Matt Bjorke: What can you tell me about the concept for the “That Girl” video?
Kevin Fowler: It’s cool because it follows the idea of the song, no matter how old she gets, she’s still the girl you fell in love with. And it’s really neat because the main actors are young, middle aged and elderly. It’s really cool concept that the director put together. I’m excited because it’s very “Artsy” for me because most of my videos are beer drinkin’ “woo-hoo” and live shots so to get to do this is cool.
MB: How has it been working with the new record label, Average Joes Entertainment?
KF: It’s been great! It’s really hard to work with a record label that knows what to do with a goofy ass redneck from Amarillo, Texas. (laughs). Because, I don’t fit in at a lot of record labels, my way of making music. My fan base is grassroots. It’s a huge fan base but it’s all built by touring and online.
MB: Like the old days except the online part…
KF: Yeah, we do get some radio regionally, but it’s really been different than a Top 40 country radio artist, it’s not all about press, radio and TV, it’s about the one on one and the touring. So it took a while to find a label that knew what to do with me. And that’s what they specialize in with artists there like me, Corey Smith, Colt Ford…
MB: Yeah, it seems to be their stock and trade, to sign artists that have established themselves…
KF: Another thing I like about Average Joes is that every artist there is self-supporting. There are no financial drains on the label. I’ve been in several label deals and the label folds because they’re out of business with no money because they’re trying to build many new acts, etc. There aren’t a lot of acts in the red there because everyone there is successful and self-sustained already, before signing with the label.
MB: So it helps the label because they don’t have to market you as a new artist?
KF: Yeah, the artists aren’t looking for them to build their career, everyone already has a fanbase. Everybody there knows how to entertain, which I like. To me the trick to being a musician and making a living at it is that you have to be a great entertainer. If you can’t put on a great show and put asses in seats every night, you’re kinda worthless to me, in this industry. Everybody at that label knows how to turn it on live and or have great tour bases and are self supporting.
MB: And Colt and Corey have the kind audience, and I’m sure you do too, where the audience is singing back every word of your songs back at you during the shows.
KF: Yep. It’s cool man. The rout we’ve all taken is the long hard road but it’s been proven to be the better road.
MB: Probably less stressful too…
KF: It can be a lot more work because you gotta make a fan one handshake at a time.
MB: The original and still the best form of ‘social media.’ What can you tell me about the new record?
KF: Man, I’m really proud of it. It’s been three and a half years in the making. Since the last record came out, I’ve been on three record labels. I was killin’ record labels left and right for a while…
MB: Yeah, and you had a Top 40 single (“Pound Sign”) on the charts at the time and the last label…
KF: Who would’ve thought the Disney label would’ve went away. That was crazy… That’s why we went there, because it was stable. The byproduct of all those record label woes over the last four years is that it really gave me time to write a lot. Normally, we go in with 12 songs and cut it and say “Give it to me on Tuesday, see ya!” But this one we went in with over 40 songs and whittled it down and really made it about the songs.
David Lee Murphy also produced 8 tracks with me and if anyone knows a hit song, it’s David Lee. He was really good at pushing us to get the better song, better song, better song, and admitting when you wrote a bad song. And sometimes when you write a song, you get attached to them. They’re like your kids. And sometimes you gotta admit that one of your kids isn’t very good (laughs). And he said “you might wanna go back and write something else for this slot.” We made it about the songs and I think it shows. The production is great and my drummer Ken Tantra produced the other four tracks.
MB: Your last single (“Hell Yeah, I Like Beer”) did pretty well in Texas…
KF: we’ve had four or five #1’s in a row in Texas and right now our goal is to build what we have built in Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico, Kansas, or main region, to spread the the virus as they say. Spread the cold, spread the word of the honky tonks.
MB: There are country people everywhere…
KF: (smiles) There are rednecks everywhere! We played York, PA last year and I saw them everywhere. We were calling it “Pensatucky!.”
MB: Yeah! In the Seattle area, in the same damn county, there’s a town called Enumclaw that’s so country. It’s very farm like, like Tennessee…
KF: Is Seattle where you’re from?
MB: Yeah, well I was born there and my family’s still there but I also grew up in the upstate NY region, which is very country too.
KF: Yeah, it’s a lot like here (rural Tennessee).
MB: IF you could describe country music in one word, what would it be and why?
KF: Man, “Life.” I think it’s the story of my life. I grew up on Hee Haw and Merle Haggard and country AM radio with my dad. I have no problem writing about country themes because it’s still all around me, everyday life. Country music to me is my way of life, it is what I am. If I’m not on a bus, I’m out on a tractor shreddin’ or I’m deer huntin’ or I’m fishin’ or writing songs. I don’t try to write about songs about things I don’t know.
MB: Which, to me, is never that authentic anyway…
KF: So many other genres it’s not about the lyrics anyway. When you hear a country song and listen to the lyrics, you know what the song is about. You know some of those rock songs, you hear it and you think “What the hell is he talking about?”
MB: Yeah, some abstract concept…
KF: I told someone the other thay, “I’m so shallow you could wade through my soul and not get your ankles wet.” I’m just not that deep of a person. It’s gotta be really literal to me or my ADD kicks in like “You lost me at the bridge…”
0 Comments