Will Hoge has become the not-so-secret songwriter turned journeyman artist, pushing out of the underground Nashville scene to gain notoriety as both a writer and artist on the national scale. Although a seasoned recording artist with several albums under his belt, Hoge had been better known as a songwriter until recently, with credits like “Even If It Breaks Your Heart” recorded by Eli Young Band and “Better Off Now (That You’re Gone)” with Lady Antebellum. But one song of his changed that, when in 2014 “Strong”, sang by Will, was used as Chevy’s campaign music for the new Sliverado, replacing the legend Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock”. With a song like that gaining national media attention, Will Hoge is now back with a new album set to release April 7th, and lead single, “Middle of America,” already on Sirius XM. The 11 track LP titled “Small Town Dreams” will be the feature of an upcoming review, but before that, Will was gracious enough to grant us an interview.
KH: Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us, I know it must be a busy time for you.
WH: You’re more than welcome, I’m happy to do it!
KH: I see that, although the last three records you produced yourself, you’ve decided to go with Marshall Altman (Frankie Ballard, Eric Paslay, Marc Broussard) to produce this latest record. Tell me about that.
WH: We’ve actually known each other for years, and he understands what I’m talking about. He really allows me to do all the things that I do and not feel pressure, we can have a real honest back and forth with each other; it was a really healthy environment to make a record in. He did try really hard to get a harpsichord on every song on the record and I almost fired him for that (laughing). We did end up letting him keep it on though (still laughing).
KH: Compare this record to your previous ones, sonically, what’s it gonna be like?
WH: I don’t feel like it’s a huge departure, I do feel like one of the things I’ve done over my career is to consistently make honest, very REAL sounding records, and I don’t think we’ve gotten away from that with this one, which I like. Marshall does have a great ear for “pop” sensibilities, and when I say that I don’t mean sugary, boy-band pop music, I mean things that are very melodic or very hook oriented, whether thats in the guitar part or doubling different parts with different instruments and really making things stand out. Which was fun thing to get to do, I feel like I gravitate towards that naturally but in my own production I have a specific way out going about it, and it was fun to see someone else do it and go ‘Oh, that’s it.’ He [also] brought a different approach to recording my vocals, he brought a different mic, he changed that up, he changed the production chain, the effects chain, and it just brought a different enough sound to stand out. I don’t think anyone is going to not know it’s a Will Hoge record though.
KH: Cool man. Ok, let’s see; you have a lot of different cowriters on this album compared to last year’s album; was that on purpose that you were looking for more diverse material?
WH: No, it was really just the best songs. I have another two albums worth of material that I’m anxious to cut. When I write, I write all the time, so there are always songs laying around and I kinda just tend to group them together and go “these work, and these here work together,” and this one honestly to just happened to be the pile that built up the fastest and felt like a record. We just went with it.
KH: Awesome man!
WH: Yeah it’s really been cool man.
KH: There’s a lot of guys on here that our readers are probably familiar with, [Chris] Stapleton, and Gary Allan obviously, is there any one you particularly enjoyed writing with that you hadn’t written with previously?
WH: Man, Tommy Lee James is one of the guys that has a bunch of stuff with on this record, he’s one of my favorites; again, one of those guys who’s really smart musically and comes from really cool places and plays really differently than I do, so thats been really fun writing with him.
KH: Do you have a favorite track for this cd?
WH: Naw, I mean, there are little pieces in all of them, but there are some that stand out too. There’s one on there called “Little Bitty Dreams”, that I really love the simplicity of that, I think the story that it tells is something that I’m really proud of. But also just recording it, it’s one that we didn’t use a click track, it’s recorded live on the floor, the only thing overdubbed was a pedal steel part we did the next day, and then there was a guitar solo we did after the fact, but everything was done live on the floor including the vocal…
KH: Oh wow!
WH: Yeah you know, the guitar player actually counts the song off and it feels real organic and just real… actually it reminds a lot of the records that I grew up falling in love with, and to get to do a song of your own and feel like you captured something that you loved as a kid is a fun thing to be a part of.
KH: Yeah, that’s outstanding. You wrote that song by yourself, right?
WH: I did, yeah.
KH: Since you said that, what records did you listen to growing up that influence you now?
WH: *chuckles* Well you know, there is so much, my father was a musician growing up, and he had left a great record collection, and I had literally everything at my disposal, so I would start… well, and he had his collection alphabetized, and he kept them shrink-wrapped and he’d just cut the wrap with a razor blade, so it was like living in a record store. So you know, I would listen to the Beatles, and then I would listen to after that to Buck Owens, and then Bob Dylan, and then work my way over to James Taylor, and then I’d find Merle Haggard, and then the Temptations and James Brown, or Ray Charles’ Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music…. *laughing* literally everything awesome that was recorded between 1958 and 1975 pretty much.
KH: Are you going on solo tour dates for this record?
WH: Yeah, we are going to go out and start a headlining run right around the release and that will take us through the summer, summer’s gonna be a bunch of festivals and stuff like that. Then the fall we’ll do Europe, the record comes out over there in August so we’ll do a week or so there, and then come back and finish the year out headlining stuff anywhere we hadn’t got to go yet! It’s really encouraging, the more we get out and the further we go, I think that country music; roots music, whatever you want to call it, when it’s done right and honest, which we try really hard to do, it seems to translate everywhere. I think that people as whole are really starting to crave real performances again and songs that they can latch onto. Whether thats a lyric or a guitar part or a cool groove, I think at the end of the day people want to come and throw their money down and see something that moves them, and I think that transcends geography.
KH: That’s an awesome perspective. Alright, just a few more; can you give me your, as candid as possible, opinion on what is country music, where is it going, and who you like to listen to.
WH: Man it’s funny, cause I was born and raised here, and you hear the same raging conversation about country music right now, and that it’s not country any more and all that… but I laugh about it because thats the exact same conversation thats been going around this town since about 1975. You know, when “urban cowboy” stuff started it was country music anymore, or when Shania Twain came out it wasn’t country music anymore, and Garth Brooks wasn’t country music anymore… I mean, I think the positive of it? I think that so much of this sort of “bro-country” that people want to tear apart, it’s done a really good thing as far as broadening the base of the music, and if new people come and tune into a radio station because they like Florida-Georgia Line, but then they also hear a Will Hoge song, I have a hard time seeing that as a negative thing. And I think the difference now, you look at my buddy Aaron Watson, who is for all intents and purposes an unheard of singer/songwriter from Texas, who’s been touring his ass off and touring like man for a very long time, and he has the number one country album in the country [last] week, and that’s a big deal! And that’s a big testament; you can get your fans music now, and if [a fan] doesn’t like Florida Georgia Line or whoever they’re putting down next, it’s real easy to find more music to like, and I think that’s one of the great things currently that’s happening. And there are some really great things happening in country music, everybody’s hot on Sturgill Simpson who I think is great; but even in the mainstream, I think that Lee Brice is making really good passionate music, and I think a lot of what Dierks Bentley does, and Miranda Lambert I think is great, and I think a lot of those people, unlike any other genre, they still maintain a knowledge of where the music came from. I think in this town and in this genre there’s still some love for the forefathers of the format, which I think is really a cool thing.
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