American Love, the brand new album from Jake Owen, featuring the top-10 hit “American Country Love Song” arrives in stores and online this Friday! A lot happened in Jake’s life during the making of this album. Jake admits that a lot more life events have happened over the last 5 years of his career, than happened over the first 5. Being 10 years and 5 album in, Jake understands the importance of creating music that has a special connection to his fans–and he looks for songs that might have a message to include on his albums, like “Everybody Dies Young.” American Love is also a first for Jake as he co-produced 3 songs on the album with his guitar player Lukas Bracewell. (“VW Van,” “When You Love Someone,” and “Good Company”). Jake says that every part of this album fits together in a special way–and it all started with his single “American Country Love Song,” and buying his own classic VW Van which he then drove from Nashville to Key West. That road trip not only became the video for “American Country Love Song” but much of the album art for American Love was capture on that trip–including the album’s cover that features Jake sitting in that very same VW Van. In the end Jake compares all the elements of the album to the pieces of a puzzle that come together to make a pretty picture, and for him, that’s what American Love is, and he is really excited for fans to get their hands on it this Friday. For more info on American love head on over to Jake Owen dot net, or just click HERE
Jake Owen talks about taking on the roll of co-producer on 3 songs on his new album American Love. (:34)
“I’ve always been really involved in the way I want to my music to sound, and I’ve always kind of felt like in a way I was partly producing my own music, but I never felt it was the right moment to take credit for it. But this time round, I did spend a lot of time on the road with the guys in my band, and Lukas Bracewell, who’s the co-producer with me on these songs, my guitar player in the band, and we felt like all the work we put into it, and the time and effort, it was really big deal for us to stamp our name on there as something we created. It’s a big deal to me, I am definitely excited about the fact that I had a hand in that.”
Jake Owen shares that it’s important to him to include songs on his album that have a message. (:30)
“I think it’s important to always give people songs where they can related to their own lives and feel good about what you’re listening to take something away from it. Maybe take a message away maybe a little little bit more, that’s why think ‘Everybody Dies Young’ is an important song on my record because it’s the truth. We’re all going to die and eventually you know it’s something you want to talk about but when we do, no matter what the age is, this is our moment here, this is our moment in the sun and you want to make the most of it so I like singing songs that have messages like that.”
Jake Owen admits that his life experiences are starting to be reflected in the music he makes. (:34)
“Whether it’s losing someone in life, whether it’s watching someone go through something, whether it’s going through heartbreak, whether it’s going through excitement having a child…there been many instances in my life that I’ve dealt with in the last five years that I didn’t deal with the first five years of my career, so I’ve changed a lot in understanding how to process situations and how to handle myself, and how to be very consistently even keeled, and just kind of calm because of that it’s now starting to show through my music.”
Jake Owen talks about how all the different elements feel in line to make an album he’s really proud of. (:58)
“When you look on the liner notes, it’ll show you…it says ‘recorded in backstage dressing room in Puyallup Washington’ and it’s 2016 is a different year and you’re able to do that now. So, feeling like I got to work with great producers like Ross (Copperman) and Shane (McAnally) was great, feeling like I got to go out on my own and do things on my own is great, feeling I got to take a bus trip down, and make the video, and then use that bus trip, and ending up in Key West to do the packaging so everything matches up…this is just a very well thought out process for me because I have the time. It’s all very seamlessly fit together perfectly like taking all the puzzle pieces and making a new pretty picture and I think that’s why I’ll see once again the end of this whole deal I can walk away from it saying all the pieces that I wanted to happen, happened put them all together in this album and I can comfortably walk away from it and say ‘I really excited about this.’ I feel really good about it.”