Summary

From 2012: Brett Detar drops into the Country Fried Rock scene, bringing a whole lot of musical wisdom and a splash of nostalgia. He dives into the wild ride of his creative journey, from cranking out tunes in his childhood to blasting off on a solo endeavor that’s as authentic as it gets. The convo covers everything from the chaotic joy of touring to the heartwarming stories behind his songwriting process, revealing how his love for Americana and classic rock shaped his latest record. Brett’s not just about the music, though; he’s got a keen sense of how to connect with fans, even going so far as to give away his record for free to build a real connection. So, if you’re down for some sweet tunes and insightful chats about the ups and downs of the music biz, this episode’s a must-listen!

Show Notes

Country Fried Rock takes a deep dive into the colorful world of music, where creativity and stories mix like a wild honky-tonk dance.

Brett Detar, the star of the episode, opens up about his jam-packed journey, starting with a brutal tour that wrapped up just hours before a music conference in Nashville.

The convo bounces around from:

• A spontaneous 12-hour drive from Salt Lake City to LA, just to grab tacos and flaming margaritas.
• The crazy, energetic vibes of the Americana conference, where Brett rubbed elbows with fellow musicians.
• Through it all, it’s clear that Brett’s not just a musician, he’s a musical nomad, always on the move and influenced by the adventures he’s had on the road.

He talks about how his musical roots were planted early, thanks to:

• A grandmother who was into music.
• A dad who sang in a gospel group.
• From first grade, where he was already scribbling song ideas while waiting in line for the restroom, the music bug bit hard and never let go.

The episode captures that unmistakable feeling of a musician’s journey, full of serendipity, a love for storytelling, and the constant quest for artistic truth.

Brett reflects on how his early love for punk and indie rock evolved into a deep connection with Americana and country music, ultimately inspiring his solo record, which speaks straight from the heart.

This episode is a celebration of:

• Creativity
• The struggle with self-doubt
• The pure joy of chasing your passion

A must-listen for anyone curious about the stories behind the songs and the wild ride of being a musician.

Chapters

• 00:00 - Introduction to Country Fried Rock
• 01:36 - The Journey of a Musician: From Early Influences to Solo Pursuits
• 13:53 - The Journey to Creating My First Solo Record
• 20:15 - The Evolution of My Music
• 28:39 - The Journey into Film Scoring

Takeaways

• Brett Detar shared his journey from a kid writing songs in school to carving out a solo career, emphasizing how music has been a lifelong passion shaped by family influences and personal experiences.
• The transition from band life to solo artistry for Brett involved an exploration of new musical styles, reflecting a natural evolution influenced by years of listening to Americana and country legends like Townes Van Zandt and Loretta Lynn.
• Brett's decision to give away his first solo record for free stems from a desire to reach a broader audience, testing a new model of music distribution without the constraints of traditional label support.
• In the podcast, Brett humorously recounted his whirlwind tour schedule, highlighting the absurdity and adventure of driving across states for shows, which often leads to unexpected encounters and stories.
• Brett revealed the challenges of songwriting in a film scoring context, where he learned to serve the film's narrative rather than his own artistic impulses, emphasizing the distinct worlds of independent music and Hollywood.
• The conversation highlighted the importance of authenticity in music, with Brett discussing how true artistry involves following one's heart and not merely chasing commercial success, a theme echoed throughout the episode.

Links

• REMINDER: IGNORE ALL LINKS OR EVENTS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE FROM 2012
• Brett Detar (via the Wayback Machine), also of The Juliana Theory
• You may also enjoy this conversation with Mike Montali, then of Hollis Brown, now of Fantastic Cat
• Toss a few in our Tip Jar!

Mentioned in this Episode

• Loretta Lynn
• Townes Van Zandt
• Waylon Jennings
• Guy Clark
• Pete Young
• Mastodon
• Civil Wars
• Hank Williams

Recommended If You Like

country music podcast, Americana music, Nashville music scene, creative process for musicians, songwriting inspiration, tour experiences, indie music journey, musicians interviews, music production insights, Brett Detar interview, live music performances, free music downloads, music career decisions, music influences, DIY music culture, vintage clothes selling, recording studio experiences, music promotion strategies, emotional songwriting, independent artist success

Transcript

Speaker A

00:00:00.800 - 00:00:11.920

Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity. Country Fried Rock Music Uncovered Hey Brett, thanks for being with us on Country Fried Rock.

Speaker B

00:00:11.920 - 00:00:13.200

Thank you so much for having me.

Speaker A

00:00:13.200 - 00:00:19.840

We're glad to have you here. I don't usually get to meet people before I interview them. We kind of ran into each other in Nashville at Americana. That was kind of nice.

Speaker B

00:00:20.000 - 00:00:21.520

Very nice. I enjoyed it.

Speaker A

00:00:21.600 - 00:00:22.400

You've been busy.

Speaker B

00:00:22.400 - 00:00:23.120

Trying to be.

Speaker A

00:00:23.280 - 00:00:25.840

What sort of adventures did you have over that trip?

Speaker B

00:00:26.000 - 00:01:22.670

I had a lot of random adventures, I think just actually going to.

It was an adventure in itself because I was on tour and I had finished, literally finished a tour, I believe, a day and a half before the conference started. Yeah, it was two days before. And so I literally. Last show was in Salt Lake City and I had to pick up some things at my house in LA.

