BY LESLEY HASTINGS

I can’t believe it’s well over 18 months since I chatted to rising country artist Greylan James. He was playing his first shows outside the states, performing at 2024’s C2C festival, and since then his career has gone from strength to strength. Continuing his success as a songwriter with cuts this year by established artists including Morgan Wallen, HARDY, Cole Swindell and Blake Shelton, he is also carving a name as a recording artist in his own right and has most recently released a series of four very personal songs inspired by a breakup which began with the jaw-dropping viral hit “Water At A Wedding” and came to an end last week with “Hold It Down (The After Demo )”.

In addition, he has been busy playing shows Stateside, including joining Cole Swindell on his “Happy Hour Sad” tour. 

Plenty to talk about then when he joined me over zoom from his home in Nashville ……..how were things with him? 

“Pretty good, it’s early over here but I’m waking up, got my coffee working so I’m having a good time!”

And looking back to Greylan’s shows here for C2C, how was the experience for him? 

“It was definitely a core memory for me. I saw other people who’d nurtured that fan base over there, like Kane Brown who I saw play the O2, and I asked him how he did it and he said you’ve just got to keep coming back and show them you care and they’ll be fans for life. So I called my booking agent and said want to come back as much as possible! You guys just really care about what I care about in country music, hearing the stories and the soul that goes into our genre. I’ve never heard a crowd be so attentive in such a chaotic environment before! You could hear a pin drop when I was talking and even when I was singing which was incredible, but then those same people would go shut down a pub afterwards and be rowdy as hell!”

Fast forward to Greylan’s most current music, and the story that’s  had us all invested in recent months . I was picturing what Greylan’s must have been going through at that wedding and wondered amid all the turmoil when his songwriting brain kicked in ? 

“I think immediately! For a lot of us songwriters music is therapy and it was really as simple as just sitting down with a cheap guitar in my living room and I just freestyled a little bit of it. I wrote it with two really close friends of mine, took the story into them and said I think this needs a song. I actually wrote ‘Next Thing You Know’ with one of the same guys (Chase McGill) and both were kind of a bold take on a story. So we chased it down and it was one of those we knew would be a shocking song tho I didn’t think anyone would ever hear it . But it was a song that got me through a lot of tough times over the months,I’d find myself walking around the house singing it and I thought maybe it’s time for me to put it out!” 

So was it fans reactions to this song that lead to the other three in the series being written….or were they already in existence ? 

“Yeah, I wrote them all in the same period of a few months, so I kind of wanted to put them out exactly as I was going through it. The entire roll out has been therapy because at that time I was keeping everything to myself.  So I wanted to do the opposite and by putting the songs out I was putting everything out there after I’d kept it internalised for so long. Just seeing how fans were there for me was crazy for me.” 

I’d noticed that of the series of four song two were solo writes and two co-writes…..did that mean that the subjects tackled in the two he wrote alone were easier to put down in words? Or doesn’t his writing methods work like that?

“I think that with “Give Me A Second” and “Hold It Down” specifically they were songs I wrote in the same few days. “Give Me A Second” was like word vomit, I had to go back and tweak it to make it more listener friendly cos it was very specific, just what I wanted to say to her but I knew she wouldn’t listen to me on the phone, the song means a lot to me and to her. And then with “Hold It Down”, ever since “Water At A Wedding” came out I knew I wanted to close things out with that one but I was just really busy cos “Water At A Wedding” just took off so fast….I think I’ve been home just 10 days since September….and my label wanted to put that song out in December but I knew I wanted to make a few tweaks but didn’t have time so I texted one of my favourite writers in Nashville (Blake Pendergrass) he’s on every Morgan Wallen song you can think of but also knows me on a personal level, and I sent him a text a mile long saying these are the tweaks I want to make….he sent me an updated version and I was like shit, that’s it! So it was a fun experience! I like to write songs by myself but I don’t get to do it that much anymore”.

I love how the arrangements on all four tracks are stripped back to put the focus on the lyrics despite all being very different. As co-producer was that something Greylan was keen to do?

