NEW YORK (AP) — Kane Brown is in his new home studio just outside Nashville, preparing to have the first sit-down conversation about his fourth studio album, “The High Road.” It’s a fitting title, because pounding the pavement is something he’s more than familiar with. A few short days ago, he was in Los Angeles, performing at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball alongside an eclectic mix of the biggest performers — SZA, Tate McRae, Madison Beer, T-Pain, Paris Hilton and K-pop group NCT Dream among them.
To the untrained ear, it might seem unusual pairing — one of the great modern country voices alongside pop acts. But genre-mixing? That’s something Brown knows a little bit about, too.
Country is at the heart of everything he does — the genre’s narrative style, fiddles, slide guitar and Brown’s signature twang carry throughout — but “The High Road” isn’t afraid to play with different sounds. He says he’s “always been kind of nervous to push boundaries and do certain things. But I’ve been here for almost a decade now, so I needed to stop hiding and just do what I love to do. And country is always my number one.”
“This is by far my favorite album, from the sequencing to the songwriting to the different sounds. There’s definitely a song for everybody,” he continues. “My other albums, I always kind of, you know, cared what people thought about. And this album, we don’t… we gave our everything into the songs.”
He’s also no stranger to working with a variety of artists, from regional Mexican country superstar Carin León on “The One (Pero No Como Yo),” which released earlier this year, to 2019’s “One Thing Right” with EDM giant Marshmello. The helmet-wearing DJ is back on “The High Road,” with the radio smash “Miles On It.”
Comments