Butch Walker Shares Nashville Inspiration, Talks New Album
As a producer, Butch Walker has worked with everyone from Fall Out Boy and Pink to Taylor Swift and Keith Urban. But Walker, who as a solo artist regularly delivers one of the most thrilling live concert experiences, says there is very little difference in his approach to producing pop music and modern country. Instead, it’s all about capturing real emotion and showcasing the lyric.
“In modern country, there are less rules now, but I can’t help but be a little bit of a romantic at heart, because my favorite country music is the stuff my mom and dad listened to when I was growing up. My dad was a huge fan of Waylon Jennings and the biggest Willie Nelson fan,” says Walker. “I love the lyrics, you know? Some of those subjects you’re not going to get in modern pop songs. And to be honest, there is just not a lot of pop music that I want to listen to — it doesn’t fortify me at all. Maybe because it’s just gotten so dumb and club-oriented. It’s made for people that are gakked out of their minds at a club, with one word said over and over again, and then throw your hands in the air. Even the modern country stuff that does that makes me want to throw up in my mouth a little bit.”
Rest assured then the artists Walker has worked with in Nashville, where he lives part-time, are worlds apart from the lowest-common denominator country that gives the Georgia native a serious case of acid reflux.
“I don’t ever want to be involved in making those kinds of country records,” he tells Rolling Stone Country. “All the cliché shit…like pickup trucks and Igloo coolers full of beer and all that. That shit just makes me sick. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I feel like it’s almost insulting to the audience they are pandering to. They think that’s all country boys and country girls do? Just sit around and fucking drink beer and watch football games and tailgates? God, man, you’re not giving America enough credit.”
But the more mature styles and subject matter of Urban, Swift and Jennifer Nettles — Walker co-wrote the title track and debut single off Nettles’ That Girl solo album — are right in Walker’s wheelhouse.
“As long as it’s genuine and the lyrics feel like they’re tugging at me the right way,” he says, “I’m all about working on that.”