With the official arrival of summer, everyone’s sure to be thinking and prepping for weekend BBQs. Yesterday, Ohio native Chris Bricks released his latest single “Barbecue” – a high-energy single that celebrates exactly what the song’s title says, and its arrival couldn’t be more apropos with summer and the Fourth of July right around the corner.
We recently caught up with Chris to talk about his new single, his music career that has spanned over several genres, and more.
CN: For our readers who may not be familiar with you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
CB: I’m a lifelong musician and I’ve been writing and producing my own music since I was 15. I’m happiest when I’m creating music and I also truly enjoy pulling together music videos for my songs. Beyond music, I love studying archaeology and history.
CN: You have explored several different genres over your career. What was it that brought you full circle to country music?
CB: I wasn’t happy making synth-pop music, and I missed using lots of guitar in my music. I feel like country music fans appreciate the craft of songwriting and musicianship more than in any other genre right now.
CN: Which artists have influenced you both personally and as an artist?
CB: Artists who have influenced me include Paul Cauthen, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Wheeler Walker Jr, Sturgill Simpson, Johnny Cash, Thomas Rhett, Luke Bryan, Dierks Bentley, Toby Keith, FGL, Morgan Wallen and Trace Adkins.
Outside of country and americana, some of my favorite artists are Tool, Muse, The Black Keys, Linkin Park, System Of A Down, The Strokes, Kings of Leon, Post Malone, Grimes, Florence & The Machine, MØ, and OneRepublic.
CN: Can you take us through your songwriting process? Does your process differ when writing country music vs. another genre?
CB: My writing process is the same no matter what genre I am doing. First, I come up with chord progressions, build a beat on top and then keep a large catalogue of instrumental tracks. I sing to all of them regularly and repeatedly until I get melodies and then write words to the melodies. Sometimes the melodies take a few days or even weeks of trying to really perfect them. Some days I will only get a verse melody, but other times I can get the whole song down in about 30 minutes—those days are magical. The lyrics usually take shape based on the feel of the song—i.e., if the track feels uplifting, I will write uplifting lyrics.
CN: Do you ever pull inspiration from personal events in your life when writing? If so, does that make the writing process easier or harder?
CB: Most of the time I write about things I know; I find that it makes the writing more authentic. This makes it easier to write. Although sometimes I will write about made-up scenarios or put myself in someone else’s shoes to write a song and have to guess at how they would be feeling and what they would say.
CN: On June 25, you are set to release your new single “Barbecue”, which includes elements of country and rock – genres that have influenced you. How did this song come about?
CB: “Barbecue” is based totally on my lived experiences as someone who loves grilling and cooking all kinds of meat. I wanted to write a song a lot of people could relate to and throw on at parties. The song is super fun, and I had a blast recording it. We just finished shooting the video a couple days ago and it was an incredible time as well! Stay tuned for it!
CN: What can fans expect from this single?
CB: Fans can expect a high-energy sing-along banger of a country rock song. Hopefully they’ll get a kick out of some of the verse lyrics too, like when I diss tofu.
CN: What was it like to co-produce the track with John Shaw, who has worked with country artists including Jason Aldean and Ashley Monroe?
CB: John is so wonderful to work with—and probably the best guitar player I’ve ever met in person. We had so much fun making these records together—I think we are up to 13 now—and I can’t wait to make some more with him! From pre-production to recording we were always having fun and telling jokes and stories. It was truly such a blast to make music with him.
CN: Mark Abrams, the Grammy-nominated mixing engineer, has sung your praises that you are one of his favorite artists to work with because you “understand songwriting and singing while also having a deep understanding of the production and post-production processes”. What were your thoughts upon hearing Mark’s words, and to go into the specifics of his compliment, how do you approach those various steps in production in sync?
CB: Mark is one of most talented mixing engineers I have come across and I love working with him too–he’s an all-time great guy. For mixing sessions, I go to his house and we end up spending half our time talking about life and music and video games. And then after a bunch of time has passed, we’ll be like, “we were supposed to be tweaking that guitar track, oops.” I believe Mark is referring to the fact that I am well versed in studio engineering and often produce polished demos myself. I make the final decisions about what tracks to keep or cut and am super comfortable getting into the technical weeds of problem-solving during mixing.
After living in Nashville for a year, I have found it’s quite uncommon for artists to play or program all the instruments on their demos, engineer or produce their own vocals, write entire albums alone and then get involved in the technical aspects of mixing their records. Some of my original guitar parts even make it through to the final mix. I should also add that I was lucky enough to have some incredible Nashville session musicians play on all final versions of all my songs.
CN: If you could collaborate with any one artist, who would it be?
CB: If I could collaborate with any artist, it would be Dan Auerbach. Like me, he is from Ohio originally, but lives in Nashville now—maybe you can put in a good word for me if you know him? 🙂
CN: What was the first concert you ever attended?
CB: The first concert I can remember was seeing Neil Young & Crazy Horse—but I also went to see The Smashing Pumpkins and The Cranberries around this time of my life as well. Not sure what order these happened in, but I did pretty good for a 6-year-old.
CN: If you could describe yourself in one word, what would it be and why?
CB: One word I would use to describe myself is “tenacious” because I never give up.
CN: Where can fans find you on the road this summer?
CB: I will not be hitting the road this summer or the rest of the year as I will be totally focused on releasing all the songs that I have created over the past year.
CN: New single is out next Tuesday, June 25. What’s next on the horizon?
CB: The music video for “Barbecue” will also be coming out in the weeks beyond the release of the song. Also have another single coming out in August—I haven’t decided if it’s gonna be “It Ain’t Luck” or “Swampboat Man” but maybe you can help me decide 🙂
Download/Stream “Barbecue” here.
For more information on Chris Bricks, visit his website and follow him on Spotify, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube