Interview with Josh Smith from Halestorm at Rock On The Range 2015

How has the response to Into the Wild Life been?

It’s been really amazing… I mean, the best response to an album yet. Even in terms of not only positive feedback, but just response in general. There’s negative feedback, but it’s fun to read all the comments and what people think, why they think it, and their interpretations of the music. It’s been really cool. I enjoy it and we’re having such a great time playing all the new stuff live and having more stuff to fit in the catalogue and mess with the setlist every night. It’s been a blast. And I’m not sick of the album yet, I’ve been listening to it!

I’m not either! [laughs]

I have to listen to it still just to fine tune and see what else I can make work live. In listening to it still, I enjoy it.

You talked about the setlist, what goes into y’all picking the songs that get played and don’t get played? I know festivals are a little different, but when I saw you in Birmingham a few weeks ago and I noticed that each set has the same songs, but in a different order.

It’s kind of just being aware on stage of how everything’s working, the flow of the set, and also paying attention to the crowd and seeing if they’re enjoying themselves or if there’s any dead air, “Oh, that was really awkward,” you know? And when you have an awkward moment on stage, it’s probably about five seconds but it feels like an eternity. So it’s just kinda keeping that in mind and constantly seeing how you can improve on song placement or what songs are played. We’re early on in this album cycle so we have to be careful with how much new stuff we play because you have to think that essentially not everyone has heard the album yet so you have to keep the old stuff active and alive. Sort of put a new song in, and then maybe an old song, then a new song, then two old songs, and just sprinkle it in accordingly. I think the coolest part is now that we have thirteen more songs to throw in, it gives us the flexibility to change it up every night and say “Let’s try this here” or “Let’s try this there”. That’s like the dream to write the setlist right before you go on stage and do it like Pearl Jam does.

That’s my band! That’s what I was thinking of, but I wasn’t gonna say anything. Besides Hanson, that is my other band! I have 13 favorite bands and y’all are in the top 13.

Oh my god, that’s awesome.

My mom and I follow Pearl Jam, so that’s our band.

So do we, they are a true rock band.

Have you seen Pearl Jam?

I, shoot me now, have not seen Pearl Jam live.

My mom has seen Pearl Jam almost 80 times. Not exaggerating. I’ve seen them nine times.

That’s so cool. I’ve gotten tickets for my brothers to see them.

Well that’s not fair!

It’s not!

Where did they see them?

They saw them in Philadelphia at the Made in America concert. My friends went to the last Spectrum concerts, which was cool, but I’m just waiting for the day I get to see them. It can’t come soon enough.

We make travel plans around Pearl Jam tours, like “Oh, we’re going on vacation but we’re seeing Pearl Jam while we’re there.” My first Pearl Jam show was in Hawaii in 2006. It was the first time I had flown anywhere, and I flew to Hawaii, not for vacation, but to see Pearl Jam and then we plan the vacation around seeing Pearl Jam.

Perfect. Sounds like a great trip.

I was in the sixth grade when that happened, oh my god I feel old now.

I doubt you’re older than me.

No, I’m not. I’m a baby. I’m probably the youngest one in this room.

You’re an old baby.

Yeah, looking around, I think I’m the youngest one here.

I’d say that’s accurate.

I mean I’m not even old enough to drink.

Wow! [laughs] you are young.

What do you think about the current state of music? It can be your type of music or music in general.

I think the current state of music is at an exciting time. For the last few years, it seems like rock music or just real music with people playing instruments sort of took a back seat to electronic, poppy sounding stuff which is fine, that’s just the evident flow, sort of the pendulum swing-

Pearl Jam reference!

Yeah!

I hope you caught that.

I just dropped a little easter egg there and she found it.

Did you do that on purpose?

Yes! [laughs] but I have a feeling that it’s swinging back in our direction though and you know, you’re seeing rock bands up on the charts again and you’re seeing some of the best turnouts at festivals that we’ve ever seen so this is amazing and it’s a good time to be a rock fan. I think it’s a damn good time in music and I think you’re gonna hear some stuff in the next few years that you’ll hear for the rest of your time.

Is there anything else you wanna add?

No, thanks for taking the time and hanging out and I can’t wait to get back down to Alabama soon.

Interview with Spencer Sotelo from Periphery at Rock On The Range May 2015

How has the response to the Juggernaut albums been?

It’s been going really well. That’s something that’s really cool for us because when we’re writing records, we’re not writing for other people or thinking “What’s this person going to like? We should write for this type of audience.” We normally just write for ourselves and the response to the record has been awesome so we’re just going to keep doing that.

Why did you do it as a double album? What was the inspiration behind that?

Well first off, with how much music it is, it won’t fit onto one disc so we had to split them up. Aside from that, everything on the record is based on this story, this whole narrative that happens throughout the record.

So it’s like a concept album?

It’s a concept album through and through. On both records, it’s like one half and the other half. They both go together. We didn’t want to sell it short in any way. We could have chopped pieces here and there to make it fit, but we didn’t want to sell any of our artistic side short.

What exactly is a Juggernaut? I don’t even know what that is.

I think it just means something massive or big.

