Interview: Thomas Rhett on How ‘Espresso’ Producer, Julian Bunetta, Helped Him Rediscover His Creative Freedom

In many ways, Thomas Rhett is a modern-day country paradox.

On the one hand, he's known for his disarmingly amiable personality and the familial, humble warmth he exudes, regardless of whether he's striding across the stage in front of thousands of adoring fans or chatting to you via a 1:1 interview.

On the other, since his emergence over ten years ago with his debut album, It Goes Like This, Thomas Rhett has been a controversial figure thanks to his outward-facing, genre-blurring approach to songwriting. It seems somewhat ridiculous to call the perennially affable hitmaker behind ‘Die a Happy Man’ “controversial”, but his sleek blend of R&B, pop and country has drawn criticism from traditionalists.

Thomas Rhett muses on the cause of his unintentional divisiveness, “I've always been a polarizing artist musically, because I'm a country singer, but I've always pushed that boundary of pop, R&B, soul and rock ‘n‘ roll. That comes from a genuine place, you know? I mean, I grew up with a dad that was literally a walking jukebox, and on the way to school every morning it was something different...I think that's why my records have never been 100% cohesive, because I'm musically all over the place. Somehow the record ends up being uncohesively cohesive”.

Although this unfair flak has been drowned out by the millions of fans TR has accumulated over his career, he admits that, particularly during his last two album cycles, he let this outside noise affect his inner calm and, as a result, his creative process.

“COVID did a number on all of us”, TR explains, “Being so secluded and not being able to get like that instant feedback from fans from constantly being on the road [was difficult]...I made a couple of records that I'm for sure proud of, but...and ‘fear’ is not the right word...but I think those records were not made from a free place”.

He candidly expands, “I don't know where that came from. I don't know if it was because it was my fifth and sixth record, and I'd already had so much success that I felt like there's so much to lose. When you're on the climb, there's nothing to lose. You just keep doing the next right step, and then all of a sudden, you start selling out arenas, you sell out amphitheaters, you start opening for your heroes in stadiums, and you're like, ‘Man, there are a lot of eyeballs on me now’. Like, ‘Please, let's not mess up’...and when you start making music out of anything but freedom, it feels like there's a weight on all the music”.

Now, though, Thomas Rhett is feeling freer than ever before as he gears up to release his seventh studio album, About a Woman, and he credits his producer, Julian Bunetta, with helping to cultivate this new mindset in the writing room and the studio.

The ‘What's Your Country Song’ singer-songwriter recalls, “Somewhere around the the beginning of last year, I started having a conversation with the guy who actually produced this whole next record - Julian Bunetta, who I've been friends with for forever. He produced all the One Direction stuff, and just recently produced the whole Sabrina Carpenter record, and the whole new Teddy Swims project. He looked at me, and he was like, ‘Man, it had been six years since I had a hit, and I just kept coming back, because I love it. He was like, ‘How much do you love this?’ That was a very pivotal question for me, because I was like, ‘Man, I love it more than most things in the world, minus my family. Music is what I live and breathe. So he's like, ‘Well, let's write from that heart, rather than this heart’”.

Endearingly, that sense of freedom radiates throughout About a Woman. Thomas Rhett has always sounded like an inherently cheerful person, as he croons lovingly to his wife on past staples such as ‘Look What God Gave Her‘, ‘Bass Pro Shops’ and ‘Angels’. But on this new record, he sounds happier than ever, delivering the untethered, bubblegum-pop-leaning opener ‘Fool’ with a twinkle in his eye, before showering the listener in a soothing wave of rose-tinted nostalgia on ‘Overdrive’.

Thomas Rhett has always been known for crafting love-songs about Lauren, and admirably, rather than shying away from this favoured source of inspiration on the new record, he's decided to embrace this and mould the entire project around his marriage.

TR underlines, “About a Woman was the most freeing record that I've got to make. I think if I hadn't had the last four or five years of my life since COVID, I would describe that as the valley, if you will, and I feel like I'm finally climbing back up the mountain again. And it feels so good, dude, like I really have not been this excited to play music in a very long time, and I feel like this record is just joyful and playful”.

He cites his sophomore album, Tangled Up, as the touchstone for this level of freedom and experimentation. That record saw Nashville's newest stars flitting between EDM, R&B and - at times - straight-up Rap that would foreshadow subsequent hits on Life Changes such as the title-track, ‘Craving You’ and ‘Leave Right Now’.

This refreshingly fluid, chameleonic style would continue into 2019's Center Point Road, although TR was already becoming notably more nostalgic and wistful, laying the foundation for the COVID-penned Country Again (Side A). On the latter, Thomas Rhett strips it all away and dives deeper into ‘pure’ country than he's ever been before.

It remains a fan-favourite and showcases Thomas Rhett's signature versatility, as did its more uptempo, pop-infused successor, Where We Started. However, TR describes both as arising from a headspace where he was overly concerned with other people's opinions.

He admits, “The word that keeps coming to mind when I think of this project is ‘freedom’...2019 was the last year I felt that same freedom. Whatever I'm feeling, I'm just going to say. Whatever sounds and feels good, that's what's gonna go on the record”.

Thomas Rhett reflects on how, with the guidance of Bunetta, he's worked on getting back to the carefree process of his earlier projects, “There's a quote - and I don't know who said it, but somebody smarter than me - that says, ‘If you try to please everybody, you'll please nobody’. I've always been a pretty big people-pleaser, ever since I was young. I always wanted to make sure that everybody was having a good time, that everybody felt welcome, and I took that responsibility on myself. Even when I play my shows, if there are 15,000 people in an arena, and two people are not having a good time, I take it upon myself to make sure those two people have just as much fun as the as the other 14,998 people”.

Now, he's throwing caution to the wind, and focussing on making music he loves. Thomas Rhett boldly emphasises that, whatever listeners’ responses are to About a Woman, as long as it's not apathy or a shrug of the shoulders, he'll consider that a success.

The ‘T-Shirt’ crooner highlights, “‘Fine’ was the opposite of what I wanted. I want the listener to either love it so much that they can't help but talk about it, or hate it so bad that they can't help but talk about it. ‘Fine’ doesn't do anything for anybody”.

You can say what you like about Thomas Rhett - that he's not country enough, or that he's too country, perhaps. But one thing you can't deny is that his new album, About a Woman, is the furthest thing from ‘fine’. TR manages to push his sound down brand new avenues, with ‘What Could Go Right’ cushioned by ethereal dream-pop textures while ‘Somethin’ ‘Bout a Woman’ finds TR channelling his inner-Stapleton for a pining, soulful ballad, with both still maintaining his trademark, comforting sense of familiarity. Bunetta's influence is apparent here, as it is on the inventive, Whitney Houston-interpolating ‘Don't Wanna Dance’.

In 2018, if you'd had thrown the label ‘paradox’ TR's way, he might've taken it to heart and taken umbrage. Now, he'd take it as the highest of compliments. Across About a Woman, Thomas Rhett is back to his paradoxical, risk-taking, label-defying best.

Thomas Rhett's new studio album, About a Woman, is out on Friday, August 23rd.

For more on Thomas Rhett, see below: