Breland‘s debut song, “My Truck,” came about after a long day in the studio. He was writing with friends when the lyrics and melody came to him, so he immediately recorded a demo — and he always knew the song wasn’t meant for anybody else.
His instincts were right: The country-meets-trap song spoke to the hearts of truck owners everywhere and went viral on TikTok and became a Top 30 hit on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. The song even caught the attention of Sam Hunt, who hopped on a “My Truck” remix with Breland, and the auto brand Chevrolet, which started featuring the song in ads.
Below, Breland shares the story behind “My Truck,” in his own words.
“My Truck” was a demo that I wrote one night with some friends, just having fun after a long day in the studio. It just felt really good and it felt really unique. It was kind of the first time that I had a song that I was like, “I don’t really know if we can shop this to anyone,” because what I was doing on the song vocally felt like something that maybe I should be doing.
I put it out independently, and it started to go viral on TikTok, which was really exciting, and it definitely was a great jumping off point for my career … My origin story is not inherently country, but it is inherently country in the sense that I come from a small town and I have overcome a lot of obstacles and the odds to be in the position that I’m in. That is kind of inherently country and hip-hop, which is why me being able to blend those things together with my “cross country” fusion, especially on a song like “My Truck” is really cool, and why I think the partnership with Chevy makes a lot of sense …
The writing process behind that song — I approach every song the same way, regardless of genre, which is: What is this song about, and how do we then build a story and tell that story effectively around whatever that concept is. I’m a hook-first writer, so the track was kind of leading me in a more country direction. I think, conceptually, we had this melody that ended with “uh, uh, uh,” and I’m like, “Okay, what can we say there?”
There’s nothing that truck owners feel more passionately about than their trucks. The phrase “don’t touch my truck” just kind of came to me, and I was like, “Okay, cool, this has legs,” so to speak — or wheels, if you will, on this one. “Let’s try to build a story out for this and give the truck owner something that they can lean their hat on and enjoy.” So I kind of just put myself into that mindset, and I’m like, “I know that everyone out here that owns a truck feels very passionately about it and doesn’t want other people to touch it,” so we just built somewhat of a comedic premise of that chorus of all these things that you wouldn’t want someone to do, but that you would rather them do than touch their truck, obviously with calling my lady and taking my money and all these things that, in and of themselves, are very negative, but when it comes to the truck, it’s just puts them in perspective.
That song was just a lot of fun to make. We wrote it in a little over an hour, and I had no idea how far it was going to go, or that it would lead to this type of a partnership with Chevy, but obviously it did.
After making “My Truck,” it helped me have a purpose to what I was creating and why. Right now, that purpose is really built around bringing people into country music, helping to redefine what country music can be, what it can sound like, what it can look like, and erase some of the stigmas that currently exist around it so that it can be a more inclusive space. I think that the “cross country” music that I’ve been making, the overall objective is to be able to bring people in and kind of be a cultural bridge, where every concert that I have is going to be very diverse and [have] people who come from all different walks of life and backgrounds to be able to share their stories and experiences with each other and, hopefully, move toward a world that’s more loving and more accepting of each other.
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