 Courtesy of the Artist's Facebook -Tara Originally from Kentucky, Nashville-based singer-songwriter Erik Dylan has had cuts by many country mainstays including Kip Moore, Eli Young Band, Eric Paslay ("Angels in this Town") and Justin Moore ("Put Me in a Box"). Additionally, he shared the stage with some of the biggest names in music, including Reckless Kelly, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Emmylou Harris, and Rodney Crowell. On October 21st, Dylan released his first full-length album, Heart of A Flatland Boy , a stellar ten-track project that centers around life in small towns. During some down time before a writing session, Dylan graciously called to speak in depth about the album, it's stunning artwork and more. In addition to penning songs for others, you have released an EP as well as some singles, but Heart of A Flatland Boy is your first full-length project. Why was now the right time to release it? Brett James produced my first EP and the sound on it went straight down the middle – which I was happy with, but I also knew in my heart that it wasn’t where I truly wanted to be. So, I spent the last three years really focused on this record, knowing in my head what I wanted it to be like, but not really being able to explain it to anyone else. I had been writing with Guy Clark during that time [Clark passed earlier in 2016] and I asked him how I could release the type of music I wanted to and still garner fans. Guy responded that a satchel full of good songs and some patrons are all you really need - and so that’s how I approached the record. I've heard your previous releases, but still didn't know what to expect from the record; and on first listen, I absolutely loved it, not only for the songwriting, but also in large part because of the strong Texas component to it. There’s a lot of Texas in there because I’m influenced by a lot of Texas music, like Steve Earle, Reckless Kelly, and Guy Clark. But I also really love what Steve Albini did with Nirvana, so there’s some of that Seattle influence in there too. I don’t know where the record’s going to land genre wise, but I’m not too scared of that because I think it can stand on its own…and hopefully, will find its place somewhere.  Good music tends to find a way to people these days.
You wrote the entire record with a core group of songwriters. There are only seven songwriters on the whole record, which is pretty amazing by Nashville standards. I wrote the core of the record with Randy Montana, Jake Mitchell and Doug Waterman. I wrote “Astronaut” with Driver [Williams, of Eric Church Band], “Pink Flamingos” with Adam James and “Girl That Got Away” with Westin Davis. Some of these songs are new and some had been written four years ago when I had my first publishing deal. I whittled the list down to ten to make a record that would reflect who I am, where I’m from and kind of where I’m going too. It’s a very raw record. We didn’t go in and try to make everything sparkle at the end; I wanted it to be a good reflection of what I sound like live and what it is, is a 100% me. It's a personal record, but there's also a theme that carries through the entire collection as well. Was that intentional? You know, sometimes we turn country life into a caricature of what it really is and I wanted to talk about the stuff in between the parties - what real life is. I wanted the record to reflect what living in a small town in the Midwest, where I'm from, is like. I thought it was important to start the record out with a bang with “Flatland Boy.” The songs is a middle class anthem that mixes a bit of anger with hope. The blue collar working class are people I grew up with and know. Even though it always seems like they’re the ones who get screwed in a bad economy or whatever, they have a resilience about them. They keep their heads up and work hard, and this is a song for them. The small town theme concludes with the closer, “Map Dot Town,” another standout track. Is there a story behind the song? “Map Dot Town” is a great snapshot of me, where I’m from and the people I’ve known. All of the lines are about different people from the past – some of whom are probably still living in that town. I wanted to be real with that song - living in a small town is not all good and it’s not all bad, but there’s something amazing about it. It’s hard to explain unless you’ve grown up in one, but the amazing thing about that tune is when I play it on the road, every town, for the people there that night, is their map dot town. That’s something I didn’t realize when I wrote it because when I wrote the song I didn’t think outside my circle - I was focused on exactly where I was from. That song is extremely close to my heart and it was very important to release that song the way Jake and I wrote it – stripped down to the brass tacks, just one guitar and one vocal. When I play a song like that and it touches someone – it’s pretty amazing. Being that the album is obviously quite personal, are you surprised at how the songs are so realtable to the listener? My goal as a songwriter is to make someone feel something and I try really hard to write songs that the listener can relate to. Take “Fishing Alone.” I never have a night when I play that song and someone doesn’t come up to me at the merch booth and tell me about how that song reminds them of someone or made them call someone they love. And to me, that makes all the difference in the world. I’ve always been less about the party and more about life in songs and I guess that comes back to the writers I grew up with who influenced me. I really want to leave something here on earth that I’m proud of that maybe means something to somebody. One other song I wanted to ask about and that is “Astronaut.” Sonically it’s so different from the rest of the record, but it’s one of my current favorites. That song is so funny. We didn’t have any idea what to write when we came into the writer’s room, but everywhere you look on Music Row it seems like there’s construction, and across the street from the building we were in a building is going up. During the day, there’s a guy using a jackhammer and all of the other writers in the building would come to our room and complain about this guy, and how rude it is to hear the jackhammer all day. It dawned on me that, man, we write about our feelings all day and that guy’s on a jackhammer all day…which job would you rather have? That guy probably can’t feel his hands because he’s been on a jackhammer for six hours, so we decided to write one for him that day. It’s a beautiful thing when Driver, Randy and I write together because we might not know where it comes from, but we know it works and that’s why we keep doing it. Switching gears from the songs to the album artwork - it is stunning and captures much of what is heard on the record. Susan Buck, who is a retired schoolteacher from my hometown, painted the cover. I sent her the music after we got the rough tracks to the record and I said, “Susan paint what you see.” I had no idea what she was going to do and she came up with the cover, which was perfect. She put elements of the whole record on there that truly set a visual theme with the record that I couldn’t do myself. She's amazing. I’ve never been one to sit on a tailgate smiling with my thumb up - nothing against that, I know a lot of people like to see the artist on the cover, but I’ve always been into bands that had such cool album artwork, like The Byrds and Steve Earle. So one thing I’d like to continue to do as an artist is spotlight visual artists with anything I do whether it is with video, or artwork, or something else. By doing that, hopefully the person who buys my record, will go and check out Susan Bucks’ work as well. That's a fabulous idea. I know there are many music lovers out there who appreciate beautifully done album packaging. Finally, I always love to know if there is one recent release that you cannot stop listening to and would recommend people check out? The release stuck in my playlist is American Aquarium’s Burn.Flicker.Die. That album perfectly explains to me what life was like in a band on the road for him for that many years and the pain of grinding it out every day. I'm also listening to the new Sturgill record quite a bit, but most of the stuff I listen to is older. I’m really into bands like Steve Earle and The Dukes and BR-549 - they should have been a household name, but like a lot of great art, it doesn’t happen that way. For more information visit his official website Find him on Facebook, Twitter and Spotify Purchase Heart of a Flatland Boy here
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