Earlier this year Roughstock's Matt Bjorke met with new Carolwood Records artists Love and Theft. Named after a Bob Dylan album the vocal harmony trio discussed how they met, their upcoming album and what fans mean to them in this brief interview.
Matt: How did you guys meet?
Stephen Barker Liles: We all moved here about for to four-and-a-half years ago and we’re from different places; Brian’s from Austin, Eric’s from Charlotte and I’m from Palm Harbor, Florida and we all met here in Nashville through different people and found out that the town kind of shrinks, when you start doing music. So we started to work together and hit it off immediately. We all have similar backgrounds and grew up singing harmonies in church.
Eric Gunderson: We became best friends…
Matt: Like a family?
Eric: Yeah, definitely, especially now as we’ve done so much together.
Matt: When did you know there was something special?
Brian Bandas: Yeah, there actually is a specific moment. We were writing together and singing together in no official capacity with no clearly defined goal yet. We had this song, which will be the last track on our album, it’s called “Drowning” and Eric had a studio in the upstairs of his house, his attic, and so we demoed the song and we put the harmonies on the chorus and Stephen put the high harmonies on it, and as we listened to the playback and we were like “whoa” and got goose bumps and kinda realized at that moment that we realized we needed to follow where this would go.
Matt: How did you hook up with this label?
Eric: The guy who produced our record, (songwriter) Robert Ellis Orrall (co-produced with Jeff Coplan) set up a thing where we came in and played the conference room of ASCAP, where we’re all writers, and after playing 4 songs, Crickie Williams called up Doug Howard at Lyric Street and said you need to hear this guy or they’ll be gone. They did that for 3 other labels too and when we showed up and played at Lyric Street, Doug Howard asked “how many labels did you play for?” and we said three and he said “I can’t believe that you made it to us.”
Matt: Kind of like a free agent for a sports team?
Brian: exactly. Doug said “Don’t play for any other labels.”
Eric: The reason we immediately loved them back was the fact that everybody else was so close to the vest and poker faced, even if they liked you they didn’t show it. So, it was nice to have this label with us.
Brian: It was cool that they got on board and they didn’t ask us to change anything. We feel very lucky to be with not just a label but Lyric Street and Carolwood, genuinely some of the best people in the business.
Matt: So you guys opened for Taylor last year and of course Stephen, you’re the “Hey Stephen” guy in Taylor’s song…
Brian: That’s him…
Matt: I won’t ask about that but I did want to know what was it like to tour with Taylor, particularly when nobody really knew who you were yet?
Eric: we thought that might create a little, well not a problem, but maybe surprise some people. We were received so well by her friends and they were so amazing and they, the fans, treated us so well. We would sign autographs for four hours after the show, sometimes the line would wrap around the whole arena.
Matt: She’s really good about stuff like that…
Eric: yeah, she was like “if you want to connect with your fans, you have to meet them,” so we took the lead from her.
Stephen: We actually walked out into the lobby one time, in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and as soon as we walked out the doors, we got mobbed by one or two hundred people. We were like, ‘holy crap!’ We couldn’t believe it. Those were the moments when we realize we’re doing the right thing. There were moments when parents and grandparents would bring the kids up to our merch table because they liked our music and the kids liked it too it was really special and exciting for us because we always wanted to make music that was universal.
Matt: So what can fans expect to hear on “World Wide Open?”
Stephen: A lot of harmony. It’s very eclectic. There are love songs, lively songs, songs about running away. There is a duet on there.
Eric: The thing we like about the album the best is that it wasn’t built around a few singles. It’s not just a couple all-star songs and filler material. We made the record to listen through all the way, eleven tracks through. We really feel like that there’s no secondary material off of it.
Matt: What can you tell people about the single “Runaway?”
Stephen: Well, we all picked up and left our home towns to be musicians and artists here and Nashville so we feel like that song is about the breaking point where you really pack-up and say goodbye to everything you know to pursue that change or that dream or just to do something different.
Eric: It’s about stepping up and rising to the occasion about doing what you’re supposed to be doing with your life. Sadly, many people are afraid to rise to the occasion and do.
Brian: It’s so special to be doing what we get to do, and it’s not about fame. It’s so great to get to be doing something you care about doing.
Matt: What would you like to say to fans who may not know that much about you?
Stephen: Give us a chance…(laughs)
Eric: We love them and we hope that they share it with as many people as we can. Thanks for listening and spread it around, if you can.
Brian: We’re not too proud to say that we need the fans and it’s all about the fans and them being excited about us and our music.
Matt: How has the internet helped you, particularly as a young or ‘unknown’ band?
Brian: It’s been huge…
Matt: Because Taylor’s fans are dialed in…
Eric: She has fans on her site all the time and after the shows with her, we saw incredible spikes in viewers and fans on our site, which is pretty insane.
Stephen: It’s really the wave of the future and it’s where things are at. It’s cool for us to be able to see them and leaving messages with us.
Love and Theft also talked with Roughstock while in the middle of producing a song for Katie Armiger. they wrote it with her and a GAC constest winner. Click here to read.
Check out our review of Love and Theft's debut album by clicking here.
You can purchase Love and Theft's debut album "World Wide Open" at iTunes | Amazon.
You can buy Love and Theft's live EP at iTunes by clicking here.
Read the lyrics and chords to Love and Theft's "Runaway" by clicking here.
Check out other Love and Theft content by clicking here.
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