Promo photo of Ryan Waters

Ryan Waters Discusses His Highly Anticipated Country Cover of ‘Chasing Cars’: EXCLUSIVE

Ryan Waters first made waves in the country music world when he released “Creek Don’t Rise” to streaming services in 2020. About a year later, the 29-year-old Alabama native started taking his music to TikTok. That allowed him to get into the ears of hundreds of thousands of new listeners. Today, those listeners are getting something they’ve been eagerly waiting for. Waters’ country cover of the 2006 Snow Patrol hit “Chasing Cars” landed on streaming services this morning.

Earlier this week, Ryan Waters sat down with Outsider to discuss why he chose to record ‘Chasing Cars’ and how excited his fans are to hear it.

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Ryan Waters on Why He Decided to Cover ‘Chasing Cars’

“Chasing Cars” seems like an odd song for a country singer to cover. So, I asked Ryan what made him decide to cut it.

“Honestly, no clue,” he said with a laugh. Waters went on to say that he was live on Instagram with a couple hundred fans and followers, just kind of hanging out when the hype for the song began. “I had always liked that Snow Patrol song when I was younger,” he said. “I got on live one day and sung it in the deepest part of my voice and people were like ‘please put this out,’” he recalled.

It sounded like a good idea, so he decided to roll with it. “I went to my producer when I got back home and was like ‘I kind of want to do a cover song.’ And, of course, he was like ‘I don’t know if you want to do a cover song,’ because our original music has been doing so good.”

Waters says his producer was even more apprehensive when he learned that he wanted to do an alternative rock song as his first cover. But when Ryan stepped into the studio and started singing, the producer changed his mind. “He was like ‘Oh sh*t,’” Waters recalled.

Then, Ryan Waters took to TikTok to gather opinions. “I just posted a video of me sitting in the truck asking them if they’d like ‘Chasing Cars’ sung by a country singer. I posted that at around 7 PM, I think it was on a Friday. By midnight the thing had 3 million views.”

In short, Waters is giving his fans what they want. It looks like that choice is going to pay off in the end.

This Could Be the Big One

“I’ve never seen my following be so anxious over something,” Ryan Waters said. “Of course, I don’t get a million views every time I post about it. But, I at least get 50,000-100,000 views every time I post about it. That tells me that, once it’s released, it’s going to be here to stay for a while.” Currently, his TikTok account boasts several videos about “Chasing Cars” with more than a million views. It doesn’t end there, though.

“We’ve got a ‘Chasing Cars’ video on Facebook that has over 6.5 million views,” Waters revealed. “Then, we’ve got a video on Instagram that’s over a million views. So, every platform has seen at least one million-view video for this upcoming song. That’s why we’re like ‘What the hell’s about to happen?’”

The hype doesn’t stop with social media engagement. Ryan Waters’ cover of “Chasing Cars” is already moving the needle on streaming services. Almost a week before the song dropped, it already had over 10,000 pre-saves on Spotify. Waters added that first-day streams on his tracks usually far outweigh the pre-saves. That’s another reason he and the band are excited to see the reaction to the song. “We don’t know what it’s going to do. It might break the internet, I don’t know.”

Ryan Waters Is Proof That Things Are Changing

The world is a different place for musicians and fans than it was even a few years ago. These days, artists don’t necessarily need a record or distribution deal to get noticed. A little social media savvy, some serious talent, and hard work are all it takes.

The times, they are a-changing and artists like Ryan Waters who build their followings from the ground up are proof of that change.