Sue Bonzell: Welcome to Cow Chair Country, where we highlight new up and coming country artists. Today we meet Spencer Crandall.
Well, he has over 200,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, 5.5 million career streams on Spotify, and get this, in a year and a half, 1.6 million followers on TikTok. I am so excited that Spencer Crandall is with me today. Hello Spencer.
Spencer Crandall: Hi, how are you doing?
Sue Bonzell: I am doing fantastic. Now I found you on TikTok, you are all over TikTok. I mean-
Spencer Crandall: Yeah.
Sue Bonzell: I can’t spend one day without Spencer just on my feed, which is a good thing.
Spencer Crandall: Perfect, that’s the goal.
Sue Bonzell: It’s a good thing for me, I’m happy about it. The thing that I love about you is you put your phone number in a lot of your videos that says text me.
Spencer Crandall: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell: So, how is that going for you?
Spencer Crandall: It’s great. I have a list of 24,000 people who have texted me and now we get to update them on new music and shows. It’s my little community, it’s my little family. So, our community text list is awesome and I get to really sit there and have conversations with fans for the first time kind of past the DM. It’s really cool.
Sue Bonzell:
I love it. I mean, I’m kind of falling in love with the TikTok platform. I am a little bit addicted.
Spencer Crandall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative), I am too.
Sue Bonzell:
You’re a little bit addicted too, right?
Spencer Crandall:
Oh, absolutely.
Sue Bonzell:
I’m not the only one?
Spencer Crandall:
It’s bad.
Sue Bonzell:
It is bad. But like I said, I’m excited to find people like you. Now, where are you calling in from? I’m out here in California Wine Country. Where are you calling in from?
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah, I’m calling in from my little back office, my workroom in Nashville, Tennessee. So I’m making some music today and just got home from the studio, and now I’m in the room that I make a lot of those TikToks in.
Sue Bonzell:
Okay. Okay, this is the famous room of the TikToks. Okay, this is exciting, this is exciting.
Spencer Crandall:
It’s one of them. There’s a couple rooms that we…
Sue Bonzell:
It’s one of them?
Now, do you drink wine at all?
Spencer Crandall:
Not really, no.
Sue Bonzell:
Not really. Is it beer or is it… no, nothing?
Spencer Crandall:
Not a big drinker, yeah.
Sue Bonzell:
Not a big drinker?
Spencer Crandall:
Not for me.
Sue Bonzell:
Nothing wrong with that. I always have to ask, just because I’m in Wine Country, I always want to know.
Spencer Crandall:
Oh, got you.
Sue Bonzell:
If they’re drinking wine, I want to see what you’re drinking.
Spencer Crandall:
You know what I will do? Is those dang charcuterie boards that everyone has at wine tastings.
Sue Bonzell:
Yes.
Spencer Crandall:
That’s where the secret sauce is right there.
Sue Bonzell:
You are one-
Spencer Crandall:
Y’all can have the wine, I will take the cured meat and nuts.
Sue Bonzell:
Right. You can’t go wrong with a platter full of meat, right? That’s… Come on.
Spencer Crandall:
That’s what I’m saying, I’ve been saying that.
Sue Bonzell:
You’ve been saying that. There might be a song about that, I don’t know. We might have to do that.
Spencer Crandall:
Oh I can… [inaudible 00:03:00].
Sue Bonzell:
No, I’ve heard that you have kind of a connection to nature, the wilderness. Tell me a little bit about that.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah. I mean, I grew up in Denver, Colorado, so there’s not really even an option. I mean, my family is outside. What felt like 24/7, hiking, snowboarding, fishing. And just I feel like I was outside more than I was inside. So we had this little camper that we had for 18 years and it was actually called a Wilderness, it said it on the back. And so, I like always just remember being on these long drives and the word “wilderness” to be chasing us around everywhere we went. And yeah, again, like if it wasn’t for sports, it was just some sort of random activity with my family. And I feel like it’s just who I am. It’s just a big part of… My story is being outside, being inspired by nature. It’s a blessing to grow up where I grew up for sure.
