Tucker Wetmore has already introduced himself to country music fans with the release of his viral singles, “Wine Into Whiskey,” and “Wind Up Missin’ You.” Now he’s giving listeners an even deeper look into his artistry with an 8-song EP entitled Waves On A Sunset.
Tucker Wetmore EP Waves On A Sunset
Released on Friday (Oct. 4), Waves On A Sunset captures the three sides of Wetmore’s life as a 24-year-old — the heartbreaker, the heartbroken, and the head-over-heels romantic. Produced by Chris LaCorte, the collection includes five co-written tracks by the Kalama, WA native and three outside cuts. But in a recent round-robin with Music Mayhem and other media, Wetmore insisted the process of putting together the EP was organic and just an all-around good time.
“It was really just me and a bunch of buddies making music, and that’s what I want it to be forever,” Wetmore, who celebrated the EP release with a surprise pop-up show for fans at Losers Bar & Grill in Nashville, said. “It was just cool. I rented out a lake house for a couple of these songs on the EP and a project that’s down the road, but it was one of those things where we just hung out and we love to write songs. So that’s what we did….and I’ve been looking forward to this moment for years, putting out my first project, my first ‘hello’ to the world, my first like, ‘Oh, this is who I am.’ But it’s only scratching the surface.”
Cements His Place In Country Music As An Artist With A Promising Legacy Ahead
Early arrivals like “Silverado Blue” and “What Would You Do?” have already cemented Wetmore’s place in country music as an artist with a promising legacy ahead. And from a production standpoint, the songs have given listeners a taste of what Wetmore is going for. He says he wanted his EP to sound familiar to his audience yet fresh enough to keep them coming back.
“When it came to talking about the record and what my vision was for it, what [Chris’] was too, it was a group effort,” Wetmore said. “It was more of ‘how can we make something sound fresh enough to the listener’ where the listener is like, ‘Oh, I haven’t heard something like this,’ but it sounds familiar enough for them to want to listen to it again. That was our whole goal behind it.”
To make his vision come to life, Wetmore pulled inspiration from bands he grew up on like Queen, Hall & Oates, and Fleetwood Mac. He ended up having to whittle down his project to 8 with well over 100 songs to work with.
“I’ve been writing for five years, and I have a lot to say, and it was tough,” he explained the process behind selecting the tracks that made the EP. “I think that was the toughest part, was picking the songs to go on this EP.”
“Silverado Blue”
Despite having to reduce the EP length to make sense, Wetmore ended up finding the perfect balance, opening up Waves On A Sunset with the clever mid-tempo track “Silverado Blue,” which takes the idea of a red truck turning blue after having to kiss a romance goodbye.
“It’s just a great song and It feels good, and I personally love that song,” Wetmore explained why he chose the track as the lead for the EP. “….It feels good for radio, and it feels good for a live set [and] It feels good to everybody who I’ve asked their opinions and stuff like that. [It] just feels like a strong song. Doesn’t feel like the strongest song, but it doesn’t feel like the least strong song. It’s a good song, and I thought it was a good start [to the record].”
As for co-writing the track alongside Brett Sheroky and Dan Wilson, Wetmore says, “It was a fun ride, and it was another one of those instances where I was just like, I just want to write something fun. And so that’s what we did, and we didn’t have a rhyme or reason behind it. It was just me and two of my buddies with guitars. There were no tracks, there was no nothing. We wrote it strictly on the guitars, and my buddy was like, ‘Hey, Silverado Blue.’ I was like, ‘What if the Silverado was red, but now it’s blue because you’re sad and all this stuff because she’s not there.’ It was like, it was kind of a thinker, but it’s a fun thinker, and so I like it.”
“You, Honey”
Track three (“You, Honey”) on Waves On A Sunset flips the switch with Wetmore in a less melancholy mood. The tune finds the singer/songwriter loved up and ready to indulge in romance with a significant other.
“You’re sugar-sweet blowin’ in the summertime air / Drivin’ me wild like the flower in your sunshine hair / Dizzy dancin’, sundress slippin’ off your shoulder, damn, girl, it stops me / Baby, right now, you got me buzzin’ like a bee / For some of you, honey,” Wetmore sings over light and plucky acoustic guitars.
Wetmore penned the song with Josh Thompson and Michael Lotten. Like the majority of his collection, he says his co-writing session was a blast.
“We just wanted to write something fun. And I’ve written with Josh, I want to say a handful of times now,” he shared. “He’s just a great and fun dude. It was a fun ride. It was fun being in the room with those guys and doing something fun instead of something super serious. We just wanted to write something fun, and we did.”
“Break First”
“Break First,” written by Michael Tyler, Matt Roy, Lauren Hungate, and Matt Dragstrem, was one of the tracks that Wetmore was drawn to after the first listen. The high-energy tune is all about two lovers having one foot in and one foot out of a relationship, with a party-minded Wetmore fighting the internal struggle of settling down.
“Will she put me in a church, will I put her in a bar?/ Will she put me back together, will I tear that girl apart?/ It’s only one of two things, will she want my last name?/ Or wanna drag it through the dirt?/ Will I make her mine or just make her miss me?/ Right now, it’s lookin’ like 50-50/ If it’s gonna be my habits or that heart of hers/ Which one is gonna break first?” He sings.
“I listened to it once,” Wetmore shared with excitement. “I showed it to my producer, and probably an hour later, we were in the studio cutting it. And so it was just one of those things, it’s like it worked out, and I resonated with the song well, and it was the vibe in the field that we were searching for. So I was like, this is literally the perfect situation.”
