Interview: WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR, Nashville Meets London

I spoke to William the Conqueror’s Ruarri Joseph in an interview that ranged from Elvis, grunge music, and hard to follow support acts. Have a read below to see what else we chatted about!

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m here with Ruarri Joseph of William the Conqueror after his set at the Nashville Meets London festival in Canary Wharf. So first of all, thank you so much for joining me today.

Ruarri Joseph (RJ): You’re welcome.

CC: First off, how did the show go for you today?

RJ: I really enjoyed it. I think it went well. We sold out records at the merch stand, so I guess it went well. I don’t know! I enjoyed it.

CC: From where I was standing, it looked like there were a couple of people dancing up at the front too.

RJ: They were loving it! Especially the dude with the Elvis legs.

CC: Seemed like everyone was having a very good time! Can you tell me a bit about the name you perform under, William the Conqueror.

RJ: Yeah, I could. I mean there’s a truth to it and then there’s a hard to explain answer. It sounds cool though, right? William the Conqueror is a cool name. Maybe that’s the short answer to go with it, that it sounds good. There’s a complicated, long explanation in their somewhere about my childhood and innocence, and coming up with a name like that for yourself when you doesn’t really know anything about the world. But it’s a long one, that one. It’s more of a podcast kind of answer, that one!

CC: Well I suppose that kind of story to tell element fits quite well with the genre.

RJ: Yeah, yeah, I suppose.

CC: It terms of a musical style, it’s been described as kind of Americana – would you agree with that?

RJ: I don’t mind that, I think it’s as close as you’re going to get. If you have to have a label I suppose that’s a good one to have because it’s rootsy and it’s raw and we sing rom the heart and everything.

CC: And what kind of influences did you have that helped you to find that style?

RJ: I don’t have a memory from my childhood that doesn’t have Bob Dylan playing in the background from my dad’s record player, so that as a kid, but then you know, the first music that I really got into myself was grunge – electric guitars and heavy stuff, and then somewhere along the way, the two worlds kind of merged for me I suppose. I like the songwriting elements of Americana and folk and country but I like the sound of the grunge. I don’t know if there’s a little crossover in there somewhere.

CC: In terms of songwriting, how do you go from an idea and turn it into a song?

RJ: Well that’s like asking a magician how he does his tricks. It’s different every time. It’s a subconscious thing most of the time – it’s nice to sort of surprise yourself when you’re mixing a song and go ‘where did that come from?’ So I don’t know, it’s not really a linear sort of process, it just kind of happens.

CC: Do you have a favourite song that you’ve written and recorded?

RJ: Oh I don’t know about favourite, but some songs sort of mean more to you certainly, but I wouldn’t class that as favourite. You know, you fall in and out of love with songs. You have one song, and you’re playing it as the encore song for the whole tour and you love it, and then you get sick of it so you won’t play it for ages again. They’re a bit like siblings maybe, you fall in and out of love with them all the time.

CC: And have you drawn on elements of your background to help craft your songs?

RJ: Yeah definitely, I think so. I’ve been performing under my own name for like the last nine or ten years, and then this William the Conqueror project is a new project for me, but yeah, it’s been very much a case of mining my childhood I suppose, and just trying to recapture whatever it was that got me into music in the first place, whatever got me starting to write songs before it became my job, before it became about selling tickets and having a manager and all of that stuff. I wanted to try and remember what it was like to write a song and for it to just be for you. So certainly, yeah, definitely drawing on the past. It’s a murky old rabbit whole, that one!

CC: And in terms of the country and Americana genre as a whole, is there one artist out there who you think deserves a lot more recognition?

RJ: Yeah, loads, loads. But I don’t know if that’s anything that’s specific to the genre. I just think that when you’re under the radar – like as William the Conqueror we’ve been performing for the last four years, we just didn’t tell anybody, we’ve literally been doing it in secret. Because for the last few years I’d been performing under my own name I couldn’t do the two, so I’ve been performing as William for the last four years, completely off the radar, and when you do that, but you’re still gigging, the bands you see play some amazing stuff that you know will never get the recognition. I’ll give a special mention to a guy called Fraser Ross, who is from New Zealand, who was my support act at a show in Scotland. I’ve never ever not wanted to go on after a support act, but I watched this guy and he just melted my heart entirely and I didn’t want to go on because I just like wanted to go home and think about his stuff! So yeah, there’s plenty of underrepresented stuff that’s never going to see the light of day. But then, you know, Van Gogh never sold a painting while he was alive so it’s not a bad thing to be underrepresented – so long as the art is there and so long as it’s making an impact on somebody’s life, even if it’s just the creator that it’s helping, then it’s good. I’m going into the rabbit hole again, sorry!

