- 18 hours ago
Keith Urban has gotten so good at what he does, that he accidentally cooked up the perfect summer soundtrack for you and your friends. The GRAMMY-winning singer just released his Yacht Rock album, 'flow state,' and joined Katie Neal to talk about how it all came together.
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00:01Keith Urban, back to keep us company and talk all about this new album.
00:04I'm so good.
00:05How are you?
00:05I'm good.
00:06I am going to try not to be like too fangirly about this because like prior to listening
00:11to this album, I don't think I could have named a single Yacht Rock song to you.
00:15But I, the day that they sent me the advance link of this, I listened to it four times
00:19in a day.
00:20Oh gosh.
00:20Because I loved it.
00:22It's such a fun album.
00:24Like I just, it just, it feels so happy and I feel like everybody needs that right
00:29now.
00:30Like I feel like things are just like, feel tense.
00:32The world is so expensive and this just feels like such a nice, fun thing to listen to.
00:37Yeah.
00:38A good exhale.
00:39Yes, it does.
00:40We need it.
00:41Talk about how this album happened.
00:45By itself, really.
00:46I mean, it, it really did have a life of its own because I never, it wasn't, there was
00:53no strategy for this record.
00:54There wasn't, I never thought, oh, I'll make a Yacht Rock record.
00:58Like that was never in my head at all.
01:01I bought a studio here in Nashville in 2024 and it took about nine months to get it back
01:07up and running because it had been a bit neglected.
01:09And so early to mid 2025, it was ready to go.
01:16And I thought, well, I'd love to break it in with recording something, but you know,
01:21just something fun.
01:23And so we put a band together and, and I said to Dan Huff, I said, let's just do a
01:27couple
01:27of Yacht Rock songs just to break in the studio.
01:29Like there was no intention of releasing them at all.
01:33Like this will be fun.
01:34It was just fun.
01:35It was something that the, everybody in the band knew, like we all know these songs.
01:38Let's just have fun.
01:40Let's not be getting too serious about everything.
01:42Let's just have fun.
01:43And we just had fun.
01:44And the band came in after recording two of these songs and we all looked at each other
01:50and we're like, this is like really, really fun.
01:53And then Dan Huff said, you know, maybe we'll do another one or two, but I was, I was touring.
01:59So I would go away and tour and I'd come back and if I had time, we would just put
02:03the band
02:04back together and maybe do one or two more songs.
02:05And then I thought, well, maybe I could release a little EP while I'm in between albums, you
02:12know, my original albums.
02:14And the record had this other whole other idea in mind that it would just get bigger and
02:19bigger and bigger and we'd keep recording and keep recording.
02:21So it really did take on a life of its own.
02:24All right.
02:25You cracked a joke earlier this year at CRS and you're like, I made a Yacht Rock record
02:28and everybody laughed.
02:28You're like, you think I'm joking?
02:29I'm serious.
02:30I'm very curious, like who had the best reaction when you told them you had made a Yacht Rock
02:34record?
02:35Dan Huff, I think, because we've made records for, you know, a long time, really since Golden
02:41Road.
02:42You know, somebody like he was the first song we recorded together.
02:44So we've got a lot of, a lot of years making records together.
02:47And even when I was going to break in the studio and I said, we should do a couple of
02:51Yacht
02:51Rock songs.
02:52He's like, Yacht Rock songs?
02:54Why would we do those?
02:55And I said, because I've got a playlist and I walk around the house singing them and they
02:59really suit, I think they really suit me.
03:01I think they're, they just feel like a good fit and they're super fun.
03:06They're fun songs.
03:07They're fun to sing.
03:08They're really fun to play.
03:09And as a guitar player.
03:11So he's like, oh, okay.
03:13So he was, he was unsure why we were doing that.
03:17And within two songs, and I think it was Magnet and Steel might have been, and On and On by
03:23Stephen Bishop, I think maybe the first two that we did, you know, it was just like,
03:27oh, these actually fit really, really well.
03:29Maybe we'll do a few more.
03:30That's so fun.
03:31And then you've got three collaborations on here.
03:33John Mayer, Little Big Town, Michael McDonald.
03:36Talk about how each one of those happened.
03:38The first one was Little Big Town because we'd done Magnet and Steel and Stevie Nicks and
03:44Lindsey Buckingham do the backing vocals on the original version.
03:48And it's really more than backing vocals.
03:50I mean, they're, they've got lines that they sing in the chorus back to Walter Egan,
03:55who's the singer, you know.
03:56And so there's a call, it's really more of a duet.
04:00And I thought, well, who would be great on this song?
04:04I mean, there was nobody other than Little Big Town.
04:07No one.
04:07Who would nail that part.
04:10So I reached out to Karen and Jimmy and said, you know, would you be interested in hearing
04:15this?
04:16And they said, oh, we love that song.
04:17So sent them the song, they loved it, did all their vocals and sent them back.
04:21And it was, it was, it was a match.
04:24What about Michael and John?
04:27John came next because I did Guitar Man.
04:31Dan Huff, once he got into it, he really got into it.
04:33He started suggesting songs and he suggested Guitar Man by Bread.
04:37And we did it.
04:39And then I thought, I loved, I actually thought John would be great on this song, not just
04:45because of the guitar playing, but the singing as well.
04:47So reached out to him and he was totally game for it.
04:50So that was, that was the second collab.
04:53I wish there were like video reactions of everyone's faces when you're like, I'm making
04:56a Yacht Rock album.
04:57John Mayer, would you like to be on it?
04:58Well, for John, it was a no brainer.
05:00Yeah.
05:00Because he'd already done Sob Rock, you know, years before.
05:02So he'd done his version of it already, you know, which is really cool.
05:05That's amazing.
05:06And then talk about, there's one original on the album, We Go Back, that you wrote.
05:10Talk about including the song.
05:12Was this like maybe for another project or did you write it specifically to fit with
05:16the Yacht Rock album?
05:17So I was, I did a long writing retreat with Breeland and two other guys, Sam Samsa and
05:25Sean Small.
05:26So the four of us, we had written a lot together.
05:29We wrote Throw It Back on Breeland's record.
05:31We'd written a couple of tracks on my album, Out the Cage and Soul Food.
05:36So we'd written a lot of stuff together and we had this kind of writing retreat where
05:43we were just writing tons of songs.
05:46And one day I came into the room and Sam was playing the guitar riff that you hear opening
05:53the song.
05:53That wasn't my riff.
05:54That was Sam playing the guitar originally.
05:57And I loved the riff.
05:59And we said, this thing kind of sounds Yacht Rock.
06:02And this is six years ago, mind you.
06:04Really?
06:05Yeah, six years ago.
06:06And I went, this sounds like a Yacht Rock song.
06:08Let's do that.
06:08Let's write a Yacht Rock song.
06:09And so we wrote We Go Back.
06:11And when we got to the chorus, we're like, what would the chorus be?
06:14And I said, well, you've got to imagine Michael McDonald's thing in the chorus.
06:18It wouldn't be a Yacht Rock song without Michael.
06:19So we channeled Michael and wrote the melody and imagined what it would be like with Michael
06:27singing the chorus.
06:28And never in a million years did we think one day that song would get recorded with Michael
06:33singing the chorus.
06:34It's crazy.
06:34That is so wild.
06:36I love that.
06:36It feels like a very kismet way that this all came together.
06:39The whole record has been kismet.
06:41Is that where the inspiration for the name Flow State came from?
06:44Well, Flow State is something that I talk about a lot with people asking.
06:51It's more to do with the live performing, I think, being on stage and getting to that
06:57flow state where you're completely oblivious to everything that's going on and you're just
07:05literally in flow state.
07:07It's without getting too, you know, whatever, esoteric on it.
07:11It's that same way of saying, you know, if a bird thought about landing on a branch, it
07:17would probably miss because it's so complicated.