The Final Track, “Mister Miss Her”
“Mister Miss Her,” which serves as the final track on Waves On A Sunset, written by Blake Pendergrass, Jaxson Free, and LaCorte, is perhaps the saddest country song on the album with Wetmore claiming to miss the one that got away.
“It was the perfect song to place at the end of [the record]. It’s like the perfect stamp and perfect lead into what’s to come,” Wetmore said of the closing ballad. “When it came to choosing this song, it’s a funny story. I was at my buddy Jacob’s house. He’s a writer, and I was with him and another of my buddies, Jaxson Free. It was us three listening to demos. He plays that song at two o’clock in the morning, and I’m like, ‘Where’d you get this?’ He goes, ‘Oh, I wrote it last week with so-and-so,’ and I can’t remember who he said. I was like, ‘Dude, this is cool. Are you pitching this to anybody?’ He goes, ‘No, it’s just sitting there.’ I was like, ‘It’s mine. I’m taking it. If you let me have it, I want it.’ And he goes, ‘Oh, dude. Absolutely.’”
“I’ve had that song on hold for [about] five months. So it was just kind of sitting there, but I was like, ‘no, it’s going to find life, and it’s going to find a purpose to where I want it to be placed,’” he continued. “I think that’s what’s so beautiful about Nashville is we’re all doing the same thing, and we’re all trying to not piggyback off each other but help each other in the ways that we can, songwriters help the artists, and the artists help the songwriters and then management and all that stuff. It’s just a huge community.”
Injury Forced Him To Redirect His Career Choice From Sports to Music
Tucker Wetmore, who grew up as a star athlete playing a myriad of sports, moved to Nashville in 2020 after an injury forced him to redirect his path into music. But, it was his mother who really played an integral role in him picking up the guitar and then moving to Music City.
Looking back, Wetmore said, “I didn’t know what I was doing with my life. I was working at a coffee shop, just slinging drinks every morning [and] I was like, Mom, I’m lost, I don’t know what I’m doing. She goes, ‘Have you prayed about it?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, been on my knees every night. I’ve been praying. I need guidance now.’ And she was like, ‘Well, have you sat in front of your piano or picked up your guitar?”
“So we finished off the conversation, and that night I was home alone,” he continued. “I sat down at the piano, and picked up my guitar, and I wrote my first song ever. It was a terrible song, but it was a song, and I wrote my first song ever. From then on I wrote every day and sometimes even two songs a day by myself too. And I was working on it for probably nine, ten months, and I sat my mom down. I was like, ‘I want to do this.’ And that’s when I moved to Nashville. She helped me through all that. And like I said earlier, she’s an angel.”
Reveals His Mom’s Reaction To His Success
Now seeing her son come full circle, with a song in the Top 20 and then putting out his debut EP, Wetmore says, “Every time I talk to [mom], she cries. She’s so happy and excited, and maybe a little too much at times. I’ll be like, ‘Mom, calm down. You gotta act cool right now.’ She’s so excited, and she’s never doubted me, not once, not even a sliver of doubt from her.”
He continues, “It’s always been ‘Go, go, go, go, do it. Go, do it. You have these dreams, you have these aspirations.’ So whether it was football, music, or whatever I had brought to her, we were tight and we talked about everything. It’s always been ‘Go, do it. Go jump in the deep end, and try swimming. If you can’t, I’ll pull you out.’ She’s an angel.”
Coinciding with the release of Waves On A Sunset, Wetmore, who made his Grand Ole Opry debut in early September, has hit the road for his headlining Waves On A Sunset tour. And, while this is his first major solo run, he says he gets calls from former tour buddy Kameron Marlowe and fellow country artist Jelly Roll.
“It’s something as simple as, ‘Hey, how are you holding up? I know it’s a rocket ship right now, but are you still strapped on tight?’” He explains the conversations. “And I’m like 100%, dude, thank you. Thank you for your help, and thank you for these opportunities.’ Jelly Roll is another person that reaches out to me and says, ‘Hey man, how are you doing? Just wanted to let you know that I love you, and I’m thinking about you, and if you ever need anything, just holler at me.’ I’m like, that’s the coolest thing in the world. Jelly Roll is texting me right now. But it’s just genuine, and it’s a cool feeling. It’s a cool feeling to have to feel like I’m part of a community that’s bigger than themselves, and it’s what I’ve always wanted.”
Waves On A Sunset Tour
Wetmore’s Waves On A Sunset tour, which follows an opening slot on Luke Bryan’s FARM TOUR 2024, includes 16 stops and features direct support from rising stars Hannah McFarland, Eli Winders, and Ashland Craft. The trek is scheduled to wrap on Nov. 16 in Chicago at Joe’s Bar on Weed St.
Next year, Tucker Wetmore will hit the road as a supporting act on Thomas Rhett’s Better In Boots Tour, which kicks off on June 5, 2025, spanning 30 dates across North America next summer. And Wetmore says he’s just scratching the surface. So, he doesn’t intend on slowing down anytime soon.
“I’m working towards the album, and that’s what I’m truly so excited about. Not that I’m not excited about the EP. I’m super stoked, and it’s the perfect start,” Wetmore explains. “But my brain is always working on the next thing. What can I do next? What can I do next? And that’s the album in my eyes, so I know it’ll come. I just got to be a little patient.”
With Waves On A Sunset, Tucker Wetmore sets the stage for a promising legacy in Country music.
For more information on Tucker Wetmore, his album and upcoming Waves On A Sunset Tour, visit his official website.
