Interview with Erik Dylan

Published: June 29, 2016, 4:40 p.m.

b'Erik Dylan has a story to tell. It\\u2019s one of the qualities that drew Kip Moore, who discovered Dylan at an open mic night in 2011 to bring him to his publisher Brett James, and attracted artists including Kip himself, Eric Paslay, Justin Moore, Eli Young Band, Thompson Square, Chad Brownlee, Brent Cobb and even Hinder to record his songs.\\n\\nHe writes on Music Row with many of Nashville\'s hitmakers, but Erik will gladly tell anyone that his happiest moments in songwriting occured at his hero Guy Clark\'s workshop over black coffee.\\n\\nIt\\u2019s not just his country colleagues that own a room with his sounds. The fifth generation Kansan has shared stages with some of the biggest names in music, from Lynyrd Skynyrd to Reckless Kelly.\\n\\n\\u201cIf I drive ten hours in one direction to play a show and drive ten hours back that night to get to my family, those forty-five minutes on stage have to count,\\u201d he says.\\n\\nHeart of a Flatland Boy\\xa0is a sonic collection five years in the making. The project was produced by Dylan, Randy Montana and Paul Cossette at Quad Studios in Nashville, TN.\\xa0\\n\\nErik wrote the entire record with a handful of his favorite songwriters including Montana, Driver Williams (Eric Church Band), Douglas Waterman, Westin Davis, Andrew DeRoberts, Jake Mitchell and Adam James.\\n\\n\\u201cThis album is 100% organic. No fluff. I played guitar and tracked vocals live with the band in the studio and I truly love what happened. It\'s not perfect\\u2014and I didn\'t want it to be perfect. I wanted it to be me," says Erik.'