Ciara’s Country (CC):
Hi Darius, thank you so much for taking the time to chat with me this
afternoon!
Darius Rucker (DR): No, thanks for talking to me!
CC: So to start things
off, how are things going for you so far this year?
DR: Oh, lovely. Getting a record together has been a blast,
and now being over here playing some shows in Europe has been a blast, so this
year’s looking up. I’m having a great time.
CC: This is your
second time as one of the C2C headliners – what do you think will be different
from the last time you were over?
DR: I’ve heard it’s got a lot bigger! You know, I played the
very first one in 2013 and it was big then, it was a packed house and people
stood up and danced and had a great time, but I’m here with 50 acts and stuff
all over the grounds. It’s got a lot bigger and it’s great to see country music
really getting a foothold over here in the UK.
CC: The genre is
definitely growing – would you say that you find more fans from the UK and
Europe listening to your music and wanting you touring over here?
DR: Oh absolutely. Just the shows we’ve played so far here
have been huge, just really big, you know, a lot more people than we thought
were going to show up! You can see how people are really gravitating towards
country music and enjoying it, loving it, and wanting to be a part of it.
CC: What do you think
are some of the reasons for country’s recent growth in popularity, particularly
this side of the pond?
DR: I think one of the reasons is that everyone has a
country song they can relate to, and that’s one thing that’s really helping –
country music’s so open and relatable, and people are loving that. Everyone’s
finding a song that they like, and then when the acts come over here, they want
to come out and see them. That’s what’s getting all my friends in country music
to come over here and play because so many people want to come out and see it,
and that’s a great thing.
CC: Absolutely! And
I’d say that one of the highlights for many country fans last year was the
release of the fantastic Forever Country track which you were featured on
alongside many other C2C alumni. What was it like being a part of that?
DR: That was amazing. To have been asked to do that with all
those big names in country music was amazing to me. I remember when the video
came out, I was just so moved to have been a part of it. To know that the
people who were putting it together wanted me to be a part of that was amazing.
It was a great song – Shane McAnally produced the hell out of that song, it was
so great; and seeing me up there on the screen with Little Big Town, Charlie
Pride, Willie, and Dolly Parton, and to know that I was going to be a part of
something like that was absolutely amazing.
CC: It must have been
quite the experience to work alongside some of the greats you mentioned there –
would you say there’s one artist in country who’s been an idol for you
throughout your career?
DR: You know for me, Kenny Rogers will always be the guy who
started it all for me back in the day. I’ve got to know Kenny over the years
and that’s been one of the cool parts of my career – over the last ten years,
I’ve got to meet everybody who was featured in the Forever Country video. When
you watch that video, it’s iconic, it’s just so many big names and people, so
many winners of Entertainer of the Year and all this great stuff. You watch it
and you go ‘wow, that’s true country music’.
CC: And alongside
Forever Country, you also released your own single If I Told You last summer – does this mean we can expect a new
Darius Rucker album sometime soon?
DR: Oh yeah, absolutely. The record will probably be out
hopefully in the fall. Really, really excited for people to hear it. I’ve
started working with a new producer, and I can’t wait to put it out. I’m so
excited.
CC: So are we! How
would you say the sound has changed from your last album to this upcoming one?
DR: You know, just working with a different producer makes
your sound change. I think this record’s going to be a little more upbeat – not
as many ballads as the past. I don’t know how to explain it, I just can’t wait
for people to hear it. It’s a brighter, newer sound for me, because we just
tried to go for something different, and Ross did a great job taking the songs
we had and making them as great as they can be.
CC: I think a lot of
people also love your music because of the content in each of your songs – is
this something that you’ve tried to pull through on the upcoming album too?
DR: Absolutely. There are a few songs on there that are
pretty autobiographical, but that’s just the way I write. So there’ll
definitely be deeper stuff, but there’s also a lot of fun stuff too, so that
kind of evens it out.
CC: The best of both
worlds then! And once you’ve got an idea for a song, what’s your creative
process for turning that into the final track?
DR: For me, I’ll just do a guitar / vocal demo and then I
let the producer do his job. That’s the way I like to make records. I’m not
really that guy who writes a song and knows exactly what it’s supposed to sound
like, I write a song and then I go ‘let’s talk about what I’m thinking, what
you’re thinking, and try and put it on paper’.
CC: So it’s very much
a continual process then.
