Keith Urban tells Deco about finding his yacht rock groove in new album, ‘Flow State’

Some albums are planned down to the last note. Others just randomly find their groove and keep cruising. That’s exactly what happened with Keith Urban’s album, “Flow State.”

Keith Urban is setting sail on a surprising new sound.

His new album, “Flow State,” dives headfirst into the smooth waters of yacht rock.

Keith Urban: “So we put a band together, a great group of session players, and I suggested that we do a yacht rock song, just because I’ve always loved that loosely defined genre.”

What starts as a studio test run quickly finds its sea legs.

Keith Urban: “We recorded, I think, two songs on that day, and everybody kind of went, ‘Man, this feels really good, I wonder if we should do one or two more.’ It just kept growing and became an album. So it really took on a life of its own.”

Among the covers is one brand-new track called “We Go Back.” And from day one, Urban had one voice in mind for the chorus.

Keith Urban: “I said to the guys, ‘Oh my gosh, if we’re going to write a yacht rock song, imagine Michael McDonald singing the chorus’ and I kind of, I did an impression, which I won’t do now, but I did a bit of an impression of his vocal style and we really wrote the chorus melodically, channeling Mike, you know, channeling that voice and imagining him singing it. And did a demo of the song and then it just sat around for six years.”

Yup, the song finally came ashore with Michael McDonald on board. And for Keith, the project arrived at just the right time.

Keith Urban: “This music really found me in this season. It was an unexpected group of songs and a very unexpected record to find me when it found me. The record’s called ‘Flow State’ for a really good reason. It really was about just constant movement.”

And in a world that often feels choppy, “Flow State” is hoping to be a little smoother sailing.

The album is available now.