Cole Swindell Talks About New Album ‘Spanish Moss’ with Elaina Smith

Cole Swindell, the country hitmaker, sat down with Elaina Smith on Backstage Country as her co-host for a week to talk about his brand-new album, Spanish Moss, and what makes this project different from anything he’s done before. 

Smith asked Swindell how difficult it is for him to wait until June for the release of his latest album, Spanish Moss. Swindell said, “Yeah, but after a process like this one, I think we're all, me, my team, label, everybody, we're just happy that it's done and now waiting to see what the world thinks about it.” He chuckled, “It's hard to be patient with that stuff, but getting to release the songs as we go has been nice.” 

The album features 21 songs, and Smith asked how they landed on that number. 

The “Forever To Me” singer replied, “I think the way music's consumed nowadays that that's acceptable to do. You see a lot of artists, they're putting out all these songs, and as much as I love to write, and record the best songs I can, when you work on something for two and a half years, you're gonna have quite a few songs. But I think we went in like ‘best song wins.’” 

He further explained that they asked a few questions when it comes to song selection, “Does it tell a story? Does it fit this vibe of ‘Spanish Moss?’ That's kind of what we went when we chose this album. I think that was the best we had, and for them to allow me to put every song that we wanted on there was pretty cool. So, my fans, hopefully, they're gonna have a lot more than usual to learn. But I'm not gonna let it be two and a half years before I put out another. We're gonna keep writing and all that. But this one, having this one done, it just feels different, feels special.” 

Smith and Swindell continued to talk about the album and whether he wrote all the songs on it. He said, “Not all of them, but for the longest time, there were several things that I had written that I loved and songs that I'd got pitched that I love. That’s one thing I'll always be thankful the way I came up through the songwriting world. I have so much respect and so thankful for all of our songwriters.”  

He added, “There's so many talented people. So, to me, just try to pick the ones that fit you best, and some of my favorites are the ones I wrote. Then there's some that came in last minute that I didn't that I think shaped up the album.” 

Spanish Moss drops on June 27. Pre-order it here.