3 Doors Down frontman and celebrated songwriter Brad Arnold was preparing earlier this year to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the band’s 2000 debut album, the certified seven-times RIAA platinum ‘The Better Life”. But with the pandemic putting the Grammy Award®-nominated Mississippi rock band’s plans on hold, Brad Arnold has used the quarantine to write and record his first solo record “Wicked Man.”
I had the chance to catch up with Brad and talk about the new song. We went into the production side as well as the lyrical content. Brad is a pretty open book when it comes to music and he breaks everything down with precision and humor.
As I listened to the song I started to formulate my own idea of the lyrical meaning. I was curious to see if I was even close. I also wondered if this was something that he was planning to do or if it just sort of happened. Brad explains, “It just kind of hit me. We’ve been going through this long enough and now to see other things happening in our world. To me, the things we see around us, at least in social media and the media in general, it suggests so heavily that there’s a proverbial wicked man behind the scenes that’s pulling the strings and making a lot of this stuff happen. They just don’t happen by themselves. In travelling around the world in twenty plus years and meeting people.. people are very diverse but people want to be friends. And when you see such division in people, you know that somebody has a stick somewhere that’s poking. And that’s what this song’s about.”
Brad raises a pretty good point. I think people in general are innately friendly and want to get along. The thought of someone pulling the strings for their own gain, profit or whatever the case may be, is an interesting one. I’m not sure if people are in a place to even address something like this but that may be precisely making Brad’s point.
Definitely something to think about.
I was also excited to talk abut the production aspect of the track. I was aware that 3 Doors Down drummer Greg Upchurch produced it but I wanted to go a little deeper. In a prior conversation with Upchurch he told me that he had a hidden gem by the name of Marshall that mixed and engineered his own solo song. I was in love with that mix and felt the same about this one.
I asked Brad if it was the same combination that worked on Wicked Man. Brad says, “Marshall mixed it. Greg produced it but Marshall was sitting right beside him turning every knob, so Marshall had a huge part in it. Greg’s good and Marshall’s good too. Both those guys, they done a good on this. Nothing else was done except it was mastered by Ted Jensen.”
In both instances I noticed how wide and expert the mix sounded right away as I listened to each song. Trust me, I’ve already made a note to beg those guys to work their magic in the future for myself. It’s A level work, that’s for sure and gives an already terrific and beautifully sung song an extra lift.
Brad Arnold and I talked about possible solo songs from him in the future as well as some of his favorite drummers. You can hear my entire conversation with Brad Arnold by clicking on the link to your favorite place to listen to podcasts. You won’t want to miss this one. Brad is a funny person and a real pleasure to talk music with.
-Tommy Marz
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