We had the pleasure of having a quick chat with the wonderful Zandi Holup ahead of her set at The Long Road the other weekend. Check it all out below!

Firstly how was it coming out with Steve Earle yesterday?

It was incredible. I love Steve, and I love the festival, I love the humans, I love the UK. It was fabulous!

Have you done many collaborations with him before, or was it more of a spur of the moment thing?

So Steve and I actually wrote that song about a year ago, and we’ve been performing it on tour and stuff, but we’re going to be recording it soon. Super excited about it!

It’s the first time you’ve been over here in a couple of years, right? Black Deer was the last time?

Yeah, I was at Black Deer Festival, yes.

How would you compare the the scene over here compared to back home? Is there any differences or similarities around it?

I would say one of the biggest differences is people’s attention span and how people don’t really speak during the performances. Where as in America, it’s pretty normal to kind of speak and party during a musical performance, here, if somebody talks, people look at them with like daggers in their eyes! And I kind of loved how people were like riding for me in that sense. I was like, ‘thank you so much for caring so much!’

I’ve had that a few times now, yeah. People have been like, I was really nerve-wracking the first song, because no one made a noise, and then after you finished playing everyone clapped, and it was like, yeah, that’s fine. Everyone enjoyed it!

That was the first thing that did happen to me coming over here! I thought everyone hated the music, but then afterwards they embraced me and made me feel like I was good. So I was like, thank the Lord!

You’ve got quite a busy month or two when you go home as well, right?

I do, yes. I’m fixing to fly straight from here to another tour in the states. I’m opening up for Waylon Wyatt!

Oh wow. Yes, I saw that. That’ll be very cool as well!

Yes, I’m excited!

It’s been a couple of years now since the album, right?

Yes, it’s been…I released it about a year ago.

Yes! It seemed quite a meteoric rise from the single straight to that. I imagine it was quite a whirlwind for a year or two!

Oh, absolutely! And I think, you know, anytime you’re recording music and putting it out, you’re getting into your own little whirlwind of a sort. I think it’s a vulnerable thing to release music, you’re afraid, are people going to listen to it, are people going to like this, are people going to still want me? It’s many, existential, emotional questions you start to ask yourself. But I’m just proud that I was able to put something out that people can relate to and like!

It was quite a bold move these days as well, going pretty much straight into an album. Was that your decision or a label thing?

I think it was a collaborative decision. But I mean, I can be pretty hard-headed, so I think even if I don’t think it’s my decision, it probably was, because I can sway people with my intense nature! So yeah!

And are we expecting new music soon? Have we been working on some stuff?

Yes, I’m going to be releasing multiple singles in the coming months, and I am working towards another album!

You’re pretty active on social media and stuff like that. Have you got any advice for a new artist just starting out in that regard? I know it’s quite a daunting task to first take on!

Gosh, I need someone to give me advice! I think if I could give anyone advice, including myself, honestly, I think you have to not get discouraged and keep posting. Anytime I’ve had a lull in my engagement, I think you have to keep powering through, and sometimes I’m even guilty of getting kind of depressed, like nobody wants to listen to this, but in reality, you just need to keep going, keep persevering, and being yourself. Being honest, don’t pull some fake shit, just be yourself!

You’ve had a crazy couple of years touring, but do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of? Anyone you want to support still?

Oh, my gosh, there’s so many people I’d like to support. I mean, I would love to support Stevie Nicks one day. She’s a dream of mine. I obviously would have said Dolly, that was… she’s like my number one girl.

Yeah, that would be a really good fit as well!

Yes. I mean, there’s plenty of people that I would love… I’d love to support Bob Dylan, massive fan.

That’d be cool as well!

Yes, so I could go on and on, but those are some of my greats.

Yeah, that’d be cool. Just a big old tour with everyone, then.

Yes, please, with all the greats!

If you could have written one song from history, do any immediately spring to mind?

Oh, my gosh, it is so difficult. I don’t even know what to say to that! Oh, lord, uh, that’s a difficult question. That’s a really hard one. Maybe I’m going to go ‘Don’t Think Twice, it’s All Right’, Bob Dylan.

And then what can we expect from the set later?

You can expect new songs from the set. I love to perform all of my new songs and not tell anybody I’m doing it. So yeah, I’m going to be performing new songs and songs off the record. But yeah, songs that are coming off my next record, too!

That’s very cool. I feel like that’s a bit more of a country thing than anything else, as well. I feel like a lot of like rock and pop artists seem a bit more hesitant to play new music that’s not released, as opposed to like, coming here the last few years, everyone’s more than happy to just throw out a song that no one’s really heard of, which is very cool!

I think it’s cool because I’d like to get feedback from the people that are listening to my music. I want to know if they like it, you know? I ask them, I’m like, if you don’t like something, tell me!