Star embraces summer with new project

As America is gearing up to plunge into Independence Day, Kristian Bush is back with new summertime music just in time to be the soundtrack. Bush, beloved for hot weather bops including “Bar With A Pool In It” and “Flip Flops,” releases his newest sunshiny smash, “Little Umbrellas.” The song is the first from his forthcoming summer-themed seven-song EP, Drink Happy Thoughts, that will be available July 14th.

Bush wrote the song alone, starting it on the voice memo function on his phone during a drive between Nashville and Atlanta. When he arrived in Atlanta, he wrote and recorded “Little Umbrellas” in one hour.

“I recall being confused about which part was the chorus and which was the verse but decided not to pay too much attention because it felt so good,” he says. “I love the tightrope I imagine this guy walking, knowing that if he starts thinking of his old love, he will fall apart and that the little umbrellas he is collecting as he keeps drinking to forget her will never stop his tears or a storm if it rolls in.”

Bush comes by his love of summer honestly – and he’s funneling a lifetime of beachy blue skies and sandy memories into “Drink Happy Thoughts.” The singer started Scooba diving at 11 years old when his dad lied to an East Tennessee Scooba instructor about his age so he could begin diving lessons one year early.

“As the ‘70s turned into the ‘80s, I found myself along for the ride with Dad and his buddies as they hit every dive site they could schedule between Tennessee and Key West,” Bush says. “After the dives, they would pile into roadside motels, sit outside, tell stories about what they saw in the deep, drink, and listen to Jimmy Buffett.”

Between his youth spent listening to Jimmy Buffet and four tours opening for Kenny Chesney, Bush is fluent in the sun-kissed stories, easy melodies and danceable grooves that he saw unite stadiums of people. Inspired by those memories, he wrote the Drink Happy Thoughts EP over three weeks.

“I hope you put it on and listen all summer long, in a boat, by a pool, in the ocean, or by a beach,” he says. “Take me with you.”

  1. Drink By Drink
  2. Little Umbrellas
  3. Working Hard At Hardly Working
  4. No Tell Motel Room Key
  5. Drink Happy Thoughts
  6. Pretty Good Story To Tell
  7. Drink Happy Thoughts (Island Mix)