Jake Owen‘s new album American Love is available now! Jake worked on this album in Nashville, but he also recorded music while he was out on the road performing. The liners notes credit backstage dressing in Washington state, California, and Pennsylvania–along with his tour bus as recording places for some of the songs on American Love. Jake says that he was trying to break any molds by the unusual recording spots, but he admits that “you are just being creative out on the road, and all of a sudden you go ‘whoa, we just did something’.” Jake also took a different look at the background singers on this album, “On a lot of records, like I’ve made in the past, after you made the record, you go in with the background singers that you use for the whole record, and every song although they sound different, and they sound great but the background singers are the same. And, I’ve noticed this time around using different just background singers, not necessarily features, but just background singers with unique voices can really make a song sound different.” Chris Stapleton, Stephanie Chapman, and Hillary Lindsey all contributed to songs that gave each one it’s own unique feel. In the end, Jake just wanted to make an album that was really proud of, and American Love accomplished that.
Jake Owen talks about the making of American Love. (:18)
“Recording the album was a big deal for me as I did it while it’s on road backstage, dressing rooms, and when I was back home in studios in Nashville, so I used a couple different producers and produced some things on my own. It was a lot of fun, and it was an album that I’ll always remember the process of making, and now releasing it.”
Jake Owen talks about the recording process for some of the songs on American Love. (:36)
“By no means are we trying to break a mold, or break the system or something. I love the way that music is in Nashville, and the way you can make it, and use amazing musicians, and producers, and things like that. But sometimes it’s fun too, when you are just being creative out on the road, and all of a sudden you go ‘whoa, we just did something’ it kind of surprises you. We did that with ‘Good Company’ and ‘VW Van’ and even ‘When You Love Someone.’ That was another one I produced, which was just really simple, but it took us a while, and in using the guys in the band we were able to…live it on the road, and just try it out, and see what worked.”
Jake Owen talks about the importance of background singers. (:21)
“On a lot of records, like I’ve made in the past, after you made the record, you go in with the background singers that you use for the whole record, and every song although they sound different, and they sound great but the background singers are the same. And, I’ve noticed this time around using different just background singers, not necessarily features, but just background singers with unique voices can really make a song sound different.”
Jake Owen shares the story of the background singers on American Love. (1:38)
“There’s 3 songs on this record specifically that have very unique background vocal attributes. First and foremost ‘If He Ain’t Going To Love You’ is Chris Stapleton singing in the background. And that was really something that started the whole getting a special voice to add to the song, and I think when you listen to that song it’s a unique song in general with the way it sounds but when you hear his voice on it and ours together they’re really cool cause they’re completely different, but he complements me so well as you would complement anyone well but that was the reasoning for that song. Because of that song that spawned when I recorded ‘LAX’ which is a song I wrote that song to me has a very almost Laurel Canyon Drive through California feel 70s Eagles kind of thing, and I always wanted to have a breezy almost ethereal kind of sound in the background of it in, and that’s Stephanie Chapman, Nathan Chapman who wrote that song with me, his wife and we wrote it he’s like ‘you know, my wife would probably sound amazing on this,’ and to me she sounds a lot like Patty Griffin. I loved it the minute I heard it, so we kept her on the record. On…I said 3 songs, actually 4, ‘When You Love Someone’ and ‘Where I Am’ is Hillary Lindsey she sang on both of those songs and really added just a flavor it’s almost like taking, we took a great piece of meat and we just were able to add some really good marinating to it (laugh) and it just made the whole meal that much better.”