Brett Young Releases Highly-Anticipated Sophomore ‘Ticket to L.A.’ Album

Brett Young’s highly-anticipated sophomore Ticket to L.A. album is out! The 13-track record became a labor of love for Young, who poured his heart and soul into his latest project.

“It feels like a long time coming,” Young told PopCulture.com. “It feels good. I was joking the other day saying because I have it right now, but I can’t give it to everybody yet, it’s kind of like buying somebody a Christmas present in July, and being super excited to give it to them, and then November rolls around and you’re over it. But, then Christmas comes and you’re excited again.

“I’m chomping at the bit, trying not to listen to my own record so that it can feel fresh to me when I put it out in December,” he continued. “It’s been two and a half years since ‘Sleep Without You’ came out. The fans have been incredible and super patient, so I think it would’ve been really tempting to put a single out off this first record, but I think it’s time, so I’m excited.”

“Sleep Without You” was Young’s debut single from his eponymous freshman record, kicking off a string of four consecutive No. 1 hits. The success allowed Young to collaborate with established songwriters, including Hillary Lindsey, Ashley Gorley, Ross Copperman and pop star Gavin DeGraw.

“One of the things that happened was I got access to a lot more songwriters,” Young explained. “Consciously what I wanted to make sure didn’t happen is that I didn’t go in and let them write for me. I wanted to make sure that I was still all over these songs.

“Of course they’re incredible songwriters, so they’re helping me mold and shape a song for my record into something better than I would’ve made it by myself, but I needed to make sure while they were doing their thing that I was affecting the song as much as I could do that I,” he added. “You could hear me on it.”

Young experienced plenty since he started writing for Ticket to L.A., including watching his career take off and falling in love with his new bride, Taylor Mills – all of which is reflected in each track.

“I think in trying to do that the only real way to do that is to connect every song and story to something that I’m either living or have lived,” Young said. “In doing that I think it becomes very personal and it causes me to connect to the song, and I think in turn makes listeners connect because they can see that I’m connected, or at least I hope that’s what’s happening.”

One song on Ticket to L.A. that reflects his relationship with Mills is “Change Your Name,” one of three on the album that, perhaps surprisingly, Young didn’t write.

“What’s funny is I wrote a song that was holding that place until I heard ‘Change Your Name,’” Young says of the song, which was written by Ross Copperman, Matt Jenkins and Jon Nite. “One thing that I’ve always said is that the best song has to win, whether I wrote it or not, so it wasn’t even a decision.

“I had a song that I had written, and I had ‘Change Your Name,’” he continued. “‘Change Your Name’ was better, so I’m really pleased with the fact that they let me have their song because it’s a beautiful song, but with what Dan Huff did with it and how it turned out.”

Purchase Ticket to L.A. at BrettYoungMusic.com.

Photo Credit: Getty images/Slaven Vlasic