I probably could have Googled it, but you know. [Laughs] I saw y'all back in 2010 or 2011 with Deftones. I don’t even remember what city it was, I went to so many shows that year!

That was a fun tour.

Whichever tour that was… Mobile, that’s where it was! I wanted to come see you in Birmingham a few weeks ago, but it was finals week and I couldn’t get there.

Aw, that’s a bummer. Are you going to get to see us play today?

Yes! I usually try to shoot all the bands I interview.

Awesome. I’ll be wearing a pink kitten shirt on stage today so make sure you get some good shots of that!

That’s so cool! I started the first part about the tour with Deftones to ask how have you evolved as musicians and how has your sound evolved since then, if it’s evolved at all?

It has, but it’s been like a subconscious thing. It’s a thing where we set out a goal to make every record that we write sound a little bit different. Not in any certain style, it’s just like “let’s do something different this time!” We kinda just go with it, it’s not like we’re thinking about it too much, but I think there is a clear evolution between every record for sure.

I’m going to show my ignorance for a second, but what’s the name of the album with the red and black cover?

Periphery II? Is that the one?

I think so. I have that album in my car.

Yeah, that was more of a like a songwritey, like every song has its own kinda thing record. On Juggernaut, it’s like every song is working together.

I love albums like that. Some of the best albums are concept albums. So in your mind, what do you think makes you stand out as a band?

I think it’s the clear progressive aspect that we have as a band. We can write catchy songs that I guess could be played on the radio, but at the same time-

“Alpha” is pretty damn catchy! I’m not even going to lie.

It’s a catchy track, but what a lot of people don’t realize is in that song, the time signature is like in ⅞ mostly. I can’t remember the last time a song that was in ⅞ was played on the radio. It was probably like a Led Zeppelin song or something.

What do you think about the current state of music?

I think, like how I was talking about earlier that we write for ourselves, I think more people should do that. I think that’s the way it used to be in the 70s, 80’s, and the early 90’s, ya know? A lot of the biggest artists of all time, that’s how they wrote. I feel like a lot of people nowadays are putting themselves into this cookie cutter mold and writing music for other people to get ahead or make more money and things like that. I think it’s tasteless to be honest. It’s art, so it should be treated as art.

Is there anything else you wanna add?

For anyone that hasn’t picked up our Juggernaut double disc record yet, go pick it up!

Interview with Will Hoge in Birmingham, AL April 2015

Never in my years of doing music journalism did I ever think I would get to interview one of my all time favorite musicians.

I have listened to Will Hoge since I was eight years old. In September, I will be 20.

I cannot explain the happiness that came over me in that moment.

So here it is, my interview with Mr. Will Hoge. 

How has the response to Small Town Dreams been?

Really good. It’s been a pleasant surprise. You never know when you put out a new record what the response is going to be. I feel like with this one, I tried to really push myself to do some things that I’ve not done before or that I haven’t done in a long time and so there’s a part of you that thinks “This may push people away, but it’s still the record I wanna make,” but that hasn’t been the case at all. It’s been completely opposite.

What’s your personal favorite song on the album?

“Little Bitty Dreams” is the one I always come back to. I mean, I like lots of things about all of the songs, but that one, even just from the recording process, that is all one take. It’s the scratch vocal. We just went back and added one little pedal steel part and one part on the lead guitar track and everything else is exactly how it went down in the studio, there’s no click track. So it feels real alive, which I like.

Is that your favorite to play live too?

No, I don’t have a favorite live yet because some of the songs we haven’t even played live yet. It’ll be 6 or 8 months of playing the stuff before I can decide.

How is this one different from other albums in the past? I mean, aside from obvious reasons.

I don’t know, I feel like this one is… I’ve kinda done, I wouldn’t say concept records, that makes them sound so heavy, but records that have a theme through them. I’ve kinda done it with political records with the America EP and with Modern American Protest Music, but I don’t know that I’ve ever done it just on a regular album and I feel like maybe this one, even though I didn’t intend when we started to be that way kind of ended up being a real concise snapshot of this one little thing whereas I think all the other records are a snapshot of kind of the moment in time of where I was making the record, this was a snapshot of a whole theme.

How was the recording process for this one different?

Well, using a producer. For the last 4 recordings, I don’t think I’ve used a producer. I’ve just done them all myself. Using Marshall [Altman], I learned a lot from him because everybody that I’ve worked with, I tend to glean something off of production wise if they’ve got a different micing technique or a different way of doing something and there was some of that with Marshall but more importantly, I didn’t have to worry about the ins and outs of how we were doing things. I just had to worry about being the singer and the songwriter, which was really liberating in a lot of ways.

So the ACMs were this past weekend, let’s talk about that.

It was fun. It’s always fun to get to hang with those people, so many of those folks have become dear friends so it’s a great moment to catch up with all of them, but it wasn’t nearly as much fun as when they did it in Las Vegas. Las Vegas was way cooler, so hopefully they’ll go back next year.

Going back to the album, I know you’re friends with Vince Gill, but he was on “Just Up the Road”, right?

Mhmm.

Talk about that, how did that come about? That’s one of my favorites.

