Set 31 | Brody Price

Dallas has long been seen as a transplant city, and in the last two years alone, the national census bureau ranked DFW as having the largest growth of any metropolitan area in the U.S. This growth has led to a refreshing influx of artists and musicians, such as Brody Price, who moved up north from Austin a few years back. “Being anyone, going to any new city, you'd show up and be like how do I get a foot in the door anywhere or meet anyone that plays. That was tough,” says Brody. Making a move to a new city or out of state always results in some lag time before you're able to truly understand the lay of the land, but all in all, he notes that the people in Dallas and Austin are the same, and as is the case with anywhere you go, “You pretty quickly find the people you mesh with, and that you like, and that are supportive,” says Brody. However, one of the major differences he's noticed between the two cities is the lack of listening rooms for smaller artists in Dallas. “There are more venues of quality in Austin for smaller and medium artists I think, so if you’re just starting off you can get a slot at like a venue that’s gonna sound great, and people will probably come… and you can just kind of keep working your way up the ladder… where it seems like in Dallas… if your someone who plays quiet music you have kind of like the All Good Café or Poor David’s that are really quality listening rooms.” Finding places to play in Dallas has been of particular importance to Brody because, five months fresh off the release of his debut album, What’s the Point in Trying, he isn’t in a huge hurry to jump back into recording. “I have a lot of songs written, I probably could get in and record at some point, but it just takes so much time the way that I record. I do most of it myself. The way I recorded the last one was I just took two to three weeks and just every day woke up super early and record a song a day… it was awesome, but it was a pretty exhausting process.”

Although many of the songs featured on What’s the Point in Trying were fully formed prior to the start of recording, Brody explains that a couple of them were written on the spot while laying down the melodies for the record. Lyrically, the album presents itself like a vignette of short stories accented by Brody’s tasteful Travis picking and some subtle overdubbing of a pedal steel, bass, and fiddle which come together to create a beautiful sonic atmosphere. The lithe tone of Brody's voice softly dancing around each melody brings his lyrics to life, infusing them with a melancholic quality that is easily relatable. By using this stripped down approach, the lyrics and melody become the central focus of each song, highlighting his songwriting talent. "I write every day," says Brody, "and for me writing will be anything that kind of moves forward the process of actually making a song, so a lot of times it's reading or writing something that’s not a song and then from that you’re kind of gathering the raw materials to eventually sit down and have a song come out.” Brody sees the process of writing as an ongoing phenomenon, and mentions that even now (months after he has finished recording and the album is out) the songs on the record have been changing when he plays them live - as he spontaneously substitutes lines and words to capture a more natural, conversational sound. With a string of Texas and regional tour dates lined up this month, he seems open to exploring how his songs will develop over time on stage.

You can follow Brody Price at the links below and catch him at his next show in Dallas, TBA.