Jerrod Niemann Pulls Back the Layers of His Life on ‘This Ride’

Jerrod Niemann's new album takes fans on a ride through the ups and downs of life. 

Written by Cillea Houghton
Jerrod Niemann Pulls Back the Layers of His Life on ‘This Ride’
Jerrod Niemann; Photo by Ryan Hamblin

When Jerrod Niemann sat down to create This Ride, he wasn’t going for flashy production and radio-hungry hits – he was aiming for honesty and simplicity.

Niemann consciously stripped away the vast amount of instruments typically used on a song, opting for a simplistic, yet clean-cut body of work whose deep lyrics and humble roots carry it through. “I’ve always, since day one, loved to try to challenge myself in the studio with different sounds,” he tells Sounds Like Nashville.

Wanting to use half the amount of instruments but “force ourselves to get twice the sound,” the singer was constantly shifting instruments around on tracks to ensure that each song was represented with the appropriate sound, while still having room to breathe. He purposefully selected songs that allowed for more layers lyrically, instrumentally and vocally. “It was a lot of fun,” he says of the creative process. “It was more meticulous with these songs. The lyrics are a little deeper and I just wanted them to be represented like they should’ve been. That’s why it’s called ‘This Ride,’ there’s the ups and downs and in betweens and so when you’re on the in betweens, you’re just kind of at a rebuilding process. I just wanted to have great music, just great songs.”

A main inspiration for the album is his wife Morgan, who he not only sings to on the striking “God Made a Woman,” but who is at the center of his world. Niemman is honest about the current state of his life throughout the entire project, reflecting his undying love for his wife, in addition to the challenges of being in between labels before signing with Curb Records. “It’s the diamond in the rough,” he says comparing “God Made a Woman” to the rest of the album’s tracks. “It’s like if you had 12 versions of me and then one version of my wife, she’d stick out, your eye or ear would go to that. I wanted it to stand out, it’s so special to me, the message where I’m at in my life that I wanted it to sound elegant for her and then get a little more rough around the edges on the other stuff.”

With writing on the back-burner, Niemann co-wrote two of the album’s 13 tracks, but was determined to only select songs that were relevant to his own life. That’s when top writers like Ashley Gorley, Chris DeStefano, Shane McAnally and more stepped in with powerful songs like “I Got This” and “Outta My Heart.” “That’s what so great about songs is sometimes they speak to you, or you can create them and speak to them yourself. So I just found a lot of songs that are things that I wanted to say,” Niemann explains.

His describes his mindset going into previous projects as one where he wanted people to let loose and use his music as an escape for the challenges they were facing. But being in a position where he doesn’t want to ignore life’s obstacles, Niemann is ready to help others feel the same way. “This album for me was more facing what’s really right in front of me, and hopefully anybody else that listens to it, try to give them something to help get them through their day and move on to the next step in their lives,” he says.

While he hopes listeners gravitate to the songs’ messages, he’s not worried if it doesn’t appeal to the masses or have resounding radio success. “I’ve always just tried to do my own thing whether it was applauded or not, so for me that was a challenge of staying true and since there are so many levels of that I feel like that portion’s easy to get lost.”

“For someone that wants to dig a little deeper, it is from the boy I was yesterday to the man I am now and that’s really just all the facets that encompass our life,” he says of This Ride. “I feel like you don’t have to think too much about the record, or you can really dig in deep and there’s a lot more layers instrumentally, lyrically, hopefully vocally. We just spent a lot of time on it.”

This Ride is available now.