So I drove from Salt Lake City to LA in pretty much 12 hours. Got there at 10 o' clock at night just in time to go to my favorite Mexican restaurant and have a couple flaming margaritas.

Then I went to bed, woke up the next morning and drove straight from LA to Nashville. Did that pretty much without stopping, and then got there and kind of just was like, you know, I couldn't really relax there either.

So I just kind of hung out, ran around, met people, went to shows it by ear. But it was a good time. A lot of running around.

Speaker A

00:01:22.910 - 00:01:25.070

You drive a lot? Not just for touring.

Speaker B

00:01:25.230 - 00:01:36.030

I drive a lot in general, yes. To put it into perspective, I have a car that's three years old and it has 95,000 miles on it. And I did not buy it used.

Speaker A

00:01:36.670 - 00:01:42.830

We'll go way back into how you started playing music originally. Did you get into it as a kid?

Speaker B

00:01:42.990 - 00:03:22.930

I did, yeah. I think it's pretty much one of the standard stories. I had a grandmother who I still do, thankfully, who was very, very musical.

And she almost forced me to take the family heirloom antique piano. Kind of made me take lessons. But at the same time, my dad was in a singing group when I was a kid.

And like a big gospel singing group, I used to go to all the rehearsals and. And watch them. And I know that my dad and mom would sing to me every night.

And so I just remember, I remember kind of always being intrigued by music. And it's a story that sometimes tell, but I kind of forgot about it for a while. But when I was. It was either first or second grade.

A teacher, Ms. Sargent, and she took us all to the restroom, you know, when you're in first grade, they take the whole class. I remember standing in line to use the little boys room. And I was standing there and for some odd reason I decided to write a song. Okay.

So I wrote like a verse and a chorus, maybe even two verses. And when I got back to the class, I asked the teacher if I could sing my song that I wrote in front of the class.

And she was like, yeah, yeah, you can sing. So I got up in front of the class and I sang my song that I wrote and everybody clapped. And afterwards I was like, yeah, this is awesome. And so I.

Three days in a row, the next three days I did the exact same thing. Wrote these stupid little songs and asked if I could sing them in front of the class. And I did.

And I don't know if I got tired of it or she was like, okay, that's enough, Brett. But I guess what I'm trying to say is from a pretty young age, I guess I was just drawn to music.

Speaker A

00:03:23.090 - 00:03:28.050

So from the post Potty Blues, I'm assuming you then continued through like teenage bands.

Speaker B

00:03:28.480 - 00:04:14.140

I did. I did the piano lesson thing for a long time and enjoyed it, but I didn't ever like what I was learning.

I just like to play like my own stuff, try to write songs, and it was cool, but I didn't really take it seriously until I got a guitar when. Not sure even what age I was. I was probably around 14 when I. When I got the guitar.

That was sort of like what really did it and made me like, you know. Before that I played hockey in high school and that was my number one love. And when I got the guitar and started playing, it kind of.

It kind of took over and I went and didn't even try out for the team my senior year. I didn't even go back. I was like, I'm just doing music.

Yeah, I was in like, you know, local bands, playing shows at coffee houses and wherever I could play because I wasn't old enough to play bars.

Speaker A

00:04:14.140 - 00:04:15.580

What were you listening to back then?

Speaker B

00:04:15.740 - 00:04:38.970

Back then I was really like 16, 17, 18. I was really into. I was really like into a lot of the DC punk stuff. Things like fugazi. Like that really kind of.

That's something that really got me into music. And like fugazi always had that DIY ethic. You put out your own records. And so it was a lot of stuff like that at that point in time.

And probably a lot of classic rock too.

Speaker A

00:04:39.370 - 00:04:52.650

The desire to play came fairly early. But then there's also a Lot of work that goes with that. What was your process in terms of making the decision?

It's not just going to be a hobby or something fun, but this is going to be my pursuit.

Speaker B

00:04:53.110 - 00:06:16.510

Well, I remember being 16, starting my first, what I thought was a serious band with my friends and telling my parents, I don't want to go to college, I want to be in a band and I want to go on tour. To which, of course, they said, no, you have to go to college. You can't be in a band. You can't seriously be. You'll never make any money.

Which they were definitely right on that part. I probably should have listened to them. But sometimes you follow the muse and you don't really listen to logic. And as.

As most musicians, career musicians, you kind of can't be logical. Basically what happened was I started a band with some of my friends and Somehow I was 18 and I went to.

I didn't want to go to college, but my parents still sort of forced me and said I had to. So because I did really well in high school, I got to go to community college for free. Got a scholarship or whatever.

So I did one semester, and I was friends with this metal hardcore band I was actually a huge fan of at the time. They lost a guitar player and asked me if I could replace the guitar player. And so that was 18. And I said yeah.

And I quit going to college and started touring full time. Then everything just sort of went from there. I had another band I was in at the same time that I was the singer for, and that kind of.

We started touring full time and, you know, it just kind of continued, I guess I just. It just happened sort of.

Speaker A

00:06:16.510 - 00:06:30.190

You've had a pretty, I guess, storied history in terms of being in and out of different bands professionally and in different routes. What's led to where this record comes from as a solo pursuit? Because it's a big change for you, stylistically.

Speaker B

00:06:30.350 - 00:07:42.410

It is a big change, you know, from being a kid that basically played in, for the most part, being known for doing like, melodic indie, alternative rock kind of stuff. It's definitely a change, but it was an extremely natural change. I don't. I don't think that mean.

