Ryan Follese chose a catchy tune, "Float Your Boat," to introduce himself to the country world. The debut single from his eponymous freshman EP, "Float Your Boat" is one of six that Follese co-wrote with his parents, Keith and Adrienne Follese, brother Jamie Follese and good friend Cameron Montgomery for the project. Below, Follese shares with The Boot the story behind the song.

Cameron played this guitar part. He played the first two bits of it, and it was really cool, and we liked it. Then he hit this super-weird note, this blue note, which is a jazzier kind of note. He did that, and everybody in the room was like, "Whoa." He thought he had done something so wrong, and we were like, "No, we love that." My brother said, "It reminds me of something like floating or something like that." I was like, "I just wrote down a title in my notepad the other day that was "Float Your Boat.""

The whole concept was not just about being on a boat, but about doing what makes you happy, and that’s what I’m doing. So we wrote it from the perspective of living your life and doing what you want and doing what makes you happy, because, truthfully, life goes quick, and if you’re not doing what makes you happy, then you’re wasting your time. That was how the concept came together.

But it’s a little bit funky, jazzy, bluesy, weird; it’s a little weird. I think that that’s definitely a more funky-type thing, but the rest of the record sounds -- there are elements that are similar, but we tried to choose the best songs and the songs that would connect to one another, so the ebb and flow’s not too far off. That’s definitely the quirkier side of it.

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