Vince is foolish enough to answer the phone when I call and always says yes. [Laughs]. It’s hard for me not to abuse that because I feel like I could just call him with every song and be like “Could you add anything?” because he’s so incredibly musical and well versed, way more than he gets credit for. You could take him a salsa record and he would find something awesome to put on it. I mean really, it’s amazing.

I believe that!

I knew the solo needed to be really big and epic in a way and there’s a lot of the cool guitar players that are afraid of that because they don’t want to do something that feels that way I think and I know that lead guitar players that are also lead singers play very differently because they think like a lead singer and not just a guitar player. It’s one of my favorite things about Vince. So when I called him and told him that I wanted him to stretch out and do something that was more of a rock guitar hero country solo and he was excited about it and he kills it everytime so it was great having him onboard.

So when people like Lady Antebellum and Eli Young ask you to cover your songs, I know it makes you feel great, obviously, but how does that come about or what’s your reaction to that? Have you ever turned anyone down?

I have never turned anyone down. I can’t imagine the situation, unless it were for like a product for something… the morning after pill or whatever [laughs] I mean I don’t know, I don’t want my song involved with that or you know, a tampon commercial. But artist wise, there’s not anything that I would not let somebody do. I mean one, they don’t really even have to ask, they can legally just go and register the song and do it. But in those situations where it’s happened, it’s always been something where I’ve gotten phone call. Charles from Lady Antebellum called me to ask if it was okay if they did it, and the Eli Young guys have always kind of communicated with me and I see them all the time. They didn’t even call to ask, they just sent word that they were going to do it. It’s just one of those things, ya know there’s a point where there’s this incredible feeling when you hear your own record on the radio and it’s really special. It never gets unspecial. And it’s a very similar thing in that situation. Ultimately in radio, there’s a program director who's taking the chance. He hears something in your record and goes “I think people in my city will like this and I’m gonna play it.” It’s the same kind of thing, I mean somebody that’s an artist or somebody that’s an A&R person at a label is hearing something you did and going “I believe that I can bet on this song for so and so to sing or for me to sing” and that’s a huge compliment.

So what’s next?

I mean for all intents and purposes, the tour for this record really kicks off tonight. We’ve kind of done some warm up shows and one offs, and this is gonna kind of ramp up a little bit throughout this week and then we just start getting busy with the road and we start getting busy with planning the European release in June and the tour over there in September. The rest of our summer tour will get announced I think May 5th or something like that and that takes us through fall. And post-Europe, we’ll come back and probably headline and there’s some co-bill things we may do and just writing a bunch. There are some songs that are getting recorded by other people, Craig Morgan just cut something last week. Two or three other things are kind of laying around from a writing standpoint.

Is there anything you want to add? It could be anything, like words or wisdom or…

I don’t have any of those!

[We both laugh for a few seconds.]

If I could I would, but no, I’m just excited you’re still doing this. It means a lot.

Interview with Austin Carlile and Chester Bennington

I had the opportunity to be a part of a teleconference for The Hunting Party tour that is currently traveling around the world with Linkin Park, Rise Against and Of Mice & Men. During the call, I was able to ask a question to Austin Carlile from Of Mice & Men and Chester Bennington from Linkin Park chimed in as well. So, technically, I have semi-interviewed Chester Bennington. So here it is. Enjoy!

Operator: Our next question will come from Kinsey Haynes from WVUA-FM.

Kinsey Haynes:  My question is for Austin. I know someone touched on this earlier, but I want to know, what it's actually like touring with Linkin Park since they are one of your favorite bands.

Austin Carlile:  What is it like touring with Linkin Park? Wow! Super awesome. It's great.

Chester Bennington:  (overlapping) The most fun ever.

Austin Carlile:  Yeah. It's the most fun ever. We have a coffee meeting and there's a yoga room. No. It's great; it's cool to see it on both sides of it. It's cool to see it from a business aspect. Like Chester was talking about earlier and talking about, you know, bands taking control of their own bands and then, you know, people that work for them being employees for the bands, the management. And it's cool seeing the business side of it, just as well as the production side of it. And, you know, we get to the venues at, you know, 9:00AM, 10:00AM every  morning and we wake up, walk in, half dressed, half asleep, tired day at the studio, or at the venue, that Linkin Park comes in. You know, they're not there for sound check, a few hours before they play the show; they're rock stars. They come in and go, "Oh, we want to do that." We want to be able to come in and we want to get to a point where we can not have to set up the venue for literally 13 hours all day wondering what we're going to do, trying to figure out what to do in the middle of nowhere. And it inspires us, and it makes us want to work harder and it makes us want to work and create and become artists that can support themselves, like Linkin Park does. And, you know, we were going out and playing in Germany and even played 12 shows in Germany on our last tour and every night, just thousands of people singing and screaming, and it's unbelievable to me and it's something that we want to set our sights to to do as a band. And we see Linkin Park as a band like ourselves. And just like Chester was saying, with each of his albums, he feels like he's in a different band and feels like their songs change. That's what we do as  band and, you know, I think we're constantly evolving our sound and constantly evolving who we are as a band and who we want to be as a band, because at the end of the day, you know, I don't think with any kind of music you never really know, because it's always changing and you're always creating as a musician. And just the fact to be able to take notes and to be on tour with a bunch of really awesome guys; it's a blessing and it's a great experience. It's something I'll definitely never forget.

