New music might be coming from Chase Rice later this year. After releasing Go Down Singin‘ in September, Rice reveals he is already working on another project, one he is eager to share with his fans.
“I’m in love with music,” Rice tells American Songwriter. “I’m not overthinking anything. I’m not having to wait on an album cycle. I’m not having to wait 52 weeks for a single to pop to drop the album. I have the ability to write songs and record them as they’re written. I have a producer [Oscar Charles] who loves what we’re doing because we’re writing a lot of them together anyway… We’re going to add three or four more, call it an album, and put it out early this year.”
In a now-famous story, Rice became first known as a songwriter, helping pen the massive Florida Georgia Line hit, “Cruise.” The song set him on a quick path to success, one he later realized he wanted desperately to get off, when people assumed they knew who he was as an artist based on that song. Rice worked hard, especially in recent years, to change that narrative, releasing songs like “Bench Seat,” “Hey God It’s Me Again,” “You in ’85” and more. While some have said it’s Rice changing directions, he says that couldn’t be further from the truth.
“It’s been me the whole time,” Rice maintains. “I just didn’t know how to do it, and now I know how to do it. We’re having fun doing it.”
“I’m being real now,” he continues. “I’m not chasing bullsh–. I think the songs I’m writing are incredible. I don’t think they’re necessarily radios, but it doesn’t matter. Let’s put ’em out and see what happens.”
Before releasing Go Down Singin‘, Rice released I Hate Cowboys, which was the first album that Rice released to change people’s mindset, and maybe his own as well.
“The whole process of putting together the I Hate Cowboys record and the Go Down Singin‘ record was a long two years of figuring out how to do something I’ve never done before,” Rice says. “All the songs were written on guitar and a depth I haven’t really hit before.”
Go Down Singin‘ was Rice’s first independent project in more than a decade. After spending years on labels, with varying degrees of success, the singer-songwriter was more than ready to make music on his own terms.
“It’s my first release in over 10 years as a fully independent artist,” Rice said when Go Down Singin‘ was released. “All we thought about when making this music was ‘How do we put the very best songs that I’ve got on one album?’ No thoughts of what’s popular right now, or what will work blow up or go viral, simply ‘Who am I and what am I best at?’ It’s got songs about the music industry and what it can do to your soul; it’s got love lost songs. It’s got a song about my dad once again, it’s even got a murder song that might be my favorite song on the album.”
Find all of Rice’s music and upcoming shows at ChaseRice.com.