Friday is a day singer-songwriter Zander Hawley has been waiting for. It’s the day he’s releasing his solo debut, When I Get Blue, and it’s been a long time coming.
When I Get Blue is a 10-track album that breaks genre barriers, like great albums tend to do. It’s a little folk, a little country and a little alternative but it’s all good. Each of the songs is a story about “a different stage of my life,” he explains.
Hawley wrote the majority of the songs after moving to Nashville, but it has influences of both his L.A. home and Music City. Even though that’s true, Nashville hit him in a different way creatively.
“I certainly experienced a creative outpouring when I moved here that I hadn’t before. Every one of the songs on the record was a little bit, not scary, but different than anything that I’d written before and I think that was definitely Nashville’s influence.”
He was also influenced by some of the music he was listening to while writing When I Get Blue.
“Musically, at the time that I was writing the songs I was listening to Patty Griffin’s A Thousand Kisses — it was not my first time listening to it but I was really into it at that point. I was also listening to Jason Isbell’s Southeastern.”
“In terms of what inspired the content of the songs it was a combination of an experience that I didn’t expect to go the way it did in terms of a person who meant a lot to me combined with the stress of moving to a new place.”
A standout on the album is “When the Fear is Heavy” and it’s the only track that wasn’t written in Nashville. It came from a very real and raw feeling emotion Hawley — and it shows.
“Most of my romantic experiences have been very short-lived sort of like a matchstick being struck — very intense and then very over. That one, in particular, was a new level of feeling for me and it was also a new level of paranoia. That was just sort of what came from it. I never felt afraid in that way before,” he explained honestly.
He doesn’t feel afraid now despite the fact that he’s just days away from releasing his solo debut.
They’re a better representation of me than anything I have out.
“I’m so excited. We made this in March of 2016 so it’s been hard to sit on these songs because they mean a lot to me and they’re, I think, a better representation of me than anything I have out. That’s how you should feel every time you put something out but that feels especially true this time.”
When I Get Blue drops this Friday and it’s an album you’ll definitely want to hear. Get a sneak peek at what’s to come Tuesday night at his 3rd and Lindsley album release show. The doors open at 9PM and it’s only $5. For that price, you really can’t miss it.
