Though many listeners might guess that Doleac primarily gravitates toward love when he’s writing music, he said in a recent interview with iHeartCountry that his favorite topic to explore is time, “because I think it’s kind of the ultimate test of who everybody is and what they love.

“I’ve always been so fascinated by (time),” he continued. “We only get so much time in life, and how do we wanna spend it? How do we wanna waste it? Who do we wanna spend it on? How do we wanna slow it down? How do we make it stand still? …The older you get, the more you write these songs, the more life you live, I feel like the more you pay attention to exactly how you’re spending your time, and the more focused you are on, ‘let’s not waste any of it,’ because we don’t know how much (time) we’re getting. Last I checked, they’re not making any more of it.”

Doleac fell a renewed sense of mindfulness on how he spends his time after marrying his wife and starting their family together. he finds himself “really focused on” spending it with those that matter most. That’s what ultimately began to form a theme, leading to about: TIME. The 8-track collection includes a few previously-released songs that fans will recognize — including Doleac’s rendition of a Switchfoot classic, “Dare You to Move” — in addition to some new ons. The final track, an interlude, serves as a hint at what’s coming up next, Doleac confirmed to iHeartCountry.

About Time
All Over Again
You Go I Go
Ain’t She
Calling It Now
Dare You to Move
Moving Target
about: GONE Interlude

“It is the story of me and my wife from the second that I saw her, before I ever talked to her,” Doleac said of the newly-released track, “Calling It Now.” He admitted when he shared a sneak peek of the song earlier this week that he can't quite explain how he knew MacKinnon would be his wife (and his friends might've thought he was crazy). But he knew with unwavering confidence. “I just kind of had this feeling that I was supposed to marry her, and I know that’s a really weird thing to say, but before I even spoke to her, just when she walked in the room, I looked at her and I was like, ‘I’m gonna buy that girl a drink. I’m calling it now,’” he remembered. He added with a laugh, “‘I’m gonna marry that girl. I’m calling it now.’ And sure enough, it ended up happening.”

Doleac said “Calling It Now” still strikes a chord with him after writing it about a year and a half ago. It’s the songs that still evoke emotion that stood out while making the EP. Doleac said he narrowed down the 8 tracks from about 20 songs he’d written, and had to include the one that shared his story with his wife. He expects about: TIME listeners to hear the growth in his artistry while remaining true to himself and the chapter of life he’s experiencing now.

“I think it’s really cool, and I think as a listener, I’m not really seeing many people do something like that. I think it’s a cool way to get to listen where you kind of know where the artist’s headspace was at when writing these songs,” Doleac, who has spent more than a decade in Music City, said of tailoring his songwriting to fit the theme of his EP. He compared the skill of songwriting to “flexing a muscle. You just get better and better at it, hopefully [the more frequently you write].” When he noticed the “time” theme in his writing, it shaped the creative process with a new direction. “This project’s gonna be a lot about time, a lot about love, a lot about life. The next word I’m aiming at is ‘about: GONE,’ and that’s more (about) opportunities that you missed and can’t get back… So, it’s a little ‘Taylor Swift nugget’ at the end of the EP to kind of (hint at) what’s coming next.”

Before he moves on to the next project, Doleac is in the midst of his headlining “Wrong Side of a Sunrise Tour” — which included a built-in break so Doleac could be home for the birth of his son — and other festival dates on the horizon. Find Doleac’s music on iHeartRadio here.

Kayla Hanley