By: straight8
Article link: Sounds Like Nashville
Country newcomer Lewis Brice knows the question is coming pretty much as the interview starts. “So, you’re last name is Brice. Are you any relation to Lee?”
“You could say I have met him once or twice,” the singer-songwriter says with a grin. “He’s my big brother. He’s been working his butt off for a long time. Now, I’m ready to get in there and join him and play music.”
The singer’s debut EP has just hit the marketplace, following the introductory single “Best Ex Ever,” which he tells Sounds Like Nashville is straight out of his life. “The song is a light version of the real story of a situation I got myself in. I had to make one phone call, and I didn’t have my cell phone on me, and the only number I could remember was my ex-girlfriend from a few years before. Nowadays, nobody remembers numbers, they just put them in their phone. Luckily, on this particular day, I did, and luckily, she picked up and got me out of the situation. So, the song shines a good light on exes!’
Brice – whom fans may remember from his 2008 stint on the CMT series Can You Duet? – just filmed a video for the song, which he said was a fun day – but a long one. “We actually thought up the whole process, did all the choreography and the make-up and stuff, so that was interesting. We filmed it right in Midtown. I was sitting on the side of the road, and had all my make-up on. My buddy would stop, and say ‘Dude, are you ok?’ So, we had to keep re-doing the scene. I was up at 5:30 that morning, and didn’t get done until about 8 o’clock. It’s an all-day thing.”
Another highlight on the disc is the musically aggressive “Rob You Blind,” of which he says “That is a fun song. It’s kind of like a Bonnie and Clyde-type story. I wrote it with Aaron Parker. My influences go all the way from Hip/Hop to Blues to Southern Rock to Country. I guess that was my attempt on a little more of a hip hop kind of song. It’s a cool and fun story.”
One aspect of his young career that Brice takes a lot of pride in is the yearly benefit concert that he throws in Nashville immediately before the CMA Music Festival, Lewispalooza. “That’s been going on for seven years now,” he says. “It’s grown every year with my career. I’ve always had charities that I’ve been involved with – from Musicians on Call to St. Jude. This year, I found one in the Hope Song Foundation. My buddy has a hospital down in Tijuana. They do alternate treatments for cancer patients, and what Hope Song does is raise money to fly musicians from Nashville to Tijuana, and house them for a week, and the musicians play for the patients for about two or three hours a day, to help raise morale while the patients are in the hospital.”
The yearly event also raises funds to help those patients with their treatment sessions. “Sometimes, if the patients don’t have the money to keep a treatment that is going well working, they raise money to give these patients scholarships where they can keep doing the treatments. There have been quite a few success stories come out of there. This past year, a lady named Laura – when I first met her in January, she was wearing a patch over her right eye. She had a tumor so big that it cracked through her skull. It looked like she had a golf ball sticking out of her head. She was actually stage four. They were on their way home, and she actually came to Lewispalooza. She came walking up, and she was doing fine. Her health is awesome, and she’s seeing out of both eyes now. You can barely see the bump – I think she’s had about a seventy percent reduction on the tumor. The reason I did the event in the first place was to give my friends an opportunity to play music in Nashville. I also wanted to put it to a good cause, because I’ve had one of my guitarists pass away from brain cancer. I have a heart for cancer patients, and I like doing stuff for them. It’s a hard card to be dealt. To sum it up, Lewispalooza gives me and my friends a chance to get together and play music for a good cause.”
A song that he performed at this year’s event is the mysterious “Alabama” which he penned with his brother. “Alabama’ is a fun party song. I wrote it with Lee in his garage. We were hanging out one night, and he said ‘I’ve been wanting to write this song for a while, and nobody will write it with me.’ I told him I’d write it with him, and we started it, and it turns into a story about this girl who is the life of the party, but also real mysterious. You never get her name, but you know she’s from Alabama, so that’s what he calls her.”
Brice is on the road throughout the summer to promote the disc. He says the stage is where he feels at home. “We’re just going to try to go out and spread the word about this new record, which came out July 14. We’ve got radio stuff coming up, and trying to fill up the tour schedule, and spread the word. All the driving and traveling is work and stuff, but getting in front of people is where my release is. That’s where I just try to let it loose.”
He’s also pumped about the upcoming College Football season, in which his Clemson Tigers enter 2017 as the defending National Champions. He says he will forever remember the teams’ magical run last year with Deshaun Watson leading the team. “Go Clemson all the way. I’ve been a Clemson fan my whole life. It was the best feeling ever. We actually went to the game. I went with my dad and my brother. We all sat there and watched the game. I’ll never forget that my entire life. It was very special. Seeing them come back in the last minute on that fourth-quarter drive, you can’t beat it. Whenever Alabama scored, all of the Clemson fans I was around were getting down, but I told them ‘Wait a minute. Watch this. Two minutes was plenty of time. We had that high-efficiency offense, so we could move the ball pretty quick. I felt like we were going to win the game.”