Welcome to Queer in the 21st Century, my new arts and culture blog! Today’s inaugural post for the site launch is an interview with Brandon Stansell.
Brandon’s bio describes him “a fresh face onto the Country Music scene, but has always been nearby; honing his craft and finding his voice. SLOW DOWN, co-written with Mylen and the title track off his new EP, is the epicenter of his “California Country” sound with the raw emotion of those first moments in a budding relationship. SLOW DOWN was produced by Nashville-based producer, writer, and guitarist Erik Halbig. Stansell met Erik a few years ago through friend, Ty Herndon, who is featured on the track.
While his casual country sound is appealing, there is more that meets the eye with this crooner of Nashville roots. He is navigating the path of an openly-gay Country Artist. Brandon, while not the first to chart these waters, is one of few people in the industry willing to lay everything out for the listener and the result is an honest, beautiful musical experience.
Director Trent Atkinson, once again, joined his team directing the SLOW DOWN music video and building on the cinematic scope their first collaborative work, DEAR JOHN, which was released in early 2016.” (BrandonStansell.com)
Below is my interview with Brandon, a great emerging artist breaking down barriers!
Casey: I’m very excited today to launch Queer in the 21st Century; my new blog that will highlight arts and culture from across the globe. Joining me today for my inaugural session is Brandon Stansell, an openly gay country artist from the Los Angeles area. Thank you for joining me today Brandon, it’s great to have you.
Brandon: It’s nice to be here, and thanks for having me.
Casey: You’re very welcome. To begin our discussion today, tell us a little bit about your musical influences, and how you came to develop your unique ‘California Country’ sound.
Brandon: Well I grew up in Tennessee. I spent my childhood listening to and singing country music; everything from Brenda Lee to George Strait. I grew up listening and loving that and it wasn’t until actually I started writing music of my own that I started to develop a sound, and even that took a few years. I wrote one project. It was more of a passion project; it was my first EP. The most important thing there was getting the music out because I had things that I felt like I needed to say. It wasn’t until this last EP that I released in September that I really spent time trying to develop what I wanted to be my sound.
I wanted to take all of the things that I grew up listening to and loving. So much of that old country and a lot of the new artists that I really love and admire, and then also combine that with this place, this wonderful place that I live which is California; just the laid back kind of carefree nature which is life here. We wrote about fifteen-to-twenty songs for the record and then picked three. By that time, we found that easy, breezy country sound that we were looking for, and I think we got it.
Casey: Definitely. It’s a great eclectic sound. I’d like to actually talk about your new single, Slow Down. It’s a great track with an excellent video accompanying it. What was your inspiration for this particular song, and how did you come to write it?
Brandon: I wrote this song with LA-based writer and producer Mylen who is a friend of mine from Nashville. A really talented guy and we had wanted to write together for a while. I have a tendency to be a writer of sad songs and he is just the opposite, so he was exactly what I needed in a writer as I wanted to make a right-turn and really write some upbeat and happier things.
We sat down one afternoon. I had this experience from the weekend before where I met someone and had all these really great initial feelings and butterflies. It kind of engendered this want to write a love song which was really hard for me at first, but we just kind of sat down and it really just came out so naturally. I’m really happy with what we eventually came up with.
Casey: It really seems to have come together very naturally. Another thing that I noticed was that this particular track has some impressive artists on it too. What was it like working with Nashville-based producer, Erik Halbig and noted country artist Ty Herndon?
Brandon: So I actually met Erik through Ty. Ty and I were neighbors in Nashville; that’s how we met back in 2009. We both lived in East Nashville and I was always a big fan of Ty’s ever since I was young, and we just happened to live next door to each other. We became friends and when I cut my first EP, he was really instrumental in helping me find a producer for the project. I ended up having a bunch of people listen and take stabs at doing my first project, but it was until the last EP that I got a chance to work with Erik, and he’s wonderful.
We had basically kind of wrapped up recording the EP and I got a call from Ty saying that he wanted to sing on the record. I was absolutely flattered and more than willing to have this voice on my EP that I had grown up listening to my whole life sing with me. So he went into the studio and cut some background parts and little flares at the end, and we just kind of snapped him on top. I was so honored to have him singing on the record with me; great friend, great guy, wonderful artist, and very happy to have him on this thing with me.
Casey: Yeah, that’s great, and this actually leads me to my next question. What was the writing and production of the Slow Down EP like compared to your first release Dear John? Did you follow a similar process, or was it different from your previous release?
