Brett Young

“It was really important to me to not be another sophomore slump conversation,” BMLG Records artist Brett Young says, seated in an AirBnB in East Nashville. “I heard enough about it that I was determined not to fall into that.”

His second album, Ticket To L.A., which releases Friday (Dec. 7), follows a wave of four consecutive No. 1 singles, setting a high bar for his next outing.

His self-titled debut album on BMLG Records, as well as each single released from the project, has earned at least Platinum status. He earned the ACM’s New Male Vocalist of the Year honor. His tender love song “In Case You Didn’t Know” earned 3x platinum sales and cemented Young as an eloquent conveyor of his polished, pop-soul sound.

But beneath his effortlessly soulful voice and relaxed persona is an artist with an intense vision, and the hustle to make that happen. Talking about his new 13-song project, which features 10 tracks co-written by the hitmaker, Young seems to be equal parts passionate songwriter and album strategist. While Young delved into plenty of heartbreak on his debut project, Ticket To L.A. strikes a decidedly brighter tone.

In addition to his career success, Young, 37, wed longtime girlfriend Taylor Mills in November.

“The vibe of this album is different because Taylor and I are happy, and I’m at a different place than when I wrote the last record. With this album, I had to make sure every song wasn’t a sappy love song, and that we had some sad songs on the project,” he says. “It’s hard to do when you are happy.”

Young drew on some older material for some of those heartbreak songs, including the new album’s “Used To Missin’ You,” which was penned earlier in his relationship with his wife Taylor, when the two had been on break. The track was penned with Jimmy Robbins and Jon Nite around the time he neared the completion of his debut project, which also contains “Left Side Of Leaving,” another Young/Robbins/Nite co-write.

“’Missin’ You’ almost went on the first album,”  Young compares of “Left Side Of Leaving.” “The only reason we didn’t was they were both peppy breakup songs.”

The first half of the album plays like an unexpected whirlwind relationship that suddenly falls apart from a chance meeting in “Ticket To L.A.,” the first conversations and heady rush of attraction on songs like “Catch” and “Let It Be Mine,” to the confusion and loss that comes with tracks like “Used To Missin’ You.”

Elsewhere on the album, the hopeful “Runnin’ Away From Home,” seems a response to the devastation that runs through “You Ain’t Here To Kiss Me” from his debut album. While the later song chronicles Young’s attempt to exit a dying relationship with a one-way ticket out of California, “Runnin’” ruminates on that decision with What Was I thinkin’/flyin’ away that night…walkin’ away from you was like runnin’ away from home.

However, isn’t until the album’s ninth track, “Chapters,” that Young turns those laser-focused observations directly inward.

“From the very beginning, the label has been asking me to write what they call a ‘life song,’” he says. “There’s a girl in every song up until ‘Chapters.’ I tried and I wrote a ton of them but there was something missing with all of them. They were fine songs but not good enough to be on records, in my opinion.”

It took teaming up with friend and fellow musician Gavin DeGraw, whom Young has long idolized, to set the right tone for the song.

“I never wanted to mix business with pleasure, so I waited a lot of years to ask him to work with me,” Young says. When he finally made the ask, DeGraw had one stipulation for the writing session.

“He said, ‘You’ve been telling me the label wants a life song, so if we are going to write it, we are going to write your life story.’”

“Chapters,” which Young penned with DeGraw and Ross Copperman, chronicles Young’s story from rising baseball talent who was sidelined by an injury, to one of country music’s best-selling new artists. DeGraw co-writing and singing on the track makes it almost full-circle, given that listening to DeGraw’s Chariot album inspired Young to take up music following a sports injury.

“Everything about that song is special to me,” Young says. “Just a combination of getting to write it with Gavin, and the third chapter of my life is music. That’s his story, too, so the fact that we got to write both of our stories in that third verse, it was very clear that he should sing on that third verse, too.”

In his resolve to make his sophomore effort a success, artistically and commercially, Young threw himself into the songwriting process, even in the midst of a heavy touring schedule, both of his own shows and more than 50 shows opening for Lady Antebellum last year. He estimates he had around 500 of his own co-written tracks to choose from for the project, in addition to listening to outside cuts.

“I wanted to have too many songs to choose from on this record,” he says. “There were maybe two weekends that I didn’t have writers on the road with me, and I had writers out during my Caliville Tour. I probably wrote 150 songs per year for each of the two years while the first album was out,” he notes. “We put ourselves in an awesome position that there were songs that didn’t make this record that were good enough, too, that will probably go on the next one. This record isn’t even out and I’m already looking to ride the third album.”

In many ways, Young is indeed focused on playing the long game.

“You go into it initially with very broad goals—‘I want success’,” he says. “Then as some of that starts you begin refining what that means. Through all of this I learned how interested I am in the business side of things–publishing, touring logistics, stuff that I though I wanted to hire a bunch of people to take care of so I wouldn’t have to think about it, I find myself asking more questions and wanting to learn about it.

