Keith Urban may have played largely with his standard hand on his new single "John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16," but for the rest of his Fuse follow-up, don't expect much of the same. In a new interview, Urban's producer on his new album Nile Rodgers (of Chic fame) admitted that they will be venturing into "EDM-Country" territory.
Though details surrounding Urban's ninth studio album remain scarce, Rodgers warned the singer's fans that it may be a little jarring to hear initially in an interview with Yahoo Music.
"His fans may have some kind of problem at first," Rodgers said. "But my biggest records have always been like that. A lot of people, the only record they ever bought by David Bowie was Let's Dance. That's at least [seven] million albums - he'd never sold anything near that before. So his fanbase got angry: 'This sucks! This is not Ziggy Stardust! That's not Scary Monsters!' But it was huge because it spoke to a broader audience. I think a record like this will speak to a broader audience [for Urban], and the country people will come around."
The new EDM-fueled direction won't be the first time Urban broke out of the country genre in recent months. Urban also appears alongside Stevie Wonder on Jason Derulo's Everything Is 4 track "Broke."
Rodgers didn't just push Urban in terms of his musical range, he also stretched his vocal abilities. On a new track "Good Times," Rodgers admitted that he made Urban's vocal sound almost unrecognizable after making him go into a bigger range.
"I really pushed him to sing at the top of his range," Rodgers said. "Keith was nervous about it; he wanted to do another take. But I told him I loved the way it sounds."
Urban's new album has yet to receive a new title or release date.
