'Easy Does It': Dylan Scott On The Mantra, Muse & Place Where He Finds Himself

Dylan Scott’s Easy Does It will disappoint no country purist with its tracks about towns, love songs, party songs and those “good old boy songs.” In short, it’s more of what we have seen from Scott with new layers peeled back to see the artist, husband and father where he’s at now.

Scott spoke to The Music and Countrytown right after releasing Easy Does It to the world in early June. He said that the response has been positive, but it feels different this time, which he chalks up to the raw vibe and content of the 11-track album.

Scott says, “Easy does it to me, it’s not just the lyric of the song, as to why I picked that to be the name of the album. It was more just the saying ‘Easy does it’. I feel like that's where I'm at in life right now.

“You know, there was a time in life when I stressed a lot, or I worried about things,” Scott continued. “It was way out of my control. And I don't know if it's because of my kids; I don't know if it's because I'm getting older. I'm kind of in that phase of life where, hey, I'm only worried about what I can control and whatever happens with everything else, happens. So, I tell everybody, I'm in that ‘easy does it’ phase of life right now. Like, we're just living.”

Easy Does It is a track on the album, but Scott means it when he says that the album name goes beyond that, especially as the song is about a break-up. Scott drifts back to this saying many times, and it’s clear he’s enjoying his success and the pace of his journey to get here.

Easy Does It is Scott’s third album, following Dylan Scott in 2016 and Livin’ My Best Life in 2022. Despite the success of these two studio albums and the early excitement for Easy Does It, Scott has his feet firmly on the ground, which in his case is at his farm in Nashville, where he works long days between tours and recording so he can get his family moved in.

Recently playing at the Spotify House, Scott’s daughter climbed onto the stage before he played My Girl and was sat on the hip of Scott, a beautiful moment caught by a fan and shared to his own social media. It’s clear through our conversations and the man he puts out into the world that he is family-first, and that his art and his young family are one and the same.

“Everyone always asks me, ‘How do you separate the two?’ You know, how do you have your career and your family and do the whole deal, and combine them? I just make it all one. You know, it's not my career over here, and my family over there. We're all in this together, and it feels good. It feels good to bring them along. Feels good to take my kids to shows,” Scott says.

He adds, “My kids get to see what I'm doing; my wife gets to be a part of this whole deal as well. I don't know, it's easier that way. There's no sense in hiding anything. It's like, this is my life. I've got my kids and my wife and this awesome life that we live, and we get to play music, and they get to come on the road with me and see everything. It just makes everything, not only more fun, but just easier.”

When asked what he thinks will become instant classics, and which tracks will be the slow-burn favourites, Scott hesitated before assigning greater value to any of his work or perceiving its impact on each individual listener.

He eventually conceded that Back Forty resonates deeply with him. While the song is about marriage, children, and the messy life therein, Scott knows it will not be relatable for his younger fans, but that track is for him.

“It’s what I’m living right now. I’m on my farm right now. I bought a farm, we’re building a house, and I’ve been out here working all day today, just trying to get this place ready to move in. So I’m loving Back Forty at the moment. Luckily, I’ve gotten a really good response from it from a lot of people who have also either lived that or are living it right now. It’s a special one.”

Scott volunteers that Back Forty is not a song that he himself wrote, and that when he creates an album, he is designing a listening experience. Much of the time, he writes his own music, but if an idea or a finished song is presented to him, it’s embraced with equal weight.

“Most of the time, when I'm writing a song or somebody sends me one, I'm thinking from the fans' perspective. Can they relate to this? Can I relate to this? But can the fan relate to this? Is this something they're going to love? Because at the end of the day, it's all about the fans,” Scott notes.

Scott heads back on the road this week after a short break, and it’s the first time he will be touring with Easy Does It out. Scott echoes again that he feels this album is different, reinforced by the feedback he is receiving in Nashville and a mountain of DM’s from fans. 

“We can’t break the internet with every song… but as long as we are consistently building and gaining new fans and making the existing ones happy with the music, then hey - we’re doing it right,” Scott muses.

There is no doubt that Scott is doing it right, having started his venture into music playing for no one and then ten people, and then fifty. Now he is selling out shows, not as a support act but as a headliner.

That ‘easy does it’ ethos rings true again for Scott as he acknowledges it’s been a slow grind to get to where he is now. And while there are bigger shows he wants to play and greater heights to reach, he is content with where he is at, and the way he is growing. 

“The way my mum and dad raised me, I don't think I would have ever been the type to get the big head or be arrogant or anything like that,” he says. “I'm 34 - when those big moments happen, it's more gratitude I feel from it, and just grateful to be there. It's not like, ‘Oh, look at me,’ it's more just like, ‘dang, can you believe it, can you believe that just happened?’ I just am who I am at this point.”

Dylan Scott’s new album, Easy Does It, is out now. You can purchase a copy here.