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On the heels of his first No. 1 album, Keith Urban hits the road
MSN Music
It's still mid-morning in the rolling hills outside Nashville, but Keith Urban is wide awake and cheerful when he calls on his cell phone. "I get up pretty early, around 6 o'clock," he reports. "And I've got a baby," he adds with a chuckle, proudly referring to 10-month old Sunday Rose, his daughter with wife Nicole Kidman.
Related: See photos of Keith Urban
His domestic contentment would be reason enough for the country superstar's upbeat mood, but he has added motivation to feel good these days. On top of his latest Academy of Country Music Award (shared with fellow singer, songwriter and guitar slinger Brad Paisley for "Start a Band," named Vocal Event of the Year), Urban has notched his first No. 1 on Billboard's pop chart for his seventh album, "Defying Gravity," and is gearing up for a major summer tour.
That he sounds genuinely grateful for this surplus of personal and professional triumphs is unsurprising given the artist's career odyssey since emigrating from Australia 17 years ago. From journeyman guitarist to singer, songwriter and star, the native New Zealander has weathered personal struggles while building a profile as one of contemporary country's most admired artists. His high profile marriage made his 2006 entry into rehab a tabloid headline, but he rebounded with a new album and tour. Urban's resilience was further underscored by his first greatest hits collection, released late in 2007, as well as by an ongoing procession of Grammy, CMA and ACM Awards since 2001.
The high-profile Paisley duet meanwhile punctuates Urban's stature as an instrumental lion capable of arena-rousing guitar solos (as witnessed during his electrifying take on the Rolling Stones classic, "Gimme Shelter," performed with Alicia Keys at Live Earth in 2007). Those technical chops make Urban's ease at mixing rock and country a natural strength.
We caught up with Urban while he was rehearsing his band for the next leg of his Escape Together World Tour, slated to start on May 7 on the east coast.
MSN Music: First, congratulations are obviously in order. Your new album, "Defying Gravity," lived up to its title by bringing you your first No. 1 album on Billboard's Top 200 chart, and doing it in its first week. How does that feel?
Keith Urban: Phenomenal -- kind of indescribable. I know when they asked me to do a quote for a press release, I was speechless. It's a strange feeling. I've had several albums be No. 1 in country, and one No. 3 on the pop charts, but it's such a chasm between 3 and 1, and the feeling is pretty extraordinary.
Did you set any conscious goals for that level of chart acceptance?
I think what I love most about what happened with this record is that on the last album, "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing," I was getting a lot of ... not advice, but the record company in Europe was really wanting a certain thing, and Australia was wanting a certain thing, and ... my core, where I live, is Nashville, and that's what I really do ... And in the midst of trying to make a record I thought pleased everybody, I got a bit lost with the focus of it. I always have to preface that by saying that I'm really proud of that record, grateful for it, because I learned a lot of things that I ended up applying on this record ...
What I love about the success of this [new] record is I paid no mind to any of those things this time round. I only had one goal, and that was to make my music my way, and have a record that was honest in what I do and ...get back on the path I'd been on previously with those [earlier] records. It wasn't so much trying to recreate anything, but just continue that trajectory, those influences that I have, that sound that I have, and you know, strangely enough, I ended up having this record that landed at No. 1 on the pop chart. It's even more overwhelming that it's had this kind of success.
The new album sounds pretty upbeat. Alan Light, writing about you for The New York Times, summed it up as "joyous." Is that a good reflection of where you are right now in your life and career?
No question, no question. I was more drawn to the power of solutions than the road of painting my struggles. I just wasn't drawn to that stuff on this record. So I think the energy that ultimately wound up on this record is more one of the solution than the problem.
Were all of the songs written since "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy Thing"?
All the ones that I've written, or had a hand in writing, were all done within the same year that this was recorded.
You've emerged as a major country artist at a time when the genre is not just hot -- a lot of contemporary country freely crosses over into pop and rock terrain in terms of songwriting, arranging and production. Do you see your own music as contributing to that trend?
It's very organic for me. I think this is the most spontaneous record I've ever made. I didn't question any of my influences, I didn't question the styles or the sounds within the songs. I just went in and made songs that I really loved, and recorded them the way I felt was most appealing to my ears.
You've also got your band tuned up to a really fine pitch. The arranging is particularly interesting -- is that something you've really focused on, or is it more collaborative? Is that something that you and your co-producer, Dann Huff, have worked on together?
Yeah. We spend a lot of time on the arrangements, and that's one area that I think I could even spend longer on. We're handicapped in one way in that I don't like doing demos and there's certainly a lot of records in Nashville where the demo is where the arrangements really are, and they take it into the studio. The sessions just seem to recreate the demos. Which makes for a speedier recording session to get to the [finished] master [recording], but for me it negates a bit of the magic, and the magic is in the demo. My attitude about it is that predominately I want to create the magic in the master session, so we don't demo anything.
So, catch it before it gets stale?
Yeah. I've had that happen to me. Where all the mojo is in the demo and you try to recreate that stuff in a master session. You can go crazy trying to do that. So I try to do it as we go. So it takes longer -- the recording process takes longer. The record was supposed to be ready by December, but it took longer and I'm really glad. I'm grateful they pushed the release date off 'til March.
I doubt anybody at the record company is complaining about the delay at this point.
[Laughs] They never give a Grammy just for a record that comes in on time.
The new album has its share of real barnstorming tracks that let you showcase your power and versatility as a guitarist, not to mention a whole roomful of instruments -- guitars, mandolin, ganjo [a six-string banjo that's a staple of his sound]. Do you feel like a kid in a candy store when you go in to record?
Yeah, I love it. And a kid in a candy store is a perfect description. I love making records and I love the processes, the layering and the arranging, both sonically and instrumentation-wise. And I particularly love backing vocal arrangements and I spend a long time creating backing vocal parts as well. I'd rather use voices than keyboards much of the time, for crescendos and swells -- ethereal pieces. It's a lot more appealing to me.
It does bear mention that in a record noteworthy for so many uptempo moments, the final song, "Thank You," is as heartfelt a valentine as anyone's ever written for their partner. It's simple, elegant and deeply felt.
Thanks.
Did you put that at the end deliberately?
Well, when you look at a track listing it seemed like the perfect way to end.
Let's turn to your upcoming "Escape Together" tour. We see 58 shows planned in the U. S. and Canada. How does this compare with other tours?
We've done tours where I've done closer to 80 shows, so this is almost a walk in the park.
Meanwhile, who'll be opening your shows? We've seen Sugarland, Taylor Swift and Lady Antebellum among the major acts mentioned for upcoming shows. Are there any other artists we can expect to see you bring on board?
We're doing one show near Vegas that I'm really excited about. Glen Campbell's going to join us. I certainly was a big fan growing up, and if you want to talk about country versus pop, Glen's a great example of the blurring of the borders. For the '60s, country and pop were one of the same, so this is cyclic. And, you know, "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," "Galveston," those songs were all big pop hits as well. So I love the fact that Glen's opening for us, but particularly because he's got a new album that's really, really strong. They're all cover songs of Green Day and Tom Petty and U2 and Foo Fighters, and as strange as all that sounds, it's a really terrific record.
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