07:20But the bird doesn't think about it.
07:22It's in flow state.
07:23It just lands on the branch.
07:24It makes this very complicated move effortlessly because it's in flow state.
07:29Yeah.
07:29And being on stage and playing, the goal is to get to flow state so everything becomes
07:36one and, yeah, there is no time.
07:39That's so beautiful.
07:40Speaking of the live shows, how much of this record do you then incorporate into the next
07:46tour?
07:47I'll let you know.
07:48You'll just figure that out.
07:49We're sliding things in right now.
07:51Yeah.
07:51It's kind of great to have a new album with new songs that so many people already know.
07:59Right.
08:00It was funny because like I said to you when we started, I probably couldn't have named
08:03a Yacht Rock song if you asked me.
08:05But when I started listening, I was like, oh, I know, like these are somewhere in my brain.
08:09Like I know them.
08:10Yeah.
08:10You know what I mean?
08:11Like they've just like, they've been the soundtrack to Summers my whole life.
08:14Yep.
08:14Without even realizing it.
08:16Yeah.
08:16I mean, there was a, I mean, prior to the genre having a title, they really fall into
08:21a soft rock category.
08:22Yes.
08:23Really.
08:23At the end of the day, they're kind of soft rock songs, you know.
08:27But Yacht Rock sort of is a loosely defined criteria.
08:31I was like, when did Yacht Rock become the thing?
08:34I think in the 2000s, there were some guys doing a YouTube channel and they came up with
08:40the name Yacht Rock because they started to look at songs like Ride Like the Wind and Michael
08:45McDonnell was a thread through a lot of it.
08:47And even though it was Christopher Cross, it was Michael singing the backing vocal.
08:51And then Kenny Loggins would be a strong player through all that.
08:54Christopher Cross, of course, was sailing and various songs.
08:57So some of the themes were nautical, but not necessarily, you know, because you also
09:02ended up with songs like Rosanna by Toto and certain things.
09:06It just seemed to sound like you're on a boat.
09:09Right.
09:10I think it's going to be so funny.
09:11And I was just saying this right before we started.
09:13You know, people associate Luke Combs with Fast Car because like maybe like a younger
09:18generation didn't realize that's a Tracy Chapman song.
09:20And so Luke's always like, that's not my song.
09:22I think there's going to be a whole bunch of people that like experience Yacht Rock kind
09:25of like I did for the first time that are going to like think like, oh, that's a Keith Urban
09:28song.
09:29Oh, yeah.
09:29Like, I think it'll be really wild.
09:31One of the assistant engineers we had during the record, I think when we did Magnet Steel,
09:36maybe, or one of those songs we did and the assistant engineer, he's like, man, it's a
09:44great song.
09:44Did you write this?
09:45And I was like, what?
09:47He goes, I've never heard this.
09:49Did you write it?
09:50And I went, yeah.
09:51Uh-huh.
09:52Yeah.
09:52You bet I did.
09:53Absolutely.
09:54This is great.
09:55If it's like it's, it's, it's, if you've never heard it before, it's, it's, it's, it's,
09:59it's like an original song.
10:01It's so fun.
10:02I like, I truly can't wait for the weather to warm up even more and to like be out on
10:05a boat listening to all these songs.
10:07I think you're going to have so much fun performing them.
10:09And I know you said you kind of did this as like an in-between records, but I'm curious,
10:12like, have you started working on the next project?
10:14Will all of these Yacht Rock covers kind of like influence what comes next for you?
10:18They probably will.
10:20I mean, I, every record tends to influence the next one in some ways and no matter what it
10:24is.
10:24And, uh, yeah, I don't know.
10:27I, again, this, this quote unquote in-between record has turned out to be a record of itself.
10:32So isn't that funny how that happened?
10:35Yeah.
10:35Like you try so hard for so long to do something or get it right.
10:38And something just falls out of you.
10:40That's so beautiful.
