Despite the many accolades, sold-out shows, and both critical and commercial success of Sunnyside, WA-native Zach Top’s breakthrough track, 2024’s “I Never Lie” and its subsequent album Cold Beer & Country Music, Top is not an overnight success. He has been releasing music since his late teen years dating back to 2019, a period from which tracks such as “I Don’t Mind” and “Love Someone Like Me” were released on his debut self-titled project in 2022. Both display Top’s evident infatuation with the classic country sound he would later fine tune, though the latter track impressively reflects his already-refined, though still evolving, baritenor vocal range.
By 2024, and the release of the fabulously nostalgic and melancholic “I Never Lie,” the country music landscape had undergone a drastic shift, a point he reiterates during our Monday morning conversation over Zoom. The likes of Zach Bryan, Tyler Childers, and Kacey Musgraves had taken the reigns of the genre from the previous mainstream ringleaders, and the world was ready for his respectful and, for all intents and purposes, modern, take on the classic country sound. These days, he leads the charge alongside acts like Megan Maroney, Parker McCollum, and Ella Langley, while a younger class rises closely behind them.
Top, who refused to allow for a sophomore slump, returned to the studio with trusted producer Carson Chamberlain for the development of Ain’t In It For My Health, a record he tells his mentor and friend Dierks Bentley was made both for and because of the love of the art, not for the perceived personal satisfaction that comes with success. Refusing to settle or simply run it back, Top and Chamberlain explored various musical methodologies across the project, carefully arranging and formatting them to provide the listener with a broad view of Top’s capabilities.
The pair doubled down on the toe-tappin’ dancehall with tunes like “Tightrope,” “Guitar,” “Honky Tonk Till It Hurts,” and even the more mellow though hook-centric “Like I Want You,” ensuring that Top’s enigmatic personality is present on each syllable of every phrase. Elsewhere, they pay homage to a beloved childhood favorite on island-time cuts like “Flip—Flop” and “Good Times and Tan Lines.” Lastly, tracks such as “South Of Sanity,” “Splitsville,” and “I Know A Place” focus on the more intimate details and struggles of Top’s attempts to wrangle his romantic life in the midst of his elevated career ventures, using keynote elements of the seminal country ballads to guide him to the appropriate sonic and emotional landscapes.
Now a Grammy award winner for Ain’t In It For My Health, Top’s fans will undoubtedly reiterate their claims that their guy is bringing a certain kind of legitimacy back to rootsy country music. Changing the game. Top, as he explains here, is appreciative of the affirmations, though he simply desires to give back to the genre the best way he knows how: with authentic country music.
In conversation with 1883 Magazine, contemporary country superstar Zach Top talks his upcoming headline appearance at the UK’s C2C Festival, his recent Grammy win for his sophomore record Ain’t In It For My Health, and managing the ambitious expectations of country music fans around the world.
What is it about contemporary country music that continues to attract listeners and C2C festival goers in Europe, so much so that the festival has now expanded to New York and elsewhere?
It’s interesting. In the US, for starters, it feels like country music has kept on gaining popularity in the last five to ten years. And I’m sure some of that is the more pop and hip-hop influence into country that has attracted some more fringe listeners… who aren’t dyed in the wool staunch country fans already. Once they get drawn in, they dive in and enjoy even my more traditional, old-school sound.
It’s wild to see that happen internationally as well. What has been happening in the US has been mirrored on a global scale. Everywhere’s got farmers, and blue-collar workers, and agriculture, so all those people can relate to the storytelling of country music. That makes sense to me. But, it is crazy that it has caught on as big as it has in the last little bit all over the world.
What are you expecting differently from European audiences that you might not receive in the US?
I don’t know for sure! I’ve heard from some of the folks I’ve talked to that a lot of European fans are almost more attentive. Less phone videoing and talkin’ during a song and really clueing into the music and lockin’ in and enjoyin’ it for all it’s worth. Other than that, I have no expectations. I’m just goin’ in there knowin’ that people are listenin’ to the music, and that they’re excited about it. I’m gonna go in with that assumption and try to knock their socks off and make em’ go crazy.
On your bill, it’s you and Scotty McCreery with a bunch of the youngins including Ty Myers, Noah Rinker, and Waylon Wyatt. Do you feel like you’re at place where you’re able to be a mentor now?
