CURRENT SINGLE: “Heaven by Then” with Blake Shelton, featuring Vince Gill
Brantley Gilbert writes almost every song he records, and often those songs are written in a single songwriting session. But this far into his career, Brantley says he’s finally gotten comfortable with the idea that sometimes good songs take a little longer to write
Brantley Gilbert – less pressure to write fast :50
“A lotta times we’ll get stuck on lines or stuck on ideas, and in your mind it sounds like the coolest thing in the world and you just need that thought to work. You just need to figure out how to say it right where it fits. And you know, when that doesn’t happen, you just feel like you’re failing at your job almost sometimes. But I think I’m to a point in my career where I used to almost get in a hurry with songs. It was like, you sit in a songwritin’ session, and it’s like, I gotta have this thing knocked out today. And I’m not like that anymore. Livin’ in Georgia, writin’ with the guys who mostly all live in Nashville, we’ve had to get used to doin’ some stuff over the phone or over FaceTime. And you know, I’ve learned that if we don’t lock everything in that day it’s alright. A lot of times songs take longer than a day to write. It just means you’re puttin’ more thought into ‘em. It doesn’t mean you’re overthinkin’. But you don’t have to be in a hurry. If the song is good enough, you’ll find a way to write it right.”
Brantley’s latest song, “Heaven by Then” with Blake Shelton, featuring Vince Gill happens to be a great song that he wrote in one very late night session with six other writers, including Hardy, while they were at a writing retreat.