ABOVE: WATCH BRETT KISSEL TALK ABOUT HIS MUSIC, SOCIAL MEDIA AND HOW OFTEN HE TAKES OFF HIS COWBOY HAT.
TORONTO – Brett Kissel actually answers when he’s jokingly asked to name his favourite type of monkey.
“The capuchin,” he replies.
The fact that this 23-year-old Alberta-born cattle rancher and country singer has a preferred primate is almost as surprising as finding out he’d be up for collaborating with Justin Bieber.
“If Bieber wanted to do a duet with me, 100 per cent — I’m all yours, Justin,” Kissel said Thursday during an interview with Global News.
“But as far as things are concerned right now, I’m going to wear this cowboy hat and stick to country music.”
Kissel is busy promoting his major label debut album, Started With a Song, a collection of guitar-driven, good-time country music he wrote and co-produced. The title track was the most-added song on Canadian country radio stations in its first week.
But Kissel is no overnight success. In the last decade he’s released four independent albums and, in 2006, he earned a Rising Star nomination at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards – making him the youngest nominee ever.
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“I’m very excited about it and I feel like I’ve been training for this for a long time. I’m lucky to have had a lot of time to prepare for this wild ride.”
Kissel got noticed by playing as many live shows as he could. “I was out from an early age playing at rodeos and one thing lead to another,” he recalls. “When I was 14 and 15, I was doing 100 shows a year.”
He says he always knew the genre of music he wanted to pursue. “There was never a question when it came to being a country singer,” says Kissel. “I grew up on a cattle ranch. We listened to country almost exclusively. When I would start writing songs about chasing cows or driving a pick-up truck, it was natural because I lived it.”
Kissel also lived hockey – and still does. “I’ve cheered for the Edmonton Oilers all my life and I love them,” he says. “Other Canadian teams I have a respect for but I don’t love them like I love the Edmonton Oilers. If I can sit and watch hockey, I’m a very happy guy.”
Kissel was so unhappy during last year’s NHL lockout that he recorded a song called “Hockey Please Come Back.”
“I wrote it when I was very frustrated. I meant it to be a love song between me and the game,” he explains.
Kissel has a string of shows this month and next in Canada – in Moose Jaw, Dawson Creek, Penticton, Regina, Salmon Arm, Nanaimo, Campbell River and Edmonton – and then he heads south to do a series of live shows in the U.S.
He’s set to perform in such country music hotbeds as Nashville (where he now lives) and Memphis as well as Branson, Missouri.
“For me to get the opportunity to start playing there is great,” says Kissel. “That’s going to be the tell-all to see if this is going to be regional career for me or if we can crack it on the big level.
“I’m very excited to see what the future holds.”
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR BRETT KISSEL’S SINGLE “STARTED WITH A KISS”:
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