{"id":189,"date":"2018-07-23T11:32:42","date_gmt":"2018-07-23T15:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morganwallen.com\/?p=189"},"modified":"2018-08-06T19:05:33","modified_gmt":"2018-08-06T23:05:33","slug":"rising-country-artist-morgan-wallen-has-debut-hit-up-down-and-co-writes-hit-you-make-it-easy-for-jason-aldean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/rising-country-artist-morgan-wallen-has-debut-hit-up-down-and-co-writes-hit-you-make-it-easy-for-jason-aldean\/","title":{"rendered":"Rising  Country  Artist  Morgan  Wallen  Has  Debut  Hit  \u201cUp  Down,\u201d  And  Co-Writes  Hit  \u201cYou  Make  It  Easy\u201d  For  Jason  Aldean"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/bigloudrecords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/0Z1A1094-copy-e1532358167507.jpg\"><br \/>\n<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1662 size-full aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/bigloudrecords.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/0Z1A1094-copy-e1532358167507.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"393\" height=\"350\" \/>\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Country music newcomer <strong>Morgan Wallen\u00a0<\/strong>is \u201cup\u201d on Cloud 9 after notching his first number one song. His summer anthem, <strong>\u201cUp Down\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>with\u00a0<strong>Florida-Georgia Line\u00a0<\/strong>not only topped the Billboard Country Airplay chart, it also earned gold certification and more than 141.5 million digital streams. Penned by <strong>Michael Hardy, Brad Clawson, and C.J. Solar<\/strong>,<strong>\u201cUp Down\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>is the opening track off of <strong>Wallen\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>debut album, <em><strong>If I Know Me\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(on <strong>Big Loud Records<\/strong>)<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Before he rose to chart-topping status as an artist, <strong>Wallen\u00a0<\/strong>scored his <strong>first #1 hit as a songwriter with Jason Aldean\u2019s hit, \u201cYou Make it Easy.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>He has also been nominated for Breakthrough Artist-Writer of the Year at the 2018 Music Row Awards. <strong>Wallen\u00a0<\/strong>is currently opening for <strong>Luke Bryan\u2019s What Makes You Country Tour<em>. <\/em>Wallen\u00a0<\/strong>has also co-written songs for <strong>Kane Brown, Dustin Lynch and A Thousand Horses<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">We are pleased to do this new Q&amp;A interview with <strong>Morgan Wallen<\/strong>. He talks about his first chart-topper, learning to become vulnerable with his songwriting, and keeping it real with\u00a0<strong>Luke Bryan.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:\u00a0<\/strong>You\u2019ve had a great run with your hit, <strong>\u201cUp Down.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>How did that song come about with <strong>Florida Georgia Line<\/strong>?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Morgan Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>We\u2019ve been boys since I moved to Nashville; we met sometime near the end of 2015. They treated me like family from the beginning, almost like a little brother kind of thing. They put me under their wing and took an interest in me. Originally, I recorded the song on my own; I had finished a version with just me on it. We had the same producer. They came into the studio to work on some of their stuff. They told me they liked it, and I said kind of jokingly but also kind of seriously, \u201cWell, just hop on here.\u201d They said, \u201cWe will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/77qc4ZtufzM\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:<\/strong>\u00a0What was it like when you stepped out on stage with these guys the first time to sing the song?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>The most memorable for me so far was playing the CMA Fest stadium. There was probably about 55,000 to 70,000 people. You don\u2019t really know when you go into a situation like that\u2026you don\u2019t know what to expect. I\u2019m still pretty fresh and new and not everyone is aware of me yet. But, man, we went out there and sang it and the whole crowd was singing with us. It was one of the coolest moments of my life so far. There was an awesome energy that was injected into that stadium, and we had a blast.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:<\/strong>\u00a0Another cool moment must have been when <strong>Jimmy Kimmel\u00a0<\/strong>presented you with a gold plaque for <strong>\u201cUp Down.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>Can you tell me about that experience?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>It was a complete surprise. I wasn\u2019t even thinking about something like that. It was about 30 minutes before we went on stage on national TV, and you have a lot going through your mind. They said Jimmy comes in and talks to people before they go perform, but just for a second was what I thought. He keeps on hanging around. [I\u2019m thinking] Dang, he must think we\u2019re cool or something (laughs). But he was just waiting on the plaque to get in there to present it to us. That was awesome.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:<\/strong>\u00a0You wrote several songs for your debut album, <strong><em>If I Know Me<\/em><\/strong>. How does the songwriting process work for you?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019ve only been writing for about four or five years now. I\u2019ve hit a good stride, although I still think I can learn, I think I can be better. It\u2019s fun. There\u2019s no real certain way that I go into it. I feel like I found a good crew of guys that I really love writing with, and it took me a while to find that match. We\u2019re good buddies now, which really helps me. You don\u2019t hold anything back when you\u2019ve got your buddies. You have a good connection and energy in the room that really makes a difference. We kind of half B.S., and half write a song, and that really helps.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">The Nashville way of co-writing is to show up at 11 in the morning and try to have a song done by 4:00 p.m. That\u2019s all great and works for a lot of people, and I still do that to an extent. I still love to write with good people. It has really given me a lot of inspiration to have my buddies and write with them. We all have similar lifestylesm and we have a lot of things in common. A lot of times when we write, we\u2019ll cover a conversation we\u2019re having that day or a conversation we\u2019ve had in the past, or something we\u2019ve all been through and share those same experiences. That\u2019s something I\u2019ve come to realize that I really value, having your friends to be close to you and write.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:\u00a0<\/strong>Does that make it easier to be vulnerable and open up more in a writing session?