CRS 2024: 5 QUESTIONS WITH LEWIS BRICE 

1) Your most current single “Product Of” is tearing it up right now with millions of streams and charting success with radio. Tell us a little bit about the story behind the song. It comes from quite the personal place for you.

I wrote that song with a couple of really good friends, Mark Addison Chandler, Josh Gallagher, and Taylor Goyette. I went into the write that day with the idea of “Product Of.” I wanted to write something personal, and my thought was that if I’m a product of this kind of upbringing then I bet a lot of people are the product of a small town.

We started talking about where I’m from, Sumter County, SC.

Started talking about my daddy growing up; he was an electrician, a lineman for 20 some odd years.

My mom did insurance, was an RN, and then she helped my daddy run his business.

The whole song is a three-and-a-half-minute story of how my parents raised my brother and I with small-town love, a great work ethic, a blue-collar mindset of working for what you get, and to really live on love.

That’s what I’m the product of and I feel the song really sums up where I come from.

2) Do you feel that the honesty of the lyrics and the incredible vocal performance are key aspects to the song earning such substantial radio play? Also, with those reasons being the more obvious, what other aspects of the song do you feel have attracted the fans to it so much?

I think it has its moments of familiarity for people. I know that I’m not the only one who grew up in a small town. I’m not the only one who grew up digging ditches. As the son of an electrician that was a side business we were doing; digging ditches for mobile homes, putting service into mobile homes…I was a gopher.

Also, I think people gravitate toward the music feel of it. That is my core signature sound. It’s got a rock-n-roll aspect, but it’s also that cool power ballad feel. It’s got that country, very innocent but true story behind it.

3) You paired up with your brother Lee on the song, which just makes such perfect sense. How important was it for you to have him be a part of such a snapshot of y’all’s life?

Crazy enough…we had already recorded that song without him on it. I recorded a video without him in it. We were about to release it. As we were getting the whole plan together, my team and I get a call from my brother, and he was like, “Lewis, I love this song. If there’s ever a song I’m gonna be on, this needs to be the song cause it’s so true and it’s about us.”

Of course, we were all like, “Man…home run! Let’s go.”

So, we went back in and cut his vocal on the song. But the video piece was interesting. We had already shot the video in my hometown of Sumter in the winter, and now we’re looking at May, so it was a little warmer outside. To really bring it all together, I had some shows on the road with my brother and we thought let’s grab a clip of me and you on the road and slide the b-roll into the right spots of the music video.

That’s a really special moment when I get to play shows with my brother; and for me, it feels right to have him on this track.

And with this being my very first record, all the songs on it really are the product of who I am in this moment, so to have him be a part of it is a really cool full circle moment.

4) The song is lifted from your album of the same name, which also features “Thanks For The Heartbreak” and “Seeing Summer.” Looking ahead, is there a next single from the album in line right now or even perhaps, new music that’s in the works for later this year?

A little bit of both. We’re gonna push “Product Of” to the moon until the wheels fall off, but I think looking ahead, “Seeing Summer” possibly could be a second one if we’re trying to look for a summer song.

“Shadows” though…the very last song on the record. The piano ballad. I know ballads are a tough sell at radio, but that song is just so special. It’s so different. I wrote it during a writer’s retreat, and it was the last song we wrote cause I needed a piano ballad. We shot a really cool video for it that’s sitting in a fault, so if we do launch that song, we already have a lot of cool stuff ready.

People don’t really know what it means to say “Shadows.” For me, I’m always in the spotlight, on stage, taking pictures, shaking hands, but a lot of the reasons for that is because I’ve written so many songs about my wife. When I look at it, she’s my candle. She’s my flame that I look to and I’m fine with sitting in her shadow.

5) We have so many aspiring songwriters and artists that read our website, so we always like to end by asking this…what is the best piece of advice you can offer?

Don’t be afraid to go out to places like the Tin Roof on a Monday night or Live Oak during a writer’s round. And if you are a writer and want to play, search out who is putting on those writer’s rounds. If you ask them if you can play their round, 1000% they will get you on their stage at some point.

I tell my friends who are new to town, go out and talk…ask! You may not always get that call, but that one time you do, you never know where its gonna lead. If you don’t ask the question, then you never know the answer.

(Interview by: Jeffrey Kurtis) 

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