Exclusive Interview With Stu Basham
After a very busy summer, Stu Basham, aka “Captain Country”, has released his long-awaited duet ballad with his wife Chrissy titled “I’d Be Lyin.” Stu Basham started gaining attention from several online country blogs with his debut single “Hits like a Girl” in June and steadily kept the momentum going with other summer anthems “Sucker for a Good Time” and “Shore Thing”.
However , the ability to evolve artistically is critical for success and sustainability in the music industry, and Stu Basham is aware of this. He takes pride in his ability to cross genres. With radio stations picking up the new singles and blogs starting to catch on, Basham felt it was a great opportunity to feature a duet. His wife used to sing with him on songs when the couple lived in NYC, but that was when the country singer was writing pop music.
We caught up with the singer to find out more about his new single and musical career in general. Check out the interview below and be sure to share your take on his latest single “I’d Be Lyin” afterwards.
What’s up Stu Basham, glad to have you on this interview. Could you please introduce yourself for the benefit of those who don’t know you?
Thanks for having me! I’m am a former pilot turned country artist. I grew up in a small town in Oregon surrounded by mountains.
I was on my way to becoming a commercial pilot but got tired of working on my “backup plan” so I dropped out and went to pursue music full-time. I’ve lived in all main time zones splitting time in Denver, New York City, and now Nashville.
I was writing indie pop songs while living in NYC, and then my wife turned me on to some country artists like Rascal Flatts, Zac Brown and many others. I became hooked and listened to everything I could find.
I now reside in Nashville and am creating my own brand of country music that could be called jam band country as I’m a huge Dave Matthews Band fan and want to incorporate those elements into my country music.
As an ex-pilot turned artiste, what would you say was the driving force that made you decide to pursue a career in music professionally?
I’ve wanted to do music since I was 4 or 5 years old since getting a keyboard for Christmas one year. Music was all I ever wanted to do. I would think about songs or playing music even when I was up in the air flying planes, so I knew, then, that if that was something I had to do in life, I needed to devote more time to it instead of putting it on the back burner.
What’s the inspiration behind your latest single ‘I’d Be Lyin’?
It was a simple title to start, nothing too crazy but I wanted to create an environment where it sets up the listener talking about a broken relationship and how they have both moved on. They cover up the truth and say everything’s fine but in the end, it all comes out and they both realize they were better together and they are just lying to themselves.
Growing up as a child, how would you describe the effect that your environment had on your personality today as an artist
I’m grateful that I grew up in a musical environment. I got to take piano lessons and drum lessons and taught myself guitar in college. The lessons allowed me to express myself musically. The only challenge was I didn’t grow up with country music so I was super late to the game and now I’m playing catchup realizing all the 90s country I missed and early 2000s so little by little I’m really listening to everything.
Today I get to use all the music theory and piano skills I’ve developed over the years and it’s really fulfilling. I started learning music production right after high school and have been slowly getting better ever since.
How would you describe the Nashville music scene in your opinion?
Nashville is such an amazing town. On every block, there is some crazy talented musician that deserves to be heard. It is becoming such a melting pot of culture now too where you have people making hip-hop-style country, classic singer-songwriter stuff, and indie-type music. I love living here and can’t believe it took me this long to move here. I mean it’s called “Music City” so why wouldn’t every musician want to live here? It’s like heaven!
How do you balance your music career with other obligations?
That is definitely hard as I have 2 young kids at home. So I used to wake up at 5 am to write songs M-F but that has proven difficult since my youngest wakes up early or I have to take my 3-year-old to school. So my wife takes them in the mornings sometimes to give me time to write but that is usually my best time to work on music. I became a morning person when I knew I had to be creative early in the morning so I just sort of forced myself to be that person.
How would you define success for yourself and your career as an artist?
That is a tough question because you can only control what you can control. So the goals that I work towards are writing 100+ songs a year, picking the best ones, and releasing one every month or so to get the word out. I spend my time alternating between writing, recording, and promoting so I focus on those things that are in my control.
Success is sticking with the plan and reaching out to people like you to give the music a chance. Hopefully, it reaches more people that way but I’m just trying to write the best music I can.
How would you describe your musical style?
I would say my style is jam-band country. Like I said before I love Dave Matthews Band so I’m trying to be almost the Dave Matthews of the country if you will. The full production will have 1-2 guitars, a full band and definitely some horns (bari sax and trumpet). I’m trying to create a sound that will fill the arenas one day and create a vision for a live show that will be unbelievable. One song at a time!
