Urban pulls Ripcord on different genres
Singer calls on diverse cast of artists for new CD
Keith Urban was on a crosscountry flight last year trying to finish a new song about living in the moment and not holding onto regrets. But he was also thinking about two men close to him that had recently died.
“I was thinking about my dad who had died the month before and Nic’s dad had died 12 months before,” Urban said, referring to his wife, actress Nicole Kidman. “All these people, where do they go? Forgetting all those spiritual beliefs, they were here and then they are gone.”
That song, Gone Tomorrow (Here Today), sets the stage for Urban’s eighth studio album, Ripcord. The platinum-selling country singer explored his rhythmic roots while blending genres with a diverse musical cast including Carrie Underwood, rapper Pitbull and guitarist and producer Nile Rodgers.
Each time Urban previewed Gone Tomorrow to family or friends, each listener seemed to hear a different sound in the synthesizerheavy track that features a six-string banjo, thumping drums and mystical EDM lyrics about dreams and light. One person thought it was bluegrass, another heard Middle Eastern influences, he said.
“I wouldn’t know how to describe stylistically what the song is because it encompasses so many things,” Urban said. “The fusion of all the various things, from melody to lyric to instrumentation to production to arrangement to the mix, every single aspect felt like I was planting a new flag for me. It was such that any song could go after it.”
For more than 15 years, Urban, 48, has been a broad musical thinker, but he balanced that with his songwriting.
It was Urban’s idea to team up with Rodgers, the legendary Chic guitarist who has worked with Daft Punk, Pharrell Williams, Madonna and David Bowie. Urban thought Rodgers’ rhythm guitar playing was a natural fit for his style of banjo playing
Urban and Rodgers spent hours putting together riffs and chords for the funky, groovy dance song Sun Don’t Let Me Down, but Urban felt it was still missing something. He asked Pitbull to write a rap verse.
Producer-songwriter Busbee, who co-produced Sun Don’t Let Me Down, said Urban has clarity about how to fit together diverse artists and music.
“It was just the right usage of everybody and it has cohesiveness as Keith’s sound, Nile’s sound and Pitbull’s sound, yet it’s commercially viable across multiple genres,” Busbee said.