This year, Canadian country artist Owen Riegling is on the road with a packed schedule of festival dates as well as his own headlining shows, supporting his new album In The Feeling, which released April 17 via Big Loud Records in partnership with Universal Music Canada.
“I loved writing songs, but it seemed more practical to be a producer,” Riegling tells Billboard. “I learned how to record music, mix music, proper mic technique, setting up drums. I was about to send my resume to a bunch of studios in Toronto, then COVID hit and all the studios closed. So that changed the trajectory of my life. I started making more music and playing some shows. I worked for maybe a year at an insurance company while I was playing shows when I got the chance to play the emerging artist competition at the Boots and Hearts Festival in Canada [in 2022]. I remember telling my boss I had this opportunity and I needed to take the next week off to prep for it. We ended up winning the contest and started talking with Universal and all these things started happening,” he recalls. “I literally never went back to that job.”
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In 2024, he earned his breakthrough when his song “Old Dirt Roads” reached No. 2 on Billboard’s Canada Country Airplay chart. He signed with Universal Music Canada and in 2025, added Nashville-based Big Loud Records to that label partnership. Last year, his previous album Bruce County (From the Beginning) was named album of the year at the Canadian Country Music Awards. Now, he’s building on that success with In The Feeling, which features the Billboard Canada Country top 10 hit “Taillight This Town,” as well as songs including “Mailbox” and “Phone Call From Home.”
Riegling spoke with Billboard about the inspirations for his new album, working with producer-writer Oscar Charles, and the artists who most inspire him.
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How did you start writing songs?
I started writing songs in my bedroom at home, really quietly, because I was nervous that my family and my sister, whoever would hear me singing. I was just so shy back then when I first started. We had a hundred-acre farm. I would pull my truck back in there into the trees, sit on the tailgate and just sing away into the trees. I used to just write down there all the time because I felt like nobody could hear me just writing these bad songs, but every once in a while, I’d get a good one.
“Old Dirt Roads” was a breakthrough for you. How has that song become representative of the kind of music you want to make?
That song started everything for me. I wrote that song in my college dorm room by myself just one afternoon and it ended up doing what it did. I could have never guessed in a million years that that song would be the song that everybody knows, but here we are. You just got to go for it and see what happens and just try to keep it real.
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“Anything But Me” is a key song on this project and feels like it showcases your emotional growth the past several years. What inspired it?
It’s my favorite song on the album lyrically, just because of the story. This whole album is meant to be sort of a story arc. It’s a road trip. The road trip to me symbolizes this journey that I’m on and just trying to figure out who I am away from home. “Anything But Me” brings you back to the early days of who I was, just growing up and comparing myself to other people all the time and not knowing where I fit in or what I was meant to do. Verse two, I find the guitar and I get obsessed with music and songwriting and start putting out my own music. I haven’t tried to be anybody but myself for a long time. So this next batch of music is definitely an evolution of me as a person and then as an artist as well.
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You worked with Oscar Charles quite a bit on production and writing for this record. Why do you feel the two of you work so well together?
A lot of music today is very chopped up and perfectly tuned and sounds amazing, but maybe its lost a bit of the realness along the way. I’ve loved the records Oscar has done because he keeps it very real at all times. I played most of the guitar parts on this record, most of the rhythm and stuff. It’s full of mistakes, it pushes and pulls and at the end of the day, it feels real. When we show up to a venue and it’s me and the band, I think it’s going to come across like it does on the record.
Are there certain artists you feel have done a great job of just being exactly who they are and following their musical compass?
I think Eric Church is the big one for me. His music grows with him. He’s the reason I dove into songwriting back in 2011, when he was on “Springsteen” and the Chief record came out. He hasn’t put out another song like “Springsteen” since that song came out. He’s not like, “Oh, we got success, let’s chase that same sound.” His next record was a total switch up from the Chief record. You can tell he’s a true artist, and that’s something I look up to.
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Who would be your dream collaboration?
I think the full-circle thing would be Eric Church. I love Noah Kahan, and he’s having obviously one of the biggest moments over the past couple years. I love Stick Season and his new record.
You have opened shows for artists like Tyler Hubbard and Chase Rice. Have you stayed in contact with them or have they given you any career advice?
Yeah, for sure. On that first tour with Tyler, after show two or three, his tour manager came up to me and he’s like, “Hey, Owen, can I get your number? Tyler wants it. ” So I was like, “Holy crap, Tyler Hubbard wants my cell number.” I gave it to him and he texted me later and he’s like, “Hey, do you want to come up and sing ‘Cruise’ with me tonight?” And then after that, I was singing “Cruise” with him every show. We’ve kept in touch. He surprised me with my Opry debut, and Chase and I still talk quite a bit and write songs sometimes. It’s been great to have support from those guys.
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What is your favorite podcast?
I love the Kill Tony podcast. I’ve been listening to that podcast since I worked at the insurance job. I also love the Theo Von podcast and Joe Rogan, but I also like the Ten Year Town podcast from Troy Cartwright, who’s a songwriter in Nashville and interviews all kinds of artists and writers. I listen to that quite a bit.
What is your favorite movie or TV show you are watching right now?
I’m watching Severance. It’s one of those shows where when one episode ends, it’s impossible not to watch the next one. I’ve been staying up way too late watching that recently.
The videos and photos for In the Feeling have a classic Americana feel to them. What was the inspiration behind that?
Early on in making the album we had the songs figured out and I had all these visuals for it in my head. We boiled that down to this road trip across America. That was the vibe we were trying to capture because the road trop symbolized this coming of age story. We thought what better way to capture those visuals than just to go on a real road trip and bring a camera? We rented an RV in Los Angeles and drove across the country, just capturing videos and photos for the album. When I look back at this album in 20 years, it’ll just put me right back into that place.