10:41Oh, sometimes those, those things that you just do to blow off steam become the actual
10:46thing.
10:46I mean, I've written songs like that.
10:48I've written songs where I've been working on it with my writer intensely.
10:51And then we get so stuck and I go, well, let's just take a break.
10:54And then we bang something out within minutes just to blow off steam.
10:58And then we get back to the really important song.
11:01And that important song never goes anywhere.
11:02And the little blow off steam song becomes a huge hit.
11:04We've talked about this before, but I feel like that's something that Rick Rubin talks
11:07about in his book.
11:09Like, you know what I mean?
11:09Like go do something that feels fun to like spark more creativity and you never know where
11:13it's going to come from.
11:14No, totally.
11:15And I always say, look, you know, we, we, we, we, the first word is play.
11:18We play music.
11:19We play a song.
11:21We went to see a band play.
11:22Let me play you this song.
11:23I put together a playlist.
11:25I want to play you the piano.
11:26I want to play guitar.
11:27It's play, play, play, play, play.
11:28And we forget that word.
11:31We get so hung up in all the other crap that we forget to play.
11:35And as long as we're playing, we're, we're remembering what it's really for.
11:40Exactly.
11:40I had another question for you.
11:42I was thinking about this because I feel like at the level of your career that you're
11:46at and like being such an accomplished musician and guitar player, like I was trying to think
11:50like learning all these new songs and stuff, like, is there, are you still at a point where
11:54you're like practicing guitar or is it something that like you're always playing so much and
11:58noodling and having fun that you don't really have to?
12:00I love playing.
12:02Yeah.
12:02And I get to play guitar.
12:05You get to play.
12:05Yeah.
12:06That's a good way to think about it.
12:08When was the last time you were trying to learn something on guitar that like gave you
12:11a hard time?
12:12The intro of We Go Back.
12:14Really?
12:14It's a complicated thing to play.
12:16And then to have to play and sing simultaneously is that, what are you, you know, doing the
12:21circle on your tummy and patting your head and then flipping your hands around.
12:24It's exactly that.
12:26Exactly.
12:26Do you have a favorite guitar that you always reach for or like, would that be like, you
12:31know, is that too hard to choose?
12:33There's really probably several that I tend to reach for.
12:37Or this record, yeah, I played all kinds of guitars on this record, depending on what
12:42was the vibe at the time.
12:45Yeah.
12:45No, nothing.
12:46No, no singular one.
12:47No.
12:47Is there a song on the album that you maybe keep finding yourself going back to that you're
12:51really excited for everybody to hear that we haven't heard yet?
12:53Honestly, We Go Back was the most unexpected everything on this record.
13:02I'd actually recorded the album.
13:03Um, we sequenced it, we mixed it, mastered it, turned it into the record label.
13:09It was done.
13:11And my new manager said to me, would it be really great if we could get one of the Yacht
13:16Rock dudes to collab on something?
13:19And I said, like who?
13:22And he goes, you know, like Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, one of those guys.
13:24And I said, oh, it's funny you say that because we wrote this song years ago called We Go Back.
13:28And we always imagine Michael McDonald singing the chorus.
13:31And he said, oh, do you have a copy of that?
13:33And I go, I got a demo.
13:35And it was, Breeland was singing the chorus and I'm singing the verses.
13:37And I played him the demo and he goes, that's a great song.
13:41Do you think we could record that with Michael?
13:43And I'm like, for when?
13:44And he goes, for this album.
13:45I went, what?
13:47It's done.
13:47It's in.
13:47What are you talking about?
13:48It's, this album's done.
13:50And he goes, wow, it's not really done till it's done, is it?
13:53Right.
13:53Well, because you have to turn, I think people don't realize like the timelines and things.
13:56You have to turn stuff in so early that you're going to do like vinyl or all of the things.
13:59Totally.
14:00The stuff gets printed.
14:00If you're going to have a record come out in summer, you've got to turn it in at a certain
14:04time.
