“We Were Really Trying to Dig Deep”: Morgan Wallen Discusses the Creative Process Behind His New Album, ‘I'm the Problem’

After revealing his blockbuster 37-song tracklist for his forthcoming album, I'm the Problem, Morgan Wallen has shed some light on the creative process behind the new project.

In an official statement accompanying the unveiling of the lengthy tracklist, which features guest appearances from Tate McRae, Eric Church, HARDY, Post Malone and ERNEST, Wallen has underlined that he wanted to break new ground on this record.

The ‘Love Somebody’ singer-songwriter reflects, “A lot of the concepts and things we said were a little more difficult with this album”. This has been evident from the rollout so far, with Morgan Wallen exploring deeply vulnerable territory and sparser compositions on the likes of ‘Smile’, ‘I'm a Little Crazy’ and ‘Lies, Lies, Lies’.

“We were trying to dig deep on things and trying to find new angles, the ‘Thought You Should Know’ hitmaker candidly expands, “And I feel like we did that. I feel like there's a lot of stuff that I haven't said in this record, which I'm really, really proud of”.

This last comment seemingly reenforces what Morgan Wallen discussed with Theo Von on last month's This Past Weekend podcast episode, when the country titan underlined that he wasn't looking to retrace the steps he's made on previous projects.

Morgan Wallen mused, “A lot of the easy wins for me used to be songs about whiskey and heartbreak”, before stressing, “But I’ve done that. This time, I wanted to dig deeper”. He also confirmed he would be utilising fewer trap-leaning beats, which were a key feature of 2023's One Thing At A Time, such as on ‘180 (Lifestyle)’.

One undoubted way in which Morgan Wallen is testing new avenues is through releasing his first ever duet with a female artist. As debuts go, it's hard to think of many better options out there than Canadian phenom, Tate McRae, whose sleek, infectious sonics will seemingly find Wallen leaning into the pop textures of ‘Love Somebody’.

With a dizzying array of never-heard-before tracks set to drop on May 16th as part of the Sneedville megastar's new project, it'll be fascinating to see how Morgan Wallen continues to push himself to new sounds and heights across I'm the Problem.

Thankfully, with the sense of anticipation sky-high at the moment, we'll be getting another long-awaited, genre-blurring track - ‘I Ain't Comin’ Back’ with Wallen's ‘I Had Some Help‘ collaborator, Post Malone - tomorrow (Friday, April 18th) to tide us over.

For more on Morgan Wallen, see below: