Inside Track: Ian Fitchuk

Ian Fitchuk at Blackbird Studios in Nashville.

Working with Kacey Musgraves catapulted Ian Fitchuk from respected producer to one of Nashville’s busiest songwriters.

“For about 10 years I was very much outside the mainstream,” recalls Ian Fitchuk. “It allowed me to work as a producer and session musician with very different types of bands and artists. I had a respectable arc of work and a lot to be grateful for. At one point I was like, ‘Wow, I can support my family and don’t need to get another job, and while I don’t live in a mansion and have a car that needs work done all the time, life is pretty good.’

“Then, in 2016, everything changed. I signed my first publishing deal, with Razor & Tie, which turned into Concord. I had played on Kacey Musgraves’ second album, Pageant Material [2015], and one day Kacey’s publisher reached out about co‑writing. I invited my friend Daniel Tashian, a songwriter and multi‑instrumentalist I admire, because I thought that things would click between the three of us. My guess was accurate.

“The three of us co‑wrote and co‑produced Kacey’s fourth album, Golden Hour [2018], which became a big success. It changed my life. Golden Hour was not defined as only part of the country genre. I remember chatter about the record changing country music, and I’ve since had a lot more interest from artists outside the country world. This works for me, because I love working on all kinds of music.

“I’m interested in being challenged, and I’m grateful that the first thing I became known for on a big level was something that I had been able to put a lot of myself in, musically and aesthetically. Some people call it organic, timeless music. Music with heart became my calling card. When people reach out to me now as a co‑writer and producer, they’re not necessarily looking to make a country record. They’re looking for my ability to tap into whatever their essence is. It means that I am learning new things, and starting from square one, every day.

“I’m working with artists who are not only interested in creating songs, but also in the concept of an album, the presentation, the aesthetic and the artwork. They’re thinking about how they’re going to perform these songs. This alleviates me from feeling that I have to come up with some sort of magic potion for them. All I have to do is hear the things they’re saying and the cues they’re giving me musically, and then develop ideas. Once you have that rapport with somebody, you don’t need to go to a million different places or have dozens of songwriters.”

Keeping It Real

As well as going to number one on the US and UK country charts and becoming a Top 10 hit on the album charts, Golden Hour also earned Musgrave, Tashian and Fitchuk two Grammy Awards, for Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The trio have since collaborated on Musgraves’ equally successful albums star‑crossed (2021) and Deeper Well (2024). Fitchuk also received Grammy nominations in 2021 (Best Country Album for Little Big Town’s Nightfall), and 2022 (Best Country Song for Musgraves’ song ‘camera roll’). Deeper Well is this year nominated for Best Country Album, and Fitchuk for Producer of the Year, Non‑Classical. Other achievements listed for this nomination are co‑writing and co‑producing albums by Stephen Sanchez (Angel Face) and Maggie Rogers (Don’t Forget Me), and songs by Beyoncé (‘Amen’), Still Woozy (‘Lemon’), Role Model (‘Oh Gemini’) and Leon Bridges (‘Peaceful Place’), and producing Musgraves’ version of ‘Three Little Birds’ and Leon Bridges’ rendition of ‘Redemption Song’ for the Grammy‑nominated soundtrack for Bob Marley: One Love — Music Inspired By The Film.

Golden Hour earned Musgraves, Tashian and Fitchuk two Grammy Awards, for Album of the Year and Best Country Album. The trio have since collaborated on Musgraves’ equally successful albums star‑crossed (2021) and Deeper Well (2024).

Despite very much not pigeonholing himself as working exclusively in country music, 25 years of living and working in Nashville have naturally informed Fitchuk’s approach. It shows, for example, in his preferences for working in a room with others.

“One of my favourite things about making music is the way that it connects me to other people. I’m not prolific on my own. I’ve always been most productive when I’m working with other people. So I met a lot of good role models, and musicians willing to share their experience and their knowledge. All you have to do is pay attention and listen and not think that you have it all figured out, and be brave enough to try things that are outside of your comfort zone. There have been plenty of times I’ve been called to write a song or to go play on something where I feel completely inadequate or that’s out of my wheelhouse. But I show up, and by nature of putting yourself in uncomfortable, stretching situations, you widen your net of experience.”

Also in keeping with Nashville’s modus operandi is Fitchuk’s preference for physical rather than virtual. However, instead of the band‑in‑the‑room session approach common in the town, Fitchuk likes to play many of the instruments himself.

“I love and respect the process of recording with a band in a room, and I have had a lot of experience being a session musician in those situations. However, it is less common for me to put a group of studio musicians together. That’s not because I don’t enjoy that. In fact, I miss the camaraderie. I think it’s a dying art, and I hope that I will have opportunities to do that. But before 2016, I already played many parts myself, because I couldn’t afford to pay other musicians. When I, during the writing process, hear what I want an instrument to do, it’s easier for me to put it down. A lot of the time, as the song is being written, I’m two feet away from a drum kit, and I just jump on. Later, if I think something is lacking, and I want somebody more specialised to come and replace it, I will arrange for that. But then I run into the artist saying, ‘Oh, no, no, no, we like what you did.’”

Talent Pool

Fitchuk’s playing credits include drums, percussion, piano, synths, vocals, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, and more. His DIY approach may be common, but the skill with which he plays many of these instruments, in addition to co‑writing and co‑producing, is not. It led to Fitchuk being nominated at the Academy Country Music Awards of 2019 for Producer of the Year, Drummer of the Year, Bass Player of the Year, Piano Keyboard Player of the Year and Specialty Instrumentalist of the Year. Fitchuk’s musical prowess has its roots in growing up in Chicago, and his early years in Nashville.

A true multi‑instrumentalist, Ian Fitchuk often plays nearly all the instruments on tracks that he produces.

“Both my parents are classical musicians, and were very involved with their church. I sang in the church choir, and I played in high school bands, being a drummer in one, and a keyboard player in another. I also started songwriting. I moved to Belmont University in Nashville in 2000, because their commercial music programme was a hybrid of popular music, classical and jazz. That melting pot appealed to me, as did studying jazz piano with a particular professor there. So I didn’t grow up with country music, and didn’t move to Nashville for that reason.

“During the first two weeks I was at college I met some guys there who were in a band called the...