Chester Bennington: You know, it's interesting because in the same way, touring with Of Mice and Men, it's inspiring to me because here are these guys, like you said, they're at the venue 13 hours a day, you know? They're trying to figure out how to wash their clothes, to figure out what to do. They're around each other all the time. They also have lots of decisions to make. You know, these guys play something like fucking eight shows in a row, and I was like, "Dude, you're going to destroy yourselves. Please. Thank you." And, like, it's funny, because, like, a lot of bands would think their managers and a tour schedule and it says here eight shows in a row. You're like, "Okay. Let's hit the road." Like, it can kind of seem like you're working for somebody. It's important to know, like, you know, you don't have to do that. You can actually, like, put a limit on that stuff so that you don't have to wear yourself out. And you've got to think long term. And these are the things that, like, you know, I look and I go, "Wow! These guys actually are like really prepared to play eight shows in a row." Like, that is bad ass. I don't care who the fuck you are. That's insane, and especially the shows these guys do. It's not, like, you know, you're walking out, you know, whisper singing and folk songs for 30 minutes. It's, like, these guys are putting it out there. And so, it's inspiring. It's fun to be around a young band that loves playing music and will do anything, literally anything to do it and show up every day with a smile on their face and go out every night and crush it and come up and play songs with us when they should be, like, not playing music anymore; like, resting or whatever else they want to do. It's fun, you know? It's fun to be around guys that are so hungry, because it makes me want - I want our crowd to love these guys so that they go play arenas. I want these guys to go play arenas; I want them to play stadiums; I want them to have the same success that we have, because it's fun to watch them play. it's fun to see somebody want it so bad. And it's inspiring to me, you know? And it makes me go, "That's what I do this for." I love seeing bands that make me want to be in a band, you know? It's fun; it's fun to go out on the road with young people that when I watch them go, "John, I want to be in a band." And then I go, "Yes, I'm in one." And it's like "Woo hoo," you know? It gets me pumped up, you know? And that's what beautiful about music. It's, like, I love my life. Mike and I were laughing today, like, my girls were like running through the house just, like, literally screaming their brains out and I'm going, "Get it out. Get it out. Come on," you know? And everyone in the house, like, there were people who may not be used to seeing that, you know? It's just kind of funny, because this is the kind of, like, you know, living this lifestyle where you're around creative people and you're allowed to express yourself and it's fun to, you know, be creative and be different and it's a blessing. Like, every moment that we live is a blessing. It's fun to see that transcend into younger generations. It's fun to see my kids grow up in a home where they can, you know, express themselves and it's fun to be able to, you know, see all these things happening, not only from within our own band, but within, you know, other bands that we tour with and, you know, it truly is a blessed life that we live, you know, being musicians.

Interview with Lzzy Hale from Halestorm

It is not every day you get to interview one of your biggest inspirations in music. Today, I got to do just that. I interviewed Lzzy from Halestorm. The interview lasted over 30 minutes and it was 30 of the best minutes of my life. Without further ado, here is my interview with Lzzy Hale.

How is the tour going so far?

It's been fantastic so far. This past tour we've been doing shows with Eric Church and in between we've been doing headlining dates. It's kind of the, no pun intended, calm before the storm because we are about to release a record.

How did the tour come about?

They sought us out, actually. His band mates are all hard rock and metal fans. His guitar player had our records and he said to Eric, "Hey, you need to check these guys out." Eric, being the adventurous guy he is, had his people call our people and he said "Hey, do you wanna do a tour?" and thankfully we have very adventurous booking agents. We'll play with anybody! I like the idea of blurring the lines a little bit because, from what we've seen, from us playing in front of his crowd, there have been a lot of his fans coming to our headlining shows because of our friendship now. I feel like there is no real existence of genre. It's been really cool.

I know you've collaborated with Eric on "That's Damn Rock N Roll."

Yes. That song is actually on his record. The female part of that is actually his back up singer, Joanna Cotton. He called me after the tour was already put in place. He said that the CMT's had asked him to play his single, but he didn't want to do that. He wanted to do That's Damn Rock N Roll but only if I would do it with him. I was like "Sure!" It was so cool. So I go to the CMT's and it was my first real country experience. I'm backstage and I'm like "OK, that guy looks like he is somebody. Who is that? Oh, that's Kenny Chesney." I'm sharing a dressing room with Kasey Musgraves and several other people. It was so strange. I'm leather clad and the country girls are getting their legs rubbed down with makeup because that's a thing.

That is seriously a thing?

Yeah. Have you ever looked at a country star and thought they had great legs? They have special make-up for legs. It's kinda like what we do to our faces. It was very interesting. But anyway, it was a cool experience to be playing for an audience who had no clue who I was. After the CMT's we actually wrote three songs together and it was really awesome. It was neat. It's also a neat community. I've lived in Nashville for a year and a half and the community there is so accepting of all things music. If you play an instrument, it's like "Hey, come over to my house and let's write a song! If something happens, great. If not, oh well. Let's do it!" They are all very supportive.

I'm going to transition into the new album. How is it coming along?