Sue Bonzell:
Absolutely. I know. I can imagine it’s very calming and can be a little inspirational as well.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah. Especially with how life is getting crazier and crazier as the music thing picks up. So it’s always nice to get out and get a hike, get a little fishing trip, whatever. It feels amazing.
Sue Bonzell:
Now you have played with artists or alongside artists. Dustin Lance, Chris Lane, Morgan Wallen, Lanco, Big & Rich, Scotty McCreery and Josh Turner. I have a question.
Spencer Crandall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell:
Who’s your favorite?
Spencer Crandall:
Oh man. What a conundrum. I’ll say this out of all those people, it’s always really fun to get to open up for somebody that you listened to growing up. And I feel like Josh Turner is a very legendary person in our genre. He just has these kind of songs that have outlived even his era or whatever. And they continue to go viral on TikTok. It feels like every day. So it was just really cool to see that one, for sure. He’s a little bit older than I am and it was a really cool… I could kind of see “oh yeah, that’s what it looks like to do it well for a really long time, for decades, and to be loved, and to be still around, and still be relevant.” That’s very hard to do, and he’s still doing it and doing it well, so that was a really fun one.
Sue Bonzell:
That’s awesome. I know. Sorry, I put you on the spot there. I mean, we love all those guys.
Spencer Crandall:
Oh no, I’ll take it.
Sue Bonzell:
I mean, I love all those guys too.
Spencer Crandall:
Very much. Same. Yeah, me too.
Sue Bonzell:
So now, like I said, you’re all over TikTok. You have been pumping out new music like a mad man.
Spencer Crandall:
Uh-huh (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell:
And you’re so you’re a lot of these are kind of based on relationships, whether they’re very positive or maybe the new, the latest one, the breakup anthem, Apartment in LA.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah.
Sue Bonzell:
But the one that’s really going big right now, that I’m excited about. So it’s My Person.
Spencer Crandall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell:
And you did the wedding song version, like the wedding version of this song. So what’s been the response to that?
Spencer Crandall:
It’s been insane and fun. I’ve put out the song My Person a while ago now, and it did well. And then kind of started to taper off as songs do. You put them out, and they get taken off playlists or whatever. And then kind of found a second, third, eighth, 29th life on TikTok where it just feels like every time I post something kind of goes viral. And so it’s crazy. That song is now been streamed like 35 million times.
Sue Bonzell:
No way.
Spencer Crandall:
And it just feels like this thing has really changed my life. So the number one thing that I would get on every video was you should do a wedding version, you should do a wedding version, you should do a wedding version. So we’re like, “let’s do a wedding version” and we kind of scripted down. We slowed it down. We did a really intimate vocal, with some different runs and riffs, and just like strings, piano, acoustic, and made it.
I get asked to play so many weddings now with a song like My Person. And I can’t obviously make it to all of them, unfortunately, but it’s my attempt to be at as many weddings as possible. It’s like, we wanted to make it feel like if I could really do it the right way, what would it sound like? So the response has been awesome. I had a video get watched three and a half million times of the wedding version. And there are like 28,000 comments of people saying, “I’m going to use this at my wedding”-
Sue Bonzell:
Wow.
Spencer Crandall:
“This is my parents’ songs,” “this is me and my boyfriend’s song.” So it’s kind of mind blowing, even when I say that out loud. I’m like, “is that real? Is that real life? Is that me?”
Sue Bonzell:
Yeah, it totally is. I mean, I’d love that you listen to what people wanted. You said, “okay, that’s what they wanted.”
Spencer Crandall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell:
And you gave it to them, which I think is amazing.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah.
