“He Just is Really a Very, Very Normal Guy”: Big Loud's CEO Seth England Pays Touching Tribute to Morgan Wallen

Credit where credit is due.

In a new interview with Variety, Big Loud Records’ triple-threat, CEO Seth England, songwriter Craig Wiseman and producer Joey Moi, have shed some light on what it's like working with their No. 1 hitmaker and long-time signee, Morgan Wallen.

Wallen inked a deal with Big Loud Records back in 2016, making him one of the first artists to be signed to the new label, alongside the likes of Chris Lane and Florida Georgia Line.

Now, thanks to Wallen and other trailblazers such as HARDY, Ashley Cooke, ERNEST, Miranda Lambert, Dylan Gossett, Stephen Wilson Jr. and Hailey Whitters, Big Loud has cemented itself as one of the premier artist-homes in Music City.

During their conversation with Variety, England, Wiseman and Moi have delved into the rapid evolution of Big Loud Records, with each member of the team heartwarmingly underlining just how organic and seamless the creative process is with Wallen.

When asked whose idea it was for the ‘Last Night’ chart-topper to start releasing albums with over 30 songs, with Wallen's latest project, I'm the Problem, being his longest yet, England responds, “You know why this one was 37? Because he recorded 60. And that’s with Joey; I can’t believe Joey’s not looking 10 years older, just because of the hours. He recorded 60 because he wrote 150, 200”.

Moi reveals that he and the Sneedville megastar had 60 songs recorded and ready to roll for I'm the Problem, “We cut 60 and had 50 where we actually had a mix on it. Usually I know if it’s not gonna make the record because he’ll sound less inspired when he is singing it, and I’m going, “You don’t want to sing this every night, do you?” He is like, “Nah, I don’t want that,” then we’ll move on from the song. But we cut 60 and got through 50 where he felt inspired to sing them and I was somewhere along the way in a mix on it. We had a whiteboard and were mercilessly hacking songs off to make sure the 37 were the cream of the crop”.

Moi goes on, “He’ll usually give us one. He’s like, “Okay, let’s do that one.”…That’s a very rare quality to see in a primary artist like that, that he can self-A&R with other people and still really drive the standard on his own music…I’ve been doing this 25 years now, and that’s a really rare quality that I might have seen maybe two, three times”.

England expands, “His 30-plus song efforts started with Dangerous, just because he was hyper-creating. We never set out to do a big volume as a strategy. It only came by him sitting in the boardroom with Joey and I and going, ‘Man, I’m up to 18 songs, what am I gonna do?’ I recall a Drake album that had like 30 at the time because he just had a burst of creativity. I was like, “Well, man, just make the music, make it honestly, and we’ll figure this out.” But it wasn’t based off some trite strategy”.

It's interesting that England name-checks rap phenom, Drake, an artist Wallen has become good friends with in recent years, and someone that remains at the top of our bucket-list of collaborations for the ‘Thought You Should Know’ singer-songwriter.

England pays tribute to Wallen's growth in recent years, “I’m proud that he has scaled where he has - he deserves it. To sit front row and watch the human being deal with that…We all know he had some speed bumps and some moments of maturity and growth of the last few years. But this year it is been his best year we’ve ever seen him. It’s almost like it’s never over in terms of battling with that duality. But man, I just love being around him. He’s a great dad. He has a fitness club he puts together with some songwriter buddies. He’s just really a good friend to people. And, actually, if anything, what he struggles with is just not being that public face. If he ever feels superficial, he just won’t do it. He just is really a very, very normal guy - which is funny, to know him behind the scenes as a human, and then to see him go on stage and become this larger-than-life character. He is great at that, but he’s only that for a few nights a year”.

Later in their discussion, Moi gushes about Wallen's continued and successful efforts to elevate his fellow songwriters, such as ERNEST and HARDY, “One of Morgan’s best skills, aside from being an entertainer, is he has an amazing ability to nurture and empower the songwriting community around him. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed anyone any better at that than him. There’s a lot of great collaborators that he’s been able to inspire and empower, and he’s brought a lot of really young gunslingers with him that have really helped him with that. To me that (songwriting) is the nucleus, and we’re just trying to be as close to the nucleus as we can, and push it in the right direction and use it for our advantage”.

England then teases that, despite dropping a 37-song album in May, Wallen has already turned his attention to new music, “Another superpower Morgan has is, he’s such a self-starter. We don’t have to call him to say, “Hey, are you ready to make some music?” Right now we’re two or three weeks done with his tour, and our text thread this morning was Morgan excited to get going; he’s written eight or 10 things”.

Moi jokes, “I got a terrifying text message from him: “Man, I think I’m ready to start cutting more songs.” It has been like four months [since I’m the Problem came out]”.

Well, with rumours of a deluxe version of I'm the Problem - featuring a potential collaboration with the artist England cites as first opening the gates for longer albums, Drake - we're keeping our fingers crossed that Moi has accepted Wallen's call to return to the studio. Or perhaps, instead, we'll get to hear some of those extra cuts from the I'm the Problem sessions that didn't make it onto the final project...Either way, with Wallen cementing himself as the biggest country artist on the planet, we're simply looking forward to what he has next up his sleeve.

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: