Mat Kearney – Time Well Spent

CCM: Was there a first fruits of that, a song that came first that gave way to that sound?
MK: I had listening to this artist named Filous who actually ended up working on a couple songs on my record. I was attempting to try out some of his sounds, but I realized I wasn’t as good at it as he was. I reached out to him and said, “Hey man, will you come work with me?” [Laughs] He flew out to Nashville from Austria and spent a couple weeks hanging out in my studio and we stumbled upon a sound that I really loved.

The first song was probably the one I did with AFSHeeN called “Better Than I Used To Be,” which was the first single we released. That song was almost two years old when we released it. That song was an anchor where we said, “Okay, we know that really works. I’m not sick of this sound yet, so we should keep making music like that.” That was one of the first ones or else working with Filous from last year.

CCM: That’s a real risk to fly in someone, commit to time in the studio, etc. Have you done that before and have it not work out?
MK: Definitely. One time I flew to Sweden and spent almost ten days there working with these big pop producers. Of course, it was supposed to be like we were going to land on next big sound that would change the world, you know? [Laughs] Literally after ten days, we had nothing to show for it. I just flew home and went on to something else. It was kind of depressing. That was not one of my finer moments.

photo: Delaney Royer

But you know, you never know, man. I’ve always worked by myself, but I’ve also been very collaborative. The way that chemistry works in the studio is so unpredictable. You may have someone that, on paper, you should totally knock it out the park, yet it falls flat. Then you meet someone and all of a sudden, four songs just happen that are your best thing ever. You might even look at either of your catalogs and nothing is as good as those songs. That’s a very elusive thing is how people’s strengths become something bigger than themselves. I can’t predict that.

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