Maybe some people do, but I don't think most people would say I'm going to make a full comparison, Americana, country kind of record, because you think it's the smart thing to do or because it's. Because it's the cool bandwagon to be on, I think, to do this kind of music. And to do it justice, it really has to be authentic and it has to come.

Come from your heart.

For me, it was definitely, literally, I went on an eight year binge where I listened to nothing but Towns, Van Zant, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark and, you know, that kind of music. And that was pretty much the only thing I was listening to. And so it was really just, you know, I broke up my band and was.

I knew that I wanted to make a record like this, but, you know, it took a while for me to write the right songs and for the, for the right time, do it properly.

But yeah, it's just one of those things where, you know, you kind of grow out of a certain kind of music that you start playing when you're 18 years old and you life takes you on a different path. And I guess this record just really came from. It was just genesis of what I had been listening to.

Speaker A

00:07:42.660 - 00:07:56.580

From the creative perspective, it's easy to see how a musician, a songwriter would move and grow and be influenced by new things. But that's a really hard. From a practical standpoint, that's a really hard decision to make.

Speaker B

00:07:56.980 - 00:08:51.340

It can be.

But at the same time, for better or for worse, one of the things that's always driven me as a musician is actually doing something I love and believe in. Which again can be a detriment commercially.

Because if certain people expect you to do something specific and you have a fan base that wants you to do something, something specific, and you don't necessarily do that, you can be alienating a lot of people. But I think if you're a true artist, you kind of have to follow what you believe in. And that was the case for me. It wasn't.

I could have continued in my old band and we could have continued making records and touring and there's still a fan base for it, but my heart was genuinely not into like heavy guitar rock stuff anymore. And so it was just a matter of, you know, this is actually the music that I loved. And so it almost wasn't a choice for me.

It was like, well, if I'm gonna write songs, this is the kind of songs I'm gonna write, because this is the kind of songs that I love. So I almost feel like I didn't have a choice.

Speaker A

00:08:51.500 - 00:08:56.380

What was your process in terms of the songwriting and then heading into the studio?

Speaker B

00:08:56.780 - 00:11:50.040

Well, more or less, I. As much as I knew in the back of my head that I wanted to make a record like this, I didn't actually believe that it would happen.

I Quit music, gave up on my dream, and felt really. I had a long period of feeling really defeated and feeling like I wasn't sure of myself anymore as a writer.

Didn't know if I could write songs that I liked or that people would relate to. And throughout all that, I had this tape recorder thing, like a little digital recorder thing that doctors talk into.

And I would sit down and write something for a minute or two on guitar and sing and quickly record it and not really listen to it.

And after maybe a year and a half, two years of that, I sat down one day and decided to try to listen back and see what I had and realized that there was at least an album's worth of songs in there. And that's when I started to come to the realization that I probably had a record and that I should probably make one.

And I ended up getting a hold of this guy, Pete Young, who was a drummer for Loretta Lynn and a producer in Nashville, and ended up finding him on the Internet. And we started talking and he helped me round up a good group of musicians. And I just ended up going down to Nashville to do an ep.

I went down to do a four song ep. And so the first day, I definitely never made a record like this. I'd always done the band thing.

You rehearse the songs for three months and you go into the studio, you know the songs inside and out. This was the polar opposite. I went down and had the lyrics written down on paper. I had never played any of the songs with anybody.

I had never really played them myself. I wrote them, put them on a tape recorder and never played them again. I went down to Nashville, they write out the charts for the songs.

You know, they have the arrangement better than me because they can read the charts. I have no idea what the national numbers charts is. So I'm sitting there reading my lyric sheet, like sort of playing.

And so it was this totally magical experience where the first four songs track them in a day. And most of them are...

Welcome to Country Fried Rock, where we talk with musicians to find out what inspires their creativity.

Country Fried Rock Music Uncovered Hey Brett, thanks for being with us on Country Fried Rock.

Thank you so much for having me.

We're glad to have you here.

I don't usually get to meet people before I interview them.

We kind of ran into each other in Nashville at Americana.

That was kind of nice.

Very nice.

I enjoyed it.

You've been busy.

Trying to be.

What sort of adventures did you have over that trip?

I had a lot of random adventures, I think just actually going to.

It was an adventure in itself because I was on tour and I had finished, literally finished a tour, I believe, a day and a half before the conference started.

Yeah, it was two days before.

And so I literally.

Last show was in Salt Lake City and I had to pick up some things at my house in LA.

So I drove from Salt Lake City to LA in pretty much 12 hours.

Got there at 10 o' clock at night just in time to go to my favorite Mexican restaurant and have a couple flaming margaritas.

Then I went to bed, woke up the next morning and drove straight from LA to Nashville.

Did that pretty much without stopping, and then got there and kind of just was like, you know, I couldn't really relax there either.

So I just kind of hung out, ran around, met people, went to shows it by ear.

But it was a good time.

A lot of running around.

You drive a lot?

Not just for touring.

I drive a lot in general, yes.

To put it into perspective, I have a car that's three years old and it has 95,000 miles on it.

And I did not buy it used.

We'll go way back into how you started playing music originally.

Did you get into it as a kid?

I did, yeah.

I think it's pretty much one of the standard stories.

I had a grandmother who I still do, thankfully, who was very, very musical.

And she almost forced me to take the family heirloom antique piano.

Kind of made me take lessons.

