Ciara’s Country (CC):
I know that country music is changing a lot, and I’m sure you’re very aware
of this as it moves more into crossover with pop and rock – do you like the
direction the genre is going?
Paul Bain (PB): I
think we have to be careful when we talk about where something is going when
things grow. We’ve got a friend from Glasgow who do very traditional country,
and he’s very successful at the moment. Sturgill Simpson you would suggest is a
very traditional artist. You’ve got the likes of Chris Stapleton who’s more
Sturgill Simpson than he is Florida Georgia Line for example, but country is an
umbrella term and I don’t think there’s anything wrong with having a plethora
of artists under that umbrella, keeping the country genre strong. Now, us
personally might not bend to the whole rap thing and ‘everything’s a truck’ and
‘bros’ and stuff, but we’d be lying if we said there weren’t songs we loved,
and it’s always about the song for us, always, and if it’s Miranda Lambert,
Keith Urban, Brad Paisley, Lady A – I’m so looking forward to hearing their new
material, I’m always looking forward to seeing what direction they go in.
Claire McArthur-Bain
(CMB): We’re always really excited about when people in the country genre
who are pushing the boundaries and they’re doing different things can bring all
these people to one genre – I love that because it’s opening the doors to
country music fans and just music fans in general
PB: I mean Ciara,
you’re obviously of that generation where genres are becoming very broad across
the board. We just heard this week that Gerri Halliwell was talking about
bringing out a country album. So it’s like obviously people are looking at it –
Justin Timberlake did that thing with Chris Stapleton, he’s obviously brought
up in country music from the South, so there’s going to be influence, as long
as the principle at the heart of it is the song – that’s why Chris Stapleton’s
been such a sensation. That incredible vocal, that incredible emotion, absolutely
flowing through a lyric – and that’s what it always is for us, even when it’s
really rocky upbeat numbers, the actual lyrical content is about something
real, and so as long as we keep that at the crux, then I think it’s okay to
veer off a little bit. I get it when people say of certain artists ‘That’s not
country anymore’, I get it, but those people feel they are country, you know
they’re flying the flag for it. You know, Taylor Swift went ‘I’m no longer
country’, so people who say ‘Oh, Taylor Swift, she’s no longer country’ –
they’re right, she’s said she’s pop, so it’s just like there’s people doing
amazing things, trying something new, I wouldn’t be massively surprised if at
some point Taylor Swift comes back with a totally out of the blue country
record. I realise I went off on one there and probably didn’t answer the
question, which was, do we like it? We love songs, and we love people who
perform, and equally, Ashley Monroe we saw at C2C this year, we were really
lucky, we were backstage in Glasgow on the same night as Ashley and Miranda,
and it’s just like, you’re this close to these incredible artists, and hear
them talking about songs, and how much they love performing songs, that means
much more to us than you know, something that gets you up boogieing.
CC: So it seems
like you have a wide appreciation for the genre as a whole. Are there any
country music artists that you think are very underrated that you think people
should be listening to?
PB: Raintown I
heard are pretty good (laughs)
CMB: I think
Ashley Monroe is really underrated – I know now that she’s becoming much more
popular, but she’s been around for over ten years and released a few albums. I
really do think as a songwriter and as a singer she’s very underrated.
PB: I would 100%
agree – you know what, is Brandy Clark underrated? Maybe not, but again, I
think, yeah.
CMB: I suppose if
you’re thinking about commercial success, if you’re thinking about Ashley
Monroe versus Miranda Lambert, I think she deserves to be just as big as
Miranda Lambert.
PB: You know,
she’s sensational. Trying to think if there’s anyone we’re listening to just
now that you would think – Ashley Monroe is the one that jumps back into my
head. You know, there’s a lot of people out there, maybe just under that level
of commercial success that are working really heard to write great songs –
Striking Matches are maybe in that bracket. They put on a great show and
they’re out there working really hard, so you know there’s a number of people.
And that’s the beauty of what we do – people working hard to do something
special
CC: On a slightly
different note, I hear you are expecting a new addition to the family,
congratulations by the way! How do you think that’s going to change life for
the band?
PB: The band are
going to love it, they’re going to be babysitting! You know, the truth is this
is about planning, and Claire is out of the both of us, the planner and
strategist when it comes to time.
CMB: I like to
organise everything in advance so like we’ve already got a great support
network at home with our families and they’re on standby, and I know it’s a
reality of having a baby is so much different when the baby’s here, but we’ve
got a great network of support and we’re going to rely on all the help we can
get really! We’re doing that naïve thing at the moment where we’re going
‘Everything’s going to be fine, nothing’s going to change!’
PB: Yeah, we know
the truth! It’s going to be about adapting, about flexibility, and planning.
You know, it’s like today we came down in two cars down to do this gig. If you
bring the baby that becomes a nine-seater van you need, so you just need to
plan better, and our daughter will be brought up listening to a lot of music!
CC: Lovely, lucky
her! My final question for tonight is what is the one question that you wish
you were asked in an interview but never have been?
PB: You know,
what people maybe don’t ask is how often are you working doing Raintown, how
often do you work on Raintown, because there’s an assumption that they only see
this part, or that’s on the radio like yourself, but it’s not.
CMB: Yeah, how
much work it takes to get to one bit, how much rejection you probably have to
take because people don’t really see that part of it cause you don’t post that,
you post the positive things and that’s the way it should be, but yeah, maybe
that, how you deal with rejection.
PB: And the truth
of the matter is on the back of that question is that you deal with it by
accepting it upfront, this business is built on rejection. But the way we view
it is every rejection is closer to somebody accepting, or offereing us an
opportunity. It’s a very realistic way to look at it, we’re both really
positive people anyway, so for us we’re doing what we love everyday. Actually,
a friend of our bought us a plaque for our office wall and it says ‘you are
already living your dream’, and I thought that’s absolutely 100% right. Every
day we are living our dream – there’s people going to jobs everyday that they
absolutely do not enjoy and that’s really hard, so for us we get to do it – not
without its frustrations, not without its ups and downs, not without people
seeing the stuff and making stuff up about you that isn’t true, and we just
sort of accept now that that’s just the way it is. We’ve got each other and I
think that’s a massive plus, cause if something’s written about us and it’s not
true, the other one tends to be like ‘let that go – you know it’s not true’.
CC: Yeah, that’s
very true, because as your fans, we see you playing these big gigs with these
large audiences, but it can’t have been an easy road to be playing the same
stage that Lady Antebellum and Rascal Flatts have played.
PB: Well do you
know, the thing for us is about big dreams, and we’re often criticised for them,
but the truth is we want to be back here someday soon to play this venue and
sell it out, as The Shires did and as I’m sure The Shires will do again on
their tour, and we want to do that, we want to continue to build a great
relationship with our fans, and we never take that for granted, you know,
whether that’s through social media or one to one contact, we never take it,
and never will take it, for granted. We’re just grateful to be on it, that’s
the bottom line. Just before you go on stage, that’s when you think, you know,
we’re excited, we want to be on stage, and just that second before we walk on,
it’s like thank you for giving us this opportunity, and now we need to deliver.
CC: Well thank
you for answering my questions!
PB & CMB: Thank
you for having us, and thank you for coming along!
Huge thanks to
Raintown for speaking to me, and for a great gig! Keep up to date with all the latest country music news and reviews from
myself and Raintown at @CiarasCountry and @raintownmusic
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