At 16 years old, Conner Sweet began songwriting and playing music at local Honky Tonk Bars in Nashville, Tennessee. 7 years prior, Sweet picked up his first guitar igniting his passion for music which would take him to become a professional singer and songwriter.
“[Music] was all around me. My granddaddy played Hawaiian Steel at the original Opry. Music has always been in my family but I am the first one to pick it up and run with it,” Sweet explained.
Additionally, Sweet was inspired by hometown hero, Thomas Rhett who attended Sweet’s high school. Sweet went on, “I kind of watched him and [saw] how he was doing things. He would write songs and then had songs cut and I used that as a template for getting my butt in gear.”
Upon asking how he got involved in songwriting as a youthful teenager, Sweet told the story of how he wrote his first song. “When I was 9 or 10, I was so proud of myself [when] I wrote [my first] song and I was like ‘let’s go down to the radio station!’ but there was no music to it.” After writing his first tune-less single, Sweet began to build an enthusiasm for songwriting. Nashville-based songwriter, Marty Dawson mentored the young musician and helped carve him into a successful songwriter. “I played in the bars and I pretended to be Luke Bryan all through high school,” Sweet laughed. “It has been a really cool journey.”
Influenced by country-music legends, Kenny Chesney, Alan Jackson, and of course, Luke Bryan, Sweet exemplifies the twang yet genuineness country music consists of. Sweet attended many concerts at Nissan Stadium in his youth. In the interview, Sweet explained that he remembers watching these electric performances thinking, “I want to do that. That look like it beats the hell out of wearing a coat and tie to work.”
“I look at it like this, if I never get a chance to sell out arenas, I’ll be playing to the 100 people packed in a bar.”
Conner Sweet
Out of all these influencers, his dream collaboration would be to work with Alan Jackson, whom he has looked up to for as long as he can remember.
As Sweet continued his journey through songwriting, seeing artists venture into Nashville and gain popularity rather quickly was a source of doubt for the young artist. “You see a lot of people come and go. Sometimes it is like, this is hard,” Sweet said. Not long after being in the music city did Sweet gain a heightened sense of maturity which taught him that fame isn’t the be-all and end-all. “I look at it like this, if I never get a chance to sell out arenas, I’ll be playing to the 100 people packed in a bar. I will always be playing music or doing something that has to do with music,” Sweet said.
One question I always ask the artists I am interviewing is, “What does country music mean to you?” Sweet’s answer is one that particularly stood out to me as it rang a wholesome love and appreciation for the genre in which he resides in.
Without hesitation, Sweet sincerely explained, “To me, country music is just music about life. You don’t have to be country to enjoy country music. I find it so cool that country music can reach across all borders and all genres. It can touch everybody.”
Onto his latest single, “Times Like These” was written after Nashville took a devastating hit when deadly tornados tore through the area in March. At the time, Sweet explained that the city looked around and wondered how things could get any worse. Sweet wrote his candid feelings into a song with the help of his buddies Lance Carpenter and Liz Hengber. “We just wanted to write something positive, uplifting, and powerful,” Sweet described. Sweet explained that he views the song as one that shows there is a light at the end of the tunnel and “that we are all on the same team,” he said.
After an hour and a half of putting their heads together, the group had a new single. Luckily, the crew created a demo right before quarantine forced everybody into lockdown. Throughout the weeks Sweet was cooped up, he was determined to make the song the best that it could be. “All of this has taught me a new way of looking at what I want to do. It has been a really cool journey,” Sweet said.
As for new music, Sweet has a few tunes up his sleeve. “Songwriting has been a little more relaxed [during quarantine].” The artist explained, there isn’t that pressure of meeting multitudes of people and being on the go constantly. “We get to have some fun with it and make some cool music,” he said.
Although the calmness has been appreciated, Sweet admits he has the itch to get back out on the road and play music for his fans. “My goal is to get back to them. To seeing the the people who have followed me on Instagram and on Facebook and who have been so nice to me over the years,” Sweet explained. Looking ahead, the talented artist described he is “shooting for the stars”.
Check out Conner Sweet’s new single, “Times Like These” here.