But at the same time, my dad was in a singing group when I was a kid.

And like a big gospel singing group, I used to go to all the rehearsals and.

And watch them.

And I know that my dad and mom would sing to me every night.

And so I just remember, I remember kind of always being intrigued by music.

And it's a story that sometimes tell, but I kind of forgot about it for a while.

But when I was.

It was either first or second grade.

A teacher, Ms. Sargent, and she took us all to the restroom, you know, when you're in first grade, they take the whole class.

I remember standing in line to use the little boys room.

And I was standing there and for some odd reason I decided to write a song.

Okay.

So I wrote like a verse and a chorus, maybe even two verses.

And when I got back to the class, I asked the teacher if I could sing my song that I wrote in front of the class.

And she was like, yeah, yeah, you can sing.

So I got up in front of the class and I sang my song that I wrote and everybody clapped.

And afterwards I was like, yeah, this is awesome.

And so I.

Three days in a row, the next three days I did the exact same thing.

Wrote these stupid little songs and asked if I could sing them in front of the class.

And I did.

And I don't know if I got tired of it or she was like, okay, that's enough, Brett.

But I guess what I'm trying to say is from a pretty young age, I guess I was just drawn to music.

So from the post Potty Blues, I'm assuming you then continued through like teenage bands.

I did.

I did the piano lesson thing for a long time and enjoyed it, but I didn't ever like what I was learning.

I just like to play like my own stuff, try to write songs, and it was cool, but I didn't really take it seriously until I got a guitar when.

Not sure even what age I was.

I was probably around 14 when I.

When I got the guitar.

That was sort of like what really did it and made me like, you know.

Before that I played hockey in high school and that was my number one love.

And when I got the guitar and started playing, it kind of.

It kind of took over and I went and didn't even try out for the team my senior year.

I didn't even go back.

I was like, I'm just doing music.

Yeah, I was in like, you know, local bands, playing shows at coffee houses and wherever I could play because I wasn't old enough to play bars.

What were you listening to back then?

Back then I was really like 16, 17, 18.

I was really into.

I was really like into a lot of the DC punk stuff.

Things like fugazi.

Like that really kind of.

That's something that really got me into music.

And like fugazi always had that DIY ethic.

You put out your own records.

And so it was a lot of stuff like that at that point in time.

And probably a lot of classic rock too.

The desire to play came fairly early.

But then there's also a Lot of work that goes with that.

What was your process in terms of making the decision?

It's not just going to be a hobby or something fun, but this is going to be my pursuit.

Well, I remember being 16, starting my first, what I thought was a serious band with my friends and telling my parents, I don't want to go to college, I want to be in a band and I want to go on tour.

To which, of course, they said, no, you have to go to college.

You can't be in a band.

You can't seriously be.

You'll never make any money.

Which they were definitely right on that part.

I probably should have listened to them.

But sometimes you follow the muse and you don't really listen to logic.

And as.

As most musicians, career musicians, you kind of can't be logical.

Basically what happened was I started a band with some of my friends and Somehow I was 18 and I went to.

I didn't want to go to college, but my parents still sort of forced me and said I had to.

So because I did really well in high school, I got to go to community college for free.

Got a scholarship or whatever.

So I did one semester, and I was friends with this metal hardcore band I was actually a huge fan of at the time.

They lost a guitar player and asked me if I could replace the guitar player.

And so that was 18.

And I said yeah.

And I quit going to college and started touring full time.

Then everything just sort of went from there.

I had another band I was in at the same time that I was the singer for, and that kind of.

We started touring full time and, you know, it just kind of continued, I guess I just.

It just happened sort of.

You've had a pretty, I guess, storied history in terms of being in and out of different bands professionally and in different routes.

What's led to where this record comes from as a solo pursuit?

Because it's a big change for you, stylistically.

It is a big change, you know, from being a kid that basically played in, for the most part, being known for doing like, melodic indie, alternative rock kind of stuff.

It's definitely a change, but it was an extremely natural change.

I don't.

I don't think that mean.

Maybe some people do, but I don't think most people would say I'm going to make a full comparison, Americana, country kind of record, because you think it's the smart thing to do or because it's.

Because it's the cool bandwagon to be on, I think, to do this kind of music.

And to do it justice, it really has to be authentic and it has to come.

Come from your heart.

For me, it was definitely, literally, I went on an eight year binge where I listened to nothing but Towns, Van Zant, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Guy Clark and, you know, that kind of music.

And that was pretty much the only thing I was listening to.

And so it was really just, you know, I broke up my band and was.

I knew that I wanted to make a record like this, but, you know, it took a while for me to write the right songs and for the, for the right time, do it properly.

But yeah, it's just one of those things where, you know, you kind of grow out of a certain kind of music that you start playing when you're 18 years old and you life takes you on a different path.

And I guess this record just really came from.

It was just genesis of what I had been listening to.

From the creative perspective, it's easy to see how a musician, a songwriter would move and grow and be influenced by new things.

But that's a really hard.

From a practical standpoint, that's a really hard decision to make.

It can be.

But at the same time, for better or for worse, one of the things that's always driven me as a musician is actually doing something I love and believe in.

Which again can be a detriment commercially.

Because if certain people expect you to do something specific and you have a fan base that wants you to do something, something specific, and you don't necessarily do that, you can be alienating a lot of people.

But I think if you're a true artist, you kind of have to follow what you believe in.

