Country music newcomer Chase Bryant has always operated a little left of center.
Take the way the “Little Bit of You” singer plays guitar. He’s left-handed. He plays a right-handed guitar — upside down.
“Things for me always happen a little left of center and a little different way down the grain,” the 23-year-old Texas native explained. “I’ve never really picked the easy route in life; I pick the hardest.”
Bryant, who plays the early evening slot at Country Thunder on Thursday, April 7, said he had to learn everything backwards.
“Think about jumping on a trampoline but with your head instead of your feet,” he offered as a visual aid. “Anything you could possibly do it’s upside down.”
His guitar prowess has added to the mystique of an artist who scored Top 10 hits from his first two singles — “Take It On Back” and “Little Bit of You” off his 2014 eponymous EP — and got his first national exposure touring with superstar Tim McGraw and rebel country artist Brantley Gilbert.
We caught up with Bryant by phone last month and chatted about his guitar, his forthcoming debut album and the incredible journey that took him from his tiny Orange Grove, Texas, hometown at age 16 to Los Angeles and finally Nashville.
What did your parents say when you said you were leaving for California?
“Good luck. They were very supportive, but knew that anything can happen. Anybody can fail. We’re all built for failure.”
When you were in Los Angeles, did you have a day job?
“I didn’t. Music was my day job. It’s always been my day job. That was it. I was out there on my own just doing my thing.”
You’ve had an amazing 18 months.
“It is my plan to have success, but you know, timing is everything. Sometimes you don’t have control over that timing. You just work hard and sometimes you get a break. I was able to build a really, really great team around me, people who care and people who are just as excited about my career as I am. We built this boat and now we’re just kinda letting it sail. We’re just seeing where the hell it sails now. We’ve had fun.”
Do you feel pressure to put out the album?
“I look at it now that man, I’ve got two Top 10 singles off my first two singles and some people never get that opportunity. I would rather put out a record that is just as good as those songs than put out a record that people go, ‘Oh yeah, there’s a great album cut on there and there’s a couple hits.’ I would rather you listen to it and go, ‘Man I want to hear all of this on the radio’.”
You’re producing the album yourself. How did you convince the label that was a good idea?
“I’ve convinced a lot of people of a lot of crazy things. I feel like the music speaks for itself. … I want to make a record that I can look back at with things that are going to linger in your head forever. ... I want to make a record that’s definitive of who I am. ... I’m a kid from Texas with a lot of hopes and a lot of passion for what I do, and I think people will realize I drink the same beer they do; mine doesn’t have gold in it.”
