Interview: The Creative Roots of Braison Cyrus Run Deep

On his way to Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium to open for his Grammy-nominated sister Noah, Braison Cyrus spoke with Afterglow about his writing, family, and undying creative impulse.

Written by Joseph Gonzalez

Photo courtesy of Bret Curry

Nashville artist Braison Cyrus is making a name for himself as a singer-songwriter. He released his debut album, Javelina, in 2021. The record was a strikingly mature showcase of Americana that made him stand out among one of the most well-known musical families in the world. However, factors like the birth of his first child caused Cyrus to stay home and assume a behind-the-scenes role as a producer and writer for other artists. But after the release of three singles this year, including one featuring his musically renowned sister, Miley, Cyrus is now back in the musical spotlight as a singer. He’s opening several dates for Noah Cyrus’s ‘I Want My Loved Ones To Go With Me Tour' and working towards the release of his second album. It seems like it’s only the beginning of a creatively fruitful era for Cyrus.

Afterglow: You’re just starting your supporting tour with Noah. What’s your experience with touring and how do you like it?

Cyrus: I've done a couple tours, all supporting. The only headlining run I've ever done was only about three shows. I wouldn't really call it a tour. But honestly, I love being a support act. It's really fun and this one feels like it's the start of something really cool, so I'm stoked.

This year you’ve started releasing your music again after about a three year gap in releases. What’s calling you back to releasing music again?

I had a tour planned around my first record starting in 2020, and then obviously those plans went away. I was having a bit of career anxiety around the pandemic, so I pivoted to more of the publishing, songwriting world and producing. Then in the midst of me writing songs for other people, the first song I put out off the new record back in May called “From Now On,” I actually originally wrote for Orville Peck. I thought it would be a song that maybe he would want to cut because he cut another one of my songs. That song, “From Now On,” is kind of the whole reason I went back to it because after writing and recording it [I realized] I don't really want to send this to Orville. I want to put this out myself.

What was that experience like writing songs for other people? Was it satisfying in its own way?

Oh yeah, it definitely is. To have Noah and Orville and all these other people putting out my songs, it's really cool. Orville was my first major cut from somebody else [recording] one of my songs, and it's a weird feeling hearing one of your songs and you being credited for it, but then somebody else is singing it. It feels like your kid going off to school for the very first time. They're not at home, but they're going to go make friends and do all that stuff. It's like you want them to go out and live their own life, especially if it's a song that you would never cut yourself or that you specifically wrote for somebody else. It's a pretty rewarding feeling.

How has having a kid affected your life and music?

It definitely made me work harder. I think any parent could say that having a kid makes you want to put more effort into things. Another reason I took a step back from touring is because I wanted to spend time at home with my son and my wife. He was born less than a year into the pandemic, so it was kind of like all these things made me want to take a step back and see how a career that allows me to stay home could work. I think now I've kind of found this balance of touring, working, and still doing songwriting and producing. Having a kid reprioritizes everything, even creatively. The guitar lick in “From Now On,” which is a little bit hard to discern because it was coded in so much reverb whenever I recorded it, was actually a song I used to play for [my son] as he was falling asleep. I had this little mini Martin in his room, and I would pick that up and play it for him, for his sleep. Actually, I feel like I've never actually talked about that because I forgot that that was even a thing. He's four now, and that was something I used to do whenever he was six or eight months old. “From Now On” was literally a guitar riff that I used to play to him. Calling it a riff makes it sound like I was really thrashing in his ears, but it was just kind of more of like a little lullaby that I would play on the guitar for him to go to sleep to.

What would you say are some of your biggest influences as far as your sound and lyrics? 

Lyrically, I don't know if I really have many influences other than my own experiences or my own life. Musically, in high school, it was Fleet Foxes, Band of Horses, My Morning Jacket, The Oh Hellos. I think The Oh Hellos might have actually had more of an influence, sort of subconsciously, than anybody else, but those four are the cornerstones of what I still listen to and what I try to build my sound around.

Could you talk about collaborating with your sister Miley for your newest single, “Know This?”

I keep saying I wish there was a better story around how that happened. Really, I was in the studio for all of 2024. I rented a studio from Old Sea Brigade, the artist, and I was working there for a year and that's where I recorded the whole album. So, we finished “Know This” and we did all the production on it, then I just really thought there was some sort of voice missing in there other than mine. We thought for a minute, me and my engineer, Ryan, and we both at the exact same time said, “Why don't we ask Miley to do it?” I just texted her, sent her the song and she was like, “Oh yeah, send it to me and maybe I'll do it this weekend or something.” Probably within three or four hours she sent me a folder full of files and she was like, “Use whatever you want from this.” I just ended up using all of it just because it was so cool. She did such a good job like she always does. It was pretty casual. I wish I had flown out to LA to record it myself, but her boyfriend Maxx Morando engineered her vocals for that. We actually just kind of ended up building the record around that song because the whole album wasn’t acoustic until we added “Know This.” We went back and sort of rearranged literally the whole record around “Know This.”

Coming from a musical family, what are some of the best lessons you’ve learned from them both musically and personally?

The honest truth is my parents and nobody ever really pushed me to do anything musically or really gave me any advice or guidance or anything. Everything I've done has really been on my own, other than obviously getting to kind of learn through example. Trace, my older brother, did music, my dad, Miley. So I think the best lesson I learned is that you can, and I'm applying this to my own son's life, explore everything you want to do, and then decide for yourself when you want to take it seriously and when you actually want it to become your job. So honestly, the best lesson I learned has nothing to do with music. You should go out and try everything before marrying a specific thing. I was in a psychedelic-rock band back in high school, and so I'm very glad that I didn't start immediately putting music out with my high school band; one, because it was bad, and two, because it's not really what I would have grown into in my life. So I'm glad I experienced a lot of different things before landing on this as what I'm going to do with my life.

How has your relationship with music changed as you’ve aged?

Actually, I used to get really weirded out when people called me an artist. This was back when I was 25. I kept saying, “I'm not an artist, I'm a musician. Our art is something else.” But now, the older I get, I realized I'm way more happy with the term artist because I don't necessarily only make art through music. I also write, draw, and this is going to sound so weird, but I write plays with my friends, and we act them out and I realized that creating things is a part of my everyday life. It's the way I interact with my friends, the way I interact with everybody, and so coming to almost reject the term artist, and then coming back to it has been a mind shift. I'm trying to be creative and make things all the time. Maybe one day publicly that'll manifest in something other than music and I hope it does. Music will always be my main outlet for that, but I definitely have things that I'm working on outside of music that I want to pursue in the very not so distant future.

What’s the most gratifying thing to you about being creative?

Knowing that I made something 100% myself, and that it's something that didn't exist before. I love fantasy writing and weird science fiction kind of stuff. Whenever it comes to that, that's almost where I find the most room to explore. I think that there are things in music or lyric writing that I haven't been able to explore yet, and I get to through avenues like that. I always say music isn't my passion or my favorite thing to do, it's my love of making things, and I specifically love writing. That's always been a part of my life. Without saying too much about it, my goal is to put out something in the next 10 years.

Musically or personally, what are the things that you are most looking forward to in the future?

I'm looking forward to seeing my son's life unfold. That's my number one thing, seeing the kind of you know person he grows into. Professionally, I think just doing one thing to the next and always hoping that what I do is better than the last thing I did. I just always want to get better at making things.

Listen to Braison Cyrus on Spotify and Apple Music.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.