It's done! It's actually being mastered this week. We are going to be releasing a single very soon. And then we are pushing this record out into the world. We actually recorded it in Nashville. It's funny how all this stuff came together. We didn't plan on everything being so incestuous. but we ended up using Eric's producer. He is also Cage The Elephant, Little Big Town, and a lot of strange band's music guy. He is a mad scientist. We used to call him Batman because he would be there standing with us and then all of a sudden he would disappear and then he would come back with a cool idea like "Hey!" And we would be like "Where did Batman go?" His name is Jay Joyce and he is very cool. We did this album so differently than the last two records. It was very grassroots. We did every track live into tape. It was the first time we recorded the entire song all at the same time: in a circle, recorded it in a church. Jay Joyce bought this old church and turned it into a studio. It's so beautiful and we are in the congregation room in a circle playing through the songs. The nerve-wracking thing about doing it live into tape is if one of us royal screws up all of us have to do the entire song over again. It was a lot of fun. The last two records we recorded very differently. We did them more assembly line. My brother would go into the studio and record all of the drums first to like a scratch track vocal guitar. Then we would do all of the guitars the next day. All the bass for the next two days and then I would start singing. So we were never actually playing the whole song front to back recording it all at the same time. It was so refreshing to listen back to these songs and try to capture that we were all in the same wave together and we all peaked together. It's kinda how it used to be because everyone keeps telling me that's how they did it in the 70s when people actually had to be good.

Before technology.

Exactly! It's interesting because Jay Joyce and his engineer, Jason, ended up keeping us to that standard. We went into the studio with this precedent and Jay was the one person who had the balls to do it with us. I would be doing vocals and it would be beginning to end. It wasn't "Hey we are going to go in and punch this." or "Hey, we're going to go in and tune this." You have to actually hit that note. Like really? we can't just use a little bit of tuning. NOPE! You actually have to do it.

No pressure.

[Laughs] I know I said this how I wanted to do it, but... But really it was really cool and I am so proud of it. I don't know what the rest of the world is going to think but either way, we are freaking stoked.

I'm excited. I try to keep professionalism whenever I do this but it is hard sometime because I am a fan, but I feel like you get better stories when you love the bands you talk to.

It's totally real. I get it. I got to meet and perform with my all-time favorite person in the world. He is the guy that got me into guitar. I grew up on a lot of 70s and 80s Rock because of my parents, so I kind of skipped a generation, or more so reverted back, so to speak. Tom Keifer from Cinderella has always been "the dude" since I was like 11 and I just got to perform and I was like "I gotta be cool. I'm a professional, but inside my 14 year old self was like AHH!! and I was freaking out. So I know how that is.

Oh yeah. But, back to the recording process, you've touched on how it's different than previous albums, but whenever you recorded the last two albums and the cover albums, what did you want to be different on this album?

The bottom line was that we wanted to bridge the gap between what people see in our live shows and what they hear on the record because the way we've done our past two records with Atlantic has been based on perfection and we would go in and do everything until we get it perfect. We would go in and gloss it up and add fucking weird stuff to it, not saying we didn't add weird things to this record, but it was based on perfection, whereas our live show is based on imperfection. That's Rock N Roll. We go out on stage and we have a great time and no matter what happens, because ultimately, there is someone who screws up, and there is always going to be someone saying "Haha! That was you!" and there are times when the guys will come over and start screwing with my stuff and start throwing out my picks and I'm like "God-damnit, guys!" So we wanted to capture more of that on the record. Not necessarily making a live record but kinda like what I touched on before. That's the reason we did all the basic tracks live to tape - we actually played everything front to back. All the vocals were based on performance, not on perfection because, no matter what, it's not going to be live because it's not in front of an audience. It's not going to be the same, so it's not going to be a live record but we wanted to make sure there was some kind of moment. Some moments that you could not have created. They just had to happen. There are a couple of songs on the record where you won't hear it until you listen to it like three times, but there is something where Arejay is yelling, or someone is yelling at someone and we are yelling at each other in one of the tracks we ended up keeping and you can hear it through the mic. I think they are yelling at me like "Sing it, Lzzy!" or something. I can't quite understand it. But the guys are goofing off and it's such a neat feeling in the song because it adds some type of personality to it, regardless of it being like "Oh, this is the chorus, this is the verse." Everything isn't shiny.

Y'all have been playing new songs live. How has the response been to those? I know you're not technically on a headlining tour, but how has the response been?

On our headlining shows, everyone is stoked and trying to figure out what I'm saying through Youtube videos, which is so funny. There are these two super fans in Germany and they have been trying to take the Youtube video and put it into some program so they can slow it down so they can hear what I'm saying. And it's not even close and I'm not going to give it away yet. They were like "can you just give us one hint?" Well, you got the first line right. Then they were like, REALLY? But the rest of it is wrong?" Yep. There's been a lot of speculation of what is on the record, or what isn't on the record. Like "is she singing the right lyrics? Is she singing all of the song? There was actually one girl last night, we are kind of hinting at two songs. Tonight, I am going to be starting the set a cappela, and singing a piece of something we put on the record and then we start in with a new song called "I Like It Heavy" because it's kinda old school, and has this 70s groove to it and it's a little easier to digest than me just coming out screaming everyone's heads off and then easing into it. But, it was weird. Last night for the first time, there was this girl in the front row that was singing to my a cappela part. Somebody must have gotten it on Youtube and she was singing along to it and she was pretty good and I was like "Oh my God, that's awesome!" But yeah, it's strange because the people at the Eric Church shows, some of them are aware and, depending on the region, some of them don't know who we are. So, it's kinda hard to gauge. But it's about when we get to the third song, we're like "Yeah! We got 'em!" and some are like "What is this?" for a little bit.