I think I’m still figuring it out myself. I’ve talked to plenty of guys who are a little younger than me and I’m happy to pass along what I’ve got, most of which is secondhand. I don’t consider myself to be an old hat yet. I still feel very new as I try to make my way up to the top. It is funny. I’ve been the young up-and-comer guy for so long. People like me and Ella are in a generation that is a little bit established now, onto the second record, that kind of has a foothold in it. Then, there’s a generation comin’ up of the new whipper snappers. I’m sure they can find better sources of advice [Laughs]. If they’re turnin’ to me, they must have exhausted a lot of options already.
Has Dierks been your center point of how to navigate the business, or is there someone else who has taken that role?
My producer, Carson Chamberlain, has been the biggest mentor for everything within the music business. Whether that’s writing, or puttin’ out records, or touring. He has been in so many facets of the business, worked in almost every capacity you can and has had great success doin’ it all. So, he has a great perspective, other than being the artist.
As far as other artists go, Dierks has been really cool. That was a really fun summer we got to spend together on tour last year. I admire that guy a lot. The way he runs his business. Everyone who has worked there has been there for a long time, and they love workin’ there. And Lainey too… we spent most of 2024 together. She’s out there killin’ it. A super sweet genuine person. Another great example of how to run your business.
Congratulations on your Grammy win. Is it more personal to have won for an entire body of work as opposed to a single huge song, like, “I Never Lie”?
Yeah, for sure. Of those three awards, I was really excited to have won it for the Ain’t In It For My Health album… that whole catalog of work. And, it gives me that “I’m here to stay,” stamp too. It wasn’t a one-hit-wonder situation. It’s the sophomore album, but there’s no sophomore slump. We went ahead and won a Grammy with it.
For songs like “When You See Me,” “Splitsville,” and “I Know A Place,” that are along the lines of more traditional country ballads like “When You Say Nothing At All” or “Goodbye Time”.
How do you center yourself to portray the emotions needed?
All those songs come from a real experience, a real feeling that I’ve lived. That’s the magic of songwriting. You take a very personal experience or story and try to convey that in a way that is universal and relatable. I don’t ever feel like I have to try to put myself in a mindset to feel a song, or make other people feel a song. When the thing kicks off, I’m just there, and the song speaks to me. The song makes me feel something, so, in turn, it feels very natural that the way I sing it and deliver it makes other people feel something.
Is there any influence of Jimmy Buffett, someone who has been a beacon for Kenny Chesney and others in the genre, in the writing or musical aesthetic of songs like “Good Times and Tan Lines” or “Flip–Flop”?
Absolutely. He is one of the first people I remember listening to as a kid. I remember screaming like a crazy person to “Cheeseburger In Paradise” with my sister [Smiles fondly]. We loved all that stuff. Every once in a while, I stumble around and write one of those more ‘island’ flavored songs, “Flip–Flop” being a great example of that. Writing music like that comes very naturally to me. I’ll take my mountains and my cowboy hat most of the time, but I love the islands and being on a beach every now and again.
Was it surprising for you to be writing a record that is partially based on the difficulties of being a touring musician considering you’re only a few years into doing it professionally?
I didn’t set out to make the record that way. It was what I was living. All that stuff was brand new at that point. We got all the fun stuff, all the party songs, on there too, but it just felt real and appropriate for the time. I don’t ever want it to sound like it’s a pity party for this awesome life I get to lead, but everyone’s gig has challenges to it.
Many of your videos are flooded with comments along the lines of, “Zach is bringing back REAL country music!” or “He’s doing it how it’s SUPPOSED to be done.” Is that something you can pat yourself on the back for?
I’m influenced by a lot of the guys that came before me. Everyone’s piggybacking off of what has come before us and trying to figure out what to do with it, and how to find our perspective on it. I know there is a lot talk about that… the “real country music,” “saving country music” kind of thing, but I never set out with some mission statement. This is just what I do, and all I know how to do. When I write, and sing, and play, this is what comes out of me. I wouldn’t know how to do anything else, even if I tried.
I’m not upset about it, I’m glad people are enjoyin’ it, because it feels like a lot of people were ready for a shift back towards the roots and traditions of country music and what we all know and love. I’m just doin’ my thing, and I’m glad people are goin’ crazy for it, so far.
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Thanks to Dawbell
