New York raised, Brian Michael has always had an adoration for country music. Michael, not being from the south feared if he’d be accepted for putting his own spin on country. Michael ventured out to Baltimore to pursue a career as an RnB artist before realizing that country music spoke to his heart.
Recently, we had the chance to chat with Michael about his brand new, debut single “Low Key” available everywhere today.
Worlds Of Country: Did you always sort of know that music was the path you wanted to take with your life?
Brian: I Did. My mom would tell you that, like she’s always said, Brian, you were born with a song in your heart. And so, like, even as a little boy growing up, I gravitated towards music. She was one of my biggest influences, I’d say, within the home for music. She was always playing music and a huge fan of country music, along with many other genres. But I just always gravitated towards music. But I actually gravitated towards sports very much too. And I didn’t know really how to go about it. And more importantly, when I was at such a young age, my parents didn’t know anyone in the business or really how to go about me having this gift to be able to sing. So it wasn’t really until later on that I was, you know, once I kind of took it into my own hands to start pursuing and doing music full time and being a singer songwriter.
Worlds Of Country: So at what point did you realize that it was something you could do professionally, and what was your first step towards making the dream reality at that point?
Brian: Yeah, so I like I said, I was involved in sports very much growing up but music was always my passion along with that and kind of my safe place, just with things that went on within my home, just kind of just a lot of dysfunction and things like that. It was my safe place.
It wasn’t until I graduated from school that I decided that I’m going to go at pursuing being an artist and for the rest of my life.. And so I moved down to Baltimore, Maryland, where my sister lived, who I’m very close with. And I just started to get out and start performing at different open mic nights and going to different even karaoke bars and performing and things like that and just trying to get out and meet people originally to try to make relationships, build relationships, meeet producers, other songwriters.
Worlds Of Country: Is the goal for you to end up in Nashville?
Brian: Absolutely. Yes. So my goal is to end up in Nashville when I was in Baltimore pursuing I initially was. Pursuing the whole pop RnB world in that lane, and then I was going back and forth to L.A. back and forth, working with different producers, and that got to a point where I I was always a huge fan of country music. I just wasn’t sure and was hesitant at first because I wasn’t technically from the South. I didn’t have the twang in my voice, even though I love country music so much. And then but I got to a point when I was going along the journey of being a pop RnB artist, that being out in L.A. and doing some soul searching, then I decided that I just felt like I identified more with the country music genre and community, and it was just like someone that’s all about the storytelling and it all being about the music and just the community of Nashville and the country industry and the fans. It’s what speaks to my heart. And so that’s when I made the decision that I want to be a country singer songwriter, country pop singer songwriter for the rest of my life.
Worlds Of Country: Nowadays it is a lot easier to blend those pop influences into country music as well.
Brian: Yeah, absolutely, when I saw people that , that inspired me like Dan and Shay and Thomas Rhett is a huge inspiration for me and see what he’s done with kind of blending the country genre with his pop influences and things like that., It’s awesome to see and it just gives me that much more confidence. And when I was initially somewhat wondering or questioning if it was the right thing for me, it’s just like there’s so many different lanes of country music now. And it’s a beautiful thing, I think. And so I have no doubt in my heart that country music is my home.
Worlds Of Country: How would you describe your own music style?
So Justin Timberlake is a huge inspiration to me. One of my biggest inspirations, along with people like I said, I’m a huge Thomas Rhett fan. I’m a huge Luke Bryan fan. And so my new music has the backbone of the storytelling of your standard country music. You know, that has a lot to do with, like, you know, relationships, love stories, family, faith and things like that. And I think just sonically, you know, I’m just changing a little bit with these pop influences behind it. And my voice itself has. Without having the twang certain things like that just has A more RnB pop vibe to it than down the middle country sound to it. So I think the combination of the two being a country boy, not having that coming from the south, but having the two genres together just blend really nicely and which allows me to have my own unique sound as an artist. So I think that’s something that’s special.
Worlds Of Country: Can you tell us the story behind your upcoming single, “Low Key”?
Brian: Low key, the idea behind that was coming from like high school and college is all about going out on Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night. And for me now being married and having two little kids that inspire me and not being in getting to a place where it’s not always about going out anymore. It’s like, yeah, our friends are going out tonight, but the story is we can still stay at home tonight and keep it like technically low key as far as not going out and wanting to paint the town red like we have in the past in our college days and all that, now we can stay home and make a memory at home with the same kind of vibe. Just you and I together having a romantic night together and being playful and young and fun like we were when we were in college , dancing around the kitchen and drinking wine together and laughing. And just that playful atmosphere doesn’t have to be a packed club. We can just keep it low key at home and make just another amazing memory together with your significant other.
Worlds Of Country: So is the plan for this to be a standalone singles or are more songs coming as part of a bigger project?
Brian: Yes. This is the first single out of the gate, which is released next Friday. And then in four weeks, I have another single coming out that’s called “Have You Seen You Lately? There are a lot of songs that I’m really excited to release. And then I have one more single, that I’m going to be releasing called “Easy Money”, like another four to six weeks after that. And then we’ll release the EP. That’ll be a total of a five song EP right around July, August time.
Worlds Of Country 