Griffen Palmer’s debut Unlearn album is out. The ten-track record, co-written entirely by Palmer, is a deeply personal look at his own life, sharing stories he feels certain others will relate to as well.

“It’s little vignettes of what it’s like to be young and growing up and finding yourself and meeting new people, falling in love and falling out of love,” Palmer tells Everything Nash. “I tried with every song to make it a little snapshot of a period at least of life that I went through and hopefully that other people went through as well.”

The Ontario native knew early on that he wanted to write all the tracks on Unlearn, but wasn’t certain he would be able to accomplish the task. Fortunately, thanks to years of writing, even before his record deal, Palmer had more than enough tracks to choose from.

“I hoped to,” Palmer shares, when asked if writing all of the songs was his initial goal. “When you’re writing for your record, you hope that all the songs that you write are good enough for the right ones to make it on the project. But after four years of writing we had like 150, 200 songs to pick through, and these were just the ones that we all agreed made sense for the record. And so, I’m really proud that I wrote everything on it. But that was what I hoped would happen, and not necessarily what I knew would happen.”

Palmer’s path to country music, like most artists, is a bit of a winding road. The former athlete was in college when he began slowly building his career, unaware in the beginning just how far his talent was going to take him.

“The first time I moved to the states from Canada was to play rugby at Bowling Green State University in Ohio,” Palmer explains. “I needed to learn how to make some money to stay in school, or else I’d have to move home. So, I took a USB of me singing to a bunch of bars around the college town, and most of them said no, but one of them said yes because the bartender said that his girlfriend really liked it. So she bartended on Thursdays, so that meant I could play on Thursdays when she was working.”

Once Palmer started playing around town, he quickly gained more and more gigs, which gave him the confidence boost he needed to keep pursuing music. After meeting hit songwriter Geoff Warburton at a house party in his hometown, Palmer was able to make the switch to pursue music full-time.

“He connected some dots after he heard some of my songs,” Palmer says. “Fast forward, I signed with Big Loud, moved to Nashville a few months later, and ever since then, it’s just been full pedal to the floor, just charging into this music thing. It’s been very wild.”

Palmer’s single, “Second Guessing,” is out now. The song boasts an impressive list of writers, including Tyler Hubbard, Brian Kelley, Shane McAnally, Ryan Tedder and more. As the song climbs the charts, and Palmer continues to gain popularity, the rising star is excited for all of the opportunities that he keeps getting, ready to work harder than ever before.

“It’s just all a bunch of new things,” Palmer says. “A lot of the stuff I’m doing now is stuff I’ve never done before, so I’m kind of wide-eyed and excited to just experience it all. It’s kind of nerve-wracking, but also very exciting and cool. I just want people to experience this all with me, because I’m new to this too.”

Find Unlearn at GriffenPalmer.com.

Unlearn Track List

1. Second Guessing (Griffen Palmer, Corey Crowder, Ester Dean, Andrew DeRoberts, Tyler Hubbard, Brian Kelley, Shane McAnally, Ben Simonetti, Ryan Tedder, Geoff Warburton)
2. 25 To Life (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
3. Unlearn (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
4. Put Me Through Hello (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
5. By The Way (Griffen Palmer, Jordan Reynolds, Geoff Warburton)
6. Small Town After All (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
7. Came Here To Leave (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
8. Late To The Party (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
9. How Many Beers (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)
10. Bottles On The Table (Griffen Palmer, Geoff Warburton)