Brantley Gilbert always says each of his albums are a chapter in his life, and they represent what happened in the months and years since the last album released, but that doesn’t mean once he finishes an album that all the songs he wrote for that album that he didn’t use are done. According to Brantley, “When the record process starts for me I go through my entire catalog, every single note, every song, every idea. And a lot of times – on this last record there were three or four songs that I’d started years ago and hadn’t finished that just matched up.”
While every chapter in Brantley’s life is unique, a lot of times he’ll go through similar experiences or an experience that makes an old song even more relevant and current for him. “I do write or co-write everything that I cut,” says Brantley, “and I don’t think I’ve seen enough good, the bad and the ugly yet – I hate to say that, but I know on the record I try to cover all those things. I’m bipolar musically and I need a little more content.”
Occasionally, Brantley will pass along songs he’s written to other artists to see if they’d want to cut them, but he admits that he can be a little stingy with the songs he writes because he never knows when they’ll come back around and be perfect for the next album he’s cutting. In fact, Brantley has been working on some new music, which is where his latest single, “Hard Days,” came from.
Brantley Gilbert – picking songs for an album :31
“When the record process starts for me I go through my entire catalog, every single note, every song, every idea. And a lot of times – on this last record there were three or four songs that I’d started years ago and hadn’t finished that just matched up. I’d been through more in my life and had more content. And of course also, I do write or co-write everything that I cut and I don’t think I’ve seen enough good, the bad and the ugly yet – I hate to say that, but I know on the record I try to cover all those things. I’m bipolar musically and I need a little more content.”