Drew McAlister is Coming Your Way

When speaking to Golden Guitar winner Drew McAlister, his excitement is almost infectious. And why wouldn’t he be happy? Last Friday marked the launch of his third solo album, Coming Your Way, which coincided with his appearance at Deni Ute Muster, making the event extra special for the artist and fans alike.

“As far as I knew, I was the only one releasing an album there,” he says of the performance. “It was really cool just to get the album in front of that many people. You know, it’s an iconic festival. Thousands of people show up to that gig and it’s really, really cool. I had a blast. It was so much fun. I purposely didn’t put any of the new songs, except the single [Coming Your Way] in the set because I knew people wouldn’t know the songs. But it was a really cool place to release it, in front of all of those people.”

The album saw McAlister take the reins a little more than previous records. Rather than settling into co-writing patterns and collaborations of days gone by, McAlister wrote the  lead single and title track himself. “I wanted to make something positive – not that the last album wasn’t positive, but this album’s got a good message on it. Coming Your Way was a song that I started months ago and I just kept coming back to it, and eventually finished it,” he says. “It was something I needed to say.”

Coming Your Way is also a slightly more modern record – a by-product of McAlister’s work with LA-based pop music producer Andy Mak. Overall, he believes the quality of the songs on this album is enhanced by Mak’s involvement and hopes that fans will be appreciative of the new music he has helped create.

“I always wanted this album to sound current. I wanted it to be something very modern and right now. That’s what [Mak] brought to the table. I still wanted all the messages and things that I’m saying to cut through. For all intents and purposes it is a country album, but he brought a pop sensibility to country and dressed it up … It’s still organic.”

McAlister first came to the attention of the Australian music industry after being signed to EMI as a soul-pop artist many moons ago. Since making the switch to country music (first as one half of McAlister Kemp with Troy Kemp, and most recently as a solo act signed to ABC Music), he has earned numerous accolades and high praise from fellow artists and critics alike, but remains humble in success.

“The highlight is just getting another album out. The music industry’s changed a lot the last few years. I’m lucky that I’ve got a label who let me do my own thing and record the songs I want to record,” he says. “The thing that has always appealed to me in this genre is the stories. You can only write so many love songs – and that’s predominantly what pop music is in one form or another – I like that too, that’s cool. But I like being able to explore other things with the lyric in this genre.”

While he admits that touring is not what it used to be in terms of setting aside a big block of dates in which to travel the nation, McAlister is keen to hit the road with Coming Your Way in the near future. “It’s an ongoing thing … We basically keep adding to [the list] as we go. We’ve got Tamworth coming up; we’ve got a couple of gigs in Rockhampton in a couple of weeks. We keep putting gigs in where we can and taking it out to the people.”

Coming Your Way is out now through ABC Music. To keep up-to-date with Drew McAlister and when he’s performing near you, visit his website.