Brandy Clark
Tales Behind Your Life is a Record

On returning to the studio with producer Jay Joyce
“Jay said, ‘This is great, but how do we make it different from other singer/songwriter records?’
“I said, ‘Strings.’
“Jay said, ‘I hate strings...’
“Then he called one night, and said, ‘What about Memphis strings? Like on I Am Shelby Lynn or Dusty in Memphis? You sing more like those women than you know!’”

On the inspiration behind “Who You Thought I Was”
“John Prine came out at the Americana Awards. So, everybody stood up for it felt like 5 minutes.
He said, ‘I’m John Prine... but I wish I could be who you thought I was.’
“And I thought that was just awesome.
“I also thought it was such a guy song. We were a week away from the studio, and one of my friends said, ‘You gotta cut that song, and you’re not changing anything.”

On Randy Newman joining on “Bigger Boat”
“I loved his writing, the character in his voice --
and for the song, the character he’d bring to it.
He changed a line,
‘Give me my hammer? Somebody hold my coat...’
I thought I’d died.
It was Memorial Day.
We’d done a show in Vermont, and flown out for the session.
It was. Randy, Lenny and Mitchell Froom --
he even snuck in stuff on the piano, playing while he was singing.”

On the inspiration behind “Bigger Boat”
“Adam Wright’s Dad was a mortician, his son is obsessed with ‘Jaws,’ and he’s Alan Jackson’s nephew.
“It’s all so interesting with him, and we were talking about where we’re at, the world...
And he says, ‘the safest thing in the air is the cigarette smoke.’
He’s a lyrical God, and looks like my brother... When I said, ‘I wanna write a song about that scene in ‘Jaws’ where Roy Scheider sees the shark for the first time,’ he totally got it.”

On the inspiration behind “Love is a Fire”
“I was obsessed with Bette Davis and Joan Crawford.
Ryan Murphy’s ‘The Feud’ just got in my head...
That idea that love is a fire, you just never know if it’s going to warm you – or burn you.
“I can go so down a rabbit hole. That’s where ‘Fire’ came from.”

On the inspiration behind “Long Walk”
“’Long Walk’ was really personal...
I felt really judged at times in my life, and my Mom always said that.
It always made me laugh, but you know what they mean.
“As funny and lighthearted as it is, in a break-up, when friends take sides, it fits.”

On the inspiration behind “Sad Song”
“Jessie Jo’s one of my favorites!
It helps she’s one of my best friends, and my cool meter!
We were in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a writing trip,
she wants to write something sad, something real.
‘Sad Song’ just poured out. I don’t even know from where
...but it sure was sad and real.”

On the inspiration behind “Pawn Shop”
“There was this scene in a Stephen King book, a scene in a pawn shop.
One of the characters says, ‘I have the job of telling people things aren’t worth what they think...”
That stuck with me. It’s a hard job.

On the inspiration behind “Apologies”
Anybody in this business feels that, has times close to that second verse.
“I know songwriters who’ve had #1 hits, won Grammys, who think, ‘Do I matter?’”
“’Apologies’ came from the other side as someone getting the apology.
“I was in that place after ‘You’re so good at apologies because you Make so many of them!’
“It didn’t take days and days, but it was a song that wasn’t fun because I can relate to it.”

On John Osborne joining on “Bad Car”
“I love John Osborne.
I’ve done shows with those guys, and they’re the most fun...
so musical, so nice!
He, to me, is one of the best guitar players I’ve ever heard,
but because he’s in a duo, there’s really not a light shone on him.
With Keith and Brad, it’s right there --
so when we were doing the record, I thought, ‘Why not?’
It was such an odd solo, because the chord structure was so odd,
but we figured if anyone could turn that moment into something that mattered, it was John.”

For more information, please contact Asha Goodman 615.320.7753, Catherine Snead 615.320.7753 orCarla Sacks 212.741.1000 at Sacks & Co.