Atlus Maps Out a Country Career, Starting With ‘Devil Ain’t Done’: ‘It’s Real, It’s Raw, It’s What We All Go Through’

“I feel like just giving up.”

Everyone has experienced discouragement or depression. Most people find a way out, though many might shy away from discussing it.

Sean Haywood created his stage name, Atlus, as a recognition of the pressures that accompany the tough periods in life.

“Everyone’s holding up the world – their own world – and sometimes it wants to crush you,” he explains. “But you still gotta hold it, you know. And sometimes you’re just like, ‘This sucks. I feel like giving up, but I still gotta go do it.’”

Atlus knows something of the subject matter – he grew up in a single-parent home in Denver, locked in poverty. And yet, he pushed forward as an adult, doing a series of physical jobs as he attempted to forge a path musically. To date, he’s released three albums, and earned a platinum single with “You’re A F–king B–ch Hope You Know That S–t,” pairing an angry storyline with a casual musical environment.

He signed with BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville, launching his country career with “Devil Ain’t Done,” a song that addresses life’s weight in the context of a motivational sound.

“It is a little dark,” Atlus concedes. “But it’s real, it’s raw, it’s what we all go through.”

Songwriter-producer David Garcia (“Meant To Be,” “Love Wins”) discovered Atlus online, and after some initial collaboration, he encouraged writer Geoff Warburton (“Back Then Right Now,” “But I Got A Beer In My Hand”) to co-write with them. They met up on Feb. 12 at Garcia’s studio, where – after working with a fourth writer on one song in the morning – they continued into the afternoon. As they explored Atlus’ story, he confessed a fear.

“I’ve come a long way from the person I was, but I’m always scared that the past will come back,” he explains. “It’s always there, lurking behind me. [Saying] that was, I remember, the moment.”

Garcia had a guitar vibe that started on a minor chord, and it resonated with all of them. Warburton blurted out a syncopated phrase that reflected the fear, “I never wanna close my eyes,” forming the first line of the chorus. By the third line, they stumbled into the “I feel like just giving up” admission, cast against a soaring, uplifting melody.

Garcia and Warburton periodically pushed the upper limits of that melody, concerned that they might be creating something Atlus couldn’t sing. Invariably, he could.

“Once we had the subject matter, it was really fun to experiment with the melodies, knowing that we had such a wide spectrum with his voice,” Warburton says.

As the chorus progressed, it wound toward a payoff line, “The devil ain’t done,” that underscored the challenge at the heart of their song. They wanted it to sound anthemic, and Garcia overlayed a drumline that gave it more thrust.

Once the chorus was mostly complete, Warburton suggested they use its first three lines to start “Devil Ain’t Done.” It would segue into a first verse that pondered the singer’s inability to escape his worst impulses. They stopped after two or three hours.

“We had the chorus that day, and we had the first verse,” Garcia recalls. “Because it was the end of the day, and it was our second session, we were like, ‘Hey, I think there’s something really special on this. Let’s come back.’”

They determined that the second verse’s melody should be a little different than the first verse, and when they reconvened a few weeks later, they each came in with a suggestion for the topline.

“I went in there with a melody that I thought was so gas,” Atlus says. “I started singing it. I started humming it. And then the second [Warburton] started humming his melody, I got real quiet.”

That second verse intensified the protagonist’s internal drama, reiterating his need to outrun his past: “I know how this ends/Can’t go down that road again.”

They also incorporated a bridge that pushed the upper reaches of the melody one more time. In the process, Atlus mirrored the protagonist’s path in the song, growing beyond his perceived limitations in real time.

“Watching it in the room was incredible,” Warburton says. “Sometimes we’re trying to keep it in an accessible range, obviously. But then you hear him sing these notes. The guy’s floor is amazing. I can’t imagine what his ceiling is.”

Garcia took the production reins for the initial work on “Devil Ain’t Done,” playing all the parts as he formed the basic track, building its intensity as it progressed, but also finding places to cut the volume and create more of an emotional arc. They intentionally set the intro two beats slower than the rest of the song, and Atlus spent six hours on the vocals for that one title. The instruments backed off on the “I feel like just giving up” line in the chorus, and disappeared almost entirely as Atlus sang “Can’t go down that road again” during the second verse.

“It’s a pretty powerful line,” Garcia says. “It felt like we just needed to make sure you heard that.”

Garcia then handed it off to co-producer Andrew Baylis (Jelly Roll, Brantley Gilbert), who brought in guitarist Nathan Keeterle to redo some of the parts and to provide a searing solo. Baylis beefed up the drumline to make it even more fierce. He also had the foundational guitar riff in the intro replayed, but after he lived with it, he scrapped the new version and brought back Garcia’s original guitar intro.

“I love Nashville session musicians,” Baylis says. “They’re awesome, but sometimes, they’re almost too good. Like, you need a little bit of imperfection to shine through, and the way David played it – probably really quick while he was writing – made it perfect for that part.”

Baylis, Garcia and Atlus worked together on the background parts, stacking massive numbers of voices for gang vocals – the vocals needed plenty of muscle to compete with the drumline and the guitars, but they also wanted the listener to recognize that their private despair is actually a shared experience. Baylis and Garcia created a series of harmony parts, too, but the track didn’t sound as rough and heavy with those tones, so they ultimately dropped them.

“That was a decision we made together,” Baylis says. “We just liked it better without the harmonies, which is weird, you know, to spend all this time doing harmonies and then just not use them.”

Several songs were considered as Atlus’ first single from his first BBR Music Group/BMG Nashville EP, Secondhand Smoke, but after the team lived with the music, nearly everyone agreed that “Devil” was Atlus’ best introduction to the country audience. The label released it to country radio via PlayMPE on Sept. 22. His early believers include KSON San Diego, KKBQ Houston and WFUS Tampa. Atlus is a believer, too, as he’s heightened his vocal performances, but also his writing skills.

“My first two albums, I wrote as a truck driver from the back of a semi,” he says. “I love country music so much. I think it’s the best writing in the world.”

No chance he’s giving up.