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Brandon Caulfield
"Having been on the brink, he's found that he's slowly falling back in love with music and life."
By Lindsay Balfour [16/12/2018]
It's a tough year, “It's a tough life.” retorts Brandon Caulfield with a tinge of political but with a heavy feeling of a personal slant to that statement. He looks into the distance as we briefly discuss a headline on the front of a newspaper, “I don't know what to tell ya, kid.” he says with a recognizable southern drawl. He shakes his head and looks down at the ground, he's never been one of the vocal musicians when it comes to politics, so I'm quite intrigued to get some information from him about where he stands on the state of the country and how it's run. “I have my own views and beliefs but I'm not so crazy about shouting them at anyone willing to listen.” he shakes his head once more hesitantly, “To me, it's a little troubling to see how stubborn our country or those in charge are when it comes to things that are so abundantly clear are positive steps. Gun control and healthcare. It's about time decisions were made that sees our government actually caring about their citizens.” He runs his hand through his hair and frowns lightly, “But I can't sit here and talk politics, it's a fucking rabbit hole and that's not something I wanna be about. I have a deep love of this countries history and I'd consider myself a highly patriotic person but it's tough to keep that love going these days. But then you see things like 'March for Our Lives'. and it gives you such immense pride that despite all the shit, we're still passionate about effecting change and the fact that it was driven by the youth of America makes you feel a little hopeful. These days, it sometimes feels like all we have is hope.”
He puts his boots up on the small coffee table in front of us and glances out of the window of his lakeside home here in Nashville, Tennessee, he gestures towards the window, “I mean just look at that out there. A countryside view like that, how can you ever truly fall out of love with it. That's what keeps that small fire burning inside of me.” he nods with a smile. The situation for those that have been unable to keep up is that earlier this year, Caulfield decided to move out to Nashville from Los Angeles with his young children Caleb and Charlotte (both aged 6) in order to get himself into the right frame of mind. It's a return to familiar grounds as Caulfield was born in Seattle, Washington in 1987 his parents moved the family to Nashville for work reasons in 1990 and his love-affair with the state began. As a young adult he travelled almost continuously all around the United States before settling down in Los Angeles in 2011 to begin a family. “California is beautiful, a truly remarkable place to be. But I think you can have a little too much sunshine.” he says with a half smile tinged with a little sadness. “It's a place that holds so many great memories that have become tainted, which I hope that time can resolve. Right now, it's still quite difficult to be there.” He says with a wistful nod of his head.
In a surprise to many, Caulfield has gotten himself back to work in recent months after it had seemed likely that a life away from music was what his future held following such a family tragedy, “It's a healing process everyday. The human spirit is a bizarre one and sometimes we find strengths that we never knew we possessed. My intentions coming out to Nashville was to get away from the Californian intrusion and the difficult memories I have from there. We have some acres and a bunch of farm animals and the idea was that that was going to be what would occupy my time but slowly the itch to play came back to me and once I sat around with my buddies playing music together it helped to distract me. Before I knew it, I was recording some of my favourite Dylan tracks and starting to write again.” he thinks for a second, “I believe that these things happen when they need to happen and at that time, it felt like nothing could distract me.”
As we take a tour around his fifteen acre home it's clear to see how somebody could see this place as a healing environment, classic brickwork and wood panelling give this home a traditional farm house sort of feel. The living area gives off a warm feeling, with a large wood burning stove as the centre piece along with standard coffee tables and a corner sofa. There's a lot of personal warmth in the home too, with photographs and canvases of the family throughout the house. As we step into the large open back garden, Brandon takes in a deep inhale of air, “I don't know if a lot of people notice it, but there's just a different air that we breathe here. It's a lot more refreshing than California.” A quick tour around the garden to feed the animals, sixteen in total, three horses, two pony's, four chicken, two pigs and five ducks by the pond at the bottom of the garden must certainly keep him busy when he's not in a recording studio, “We're blessed to have a lot of family and friends nearby that like to help out too. Myself, Caleb and Charlotte cover the morning and evening periods and we have some people come over in the afternoon to keep things ticking along.” He seems at ease in this environment, there was always a feeling of discomfort whenever we caught up with each other in California.
