With a string of No. 1 singles – 'Tomorrow' and 'You' from 2011's 'Neon,' and 'Gettin' You Home,' 'The Man I Want to Be' and 'Voices,' from 2009's 'The Man I Want to Be'-- there are expectations surrounding Chris Young's upcoming fourth album. But as for pressure? Pft. He's feeling none of that.

"Feeling like I had a batch of songs that I was excited about early in the process took a lot of the pressure off," Young told American Songwriter. "I’d be a little more nervous about doing all that if we didn’t have the songs."

Young also broke down the steps he took to get to the final product.

In October, he was two-thirds done and indicated that the songwriting process had changed a bit for him. In February, he was in the wrap up stages. Through it all, he's figuring out the artist (as opposed to the man) he wants to be.

"I feel like my songwriting on this record moved a little different and we wanted this record to be a little bit different than what we’ve done before,” he says. "[Producer] James [Stroud] and I talked about it before we made the 'Man I Want to Be' record. We said, ‘We’re going to make this one first and establish a style, not vary too much to the next record, then really play around on the one after that.'"

Another "new" element to the record is the way the guitars are being handled. Young revealed, "We’re doing a lot more with guitars, we’re doing some loop stuff, some vocal and doubling effects on this record."

Despite writing his own material, he isn't ruling out pitches from songwriters. There is always room for other sources on a Chris Young album. "I don’t know that I’ll ever cut an album that doesn’t have at least one outside song on it," he said. "Maybe if I’m doing it to prove a point or if I’m doing a concept record at some point, but there are too many writers in Nashville for me to not go find other songs."

He finished the recording process, with the final steps being the sequence and turning it into the label.

“There are so many little things you have to do at the end,” he confessed about the stages. "It’s like, 'Okay, I’ve sung everything and we’ve played everything,' but now we have to go back and nitpick everything to death before we’re finally finished with it."

He expected no last minute additions, since he's efficient with the process and doesn't record stuff, only to discard it and not use it.

“I don’t really overcut much. I don’t cut a bunch of songs then knock stuff off. I find what I love, go in there and cut it,” he said. "An album is a snapshot in time of who you are and where you are as an artist. So, as much as I will overthink it, you try not to overthink it."

There is a song that fans can look forward to called 'Lighters in the Air,' expected to be one of the 11 on the final album. It is a flirtatious romp about love. He is hoping it'll become his bonafide "encore" song. He hasn't had a show closing anthem yet, but this one feels like the best candidate for the job.

The album's first single is 'Aw Naw.' Read our review here.

 

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