A duo, both originally from California but reconnected in Nashville, they are working on a new EP hoped to be released in the Spring. They have written hundreds of songs together and toured across the nation and have opened for the likes of Thompson Square, Love and Theft, and Daryle Singeltary as well as performed at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville and (twice) at the Key West Songwriters Festival. They talk about the successful (overfunded) Kickstarter that they'd done for their debut EP and the unique approach they took to recording it (at Warner Studios, to boot).
"I think sometimes when you start out in music, however old you are... you write about whatever you feel and then sometimes when you go into an industry you feel pressure to write for the radio or write what other people are writing to be cool and fit in... We were like, 'Ya' know, we're not gonna do that'."
"You can pretty much tell within, I think, the first 24-48 hours whether or not you're going to hit your (crowdfunding) goal by the end of it."
"Sometimes, honestly, if the (crowdfunding) campaign isn't being run in the best way or you don't hit these certain markers, it's better to just can it and take it down and start again and rethink your marketing strategy."
"Creativity happens when everybody's doing it at once... So, sometimes things morph into even greater things than you expected because of all that creative energy in the room that wouldn't happen if you were just laying down the part at your house and shipping it in."
"Even with a cover (song), it's when you don't expect something to hit, but more than that it's when you just put your heart and soul into something and you truly just want to make a difference in the world. And you have no idea how many views it gets and honestly it doesn't really matter how many views it gets because that's not the point of it. The point of it is to connect with other people and to make people feel better."
"You realize that, I think, very early on, playing music professionally all the time is, how long are you on stage - maybe it's a 30-minute set maybe it's a four-hour set, it's not usually longer than that - but you can be in the car for 14 hours, 18 hours, and that's one way and then you have to come back and you're on the leg of some two-week journey. So you start realizing that it's the people who you're in a band with, it's the people who you're on the road with. It makes such a big difference to how traveling and just the whole show run can go."
"Grit and Amazing Grace"
"I Can't Turn You Off"