14:05Exactly.
14:05So I turned it in to make all that happen.
14:08And all of a sudden, you know, the suggestions being floated to like record this song from the
14:13ground up.
14:14Meet Michael McDonald.
14:15Have him agree to the song.
14:16Have him record the song.
14:17Mix it.
14:17Master it.
14:18Sequence it.
14:18Put it back in the record.
14:20You know, I'm just like, it's not possible.
14:22And it's like, well, maybe it is.
14:24And we, I assembled players.
14:28I booked a session.
14:30I got, it was like herding cats trying to get everybody's schedule lined up in record
14:34time.
14:34And within seven to 10 days from that discussion, seven to 10 days later, we had everything.
14:42I'd met Michael.
14:43He'd recorded his vocal.
14:45We'd recorded the song top to bottom.
14:46We mixed it.
14:47We mastered it.
14:47We re-sequenced the record.
14:48We re-serviced it.
14:49We put it back in the label.
14:50We did it in record time.
14:52You're like, here's final edit two.
14:54Yeah.
14:54So that's probably the shining example of how the album has consistently had a life of
14:59its own.
15:00It's known where it's wanted to go the whole time.
15:02That is so much fun.
15:03I just had to keep up.
15:04And thank God you did.
15:05Like, that's so fun that that original is on there.
15:07I think that that.
15:07Yeah.
15:08It was just a jewel.
15:09I just didn't, didn't, I didn't expect that.
15:11I'm very, very grateful.
15:12I'm sure Breland didn't either.
15:13I'm sure he was like, wait, what do you mean?
15:14I know all of us, all of us as writers, you know, any writer in this town knows that
15:19you have a song that sits around for years and years and years and you think, why, why
15:23has this not been recorded?
15:25You know, just needed to find the right home.
15:27Absolutely.
15:27Before we wrap up, you are going to be playing CMA Fest on Friday.
15:31I'm hosting on Friday.
15:33Excellent.
15:34So I'm very excited.
15:35It's going to be a fun show.
15:35Hopefully some of the Yacht Rock songs make it into that set.
15:38Oh yeah, for sure.
15:38What do you, what do you love about CMA Fest?
15:42Cause I always like tell people, like when I'm trying to explain it to somebody who's
15:45never been, I'm like, it's like Comic-Con and country music meet as one and there's
15:49a concert every night.
15:50That's a good way to put it.
15:51Yeah.
15:51It's just that, uh, the explosion of artists and fans all in one place where it's the
15:58ultimate festival.
15:59It's that's what it is.
16:01It's the ultimate festival.
16:02You'll never see this many names in one place, you know?
16:08Totally.
16:08Like that.
16:09It's, it's, yeah, it's, it's matchless and the energy in the, in the stadium is phenomenal.
16:14Yeah.
16:15And I always feel like it's one of those things that sets country music apart.
16:18Like other genres have other festivals, but there's not one I feel like that is so focused
16:22towards the fans like CMA Fest is.
16:24And you, you're reminded of the communal spirit that really is at the heart and center of country
16:29as a genre.
16:30Cause when everyone's going on and on about what's country and that's an endless argument
16:34of stupidity.
16:36What's Yacht Rock?
16:37You know, what is it?
16:37You know, it's like people say to me, that's not country.
16:40And I go, it's not your country.
16:42Exactly.
16:43That's a different thing.
16:44Does nobody can say it's not something it's not your version of it.
16:48I get that.
16:49And you find that communal vibe coming together at CMA Fest with so much diversity within the
16:54genre.
16:55You know, country is a massive genre of different kinds of permeations of it.
17:00And you see that all coming together at CMA Fest.
17:03Totally.
17:03I can't wait.
17:04It's going to be so much fun.
17:05And again, I love this record.
17:07It feels like such a gift for the summer.
17:08Thank you for creating this.
17:10Like I said, so much fun.
17:11Yeah.
17:12Keith Urban.
17:12Always good to see you.
17:13You too.
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