Artist Interviews on Maverick 100.9 · Bryan Broadcasting

Will Carter Interview August 2024

August 20, 2024·27 min·2 clips

Will Carter explains why his new album 'Had It All Wrong' and single 'Had Me At Goodbye' have such confusingly similar names.

1. Maverick 100.9's Corliss interviews Will Carter about his album Had It All Wrong and its current single Had Me At Goodbye, which has entered the top 20 on country charts and been picked up by CMT. 2. Corliss describes her relationship with Carter as a years-long friendship in which she has broken news about his engagement, wedding, and pregnancy announcement before other outlets. 3. The album Had It All Wrong had been fully completed for nearly a year before release; Carter credits his team with taking the time to execute the rollout properly rather than rushing it. 4. Carter says he currently has approximately two and a half albums worth of finished music — an unusual position he attributes to his prolific collaborative output with the Will Carter Band. 5. The Will Carter Band consists of five musicians who also work together at a Carter family-owned construction company during the week and play 150 to 200 shows per year together. 6. Carter explains that the decision to record with only the touring band came after two rounds with out-of-state producers failed to capture the live feel of Wrong Side of Town, a song he had been performing for eight years. 7. He describes the key insight: realizing his touring musicians were also studio-quality players — a rare combination — and that recording live in the studio the way they performed would deliver the sound his fans actually heard at shows. 8. Had It All Wrong was recorded entirely in Texas, with the five-piece band completing songs in two to three takes per track. 9. The album's current single Had Me At Goodbye was co-written by the full band at 3 a.m. in the kitchen of a studio apartment in Gladewater, Texas, when they were stranded overnight five hours from home after a studio session. 10. Carter says he found the hook concept 'Had Me At Goodbye' — a riff on the phrase 'had me at hello' — in his phone's hook book during the overnight stay, and the band finished the song by early morning. 11. The following day, the band recorded Had Me At Goodbye from 10:30 a.m. until noon, then drove home; it became the album's charting radio single. 12. Carter describes his family structure as deeply intertwined with his professional life: his two sisters and mother work at the construction company, and his touring band members are also construction company employees. 13. Carter attended Texas A&M University and graduated with a construction management degree and a minor in business, though he did not begin his music career during college. 14. He started performing original music after graduation, having taken a break from touring with a band called The Emotions to attend A&M, then played local College Station venues including Fitzwillies, Shatsi's, Corner Bar, and Sabatos. 15. Carter lost his father at age 13, leaving his mother with four children and no professional work experience or financial security; he credits the construction business — which began through connections made at A&M — with providing long-term stability for his family. 16. Carter is currently expanding his construction company from the Houston/Woodlands area to College Station and Bryan, partly because several employees already live there and partly because of his personal attachment to the community. 17. He teases the existence of a new music venue being developed just west of College Station, noting he is involved in some development capacity. 18. The interview tone is relaxed and candid; Corliss and Carter have a long personal friendship and share opinions about collaboration, trust, and the value of being openly honest in close relationships. 19. Both host and guest share a philosophy of trusting people until given reason not to and valuing collaborative environments over competitive ones, which they apply across music and business. 20. Best suited for fans of Texas country music who want to understand how the Will Carter Band developed its recording approach and the personal history behind Carter's songwriting.

As heard by us

A friendly catch-up built around band chemistry, live shows, and *Had It All Wrong*.

Will Carter's visit plays like a warm, title-heavy check-in around Had It All Wrong and the single Had Me At Goodbye. It works best once the talk settles into band life: finding the right group, writing while everyone is on the bus, and hearing other people sing the words…

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Why you'd press play

For a Texas-country catch-up that feels like youre in the room with the band.

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