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>That\u2019s exactly right. I\u2019m definitely not the type of person who\u2019s going to spill my guts out to you if I don\u2019t have a relationship with you. That\u2019s what makes it so special to have your friends with you. I\u2019m just now getting into it, and I just can\u2019t wait to see where it takes us together.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC: <\/strong>You wrote your previous single, <strong>\u201cThe Way I Talk.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>How did that song develop?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>For my first single, I wanted to have a song to let the world know who I was. When I was growing up [in Sneedville, TN], I played baseball so I got to spend some time on the road, but most of the time was in the South. I didn\u2019t get to really experience any other culture. I think I was 19 or 20 when I got to spend time in California and start traveling a little bit. I got to see how different the world can be. I think it\u2019s a great thing that we have different cultures, but it helped me realize how proud I am of mine and how much I value how I was raised and the things that I believe in and the things that I love. I think a lot of people are proud of who they are and where they\u2019re from, and that\u2019s kind of what that song meant to me.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:\u00a0<\/strong>You had another #1 song as a songwriter with <strong>Jason Aldean\u2019s \u201cYou Make it Easy.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong>How did that come about?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:<\/strong>\u00a0Me and the guys from <strong>Florida Georgia Line\u00a0<\/strong>wrote that together on the road. They have a writers\u2019 bus that they bring out with them. They own a publishing company, and they have writers that come out. We\u2019re in the back lounge, and\u00a0<strong>Tyler (Hubbard)\u00a0<\/strong>said, \u201cI was thinking how difficult this artist life can be on a relationship, and how it\u2019s not necessarily structured and made to be for that.\u201d But he has a wife and kid now. He was talking about how she made it easy for him. We looked at each other and was like, \u201cMan, that seems like that can be a sentiment of a song,\u201d and we ended up making it the hook. The song came in probably a couple of hours. It was one of those days where we just got on a roll, and it seemed like everything came to us. We all had a great time doing it. After we wrote it that day, we played a show that night. We came back to the bus and listened to it, and we all felt like it was something that was special. I had thought of keeping it for myself that\u2019s for sure, but <strong>Tyler\u00a0<\/strong>showed <strong>Jason (Aldean)\u00a0<\/strong>the song, and apparently by the end of the first chorus he was like, \u201cMan, that\u2019s going to be my first single off my next record.\u201d When a guy like <strong>Jason Aldean\u00a0<\/strong>says something like that, you say \u201cGo ahead\u201d (laughs).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:\u00a0<\/strong>How\u2019s the tour with\u00a0<strong>Luke Bryan\u00a0<\/strong>going?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>It\u2019s the biggest thing I\u2019ve gotten to do so far in my career. <strong>Luke\u2019s\u00a0<\/strong>awesome, and his team\u2019s awesome. I\u2019ve heard a lot of people say that Luke is the same guy that he was when he first started\u2026I can 100% see that. He\u2019s just a good ol\u2019 boy, and he has a great time performing, and feeds off of people. I think that\u2019s the most important thing that I\u2019ve taken away from his performance so far is seeing his transparency with the people. I think whatever the quality is that makes you yourself, if you let those true colors show through on stage, I think that\u2019s what makes people really get it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">I came from a little baby town in East Tennessee, and I still feel like I\u2019m pretty much the same person, and I hope that I always will be. I think that people can really relate to that, especially if you keep it in your music as well. I always write honest things. That\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve seen from <strong>Luke<\/strong>. He\u2019s 100% of himself on stage, and that\u2019s really cool to see.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:<\/strong>\u00a0 And that\u2019s what you want to see out of yourself.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>It really is. I\u2019ve never wanted to go on and necessarily put on a show. Obviously, you\u2019re putting on a show but you don\u2019t have to in a personal way. You can sing a song that hopefully you believe, and you can go on stage and not feel pressured to be something different, or to feel like you\u2019ve got to change something that you\u2019re doing. You can be yourself. At that point, you\u2019re really into the music as well. It\u2019s not just the crowd; it\u2019s the music and that\u2019s what brings us all together obviously. If I were modeling something after Luke Bryan, I definitely can\u2019t shake my hips like he can, so I\u2019ve just got to be myself (laughs).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>BC:\u00a0<\/strong>Where would you like to see yourself a few years from now?<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Wallen:\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019ve never been the type of person that created a seven-year plan or whatever they call it. I moved to Nashville with big dreams and high hopes, and I felt like it was very possible. I really believe that me and my team have the capability to last and stick around in this genre. As long as we\u2019re getting to play in front of people, and as long as we\u2019re all working and we\u2019re all having fun, as long as that\u2019s the case, I\u2019ll be 100% happy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Country music newcomer Morgan Wallen\u00a0is \u201cup\u201d on Cloud 9 after notching his first number one song. His summer anthem, \u201cUp Down\u201d\u00a0with\u00a0Florida-Georgia Line\u00a0not only topped the Billboard Country Airplay chart, it also earned gold certification and more than 141.5 million &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/rising-country-artist-morgan-wallen-has-debut-hit-up-down-and-co-writes-hit-you-make-it-easy-for-jason-aldean\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":136,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-189","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=189"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":192,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/189\/revisions\/192"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=189"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=189"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/morganwallen.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=189"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}