And that was the case for me.

It wasn't.

I could have continued in my old band and we could have continued making records and touring and there's still a fan base for it, but my heart was genuinely not into like heavy guitar rock stuff anymore.

And so it was just a matter of, you know, this is actually the music that I loved.

And so it almost wasn't a choice for me.

It was like, well, if I'm gonna write songs, this is the kind of songs I'm gonna write, because this is the kind of songs that I love.

So I almost feel like I didn't have a choice.

What was your process in terms of the songwriting and then heading into the studio?

Well, more or less, I.

As much as I knew in the back of my head that I wanted to make a record like this, I didn't actually believe that it would happen.

I Quit music, gave up on my dream, and felt really.

I had a long period of feeling really defeated and feeling like I wasn't sure of myself anymore as a writer.

Didn't know if I could write songs that I liked or that people would relate to.

And throughout all that, I had this tape recorder thing, like a little digital recorder thing that doctors talk into.

And I would sit down and write something for a minute or two on guitar and sing and quickly record it and not really listen to it.

And after maybe a year and a half, two years of that, I sat down one day and decided to try to listen back and see what I had and realized that there was at least an album's worth of songs in there.

And that's when I started to come to the realization that I probably had a record and that I should probably make one.

And I ended up getting a hold of this guy, Pete Young, who was a drummer for Loretta Lynn and a producer in Nashville, and ended up finding him on the Internet.

And we started talking and he helped me round up a good group of musicians.

And I just ended up going down to Nashville to do an ep.

I went down to do a four song ep.

And so the first day, I definitely never made a record like this.

I'd always done the band thing.

You rehearse the songs for three months and you go into the studio, you know the songs inside and out.

This was the polar opposite.

I went down and had the lyrics written down on paper.

I had never played any of the songs with anybody.

I had never really played them myself.

I wrote them, put them on a tape recorder and never played them again.

I went down to Nashville, they write out the charts for the songs.

You know, they have the arrangement better than me because they can read the charts.

I have no idea what the national numbers charts is.

So I'm sitting there reading my lyric sheet, like sort of playing.

And so it was this totally magical experience where the first four songs track them in a day.

And most of them are one or two takes.

A couple of songs on the record are the very first time I ever played them with anybody.

That's what you hear.

So that was really cool.

And it kind of blew my mind.

I couldn't believe that these songs that I didn't even know were basically pretty much done after, you know, a couple hours.

So I left the studio and I sat around Nashville the next day and I said, you know, I'm already down here.

And that was so easy.

So awesome.

I should probably try to make a whole record instead of an ep.

So I started sifting through songs and figuring out what else I could record.

And talked to Pete and said, can I come back in like a day or two and do some more?

And he was like, yeah, sure.

So I came back and basically tracked the rest of the record another day and took it home.

And I ended up.

I tracked the vocals myself after the fact and mixed it.

So it was one of those things where kind of magical and it just sort of fell together and I mean, it took work to plan, you know, all the players and all that stuff, but the whole sitting down in the room and playing with everybody, it just.

Yeah, it kind of blew my mind really.

You went back and you tracked your vocals yourself and you mixed it yourself?

I mixed it with a buddy of mine in Georgia, outside of Athens.

It's really cool.

It's a guy named Tate Huff.

Some dude, sweetheart, great mixer.

And they're magical boards.

And Tate was basically.

When I wasn't sure I believed in myself musically, Tate was always a friend of mine who was always really encouraging and was like, dude, you gotta write, you gotta make a record.

And so he was one of those people that was like natural to go and work with.

He had a good time.

In your period of transition, what were you doing with your time?

I was selling vintage clothes.

My wife was a vintage seller and basically we just opened a store together online and it did pretty well because she's really, really good at that stuff.

But it was all ladies clothes.

So I became all way too well acquainted with high waisted mini skirts and 60s mod.

You know, I'm happy to say I'm starting to forget all the buzzwords and keywords, but I used to be able to rattle off a, you know, be like, well, this is an empire waste.

Go, go mini and ridiculous.

It's nice to have something totally non music if you're going to get your head in a new space.

It is, it is.

And it's probably partially what made me realize that I have to do what I'm actually good at.

Because not that I was bad at customer service answering questions on will this, will this Romper 80s Romper fit somebody?

But I was pretty good at, you know, answering those question and whatever and cleaning stains out of vintage clothes.

I think doing that job helped me realize that I like writing songs and I like connecting with people through music a lot more than selling clothes.

You had this great experience in Nashville of the EP ending up being a full record and then taking it back and mixing it.

And then you tried something a little bit different for someone who's putting out their first solo record.

Yes, I did.

What made you decide to give it away?

I decided to give it away for free because my whole thought process was if I don't have a label and if I don't have some big system behind me, then let's try to test the new model and see if I can get the music out there without a lot of the traditional.

Without a lot of the traditional means.

I think more or less the real logic behind it was really just the whole drug dealer approach.

My thought was, I believe in the record.

I think it's good.

I think some of the songs are going to resonate with people.

And if I believe in it, then I want people to hear it.

And hopefully if people hear it, they'll like it and I can keep them as fans for the long haul.

And so my thought was, why limit the amount of people that will hear it by making them buy it?

Why not just say, here you go, take a chance on this, put it in your itunes and listen to it.

If you don't like it, then cool.

You know, you didn't lose anything.

I didn't lose anything.

But.

