Interview: LADY ANTEBELLUM, C2C Country 2 Country 2019, London

Wonder what goes on behind the scenes at big festivals like C2C Country 2 Country? (You can read my review here) Well, wonder no more as I give you a sneak peek into the headliner press conference with Lady Antebellum - read on to hear their thoughts on playing for UK audiences, what they did before this whole music thing, and why taking some time off from each other was the best thing for the band. 

Q: It is so good to have you back here in the UK. The first time you came, you played at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire, and you’ve had success on the radio, especially with this new audience we did know who were out there – young people! It’s a relatively small venue but you kicked something off – C2C started, we’ve now got so many acts touring here, and you can take a lot of the credit.

Hillary Scott (HS): Thank you for saying that. That’s extremely humbling and we feel like we’re following in the footsteps of a lot of country artists who’ve gone before us and paved the way. It was just so important for us as a band to get over here. It was really encouraged by our management and our label, we had so much support from our label here that it’s just been such a beautiful relationship that we feel like we’ve been able to build.

Q: With all the music you have out now, you have too many songs to play live in one show. What do you miss playing live from previous albums that you don’t get to play anymore?

Charles Kelley (CK): Oh man. We’ve tweaked our setlist over here specifically because, even from the first show at Shepherd’s Bush, we found that the fans are so invested. They’re not passive fans, they’re very active. They know all the songs off the records. That’s one of the most refreshing things. When we came over here in the beginning, we didn’t have a tremendous amount of hits yet and it didn’t matter. They were singing all of the album tracks. We tried to dig in and pull up some songs we haven’t played in a long time. We’re doing When You Got A Good Thing. We haven’t played Hello World in a while and we’re pulling that back out. We say all the time, it’s a very musically artistic listener over here, and we appreciate that.

Dave Haywood (DH): We were talking about putting the setlist together, and when we come here we feel we have the freedom to play those songs from previous records, we’re trying out some new ones too. It’s fun for us. We’ve just cut six songs in the studio back in Nashville. Thanks to you guys and the fans for giving us the freedom to do what we love.

Q: I’m sure at this point you must have had hundreds of press conferences and interviews, but is there one question you’ve never been asked in an interview but would love to be?

HS: Ooh, that question! That’s a really good question.

CK: It’s always ‘what’s your favourite band?’ so maybe ‘what’s your least favourite band?’

Q: How about something nobody knows about you three?

CK: In this social media world, we share everything.

HS: I feel like this might be on social media already, but I’d love for everyone to know what your first job was out of college.

DH: I was an accountant. I’m not super proud of that one.

CK: I’m not very proud that I’m 6 foot 6 and I can’t dunk a basketball. I don’t think people stop me anymore because I’m that guy from Lady Antebellum, they stop me and say ‘you’re so tall! Are you a famous basketball player?’ And I’m like ‘No, I can’t jump’.

HS: I was an American Football manager in High School, all four years. I was a water girl. Not a lot of people know that.

Q: You did a Radiohead song at Shepherd’s Bush Empire, did you not?

CK: Oh yeah, High And Dry.

Q: Could you tell us about the school you were going to play at where a tornado took the school out. I think you helped put it back together again.

HS: I lived through a tornado that hit in 1998 in Nashville – it did a lot of damage in my neighbourhood, so it’s something that we always try and give back with our platform. We saw that this really terrible tornado ripped through this town in Henryville and destroyed this high school and it was going to mean they weren’t going to be able to have their Prom. We decided to come play a show there in the arena closest to that town and throw them a Prom. They all got dressed up in their dresses and tuxedos, we had a DJ, and we showed up and played a couple of songs. We wanted to make sure that they didn’t not have that memory made for them because it’s such an important part of high school.

Q: On the last album, it felt like you were really exploring your sound and pushing yourself. With the new material, can we expect more surprises and boundary pushing?

CK: I can safely say that with this we’re getting back to more of the sound of the first record. That’s a natural thing, it tugs and pushes. The type of material we’ve been writing is a little deeper. We’ve been going through so many changes with our families growing, and even as a band. I know specifically myself, I’ve been really getting back in touch with my spirituality which was kind of being pushed aside for a while, so there’s some songs about that and my search and journey. It’s definitely a bit deeper and warmer than the last record.

HS: Pushing lyrical boundaries.

CK: Trying to be more honest.

HS: And vulnerable.

Q: Will you be putting out a single first before the whole album?

CK: We’re probably going to let out a single while we finish up the record. We’re going to try out some stuff tonight on you guys, and if the reaction’s bad, maybe we’ll can it.