CC: Well hopefully with events like this, we’ll get more underrepresented artists coming to the forefront.

RJ: Yeah definitely. Events like this are great in showing people that there’s stuff out there other than just Radio 1!

CC: So my last question is what’s the one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?

RJ: Erm, would you like to go home now?

CC: And what’s your answer to that?

RJ: Yes please, I’ve not been home in two weeks!

CC: Alright then, thank you for your time and for speaking with me Ruarri!

Cheers to Ruarri for speaking to me and sharing his thoughts – if you’d like to find out more about myself or William the Conqueror, check us out on Twitter at @CiarasCountry and @ruarrijoseph

Top Albums of 2016 (So Far!): Part 3

2016 has been a fantastic year for country music, and you can read Parts 1 and 2 of my Top Albums of the Year here and here. Now that we’re ¾ of the way through the year, it’s time for another update – read on to find out what albums I think (in no particular order) are worthy of high praise!

Ward Thomas – Cartwheels

Why it made the list: Everyone had high expectations for the ‘Queens of UK country’s second album release, and I was pleased to see they lived up to expectations to become the first country album to reach Number 1 on the UK charts. Perhaps my favourite part of the album was noticing that the girls had maintained their Britishness, which you can hear very clearly not only in their vocals but their lyrics too – this is something that’s often missing from UK country acts who tend to add an American twang to their songs, and I’m pleased Ward Thomas decided not to follow suit. Some of the songs, like Guilty Flowers and Carry You Home, are filled with flawless harmonies and catchy choruses aplenty, and this coupled with the occasional ballad such as Safe and Almost Easy make for a well rounded album, even if there are a few tracks I tend to skip through. Cartwheels isn’t perfect, and there’s certainly a mix of strong songs and less strong songs, but it’s a solid album nonetheless and has done an excellent job of paving the way for what I hope will be increased exposure for this underrated genre.

Top Tracks: Where the Sky Is, Lose Me, Almost Easy

Florida Georgia Line – Dig Your Roots

Why it made the list: Dig Your Roots was without a doubt my most highly anticipated album of 2016 – I’d loved FGL’s previous releases and was hoping that the only way they could go was up. I think they delivered. The album has such a range of music styles, there’s bound to be something for everyone, whether that’s the reggae-infused Life Is a Honeymoon, super-strong love ballad H.O.L.Y or summer jam Island. Tyler and Brian tackle a lot of topics with this album, ranging from love and heartbreak to life and death; and I reckon that Dig Your Roots has some of their best lyrics yet – just take a listen to songs like Lifer and God, Your Mama and Me and you’ll see what I mean. Another thing that must be said is that Brian gets a lot more airtime on this album than he’s had before, and I really enjoyed hearing his solos. Every song on this album is so strong in its own right – I just wish everyone would listen to it.

Top Tracks: Summerland, God Your Mama and Me, May We All

Jake Owen – American Love

Why it made the list: Jake Owen is the kind of guy whose music you want to listen to on days when you don’t feel like doing much. He’s got a very chill vibe that fits his persona perfectly, and this is clear as day in songs like Everybody Dies Young and Good Company which has lyrics like ‘got what we need to make good vibes, good times and damn good memories,’ and good vibes is what you get with Jake’s latest album. It’s easy to have your head bopping along to tracks like American Love with its ‘clap-along’ feel and guitar solos, but if there’s one thing missing it’s the storytelling element as I felt some of the songs didn’t have too much substance behind the words. Nevertheless, Jake’s sound has evolved since previous releases, with less lyrics about ‘painted on jeans’ and trucks (although there is still one song about a VW Van), and I really enjoyed when he slowed it down with tracks like the rootsy LAX which is filled with wonderful steel guitar sounds. All in all, it’s a feel-good album, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Top Tracks: LAX, Good Company, Where I Am