It appears to be a busy life for Caulfield at the minute, but a lot of people will tell you that keeping yourself busy is one of the best recovery methods when you've gone through difficult times. On top of his father and farming duties, Caulfield is still a performer and celebrity as much as he'd probably like to shy away from the latter. He faces the same difficulties that other people in the spotlight do, perhaps not quite to the same extent but he seems to handle everything in stride very well. In June he released his first album in three years, a heartrenching re-imagining of his favourite Bob Dylan songs and later announced a seventeen date North American tour titled, “Storyteller Live” which he confirms was planned around his children's schedules, “Like I've said, we're lucky to have people nearby that have helped out a lot and made these sorts of things possible. You'll notice a lot of two to three day breaks in the tour to allow me to get back home and be there for them as much as possible. Swim competitions and dances and all that stuff. It wasn't an easy thing to arrange but I have a lot of persistent people around me who generally know better.” he laughs slightly, “But this was done with caution and if it works out as well as we hope, then it means I can get back out on the road and continue to be there for my family in equal measure.”
And on top of his own work as a solo artist, he recently launched his very own record label based out of Nashville, “It's something I've wanted to do for so many years, the timing was just never right. I've always been pretty lucky with the labels I've been signed to and I've generally been given the freedom to make the big decisions. But I've had a lot of friends that have been messed around by record labels and signed unfair deals with labels to the point where it's basically killed off their career before it had begun. I wanted to have my own output for my music but also have a place where people can go and know they'll be taken care of and given the best opportunity to truly achieve what they'd be hoping to achieve. We've only just launched, but we have had a lot of things in place for a while now. It was just finding the right time to officially launch. It's an exciting venture that just increases my passion for music as a whole. Let's hope it works out as I intend it to.”
As we return back inside, with the coffee machine grinding in the background and the sound of the pattering of their dogs paws on the hardwood dining room floor, two Great Pyrenees Lucy and Fibre named by his two children. I sit down at the dining table to begin the conversation. A couple of brief moments later, Brandon returns from the kitchen with a cup of coffee, he lets the dogs back out into the garden before he returns inside and takes off his boots and sits himself down next to me;
Back in Nashville, you've said before, “this isn't where it all started but it was where it all began for me.”. I remember previously you spoke about how your dream was getting back to your roots and coming back here at some point in your life and now that's a reality. How important is this place to you?
“It's very important to me. It's the same for a lot of people I'm sure. I may have been born in Seattle but my earliest memories are from living here in Tennessee. Every time I briefly came back here there was always this longing for it to be more permanent. I said before that there's just a different air out here compared to California and I don't know if it just has this affect on me or if other people feel it too. It may all be a mental sort of thing but in California for the years that I lived there, despite the fact that I loved my time out there, I always sort of felt a little like I couldn't breathe as well out there. I'm sure there's a strong argument that that's more of a personal and mental issue than anything substantially affecting me. But then again, isn't it the more psychological things that mess us up. I can deal with a bad back, the shit in my head, that's a lot harder to deal with.”
It's been a tough year for you and your family, just how much did you need to get out of California?
“It's been the toughest period imaginable. Everybody deals with things differently, but for me I couldn't continue to live in Los Angeles. I know that moving away wasn't easy for everybody and that there were some arguments that went down. But fundamentally it was the correct decision for me and my children. It's not about running away or trying to bury the memories. That's the last thing that I want to do. Our family home became tainted because of the nature of what happened and whenever I'm reminded of that situation it creates an anger in me that I don't like to feel. It was a home that held the very happiest of memories, it was our safe place and that all changed. Everything about that house haunts me.”
You talk about how a lot of arguments went down when you made the decision to move away. Who were those arguments with and what was the reasons behind them?
“It was family and friends that lived nearby. Our family became a big one, it was a very close environment where we were all a two minute walk from each other. Constantly in each others lives and it was special. That all changed and I understand why they were angry that I made the decision to leave and I think with time they understood why too. Los Angeles became a home and I learnt to love it, but it was never truly my home. I always knew where my heart was at and the plan was always to move back out here when we had all of our children and had done what we wanted to do with our careers.”
So the family life in Nashville was always the plan for your long term future?
“Yeah, it's something we spoke about quite often. We had things mapped out, we'd focus on our careers for a couple of years and that would have been enough for us. The plan after that was to have three children and move somewhere around here, Tennessee, Georgia, Florida and enjoy the family life. Raise our children on a farm and enjoy our time together without the distraction of work and everything that comes with that. It's not worked out according to the plans that we had mapped out, but I feel like Hannah wouldn't have wanted those dreams to not be fulfilled.”
And every since moving out here, you've been balancing the whole parent thing with your work once more. Did you expect to continue to work on music when you decided to move?