But take a chance and if you do like it, then, you know, maybe you'll stick around, come see me live or whatever.

So it was really just, let's try to get the music out to as many people as possible.

It's not necessarily the key to making money at the beginning, but you know what they say about a new business anyways.

You're not supposed to make any money for the first couple years anyways.

Hey there, this is Brett Detter and you're listening to Country Fried Rock.

What's your then back end plan?

It hasn't been too long since it's been out.

Technically been just over a year.

And I didn't know if I was going to continually give it away.

I thought maybe I'd do it for a month or two.

I didn't know how.

Yeah, I honestly didn't know what I would do.

But it still continues to get a good amount of downloads every day.

So I just figured, you know what, let's just keep it this way.

Figure out something for the next record.

I don't know what I'll do yet with it, but.

But you ultimately ended up doing at least a limited pressing of some CDs.

Oh yeah, I have CDs, limited pressing.

And more importantly and much better is I made a vinyl LP that is.

I don't want to toot my own horn because I technically create it, but I made it.

There's an absolutely beautiful, beautiful vinyl LP that.

One of the nicest, definitely the nicest packaging I've ever been a part of in my life.

It's tons and tons of hand assembled stuff.

There's gold embossing, there's this amazing gatefold map illustration that was drawn like this antique map.

I've had multiple people tell me that it should be nominated for a Grammy for packaging.

It really is.

Guess I missed that point.

I wouldn't know how to do that anyways.

But what I'm saying is it's really awesome and I put a lot of.

I put a lot of work into it.

And it is the most expensive thing I have ever created in my life.

It was definitely not cheap, but it was one of those things where it was like, you know what, my first solo record.

And I really put a lot of time into the songs.

And I think that I want to make this packaging that kind of reflects the album and reflects the journey that I went on to make it.

And so there's all kinds of symbolism in the artwork that kind of ties together a lot of the lyrics and things.

And so it's really cool.

I've been selling those and those have been selling well, probably because it's so pretty.

But that again was continuing with my theme that is absolutely not a moneymaker.

Because it was so expensive to press that.

It's like you really don't make any money off of it.

But it's just.

I don't know, Vinyl is just cooler than anything else.

You know, it's big, you can hold it in your hand, it's tangible, you can.

You can feel it.

So in some ways it's.

It's like the present as in gift, not just the music.

Exactly.

Yeah, I'm big on that.

Even.

Even for the time period when I didn't have a needle on my record player that worked, I was still buying.

Viny.

I'm the same way.

I had the exact same thing about four years ago.

I was definitely still buying without a good record player.

Well, and thankfully you can finally buy them again.

That is true.

What have you done then in this year's meantime, in order to continue to spread the good word?

Whatever I can do.

Playing shows, getting out on the road.

And fortunately I ended up getting a lot of nice write ups and press kind of stuff.

Seems like, that's definitely happened a little bit.

And I just been trying to do whatever I could do as in lieu of a record label, I hired a radio, you know, a roots radio promo company and you know, doing that thing a little bit and just kind of just basically trying to spread the word as organically as I can.

There's only so much you can do without larger channels.

But the fortunate thing is there's a lot of people that are truly hungry for good music and they search for it.

You just have to have tenacity to go out and try to reach them in one way or another, whether it be through the dreaded social media, whatever it is.

I think a lot of good art goes unnoticed.

But at the same time, I think if you make something really good and you try hard to make sure that it gets out there, I think that it will get seen, heard.

What is working well for you?

What is working well?

Well, giving away the record for free is really.

That's the best thing I could have done because it's like, whatever.

If you come to my.

I say something on Twitter and somebody retweets it.

So somebody sees it and they click on it like, who's this guy?

And, you know, they see my little teeny 140 character bio on Twitter or whatever and.

And it says, go to my website, www.brettdetter.com to download my record for free or whatever.

And as simple as that is, it's a simple call to action.

But it basically, some person who's curious might be like, like I said before, oh, well, wonder who this guy is.

I wonder what this is.

I'll check it out.

As simple as that is, it's like if I were to buy a banner ad online and it said, check out the new record from Brad Teder, and that's it.

I think a lot more people would click on it if it said, click here to download the record for free.

I just think it's.

That kind of principle has definitely helped.

And more than anything else, that's probably the smartest thing that I did, was just letting.

Letting people take it, you know, letting people take a chance on it.

You hinted that maybe there's another record in store.

There's definitely another record in store.

It's coming really close.

I'm finishing up writing it right now.

So what's different about it?

What's different about it?

Although I haven't recorded it yet, what's going to be different about it, I think, is that it will probably be a little bit more stripped down.

And I think that's a result of two things.

It's a result of touring completely solo with no band.

And it's also.

I was like a kid in a candy store when I made this last record.

I was like, oh, my goodness.

I can have mandolin and I can have pedal steel and I can have banjo and I could have fiddle and I can have all these instruments.

And I was so excited to have all these instruments that I probably put all of them on every song.

It's very full and everybody play just.

Yeah, everybody just play.

So now I'm probably going to be a little bit more restrained and say, you know, that was awesome, but let's kind of put in a little bit, maybe just a little bit more what's actually really necessary.

Not saying that I didn't serve the songs well last time, but I think I'm going to focus a little bit more on maybe having a little bit of restraint with instruments.

I guess that will probably be the biggest difference, most likely.

And I'm hoping that the songs are better.

I think they're better so far.

