Country music artist Michael Ray is a fan favorite out of Eustis, Florida. He was signed to Warner Music for which he released his debut single, “Kiss You In The Morning,” in which it went #1 as well as his song, “Think A Little Less.” We had a chance to talk with Michael about his release of his sophomore album, “Amos” and what’s in store for him.
We asked Michael what is he looking forward to most and he said, “I’m excited just about having new music out. I feel like this record, we’ve really honed in on my sound. I feel like I’ve found my voice and what I wanted to say. I think when people listen to the whole Amos record in its entirety, they’re gonna know the last two years and what’s been going on. I’m just really excited to have new music. We’ve been sitting on a lot of it for eight months now. So its great to finally get it out, and worked into the set. Some of it is out on Instant Grat Tracts, so just that whole feel of having new music out, it’s a exciting time.”
Michael had this album produced by Scott Hendricks and he said, “It’s my second record and our second time working with Scott. Scott is the head of A&R over at Warner and he’s just awesome. I think he’s got almost 70 something number ones as a producer and someone like him, you learn a lot from. He draws a lot from producing a lot of the Alan Jackson stuff and Brooks and Dunn and John Michael Montgomery, just naming names. He does all Blake Shelton and Dan + Shay. I’d just say he’s one of those guys that you get in the studio with and he knows how to get the best vocals out. He knows how to, even though it might be tiring as a singer, but if he says you nailed it, you can confidently know. For someone like me, the hardest part of making a record is turning it over and knowing that you don’t hear anything until he’s done with his edits and all that stuff. But one thing I’ve learned with Scott is that if he says it’s good, you 99.9% can bet that it’ll be solid.”
This album was named Amos after Michael’s grandfather and we asked him what he thought that his grandfather would think of the end product and he said, “I think he would love it man, cause this record, a lot of people don’t know that I grew up on a lot of traditional country and I grew up on a lot of Ray Price and Porter Wagoner. And a lot of The Grand Ole Opry members and that whole generation, playing them in my favorite bands. One thing on this record that people will see, is that there’s a whole lot more traditional side to a lot of things than I think people expected. Just because I wanted one, that side of my story being told, and I wanted to not only pay homage to the influences that I had, but also when we named this album Amos I wanted to have that sprinkled across. Enough of it to where people could tell, and I think we did just that, and I think he would love it.”
Michael didn’t write any of the songs on this album, but used a lot of Nashville’s top song writers. Michael said, “We were doing 200 dates a year, and it makes it pretty hard to write and write well, and I’m not going to have an ego and go, ‘I gotta have my songs on the record.’ I think it’s our job to make the best album and keep the music first. In a lot of ways, I was writing songs and I was pitching them to myself, but I’d get a song pitched by someone else and it was better than mine. So the best song wins and that’s how I make a record. Best song wins whether I write all eleven or I write two, or I write none, it’s just sometimes how it is. But with these guys, when you get to cut outside songs, these artists are, or these songwriters are trusting you to with what they’ve created and in a lot of ways. In a lot of the songs on this record, they are so close to my story. I don’t know if I’d be able to write it like that, even if I did, because it was so close. So when they give you that blessing, and just give you what they created and it’s like handing you their baby. I think you can raise this and do it right. And take it to where it needs to be, so it’s a big honor. It makes number one parties, if we’re fortunate enough to get it. It makes those even better and I feel like you can celebrate with the Nashville songwriters and the community, especially now with a very single driven market that we’re in. The songwriters are who’s getting the hardest hit out of this. I love the fact that I got a lot of songwriters on this record and they’re the best in the world, so I think it’s what they do best and that tells your story.”
One of the singles on the Amos album is “Fan Girl,” we asked Michael how that song relates to him and he responded, “I fell in love with that song. I feel like it really embodied our live show. It’s very high energy. We’ve been opening the show with that since I first cut it, so it just made sense to put it on the first track of the Amos album and for it to be our first Instant Grat Track. When I fell in love with that song, it was it was a guy saying, ‘I like being a fan of this girl and watching her grow. You got the whole thing going on and I’m a fan of it.’ I think it’s just a cool play on words and I fell in love with the energy of it and like I said, I felt like it being on the album, when we created the sequencing of this record, it wasn’t on accident. We spent a few days really getting it down and trying to make it to where it was as much of a set list as it could be. So, when people come to our shows, they felt like they were at home. They felt like they’ve already been there before, type of thing, and they can listen to the record in it’s entirety. Try to set it up like they would hear it at a show. And so it kicks off the record and kind of sets the tempo for the record as it does our live shows.” And speaking of the live shows, I asked Michael how he is incorporating the new songs and he said, “They’re all out now and I feel like it’s probably the best our set’s been and I’m excited to get it out and finally have this new music out.”
Michael tells us that his biggest musical accomplishment to date is, “I think being able to make a second record. Some people don’t have that opportunity and to know that country music and country radio and country fans have embraced what we’ve been doing. Showing up to shows, that has allowed us to make a second album. Playing at the Grand Ole Opry is one of my biggest accomplishments I feel probably ever, being able to play there as much as possible. But I think just being able to make a new record and have another chance to put out some new music and put out new singles to country radio and to all the streaming services that are out there. I’m just very fortunate and blessed to be in the spot that we’re in.”