We had the pleasure of chatting to the amazing country duo’s Ryan and Rory at the Long Road the other week! Check out as we chat about the UK scene and their new album plans!

We chatted about a year ago now so, essentially, how’s the last year gone?

Ryan: Man, it’s crazy. It’s been pretty crazy. We’ve recorded an album!

Yes. I remember you kind of teasing it when we chatted!

Rory: Yeah, may or, maybe not be coming out next year. May, maybe not be early next year. I mean, I don’t know what we can say, but…Yeah, we’ve been playing a lot of shows. We’ve been, like we said, working on new music. We put the single out this past Friday, ‘Beer Wants Me’.

Yes, of course. Yeah!

Rory: We knew we were coming over here and we were like, this is the best way to celebrate this, to give it a turn and push that boat off the dock here in the UK for ‘Beer Wants Me’. Exciting!

Is that going to be on the album then? Is that the first single from that?

Ryan: Yeah, it’ll be on the album. It’s the beginning of our new chapter!

You’ve got two sets today as well, right? You’re on there and then the afterparty!

Ryan: Yeah, Main stage at 11 O’clock.

Long day.

Rory: It is what we’re here for. Long days.
Exactly. Long Road, long day!

What can we expect from either? Is there going to be some differences between the sets? I feel like tonight’s is a bit shorter, right?

Rory: It’s shorter. It’s going to be like probably a little more high energy for the second set, but the first set is going to be all gas, no breaks. First set’s just, a good mix of you know, our songs that are out and then we have some new tunes coming out, a lot of new ones, which is nice!

I was talking to Zandi Holup yesterday about how country seems a lot more accepting of playing unreleased stuff than a lot of the other genres I’ve noticed. Like it’s really cool that people will dry run a new song live!

Ryan: We noticed that! So our first trip over here like six months ago or whatever, I mean, almost all that music is new to the people we’re playing for and it didn’t feel that way! It felt like they were listening with arms wide open.

Rory: Yeah, it was wild by the third set I was like, man, they know the words to some of this!

What can you kind of make comparison-wise from the scene back home compared to out here? Are there any similarities or differences?

Yeah, I mean there’s definitely some similarities and differences. The difference I’ve noticed is like here, we mistook the very first time for the attentive listening. We thought like maybe the energy wasn’t high energy. Because it was such attentive listening, and then by the next song everyone loves it. They don’t hate us. They were just really listening. So, that difference is pretty key, I’ve noticed!

Yeah, I have had a few people say that, actually. I feel like I need to head out to you guys and catch a country show now just to see the differences!

Oh, definitely. Have you been to Nashville?

No, I really want to!

It’s, it’s worth it. It’s rowdy dude!

It’d definitely be cool. I’ve done a few shows in the US, but not country, so that’d be cool.

Gotcha. Okay. The country ones are the most fun!

You’ve kind of touched a little bit on the album. Is there anything more we can expect? Are there any interesting twists and turns on it compared to the stuff you’ve put out so far?

Rory: Yeah, so the record we feel like is the most complete picture of music we’ve been able to put together. We shot the video for ‘Beer Wants Me’ here on this trip, so we’re still filming it!

Oh wow, you’re getting some clips today? That’ll be cool.

Yeah! You guys are going to be in it today and tonight! It’s going to be a UK exclusive ‘Beer Wants Me’ video, which is very cool. But the record is… it almost picked itself. We’re so proud of all the songs and there wasn’t a disagreement about which one should be on there!

Have you guys got quite a busy year after you get home then? Are there any shows coming up?

Yeah, we do, for sure. We’re going to be putting out some new music, one more before the new year and then a lot of new stuff next year. We’re going to be going to radio, so the full, the whole nine yards.

Nice busy year, then!

Ryan: Yeah, it’s going to be busy as it gets!

Is there anyone you’d want to collaborate with in a writing room?

Yeah, for sure! Our dream collab is Lainey Wilson, for sure.

That’d be cool!

I think she’s like triple threat artist. Definitely one of our dream collabs. We already had a dream come true with Jamie Johnson, we have a song out with him. That was, that was pretty damn cool.

Thomas Rhett at the board. And we might want a song with Kenny one day.

And we’ll just say it, we’re Ella Fellas! She’s cool!

I guess that probably leads quite nicely to our next question of if you had a dream tour you’d want to be a part of. I imagine at least like Ella, Lainey maybe?

Yeah, I think either one of those, I’d be like, I don’t know if I’d believe it’s real. But that, I mean, man, the thing about country is we love so many artists, like there’s a lot of dream tours, like there’s a lot of them. Whoever we can have a good time with, honestly, who we’d enjoy to hang out with. We love, you know, getting to hang out after the show, going golfing before soundcheck, and you know, going and exploring a new town, meeting new people, that kind of thing, so wherever it gets us out and about! The hang is everything!

Then are there at least tentative plans to come back out next year, I imagine?

So, just like last time, we immediately started working on this trip the last time we were here, so we’re already talking about it. We’ve been kind of checking around for what would we be able to do show-wise and what cities and what not. But no, the plan is always to come back, because we’ve just had such a great time!

Ryan: And yeah, the move would be maybe putting out a new record and then come back over here! You know, one after the other.