If you’ve heard of “We Bleed Maroon,” then you’ve heard of Granger Smith. The independent country musician, Class of 2002, has built up a large following unusual for unsigned artists. The Battalion’s Life & Arts editor Katie Canales spoke with Smith about where he’s headed with his music, his work with American soldiers and what it’s like being an Aggie in the country music world.
THE BATTALION: What’s next for you at the moment?
Smith: I have an EP coming out on May 4, which is the first time I’ve ever put out an EP, and then it’s going to be followed by the full-length album in the fall. So of course the album will include the songs from the EP but it kind of gives us the chance to do a long release and then also for me to continue to write songs and kind of tweak them for the album that comes out this coming fall.
THE BATTALION: Your alter ego, Earl Dibbles Jr. — Is that just a stage name or is it another facet of yourself that you’ve brought to your music?
Smith: It’s kind of both of those. For a while, we were making different videos to kind of show different exposures of the band and bring more people around to the music and there were several characters that I was putting on at the time and Earl Dibbles was just another one of these characters on YouTube and it went viral. And so we started chasing it, it started getting millions of views and I wanted to write a song for it and so I wrote a song called “The Country Boy Song” and then released a music video at the same time as the song came out and then that went viral. So by this time I figured this is something that’s going to have to live on the stage and something that we’re going to raise awareness and morale and patriotism. And we also raise money for an organization called Boot Campaign, which gives back to soldiers returning home and reentering civilian lifestyle.
THE BATTALION: From the perspective of someone in the country music world, are you met with any kind of animosity from people who don’t understand the Aggie family and its culture?
Smith: That’s kind of interesting because we tour so much, and for instance, today we’re in Indiana and we played there last night and we’ll usually get to take a tour of their facility and campus. So yesterday we took a tour of Notre Dame and went through all the football facilities. I always will bring up — because I always have my ring on — I always bring up that I went to Texas A&M. I don’t know if it’s shocking, but it’s mildly surprising that everyone holds A&M to a pretty high regard. In the university levels, if you’re in the faculty or in the athletics facility at all, if you’re an equipment manager or an athlete or one of the coaches, everyone holds A&M very high. Like yesterday, when I told the guy at Notre Dame I went to A&M, he was like, “Oh, my gosh, we took a tour there,” — and this is the equipment manager saying this — “We took a tour there last summer to take some notes on how we can be better at Notre Dame.” And he said that those facilities were amazing at A&M and everyone was so nice and, “Tell so-and-so I said hey if you ever talk to him.” And so that’s a lot of what I get. And I always try to show respect to other schools that we go to. And so they’ll give me hats and so a lot of times I’ll put one of their caps on and we’ll take pictures, but I’ll always have my ring on.
THE BATTALION: How has being an Aggie impacted you as a musician and as a person in general?
Smith: It’s a lifestyle. And, you know, my dad went there. When I wear my ring, I look at my hand and that’s my dad’s hand and he’s not with us anymore. That’s something that’s huge to me. And my brother goes there, he’s in the Corps there, just like I was. He was the mascot corporal a couple years ago and had Reveille, so that’s a big part of our family. And so we’re close to her. And then my mom grew up in College Station, my grandmother still lives there, I have two uncles that live here and so not only is A&M home, but College Station is, in a lot of ways, considered a home to me.
