ST. LOUIS _ One of the biggest pieces of advice that St. Louis country singer Chris Bandi got when he arrived in Nashville in 2012 was that he should write songs about his truths.
He already had a hundred songs in his pocket when he arrived there. Bandi says his truth doesn't involve familiar country music tropes of tractors and trucks. It's deeper, he says.
He released his self-titled seven-song debut EP on Friday.
"It's a very honest EP, where all the songs describe who I am _ where I'm from," Bandi says. "I wanted it to have depth and be as honest as possible."
On "Chris Bandi," the 2008 Chaminade College Preparatory School graduate says he wanted "the perfect combination of songs that are meaningful to myself. I didn't grow up riding on dirt roads in Georgia. There's songs about love, about growing up, about music."
The lead single introducing the project is "Man Enough Now," co-written with Jason Massey and Jason Duke. It premiered on CMT with a video featuring actress Kelli Berglund and Luke Pell of "The Bachelorette." The song is about a relationship when Bandi was "a young, dumb, 21-year-old kid. I made mistakes. Had we met just a little bit later," he says of his ex in the song, "it would have worked out. I'm 'Man Enough Now' for the relationship."
The song poured out of Bandi and his co-writers and was just what he needed to connect with fans.
"I was playing shows out of town but didn't have anything to take to my fans," he says. "I wanted to give them something to listen to, not for them to just like my Facebook page. People started listening to it, sharing it with their friends. There's a saying in Nashville that three minutes can change your life, and it really did."
"Man Enough Now" paved the way for both his publishing deal with BMG and a record deal with RECORDS, home to his EP.
The new project also includes "You Would Have Loved Her," one of his favorite songs so far. It's about his grandfather, who died before meeting Bandi's current love, Aimee Scheuneman of Edwardsville.
"Leave It to a Song" is about how a song can transport a listener back in time.
Also on the EP are "Dirt on Me," "Free," "They Make Whiskey" and "What If We Don't." The EP is produced by Ash Bowers and Bandi.
Bandi describes the experience of making the EP _ from writing the music and being able to say what he wanted lyrically to playing with musicians who've played on numerous hit songs _ as incredible.
"It's an experience I'll never forget," he says. "I hope to be able to do this many times."
Musically, the EP reflects Bandi's eclectic taste. Growing up, he says, the presets on the family's car radio were tuned to rock, R&B, country, pop and oldies stations, and he took it all in.
"It really depended on who was taking me to school that day," he recalls.
He was shaped as a musician by acts including Alan Jackson, Garth Brooks, George Strait, Bruce Springsteen, Cat Stevens, Matchbox Twenty and Third Eye Blind. He claims to know every lyric on Nelly's "Country Grammar" album _ "probably before I should have," he says _ and he's a big fan of Story of the Year.
"I'm definitely heavily influenced by the great musical culture of St. Louis," he says.
Born in Ballwin before moving to Wildwood, Bandi played in a high school rock band called the Final Fight that performed at spots including the Creepy Crawl, Cicero's, the Blueberry Hill Duck Room and Pop's Nightclub.
After high school, he attended the University of Mississippi at Oxford, graduating in 2012 with a degree in marketing.
That degree came in handy trying to market music during a pandemic, he says.
There was talk of delaying the EP, but Bandi and the label decided to proceed with the release. "It feels like a great time to give people what everybody is needing now," he says.
He counts his blessings, pointing out that he's had a roof over his head and food on the table, and his loved ones remain in good health.
"I have nothing but thanks to give for all of that," says Bandi, who had to reschedule a tour with Matt Stell and Ray Fulcher for the fall.
His time at home in East Nashville is the longest he has gone without performing since moving there. But he has been able to cross many things off his to-do list, including landscaping, painting and repairing a fence damaged by a deadly tornado that ripped through Tennessee in March.
"The eye of the storm hit five houses down from us," Bandi says. "Being from St. Louis and Missouri, I'm no stranger to tornadoes, though I've never experienced one that close. I was home at the time, and it was definitely intense. It happened so fast I didn't have time to get down to the basement."
Just before the pandemic, Bandi made his Grand Ole Opry debut _ a long way from Sky Music Lounge in Ballwin, Sue's Corner in Granite City and Off Broadway. He also opened for Kip Moore in 2017 at Chesterfield Amphitheater.
He performed three songs at the Grand Ole Opry on a night that begin three hours earlier with a phone call invitation.
"There's so much history in that room," he says. "You know how important that stage is to country music. My family came to town, Aimee's family came to down, and it was a family affair. It felt so awesome.
"I remember being so nervous. I could swear the people in the front row could see my heart beating when I walked to the stage."