Q: Hillary, you’re such an inspiration for women in the industry and in general. What’s it like to be such an icon?

HS: Well, that’s extremely humbling, thank you. I have to say, before I was a mum, I have an 18 year old sister; I tried to really live my life in a way that would make her proud, and now that’s amplified times three with daughters at home. I’ve been so blessed with great, great women in my life who have inspired and taught me, my mum being the main one. If I can just walk and exude half of the amount of kindness that comes from her on a daily basis, I know I’m doing something right. I try to really learn from others and I think that’s the best thing we can do as women, is support each other, learn from each other, and be mindful of one another.

Q: You made the move to Big Machine recently, so tell us about that, and please tell me Hello World is in the setlist tonight.

CK: It is in the setlist.

DH: We had a point where we worked early in our career with a guy named Jimmy Hardin, and it was a bit of a reunion for that reason. We were out there searching for a home that will continue to push us. Internally, what we do remains the same in terms of how we write and record and make our music, but I’m excited. It feels like a fresh new start for us. We have freedom here to play a lot of stuff, we’ve got a lot of freedom from the label to write what we want to write and cut what we want to write. We’re thrilled to be with Big Machine.

CK: It definitely is fresh energy and perspective too. We sat down and said ‘what are your impressions of us, and where we have gone wrong or could do better,’ because we’ve always tried to focus on the music, and they were really supportive and encouraging for us to really get in there and take our time, and be a little more honest with this music. It felt refreshing to hear that. I do think if you’re honest as an artist, after early success, there does tend to sink in a little bit this fear of losing it, and you start to lose a little bit of what you got into it for. I can say that this is the most confident the past two-three years that we’ve been as a band in a long time, and it comes from being settled in your life and knowing that if you fail, it’s not the end of the world.

HS: We’ve said it so much. We’ve felt all along our musical journey that we’ve been extremely authentic and sticking to who we are, but we’ve also lived a lot of life in the twelve years we’ve been a band. It’s getting real real on this record!

Q: In the past you’ve taken some time away from each other to do solo projects but you always come back together. How important is that time to explore on your own – how crucial is it to the success of the band?

CK: One of the main reasons we took some time off is because we were just together the whole time for a good nine years, I think we just naturally needed to get off the hamster wheel for a bit. I can say it made me appreciate how much I need this band. There were so many times I was on stage by myself and thinking not having Dave or Hillary here to do this part felt that it wasn’t the same calibre of a project, but it was fun to do. It pushed myself and honestly there were some songs on the solo project that were really more honest and made me say ‘when I come back in with this group and we start writing for these next records, I want to bring a little of that in’. Hillary had the same with her faith based record, there are a couple of songs on this record that are just so moving in a spiritual way that I feel she brought in from that.

HS: We started out as a creative writing team of songwriters, and quickly became a band and started playing shows and have never looked back. We’re songwriters and artists first, and we’ve always said if there’s ever anything the three of us want to pursue individually, we give the blessing because it’s one of those things where you’re going to come back a better version of yourselves, so it’s more important for us longterm to be true to who we are for ourselves and for each other. And we did, we came back so appreciative and grateful for the career that we’ve been able to build and the fans, and a deeper sense of gratitude that I think we would have ever had before.

Q: You’re one of the bands that have really transcended into pop, and I wondered what the word country music means to you today.

HS: For me personally, country music is stories – real stories that are sung and performed in a particular way. For me, growing up, the best example I have is Keith Urban and his song You’ll Think Of Me – I remember sitting in my room listening to that song over and over and over. I had the biggest crush on this guy who didn’t like me back, and it just expressed how I felt in a much better way than I ever could have expressed it in my own words. That’s what country music is. It’s songs, whether they’re about having a good time with your friends or your deepest most longing heartbreak, they express how you feel when you can’t.

Q: Is there anything you’re particularly excited about that you get from British audiences that you don’t experience in the US or anywhere else?

DH: It’s so much fun being here. I feel like you have the fans in the palm of your hand. In the States, sometimes we’re fighting to keep their attention and engagement, but I feel here we can go on a journey, walk through a five minute song like Hello World and have people go along with you. When people talk about where’s your favourite place in the world, we talk about London, Sydney, LA – this is top one or two places that we get to play. It’s a real honour to play here, and for that reason we feel like we can do what we want to do, and the fans go along with you on that journey. It’s so much fun to be here – this is probably our third or fourth time playing here and it’s my favourite in the world. 

I hope you enjoyed reading the Lady Antebellum press conference! What was your favourite question asked? Drop me a message in the comments below and make sure to follow me on Twitter @CiarasCountry for more interviews and reviews coming soon - thanks for reading!