Graham Barham is ready to welcome fans into his world.
The singer just released his debut LP, Club Country, and, in a conversation with American Songwriter, he revealed how it’s a perfect representation of who he is—a country guy from a small town who takes inspiration from the varied likes of Florida Georgia Line, John Mayer, and T-Pain.
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Merging all of those things together was no easy feat. To do so, Barham leaned on “some people that were a lot more talented than I am.”
“We sat down and we spent a lot of time curating this sound,” he said of himself and his producer, Sam Bergeson. “I would be a complete fool if I sat here and told you that I was the mastermind behind all of these sonic pleasures that you hear. It is definitely him and all of the people that I’ve had the opportunity of working with. It was not an overnight thing.”
Graham Barham Talks Working Tyler Hubbard
After lots of consideration, Barham broke the album down into four parts. The first section takes cues from Sam Hunt and FGL with a little John Mayer thrown in for good measure.
For one of those songs, “Whiskey Rain,” Barham got to team up with FGL’s Tyler Hubbard, which was a dream come true for the rising star.
“He’s one of my biggest idols of all time. Legendary,” Barham said. “It was probably one of the most pinch me moments I’ve had. I’m the biggest FGL stan there ever is.”
“It was just a blessing to be able to talk to him. And then to be able to actually work with him was something that I never thought was gonna happen,” he added. “… It was so cool. He’s such a freaking pro. They say don’t meet your heroes. I think that’s sort of s**t. I’m so stoked to have been able to meet my hero.”
Graham Barham Praises the Late Brett James
Another person Barham counts as a hero is Brett James. The late great songwriter contributed heavily to the second part of Barham’s album, which is where he got “experimental” and “more vulnerable and uncomfortable” with his work.
“He believed me when nobody did. I learned so much from him, too much for him. I learned that he’s he can’t be replicated,” Barham said. “He is a part of that experimental piece of the album. He really pushed me to not care [about other people’s opinions].”
“Country Boy Kryptonite” is the last song Barham and James ever wrote together.
“That song is for me and for Brett. I wanted to put it on the album because it was something that he came up with. He structured the melody and the way it’s placed. He explained to me how they were structuring songs with the most amount of grace and the humbleness,” Barham said. “He’s Brett James! He’s one of the coolest dudes. I wanted to have a song on the record that I’d written with him. It was a no-brainer.”
Stand Out Tracks on Graham Barham’s Club Country
Part three of Club Country straight up country, while the fourth and final section highlights Barham’s “undeniable love for hip hop.”
Two stand outs on the LP are “Mean Streak” and “Dixie Chicks,” both of which tackle misconceptions people have of Barham in different ways.
The feisty “Mean Streak,” Barham said, was “was my way of kind of being like, ‘Hey, look, this is who I am. I’m not trying to attack anybody. This is just who I am.’”
“A lot of people have a lot of opinions about me, and they don’t know who I am. I’ve never really given people the opportunity to get to know me truly, except for the people that are listening to my music,” he said. “I keep to myself and don’t really clap back on the internet or try to feed it into all the negativity. I think it’s just kind of pointless.”
The “experimental” “Dixie Chicks,” meanwhile, plays on people’s criticism of Barham’s use of autotune and other production elements.
“A lot of people have a lot to say about how my vocals are tuned or some of my songs are sound different sonically. I use a lot of auto tune in some of my songs as a stylistic choice. I’ve chosen to do that on purpose. It is completely on purpose,” he said. “I love T-Pain. He’s one of the coolest artists ever. I was like, ‘Country music needs all of these things.’”
Now that Club Country is out in the world, Barham feels a kind of peace about the whole thing.
“I felt like if I died after this album was out, at least everybody knew who I was,” he said. “… The album is one thought. I’m excited for people to be able to enter the Club Country universe.”
Barham added, “I’m not here to put out a few songs and be like, ‘Oh, here we are. I’m sad, happy, mad.’ No. Welcome to my f**king universe. It’s just Club Country. This is what I want you to be a part of.”
Photo by Matthew Berinato