On the song selection process for the CD, he said, “I didn’t approach it at all. I didn’t even know I was writing a record. I was focusing on my family, and while I was doing all that, I wrote an album.”
He revealed that the title track “Down at the Liquor Store” is his most personal song, and described this collection as a “photo album of his life.” “As far as my memory of a child, sometimes you need to go away, and experience a whole lot, and come back years later, and I saw it all so different,” he said. “In all my music in Nashville, I tried to reflect on home, and really draw from that.”
Regarding the digital transformation of the music scene, Azar said, “I figured out how to produce my own records, and do things my own way with my own formula, and it really helped me find myself. At some point, you need to navigate yourself to be honest enough to make a record. The music business has changed astronomically. I want people to stream my records. I have friends who wrote multiple No. 1 songs that are driving Uber now. Back in the days, there were heavy sales and radio airplay, you used to rely on your song and publishing, rather than falling off a cliff. That’s what happening now. You either have to adapt or improvise or do something else. I don’t know anything else. I have a great, smart team around me. I have the best publicist of my life, Bob Merlis, and it’s cool that he wants to work with me.”
Azar shared that he loves to perform out on the road. “I live for it. The recording process used to be a burden, but with this record, I went in and didn’t think about anything. I wanted every song to live up to its expectations, and I felt that we did that,” he said. “I enjoyed the whole time doing it.”
He did a new commercial for McDonald’s and their “All Day Breakfast.” “I did it since it was all in the name of art. I said ‘yes’ and my daughter did the commercial with me, and we drove around the Mississippi River bridge and the backroads in the delta. It was fun to do,” he said. “I had that lick for 15 years, and obviously never wrote anything with it, so it was time to put that lick to bed.”
Azar has nothing but the greatest, congratulatory remarks about Mississippi’s Sam Kendricks, who took home the gold medal in the men’s pole vault at the 2017 World Championships in London. “The kid can down right fly!” Azar exclaimed. “He’s like some Mississippi artist using his athletic abilities to paint his story of will, determination and hard work. And thus, all that time put in, helping him to become the best in the world. Now that’s big, and that’s cool. Hotty Toddy.”
His new album, Down at the Liquor Store, is available on iTunes.
To check out the Pledge Music campaign, click here.
For more information on Steve Azar and The Kings Men, visit their website.
Read More: Digital Journal reviewed Steve Azar’s album Down at the Liquor Store.