“I didn’t know I was going to feel this way, so it’s been interesting to see myself gravitate toward that,” he says. “I think that is probably the side of me that when the time does come—when you’ve started a family and your kids are old enough—when I think ‘What do I do in this business that doesn’t cause me to have to be gone four days a week?’”

In the years to come, Young says he could see himself delving into A&R and publishing.

“I’m most interested in finding talent,” he says,” whether that means going into A&R or potentially staring some sort of artist development thing. If not that, then something involving writing. What’s interesting is when I moved to Nashville four and a half years ago, it was to pursue the writing side of the industry. My investor at the time—one of my best friends—when he and I met, his goal was to get into publishing but then he met an artist, so the joke is kind of on both of us…I moved to Nashville to be a writer and I got a record deal; he wanted to get into publishing and he met an artist.”

She Is The Music, a nonprofit launched in 2017 and aimed at supporting equality, inclusivity and diversity in the music industry, is working on building the largest global database of female creators and professionals.

The initiative is led by co-founders and Board Directors Alicia Keys, UMPG’s Jody Gerson, WME’s Samantha Kirby Yoh, and Jungle City Studios/AK-Worldwide’s Ann Mincieli, while the nonprofit’s creative and executive committees are also made of many top music industry professionals, among them artists Maren Morris, Meghan Trainor and Kacey Musgraves, as well as executives including AEG Presents’ Ali Harnell, and Morris’ manager Janet Weir.

The SITM Database, which will be powered by Billboard, will launch early next year, and will incorporate female songwriters, engineers, producers, studio positions and live / touring professionals, with additional positions to be included. Each database profile will be vetted for accuracy; applicant submissions are now open at sheisthemusic.org.

She Is The Music was launched in response to a study released by the University of Southern California, which analyzed the top 600 songs included in Billboard‘s year-end Hot 100 chart from 2012-2017. The study found that of 1,239 recording artists, only 22.4 percent were women. The study also found that of the 2,767 songwriters credited on those top songs, 12.3 percent were women. The results were even lower for female producers, who were credited on two percent of a subset of 300 songs in that same time span.

In addition to the database, SITM aims to launch a mentorship program in partnership with Billboard. This initiative seeks to empower females to join the music industry and to seek leadership roles. Earlier this year, SITM launched its first inclusive, all-female songwriting series, with sessions hosted by Alicia Keys, Mary J. Blige, Loren Gray, and more. The series has earned support from ASCAP and BMI, with songwriting camps hosted by numerous publishers, streaming platforms, management companies and more.

Brad Paisley Holds Court At Tootsies

Brad Paisley. Photo: Derek Cressman

Brad Paisley played a pop-up show at Nashville’s Tootsies Orchid Lounge Wednesday evening (Dec. 6), to film some of the music video for his current single, “Bucked Off.” For approximately 90 minutes, Paisley performed an array of his own hits, including the current single, as well as a few George Strait classics for the capacity crowd.

Let The Kids Play

Pictured (L-R): Barry Dean, Cassadee Pope, Bailey Bryan and Walker McGuire. Photo: Sunny Martini/CMA

Several Nashville songwriters and artists were on hand Tuesday (Dec. 4) to greet and perform for 150 music students from Seattle Public Schools’ Cleveland High School and Rainier Beach High School. Bailey Bryan, Barry Dean, Cassadee Pope and duo Walker McGuire performed as part of CMA Songwriters Series, while the CMA Foundation and U.S. Bank surprised students with $25,000 worth of musical instruments.

Chris Lane Visits The ACM

Pictured (L-R): Marc Rucker, Big Loud; Lanni Gagnon, ACM Coordinator, Events; Chris Lane; Erick Long, ACM SVP, Events. Photo: Michel Bourquard/Courtesy of the Academy of Country Music

The Academy of Country Music welcomed Big Loud Records recording artist Chris Lane to the office while he was in Los Angeles recently for his sold-out headline Laps Around The Sun Tour stop at the Troubadour. While at the Academy, Lane performed his current single, “I Don’t Know About You,” and other songs from his sophomore album, Laps Around The Sun.

117 Entertainment Makes Office Move

Zach Farnum‘s 117 Entertainment has moved offices to 199 Spence Ln., Suite B, Nashville, TN 37210. The company’s management clients include Josh Gracin and Bobby Bare, while Jerry Lee Lewis, Randy Travis, and Kalie Shorr are among the company’s PR clients.

Young Entertainment Professionals Celebrates Holidays With Performances From Bucky Covington, Seaforth

Pictured (L-R): Riley Thomas, Hayley Orrantia, Seaforth and Thomas Finchum. Photo: Jason Myers

Young Entertainment Professionals (YEP) kicked off the holiday season with their quarterly REWIND – Holiday Edition, YEP’s last event for the year. Held at a packed-out Basement East, the night included over 20 performances from local artists including Bucky Covington, Emily Hackett, Hayley Orrantia, Thomas Finchum, Seaforth and more.

YEP partnered with Second Harvest Food Bank for the event, collecting cash and canned good donations to benefit the organization. The generous contributions of those in attendance, along with Second Harvest’s current commitment to double all donations received, will provide over 1200 meals for those in need.