Paul moves on
Calgary country star Brandt splits with label
By CP
OWEN SOUND, ONT. -- Despite its title, Paul Brandt's latest single is not a swan song.
While the release of "What I Want to Be Remembered For" does mark a turning point in his career, not to mention the end of his relationship with his longtime record labels, Brandt says he's not even close to being done with music.
"It's a milestone for me," says Brandt, 28, while wrapping up a tour of Western Canada and Ontario.
"For the last five years I've been working with Warner-Reprise Records in Nashville and with Warner Music Canada, and this is the last project that we will work on together.
"It's kind of a goodbye to them, in some ways, and kind of a looking forward to what I'll be doing next. I just felt like it was a good time to be able to put a close to that chapter of what I was doing."
What I Want To Be Remembered For is also the title of the Calgary native's latest album, a greatest-hits package plus two new songs. The album has all the hits dating back to "My Heart Has a History" and "I Do", the 1996 songs that launched Brandt's career, both reaching the top five on the Billboard country chart.
It seems odd that Canada's most popular male country singer -- he's won 12 Canadian Country Music Association and Juno Awards since 1996 -- is so eager to walk away from a situation many struggling artists would gladly embrace.
"(The label was) interested in continuing to work with me, but I think they were nice enough to see that we were just going nowhere fast and they agreed to let me out of my contract," he says.
It's been emotionally more difficult to part from Warner Music Canada, where he's obviously been a much higher priority than he was with the Nashville-based parent company. But he doesn't feel pressured to run out and hook up with another label.
"There are some interesting opportunities coming up, but I think the main focus for me right now is just to remain creative and to continue writing," he says.
"That's part of what this tour is all about. I don't need to rush into anything right now. I just want to focus on my music and I think the rest of it will kind of take care of itself."
It has been an acoustic tour, and Brandt is recording every show.
"The idea is to record these shows and bring what we get down to Nashville, where we'll be editing and adding some different instruments to put together the album.
"But we're keeping it fairly live. I really want to make it like a photo album, almost, of what we experience while we're up here in Canada."
Brandt has been spending a lot of time writing new material and is confident he'll still be able to connect with his audience when he does come forward with new songs.
"I'm looking forward to continuing to make music and I'm looking forward to recording and doing a lot more in the future. It's definitely not goodbye."