DR: Absolutely, and it’s definitely a case of me and the
producer just sitting down and getting it done. A lot of the time it’s the band
that’s playing with us in there too, just sitting down and going ‘what do you
think?’ There was this one song I wrote called Amazing and we had no idea how to cut it until one of the bands
guys said ‘let’s cut it like this’ and I was like ‘wow!’ We went in and did it,
and it came out great.
CC: Is there one song
that you’d say has been the most interesting for you to write?
DR: Probably this song off my last record called So I Sang. It was fun writing that, just
really going back into my childhood to write songs that meant something to me.
That was very interesting writing that song.
CC: And when you
perform, do you think that there’s a difference in the way audiences in the US
and over here respond to your songs?
DR: Audiences to me are so similar. That’s one thing that I
really learnt at the first C2C – I was shocked when I hit the stage because I
was nervous as heck but then everyone stood up and started singing along and I
was like ‘wow, they know my songs!’ That’s what happens in the States too –
when they come and see you, they’re ready, they know your songs and they want
to sing along and dance, and it’s the same thing over here. You know, you hear
that UK audiences are a little more subdued, but I don’t see that. They’re just
as fun and crazy as American audiences.
CC: We hope so! It’s
funny that you said you got nervous when you came on stage at C2C because
obviously we don’t see that when you’re performing and selling out stadiums
like that.
DR: Yeah, but I mean I just remember I was playing before
Carrie Underwood and I was really nervous. I just didn’t know what was going to
happen, I’d never played in a place as big in the UK and I could come out there
and they’d not know any of my songs and just clap politely at the end, but it
wasn’t like that at all. Everyone just had a great time and partied. Once I got
in the middle of a song I was like ‘man, this is awesome’.
CC: I can certainly
say from having been there, you were a tough act to follow!
DR: Thank you!
CC: So I’m a fan of
your various social media channels and like the way that you always post your
Song of the Day – what inspired you to start doing that?
DR: Believe it or not, it was Connie Wilson from the band
Wilson Phillips. She did it, and I follow her. She’s got like a Song of the Day
and a Song of the Night and I thought ‘well that’s too much – but I can do a
Song of the Day!’ And it’s fun for me, cause every song I put up there is a
song I know, I know every word of, I know every nuance of, I’ve listened to the
song a million times. It’s really cool to me to put out to folks the songs I
listen to, because I listen to such an eclectic brand of music – everything
from rap to deep country to classical, I love it all! So I love sharing with
the fans the songs that mean a lot to me.
CC: It seems like a
great way to connect with the people who listen to your music and introduce
them to other music as well.
DR: Absolutely. We’ve even started a Spotify channel where I
put my songs on every day, and it’s one of those things where it’s so funny
because I’ll get people that Tweet back at me or they hit me up on Instagram,
and they download every song I put up. That’s pretty cool, that somebody’s
going to go and spend 99 cents to get the song cause I put it on there and they
want to have it, I think that’s pretty cool.
CC: Well, you
certainly seem to know your music! And in terms of country, is there one artist
who you think is really quite underrepresented and deserves more recognition?
DR: I think the one name that should be known by everyone is
Radney Foster. I think he should have been Entertainer of the Year cause for
me, he’s the reason I’m singing country music. He’s by far my biggest idol, his
first solo record Del Rio, TX 1959
changed the way I heard music, all music. It really blew my mind. So for me,
he’s got to be the one artist I think deserves a lot more recognition than he
gets.
CC: Well hopefully
with people like you listening to him and spreading the word, that will happen!
So as we draw the interview to a close, I have to ask, what’s one question that
you wish you were asked in interviews but never are?
DR: Oh my goodness, what a great question! Wow. What a great
question. I have never thought about that. I have no idea! That is a brilliant
question. I really don’t know.
CC: How about you
tell me what you get up to when you’re not touring or in the studio then?
DR: Well I’ll be honest with you, my only hobby is playing
golf. But my favourite thing in the world is being with my kids. I mean doing
everything – whether it’s sitting around, watching some bad television shows,
driving around, talking and laughing, or just sitting around playing cards or
whatever, my favourite thing in the world is to be with my kids.
CC: That’s a pretty
good answer! But I’ll leave you to think about what question you’d like to be
asked for the next time I interview you then!
DR: Absolutely, next time you interview me make sure to ask
me that question because I’m going to be thinking about that all day!
CC: Wonderful, I
really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions today, and look
forward to seeing you perform at C2C this weekend!
DR: Great talking to you!
A big thank you to
Darius for taking the time out of his busy schedule to talk to me – if you’d
like to see more interviews like this as well as brand new reviews, make sure
to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry; and check out my reviews of C2C on this blog!
No comments:
Post a Comment