Singer/Songwriter J.P. Burr is a country Bryan Adams and has been under the music industries lights since he was twenty three touring with Nashville based bands and artists. Growing up in Burns, Tennessee J.P. is crafting his sound to bring an ageless sound to country music giving it a mix of rock and roll.

BC: When did you realize that music is what you wanted to do as a career?

Burr: “I’ve always grown up around music and stuff, I’m pretty much the only one in my family that plays music. I’m primarily a guitar player so when I was probably eight or nine, one Christmas my uncle brought over a playstation two with the Guitar Hero game on it. My first song (on Guitar Hero) I got booed off stage and I failed the song. I came back again and I kind of got the hang of it and I saw the crowd and the stage and was like, ‘wait, this is kind of awesome.’ I kept playing a lot of Guitar Hero and I thought ‘I kind of want to do this for reals, this is sick.’ I asked for a guitar for Christmas and it’s all down hill from there.”

BC: What a great story - do you remember the first song you played on Guitar Hero?

Burr: “Yes, ‘Mother’ by Danzig. It’s a cool tune, I also have a cool attachment to it now.”

BC: Was there something you were equally passionate about or more passionate about before music?

Burr: “At the time I played a lot of Xbox,” Burr laughs, “I got into music and that kind of took over.”

BC: During COVID you reconnected with songwriting, how did you find inspiration at the time when everything was shut down?

Burr: “I’ve been touring for the last three years as a guitar player for different artists - primarily country artists. I’ve always been into a lot of different music - I had a heavy metal phase, a blues phase, a classic rock phase. Every kind of phase you could possibly have I had in middle school. I turned back to the music that gave me passion. I got so caught up in a routine of only playing when I was learning songs for a gig, practice for a pig or playing a show of somebody else’s. It’s fun - I love to be a guitar player, I love playing guitar I really do. You do that for long enough and aren’t quite as fulfilled. I’ve got a voice, I’ve got stuff to say. I think songwriting it fulfills me a little bit more than say just playing the music of other people.”

BC: Who inspires you to say what you want to say?

Burr: “Oh man, the first time I heard something and I was like, “Shit I need to do this, this is the coolest thing I’ve ever heard,’ I was in eighth grade, there was a local music store here in Bellview that had a student band workshop program where if you took lessons there they would kind of put you into these student bands and there would be a huge concert every couple months. This one band I was playing with, this guitar player suggested a John Mayer song. A lot of people don’t know is that he’s got a blues trio called John Mayer Trio and it’s absolutely electric. It’s incredible. I heard this song, and I went home and I purchased his Live in L.A. concert film I watched the whole thing. It opens it’s just him and his guitar in this stadium. He’s captivating this entire place, just one guy with an acoustic instrument. It’s just incredible. The way he plays, the way he sings. It was like, ‘ok I need to step it up a little bit,” Burrs laughs, “I think the end all, be all ultimate influence is John Mayer.” Burrs tells us, “After him with this last project during quarantine I had somehow gotten into this nineteen eighties kick - classic artists like Tom Petty, Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen. I love Mellencamp. He’s a huge influence.”

BC: When listening to your original music you can hear hints of their music in yours while it being totally unique to you. What bands did you perform with after high school?

Burr: “Thank you! I’ve done work with a couple different artists. Before I toured professionally I was playing around town with indie alternative artists, I played for a guy named Hank Compton, a girl named Charli Adams. I actually played with an alternative rock group called The Criticals. I went to MTSU for about three semesters and I got a touring opportunity playing for Faren Rachels and she was my first touring opportunity. It was crazy because I played to twenty five people my first week and the next week, our first gig at nineteen years old we opened up for Luke Combs in Pennsylvania and as you can imagine my hearts just pounding out of my chest,” Burr confesses, “I played okay that night, I was just super nervous but it was super crazy! We had one practice and we went out and played for this sea of people. We ended up opening for a couple other amazing artists too. I played for Emily Hackett - she’s super talented, she’s great. More recently I used to live with a guy named Hayden Coffman - if you’re looking for the modern country radio sound, he’s crushing it - he and I are really good friends. We actually met a couple years ago and we became great friends and now I play every weekend for him actually.”

BC: Playing for singular artists or bands when you get up on stage do you get stage fright?

Burr: “It honestly kind of depends on the event. Not so much anymore. Stage fright kind of happened with that first gig opening for Luke (Combs) I think that’s when I was like, ‘okay this is real, I’m not at this dive bar back in Nashville anymore. If I mess up three thousand people are going to hear me mess up.’ I feel pretty good most of the time now. I think the only time recently I got stage fright was post COVID - There was absolutely nothing going on. After months and months and months of no shows Hayden (Coffman) booked a headlining show at Cotton Eyed Joe and I got up on that stage and it had just been so long since I had played a longer show, I was nervous. I was a little on edge for half the set. It typically goes away at some point, you kind of get used to it.”

BC: Speaking of being on stage, what’s that feeling like for you?

