Q&A: HARDY Discusses His Songwriting Evolution, And Crafting His Debut Album ‘A ROCK’

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HARDY. Photo: Tanner Gallagher

Through writing No. 1 hits for Blake Shelton (“God’s Country”), Morgan Wallen (“Up Down”), Florida Georgia Line (“Simple”), “I Don’t Know About You” (Chris Lane), and most recently LOCASH (“One Big Country Song”), HARDY has quickly become one of Nashville’s most trusted songwriters in the past two years.

Along the way, he’s offered fans a taste of his own innately detailed, at times irreverent brand of music and pledged his allegiance to songs that celebrate the Mississippi native’s rural roots with songs like “Rednecker.” He proved his rising star status with his Hixtape Vol. 1 EP, featuring a staggering 17 collaborators, including Keith Urban, Thomas Rhett, Tracy Lawrence, and Lauren Alaina.

His current single, “One Beer,” featuring Alaina and Devin Dawson, is currently in the Top 20 on the Billboard Country Airplay Chart and at No. 1 on the MusicRow CountryBreakout Radio Chart; and he is currently nominated for Songwriter of the Year and Song of the Year (for “God’s Country”) at the upcoming Academy of Country Music Awards. Earlier this year, he took home the AIMP Songwriter of the Year honor.

But on his full-length album A ROCK, out today via Big Loud Records, HARDY expands on the narrative and his soundscape, both leaning into that “Rednecker” vibe on new songs such as “Unapologetically Country As Hell,” while adding a harder edge, pulsating percussion such as “Boots” and deepening lyrical craft with the somber “Give Heaven Some Hell.” Throughout, HARDY’s ability to convey evocative details with universal appeal through his lyrics bodes well for his longevity in the format.

HARDY spoke with MusicRow about crafting the new album during the COVID-19 pandemic, his evolution as a songwriter and artist, and his hopes to soon be able to play his music live for fans again.

MusicRow: When did this full-length project begin coming together?
HARDY: I wrote “Boyfriend” around a year ago and I would say that’s the first thing that I put on hold. I sent that song to everybody, and [HARDY’s manager and Co-Founding Partner/CEO, Big Loud] Seth England was like, “Hey, you need to hold this one. We are getting ready to do a record and you need to start being conscious of the songs you write and keeping them on hold.” We started recording around Christmas of this past year, cut four songs, and kind of during quarantine and maybe a little bit before, I just started writing and holding songs, recording them as we went.

What was it like recording this during quarantine?
You would have the recording files from making the demo and Joey [Moi, HARDY’s producer] would ask for the stems, the individual instrument recording, so he would get 20 different stems and just pick that apart. For a song like “So Close,” he might say, “Let’s take the drums out,” and send the drum-less recording to Jerry Roe and Jerry would play real drums on it. Joey would get it back and then take the guitars out and send them to Derek Wells and Derek would play guitar on it and send it back. It was just that process all the way through until it’s done. It’s just a matter of mixing and editing after the playing. But yeah, not a lot of it went down in the actual studio, which is crazy.

Ashland Craft is featured on “So Close.”
She opened some shows for me, and I love her personality. She’s a bad ass. She’s authentic and she’s gritty and she’s got a great voice. At first, “So Close” wasn’t even going to be a duet, at least not when we wrote it. That came after the fact. I just shot her a text and I said, “Look, I have this song and I’d love for you to sing it with me.” I wanted her on this record, and she crushed it.

Between “So Close,” and especially “One Beer,” which appeared on Hixtape Vol. 1, those feel very transitional from your last project to this one.
To be honest, the song is doing really well at radio right now, and I think it deserved a spot on this record because of that.

“Boots,” which you wrote with David Garcia and Hillary Lindsey, definitely features an edgier sound than fans are used to hearing from some of your earlier work.
I think that “Boots” at this point may never be a single or anything, but I think it’s a good flagship. If someone I never met said, “Play one song that describes your sound,” I think that’s the one I would play, because it’s the direction I’m going. Even when I did the demo, I told David [Garcia], “I want this thing to rock your face off.” And Joey just took it that much farther. The drums got heavier, the guitars got heavier. They made it sound one hundred times better.

The title track kind of goes back to that classic country triad of lyrics, where it progresses from childhood and ultimately through the end of a life. It just feels like such a great throwback in the way it’s structured.
You’re the first person I’ve heard compare it to old country and I think that’s really cool. It’s like “Don’t Take the Girl,” or “There Goes My Life.” It’s a life progression song.

I was driving down the road one day, and I thought, “Man, there are so many moments where a rock plays an important part in everything.” I saved the idea and later me and Smith Ahnquist and Jake Mitchell were out drinking at the bars and decided to go back to the house and write. I told them about the idea, and I was like, “I don’t really want to write a chorus, I just want to tell a cool story about the direction of life and I wonder if there is a way to do it without a chorus.” Thank God that they were two of my buddies that kind of trust me and some of my weird ideas.

“Hate Your Hometown” is a clever twist on a topic, and it’s one of your most personal songs.
That is the most true of any song on this entire record. That came from a real place. Caleigh is my girlfriend and we’ve been together for about two years. She’s from San Diego which, who could hate San Diego, right? She went to Ole Miss, but then she went back to San Diego for a few months and the plan was for her to move to Nashville. I didn’t say this to her, but I had the thought, “I really hope you go back, and I kind of hope that you hate it and you don’t fall back in love with your hometown, because if you do, I feel like I might get a phone call one day that says you’re staying.” And I would hate for that to happen. So it’s a really specific subject matter, but I wanted to write about it. It’s something that I was really going through, so I wanted write that hook exactly how I thought it. It was the last song I wrote for the record.

You still have some very country songs on this project, most obviously “Unapologetically Country As Hell.”
I know how much my fans love the redneck side of me and I would have cut the song anyway, but I did it for them. That song is still very much me, and I’m going to have a song like that on every piece of work I put out. I wrote that chorus in the deer stand, too. I was hunting.

That’s kind of a lane that’s wide open. I can’t remember the last time I heard a song in the “Country Boy Can Survive” kind of category, and that’s what I wanted to say. I’m proud of how I grew up and I just think that there are a lot of people out there that are true blue, they’re rednecks and I think that there’s a certain negative stigma that goes along with that sometimes. But I think as long as you’re a good person, if you’re a redneck, you should own it and be proud of it.

Like most artists, I’m sure you wish you could play your new songs in concert. Would you consider doing a drive-in show?
I would consider it, yeah. At the beginning, I didn’t think I would, but I’m just so fricking down to play a show that I would play for a bunch of three-year-olds right now.

I’ve seen concepts where it’s a big field and each group of people has a little pod they stay in or whatever. That looks like it could be a real thing. I just want to get out there and play shows and see faces. If anything, it’s making me more appreciative of everything. Because you can get burned out from anything. And there was a time where I was like, “I just want a break.” Now I want to do the opposite. If anything, it’s given me a little bit of perspective on how strong shows really are and how important it is to get out there and let your fans see you, and sing songs with you.

Jessica Nicholson
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