“Yeah, I think I always lean that way when it comes to production. I actually learned that trick from Kenny Chesney, he’s a guy who’s always had the vocals very loud in the mix, with everything else sitting under it. It really gives you the chance to hear the story and so I always took that advice and applied it to my own work. But also with these songs they were super low budget cos I wanted to get them out fast ! I started all these productions upstairs in my house with a bottle of white wine in a 4-5 hour sitting. And having close friends to rely on to take my emotional bias out of it and make it better, which is what Jason Massey and Ted Jensen did, I couldn’t have done it without them and they made them sound listenable. I think mine would have been more, um, ‘artistic‘ (laughs) they definitely took it to the next level and put a bit more commercial pizazz on it”. 

“Hold it Down” had only been out a few days when we spoke, it didn’t really give fans ALL the answers they were going for I felt….what has the reaction been like ? 

“Yeah it’s been a crazy reaction, I thought it was kinda going to be a sleepy release! I never know how much people really care, even after ‘Water At A Wedding’ I’m not sure how people are watching my stuff. I think that’s just the constant creative insecurities! When I posted about the song coming out it went viraI ! I think what I’ve tried to say is that for a lot of people it’s never over in relationships, and I think you see a lot of people being comfortable with talking about that on social media. I’ve taken a different journey in my personal life, I’ve put my business as my first love and I chased that first, so I think about the ‘what ifs’, I put myself through a lot of creative torture. I wanted to tell that story with these song, and with ‘Hold it Down’ it’s been a way to say I’d it think it’s ever over but right now we’re figuring shit out”. 

I wanted to know how Greylan has found the transition from being an in demand songwriter in Nashville a few years ago to an artist in his own right? And was that always the game plan when he moved there?

“Yes, that was always the plan. It wasn’t a great plan (laughs), when I moved to Nashville I was really awoken I guess cos the songs I was writing about the girl I was dating back in high school were terrible songs! I knew I had to get better immediately cos I was hearing other people’s songs and thinking ‘damn, that’s how you write a song’! I thought I was going to get her, get off the bus and go straight to the Grand Ole Opry!  I hate being bad at something it drives me crazy, I’m uber competitive so I just locked myself in my room and started writing songs every single day, studying lyrics, chord progressions, productions…..doing everything I could to be better. And before I knew it I was just in love with the grind, obsessed with getting people to like my songs. I lost two publishing deals along the way which basically means I was fired for being terrible. And then I finally got the one that changed everything for me, and people started recording my songs. So I thought’ well this is pretty sick’ and I kinda forgot about the whole touring thing, I was so infatuated with getting better as a songwriter. But then coming out of Covid (I had my first success as a songwriter during Covid when there was no touring, no way of getting jealous) in 2021/22 I started seeing my songs being played live and I was like oh man that’s crazy seeing this group of people sing my words, that’s sick, bit what if I was up there? So I just got the bug again, I think that’s what God put me on this earth to do, what I’d  dreamed of doing was not just to write the songs but to sing them too. Since then the transition has been a bit easier, I think people expect, especially now after putting out songs that are super personal to me and seeing the reaction. Those songs would never have come out of I didn’t sing them. So just that fact makes me really inspired to keep putting out music too”.

That’s great. 

Oh we’re running out of time so just briefly, I know Cole Swindell has been a constant throughout your time in Nashville, as co-writer/friend/touring partner …..did you get to sing any or your co-writes/cuts on stage with him?

“Yeah it was hard to pick which ones we wanted to sing together! I’ve been really blessed to have 5-6 songs recorded by Cole, we had a #1 this year with ‘Forever To Me’, but man it’s really crazy to think that Cole Swindell is a close friend of mine cos when I was in high school and fresh to Nashville he was the guy I wanted to sound like, how he portrays music” 

A full circle moment then. And I gather you play golf together?

“I watch him play golf…!! He’s a good golfer, I just try to hang in there. But I don’t know if I’d be even speaking to you guys if it wasn’t for Cole Swindell, he made me feel confident in my voice and he’s been a big part of why I’ve been out there touring and I’m forever thankful to him” 

So, looking forward to next year…..what on the cards for 2026? Album, more singles, a return to UK?

“Absolutely an album. I’m really pushing for a return to the UK for sure. If you guys show up, we’ll be there”. 

Of course we will. Have a fantastic Christmas and thanks again for your time today. Hope to see you again in person soon, keep doing what you’re doing.

“Thank you, Lesley.” 

More artist information herehttps://www.greylanjames.com/