Brandon: The process of it was similar; it was just the producing team was so different. My first project felt very old school country which is something that is near and dear to my heart, and then this next project was probably just a little bit more accessible to a wider audience. Something that I really wanted to do was just have a little bit broader appeal while also keeping the things that I feel were me, that were genuinely me in terms of my sound. The process was similar, but it was just of the hand that led the process that was different.
Casey: For sure. Coming back to your new EP, I must say that Slow Down’s accompanying video, directed by Trent Atkinson is a great complement to the track. Tell us a little bit us the video.
Brandon: So Trent wrote and directed and edited the video. I absolutely have to give all credit to the success of the thing to him. He directed my last video and did the same thing; wrote, directed, edited all by himself. He is one talented man, and I’m so lucky to work with him and to call him my friend.
He had the inspiration for the treatment for this video, and I just basically had to do what he said (laughs). I am not an actor by trade. I think that it is really had work and something that I don’t necessarily know that I was built for, but when you have a really great director at the wheel, they can really work magic. If you can make it on camera and make me believable, then I think you’re doing a pretty good job. I’ve been always so happy to work with him and he always turns out some great things. I’m so happy with the way that Slow Down ended up coming out.
Casey: This actually leads me to my next question: I understand that you worked with Trent Atkinson previously on Dear John? How important would you say an effective music video is for today’s artists?
Brandon: I think that it’s really important. I didn’t really think about it too much at first. Of course the first step is always to make the music and do it well, but I think today it’s hard to get people to listen to a record unless you are a well-known established artist and people are looking for music from you.
So for someone like me it’s really helpful to have a visual to go along with it. It’s been my experience that people are more willing to watch a three-minute video than listen to a fifteen-minute record. It’s been a great tool for us and also something that I’ve begun to really look forward to; knowing that when songs get written that we may eventually have some sort of visual to go along with it. It makes the whole process a little bit more exciting. We’ve done those two and then we’re actually shooting a third video at the end of the month for one of the other tracks on the project, so I’m looking forward to that one as well.
Casey: Definitely. On your Facebook page, you mention that your brand of country music is still a shock to the system in large parts of the country. What types of reactions have you received so far?
Brandon: Overwhelmingly it’s positive. I don’t think people are as backwards as sometimes they are often made out to be. At a base level, my music and even the visuals are something all people can relate to, whether you are gay or straight. I think that kind of cuts through. So It’s less about a person’s sexuality and more just about the feelings that go along with whatever we happen to be writing about. Dear John is about losing love, and Slow Down is about finding it, and I think that is something that most everyone can relate to.
Casey: Some of the artists that I have interviewed in the past have mentioned that every musical genre has unique challenges for someone who is out. Some have also suggested that certain genres have been more challenging than others for LGBTQ artists? What has your experience been like so far as a country artist?
Brandon: Well I’m still fairly new, and I’d say a handful of people know who I am, so I don’t think I’m actually the best person to answer that question. I would say probably someone like Ty is better equipped to field a question like that; someone that’s kind of been in the industry a lot longer and dealt with it. I feel like I’m floating around on the edge waiting to walk in which I’m very excited and happy to do. Like I said earlier, the overwhelming response to my music and the things that I put out have been positive. There are the one or two comments or people that kind of pop up to say something that is less than flattering, but that’s to be expected, and it’s not how the majority of people are responding to what I’m putting out
Casey: In terms of country music as a genre, do you feel that the genre has changed or evolved in recent years?
Brandon: I think that country music as a genre, of course, has evolved over the years and I think that that’s a beautiful thing. I love old school country and I have so many new artists that I admire. I cannot stop listening to the new Maren Morris record! I love the fact that not only this genre, but all genres evolve over time; that’s just a natural thing, so I don’t think country music is an exception there.
In terms of people’s attitudes towards the LGBT community, I think that we’re living in a different world that’s so different than we from even five or even ten years ago, and I think that that’s a wonderful thing. I think that again people are not as backwards as they’re made out to be.
I grew up in Tennessee. I grew up there. I’ve had my struggles and my challenges with everyone from friends to family. It’s something that you kind of take day-to-day and person-to-person in relationships, but I think that as a whole, the vast majority of people that I come in contact with are forward-leaning people and forward-thinking people and that is a good evolution for a gay artist like myself.
Casey: That’s great to hear, and speaking of evolution, you mention in your bio that you’re one of the few artists in your genre to essentially ‘lay everything out’ honestly for your listeners. Do you feel that by being open in this way, artists such as yourself can play a role in transforming people’s assumptions and stereotypes about those in your genre?