I get that. Switching gears again, for personal reasons, I want to ask about the cover albums because my radio show is called Crimson Covers with Kinsey. So every week, I always do a Halestorm cover, except for the week I did bad cover songs, I didn't play a Halestorm song. But it was like the Brady Bunch doing American Pie and then Big & Rich doing the Beastie Boys song "Fight For Your Right To Party."

Oh, God bless them. Now, I have to hear this. Jesus. They did that song?!

Yes! I wanted to ask why you picked the song you did to cover. I played "Out Ta Get Me" and forgot to censor it.

OOOps. [Laughs] Hopefully, no one was listening when that happened. We actually do those covers very selfishly. For two reasons: number one, if we like the song and we've never played it or even if it's a different genre, we're like "Let's try this" but for the second reason besides just loving the song, it's a simple and safe way to try some new stuff, new genres, or take a different approach to a song that we've never tried before in our own original songs. For example, our first cover album we did "Bad Romance" and "Slave to the Grind" which were two songs that the tempos and the type of attitude in each song we had never really delved into before. So, technically if we hadn't done, after we did Slave to the Grind, we decided we needed a song with this tempo because we had never done that before and it was so crazy and the attitude made me feel like a dude singing it. It's kinda hard to see yourself from the outside, so we are always kinda trying to take the out door in sometimes, eww, that sounded horrible. [Laughs] Sorry, I live with a bunch of boys so everything I say is like a sexual innuendo. But anyway, we try to reach outside of what we think is cool and go with it. Technically, we wouldn't have "Love Bites" if it weren't for covering those songs. We wanted to try and write a song kinda of like those. With the last one, we did Gold Dust Woman.

I play that on my show every week. It's my favorite.

That's funny because it got such a huge response. I have a problem with not doing anything less than 110% so by showing out, we have a song on our new record called "New Modern Love" that was inspired by that type of groove and idea. It's different when you have to cover and breakdown somebody else's song that you love and build it up as your own. You learn so much as a song writer and it's different when you have to sing it rather than just listening to it and being inspired. When you sing it and perform it, you're like "Wow, this feels good. We need to have a song that feels like this." If that makes any sense. So we do those covers selfishly for that reason.

I noticed that Out Ta Get Me is not a very popular GNR song because on my show I always do other people that have covered the song and no one else has covered that.

That song in particular, I always envisioned like, Pat Benetar would have done that song. Axl isn't really doing those crazy acrobatics in that song that he usually does [Imitates Axl Rose]. It's just a down and dirty punk rock song. It's always overlooked because it's not really flashy but man, it's fun to play live too.

I know you said selfish reasons, but I also wanted to ask why you covered that cheesy Heart song. [Laughs]

I know it's cheesy. I never actually listened to the radio version. It was very Pop radio at the time they put that out. The first Heart CD that I ever got from my mother was On The Road Home. It was this live CD of theirs and they do that song very much like what we did on the record, but it was slower paced with piano and guitar and more soulful. Back-story: the reason we did that song was because I struck a deal with the guys. I would always cover that song in karaoke. But the first time I covered it, or maybe the second, way before we were signed to anything, we would go to bars, sometimes when we were underage, and the guys would get free beers because I was singing it well. People would be like "That girl can sing! You guys get a round of beers!" So they would make me sing that song because it was only ever if I did that song. So they would make me do that song all the time. Our first time in Nashville, we broke down and we ended up going to a karaoke bar and they made me sing it again and they got free drinks because of that. I was like "I'm getting you fuckers free drinks." And so they were like, "Lzzy! We are doing a cover CD. You have to do this!" I was like "No! I am NOT doing that song!" They were like, "We'll make you a deal: you do it on here and we won't ask you to sing it in karaoke again." So, sweet. They have yet to ask me, but I feel like it's going to happen.

It totally will, eventually. I meant to ask this question earlier, so it is sort of out of place, but how has the band evolved over the last few years. I remember the first time I heard "I Get Off" on Octane. I was like "Ooohhh I like this."