Chris Lane – Girl Problems

Why it made the list: If you didn’t have Fix stuck in your head for most of the summer, I don’t know where you’ve been. This catchy debut single sets the mood for Girl Problems with many songs making it easy to imagine rocking out to at a Chris Lane concert. Chris Lane’s latest album might seem like it could just be another country-pop proposition, but it manages to stand out quite substantially in a number of ways, the first of which is that there’s no mistaking whose album it is, thanks to Chris’ signature falsetto which soars on songs like For Her and All The Time (which reminded me of popular band DNCE – why doesn’t Chris have the same recognition?) The second reason is due to the unmistakable R&B influence on the album, with my favourite track being a cover of Mario’s Let Me Love You. This is quite the unexpected track to be found on a country album, but it really works. It’s these two elements which really made Girl Problems stand out to me. Sure, it might be very pop, but it’s different and exciting, and Chris has found a way to separate himself out from the rest. In this genre, where every singer is so distinctive (I’d find it hard to draw too many similarities between Chris Stapleton and Florida Georgia Line), artists need a way to differentiate themselves, and with Girl Problems, Chris has done just that.

Top Tracks: Let Me Love You, For Her, Her Own Kind of Beautiful

Did I miss anything? Let me know on Twitter @CiarasCountry! I’ll be adding another installment of this series before the year is over, and I’d love to get your input – what are some albums coming out before the end of 2016 that you think deserve a spot on the list?

Interview: MEGAN O'NEILL & THE COMMON THREADS, Nashville Meets London

Irish ‘Celt-icana’ singer Megan O’Neill sat down with me after her set with her newly formed band The Common Threads to chat about telling stories through music, being featured on ABC’s Nashville TV show, and forming The Common Threads. Read on below!

Ciara’s Country (CC): I’m here with Megan O’Neill after her set with her band The Common Threads at Nashville Meets London in Canary Wharf. So first of all Megan, thank you so much for joining me today.

Megan O’Neill (MO): Sure, no problem.

CC: So I wanted to ask first, how’s your year going so far?

MO: Amazing! I kind of can’t believe it’s already August, it’s a bit scary, but the year has flown by and we’ve had so many great things happening, so very happen with 2016!

CC: What would some of your highlights from this year be?

MO: We’ve been recording a new record which is definitely a highlight, I formed this full band which we didn’t have last year, so that’s again another highlight, we played some really great shows – C2C for one, Time Out’s Rising Stars of Country Music, today was amazing, so you know, lots of great things happening.

CC: Country music is such a wide-ranging genre – how would you describe the sound of Megan & The Common Threads?

MO: I don’t think our own personal sound needs a description. I think we definitely fall into the country music bracket, but we could also fall into folk or Americana or an indie bracket. You just don’t know how people want to box you off these days, into which genre that you’re in, and I think we dip in and out of a lot of genres with our music. You know, country is what I write, it’s at my heart, but the band brings something different to it, which is what you’d expect with five other musicians. It’s a beautiful thing. So yeah, if people want to bracket us, I think we definitely fall into the country bracket, but I think we dip into a lot of other brackets too.

CC: I think the crowd out there are pretty proud that you fall into the country music bracket! So a lot of those influences come through in your songwriting and storytelling – are there other elements from your background that influence how you write music?

MO: Well I grew up in a very musical family – I grew up in an Irish family where everyone plays music, and my mam sings, my brother sings, and my younger sister sings, and I think having them as an influence from such a young age definitely played a role in my want to be a songwriter, and the most important thing for me always when listening to music has been the story that’s being told. That’s something that’s resonated with me throughout my whole life, so when I wanted to be a songwriter, the most important thing for me was stories, and I think the best stories come from your own life experiences, so I’ve written a lot about my own life experience, about things that I’ve been through, about things that my family have been through, or relationships that I’ve had, and I like to draw on personal situations so that I can make them into music.

CC: Was there one song that was particularly interesting for you to write?

MO: Yes, a lot of them have been. One that we played today, it’s called Stories to Tell and it’s going to be on the next record – that was quite an interesting song for me to write because I went back somewhere I used to live and realised that everything had changed since I’d been there. The lyrics are ‘And that was then, and I’m left with used to be’s, times good and bad and in between, and even though this city don’t remember me so well, I’ll always have my stories to tell.’ So it was like nobody in that city knew who I was anymore, even though I lived there for quite a while. So that was quite a therapeutic way to write as I’d visited a city and it wasn’t the same city that I used to know.

CC: I suppose a lot of artists say that songwriting is kind of a catharsis for them – do you feel the same way?

MO: Yeah definitely. I write a lot of poetry, so I tend to write, even if I’m on the tube in the morning I’m writing poetry, so I tend to get things off my chest and a lot of those end up turning into my songs.

CC: Very interesting! Am I right in thinking one of your songs was featured on an episode of Nashville?

MO: Yeah! Our song Don’t You was on Season 3 of Nashville.

