Spencer Crandall‘s ambitious Western album is out now. The 20-track record features 18 songs co-written by Crandall, along with covers of both Shania Twain‘s “Still the One” and Justin Bieber’s “Anyone.” The album showcases Crandall’s eclectic taste of music, which he brought together for one cohesive, and personal, project.
“I’m such a fan of music and that’s why I got into it,” Crandall tells Everything Nash. “And so I’ve always gravitated towards artists who are telling a bigger story than just a song or an EP, or even an album that’s just kind of random songs. My manager and I, a year or two ago were like, ‘What do we wanna say, and how do we make something that would blow us away?’ As fans, I think our artist brain and our fan brain can get kind of mismatched, and I always wanna treat my fans with the utmost respect and make them something that I’m blown away by. That’s the only way I think it will actually work.”
The Colorado native listens to a wide range of music for inspiration when he writes and records. But his biggest test for what he releases is himself, and the music he likes to hear.
“If I don’t want to listen to it, why should somebody else listen to it? ” he reflects. “And if I’m not blown away by the concept of my record, why should somebody else be blown away by the concept of my record? I think every good album should answer, ‘Where are you from, where are you now, and where are you going?’ We all have a journey in this life to go, ‘If I could do anything with my one chance here on earth, what would that be?'”
Crandall comes by the stories he tries to tell in his music honestly. It’s his own heritage that has served as his biggest inspiration, both in his music and his life.
“I come from a long line of people, on all sides of all my grandparents,” Crandall shares. “They all did the actual old-school Western journey. They all got over to Colorado from the coal mines of West Virginia, the haulers of Kentucky all over the nation. And they looked at each other and said, ‘There has to be a better life. There has to be something more than this right now.’ And with no Plan B and with conviction to better their lives, they literally moved everything. They risked everything to chase their dream and to chase a better life and are chasing a life well lived. My grandma tells a story about her aunt who got the news that they were moving out west and she just broke down in tears, and she said, ‘I knew there had to be a better way to live life.’ That story is really inspiring to me.”
The irony isn’t lost on Crandall that he moved east, from Denver to Nashville, to chase his dream, telling his story in an album called Western. But it’s the mindset of following your heart and your passion that inspired all of the songs on the album.
“I think everybody has a version of Western and everybody has this daunting, physical, visceral experience of life, and trying to find who they are and what they wanna do,” explains the singer. “I think what I’m really proud of about this album is I could have very easily made the Disney version where it’s like, ‘Shoot for the stars and it’s all easy and life’s what you make it. It’s about the climb.’ That’s not my reality. I struggle with anxiety and addiction, falling into bad habits, going back to people that I shouldn’t, and allowing people to stay too long in my life. All these things I’m really honest about in this project.
“I just wanted to be real,” he continues. “I wanted to be real with my fans, ’cause that’s the only way that I’ve been impacted by music, is when people kind of show me their diary and their heart and I go, ‘Oh my gosh, I feel that too.’ That was my goal. I set out to tell my story about my journey … My journey is your journey is everyone’s journey. We all have this thing that is calling us to a better version of ourselves. And so that’s what Western is.”
Crandall is currently on his Western Tour. Find all of Crandall’s music and upcoming shows at SpencerCrandallMusic.com.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of OH Creative / Nina Long