Greylan James Says He ‘Kinda Felt Like Brad Pitt’ Shooting the Music Video for ‘Walls’ — Watch!

The music video for “Walls” is available now

Greylan James took a chance when he wrote “Walls” and now he’s bringing it to life with a video component.

On Wednesday, PEOPLE is exclusively premiering the music video for James’ most recent single “Walls” — and the rising country star opens up about his experience shooting it.

“This was my first ever music video shoot! I grew up loving country music videos, and how they gave a visual to the music,” the “Makes the Best Memories” singer, 26, tells PEOPLE. “So to see how the process goes was pretty freakin’ cool. Kinda felt like Brad Pitt that day.”

In the video, James stars opposite Alyssa Mocci, whom he says is “the best” — and whose personality made the process that much smoother.

“It’s funny because the day I found out she was going to be in the video, I was backstage at Cole Swindell’s show at CMA Fest, and had this pretty girl I’d never met run up and say ‘Greylan! I’m going to be in your music video!’ And we hung out the rest of that night, which made shooting the video so much more fun and authentic.”

The music video follows the “Anything Cold” singer and his love interest inside what appears to be their home and the small, memorable moments that happen inside it. Throughout the video, footage of them slow dancing in the kitchen, having conversations in bed and cuddling on the couch pan through as he sings the lyrics about letting your guard down for love.

“And brick by brick I built around my heart/And that barbwire top made gettin’ in real hard/But one night of holdin’ you did,” he sings. “What a wreckin’ ball just couldn’t/Come and kiss me one more time and watch them fall/Cause damn you know how to take down a man’s walls.”

As it turns out, the song’s inspiration came from an unlikely situation — though it ended up being one of James’ favorite songs he’s written to date.

“This song felt special the day we wrote it. My co-writers and I got together a couple days before we all went home for Christmas 2021 to try to write one more song before the new year,” he says. “None of us really had anything we wanted to write about which got us talking about how Dean Dillon wrote ‘The Chair’ by George Strait. How Dean just wrote a masterpiece about a random chair.”

He adds, “We laughed for a minute then just picked something in that room to write about, then picked walls! Twenty minutes into writing about walls, ‘Walls’ became one of my favorite songs I’ve written.”

James — whose biggest inspiration is Kenny Chesney — also says that he believes “Walls” tells a story that “a lot of people find themselves in.”

The music video for “Walls” is out now.

[via]