Aww! Thank you! We live life kinda fast. Mentally, I don't think we've evolved at all. We are perpetually 14 inside. We are very immature. Even last night, sorry guys I'm going to embarrass you, but there was this huge fart in the freaking bunk hall and everyone just busted out laughing and I thought everyone was asleep and all of a sudden I was like "Ahh!" Like, Jesus, guys!" We still have the same fire that we did when we were teenagers and coming onto the scene. Truth be told, I've been in this band for 17 years with my little brother. None of that has changed. The view hasn't changed. The goal hasn't changed. The maturity hasn't changed. I think musically, because we are just out here all the time, I gauge how many years have gone by our fans bringing their kids. All of a sudden, the kid that was this tall is now this tall [shows height difference with her hands] and I think "Oh my God, it's been four years!" I think because we travel a lot and meet so many different people, there is always something to write about because of that. There is always music to be heard. And no matter what genre, we do a lot of this stuff. We're listening to Country all the time now on this tour and a lot of stuff seeps in. We keep chasing after what gets us excited and that leads you down the rabbit hole. I think we have definitely evolved musically and for the better. I think we have a very wide view of what our future could and could not be. It's kind of freeing right now. I am feeling the same type of freedom right now that I did as a teenager. You go through a phase. I was writing about mythical people and stupid stuff that no one could ever relate to and then you get signed to a label. And even though our label and management have been incredibly supportive but, just by having that type of responsibility as a writer to think "Oh, this has to be good for radio. Is the label going to approve this record? Will it even make it past management? Are they going to like it? Is everyone going to be digging this song? Are the guys going to be ok with me actually saying this in a song?" You go through a phase where you aren't thinking "Do I love this song?" Some of that stuff starts seeping in and it becomes less about you and more about everybody else. I feel like we are finally over that hump. Especially from making this last record. We were just like "Fuck it. Let's do what we want." So we did. We did everything we wanted to do. Right now, I would say with the upcoming record, we didn't stray from who we are. It's just a lot more of who we are. So, I warned you. [Laughs]

Anything else you want to add?

Just a big "Thank You" to you, obviously, not just for talking to me, but actually listening to our music and enabling us to do what we love every single day. It's crazy to think about. It really is. I was talking to my mom about this the other day and I was like "Mom, do you remember when we were in grocery stores or restaurants and I used to remember saying to my little brother, we would leave picks or little things that said our name, in the napkin holders just in case somebody would check out our band. And now, more times than not, people know who we are and it's just so weird to think about. It's strange and very humbling. And the whole reason for that is it takes a village, man. A lot of people talk and we are spiraling outward and I get to say I do this for a living now and that's thanks to everybody.

[We bantered about college football and the phrase "Roll Tide." Then, she did a stinger for our station which leads into the next bit of content]

I was writing this song with Eric [Church] and it's funny because when you listen to the song that we wrote, it didn't make it on the record because it was a little too country, but it was awesome. It was like this stomp song. I still think we should put it on an EP or something, but you can tell what lines are mine and what lines are his because I remember asking him something like "What's jump and rally? Like what is that?" It was me being schooled in the language.

[I talked to her about Will Hoge, and my journalistic dreams and she was extremely understanding. We talked about freelancing and traveling for our lines of work and Hanson.]

The only pictures my dad has in office are a picture of me with Hanson and of you and him. Hanson is my favorite band.

Oh my gosh! That is so funny! I can honestly say that, by them coming out at that point in time, in '97, that is when we started our band. Because we saw them, my brother and I were like "We can totally do that" and that's when we started playing in our living room and in talent shows and we were like, "MOM! They're doing it!"

That is the best thing I have ever heard. They are my all time favorite and I want to interview them so bad.

Yeah, them and their 20 something kids!

Yes! They have 11 between the three of them. But now we are just rambling. Thank you so much for allowing me to do this.

Of course, darling!

Interview with Drew Holcomb at Voodoo Festival 11/2/14

While AWOLNATION was performing on the main stage, I was in the press tent getting ready to interview Drew Holcomb. He played earlier in the day on the Flambeau stage to a crowd of about 50 people. You can read about it here.

Without further ado, here is our interview with Drew Holcomb.

How was your performance today?

It was good. Anytime you're in a historic music city, it's always great. We don't have a lot of touring history in New Orleans; it's only our second time. We never play here. It was great: beautiful day, beautiful weather.

You have a new album coming out next year?

Yep. In January.

Can you elaborate on that?

It's our fourth studio album. It is probably the most fun I have ever had recording. We just went in with a bunch of guys we really trust and went to a studio we really liked. We tracked the whole record in eight days, which is usually like 8-10 weeks for us. We had fun and we did it quick, which was good.

You did Moon River [Festival] this year. How was that? I specifically want to ask about the band booking process and why you chose Will Hoge, because I love him.

I've always wanted to host my own festival and more specifically, I've always wanted to host it in Memphis, my hometown.

I was just there a few weeks ago for Pearl Jam.

Oh yeah! At the FedEx Forum.

The way I chose bands was, since it was the first year, I asked my friends. Will and I have become good buddies in Nashville: very similar style of music. It's become a good hang.

Do you think the festival will happen again?

Oh yeah. We already have a day. We haven't announced it yet, but we definitely have a day. It was very successful.

What is next for the band?

We are leaving from here to go to the west coast, then in January we releasing the record and going to Europe, coming back to tour and headline all over the U.S.

Is there anything else you want to add?

We've been at this for a decade and it feels like we're finally doing it exactly how we're supposed to be doing it and that's a good feeling.

On a side note, the cover album y'all did a few years ago, I actually played the John Prine cover (Long Monday) on my radio show.

Oh! That is so awesome! Thank you!

Emily: I had never heard that before and it was great!

I wanted to ask why you chose that particular Prine song. That is an extreme deep cut, not popular song.

