A Conversation with Chase Rice – HuffPost 7.28.14

Mike Ragogna: Chase, let’s start with your involvement in the Snagajob contest. How did that come about?

Chase Rice: Yeah, we teamed up and we’re going to give somebody the opportunity to open for me later this year in Denver. They’ve got to basically do a version of one of their original songs, submit the video and then the judges decide who the top five are. Then on August 22 we announce who the top five are and then the fans vote. They say who they think the number one person is and that person gets to open for me in Denver to a sold-out crowd, and it gives them the opportunity to break into the music business.

MR: What will the opening act spot be like?

CR: It’s one show, probably thirty to forty-five minutes, a typical standard deal. The cool part is they get to play to a sold-out Denver crowd, which will be nuts.

MR: Are you and your musical director going to work with them to make sure they’re ready?

CR: It’s up to them. I get to be a part of choosing who the top five are and then it’s up to them. They’ve got to promote as much as they can to try to be the top dog and get that opening slot. Then once they win, it’s a hundred percent on them, I’m out of the way. I just want to see them perform and see them get the crowd amped up in Denver.

MR: Since, basically, this contest will probably involve new-ish artists, let me ask you my traditional question now. What advice do you have for new artists?

CR: Just do it your way. That’s the way I’ve done it. I’ve had so many people tell me I’m not doing it the right way, that I need a label or something. If you have a vision for how you want to get your music out there, put the people around you who can help you get that vision out there and stick to it. You’ve got to surround yourself with those good people.

MR: What is the Chase Rice story? Any memories of how, possibly, your advice worked for you?

CR: I was just touring. I just wanted to tour and get my music out there instead of getting in on the radio right away. While I waited on that part–which is happening now with Columbia records involved–I wanted to tour and give my music to the fans and every single person I could. That’s what I’ve done. I’ve had some great shows, I’ve had some really horrible shows, but most of them are great.

MR: Your new project Ignite The Night is coming out in August. Can you give us a little tour of the album?

CR: It’s packed full of party songs, because that’s going to help build my career. It’s for the live show, I need those songs to do my live show the way I want to, because I want people to have energy, I want people to be raging for as long as they’re there. At the same time it’s got some depth on it, it’s got a song like “Carolina Can,” which is kind of my life in songs. It has more “story” to it. Country music deserves ballads like that. “Jack Daniels & Jesus” is on there. That’s a song that shows a deeper side of me, as well as a party song.

MR: When you’re writing, how deep does it go?

CR: It’s always different. If I know I need a party song, I’m going to do my best to have the most amped up, energetic melody–the same stuff that I hear when I’m drinking and partying, whatever the topic may be. Then there are songs that are just me and an acoustic guitar and I put out whatever feelings I’m feeling. That can always happen in a lot of different ways. It’s usually whatever mood I’m in. If I’m in a happy, party mood, I’m going to write party songs. If I’m feeling down about life, whatever it is, then it’s going to be a way more meaningful song. It can happen both ways.

MR: The single “Ready, Set, Roll” is already a hit from this record. How did that song come about?

CR: That was written with Rhett Atkins and Chris DeStefano, who’s now my producer. He started the track; we already had a bit of a melody going with guitar and he started building the track and what you hear on the radio while you were writing it. Rhett Akins was there, too. It was an all-day affair. We were digging it in, we wrote the chorus and then we got to the verses. It didn’t come easy, we had to really think to come up with some different lines. I think we did a good job of that.

MR: Do you think the songs on Ignite The Night have evolved compared to your previous material?

CR: Oh, yeah, the writing’s way better. We try to come up with lyrics that make people wonder how the hell we came up with it instead of just thinking of the same old standard stuff. We put lyrics on there that make people say, “What the hell did he just say? Why did he say it like that?” At the same time, the melody’s got to fit along with it, too. The better lines I come up with myself challenge the other writers to come up with cool lines like that, too, and the better lines they come up with challenge me to step up my writing. The better a writer’s writing with, the better the song usually is.

MR: You co-wrote Florida Georgia Line’s “Cruise.” How do you look at that song now that it’s been a hit?

CR: That was one of the ones that found us. We were writing a slow song and then that song kind of popped out. We wrote it in forty-five minutes and then went back and finished the slow song. That one happened by mistake, but the songwriting gods happened to be smiling down that day.

MR: [laughs] They must have been, it’s the most-downloaded country single of all time!

CR: Yeah, and I’m proud to be a part of that one, but at the same time I wrote a different song the next day. You can’t hang your hat one song. I’m blushing to be a part of it, but it’s onto the next one for me. I always want to write something better. That’s what I’m working on with this Ignite The Night album.

MR: Chase, you were a football player, you grew up in Daytona and had an association with NASCAR, motorsports… When did you decide, “Okay, now I’m going to be a hit country songwriter and recording artist?”

CR: I’ve been a huge country music fan my entire life. When I was done with football and NASCAR I was playing guitar and writing a little bit through that and I knew I wanted to be better than I was, so I had to move to Nashville. That’s when I started writing with great songwriters and they taught me what it was like to write a good song. Music’s a passion of mine, especially country music. I didn’t have anything going on, so I figured I’d move to Nashville and give it a shot.

MR: Where do you take it all from here?

CR: Continue to focus on “Ready, Set, Roll,” and the whole album. Get “Ready, Set, Roll” up the charts as high as we can possibly get it, hopefully, peak number one and then go on to the next single. Try and make the songs of Ignite The Night heard by as many people as we possibly can. That’s the short term goal right now and that’s all I’m really focusing on.

MR: Good luck with everything, man. One last question: Snagajob is about employing people. Do you see yourself participating more with socially-minded initiatives like this through contests, etc.?

CR: Yeah, absolutely. Social media is so big these days you can get information out much easier. If it helps someone else get the same shot guys like Dierks [Bentley] have given me, absolutely. Why wouldn’t I want to do something like that?

Transcribed by Galen Hawthorne