Sue Bonzell:
So that’s really like honoring your fans. And I just love that.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah. I mean, I’m nothing without them. So it’s pretty easy for me to listen and they, most of the time, know better than I do. I’ll think I really like a song and I’ll put it on TikTok and they be like, “yeah, it’s okay,” and like, “yeah, I don’t know. We’ll see about this one.” And then the market tells me like, “no, this is way cooler.” So the wedding version was just kind of the home run for most people. They felt like that was a no-brainer. I got berated for a good year about it. So…
Sue Bonzell:
Well, you’re definitely on the right track with that. So are you ready to play a song for us? What would you like to play for us today?
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah. I mean, I feel transitionally no, I’ve just got to play My Person, right? That’s just that easy.
Sue Bonzell:
If you want, I’ll leave it up to you. But that’s a great song. So we would love to hear it.
Spencer Crandall:
Perfect. Okay, perfect. I’ll play that one. Yeah. This is My Person. And the wedding version just came out, it’s everywhere. So check it out.
(singing)
Sue Bonzell:
Yes. Okay, so now you all know why that is going to be the wedding song of like 2021.
Spencer Crandall:
Hey, I like the way that sounds.
Sue Bonzell:
Right? Hey, let’s just call it what it is, right? That’s what it is.
Spencer Crandall:
That’s amazing.
Sue Bonzell:
So now, I do have one-
Spencer Crandall:
Thank you so much.
Sue Bonzell:
One last question for you.
It’s very, very important.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah.
Sue Bonzell:
Because you sing all of these relationships songs, is there a lady in your life? Because I know the ladies want to know.
Spencer Crandall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell:
There’s not, I’m single as a Pringle.
Spencer Crandall:
Okay.
Sue Bonzell:
I’ve been in relationships and stuff. And so I just, I’m kind of always pulling from past experience or dates I’m going on, or sometimes I even write about stuff that I wish would happen. Because I’m single, so I’m like, “oh, that’d be nice.” Or like, I always kind of I’ve heard of that, and that sounds wonderful. But no, nothing at the moment. I’ll keep you posted though.
Yeah. Okay. I’m going to need an update as things progress.
Spencer Crandall:
You’ll be the first to know.
Sue Bonzell:
Okay, good. I didn’t get the phone call. I’m going to need that.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah.
Sue Bonzell:
Okay, so you are on Spotify. We can find you spencercrandallmusic.com.
Spencer Crandall:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Sue Bonzell:
Following you on TikTok. You’re on every single social media outlet there is, right?
Spencer Crandall:
Oh yeah.
Sue Bonzell:
Yeah.
Spencer Crandall:
You got to be.
Sue Bonzell:
Well, you’re doing a phenomenal job. I’m so pleased to meet you. And I hope that I get to meet you in person very soon.
Spencer Crandall:
Yes.
Sue Bonzell:
Are you going to be doing some touring and some playing some live stuff now that we’re kind of opening up a little bit?
Spencer Crandall:
I am, but I can’t tell you quite yet where I’m going. But just know that the fall, the fall, there will be lots of shows. And I’m very, very, very excited. The last show I played was pre Tiktok, it was pre My Person, it was pre the texts list, it was pre so many fun things that we’ve had happened. So I can’t wait. I can’t even imagine what the shows are going to be like. And the second that I know for real, I will keep you updated.
Sue Bonzell:
Okay.
Spencer Crandall:
That I’m dating somebody, if moving to other shows, you’re going to be the first phone call.
Sue Bonzell:
Okay. I’m your new best friend. Here, give me a call, and Let me know what’s going on.
Spencer Crandall:
Absolutely. You’re in. You’re in the “In” group.
Sue Bonzell:
Awesome. Well thank you so much for your time and we will hopefully see you soon.
Spencer Crandall:
Yeah. Thank you so much. Can’t wait.
Sue Bonzell:
Take care.
Thanks for watching Cow Chair Country. I’m Sue Bonzell, make sure you follow me on TikTok, and like and subscribe. And of course, if you have an up and coming country artists that you would love for me to interview, please let me know in the comments.
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