Burr: “At this point it’s just a combination of making sure I play the part to the best of my abilities and making sure I look like I’ve been on stage before. I think a lot of people when they first start playing out on these larger stages they just kind of stand there and look at their instruments. People want a show, people want a performance. It’s a combination of concentrating on what you’re playing and performing in such a way that you’re interesting to watch. If you see these bands and they are jumping around on stage that is so cool! it makes people in the crowd kind of carry that same energy.”

BC: What do you want people to take away from seeing you live?

Burr: “I just hope they know that I enjoy what I do, I really do. I’m super happy to be out playing anytime I can. I’m incredibly grateful that I get paid to play music - I’m still not over that, it’s the coolest thing ever. That’s all you could ask for really.” Burrs continues, “I just people to have a good time at my shows.”

BC: What’s the ultimate goal for you as an artist?

Burr: “I don’t need to be an A-list guy, I don’t need to be at the top of the world. If I make enough to justify the continuation of what I do. I’d love to make enough to keep putting out music and I want to make songs that just touch people. That’s my end goal. I’m trying to make timeless music - if you listen to Tom Petty, Bryan Adams, Bruce Springsteen. There’s a reason their music came out decades ago and there still on radio rotation everyday - that’s remarkable! I’m trying to make stuff that people hear in twenty five years and people are like, “dude, check this out. This is awesome!” A perfect example is Reckless by Bryan Adams, it came out in 1994 and it’s one of my favorite albums. It came out fourteen years before I was born and it’s one of my favorite albums of all time. There’s something so cool about that. I guess this EP thats about to be out is my first crack at trying to create timeless music - generally is accessible to most people.” Burr explains to us, “Not all of my music is confined to the country box but I think certain songs are. There’s a reason diehard country fans listen to Tom Petty.”

People want a show, people want a performance. It’s a combination of concentrating on what you’re playing and performing in such a way that you’re interesting to watch.

- J.P. BURR

BC: Talking about your original music now, what was the inspiration behind your song, “California”?’

Burr: “I had been listening oddly enough the strangest combination of Tom Petty and Katy Perry. I love both of these artists. Tom Petty - I was into that light rock, west coast California sound and i really wanted to try a song like that. Also, from Katy Perry I wanted to give it a pop format.It’s not a complicated song, not lyrical but it’s not meant to be really. I sat down and said, ‘well I want to write a song that has that California feel to it and if I do that I might as well might write a song about California.” Both places I talk about in the song I have actually been to so that was super cool. I kinda wrote it trying to write my version of a pop song. When I sit down to write a pop song though, it’s only so much of a pop song because I’m not a pop artist. It ended up being somewhere between Tom Petty, John Mayer and country music.”

BC: Other than Petty and Perry was there someone or a story from your past that inspired this song?

Burr: “Not particularly. One of my favorite songwriters is Jason Isbell and he talked about top ten tips from Jason Isbell or something like that and one of them is - it sounds kind of implied but one of these things is when you hear it and you’re kind of like, “‘Oh,’ Whats cool about songwriting is that it can be any combination about real life events and stuff that is made up. I kind of did that, it’s not word for word specifically something I’ve been through but it’s something most people have felt. The moment they want to run away with a certain somebody and they want to go and start a new life with this person and that’s kind of the headspace I was in.”

BC: Can you walk us through your songwriting process?

Burr: “I start with a chord progression most of the time because my first instrument is the guitar. I can come up with a hooky melody pretty quickly. The hard part I think for a lot of people is lyrics. I have A and B but I need C to be really strong or else this will flop. I think a long time i waited for inspiration to come to me and also I was playing gigs so much where I would come back from the road and be super dead - I’d need a break and I didn’t feel inspired. Once Covid hit my schedule was wiped out. Months on the books was just gone. I played my nintendo switch for a week and said, ‘well I gotta do something else.’ I got into this habit of waking up at the same time everyday, making coffee and write. I would let myself write anything that came to mind even if it was total bullshit. Honestly that is how you tap into the subconscious. You might say somethings out of nowhere that you can work with and that tends to happen. I definitely wrote a lot of bad songs that no one is ever going to hear but it got me writing a couple that I really liked and i felt like they represented what I want to do as an artist and who I want to be as a songwriter.”

BC: Your new song, “Tuscaloosa,” what can you tell us about that single?

Burr: “So that one is arguably the most country song I have ever done. That’s one of the four (On the upcoming EP) that I didn’t write in quarantine. I wrote that a couple years ago in a dorm room. It definitely is inspired by somebody and I was actually back in MTACU and I was walking to a Math class and I was like, "‘I really don’t wanna go to this.” I had this tune in my head and I got the first line and I was typing on my phone as I was walking. I was like, "‘I need to go write this right now, I can’t lose this.’ I walked back to my dorm instead of going to class and I wrote it in about an hour. It’s about watching someone you care about and maybe have always wanted to try being with move on with someone else. The opening line complies it feels like another country because you haven’t been there, you probably never will go there, can’t go there - it feels unattainable. That was the whole concept behind the song I think.”

