With its dusty, foot-stomping beat and vintage fiddle flourishes, “A Hard Working Man” by the Avila Brothers is a barnyard banger with a twist. The song is modern country meets classic hip-hop, and its flavor is by deliberate design. The Grammy-winning duo—fresh from the Usher Las Vegas residency—envisioned an anthemic call to arms. They were looking to create a song celebrating their own beliefs: discipline, diligence, and devotion. To bring their groove to life, Bobby and IZ Avila roped in a pair of ringers at the tops of their respective rodeos: Billy Ray Cyrus and Snoop Dogg. Mixed by DJ QUIK for Dolby Atmos, “A Hard Working Man” is a hi-fi sonic adventure. It drips with vibe, melody, and the Avila Brothers’ love for classic record-making.
An Organic Approach
The original blueprint for “A Hard Working Man” emerged from Bobby Avila’s trove of unreleased song ideas. “We’re students of music,” IZ explains. “We found this track that didn’t have any song over it or modality, resurrected it, and got it to the finish line.”
The lyrical theme of the hip-hop country crossover track evolved naturally. “The track spoke to me,” Bobby says, “and it felt like it should be about a hardworking man. We just ran with that concept.” For him, its arena-rousing potential was present from the jump. “I wanted to create a signature song that feels like a football team coming out of the tunnel or Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You,’” he adds.
"I was making sure at all times that the record felt cohesive, considering Billy was in Nashville and Snoop was in L.A.” -Bobby Avila
Two Pairs of Aces
Once IZ and Bobby established the track’s basic structure, they pulled off a twin coupe: getting Snoop Dogg and Billy Ray Cyrus to trade lead vocals. Bobby insists that their participation felt fated. “It got into Billy’s hands and then into Snoop Dogg’s and organically came together.”
The recording process was a hybrid of remote and in-person sessions, and once the superstar powers signed on, Bobby’s role shifted a bit. “I was making sure at all times that the record felt cohesive, considering Billy was in Nashville and Snoop was in L.A.”
Despite the many miles between the vocalists, the brothers’ love of vintage performance aesthetics informed the production. “We come from that era of all being in a room and capturing that chemistry,” IZ explains. “To bring it all together and make it into one cohesive song—that’s the art and science of making music.”
Likewise, to IZ, the song’s unique musical DNA required a pair of equally distinctive vocalists. “It’s Robert Johnson meets golden era boom bap hip-hop, and it took the personalities of Snoop and Billy Ray to activate that type of thing.”
"To bring it all together and make it into one cohesive song—that's the art and science of making music." -IZ Avila
Collaborative Contributions
While the Avila Brothers crafted the bulk of the lyrics, both guest vocalists also brought in key elements. In the case of Snoop, that meant his classic behind-the-beat bars. “Snoop’s contribution was written by him,” Bobby confirms. “He brought that to the table. We gave him the instrumental, and he did his thing.”
As for Cyrus, he delivered both country music cachet and an important conceptual touch. “Billy Ray had the success of ‘Old Town Road,’ and everybody was excited about that,” Bobby says. “He also had a creative idea, which was to put in a female perspective: ‘Ladies go hard, You know, they go tough.’”
Cruising in on the Cyrus drawl and Snoop Dogg’s mellow charisma, “A Hard Working Man” feels like a familiar friend from the first listen. “The magic about Snoop is that he doesn’t take himself too seriously,” IZ reflects. “Everyone relates to him to some degree. He’s almost like a family member.”
"Being able to have those elements, the stomps, the claps—it was playtime for us to paint in a Dolby Atmos experience." - IZ Avila
Making the Big Beat
Vocals firmly in place, the brothers began to fill in the rest of the track with details like backups, chants, and percussive touches. Underlining the song’s community-minded message, they even recorded layers of old-fashioned group foot stomps. “We did about three sessions,” Bobby says. “We had about 25 people come in and took about maybe 16 to 17 takes.” From there, they refined the sounds even further. “That wasn’t enough, so we did another eight passes. Then we tuned all the chants, made them lock in with the actual background vocals, and filtered them. It feels like you’re at a soccer or football game.”
The resulting collage of sound leaps from the speakers—due in no small part to its Dolby Atmos mix. “We’re huge movie dudes,” IZ says. “Music is just left and right speaker, and experiences like this record are bigger than that. So being able to have those elements, the stomps, the claps—it was playtime for us to paint in a Dolby Atmos experience.”
To bring all these disparate elements together, the Avila Brothers enlisted the trusted ears of another friend and icon: DJ QUIK. “He’s a game changer,” Bobby enthuses. “When you talk about “In da Club,” by 50 Cent, that’s DJ QUIK.” It was the combination of DJ QUIK’s ears and instincts that made him so essential to the final mix. “We needed somebody who understood vocals and musicality to really bring it to life sonically.”
"DJ QUIK a game changer. We needed somebody who understood vocals and musicality to really bring it to life sonically.” -Bobby Avila
The Live Test
The Avila Brothers got to see the energizing effect of “A Hard Working Man” firsthand when Snoop Dogg decided to add it to his setlist spontaneously. “Snoop had a show in Dallas and wanted to rock this record live,” IZ recounts. “It came about the morning of the show. Me and Bobby had to jump on a plane. Billy had to jump on a plane.” The real-time crowd response confirmed what they felt about the track all along. “The audience was singing along by the second chorus. For them to embrace a record that wasn’t on the radio yet was incredible.”
Brotherly Love
Billy Ray Cyrus and Snoop Dogg are both cultural touchstones and genre figureheads, and their participation adds a sense of occasion to the proceeding. Does “A Hard Working Man” serve as the opening salvo of a new phase in the Avila Brothers’ career? “This is reigniting who we are as the Avila Brothers in our reach and accessibility,” IZ says. “It’s lightning in a bottle for us to be able to put something like this out.”
In the end, even the song title “A Hard Working Man” took on a deeper meaning. For Bobby, those words may even have inspired the creative process for IZ and himself. “It was a task. We’re all hardworking men,” he says. “What you ultimately hear is four years of living and breathing this record.”
