brittany-howard

“Higher” slips into gospel territory as Cockrell reflects on several significant losses (including multiple relationships and the death of his grandmother). “I wrote ‘Higher’ in one of the most difficult times in my life, and I started thinking about how you never hear songs about showing gratitude for difficult things,” says Cockrell. “It became a song about being grateful for the defeat, the heartbreak, the sadness. It could be directed to a higher power, but to me it’s more about lifting each other up on a human-to-human level.”

Cockrell has co-written with a notable list of artists that include Joy Williams (on her GRAMMY-nominated 2019 album Front Porch), Joseph, Devon Gilfillian and Mathew Caws of Nada Surf, and there’s a palpable sense of communion that infuses all of If In Case You Feel The Same, including Cockrell’s collaborations with Howard. An ardent fan of the Alabama Shakes frontwoman, Cockrell first linked up with Howard thanks to a wholly unexpected introduction from his dear friend, singer/songwriter Becca Mancari. “I never wanted Becca to feel like a pass-through, so I put it out into the universe that if I was meant to meet Britt, it would just happen someday,” says Cockrell. One very late night while hanging out with Howard, Mancari shared some recordings of Cockrell’s songs, which then prompted Howard to hijack Mancari’s phone and send Cockrell a text professing her love for his music. “Twenty minutes later they’re walking into my house, and I’m making mezcal margaritas and playing Britt songs from the new album,” says Cockrell. “At some point she said me, ‘I never like anything, but I love all of this.'” Soon enough, Howard had sent Cockrell’s demos to ATO Records general manager Jon Salter, thus paving the way for his signing to the label.

Produced mainly by Tony Berg (an industry veteran who’s worked with everyone from Phoebe Bridgers to the Replacements), and mixed and engineered by Shawn Everett (Vampire Weekend, Beck, The War on Drugs), the album features an all-star backing band appearing on various songs throughout – Howard (backing vocals on “Higher”), Blake Mills (guitar), Chris Dave (drums), Matt Chamberlain (drums), Ethan Gruska (piano, synths), Ian Fitchuk (multiple instruments). If In Case You Feel the Same pushes beyond the understated country of Cockrell’s earliest work to illuminate his more idiosyncratic impulses. In dreaming up the album’s thrillingly unpredictable sonic palette, Cockrell built off a batch of recordings he’d self-produced in Nashville with the help of some of his closest musician-friends. Upon heading to Berg’s L.A. studio (then to the legendary Sound City) to complete the production process, he then took care to preserve the intimacy of those original recordings, lending the album a raw vitality that exponentially magnifies its emotional power.