BC: What’s your favorite lyric from Tuscaloosa?

Burr: “Off the top of my head, Verse three is kind of realistic ‘I think I’ll go to Alabama if only for a spell because time moves on, people change, they send a wish you well.’ Time does move on, people do change, they meet new people, things always change that seem like the ideal environment that don’t always last.”

BC: Do you have a favorite of your songs?

Burr: “Oh man, I like certain things about certain songs. ‘California’ is the most commercial, ‘Lonely Like You’ is the most me song. The sound I had in mind, the writing. I like Tuscaloosa because it’s so organic. I really like the fourth one (from the EP) might be the one i’m most proud of. The fourth is the song I might be most proud of. The other three, I played the other three songs so many times and recorded the songs with a few different people and the fourth was gonna be the slow one. I wrote it with my friend Daniel Nunnelee but before we recorded it a guy named Jake Finch played drums on it. He said, ‘hey man, I’m kind of hearing this a little quicker and I’m hearing it with a Bruce Springsteen vibe,’ and I was skeptical at first, I liked my arrangement of it. We went in there with the new click track and we started playing and instantly I’m smiling from ear to ear like, ‘this is so much better than anything I could have come up with,’ My producer Collin Pastore he played steel on everything and I was in the control room like, ‘I can’t believe this is my song, I can’t believe this is going to have my name on it.’ I almost felt guilty because it sounded so cool.”

BC: What is your dream venue to play?

Burr: “There’s probably three. One is outside of Nashville, Red Rocks Amphitheater - I’ve always wanted to go, all my favorite bands and artists have played there. Its a milestone! The Ryman Auditorium, actually that might come first because one it’s the Ryman Auditorium and two I grew up in a small town about half an hour outside of Nashville called Burns and I’ve gone to so many shows there, life changing concerts, the greats in the world have played that stage. It would be unreal to play that stage. The third one is where I saw my first concert ever - it’s the Bridgestone arena.”

BC: Who was your first concert?

Burr: “My mom took me to see Bon Jovi and Daughtery opened up for them. It was awesome!”

BC: Since you have been to so many concerts has there been a show you went to where you were like this is what I want my shows to look like, feel like or be like?

Burr: “I’ve seen John Mayer a couple times. It really is a flawless live show. Dude has got it down to T, has a great band - they’ve played on a lot of my favorite albums. He’s really great. I love Jason Isbell’s live show, his band kicks ass and he’s a hell of a guitar player. A lot of his music is acoustic but I went and saw him live and one of the best players I have ever heard. He keeps it concealed until you go to his concert and he rips all over everything.”

BC: Who is your dream collaboration?

Burr: “I was talking about this with Hayden (Coffman) not too long ago. Honestly probably Bryan Adams. Something about that sound of his, his voice, recordings. I base a lot of what I want for myself as an artist off of what he’s done.”

BC: How would you describe your music in three words?

Burr: “my slogan on Instagram that I came up with is ‘Hopefully Timeless Music’ but outside of that I’m trying to think of three concrete words but Classics of the future is my goal.”

BC: When you have your own headlining tour what three acts would you bring on tour?

Burr: “I’d probably get Ruston Kelly. He’s kind of indie country - he’s one of my favorite songwriters. He writes like indie country but for sad people with steel all over it.” Burrs then scrolls through his Spotify for ideas, “It’s a hard question and I want to give you good answers. I want to namedrop some smaller artists if I can.”

BC: If we can add someone to the lineup we’d love to see you collaborate with Matthew Burhans

Burr: Ah Matt? Matt is awesome! Matt is great, I love him to death - we have become great friends in the last few months. He’s a great guy! So Ruston Kelly, John Mayer, Bruce Springsteen. If i somehow got on that bill I wouldn’t know what to do with myself.”

BC: So on the question of the headlining tour where would you like to perform?
Burr: “Oh man, I think just to play a full band show anywhere overseas is a big milestone. When you take your live show to another country, that’s crazy! Anywhere out of the country - Egypt would be awesome! It just sounds cool. I don’t know what kind of venues are in Egypt but it sounds cool.”

BC: If you could go to dinner with anyone of your idols and where would you go?

Burr: I’d love to chat with John Mayer - see what he’s like. When someone inspires you that early on in life it’s a lifetime thing. Talk about his writing process, see what goes on his head - anything! Out in Dixon County theres this tiny white table cloth place out there. It’s called Lugos it’s pretty cool.”

BC: Lastly, what can fans be looking forward to from you?

Burr: “Honestly I am just going to try and play some more shows. This past month I was putting out California getting out of the whole covid thing. I wanted to lay down for my sound. As much as I would love for these four songs to go number one and not work for the rest of my life I feel like it takes more than just four songs. I’m going to play some more shows and write a lot more. I’m trying to get back in the studio in the fall for another project I’m working on. That’s in a perfect world but I’ll be playing around town, playing for Hayden Coffman on most weekends.”