"Out of the ether," Mark Bryan says of "Wanna Feel Something," the first single from his upcoming new solo album Midlife Priceless (Stone Point Records, April 2nd, 2021), "I wrote the first line of the song, 'Tonight we ride again, just like we did back when we were best friends and it would never end.' I wasn't doing it intentionally but I liked the way it sang. When I read it back I thought, 'Holy s!' We were getting ready to go back on tour - maybe that's what I was writing about."
Read the full interview with Mark Bryan now at American Songwriter and stream "Wanna Feel Something" at the link below!
Midlife Priceless is the title of Hootie & The Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan's fourth solo album.
It's also how he rolls.
Three years since the release of Bryan's previous record, a lot has happened: His 20 million-selling, two-time Grammy®-winning band got back together for a sold-out arena tour that meant as much to Bryan as it did to the fans that came out by the tens of thousands.
"Wanna Feel Something" is the new album's first single for a reason.
Tonight we ride again
Just like we did back when
We were best friends, and it would never end
It's right there.
Mark Bryan is about feeling something and making you feel something. The energy in the buildings around the country that rocked again with the songs that made Hootie one of the biggest-selling acts in music history, is all here on Midlife Priceless.
When Bryan gets to the guitar solo on "Wanna Feel Something," it's a done deal.
The album's title draws a deep parallel, metaphorically, with a lyric from another of the record's standout tunes, "Takin' A Ride," a duet with Wyatt Durrette, writer of the #1 single "Beautiful Crazy" by Luke Combs and author of many of the Zac Brown Band's hits.
"Die young as late as you can"
It's a beautiful statement. It's a mission statement.
"That line speaks to the point I am in my life and why I'm still making music," Bryan says.
Even before Hootie got back together to be met with love-filled venues as if it were the 1990's again, Bryan was living this way. Through good and bad - especially bad - he was connecting with his youth, wonder, curiosity, and joy.
As defined, "priceless" is something so precious that its value cannot be determined.
A record album has to provide value though, right?
One of the reasons that Bryan chose to lead up to the release of Midlife Priceless with a long string of singles is because so many moods and styles are represented. He thought to give 'em a chance to shine on their own, in a different way than they do as a collection.
This might not be an auspicious plan for some artists, but Bryan's track record dictates that he knows his way around a single, and this approach is another example of how Bryan is living midlife priceless.
Midlife Priceless, the fourth solo album by Hootie & The Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan arrives on April 2, 2021.
