Thank you for your time this evening in anticipation for your brand new album. Some would say it's been a long time coming.

Brandon: Thanks for having me, it's been a minute.

So let's not waste time and get into it. You've caught many of us by surprise by announcing your new album, why keep it so secretive?

Brandon: To be wholly truthful, this was never about making a new record. For me, it was about healing. Or at least it was about finding something to help me along the road. This past 10 months or so, I went off track a little there and it took me getting back to doing what I always loved doing to help me find my way again. Being in a room with my buddies playing music was the intention, to distract the mind a little was the main goal here. It only occurred to us that we may have recorded an album about two weeks ago. It was all just about that unplanned.

So what we have here is a group of musicians paying tribute to another in the music of Bob Dylan?

Brandon: Yeah, the absolute black and white of the situation is just that. People can interpret this any way they wish. It's a record of Bob Dylan songs, reworked in order to hopefully tell a different perspective from what the originals do. If you want to call it a cover album, you can call it just that. But I think a friend of mine put it best when he heard it, he said, “it's not just somebody paying homage to his favourite songs, it's simply a man trying to fix himself.” and I think this is what this is and was. From the moment we got together and starting playing music again to the moment somebody pointed out that we may have a record here.

Of course these songs mean a lot to you, are they directly chosen to tell the story you've gone through in the past year?

Brandon: I don't think so. Yes, these songs have helped me along through this period, but they mean something more to me than that. Some of these are songs that I've been familiar with since I was child, some remind me of my youth and some make me think about the world right now and what's going on out there. I think it's too simplistic to just consider that these are songs of self-pity from a broken man. Lord knows, I am a broken man. Everything I do right now has that shadow of the loss that I've felt and I'm sure that's the way this will be felt and that's okay.

So let's talk about the selection of the songs, what made you choose the ones you have chosen?

Brandon: I think over the period that me and the guys and girls spent playing music over this time, we must have recorded close to one hundred songs. Some of the recordings weren't usable. But we noticed that we had played a lot of Dylan songs and went back and listened to those and the feeling was that they were the best of the bunch. Somebody threw the idea around that we put our own spin on his words because a lot of his music was acoustic and harmonica, while we had all kinds of instrumentation available and the talented musicians capable of taking something and really running with it. So we spent around a week or so working on around thirty of his songs, whittled those down to the best ones and at end of playing the final song, which was “Mr. Tambourine Man.” you can hear our lead guitarist shout, “I think we've got a record!”. It was just about as off-the cuff as that.

It's interesting that this is happening now because around December it was reported that you were in a legal dispute with your label Studio60 Records. Was a new album always gonna come contractually?

Brandon: That wasn't exactly ideal. I had made it clear to the label and just about everybody that music was over for me. I was still very much grieving and I still am and that wasn't remotely in my mind. The label's stance was that there was one more album contractually obliged and they were more than willing to accommodate that however I choose. I made it clear that I was not in a place to write songs and they suggested a greatest hits album with two brand new songs which I've always been against. They encouraged me to try to get back into a studio and maybe try to heal through the music and they were right. Stubbornly I couldn't see it that way, but finally it happened naturally a few months later with a bunch of friends in Nashville and gradually it led to this album. It didn't happen the way the label wanted it to happen and I believe I caused them to have some conversations they probably didn't want to have, but we've came to a middle ground. They get their final album and I get to start again.

So do you bare any ill-feeling towards the label?

Brandon: Of course not, I think the label deserves a lot of credit for the way that they've handle things. Lord knows I was not the best person to deal with on many occasions but they stuck with me. I just feel like it's better for both of us to fulfil our deal and leave things there for the time being. Maybe someday they'll bring me back home.

Of course the label also has a lot of family ties to you. Hannah was signed there and so too is Hayden and Isabel. Was it a difficult period being in a disagreement with them?

Brandon: In hindsight yes. But I've been angry and pissed off at the world for the past ten months and that hasn't really gone away. The label was just another thing I was fighting against at that time. Now, I can see that they were fighting for something more than just another record from one of their artists. And for that, I have a lot of admiration for everybody that works there.

This is the first time you've been speaking about all that has happened within the past year. What sort of place would you say you're in right about now?

Brandon: It still hurts every single day, but I've learnt to try to put that pain to one side with Charlotte and Caleb around. During the day, they give me a distraction. But it's very tough at night.

You've moved out to Nashville recently, has that helped the healing process?

Brandon: I think it helped a little. We split our time between Nashville and California now. We've moved out of our family home in California and into a smaller home and we have our little country home out here in Nashville. I think the travelling helps distract the mind too and we have a road trip through the south planned soon. It's a slow process, but we're trying every day.

Have you been in front of an audience since August. I'm sure some would consider that a form of therapy?

Brandon: That's not a step that I've taken, it's not a step that I've even considered. It's something that I miss doing, but it's not something I can see myself being able to do for quite some time. I'd hope that I'd be able to return to the stage someday but right now that feels like a long way away.

And what about the writing process, history tells us that writing helps the healing process.

Brandon: That's something that I have briefly tried to regain. It's not there right now, which is not to say that it'll never be there. But the frustration that comes with writing songs feels like it would be counter productive right now.

Well it's certainly good to hear your voice, whether that is channelling the work of others artists or forging your own music path. We wish you the best of luck with the new album and hope to hear from you again soon.