Brett Kissel is constantly exploring new ideas, while never forgetting what he does best. It’s an approach that has propelled him to the top of Canadian country music, with two Gold certified albums, a Platinum and eight Gold singles and 15 top-10 radio hits to his credit. 2019 was a storybook year for Brett, winning the JUNO Award for Country Album of the Year and earning the Canadian Country Music Association’s Fans’ Choice Award, following a record-breaking 112-date tour that reached every single province and territory. The Canadian Press crowned him “The New King of Canadian Country.” The accolades continued in 2020, when Brett was the big winner of the CCMA Awards, earning 4 trophies, including Fans' Choice, Male of the Year and Album of the Year.
Although some artists might see these accomplishments as a cue to hit cruise control, for this proud husband and father of three, it’s only added fuel to his fire to give his audience more, and to expand his musical vision. That’s precisely what he’s done on Now Or Never, the first in a series of albums the pride of Flat Lake, Alberta, already has planned to release on an annual schedule. Now Or Never sets the tone of the new decade by delivering a dynamic mix of 21st Century country (“Drink About Me,” “She Drives Me Crazy”) and traditional heartstring tuggers (“I’m Not Him, I’m Not Her,” “Coffee With Her”) that are sure to find a place alongside Brett’s best-loved songs.
But listen carefully and it’s clear there’s a lot more going on. “I was in a really creative zone coming into making this record, and had written so many songs, that we decided to concentrate on the ones that showcased the diversity within my sound,” he says. “That’s been the case with every album I’ve made to a certain extent, but now we want to take the lessons we’ve learned from those records and really focus in. There’s traditional country, pop country, and acoustic country, which really plays into the eccentric style I have as an entertainer!””
Brett credits co-producer Jacob Durrett for covering a lot of the bases on Now Or Never and channeling the creative energy in exciting directions. With experience working with artists in nearly every genre ranging from country to hip hop, Durrett’s cutting edge studio techniques gelled perfectly with Brett’s goals.
“Jacob and I are the same age and have been buddies in Nashville for about eight years,” Brett explains. “We’ve both come up through the ranks together, and as I started planning Now Or Never it felt like the right time to collaborate with Jacob. He’s been able to put more of an international spin on my music, and bring out different nuances in my voice.”
That said, Brett didn’t leave his longtime producer Bart McKay out of the process, and his steady hand maintained the album’s overall cohesion. The seamless blend of the new and the familiar is the real strength of Now Or Never, exemplified by the first single “Drink About Me,” which rocketed to the top of Billboard’s Canadian Country chart (Brett's second career #1 single) soon after its release. It’s set the stage for the arrival of the album’s more pop-friendly tracks, particularly “She Drives Me Crazy,” which places Brett squarely at the heart of country music’s current evolution.
“My family and I are just like every other music fan. We are all over the place. With the ways people listen to music these days, I don’t think anyone pays attention to genres like they used to,” he says. “One of the tracks from my last album We Were That Song, ‘Anthem,’ had a lot of pop elements in it, and it became my fastest single to go Gold, as well as becoming an instant favourite in our live show. So with that in the back of my head, I sat down with Karen Kosowski and Emma-Lee to write one day, and we started trading lines. ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ was finished in 45 minutes, and it was an amazing experience.”