Chase Bryant Talks to Us About His "Wow" Moment

Chase Bryant, like most of us, is not immune to the greatest peril of achieving your dreams — lack of sleep. The 22-year-old singer says about the most challenging thing in his sky-rocketing and extremely busy career, "You’re always just going, going, going." The Texas native chats with me over the phone from his bunk on a tour bus while on Brantley Gilbert's Let It Ride Tour. Bryant, who just released his debut single "Take It On Back," has been killing it since Rolling Stone pegged Bryant as one of "The Best Things We Saw At the CMA Music Fest 2014." And, well, if you don't know his name already — you'll be singing along to one of his songs very soon.

Bryant, who was born and raised in Orange Grove, TX, was meant to break the Top 20 country charts — it's in his blood. The singer's grandfather played with Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly, and Waylon Jennings and his uncles topped the country charts in 1996 with their band, Ricochet. "They had a hit called 'Daddy’s Money.' It was a multi-week number one for them on country radio," he says of his maternal uncles before telling me that he also counts Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, and Bryan Adams among his multitude of influences. Which, unsurprisingly, all had a hand in the production of his debut single, "Take It On Back."

"We kind of just wanted to take all of my influences and throw them in a hat and mix it all up and write something that was fun and anthemic and something that was relevant to what all of my influences were," Bryant tells me about the song, which recently got an official music video on VEVO. "If you listen, it’s kind of just like going back to that time and place with that person that you wanted to go back with — whether you were in love with that person or maybe just a summer fling — it’s just kind of about letting the top down on the car and turning the radio up," the singer says of the now-Top 15 song.

Channeling his many influences isn't the only factor in making Bryant's first EP all about him — "I think it’s kind of a story of the path that got me to this first record and it really talks about who I am right now," he says of the album. And, it is, quite literally, all him. The singer, who is also a self-taught producer, is co-producing the album. "Everybody who listens now can hear what it sounds like in my head and who I am because I’ve got a hand in that process," Bryant tells me about having so much control over what he's putting out. "It really is who I am — I mean, I produced it, I wrote it, I play all of the guitars, and I sing it all," he says before calling himself a "doctor" in the process. And he has every reason to feel proud of being a multi-talented artist, as he counts "Take It On Back" hitting the Top 15 as one of the "wow" moments of his career.

Mostly, Bryant is just thankful that this is all happening to him and he's equally appreciative of the country music scene, which he finally feels a part of, among male and female performers. "I think that everybody's got a story to tell and I think women are just as important as men in music," he tells me about how country music treats its artists. "If you go back and look at some of the greats of our genre — you know, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton. They had the same opportunities as we do and they’re just as talented — some are more talented than us," he says.

For now, Bryant is finishing out his first major tour with Gilbert — which is an absolute "holy crap, this is happening" moment for the 22-year-old up-and-comer — before he heads back out on soon-to-be-announced new tour in 2015. "I really just feel like it’s coming together."