And maybe it might be a little less depressing, but it's probably still going to be depressing, but maybe it'll just be a tiny bit less sad.

Bastardy, maybe.

So things are going fairly well for you.

What's up with those lyrics?

The first record really was Bird in the Tangle was written at that.

The whole time that I was like, I don't believe in myself.

I don't believe.

I'm not a musician.

I can't write a song.

I suck.

And so I was really just writing everything from that perspective.

But the thing is, all my life, I've always preferred minor chord things, always.

And I've always preferred music that sounds sad.

My dad is a massive music fan and he's a Motown guy.

My dad thinks the Beatles ruin music.

He doesn't really like white people music.

My dad's always like, when are you gonna write really happy love songs?

He always like, I don't know.

Dad just always been drawn to, you know, that's probably one of the reasons that I like Ralph Stanley or one of the reasons that I.

That I like Townes Van Zant so much.

There's just something about that sad music moves me.

And even if I'm in a good mood, I would probably rather listen to something sad.

And so I naturally tend to lean that way on everything.

And sometimes just to challenge myself, I fight it and will try, you know.

Okay, let's try to do a couple things that are not 100% totally depressing, but it's just.

It just kind of.

I don't know.

I'm just tend to.

Tend to write that way more often.

So what do you listen to?

I still listen to a lot of, like, the classics.

Still a huge fan of, like, the Hank Williams Fox set, all those rare recordings.

That stuff's amazing.

And listening to the whole entire tour, I think I listened almost every day to Willie's Roadhouse on xm.

So that was awesome.

Just pretty much anything on there, you know, always in the mood to listen to Levon Helm or the band, like I said, Ralph Stanley, anything like Guy Clark, Steve Earle, all that kind of stuff.

All the old timers.

And I'm also.

I always find myself, when I get really deep in the writing process for my own stuff, that I tend to start listening to stuff that's substantially different.

I get tired of depressing melodies and banjos or whatever.

So I found myself listening to the new Mastodon record a lot.

They're definitely my favorite of the heavy bands.

And I just found out that they're doing a.

Like a split 7ish with Feist, where they cover each other's songs.

Oh, cool.

Yeah, so it's been.

It's been a lot of.

Been a lot of Mastodon lately in Ipod, I guess.

What are your thoughts on this whole newly released record of Hank Senior's songwriting?

I have mixed feelings on it.

I went and listened to it the day it came out.

You know, we were on the road, and me and my buddy Joe, who was with me, he found it on.

I don't know if it was NPR or where he found it, but we streamed it and listened to it, and I actually thought a coup.

I thought a couple of the tracks were really bad, and I thought a couple were really good.

I really liked Vince Gill and Rodney Corral's track.

I thought that was awesome, you know, the recitation.

And I thought Norah Jones track was really pretty.

And I thought that.

I really like Levon Helm's track.

It kind of sounded like he.

It definitely sounded like he was nodding at Hank, but wasn't trying to sound 100% like Hank Williams, which some of the artists seemed like they just tried really hard.

But I don't know, I. I have really mixed feelings on it.

I don't know.

Like, you know, if I died and had songs that were unfinished, not that anybody would want to finish them, but if somebody wanted to finish them for me, I don't know.

I mean, I guess I'd be dead So I wouldn't care.

But I mean, that's really.

I don't know, it's odd.

I understand it from a fan's perspective, like, oh, cool, let's see what would have happened if those two would have been together.

But, you know, you're talking about 40, 50 years separation in time as well as, you know, culture.

And I don't know, it's a weird thing, I guess.

You know, he has so much draw and mystique that people are always like, you know, what other thing can we attach the Hank Williams name to?

Right.

And I think that you could really, I think with that you can really bastardize things in general, you know, which is, you know, I live in LA and there's a million and a half movies where that are remakes.

And you're like, why?

You're like, yeah, why did you ruin this?

Why did you ruin this great thing?

And you're always at risk of doing that.

And so, yeah, I mean, yeah, I definitely have mixed feelings on it.

I'd love for you to download my record for free at www.bretdetter.com.

that's spelled B R E T T D as in David, E t as in Thomasar.com.

check it out.

Did you catch anybody at Americana that kind of intrigued you?

Yeah, I did.

Now I'm trying to think I'm already like a blur because I've seen like 15 shows since I've been home.

So I'm like trying to think who I. I was impressed by multiple people.

I was.

I was really impressed by Marty Stewart, who I, of course, I've known as really talented.

But I had never actually seen him play before.

And just him playing totally by himself, pretty much did a 12 minute mandolin solo.

His mandolin playing was out of control.

He absolutely killed that thing.

And I was, I was also impressed by his hair.

How he did that with.

It was pretty awesome.

Who else did I see?

I thought Robert Ellis was really good.

His band was really good.

I liked.

I thought Hayes Carl was pretty good.

Okay, I'll say who impressed me the most the whole time was.

And this is a hot issue, apparently.

I tweeted yesterday that sometimes I don't get certain bands that I'm supposed to like.

But a ton of people tweeted back at me, this next band and said that they don't get it.

But when I saw at the awards show, when the Civil wars played that one song, it felt to me like God himself stopped doing whatever he was doing, pointed his finger down and said, I'm going to put all my talent and everything I have on these two people right now.

I'm not even.

I'm not even a huge fan, and I'm not.

I think they're great, but I. I don't, like, dig the record that much.

But to hear two people sing close harmony that close, it's like taking the Leuven Brothers to the next level.

