HARDY is fully leaning into his rock sensibilities for a new duet with Beartooth frontman Caleb Shomo, “The Better Me.”
The song will be featured on Beartooth’s forthcoming album The Surface, and of course, if you know anything about Hardy, then you know the rock genre influences him as equally as country music has.
His the mockingbird & THE CROW album is a perfect example of that, as the tracklist is split in half with the first eight songs being country, the title track being a perfectly balanced blend of both, and the last eight half of the songs being full-on rock.
In an interview with Loudwire, Hardy says he’s been a fan of Beartooth for quite a while now and even before that Attack Attack! (Shomo was formerly the keyboardist for Attack Attack!), and once he got connected with Shomo, they became fast friends and doing this song was a very natural progression:
“I was a big Beartooth fan and actually, believe it or not, an Attack Attack! fan. I’m buddies with Jack Fowler, who plays for Jelly Roll, and he used to play for Sleeping With Sirens.
I texted him one day and was like, ‘Do you know Caleb Shomo?’ And I asked him to connect us or just tell him I’m a fan.
We started hanging out and sharing music and stuff like that and the next thing I know, Caleb just asked me to be on the record. It was a really natural progression.”
A solo write by Caleb Shomo, who recently became sober in the last year or two, “The Better Me” finds him reflecting on his desire to be a better man and let go of everything that’s holding him back.
I think Hardy and Shomo are a great match vocally and play off of each other really well, and as a fan of both rock and country, I find it really fun to see Hardy featured on a song like this and going full rock.
I honestly wouldn’t mind seeing them do more together… maybe even bring Caleb, a very talented multi-instrumentalist and writer in his own right, into the more country side of things on a Hardy song one day.
The Surface is due out everywhere next month on October 13th.
“The Better Me”
