Drake Milligan has had a whirlwind year, which included landing in the Top 5 on America’s Got Talent, releasing his first full-length album, Dallas/Fort Worth, and having his first hit single at radio, with “Sounds Like Something I’d Do.” The song, which Milligan wrote with Terry McBride and Brett Beavers, is the culmination of a lot of years of dreaming big dreams, which are now finally coming true.
“Going to country radio is really what I’ve been working towards over the last five years,” Milligan tells Taste of Country. “I came from Texas to Nashville because I wanted to be played on the radio. To me, the most commercial radio artist ever is George Strait. I don’t think radio has to be one kind of sound. George was the best at bringing energy and fun songs to the radio. Radio obviously is the absolute game-changer for a country music artist. It’s going to be the opportunity for after AGT to keep this thing going and make a career.”
The 24-year-old might draw inspiration from Strait, but there’s another artist whose music Milligan is also inspired by, and helped inspire “Sounds Like Something I’d Do” as well.
“Brett produced those early Dierks Bentley records and ‘What Was I Thinkin’ was such a great, great song,” Milligan says, referring to Bentley’s debut single, which also became his first No. 1 hit. “I wanted to bring some of that energy into the record. We were like kids when we wrote that song, just singing over and over again!”
Milligan celebrates his Texas heritage in Dallas/Fort Worth, but he now happily resides in Music City, where he collaborates with some of the biggest hitmakers, to write both music for himself and for others,
“It’s a big change of pace, but I love Nashville,” Milligan tells Everything Nash. “I sought out the veteran songwriters in Nashville and veteran musicians and veteran producers like Tony Brown in Nashville. I tried to bring my kind of Texas thing to everything I was doing in Nashville. So it really is fun to get to explore, and get to bring in different flavors to that Texas thing.”
Milligan co-wrote “If Love Ever Comes My Way Again.” on Ronnie Dunn‘s solo 100 Proof Neon album. Find Dallas/Fort Worth and a list of Milligan’s upcoming shows at DrakeMilligan.com.
