We had the pleasure of sitting down with the awesome Elvie Shane last week to chat about his latest album, his touring plans for the year and the state of country music. Check it out below!

How would you describe your sound?

With Damascus I was dead set on not having a specific sound, I just wanted to create a record that was very diverse. Each song way recorded in a way that catered to the song and the lyrical content as much as possible. I grew up listening to a lot of heartland rock; a lot of Steve Earl, Bruce Springsteen. So message wise my inspiration comes from them, but sonically my producer is a huge Black Keys, White Stripes, Alabama Shakes, so we managed to incorporate a lot of that. We also enjoy a lot of lo-fi and hip-hop, so we got to implement a lot of that into this record.

I would just say that my sound is honest. It’s a sound that is true to each song. Whether it sounds like honky tonk or gospel or rock or R&B… the whole goal is to evoke some kind of emotion from the song, so whatever caters to that!

What would you say about the state of country music at the minute?

It’s beautiful chaos. I’m not a fan of all of it, but I’m a fan people being able to come in and do whatever. I think the days of genres are coming to an end; we are all melting pots this day and age with music. We have grown up listening to so much. The country sound was the country sound because it was just being developed. Same with rock. A lot of people my generation and younger, we’ve been listening to all of this stuff and we come from so many different places of the world, there’s so much to draw from. So you can have Zach Bryan on one side, Shaboozey on the other. You can do what you want to. Music City is officially Music City and not just Country Music City. Some people hate that, I really couldn’t give a shit. I just want people to live their live and create, to do what they love and have a good time doing it. Of course I have my knee-jerk reaction sometimes when I hear stuff. But in then end we’re all trying to do the same thing; we wanna sing and write songs and do what we love, and kudos to anyone who’s doing that!

The album came out a couple of months ago now, what’s it been like to see the reception to it?

I think it’s been much better received than my original record. Backslider; I’m very proud of that record, but it was very bright eyed and bushy tailed, life was going really good when I was making that record, while with Damascus it was going much more normal. I don’t know what people were thinking truly, but I do believe my overall theme for the record was the struggle that I see in the world. I think that a lot of people are struggling, a lot of people are pissed off, and I just want them to know that someone sees what’s going on and wants to talk about it.

With Backslider everyone was really excited for a little while and then it went away. With Damascus it seems like the longer it’s out the more people start to talk about it.

Did that understand of people’s struggles play into the album title?

Yeah, Damascus is obviously the story from the bible with the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus is where the idea originally came from. I had no idea where I was going after that original record. I’d done everything I’d ever dreamt of. I got a record deal, a number one, my life was in this amazing place that I wasn’t familiar with. But with Damascus, the first two songs that we wrote for it were ‘Baptized’ and ‘Forgotten Man’, which are two very different ideas and different sounding songs. I was like, how in the world do I put this all on the same record. So the idea of Damascus steal came to me. You’ve probably seen the kitchen knives made out of it with all these black lines in them. The way they’re made is you take all these different types of steel, you throw them in a forge together and beat it together, and all those lines are the different layers of metal. And it creates a really strong metal and really beautiful knife blade.

So I thought what if I approach this album like I’m making a knife, and I’ll listen to as much Mac Miller, as much Johnny Cash, Foo Fighters and Alabama Shakes as I can. I’ll use all of that as my metal and create a Damascus knife and hope that it cuts deep. That was the plan and I feel like it came together!

What was it like working with Little Big Town and Jenna McClelland?

So Jenna is actually an old friend of mine who is probably the most amazing female vocalist I’ve ever heard in my life. She lives down in Alabama and doing the bar scene and putting her music out, but she also came on the road with me for about a year singing backing vocals. So I was in Alabama, at a beach house on a writers retreat, when I wrote ‘Jonesin’’. So I called her as she was like an hour away to come and sit in on it!

And then with Little Big Town, the day we wrote that song I’d listened to ‘Boondocks’ on the way to this writers retreat. So I had it in my head and wrote that song. And while we were writing I got a little drunk and looked up at the guys and said ‘I’m gonna have Little Big Town record on this track with me’. They just looked at me and laughed. Well, when we got done I got on Instagram and sent a Karen Fairchild a video of us just jamming the song and was like ‘Hey, I listened to Boondocks today, thanks for the inspiration!’. And then about 20 minutes later I had some more shots and went back and sent ‘fuck that, what I actually meant was if you like this, it would be really cool if you guys sing on it with me’. The next morning I woke up to a message from her saying ‘we love it, let’s do it’.

They’re so awesome to work with, they’re such good people. They’ve not forgot where they came from. They worked very hard to make sure the song got what it needed. We actually ran out of time because they were working so hard on the background vocals. I didn’t get to feature them on a main part. But it came together really well. I love the contrast of their smooth, beautiful harmonies with whatever the hell this raspy thing I’ve got going on is!

It’s certainly a highlight of the album!

I wasn’t feeling the song that much at first. Then my buddy, Adam Wood, says what if we go ‘I’m tired of coming in last’. I was like ‘hell yeah, I agree with that shit!’. I’m putting in a first place effort every day. We had come first with ‘My Boy’ off the first record, we got to ring the bell which was amazing. But after that it was like I was forgot about, you know? I was the dog that got kicked out the house and lives in the yard now. I’d grown frustrated, and when he said that line I felt that way, and I know the guy swinging the hammer or turning the wrench does too. So we brought it to life and I’m glad to have it on the record. That song is also my tip of the hat to country music.

I imagine you’re writing some stuff again already, too?

I have no earthly idea what I’m doing next. I’ve been writing a little bit, but I don’t wanna be. When Backslider came out I couldn’t wait to write more as I felt like I hadn’t said it all. With Damascus, I feel like I finally created the record I always wanted to, and said what I wanted to say. So now, I’m toying with the idea of maybe doing a more R&B/soul record. I’m never going to try to put out the same record twice. I don’t want to do that. I just wanna explore all the things in music that have inspired me. One thing I’m not really great at is writing love songs. So I’m interested in trying to approach that with the next project. I’m lost right now, I don’t know what to do.

I might just do the reverse Jelly Roll and put out a hip-hop record! Can you hear my ass rapping?!

You’ve got a fair few dates planned for the rest of the year now, right?

Yeah, I mean, I’ll take more if they’ll come. We’ve got some shows with Brothers Osborne, Miranda Lambert, Travis Tritt, Midland. We wanna come back over y’all’s way. Last year I broke my ankle a week before I was supposed to fly out there, so hopefully they’re not too gun-shy to invite me back! It’d be cool to get back out to you guys.

But yeah, we’re just out here grinding. Just trying to spread the word and spread the music. Keep gaining new fans. I’m doing it like Noah’s Arc baby, two by two, come on in!