Meet Nashville’s Rising Star: Chris Bricks

An Interview With Guernslye Honoré

Learn stage presence — Learn about where you should be looking, how you should be moving, your distance from and coordination with the other band members. Watch videos of yourself performing and take notes.

As a part of our series about Nashville’s rising stars, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Chris Bricks.

Chris Bricks is a songwriter, music producer and a multi-instrumentalist who caters to a variety of music enthusiasts. Infusing the sounds of some of his influences (Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, Paul Cauthen, Morgan Wallen, The Black Keys, James Brown, The Beatles, Elvis, ELO, Rolling Stones, Nine Inch Nails, TOOL and MØ), Chris finds immeasurable enjoyment in crafting melodies for a vast array of music fans to enjoy.

Combining theatricality and infectious enthusiasm with heartfelt sincerity, the country rock recording artist brings his high-energy performances to the stage with innovative and dramatic flair. Having toured nationally as pop rock act Plaid Brixx, he opened for groups such as Smash Mouth, Cute Is What We Aim For and secured a 30-date tour with modern pop-punk icons We The Kings. The Chris Bricks live show highlights soulful sing along vocals, handstands, acrobatics as well as fan participation.

The Nashville based artist-producer has amassed more than 5 million on-demand streams and his country debut, “Rock & Roll,” offers a taste of what’s to come from Bricks’ waterfall series anticipated in 2024.

Website chrisbricks.com

-TikTok @chrisbricksmusic

-Instagram @chrisbricksmusic

-YouTube @chrisbricksmusic

-X @melodicbricks

-Facebook @chrisbricksmusic

-Twitch @chrisbricksmusic

Thank you so much for joining us in this series! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Tell us a bit of the back story of how you grew up and how your upbrinGing, home life, hometown/community shaped who you are today and how this breathes into your music.

I moved around a lot as a kid so, I never really had solid roots anywhere until I was around seven in Columbus, OH. My family members all had varying taste in music and exposed me to a wide array of music from the time I was in diapers. My older sister played Nirvana, my brother would play early 90s hip-hop and Led Zeppelin, my dad played Beach Boys, Neil Young, classical music and classic rock, and my mom would play country music. We lived on a horse farm around this time and the horse community was all about country music. That’s where I really heard a lot of country anthems and learned to line dance.

Please share a story with us about what brought you to your music/entertainment career path, what inspired you music career?

I always showed aptitude for music — music teachers at my various schools would pull my parents aside to share their insight that I was different. When I was around seven, I demanded an electric guitar and immediately started to teach myself to play easy things, like the melody to “Jingle Bells,” by ear. I didn’t really think of music as a viable career option until much later, in college, when I switched from an economics degree to a music production and business degree.

Share the most interesting story that has happened to you since you began your career?

The stand-out story to date is being nominated for an Independent Music Award for an album I recorded in my parent’s basement. But, I also have to mention the opportunity when me and my band opened for We The Kings on a national 30-show tour.

It has been said that sometimes our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made since launching your music career and the lesson you learned from the mishap?

I would say that my biggest mistake, albeit it was a “successful mistake,” was transitioning from rock into full-fledged uberpop music. I wasn’t happy making songs in that style, the guitar is practically an extension of my arm at this point, and releasing songs without it felt unnatural and unauthentic to me.

Can you share with us an interesting story about living in or working (recording) in Nashville?

Living and observing life in Nashville is the sole inspiration for my new single, “Rock & Roll.” An interesting story from the recording process is that I was at my co-producer John Shaw’s studio and we were taking a break in between songs. I took a walk around his yard and identified so many ancient tools and pottery shards eroding out of the hillside. I believe his property may be the site of a Missippian-era Native American settlement. ( Archaeology is one of my hobbies.)

What are you personal favorite things to share about living in or visiting Nashville? Please offer some specific examples or stories about you “Nashville” experience.

I live downtown and I love being able to exit my apartment building and hear live music immediately. It really doesn’t bother me that the bars are blasting music late into the night, because it reminds me that we have a vibrant musical ecosystem thriving in this city. My favorite nightlife experience so far has probably been renting the party tractor for the “Rock & Roll” official music video and traveling around town rocking out. (Sorry to anyone who got stuck behind us in traffic on Broadway!)

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person, or persons, who helped you to get where you are? Can you share a story about their support or advice?

My mom has been instrumental to my success. She is my manager and, according to my actual attorney, she knows contracts better than most lawyers. She has caught things in contracts over the years that would have potentially exposed me to massive liabilities and problematic perpetuity clauses. I am very grateful for her guidance and support over the years. She also refuses to “blow smoke” — she tells me when she doesn’t like a song when other people say: “Wow! That’s great,” even when they didn’t like it.

Tell us about the new projects you are working on now or planning for the future.