“No, not at all. The idea was that this would be the place for us to settle into normal life. It would have been school runs and working on the farm all day. That was the intention. But it was clear that I needed something else to occupy my mind because it can run wild and free when it wants to. I'm fortunate in that I have some very persistent buddies that kept pushing me to pick up a guitar again and maybe try writing some stuff. They managed to get me back into a studio and playing some songs together and then I noticed that I started to feel a little more like myself once again. It was all just small steps and gestures that got me back to this point where I thought to myself, I kinda want to do this again.”
It began with the Bob Dylan cover album in June. How important was it to make that first official step?
“It was important in the sense that it unlocked that passion for music again. It was nice to try to find my own voice in those songs and we changed them up a little musically and it felt like such a freeing experience. It was also this obligation with Studio60 to put out a final record with them. I had one more album on my contract and it was nice to be able to full-fill my commitments to the label and leave on positive terms. At that point, I never considered that I'd end up wanting to do another album or continue to make music but that period created the interest in my mind and I began attempting to write songs again. I owe a lot to my bandmates and friends for pointing me in the right direction.”
Which of course left you with a dilemma. If you did get to the point where you wanted to record a new album, would you be able to find a new label to work alongside and were you in a place to work to such deadlines and expectations?
“That's exactly the dilemma that briefly came into my mind. I've never been great at working to other peoples schedules and I don't feel like I'm in a position to work under another record label. I like to work at my own pace, so it was all about going independent or finding an alternative.”
And find an alternative is the decision that you landed on, a brand new experience of running your very own record label. You recently launched a genre-specific record label called 'Southbound Records' in a period where major companies don't like to box themselves into one specific corner. How did that decision come about?
“It just came from conversations with friends and people that have been in and around the industry for a while. It was about finding a outlet for my own music with the potential of it becoming something more entirely. I was lucky to get the backing from JR (Rhythm) who was more than happy to become an investor and has previous experience with an old label called Cosmic Records. Together we already knew a bunch of people that we felt deserved to be heard and we worked on making a couple of signings which we'll be announcing at some point in the near future. It just came across as an exciting opportunity and a chance to maybe help the genre in some way. I've always felt that country music at a major label can be condensed into a hybrid of different genres and lose some of it's uniqueness and the aim was for this label to not only be a home for my own music but also be an option for those that may want to be part of this.”
You say that you've got a couple of announcements coming and you certainly wasted no time in announcing your first signing in the form of an unknown artist called Savannah Haim. How important was that first announcement?
“It was important to make it official. I've known Savannah for many years and have worked with her a few times. She's an outstanding vocalist that has something to say. She's a talented guitarist and songwriter and has deserved an opportunity to showcase her voice and her words on a bigger stage. The group of us that have known and watched Savannah work, know just how important her music can be. She has a real throwback vibe to classic country music.”
Her debut single “Young Love” was pretty well received which marked a solid start for the label and the artist, can we expect much more in the near future or is it likely to be a slow and steady sort of vibe?
“I think the beauty of running a label or being part of a label that's created for output rather than financial gain is a beautiful thing and I think that will be one of the strengths to the labels longevity. I'm not planning on bringing in a huge roster of people and making as much money as possible. I'm looking at signing a couple of people and working closely with them in order to achieve the sort of work that they want to be making. I'd like to be able to release albums under this label for the rest of my career and I'd hope that the sort of people that we sign would like to do the same things. We may not have the pull that the major labels have, but we have the heart and dedication that some of them do not.”
So what's next on the agenda for the label? A follow-up from Savannah or a new signing?
“There's a couple of people that we've recently signed, we're just waiting on announcing those. Right now they're writing and recording. I think Savannah has a couple of new songs ready for release, so we'll spend some time together and figure out which direction she wants to go with the next single and I may have something of my own ready for release sometime quite soon too. There's this thought process in the music industry that if you're not seen to be doing something then you aren't really doing anything. The reality is that we're working hard almost every day but these things sometimes takes time.”
And a brand new album could perhaps be on the horizon for yourself?
“That's the idea. When it'll be ready, I just don't know. I think it'll be something a little different this time around, I'll be working in more of a band environment, more collaborative. Much more of a noisy, dirty rock and roll vibe. We've got around seven songs locked in and a bunch more that we're working on. It's a nice process, to work with a band on making these songs and seeing them come to life at a time when I thought this would be the last thing I'd be doing right now.”Edited by user 23 December 2018 18:38:21(UTC)
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