LOCASH Talk "I Love This Life", Songwriting & Their Tour with Eli Young Band
- LOCASH Interview with Taylor Ostrick
- Nov 6, 2015
- 8 min read
You're currently on tour with Eli Young Band, How has that been going for you guys this far along?
Well we played NYC with them the other day, and it was a packed house. They have a great show and Eli Young has a bunch of hits on the radio too so it’s been really fun for us to get up on stage and warm up the crowd for that kind of an audience because, you know they have such a great following, it’s a built in fanbase and we are just honored to be a part of it with them.
Is there any city in particular that is your favorite to play in?
You know not particularly, we try to bring the energy to the live show everywhere we go. We have a brand new single “I Love This Life,” sitting at #15 on the charts right now, and because of that the crowd is starting to learn all the words, and starting to help sing it back to us. Any time you go on stage and the crowd knows your words and you don’t even have to sing the song, that’s a really cool feeling for an artist. So I think that everywhere we go right now is going to be a really fun night for us.
Definitely, “I Love This Life” has really blown up for you guys. It seems like a lot of fans have really connected with it. What went into the writing of this song, and did you ever think that it had a chance to get as big as it is today?
We were sitting around one day with the guys who we co-wrote the song with, Danny Myrick and Chris Janson. The four of us were sitting around and we just got to talking about how everything on the news is kind of negative right now. There is always bad stuff on the news that is depressing and kind of brings you down. We know the news stations have to cover that stuff and keep us all up to date. But we were like why don’t we write something that is like three minutes of feel-good, and back to the basics of the things that we love in our lives. Sometimes you take those things for granted, so we were like lets sing about all of those things, and call the song “I Love This Life,” and get to feeling good again. We are song writers so we heard that Garth Brooks was recording a new album soon, so everyone in town was trying to write a Garth Brooks song and so here we are trying to write a song for Garth Brooks, and we had no idea we were writing our very own first single on Reviver Records. So we kept the song for ourselves and it turned out great and that has been a great decision for us.
You guys used to be the LOCASH Cowboys, but you recently dropped Cowboys from your name. Why did you decide to drop cowboys off your band name?
Nothing big. We were sitting around on the bus one day, and we had just gotten a new record deal with Reviver Records and we had a new energy, a new record deal, a new single was coming out to radio, we had a new image. We just had a new feeling again. We felt refreshed. So we thought that maybe we should come up with a new logo. We hadn't even thought about dropping the "Cowboy" part of our name. But I was sitting around drawing. I'm kind of a, I wouldn't say an artist, but I was doodling a little bit, you know on a napkin. I was trying to come up with something kind of reminiscent of the rock-and-roll days. Kind of like ACDC has their little logo, and it's badass, and it's forever, and you just know it when you see it. Or like ZZ Top too actually. So we just something that felt like that. I started sketching and doodling around and came up with this LOCASH logo and I hadn't even put "Cowboys" on it yet when Chris saw it. and he said 'Dude, I love it just like that. Leave it just like that!' and I was like 'Are you sure? I haven't even put Cowboys on it yet,' and he said 'Nah it looks cool just like that.' And so we turned it in and boom, the rest was history. We dropped Cowboys and we rolled with it.
You recently released your EP, I Love This Life on October 30th, 2015. What has been your fans response to this new EP?
It's been incredible. I think any time an artist puts out new music like this there is a little bit of anxiety. You are a little nervous, because you know, these are like your little kids. You are nurturing these little baby songs and trying to make them grow into something. Then you take them to the studio and you try to develop them into something that the listeners are going to love and relate to, but you never know. And it take months and months, sometimes even years to put all these songs together. So here we are about to release the songs and we were a little anxious to see the response, but the response has been amazing. We are getting rave reviews. Everyone has kind of picked a different song to be their favorite song and I love that. Our record label would probably love to hear that. That everybody loves one song in particular so that they can pick the next single. I think it's great that everybody is gravitating towards different songs on the six song EP. It shows that we have hit a couple different chords here.
You mentioned at a show that “Shipwrecked” which is just an incredible song, was going to be the next single for you guys. Is that still the case and if so what went into that decision.
Well I don't know if it is going to be the next single, but I can guarantee that it will be a single at some point. There are a lot of strategies that go into picking singles. Timing, like you definitely don't want to pick a summer song when it's winter time, and you don't want to pick a slow song for the summer time. There is all kinds of things that go into these record labels decisions, but as far as I'm concerned, I wanted every song on this EP to be solid, so that no matter what song we picked at what time of the year, that we could stand behind it and say it is a really solid song for a single, and we're proud of it.
