- 2023-05-04
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MUSIC
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Diplo Releases New Album “Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley: Chapter 2 - Swamp Savant”
American DJ Thomas Wesley, aka Diplo released his second country music project “Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley: Chapter 2 - Swamp Savant” on April 28, 2023 via Columbia.
It is a sequel to the 2020 album “Diplo Presents Thomas Wesley, Chapter 1: Snake Oil”.
Diplo told Apple Music about country music, “My [country] records were playing on digital radio because they don't have the same restrictions all the Nashville mafia does. Then people streamed it, and people listened to it at parties and people put it on TikTok. I think you just give it to the people and you can fight back against that Nashville mentality. I think that's what we did. I think, also, it's changing. There's a lot more stars out there with open minds.”
He continued, “When I started getting older, I really started playing more classics when I'm just driving. I'm playing more Fleetwood Mac records. I'm playing more Kenny Rogers records. I'm driving around and getting back to records that I loved, because they meant something when I was driving with my Grandpa down I-95.”- The album comprises 20-track, featuring guest appearances from Lily Rose, Sturgill Simpson, Dove Cameron, Johnny Blue Skies, Paul Cauthen, Sierra Ferrell, Morgan Wade, Parker McCollum, Kodak Black, Koe Wetzel, Orville Peck, ERNEST, Leon Bridges, Thomas Rhett, Young Thug, Jonas Brothers, Cam, Blanco Brown, Noah Cyrus, Clever, Julia Michaels, Danielle Bradbery, Zac Brown, Ben Burgess, Morgan Wallen, Lil Nas X, and Billy Ray Cyrus.
Diplo said of the collabotation with them, “We're not forcing anything. We're just putting people together that you wouldn't expect. And unexpected is what I've always been good at, throwing things together that are out of the ordinary and trying to make them feel like they're classics. That's always my lesson.” -
Diplo said of the album, “To prepare for this new Thomas Wesley project, I went back to my fathers house in Florida and I spent six months learnin guitar, gettin in touch with nature, working his boat when the shrimp were running on full moons at the trailer park.. then I went to Nashville and had to take out every manager and a&r out to dinner until my credit card was maxed. I called every favor from my rapper friends (there wasn't a lot that answered my calls) went to Kentucky and Texas and tracked down all the guys there and asked everyone to give me a chance and to be on my new project. I looked back at my career and the things I learned as a songwriter.. then I researched every way I was good at breaking the rules in my career and tried some new tricks … spent two years going to Stagecoach undercover as an EDM DJ to figure out what people were into … I tried on a lot of cowboy hats. I rode a lot of motorcycles and horses basically reflected on my whole life and career and connection with this music.. there was a lot.. it all started in the swamps I was raised in ... This is the greatest single piece of work I've ever done, I can promise you that.”
Photo by Aidan Cullen - source : Apple Music
