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Ward Thomas

 I had the opportunity to catch up with Ward Thomas, to catch up about their Nashville trip, The BBC, live gigs and festivals and the release of their first full Album.

The last I saw you was at the special Brad Paisley concert at the BBC and you had just played at c2c and were about to head to the USA. That must seem a lifetime ago?

Oh My Gosh that seems so long ago……it was an amazing trip, we were there for nearly 3 months.

How was the USA trip?    I was following you on twitter & Facebook it seems liked you had a fab time?

We had an amazing time, we met loads of new people, wrote loads of new songs, but also got chance to be tourists.

We went to The Hall of fame, Johnny Cash Museum; we went down to Memphis and visited Graceland. We go to Muscle Sholes AL, we did radio and a gig there, it was magical

How cool was t hanging out with other artist and songwriters? I saw photos with Jessica Clemmons & Jeff Cohen and I believe you met up with The Shires…

If was great, we got to hang out with Jeff will be writing with him in the future.

When I spoke to The Shires, Ben said never to let you (Lizzie) drive

Oh that is so mean, I did a lot if the driving in American and I drove Ben around Nashville… I scared him…..!!

Are you going back out to Nashville?

Yes we are going back to Nashville; to write soon, but only for a few weeks. We are really focusing on England right now, so wont be back out there properly until next year.

You’ve been busy playing gigs and festivals how this summer been so far? Summer 2014 will no doubt go down in history for you, what has been your highlight?

Om My Gosh that is a hard question, we have played so many great gigs and its just getting better and better.

One of the highlights for me would be, we started off our tour in our local pub, and it was the most amazing thing, a whole load of strangers turned up and it was packed, we played a 2 hour set and everyone was singing back our songs, it was the most incredible feeling, that all these people knew our songs. It just started the tour off on the best note.

We’ve also played at lots of festivals Maverick Festival, Blissfield’s & Halsemere Festivals and they were really great, the crowds now know our songs.

It’s so amazing

The UK, especially the BBC has really championed you

We are so thankful

That’s been another highlight, the BBC have been so amazing, I think the highlight of this year was having a “Live in session with Terry Wogan”, he is the nicest man ever.

We also have a Session with Bob Harris soon, which we are very excited about.

The BBC has backed us and country music so much. We are so happy to see that happening for the UK public

SO the Album From Where We Stand is released on 21st July, I’ve luckily had a sneak peak and I absolutely love it, you must be so proud?

from_where_we_stand

We are so excited to see everything coming together. We actually got the album through in the post the other day and it was so weird opening up our own album, we are normally going out and buying other peoples albums.

Now we have our own one. It’s surreal

Tell me about album, why “From where we stand”?

One of our songs is called “From where I stand”, and the title it came from that.

We spent a lot of time trying to decide what to name the album.

“From where we stand” is saying what all the songs are about, because all the songs are about what we see and what our opinions are of things.

Did you write the songs?

We wrote all of the songs along with a couple of co writers, and we have also now written with a load of new people on Nashville and have come up with a few good songs that we are very excited about.. We just want to make another album now!

Do you enjoy the song writing process?

Its probably one of the things we enjoy the most, its very therapeutic, we love writing. You can right in any kind of situation, one of the songs we wrote in Nashville, we wrote in a car! We couldn’t find anywhere to write, so we drove around for 3 hours writing

You have recently released the video for Push for the stride. Where was that filmed?

It was filmed where we grew up, around the country roads and countryside in Hampshire.

It was so much fun to make, especially having the Cadillac. I remember us singing into the camera on the back of the car and it was so funny as we hadn’t done that type of thing before.

Do you find it hard to act?

Oh My Gosh, it was so hard; I personally (Lizzie) am not a natural actress! But Catherine & I find t quite hard to act; our brother is an actor so we were trying to ask him tips

On the narrative scenes where we have to act, the director kept telling me “Ok, can you calm it down a bit” because I was over acting a bit too much.

I loved the fact the video could have been shot anywhere, and only at the shot of the Red Phone box, did you know it was in the UK, I think it will translate really well

Yes that was the idea, we wanted to have the idea that it looks like we are in America at the beginning, with the Cadillac and the cowboy and then the shot of the phone box highlights that we are in England

Our music is American Country but the lyrics are all English so we wanted the video to portray that, so it has an English twist

 Have you had image styling?

Actually we had a few struggles with our image to start with, didn’t have a set image

But it is becoming much clearer now; one of us wears a hat! We have tried to find a happy medium between American and English.

We don’t want to look too country and we also want to have an English slant

What else do you have planned?

Currently on tour all over the country Click here for dates

We are with ITV weekend filming next week; we are very excited about that

We are so busy with promoting the album, TV and playing life, it is just so great

Have you had fun meeting all the other artist whilst on tour?

Oh yes, that is one of the best things about touring, you get to meet so many new people and get to see so many other artists play

It’s the best life for us

Its so inspirational watching other artists, see what you do similar and what you don’t. Especially other country artists of our age and generation, its great to see other people in England love country too of our age

You have a lot in common

Who would be your dream collaboration?

It would be Kacey Musgrave, we love what she does, and she is such a great writer.

Hopefully we are going to collaborate with The Shires, which would be a lot of fun

We have also been collaborating with Shaun Kennedy in Nashville

I wish you so much good luck with the Album (not that you need it) it is fabulous!

Thank you so much for your time, I hope you catch you at a gig soon.

 

 

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Annette Gibbons
Hi, I’m Annette, I have been a huge country music fan since the early 90s those were the days we were lucky enough to have CMT in the UK. I enjoy nothing more than listening to country music whilst having a cold beer (or a moonshine) with friends. I try to as many gigs as I can here in the UK and in the USA; I think of Nashville as my second home and I am lucky to have made some amazing friends in Tennessee. Think Country is something I am very proud of, I just want to share my love and passion of all things country music related with you all.
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