As a former firefighter, it's easy to think of Tyler Braden as a community-minded guy who isn't afraid of dangerous situations.
That background lends automatic authenticity to “Devil You Know,” a country single with heavy early 2000s rock undertones. The sound is dangerous, as is the message to any listeners who might test the singer's limits: “Don't misunderstand my kindness with weakness.”
“I'm not going to be a person who's going to flip the switch too easily and yell all the time and be angry,” Braden says. “But at the same time, I won't let myself be pressured.”
“Devil You Know” is “the underdog anthem,” says writer-artist Graham Barham, and that's an appropriate kind of song to emerge from the creative crew behind it. Braden is a rising Warner Music Nashville artist, and all four of Warner Chappell's songwriters – Barham, Jon Hall, Zack Dyer and writer-producer Sam Martinez – are experiencing personal milestones with “Devil.”
“We're all underdogs,” notes Barham, a Sony Music Nashville artist. “This is our first song on the radio as writers. And I think this is one of Tyler's best to date. I mean, for that to be the anthem for us is really incredible.”
Barham is actually the artist they were targeting when the four writers met at Warner Chappell in July 2023. None of them brought specific ideas to the meeting, but they knew they wanted to create something dark. Hall leaned into an unsettling chord progression, and Martinez improved it by a hair.
“The last chord in the progression is kind of ambiguous,” Martinez says, noting that it's neither a major nor a minor triad. “It's kind of rock from the '90s and '00s. Like, this one chord in this song is basically suspended and there's no third.”
Martinez layers the sound with a repeating three-note pattern on the acoustic guitar that became a recognizable part of the intro. This hook is never completely resolved, increasing the tension. Barham began singing a melody that would become the chorus, though they still had no words or message.
As they sorted through the concepts, Hall thought the word “devil” fit, and Dyer began scrolling through the titles he had saved on his phone.
I came across this “Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know” [idea],” Dyer recalls. “We had that rhythm thing at the end of it [one] line, and I got confused with different titles at that point. And I said, “What about this idea? It works with some of the lines we're messing with,' and we just went with it.”
At first, they tried to make it a song about choosing between different kinds of alcohol – bourbon, gin, tequila, etc. – to find the devil of choice. But it morphed into a good guy story with quiet strength. “Everybody has their tipping point,” says Hall, “and without it being a fight song, it does a good job of politely saying, 'I'm going to kick your ass if you mess with this side of me.'
They wrote most of the chorus first, promising the listener that “there's a hell on the other side” if the good guy is crucified. With a few lines unfinished in the middle of this chorus, they turned to the opening verse, creating a plot in which the singer owns the image of the quiet hero. But when he entered a melodically soaring pre-chorus, the attitude changed with the melody – that's where they introduced the line “don't mistake my kindness for weakness”.
Unlike most country songs, they featured no “furniture” – no particular element to give a sense of time or place. The closest they got was in verse two, as the protagonist dares the listener: “Come on, pull the trigger/ Try your luck.” Given the menacing tone of the song, it could be mistaken for an actual weapon.
“That's definitely a metaphor,” says Barham. “I have better things to do than kill people.”
“In songwriting,” he adds, “we overdo everything.”
The unfinished verse they had left in the chorus was finally completed at halftime when Hall and Dyer shot hoops on the Warner Chappell basketball court. “This lyric came to me: 'Dare to light that fuse/ 'Cause I can be a loose cannon,'” says Hall.
The fuse and cannon were allegorically lined up, while “fuse” and “loose” established an internal rhyme that indirectly reinforced the gritty nature of the song. “It just adds this new element with the cannon not rhyming,” Hall explains. “It makes it really cool.”
Martinez produced the demo with Barham singing lead and Hall handling most of the harmonies. As they finished the pre-chorus work at Warner Chappell, they collectively agreed that a post-chorus was needed. They settled into a catchy, soaring tune, all singing along. When Martinez finished the demo later, Barham suggested that this section be used in the intro as well, emphasizing the song's darkness.
In October, Braden spent a day listening to outside songs, and “Devil You Know” stood out. He contacted Martinez about recording his voice in Barham's place on the demo to see how it sounded. They booked a date at Nashville's Starstruck Studios and treated it like a master session with Martinez paying attention to every vocal detail. Braden mostly reproduced Barham's melodic nuances, though he brought a smoky rock appeal that replaced Barham's twang.
“It was not [always] my first melodic instinct, so I would do it differently and Sam would stop me because he really liked the original,” says Braden. “It kind of enhanced the subject, and so it took a real focus.”
Martinez was not a complete technician. Braden sang the word “dust” idiosyncratically in the first verse – it sounds like “doost” – and Martinez kept that pronunciation. “He's got an awesome little thing,” Martinez allows. “These are the things that give us much more of an identity.”
Braden's team thought highly of the performance and wanted to tease it on social media. Some of the songwriters were nervous – if it didn't get finished, it was possible no one else would be willing to cut it – but ultimately decided Braden was worth the risk. “He sounds amazing on it,” says Dyer. “Sing his ass. We just say “Let them have it”.
Braden shot a video in what looks like the woods in mid-January. it's actually about 15 feet from his back porch. “A lot of people were like, 'You're copying Oliver Anthony,' I guess because of the beard and the trees,” Braden says with a laugh.
Indeed, many people saw it – that first video has 3.5 million views on TikTok alone – and Warner wanted a master recording for a quick release. Martinez had just over a week to do it. He used Braden's existing vocals, the group vocals from the demo, and about half of the demo's instrumentation, including the repeating three-note guitar hook. He brought in musicians to cut new parts one at a time, starting with fiddler Kyle Pudenz, who infused Cajun spirit into the rock texture.
“Devil You Know” went to digital providers on February 2nd, notching 25.5 million plays on Spotify, and WMN sent it to country radio via PlayMPE on March 26th. It charted at No. 33 on the Hot Country Songs chart on May 25, giving outsiders a song to call their own.
“It was cool to watch people say, 'Hey, that's our anthem,'” Braden notes. “The best part about music in general is that we can all hear the same song and it means something different to each of us.”
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/country/tyler-braden-devil-you-know-makin-tracks-1235693650/