When I first got married, that record came out. My wife was a school teacher and we were apart a lot and that was like our anthem. We were like "we are going to spend these couple of days together. It's going to be great. It's going to be a long Monday when I have to go back out on the road.

Congratulations on your baby, by the way. She is precious.

Thank you. I think so too. 

Interview with Lake Street Dive

While on their lunch break, Indie-Folk band, Lake Street Dive, took a few minutes to sit down with me. Throughout this interview we talked about numerous different topics, including what Roll Tide meant.

So here it is: my interview with Lake Street Dive.

Rachael - Singer

McDuck - Trumpet and Guitar

Bridget - Bass

Calabrese - Drummer

How has the response been to Bad Self Portraits?

B: Shockingly, good.

R: For us, it was way beyond our expectations, as far as how many copies have sold. Our fans seem to really enjoy it.

C: Yeah, especially since we recorded it and had to wait a year before it came out. The entire year we were playing all the songs from the album on tour. A lot of people who came to our shows during the CD release year were already singing the lyrics to it because they watched Youtube videos and the like. It was nice to have people who had the patience to stick with us.

B: Between the time that we made the record and the time it came out, our fan base grew significantly, so we were releasing the album to a much larger audience than we ever thought that we could when we were in the studio making the album, which is fun to think about in the sense that we were free of any sort of pressure at all in the studio. We were making this album because we wanted to be making an album. There's probably no one that cares if we put out an album or not. It was liberating that way.

Do y'all have a favorite song off the album?

M: What About Me is really cool. It's an example of the song that the recorded version is noticeably different than the way we do it live just because we have this fun percussion drum thing that drives the rhythm of the song. The drums on that were like a studio trick that we recorded and looped, then we played to it and kept it in. There's a lot of fade out and a lot of silly studio talking and shouting at each other. It's fun for me to go back and listen to and there are still surprises in our music instead of just hearing the record for me and having it be exactly the same.

C: I feel similarly about the song Rental Love. It was a song that was done in the style of a lot people that we admire like George Harrison or Harry Nielsen: a slow Rock ballad but gradually burns and burns. We don't really get to play that live because it's all about the piano on that song, so it's special in that way. When we get the chance to break it out, it's really fun. We never really did before.

Favorite song to play live?

B: I'm loving playing a new song of mine called I Don't Care About You. It's just got this crazy energy. It's expressing an emotion of anger, which we don't often do. It's sort of fun doing that on stage. You spend all night being all happy and then this song comes around, it's like "Rawr!"

[Entire band bursts into laughter]

R: For me, picking a favorite song would be like picking one of the band members as my best friend. It's Bridget!!! Today, it's Bridget! I really love performing Just Ask. That's one of my favorite ones. It's very "me-centric."

C: She wouldn't say this, but it's a chance for Rachel to showcase her deeper, spacious side of her musicality.

R: Now, he's my best friend!

[Laughs]

C: McDuck feels all alone.

You can be my best friend for the time being if you'd like. Is this your first time in Alabama?

R: It's the band's first time.

M: First time playing. Definitely driven through it.

I'm sorry. I'm probably not supposed to say that. Ooops. What can fans most look forward to at a live show?

C: There is so much opportunity to dance. They can really look forward to that. If they're worried about having the chance to dance in their pants, they shant's. Take a chance and dance. Seriously.

B: We try to provide as much of a journey through the show as we can. We don't want it to be one thing or experience. Highs and lows. Just feel all riled up at one point and just totally send you focused on the words that Rachel is singing. Like watching a movie, you don't want to watch a whole scene the entire time. That would be really boring.

You played Bonnaroo this year. How was that? I was there. Y'all were great. How was that for y'all?

R: It was really fun. A festival like that with so much hype and clout, there was definitely a stronger level of nervousness and excitement for the set. For me, I'm from Tennessee so I grew up knowing people who would always go to the festival so it was very exciting. The set itself was super super fun. The crowd was amazing. We know we played early in the day, so you never know what you're going to get with an early set at a festival. It went the best it could have gone and we had a good time. Then there was a super jam at the end of the night and we played "I Had The Time of My Life" with like seven other bands and Ed Helms.

Would you say that's the most memorable Bonnaroo experience for you so far?

R: Oh, absolutely. I was standing next to Seth from The Avett Brothers, singing "I Had the Time of My Life"

Having the time of your life? Pun intended.

R: It was hilarious.

What's the most rewarding experience you've had so far?

R: For me, we did this concert that The Cohen Brothers and T-Bone Brunette produced. It was a live concert in New York with a slew of other incredible artists. They filmed it and everything. The day itself was incredible because we were interacting with all of these idols: people whose music we've grown up listening to. We got to hang with Elvis Costello backstage and I hugged Joan Bias(?) several times. For me as a band, I still maintain that that was the greatest day of my life. It was so fun the entire time. The performance was amazing. The other performances were amazing. The interactions with everyone we had were amazing. I don't know when I've felt more excited. Also, I met Paul Rudd.

[Laughs from the entire band]

C: Yes, he is very good looking.

Anything else you want to add?

M: Stay in school. And we are excited to be here.

R: Yeah, we are pumped to be in Birmingham. We just took a sweet bike ride. It's a beautiful city.