This Friday, January 27th, Brantley Gilbert will release his brand new album, The Devil Don’t Sleep. Brantley says, “Contrary to the title, this is actually the most positive record as a whole that I’ve ever released.”
Brantley, who is a recovering alcoholic and pain killer addict says, “The title track it’s all about being conscious that…. Temptation is always around the corner and it’s all about just staying on your toes and being ready.”
It’s been three years since Brantley released his last album and he says it was never about not having enough songs, it was about not having the right songs. “We could have put out a record a month after we put the last one out,” says Brantley. “It wasn’t that we didn’t have songs, it was do they tell the story and do they tell it correctly? Did they tell it truthfully, do they cover the whole thing? Is there some extra stuff in there that’s just good timin’ stuff on top of this story? You know what I mean? Do we cover everything we covered on the last record and then some? Honestly when we go into making a record I listen to all the past records and, you know, they all have a feeling at the end of them and it takes you on a little journey. Did this one do that? And it didn’t for me at first.”
Fortunately, Brantley was able to write all the songs he needed to create the album he wanted, and in fact, he had more than he needed when it was all said and done. But because it has been so long since he’s delivered new music to his fans, Brantley wanted to make sure he gave them a lot of new music, which is why the standard edition of The Devil Don’t Sleep has 16 songs on it, and the deluxe edition has 10 additional songs. Brantley explains, “So the 16 standard tracks, that’s the chapter, that tells the story. The ten extra … five are songs recorded live from two sold-out shows at Red Rocks in Colorado, which is two of the most incredible nights of my career… And then the other five songs are demos from the past that haven’t made records, not because they weren’t good enough, but because they either didn’t fit the story or they didn’t fit the theme for that record, for one reason or another. It’s just songs that kind of hit me in the chest in the past that we never released. There’s a few of them I know nobody’s heard.”
The Devil Don’t Sleep features Brantley’s latest single, “The Weekend,’ which is in the top 20 and still moving up on the charts.
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Brantley Gilbert – most positive album :32
“The Devil Don’t Sleep, contrary to the title, this is actually the most positive record as a whole that I’ve ever released. And you know the title track it’s all about being conscious that even though it has been an awesome chapter, you know, I got married and my wife’s my favorite part of me. I love my wife with everything I am and you know there’s been a lot of positive in this chapter. It’s all about knowing that the devil don’t sleep. Temptation is always around the corner and it’s all about just staying on your toes and being ready.”
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Brantley Gilbert – why album took longer :55
“I’m a perfectionist when it comes to certain things in a weird way. It’s like obsessive compulsive. Stuff can have a little bit of dust on it as long as it’s the same distance apart from the next thing, you know what I mean? I’m really strange about certain things having to be a certain way and it wasn’t necessarily that we didn’t have the songs. We had plenty of songs to make a record all along. We could have put out a record a month after we put the last one out. It wasn’t that we didn’t have songs, it was do they tell the story and do they tell it correctly? Did they tell it truthfully, do they cover the whole thing? Is there some extra stuff in there that’s just good timin’ stuff on top of this story? You know what I mean? Do we cover everything we covered on the last record and then some? Honestly when we go into making a record I listen to all the past records and, you know, they all have a feeling at the end of them and it takes you on a little journey. Did this one do that? And it didn’t for me at first.”
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Brantley Gilbert – finding the right songs :47
“Well when we start from a catalog over 200 songs, and then that’s not counting the stuff that’s just not finished. I mean there are ideas that are just verses, or verse choruses, and things that are unfinished that didn’t fit the last record or the record before, or the record before that, that are 10 years old that may fit this one. There may be a verse chorus that, ‘Oh man, well that’s … let’s write this verse, let’s write that chorus see where it goes … oh, well there it is. You know what I mean? It’s kind of like an-aha moment and that happened several times. And actually by the end of it when we really started putting it together and putting things in order to tell the story sonically from song to song, thematically, we had more than we needed. We had songs left over. I think we recorded five more in the studio or if not more, that we still didn’t use.”
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Brantley Gilbert – album imperfections :22
“Another thing I’m proud of on this record is that there are imperfections on the record itself. That makes a record a record to me. Like listening to an old Skynyrd record and you can hear like string slides and things that they take out these days and a lot of stuff. Those imperfections are very much there. If I got off key a little bit from here to there, Dan didn’t dress it till it’s perfect, you know. It’s human. That’s real.”
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Brantley Gilbert – bonus songs on deluxe :50
“So the 16 standard tracks, that’s the chapter, that tells the story. The ten extra … five are songs recorded live from two sold-out shows at Red Rocks in Colorado, which is two of the most incredible nights of my career and I think the band and the whole organization will probably second that. This is the first live content we’ve ever released and it’s five songs that folks have heard before, one of ‘em is a Hank Jr. cover, my favorite Hank Jr. song of all time. And then the other five songs are demos from the past that haven’t made records, not because they weren’t good enough, but because they either didn’t fit the story or they didn’t fit the theme for that record, for one reason or another. It’s just songs that kind of hit me in the chest in the past that we never released. There’s a few of them I know nobody’s heard.”