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Keith Urban joins Kyle Meredith to talk about the journey behind his latest album, Highwhich is due out on September 20th. The country icon goes deep on the record and her live shows, so listen to it above or Wherever you get your podcasts.
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With this new album, which is his twelfth full-length effort, Urban reflects on the challenges of keeping his music fresh after decades of success. He reveals that he even scrapped a conceptual project called 615 Before working on Highexplaining, “I thought about giving myself some kind of framework… but I found that it was limiting.” The solution? Throw it away. “I cut out four songs and started over.”
One of the standout tracks on the new LP, “Laughing All the Way to the Drink,” emerged from a jam session with his drummer and producer Mike Elizondo, and Urban credits the live energy with bringing the song to life: “That song is a three-piece band just jamming.” He regularly pursues that “live” vibe, even when he dives into unexpected covers on his social media, like “We Can’t Be Friends (Wait For Your Love)” by Ariana Grande “I heard his song and I didn’t even know what he was saying, but it gave me chills,” Urban says, referencing the magic of a perfect pop song.
Urban’s influences may run deeper than you might expect from a country icon; he credits Jeff Lynne’s ELO as a major influence on his songwriting. “ELO was like my Beatles,” he says, noting that his parents didn’t own any Fab Four records, so he turned to Lynne for his crash course in melodic pop. He’s also enjoyed Robert Palmer, particularly the minimalist grooves on tracks like “Johnny and Mary,” which has hypnotic beats that Urban says are “almost like Kraftwerk.”
Listen to Keith Urban speak High and all this above, or watch the interview below. Keep up to date with the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith with… on your favorite podcast platform; Also, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
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