and I've really learned the value of
(24:47):
appreciating the seeds, you know, and letting them grow when
they're when they want to.
Speaker 2 (24:53):
Thankfully for all your fans. You're hiading on the road
and you're gonna be with Franklin, Jonas and Blue Eyes.
You've toured with everybody from Taylor Swift to Carrie Underwood
to Dan and Shay. How have those experiences shaped you
in your career.
Speaker 4 (25:10):
My first tour was Taylor and to see an operation
so well run and so tight and also so human
like just in my opinion at that time, this was
the Speak Now tours. This is a while back, but
they were in arenas. We did a couple of stadiums,
and it was just so clear that there was an
(25:32):
artist with the vision, a team that worked well together,
and it was just so I don't know, everything just
felt so well handled and like we all knew the mission.
Everybody knew the missions, and there was space to be
human and I think that set the bar really, really high.
(25:54):
My experience with Carrie was that was my first time
doing like you know, I guess what they call it
or LA routing, where like you're out for six months,
seven months at a time, the longest I've ever been
on the road before, and kind of a privilege that
like we had a forty five minute show that we
got to have fun with and then I was doing
a lot of I mean I was doing five meeting
and greets a day, and you know, we were busy
(26:15):
at the time.
Speaker 3 (26:15):
I was doing radio a ton of radio.
Speaker 4 (26:17):
Visits, and like it was busy, but I think it
was the perfect way to experience a little bit of
everything that I'm going to do for the next ten
years in like small concentrated chunks every day. So that
was really fun. That was also where we grew from
like one bus to two buses, so the crew doubled
in size literally overnight, and we got in a truck
and so I got to start making productions and you know,
(26:39):
the forty five minutes show then informed every other show
that we would do outside of that tour that year
that was ninety minutes two hours. And then those shows
were even more fun because we got to spread our
wings a little bit. And then, yeah, it's nuts to
think that, Yeah, the first time I got to play arenas, right,
the first time I got to a headline what I
mean by that as.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
I had so much fun with that set.
Speaker 4 (27:02):
And we were in so many challenges because we were
it was my first arena tour and like we didn't
really have like the arena budget, but we were doing
arenas and so we got creative. It's like, okay, well
we need to let it be the house stage. Okay, great,
can we just turn it forty five degrees and make
it a diamond? Yes we can't, Okay, great. We got
a new shape. We had a new thing. It's a
new thing that you know, we've not seen. And then
we got to do like the half of the h
Shape stage on this on the Tattoo tour and and
(27:25):
that was like, that was when we brought out at
the time. Yeah, I mean, getting to pick your openers
for for an arena tours is kind of a you know,
it's funny big boy jacket, you know what I mean.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Like it it just that I think cool. I felt
like I felt like an adult.
Speaker 4 (27:38):
And that was the tour that you know we had, uh,
Dan and Shay was first, and then it was Daniel
Bradbury and she had just come off the Voice so
the energy around like her set was super fun. And
Dan and Shay we're just kind of getting into Nashville,
so you could feel their excitement for music and the
music nerd environment that.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I like to create.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
That was the first time I think I got to
see it sort of at the highest level, you know,
we had I was surrounded by people who loved what
they did, and I had seen my crew and my
team grow and the band and I kind of were
just finally just enjoying the fruits of our labor for
five years, just like in the rooms we wanted to
be in, and I was making the productions I wanted
(28:17):
to make, and yeah, it was I learned a lot
in those in those in that year because that was
the Arena run was kind of a whole year of
like two different tours.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
So yeah, under inclosing, since we call this little podcast
Taken a Walk, who would you like to take a
walk with? Living or dead?
Speaker 4 (28:38):
Oh Man, A few people, I mean everybody like on
on my like artists influenced list, right, So, like, I'm
grateful that I've you know, Bart's just been such a
huge sort of mentor for years. Chris Martin. I'd love
to spend some time with Chris Martin. Every time I
(29:01):
need a like recenter, I just watch his interviews because
I feel like I get back to the version of
me that I want to be as well. I think
it's fascinating to hear people like John talk about his
music and his career. But I love talking to people
in bands because there's such a you know, the checks
and balances, right, but like balance of I don't know
(29:22):
collaboration too.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Like maybe at the top of that list right now
is Chris Martin.
Speaker 2 (29:28):
Hunter Hayes. I'm so happy are on Taking a Walk.
It was a real thrill to have you. Congratulations on Evergreen,
and congratulations on the tour and on everything. It's so
well deserved. And come back anytime.
Speaker 3 (29:42):
Thank you so much, Thanks for having me chures.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
I'm Buzznight, and thanks for listening to the Taking a
Walk podcast.
Speaker 1 (29:49):
Now.
Speaker 2 (29:49):
Please check out our companion podcasts produced by Buzznight Media
Productions with your host Lynn Hoffman. Music Save Me showcasing
the healing power music and comedy Save Me shining a
light on how laughter is the best medicine. All shows
are available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and are part of
(30:12):
the iHeart podcast network.
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