CC: Do you think that was a useful way of introducing yourself to the American market then?

MO: Yeah, it was. I’ve spent a lot of time in the States and I lived in Nashville for a while so I think I already have some great people and some great fans out there, but that was definitely a huge platform, so it was great to have a song on the show.

CC: And in terms of playing in Nashville and London, how do the two compare?

MO: They’re very different. I mean I love playing music in Nashville, but it’s much more of either a) you’re on Broadway and it’s a bar and everyone’s dancing and everyone’s drunk, or b) you’re playing the likes of The Bluebird and it’s a songwriting session and it’s literally dead quiet. I think you have more variety in London probably within one crowd. You just never really know how your crowd is going to react in London. It could be a Tuesday night and everyone could be going crazy and dancing on tables, or it could be a Friday night and everyone could be exhausted and not saying anything.

CC: I think you had more of the former today.

MO: I did, everyone was great out today, I was so happy.

CC: In terms of the genre as a whole, is there one artist out there who you think deserves more recognition?

MO: Yes. Brandy Carlisle, straight away. She’s an American – probably Americana/folk would be her genre, but she’s absolutely phenomenal, and I think she’s not recognised enough, especially in Europe.

CC: I hope with events like this we’ll get more crossover with more US artists coming over here, and more European artists heading to the States.

MO: Hopefully!

CC: Finally, my last question for you is what’s the one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?

MO: Oh gosh. Probably I’d like to be asked more about my band – they’re my heart and soul, they’re my best friends, and most people tend to focus on the lead singer, which I completely understand, and I also write most of the music, but I write with members of my band too. I think it’s really important that they get recognised too and that they get to sign things and the hugs, because they’re my core, and they’re such amazing people. So I think if people recognised them more, that would make me really happy.

CC: So how did you become a band then?

MO: That only happened about six months ago. We were doing acoustic shows for about two years before and then thought that we needed a bigger sound, so we expanded.

CC: Seems to be working out for you then.

MO: I love it.

CC: Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today Megan, and best of luck for the rest of the year!

MO: Thank you very much!  

Thanks to Megan for catching up with me, and be sure to check out her music if you haven’t already – you’ll be glad you did! You can keep up to date with all future interviews at @CiarasCountry, and drop Megan a follow at @meganoneill – don’t forget to tell her who sent you!

Interview: DEXETER, Under the Apple Tree Roots Festival, London

If you've not heard of Dexeter yet, do yourself a favour and check them out! I caught up with lead singer Deeanne to chat about UK country, crowdfunding, Chris Stapleton and more - read on!

 

Ciara’s Country (CC): It’s Ciara’s Country here, and I’m joined today by Deeanne from Dexeter before their set at the Under the Apple Tree Roots Festival in Cadogan Hall. First of all, thank you so much for joining me today!

Deeanne Dexeter (DD): That’s okay, no worries!

CC: It looks like it’s set to be a great festival at Under the Apple Tree – are you excited to get up on stage?

DD: I’m really excited! I mean, originally when we were booked for this, it was going to be a weekend festival, and that was going to be earlier on in the year, but then Bob moved it to London and it’s changed date so we didn’t think we were going to actually be able to play it because there are obviously so many other artists booked. We thought we weren’t going to make the cut, but here we are, so I’m really excited and can’t wait to see Ward Thomas later too.

CC: I’m really impressed by the calibre of the artists they’ve managed to fit into such a short period of time! And just in general, how’s 2016 treating you?

DD: It’s been really good – we’ve had a really good year so far. We released our EP around April-time and we went on tour which was really good. We played 3 shows at Country 2 Country in March – that was our first show with Bob I think – we played his stage there so that was really good. We’ve just had some songs played on Hollyoaks which was really weird and cool! And then we recently released our song that Ben Earle from The Shires had written, and we released that through Decca Records which is incredible and now here we are today playing at a really fancy venue in Chelsea, so yeah, 2016 is going really well for us!

CC: I was really happy to see your latest single racing up the charts recently too.

DD: I know, it’s crazy! I think at one point there was us, Ward Thomas, The Shires, and another band called Dahlia who’ve released the same kind of thing as us – it was a song written by Ben – so they’re all UK acts in the Top 5 in the UK country charts! It’s just been crazy. I think the UK are finally taking over this country scene.

CC: And especially with events like this where artists are getting more exposure, hopefully the genre will grow.

DD: Exactly, I was at work the other day and listening to Radio 1 in the office and Ward Thomas was on, and I didn’t think that was ever going to happen, country on Radio 1. Anything can happen now, surely!

