Bryan White Interview - January 2007 - Part 2

Laurie: You've just become a father. Our kids have an amazing gift of teaching us about ourselves and the world around us. How has becoming a father changed you as an artist?

Bryan: I think in a deep way. There are songs you'll hear on the new project that are directly influenced by either my wife or my kids. Even if I am writing a tune that is a great idea that is kinda fictional, I don't think I write anything that I don't pull somehow from my own life. It is my inspiration, whether it's my kids, my family, my grandparents or parents. Now more than ever I find myself pulling from all areas of my life. I'm more well rounded as an artist and songwriter because I've seen my children born and I get up every morning and see them, and they can't wait to come and climb all over me. And it's having these carbon copies of you running around that has your mind always going. Some of the times that I think of the neatest ideas for songs is when I putting them down for bed. Those are some of the sweetest times. When I'm reading the oldest a book, and he says now you lay down daddy, I'm going to read to you. When I rocking my youngest, and they are conked out, and they will actually let you hug them - that is when my mind really starts reflecting on all that I have. I don't mean the material things, I mean my children and my family, and the great memories. So yeah, it's made me a better artist, and I never stop pulling from all those inspirations.

Laurie: I think you share a connection with the audience, because those are the the things they experienced, maybe it's something they are going through right now, or can remember back when. It's a way to remember those days. The common person doesn't have a the ability to put those memories into words and lyrics.

Bryan: Yeah, its those special moments that are really great.

Laurie: If you had 20 minutes to spend with anyone in Nashville (past or present), who would it be? What would you like to learn from them?

Bryan: Wow, I looked at the question this morning, and I don't want this to sound the wrong way, but I have been so fortunate to work with so many people that I look up to, including my greatest inspiration Steve Wariner. I've gotten to work with all these people, so I actually had a hard time thinking of who that might be, and I don't mean this to sound like look how blessed I've been, and I've done all these things, but I really had a hard time thinking of who that might be. I would really love to work with Ronnie Milsap. Ronnie is one of those guys that has had over 50 number one records. The guy has played with Elvis, and has done so many awesome things in his career. He's a crossover artist, and I love his voice. Honestly he's listed as one of my major influences because he is a real singer and songwriter. Singers don't necessarily have to be phenomenal singers or great in the acrobatics realm. It's more important that the be great translators and great communicators. But Ronnie Milsap is one of those exceptional people that is a phenomenal singer and a great communicator as well. I would definitely love to work this him in a studio on something. That would be really cool.

Laurie: You've done a lot of incredible things, and you been blessed, like you've said, to work with some of the people you admire. What thing haven't you done yet that you'd love to do?

Bryan: I would just love to continue to make records, and to tap into the music and take it further. I've never been to Europe before. That is something I'd like to cultivate more, a relationship with Europe and other foreign countries, and take the music out farther. I feel like the people are so welcoming with my music, I would like see what it's like over there. That is definitely a high priority for us in 2007. To take the music to many other places.

Laurie: A lot of us don't know what the whole song writing process is like, and what it takes to get it into the studio and get it recorded. People just assume you sit down and hammer out this tune in your head, and go in and record a song. How do you determine who you have play on the cut? Tell us about how that happens.

Bryan: It's very subjective. Everyone has their own preferences as far as players and the types of songs they are looking for. There is an actual Pitch sheet that goes out to all the publishers when someone is cutting an album. It will have a list of all the artist that are cutting, and it will say what they are looking for, and it will say the date they are cutting. So all these publishers get the types of songs they think they are talking about. For instance it will say Bryan White, needs more up tempo high energy songs. As an artist what you do is listen to tons, upon tons of songs with your producers, and you start weeding through them. We would make these comp CD's about 2 or 3 CD's full of songs that we had put on hold with the publishing company. But your grace period is not more than a month. It's kinda rude to put them on hold for too long cause they could be pitching to somebody else. Then you finally get your songs weeded down to 15 to 20 songs. Then you figure out what kind of band you want. There are so many things you can do. There is no wrong way to do this. It's all personal preference. Everybody tried to do what is most complimentary to the song. It's definitely an area that I feel I really thrive. It's really fun to me. Sometimes it can be painstaking and a labor of love but it's that whole process is energetic and I am really energetic during that period because you're excited about cutting new material.