BRELAND Opens Up About Pursuing His Passions After Being Told Artistry 'Wasn't A Possibility'

BRELAND's perspective on his "crazy journey" and the dreams he's realized comes after overcoming doubts from others. He said that "prior to [debut single] 'My Truck' coming out, I had some aspirations of being an artist, but had been told by a lot of people in the industry, and people that I was close to at the time, that it wasn't a possibility for me, that I didn't have the thing that I would need to be an artist, that I should just focus on writing songs for other people," he reflected. "I do love writing songs and I'm always going to write songs for other people. But I also think that if you have a desire to put out music for yourself, that you should be encouraged to do that. I always encourage up-and-coming writers and producers or anyone who wants to get into this field, just do it because this is an art form and who am I to tell someone that their art doesn't deserve to exist in the world?

"So there was a lot that was going on with me in 2020 and 2021 of just trying to wrap my mind around what was happening, and I didn't have a whole lot of time to plan for the future because I was caught off guard by the rapid success of that song and then all of the different opportunities that were coming up, things in my life that were changing very quickly, recognizability when I was walking in public," BRELAND continued. "Those were all very, very new things for me at the time and took some adjusting to. I would say in the last couple of years, it's been fun to dream, 'OK, well, what do I want this next chapter to look like?,' and really plan it in a way that I wasn't able to do as much with my first project."

BRELAND's Key to Collaborating

BRELAND considers his relationships with other artists, regardless of genre boundaries, to be "one of the biggest tools in my toolkit." The singer-songwriter and basketball fan has referred to himself as the "pen point guard," explaining that "the major trademarks of a point guard is being unselfish, wanting to be able to share the ball, wanting to be able to find open teammates and watch them score and help facilitate that. But then also when the lane is open, being able to go in and make sure you can get your points as well. I've always felt that way about music when I'm creating music with different people, especially when I write with different artists."

The Cross Country artist said the key to collaborating well is to have "no ego. …I'm always open-minded to someone coming with a better idea, and I'm pretty objective and egoless enough to be able to recognize when they have," he said. "My energy is really more like, 'let's try to make the best song that we can,' and we'll figure out the specifics of who sings what and where and when and how later. People have been really receptive to that approach."

One project BRELAND is working on as an executive producer is with Jimmy Butler, with Kameron Marlowe, Jordan Davis, Parker McCollum and "artists outside of the country music genre" taking part in it. "Jimmy has kind of entrusted me with helping to piece together the music for this project as well as helping to source some of the collaborations that are going to be the major selling point of that album. And Jimmy loves country music and loves a lot of other genres too. So, it's a lot of genreless stuff, but I'd say it's country leaning for sure with Jimmy being from Texas and having so many great relationships here in the genre," he shared.

BRELAND's relationships in the genre include Ingrid Andress, Thomas Rhett, Lady A, Keith Urban and Mickey Guyton, who all appeared on his debut studio album, Cross Country. The long-awaited project arrived in September 2022. Now, BRELAND is looking ahead to his second record.