Brett Young Added a Woman’s Perspective to His No. 1 Hit ‘In Case You Didn’t Know’ (Exclusive)

Brett Young knew marriage and fatherhood would change him — however he by no means anticipated how a lot it might change his songwriting.

“I’ve at all times been hell bent on being within the second with all the pieces that I write about, however I had a realization in the midst of writing the final report that being married and beginning a household type of modifications what you’ll be able to and might’t do in that world,” displays Younger, 44, in an unique interview with PEOPLE.

He admits with amusing, “I needed to stretch myself or I might have had a lullabies report very quickly!”

And whereas the thought of lullabies delivered by the velvet voice of this nation heartthrob is definitely intriguing, Younger is severe when he says he made a acutely aware effort to push himself creatively on his brand-new album 2.0, which launched Friday, June 20.

“When it comes to my songwriting, I knew I must both dig again to my previous or write any person else’s story,” explains Younger, who has served as co-writer on a few of his largest hits equivalent to “Mercy,” “Sleep With out You” and “Right here Tonight.” “I needed to write to matter relatively than expertise somewhat bit extra.”

Younger admits that he did start this stretching course of over the course of his 2023 report Throughout the Sheets, however 2.0 took it to an entire new stage.

“I used to be in a position to faucet into each expertise, feeling, and emotion, and nonetheless make it really feel genuine and linked,” says Younger, who’s at present out on his Back to Basics World Tour, performing his newest single, “Drink with You,” for his ever-loyal fanbase.

Coincidentally, the much-needed stretch of his songwriting muscle in the end led Younger again to considered one of his biggest hits — 2017’s “In Case You Didn’t Know.”

“I needed to place the feminine perspective to it,” says Younger of “In Case You Did not Know 2.0.” “For the longest time, I knew we had the story about how males are dangerous at expressing their emotions. However I imply, that story is as outdated as time. And if that is actually true, how can we hold getting girls to be with us?”

Enter vocalist Hannah McFarland, who ended up coming in and never solely collaborating with Younger on the track however really writing the feminine perspective to the No. 1 track.

“Hannah did an important job lending the angle of, ‘Yeah, possibly you guys do not say it, however you do this stuff, or you will have these seems otherwise you give us these issues in different methods,'” says Younger. “I simply needed to characterize each side.”

However whereas Younger pushed himself in new instructions, there are songs on the brand new report that deliver followers again to his personal endearing story.

“‘Full Home’ is particular,” Younger explains of the endearing track he wrote alongside Ross Copperman and Jon Nite.

“Me and my spouse [Taylor Mills Young] had been positive that we needed 4 children, however then we had this actually overwhelming emotional expertise bringing [our younger daughter, 3½-year-old] Rowan home from the hospital. All of the sudden, we felt like our household was full with two kids. Rowan’s existence in our life was so highly effective that it type of modified our plan for us as a household and accomplished us.”

(The couple, who married in 2018, are additionally dad and mom to daughter Presley, 5½.)

It is an interior peace not solely mirrored within the track however mirrored in Younger’s demeanor as of late. “There’s lots of people that are not fortunate sufficient to have reached that time of their life the place they really feel, ‘That is our household unit, that is the plan and shifting ahead we defend this and that is what we care for,'” explains Younger. “I believe to some folks that may look like it comes with this adverse aspect the place there’s now nothing new to stay up for.”

However for Younger, it’s the entire reverse. 

“There aren’t any extra unknowns,” he says quietly. “There aren’t any extra new variables. That is what it’s.”

Regardless of this, uncertainty can creep in — a sense that in the end resulted in Younger sitting down with Jon Nite and Kyle Schlienger to jot down the touching and insightful “Who I Do It For.”

“As a lot as that track exhibits me at my most susceptible aspect, it’s additionally about me hoping that sooner or later the children are sufficiently old to know why I needed to be gone a lot,” says Younger of the track that has him becoming a member of voices with nation icons Lady A. “Being gone and on the street is troublesome , however it’s for the higher good of my household that I’m doing all of this. It does not make it simple simply because you realize why you are doing it, however it does make you in a position to put your head down and push by it.”