The vocal runs and things they were doing.

And it was literally like it was coming out of one person singing almost as good as Jeff Buckley.

But it was two people.

And that blew my mind.

Like, seeing two people in tune that much vocally and singing that close was.

My friend who was on tour with me beforehand was like, I don't like the Civil wars at all.

He saw that and he looked at me afterwards.

He's like, the hair just stood up on my neck.

He's like, I eat my words.

That was ridiculous.

So, yeah, their singing, definitely, that impressed me.

Really.

That was probably the thing that stood out the most.

The whole weekend.

One of them was like, sick or something.

That's pretty good if you're sick.

You said you've been out and about a bit in LA lately.

What you been doing today?

I'm going to Paramount Studios soundstage because I have a movie coming out in January that I did the music for.

I forgot to ask you about that.

How did this come about?

I have a friend, really good friend, who's a writer and director.

He sold a bunch of scripts in Hollywood and he did a movie.

He shot this film himself and with no real budget, and asked me if I would do the music for it.

And I wasn't really sure that I was physically capable of doing it.

I don't know if I know how to do that.

And my buddy Brent's like, no, I think you can do it.

I really think you can do it.

I was like, I don't know.

And he's like, no, I really think you can do it.

Like, okay, I guess I'll do it.

And so I ended up doing the music with a good buddy of mine, more or less did the music.

It's really ethereal.

There's a lot of weird, like, chanty sounding vocals and weird.

Just dark and creepy, which is.

The movie is dark and creepy.

It's about exorcism.

So, yeah, it's dark.

It's called the devil inside.

And January 6, it will be out, coming out wide.

It's getting wide release.

So basically, yeah, long story short, I did this and my friend made this movie.

We didn't know what was going to happen with it.

And he ended up having massive full on bidding war with all the studios and excellent, you know, now he has like the guy who's.

The guy who signed on to produce it is one of the biggest names in the industry, like discovered Harry Potter and produced the Transformers movies and all this crazy stuff.

So like the classic Entourage Hollywood story that you're like your friends, like, will you score a movie?

And I'm like, I don't know if I know how.

And now, now the first movie I ever scored is coming out wide release internationally on a major studio and it's totally weird.

And now like I'm taking meetings and have like an agent for film composing and all these things.

Like what?

I don't know how that happened.

So you stumble into doing this film score, the movie's coming out in January.

And what is different about that process versus your own independent creative bubbling.

Well, that is quite a different process.

And I think being involved even slightly in a Hollywood movie is really interesting to me because my buddy William Brett Bell, the director and the writer, literally he would tell me every process, you know, every story about the movie making process.

I remember we went to a bar and he told me I have this concept for a movie.

And he explains to me the story.

And then next thing I know, you know, it's like, I think we're gonna go film it and et cetera, et cetera.

And it's like every little step of the way getting to see, but it's like, it's like making an album times a thousand.

There's that many more people involved, there's that many more people who want to meddle with it and change it.

And you gotta get approval from all these people.

And it's like such a big process.

And so just in general, it's sort of like making a record.

But I think for the music side of it, it was actually quite a learning experience.

The first thing that I turned in musically was basically they were more or less like, well, this is too musical.

It makes perfect sense to me now, but.

And I was actually talking to another film composer last night about it.

But more or less, you know, I was talking about serving the song before.

With music for movie, you have to serve, you know, you have to serve the picture, you have to serve the movie.

You have to have something that makes people feel what they're supposed to be feeling while watching the scene, but they're not necessarily supposed to notice it.

It's about the dialogue and the acting and moving the storyline along.

And it's not really about necessarily how amazingly cool the score can be, even though there's a million that are.

So I think the biggest difference was getting out of my headspace of four minute arrangement and getting into the let's just make whatever it needs to make the mood right for the movie.

Has that process in terms of the learning curve for you, has that impacted and in some ways it's like the total opposite.

Has that influenced where you're heading with this next one that you've already described as being more stripped down?

I'm not sure.

I don't.

I'm not sure yet.

I kind of, at least at this point because that movie score and my music, solo music are so different.

They're like in different compartments of my brain.

But I would be ecstatic to do a movie that bridged the gap.

If I could do something westerny or, you know, something spaghetti westerny and freak out or just something that's, you know, just darker, folky, kind of weird stuff, then that would be really cool, put the two together.

But at this point I feel like they're sort of separate.

What have you been doing for fun while you're in la?

More or less just enjoying the nice weather, taking walks, going on hikes, things.

I'm from the east coast and I'm from a place that gets freezing cold in Western Pennsylvania.

So I'm used to by this time of year being brutally cold.

And so it's kind of nice to have it still be 70 degrees and to kind of walk around outside really.

Briefly mentioned that you were catching a lot of music.

Yeah, I've been seeing a good bit of shows lately.

What kind of venue do you like to catch in la?

A buddy of mine plays for Morrissey, so I went and saw Morrissey last week at the Shrine Auditorium and That's a huge 6,000 seat venue.

And that's a totally different show than seeing Brian Wright and Deep Dark woods the other night at Hotel Cafe.

200 seat little tiny little venue.

Brett, I really appreciate you taking the time to be with us on Country Fried Rock.

Thank you so much for having me.

I really appreciate it.

Country Fried Rock.

Find the full playlist from this episode on countryfriedrock.org check us out on itunes.

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Our theme music is from the Full Tones.

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