CC: So going on to talk a bit about your writing process – can you tell me a bit about the creative process you go through when you’re writing songs?

DD: Yeah, I mean Gareth’s our main songwriter, he’s written everything on all of our EPs but we’ve just started doing some co-writes which we haven’t done before. Last year we went out to Nashville in October and we managed to do a co-write with a guy called Michael Logan out there, and he’s been nominated for a Grammy Award, he writes for Kelly Clarkson and the Nashville soundtrack. That was great as it was our first co-write, but I think going to places like Nashville really helps with the creative process as well because you get there are you feel really inspired by everything. I think the style of writing has really changed from our first EP to what we’re releasing now, so I think it just grows over time. We’re settled as a band now, the members are staying the same so I think we feel really confident with what we’re bringing out at the moment which helps too.

CC: Are you working on anything at the moment?

DD: They’ll probably be another EP early next year because we’ve got a couple more shows this year, but it’s almost calmed down now that the festivals are over, so we’ve got a bit of time and we’ll probably have a new EP on its way shortly!

CC: Lots to look forward to then! And in terms of your last album, which was crowdfunded – how did it feel putting your career so much in the hands of your fans and the public?

DD: I think the pledge campaign is really really important, and we’re really grateful for that because it’s so expensive going to recording studios and buying the CDs for everyone – it’s really difficult for independent artists like us to be able to do that. We actually crowdfunded our first EP as well, and that went really went but I think that at the time we were a fairly new band, and a lot of the pledges were our parents and our friends who just wanted to help us out. Last year when we released the album and we did the same thing on the pledge campaign, they were people we didn’t know who had come out and seen our shows or whatever and they obviously wanted to help us out and release new music. That’s amazing because it’s gone from being your friends and people who have to support you to people who are there because they actually want to, so it was incredible.

CC: And I think it’s a great way for artists who might not otherwise be able to release their music to do so.

DD: Exactly, it’s just so expensive so it’s a great way to do that. But hopefully now I’m hoping we won’t have to do that again because we’re doing a lot of gigs and things which help to support releasing new stuff.

CC: And in terms of the country music genre as a whole, are there any artists out there who you think are currently underrepresented but deserve so much more recognition?

DD: That’s really hard, because there are a lot of bands on the UK circuit who I think are incredible, and I could name a few names but I don’t want to because I think that it’s mean to the others! But particularly in this country there’s so many people who just haven’t heard of incredible artists. Like just the other day I was talking to my friends and they hadn’t heard of Chris Stapleton, and I think that’s a crime! But I’m sure he’s doing quite well in the States haha!

CC: Yeah I bet! And as we draw the interview to a close, is there one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never have been?

DD: Ah gosh, not that question! I don’t like that question at all – I can’t think of anything! I mean all the questions are really similar and ask kind of the same thing, so just when anybody throws a curveball it’s always quite funny. Like we get things like ‘what’s your favourite dinner?’ that puts you on the spot and I’m just rubbish at answering things like that!

CC: Ah, I should have thought of something like that!

DD: But if I think of something later, I’ll come back and let you know!

CC: Perfect, I look forward to that next time we have a chat! Well thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me tonight!

DD: No worries, thank you for having me! 

What a fantastic interview with Deeanne - what did you think? Let me know on Twitter @CiarasCountry, and follow for more reviews, interviews and news!

Interview: ANDREW COMBS, Under the Apple Tree Roots Festival, London

Singer-songwriter Andrew Combs was kind enough to join me after his set at Bob Harris' Under the Apple Tree Roots Festival in London - read on below to find out his thoughts on getting married, playing for UK audiences, and the best kind of songs to write:

 

Ciara’s Country (CC): First of all Andrew, thank you so much for joining me!

Andrew Combs (AC): Yeah, thanks for having me!

CC: My first question for you tonight is how is your year going so far?

AC: It’s been great. It feels like a whirlwind – I’ve been touring a lot, I just got done recording a record, I’m getting married in two weeks, we just bought a house, so this year has gone very fast.

CC: Sounds like you’ve been extremely busy! Has there been a highlight of the year so far?

AC: Well, it would be wrong of me to say that getting married wouldn’t be the highlight, but so far I’ve loved recording and writing and the creative process with the music business. It was great to get back in the studio, I really enjoyed that so maybe that.

