“I Want to Write the Real Stuff:” Tanner Usrey Discusses the Highs and Lows of His Most Personal Project Yet

In the depths of his new album, that place where sordid secrets and hard truths so often get sandwiched in between light ballads and breezy bops, Tanner Usrey makes a confession.

"A heart like mine is a hard one to love,” the singer-songwriter discloses underneath the sharp chill of ivory and steel, “'Cause I've gotten real damn good / At really fucking things all up / Now I'm fighting demons in the dark / I don't know where I should start / Oh Lord, I'm spiraling again.”

‘These Days’, the song – part desperate plea, part sobering vow – for which his latest collection takes its name, came to be during a low point for the ‘Come Back Down’ artist.

“I hadn’t been writing,” Usrey tells Holler. “I was kind of struggling mentally.”

At the time the title track was born, he had been up all night, unable to shake the negative headspace he was in, when it all–quite literally–dawned on him. As he explains, “I saw the sun come up, and I was like, ‘Well, I guess I made it to another day.’ Sometimes that's all you can do. That's kind of what I wanted the message to be: you gotta count every day as a win.”

From that point on, Usrey committed to crafting his most personal project to date. These Days, his sophomore album and the follow-up to his 2023 success, Crossing Lines, is a 10-track menagerie, housing and putting on full-display all that the artist is and all he hopes to be.

“I've always been a proponent of putting it all out there,” he says. “It's not veiled with me–you get what you get. I've always wanted to put the best songs that I can out there, and that's always what I've done. I want to write the real stuff. I think we nailed it with this one.”

Not only is the collection vulnerable and exposing, traversing topics like mental health struggles and relationship strains, it makes for one hell of a barn-burner. Usrey flexes hot southern rock licks, mournful blues riffs and an unquenchable cowpunk intensity throughout, weaving together a sound that he’s been striving for since the beginning.

“This is the sound that I've always wanted to go for,” he shares, reflecting on the growth he’s experienced since his debut. “I feel like I haven't had an album so well-rounded until this one."

These Days, as it turns out, would be one of many more firsts–a first with the lauded Dave Cobb at the helm, a first working with studio musicians and inside the walls of iconic locales like RCA’s Studio A, a first diving fearlessly into what it is he wanted to say.

“I wanted to make a record that sounds like me,” he adds of his new album, ultimately saying, “It's kind of my ‘This is me. Here I am. Take it or leave it’ moment.”

In addition to detailing his latest album, Tanner Usrey touched on touring the upcoming collection, discussed working with producer Dave Cobb for the release, as well as described those moments in which he feels like he’s “made it”:

“I was writing for the next record, and I knew I wanted it to be Dave Cobb. He had done some mixing for me on the Crossing Lines record. I sent him a few demos. I think it was like, ‘Fourth of July’, and I sent him ‘These Days’. He was like, ‘Yeah, absolutely, let's do this,’ and somehow we made it happen with the label and him.

“Part of the reason I went to Dave is because he does a great job with voices. I mean, [Chris] Stapleton and The [Red Clay] Strays, too. He's always done that, and that's what I wanted to do.”

“It's a tough set to sing now, but I think this record does a really good job of showcasing my voice… I feel like, I don't know if this is cocky, but I think people forget that I'm a singer and I've got a big voice.

“People aren't gonna realize that until they come to a show, and I think this record does a really good job of capturing the show energy.”

“I was listening to a lot of Jason Isbell, which sounds cliche because I was with Dave Cobb. Me and Dave were both like, ‘This needs to be like an Allman Brothers-sounding record,’ and so there's some songs like that. Then Lynyrd Skynyrd, obviously. But I was listening to a lot of Drive-By Truckers, as well, so just all over the place.

“Like with ‘Gasoline and Adderall’, I was like, ‘I want this to be a Drive-By Truckers song, but Tanner Usrey.’”

“I love singing them. They're fun songs to sing and perform. They're powerful. ‘Don’t Let Go (Hold Me Close)’ has become one of my favorite songs to sing, just because it's such a powerful moment in the set. ‘With You’ is the same way.

“I think people are really resonating with [these songs]. ‘These Days’, as well, like, people will tell me that they were struggling too, and that song helped them out. That's all I can ask for.”

“Honestly, it's every time I step on a stage and people are there, singing back to me. I know that sounds small, but it's not.

"I feel like everybody pushes the social media thing big time, with artists chasing that viral moment; but in the past few weeks, I have taken a step back and realized, hey, that moment happens every time you step on stage, and every time you get to play music in front of people. That's when that moment is.”

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