“Stealing Cinderella” crooner and America’s Morning Show host Chuck Wicks has already had a busy 2016. The singer, songwriter, and now co-producer is gearing up to release his sophomore album, Turning Point, due February 26 from Blaster Records. We caught up with the Susan G. Komen ‘Pink Tie Guy’ between Morning Show airings, triathlon training, and jamming to his guilty pleasure – Justin Bieber – to talk about the album.
The Shotgun Seat: What was the inspiration or creative goal that drove the creation of Turning Point?
Chuck Wicks: This record has been a long time coming, so I’ve had a lot of time to think about what I want my next album to sound like. Everything happens through my songwriting – it usually starts with one song for me, and just expands from that. The very first song I knew I wanted to be on this record was “Us Again.” I said, “Okay that’s gonna be the nucleus of the sound.” A lot of the melodic structure – it’s very melodic – it’s very up and down, up and down, a lot of movement to this record. It’s very progressive, it’s very different from my very first record. And that’s what I wanted to accomplish is to put out a record that people immediately said, “Wow, this is not what I expected.” I think I accomplished that.
Was it hard to choose which songs you wanted to include on the record?
It’s not as hard as you think, because it’s easy to write a song, but it’s really hard to write a great song. You really cherry pick the ones that really stand out to you. Everybody has a different opinion, but at the end of the day you just gotta go with your gut – as the writer and as the singer you know what you can really get behind. Songs like “Us Again,” the new single, “She’s Gone,” those are songs that if were to sit down in a room… that’s what I try to think about when I pick a single out. I say okay, there’s 20 people in this room, I’ve got my record in my hand. Which one am I gonna play first? There’s always that song if you have a favorite artist out there you’re like, oh my gosh did you hear this guy’s new record? You’re gonna go to which one you want to demonstrate that record best. That’s kind of how I go about picking the singles.
You’ve had songs recorded by Jason Aldean, Frankie Ballard, and The Swon Brothers. Do you go into writing sessions with the intention to pitch to other artists?
99% of the time I’m always writing for myself first. Rare, rare instances do I specifically write for a different artist and just that artist – really the only time is when I write with that artist. I’ve written with different artists purposely for them and that’s those times when I’m like, alright I’m writing for this project, which is fun. I love doing that, cause it makes you like, oh, what would they say? It makes you think a little differently. “I Don’t Do Lonely Well,” I wrote that for myself but it ended up on Aldean’s record. “Salt Life” was the opposite – I actually sat down with Vicky McGehee and Mike Mobley and we wrote that song specifically for Kenny Chesney’s record. He ended up passing on it and I ended up saying I love it.
Your version of “I Don’t Do Lonely Well” differs vastly from Aldean’s recording. How much of your version was on the demo that Aldean heard, and how much did you bring to it when recording for this album?
The demo of that song I actually did not sing, my co-writer Neil Thrasher was singing it, and it was done exactly in the style that Aldean does it. I was actually nervous for my co-writers to hear my version, cause I never really told them I was gonna do it that way. How I came up with my version is I would sit around the house and just start playing the song naturally how I wanted to sing it, and I was actually playing different chords, just different stuff, and molding that song into what I would do vocally differently and naturally. Jason Aldean’s a tremendous artist – he’s a great artist, a great buddy, I’m a fan of everything he does – and for me to make the exact same record he did on it wouldn’t really do anything, wouldn’t move the needle. I wanted something that was unique to who I was.
You co-produced the record. How did you choose to get involved on the production side?
It was just a natural process. I knew when I made my first record I didn’t know what I was doing – I was nervous, I was just happy to be making a record – and I was in the room with two great producers, Dann Huff and Monty Powell. Now through everything I’ve experienced in the last eight years and been in and out of every studio you could think of and been around the greatest producers you could think of I just kind of, I knew the sound I wanted. I met Andy Dodd, my co-producer, and we wrote “Us Again” together and that was the beginning of our working relationship. He helped shape that record naturally and just I was like, you gotta do the whole record with me.
You’ve been named one of Susan G. Komen’s ‘Pink Tie Guys’ for 2016. How did that come about?
Being on The Morning Show is such a huge platform for country music and waking up with everybody across America there’s some cool things you can do. One of the things that I did on that show is we raised a bunch of money for Susan G. Komen and had the opportunity to do it in a fun way and get our listeners to be a part of it. Mark Wahlberg did this challenge where he did so many pull-ups in 30 seconds and he got $1,000 per pull-up, so he did 22 and raised 22 thousand dollars. I got challenged by Blair Garner, and he says, man you think you can do more than Mark Wahlberg? So a bunch of people called in, we got so much per pull-up, and we raised almost $6,000 in 30 seconds – I did 28 pull-ups. It’s because Susan G. Komen recognized it and they made me a Pink Tie Guy for 2016 which is cool. Any time you can use your passion and what you do for a living and turn it into a positive for someone else, you just have to do it.