CC: And you’re touring here at the moment, and I’d say that this year you seem to have really broken into the UK market with your headline slot at C2C your tour, and now the Under The Apple Tree Festival. How would you say that playing to British audiences compares to what you’re used to back home?

AC: It’s just a different experience. Here they’re more respectful and quiet which pays off and is really nice – especially this tour when I’m doing solo shows, so having a quiet audience is always nice. They’re really responsive of what I do and the whole kind of country roots Americana thing – whatever you want to call it – they just kind of eat it up over here and I’m glad to come over and play it for them. It’s always a good time. It’s like a vacation.

CC: Yeah, it seemed like you had a great reception out there today! I think one of the things we really love in particular about country and Americana is that a lot of the songs often tell stories, and a lot of country music draws on the backgrounds of their singers and writers – are there ways in which you’ve used your background to influence your music?

AC: Well to be honest, there’s always a piece of my songs that are me, but I tend to write on stories from other people are draw inspiration from literature and films. You know, I grew up in a White middle class family in America, you know, I didn’t go through hardships, I had shoes on my feet and a roof over my head. As I’ve grown older, obviously you acquire more stories to tell so those have made it into my work, but I don’t have a coalminers daughter kind of thing going on, that’s just not me. I write what I know.

CC: And once you’ve got that kind of story, how do you turn it into a song?

AC: Ah, it depends. I don’t really have a formula to how I write – sometimes it comes with words first, sometime music, sometimes it’s a title. It’s different every time.

CC: Is there one of your songs which you think has been the most interesting to write so far?

AC: Well, the best songs usually come really fast, and the song that’s been really good to me is Too Stoned To Cry. I mean, it got me my record deal, but it was a song that barely no one wanted to cut because it was too far on the fringe, but everyone out there really liked it after, so it got me in a few doors which was nice! I’ve been writing a lot by myself recently, so I just kind of get in the zone, go out and get a coffee and go for it. Interesting-wise, I guess ones that come out, like Too Stoned To Cry that are almost vomited out so fast you don’t even realise what’s just happened. Those are the most fun to write, but other times it can take me like a year to finish a song.

CC: What kinds of things can we expect on the upcoming album?

AC: Less country, actually. I mean there are definitely still elements of it, I can’t naturally stray away from folk and country music, it’s just part of what I love, so there are definitely elements of that. But I’m trying to stretch myself musically and lyrically – I just don’t want to make the same record twice, so this is just me exploring different musical inspirations and elements, and a different band, different studio. I just needed something new.

CC: Do you know what direction you’re heading in then?

AC: Well who knows? It’s always changing. I’d literally just finished recording – we hadn’t even mixed it, and I was already thinking about the next record. I’m always thinking of making like drugged out rock and roll, but that could change tomorrow.

CC: So in terms of like the country Americana genre as a whole, is there one artist out there who you think is really underrepresented and deserves more recognition?

AC: Yeah, I’m sure there’s a million of them. You know, I don’t listen to a whole lot of this world besides my friends, and when they’re you’re friends you’re a little bit biased, but my buddy Erin Rae whose on a record label over here called Clubhouse, she’ll be touring here soon and I think she’s totally great. Her voice is so simple but angelic, there’s nothing fancy about it but that’s what makes it amazing, and her songs are amazing. I also like the new Daniel Romano record, I like a lot of the stuff – I’m friends with Caitlin Rose, Margo Price, I think they’re both great. I mainly keep my head down and stay focused – I don’t really get involved in the cliques.

CC: Hopefully with events like this we’ll be seeing more of them come over here more often. So as we draw the interview to a close, is there one question you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?

AC: Haha no, I just wish that no-one, and thankfully you didn’t which is good, asked me what my influences were. There’s so many ways to ask that in a different fashion, or different angles, and just coming out and being like ‘so, what are your influences?’ is the worst. It just happens all the time which is probably why I don’t like it so much! I like talking about stuff that’s not music, so that’s always what I wish an interview would veer towards, but I understand that y’all have a job to do.

CC: It certainly seems like you’ve got a lot going on in your life aside from music.

AC: Yeah it’s gonna be crazy when I get back home – I have Americanafest, then I have my bachelor party, and then I get married, and then we go on a six week honeymoon which is going to be great. We’re just going to chill out in a cabin in Northern Minnesota, read and write, and bring the dogs along. It’s going to be cool.

CC: Sounds awesome!

AC: Yeah I’m looking forward to it. It’ll be a much needed break.

CC: Lovely! Well thank you so much for answering my questions tonight, and best of luck with the wedding!

AC: Thank you!

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