As songwriters, you’ve celebrated a pair of hit singles with “You Gonna Fly” (by Keith Urban), which topped the charts, and the Top 10 “Truck Yeah” (by Tim McGraw), among others for artists like Joe Nichols, Parmalee and Scotty McCreery. How does that make you feel to know songs you have written are being heard by thousands of country fans and are becoming super successful?
I'll tell you what, it never gets old. Every time I hear those songs come on the radio that we wrote for Keith Urban, Tim McGraw and these other guys, I kind of have to pinch myself. I have to remind myself that we really wrote these songs. It's just surreal. Last night we were at the CMA Awards, and we ran into Keith Urban, and he was high-fiving us, and congratulation us on our success now. That feels really good because, you know, we've stood up there and gotten the #1 award with him before, so to have this kind of success happening for us now, I think everybody's kind of cheering for us and it feels good to have the support of the industry behind LOCASH.
It definitely seems like in country music, there is a family environment between the artists with everyone supporting each other. Is that something that you have experienced?
Yes, that's really one of my favorite things about country music in this industry, because we've all got each other's backs and we're all out there touring together a lot. And country music fans, they are the most loyal fans in the world, the best fans in the world. I love them so much because it hasn't always been an easy road for Chris and I. We've been in Nashville for ten years writing songs for other people and trying to get our career as artists off the ground. But our fanbase has stuck by us through all these years, and so this moment with "I Love This Life" is just as much theirs as it is ours.
The current country station for Sirius XM called The Highway is becoming known for really supporting new and up-and-coming artists, and really helping to get their music out there to fans. I know I was hearing "ILTL" being spun over there for a long time before it started really picking up on the terrestrial stations. Can you talk a bit about the support LOCASH has gotten from this station?
There support has been amazing for us. It definitely helped to kickstart this song. They have these things called "Highway Finds." They take artists who may or may not have record deals, or who are new to town, or are just undiscovered talents and make their songs "Highway Finds," and get the songs out to the public and let them become part of it. I think that is amazing. It kind of goes back to the days when I was little, and I would be listening to the radio station back in my hometown and they would play a new song a lot of people had never heard before and tell the listeners to call in and tell them if they liked it or not. I love that idea of having the listeners be a part of everything. As far as we go, it changed our lives. "ILTL" hit #1 on The Highway, and that was the first #1 we had ever had as artists, so what a great day that was. We just thank them for their support and we can't wait to see those guys again. Hopefully they will love our next single just as much.
Do you enjoy writing for other artists or for yourselves more?
You know when I was standing up there getting that #1 award with Keith Urban, that was a real good feeling. I was like 'man this feels great,' but I'll tell you what. Having a song like "ILTL" where we are kind of getting the best of both worlds right now, because we not only wrote this song, but we are also singing it. So I would have to say this is the best feeling in the world. But if Keith or Tim call tomorrow asking for a song I'm definitely going to give it to them!
LOCASH signed with Reviver Music Records in 2014 and since then both you and the label have seen a lot of success, so it seems like the relationship has been mutually beneficial. How has working with Reviver been for you guys?
Definitely. When they came along "ILTL" was actually on hold for somebody else to record. When they offered us a record deal they wanted us to get that song back and make it our first single. They knew something was brewing with that song right then and there. When their CEO sat down with Chris and I he told us we hadn't gotten a fair shot at radio, but he was going to give us one. That was what we needed to hear. He told us that he would fight for us like nobody has every fought for us before and give us that shot that we had always dreamed of and he felt like we had earned. We really believed in him. It felt like it was coming from his heart. And it's happened. Here we are at #15 on Billboard. He kept his word and it's changed our lives. It's been amazing.
What can fans expect from LOCASH in the near future and is there anything specific that you would like to tell them?
Just first of all, thank you to all the fans. I know it sounds cliche, but there wouldn't be us without them and that is the truth. We appreciate them calling radio and coming to our shows and downloading the material and being so supportive of LOCASH over the years and standing by us through all of this. As for what to expect, we are working on the back half of our full-length album now, the other five or six songs that will be on it. So that is in the immediate future. We are really focused on writing and picking the best songs for the back half of the album. Also taking "ILTL" as high as we can.
