Eric Paslay: Heartbeat Higher

Eric Paslay captured lightning in a bottle when recording his new song, Heartbeat Higher, in pretty much one live take. He reflects on writing the song of the decade, and the art of putting a life story into three minutes.

Although it’s all blue skies in Nashville when speaking to Eric Paslay, he quickly points out that the Tennessee capital was just hit by a tornado, rapidly followed by lockdown, which has seen him take the opportunity to flex his green fingers.

“I've dug a bunch of holes,” he says in an unmistakable Texan accent. “We've been muscling into the backyard – pulling and grunting and probably pulling some hernias! Quarantine time has worked out for us getting to rebuild the garden. The sun is shining, and good things are growing!”

When he’s not tending to his garden, the country music singer and songwriter can usually be found doing what comes naturally to him: performing. Last year, when choosing which city to record a live album in, Paslay landed on Glasgow, saying that he fell in love with the fans’ passion and energy last time he played there.

“The color of my beard says I'm probably from [Scotland] or Ireland, but I'm actually from both!” he explains. “I always confuse Irish and Scottish people when I say I'm Scotch-Irish, plus I’m also Czech and German; I’m just a mutt from Texas! I’ve got all kinds of things in me!”

It had always been a dream of Paslay’s to record a live album, after being inspired by Eric Clapton’s Unplugged as a child:

“That really inspired me as a young musician on my couch. It’s cool to tell stories and be real with people at those shows, and [Glasgow] just came together. They're always a fun, rowdy bunch, as well as everywhere in the UK. I love playing in the UK. Well, heck – we're supposed to be playing right now, but that got cancelled…”

If you want to make it in Nashville, you need to be a prolific songwriter. Paslay took that route, churning out songs for a publishing company for years – the idea being that you get noticed and secure yourself a record deal along the way. As a consequence of that, Paslay has written several hit singles for other artists, and humbly says that he owes his career to one artist in particular:

“The stars lined up and I got a record deal, and then three months later my song, Barefoot Blue Jean Night got put out by Jake Owen – and it ended up being the song of the decade! It got played the most in the last decade, which is just mind blowing,” he reflects.

“I mean, I moved to Nashville to be a singer, but Willie Nelson did the same thing...I guess I'm just trying to be a Bob Dylan! I've just been very very fortunate and lucky to to be a successful writer and singer and I'm very grateful for that. It's strange when people start telling you your story; you're like, ‘I did that?’ I guess I did!”

Outside of the US, the UK in particular has taken country music to its heart – shaking off its (unfairly) uncool perception in a few short years, as evidenced by the annual Country 2 Country festival held simultaneously in London, Dublin and Glasgow over three days. For Paslay, it all comes down to connecting to music made with love, and the stories that are told:

“All music is inspired from somewhere, and country music came from Irish, Scottish, and I'm sure English storytelling and folk stories. I don't know, maybe we're stubborn,” he laughs.

“There’s plenty of people you've never heard of who are just mind-blowingly talented. Chris Stapleton was at Universal Records for almost 10 years or something like that. Then finally, Justin Timberlake got him on the CMA Awards and history happened. And I'm just using that as an example that there’s mind-blowing talent there. When I'm walking through the streets in the UK, there's some talented singers and performers just on the street, and I'm thinking to myself, ‘they're better or are as good as a lot of people who are famous,’ you know?”

The point he is trying to get across, he says, is that fame shouldn’t be the reason to start making music:

“You're making music because you love it – you can’t help but make it!” he asserts. “Hopefully, people will realise that you don't do something just to be famous. You do it because you're gonna do it anyway. And that's what Stapleton was doing. There's a lot of singers that you'll never hear who are incredible, and that doesn't mean they aren't great. That doesn't mean they're not special. It just means that the business deal didn't line up for them, or who knows.

"I hope that those people still smile and they play music wherever they are for their friends or family, or for however many people are listening. I think that's the sweetest way to look at that picture.”