Brandon: Sure. As much as I want to write and sing music, I also have a passion for LGBT advocacy and I write the way that I do because I think that it is important to be genuine and to have that come across in the music that people hear from me while still being accessible to a large group of people. I would hope that people would look at what we’re doing, what I’m doing, what other gay artists are doing, and if they have some preconceived notion of what being gay is or what our community is like, we can show them things like Dear John and we can show them things like Slow Down and say we love and we lose people just like you do. We fall in love and feel the same things that you do; there’s nothing that makes us so different.
Like I said, I grew up in a world where being gay wasn’t acceptable and it was very much looked down on and just really misunderstood. I’m happy to be one of those people that are trying to course-correct those ways of thinking.
Casey: Definitely. I think that your music is a pathway to positive change and that’s great. You were mentioning earlier that you’ve lived in a number of different places. Having lived in Nashville, New York, and Los Angeles, you have been an artist in three very unique places. How have your experiences differed across these cultural hot spots?
Brandon: Well I grew up in Tennessee. I went to school in Nashville, so Nashville wasn’t that different from Chattanooga where I grew up. It wasn’t really until I moved to New York that I got my first culture shock. I always tell people that I’m so glad that I lived in New York and I’m so glad that it’s over. I feel like having lived in New York, there is nothing that scares me, and nothing that I can’t do. It is a tough place and I learned a lot by living there, and like I said, I’m so glad I lived there.
Living out here in California, it was shifting gears again in a different way. I guess the pace of life out here suits me a lot better than when having lived in New York, but I think that overall it’s been a good thing to bounce around. I’ve met so many people over the years and they’ve only enhanced and bettered the person that I am.
Casey: You have probably been asked this before, but if you could work with one artist in the future on a project, who would it be?
Brandon: I just went and saw our own Dolly Parton sing at the Hollywood Bowl on Saturday, and one day, I’m going to hug her neck and maybe duet a song with her; that would be my life goal!
Casey: That would be awesome!
Brandon: I’ve always been a fan and an admirer of hers. We were singing last night and there was a piece in the song and someone said ‘that’s something like Dolly would do’, and I was like, ‘That’s the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me’ (laughs). She’s a great artist, a great person, and I look up to her a lot.
Casey: She’s definitely one of those people that seems to inspire positive things all around her.
Brandon: Yeah, absolutely.
Casey: Do you have any particular advice for any emerging artists out there in your genre? Advice for other young people that would like to get a start in country music?
Brandon: My advice would just be write the music; get it out. I think that I struggled for so long trying to wait for someone else to help me, and wait for someone to be advocate, and wait for someone that was going to help me write the perfect song. All of these things. There were a million reasons why I wasn’t doing, or couldn’t do the things I felt like I was born to do. It wasn’t until I wrote the Dear John record that I felt compelled to finally do it, like I had to do it. That’s what kind of thrust me into song writing and then gave me the confidence to know that I could do it, and do it well, and even do it by myself if I needed to without co-writes.
If I had to give advice to an aspiring artist of any kind, I would say make the music; get it out. It doesn’t have to be exactly what you want, it doesn’t have to be perfect, but write, sing, play. Be doing what you want to do and it’s only going to get better with time. I think the worst thing that anyone can do is just of sit around and wait for a break. I think that we gotta work.
Casey: I think that’s excellent advice. Many people put things off or wait for the perfect moment and I often think that there is no perfect moment. Often people just have to start, and that’s the biggest step.
Brandon: Yeah, and I mean it’s scary and it’s hard. I think having lived in New York taught me that if you want something, you have to do it. You have to figure that out and figure out your own path. Even if you run into closed doors you have to figure out a way around them, or go through another door, just because one of them seems closed, which they will. Tons have been closed for me; you just find another one to walk through.
I think it’s a really hard thing and it can be discouraging. Especially for people who are artistic. Their art is a reflection of themselves so when it gets shot down, it’s deeply personal. I think it’s a really really tough thing, but like I said, if I had any advice for someone aspiring to make music, it would be just to make music.
Casey: Definitely. I think that’s excellent advice. Thank you Brandon. It’s been both an honor and a privilege speaking with you this afternoon. From up here in Toronto I wish you all the best with your new EP. We definitely look forward to hearing more from you in the future.
Brandon. Thank you so much!
For my readers, be sure to follow Brandon and his music in his links below. With his new Slow Down EP attracting new listeners every day, I’m sure that we will be hearing much more from Brandon in the near future.
Follow Brandon Stansell on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Keep up-to-date with Brandon’s work at BrandonStansell.com
