Back Home by Andy Grammer

Album: Magazines or Novels (2014)

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The lead single from Andy Grammer's second studio album, this was released to iTunes on April 8, 2014. The song was inspired by the singer returning home after three years touring his eponymous debut LP. "I was running around the country and certain other countries around the world I got to go to playing the first album," he told Artist Direct. "When you're back again, you try as much as you can to keep up with everybody but I was pretty much a bad friend [Laughs]."

"So, by the time I got home and started writing for my second album, it really stuck out how important it is to have good friends to be around to be a part of your life and keep you grounded," Grammer continued. "I have some great ones back in LA. I was away from for a while, then I saw how much I needed it back home. I feel like a lot of people can relate to that. Since it's been out, people have been saying they've felt the same way."
The tune has a folk-y vibe but Grammer didn't set out to write a Mumford & Sons-type number. "It's weird because everything we wrote in this song was calling for this stuff," he told Artist Direct. "I didn't want to be the guy chasing the folk thing, but we put a banjo on it and it sounded f--king awesome. Who am I to stop the flow of a song?"

"What's interesting about the folk sound is there's so much processed music," he continued. "It's hard to not sound genuine over a banjo. The words you sing over those sounds feel honest. We're thirsty for that in music."
Grammer knew there was something special about the song straight away and spent a lot of the recording time getting it just right. He told About.com: "There was something really exciting about that one coming together. It just feels really good. It felt really nice to sort of experiment. Hey, I'd never had a banjo on a track before. That was kind of cool."
The song's music video was directed by the actor and director Justin Baldoni, who also worked with Grammer on his clip for "Miss Me" as well as Katie Armiger's visual for "Safe."
The clip finds Grammer entertaining a crowd in Sat Lake City with colored powder. "'Back Home' has that massive group vocal in the chorus," Grammer explained to Billboard magazine. "This video needed to feel enormous. The capacity crowd singing amidst a 'colorsplosion' was exactly what it called for."

Comments: 2

AnonymousThis is my absolute favorite song. I call it my power song because I feel like I can do anything.
Mark Britto from VirginiaThe University of VA has been using this song and various video/photos from the history of UVA basketball as the pump up the crowd music played just prior to player introductions.

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