I’ve spent all of 2023 working on this country rock project (with the first single “Rock & Roll” dropping on Oct. 6). Early next year, I plan to release another single and an EP. I have 10 songs finished so far and another 50 in various states of completion.

List “5 things you wish someone had told you when I first started” and why.

1. Don’t release your first songs — A lot of the songs I recorded as I was learning to write were not good. I didn’t know they weren’t good songs and that I was a terrible singer at the time because of the Dunning-Kruger effect which can be summarized as “the less you know the more you think you know.”
2. Take vocal lessons — If you are serious about pursuing a career in music, even if you are a musician and not a singer, you should still get vocal training because you could sing backup vocals which is a great and marketable skill for band members. If you’re a lead vocalist and you don’t get any vocal training then you are not doing your job.
3. Learn stage presence — Learn about where you should be looking, how you should be moving, your distance from and coordination with the other band members. Watch videos of yourself performing and take notes.
4. Don’t be an Artist with a capital A — It’s fine to write introspective songs about your life but always remember that people need to connect with your music; so, you don’t want to be so “artistic” that people lose your message or get confused about the meaning.
5. Learn how to film and edit videos — if you can create content on your own without someone else helping you, you are going to save a lot of time and money. And if you aren’t making video content regularly then you are very behind the game. Indie artists have to work harder than established artists and this means putting in those extra hours grinding out content.

Which advice or tips would you recommend to up n’ comers in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

I think my answers to the “5 Things” are a good summation to cover the “thriving” part of this question. I would say the best way to avoid burnout is to take at least one day off a week. I generally don’t follow this rule and I tend to get very stressed and burned out, and when this happens I can lose a week every so often so I might as well just take one day off a week :)

Being in the public eye, you are a person of influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I wish I had a magic wand to erase bullying and violence. …and as someone who has overcome struggles with the lifelong disease of alcohol addiction, I’d like to be a beacon of hope for people who are struggling with the addiction.

Can you share some insights into your creative process? How do you approach songwriting? How do you approach musical collaborations?

My approach to songwriting is to create mostly fleshed-out instrumental tracks with full programmed drums and then write melodies to them. Then, I start to add words to the melodies. I much prefer to work alone. I’m not very good at and do not enjoy collaboration during songwriting. It’s a lot different collaborating with a band on the musicality of a live performance and I, actually, thoroughly enjoy that. But songwriting for me is a deeply private and mostly a solo activity.

What do you believe sets your music apart from any other recording artist or entertainer? How do you connect with your audience?

My blend of country, rock and pop makes my sound unique. Being so heavily involved in every aspect of my creative endeavors — whether it’s writing and producing my own songs and music videos, or designing my album covers and developing marketing strategies — I think makes for a more personal connection between me and my listeners.

With your busy schedule and demanding performances, how do you prioritize self-care and maintain a balance between your personal life and career in the music industry>

I work out a lot, do a ton of hot yoga, and high-intensity interval training. I like to meditate and do it whenever I can. I’m also a certified hot vinyasa yoga instructor; it was my covid-project.

What is your favorite “Life Lesson Quote” or motto and please share how that it is relevant to you in your life and career path.

“Talent is not enough.” You can be naturally talented at something but it’s not enough to get you to the top. Ninety-nine percent of people will have to work extremely hard to be successful, in addition to any natural abilities or talents they have. And if you forget that, you can get complacent.

What person in the world, or in the US, living or deceased, would you like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why?

Akhenaten was a pharaoh of ancient Egypt who was nearly erased from the historical record by the Egyptian priesthood and we don’t really know for sure why. I’d love to chat with him about what life was like back then, and see ancient Egypt for myself. I’d love to get any insights he has about how to be a successful leader and hear some of the ancient Egypt’s musical compositions.

Thanks so much for having me Authority Magazine

Where can readers follow you online?

-Website chrisbricks.com

-TikTok @chrisbricksmusic

-Instagram @chrisbricksmusic

-YouTube @chrisbricksmusic

-X @melodicbricks

-Facebook @chrisbricksmusic

-Twitch @chrisbricksmusic

This was very meaningful, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!

About the interviewer: Guernslye Honoré, affectionately known as “Gee-Gee”, is an amalgamation of creativity, vision, and endless enthusiasm. She has elegantly twined the worlds of writing, acting, and digital marketing into an inspiring tapestry of achievement. As the creative genius at the heart of Esma Marketing & Publishing, she leads her team to unprecedented heights with her comprehensive understanding of the industry and her innate flair for innovation. Her boundless passion and sense of purpose radiate from every endeavor she undertakes, turning ideas into reality and creating a realm of infinite possibilities. A true dynamo, Gee-Gee’s name has become synonymous with inspirational leadership and the art of creating success.