UCN Interview: LoCash Cowboys – “If you’re going to be cliché, why not be original?”

12 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on UCN Interview: LoCash Cowboys – “If you’re going to be cliché, why not be original?”

One of the greatest things about running UCN has been the people it has brought into my life whom I otherwise would never have met. And really cool have been the people who have taken me by surprise. Perhaps none have done this more than Chris Lucas and Preston Brust of LoCash Cowboys. If you had told me a few years ago that I would one day be one of their big defenders, I think I would have laughed. If you know me, and you know their debut single, ‘Here Comes Summer,’ you know it’s everything I love to deride. I just don’t think it’s that good of a song. For the record, yes, I still think that, and yes, Chris and Preston know this. Honesty has been a pretty big deal. But later I learned they had continued to write with and learn from Jeffrey Steele, and I started finding their names among the writing credits for some great songs. I love it when people surprise me!

I got a further surprise when I first saw their live show. If you have seen it, you know exactly what I mean. (If you haven’t, just go, and you can tell me later what a good time you had.) The first interview we did is still one of my favorites (find it here). I set out to discover who they are as songwriters, only to find that who they are as writers, is also who they are as people: real, honest, patient, creative, smart, generous and kind. It would have been so easy to dismiss LoCash Cowboys based on first impression, but now I am so glad I didn’t leave it there, and that I got over myself enough to give them a real chance. When I realize I am wrong, I will say so, and I am glad I was wrong about them! If anyone reading this also has doubts, I highly recommend sticking around until you hear the newer songs. They range from ‘good’ to ‘fantastic’ to ‘I-feel-privileged-listening-to-this-because-this-is-so-stunningly-beautiful.’ Give them a chance to surprise and impress you too. Over the last year, I have developed deep respect for Chris and Preston, and I very much look forward to, what is sure to be, their continuing success this year. Their fan community is absolutely amazing and I wish nothing but good things, not just for the guys themselves, but also for the people who have been supporting them for years.

We all met up again at CRS 2012 and obviously the first thing that needed to happen was a big congratulatory hug for the #1 success of Keith Urban‘s ‘You Gonna Fly,’ which reached the top of the charts just the day before. Several hugs, congratulations and thank-yous later, we found a quiet interview room, and, because we can’t seem to help it, it turned into a follow-up songwriting interview. I switched on the voice recorder and what follows is almost every word we spoke.

UCN: OK, we’re rolling.
Preston Brust: All right, we’re rolling…

UCN: Yeah, so anything you say can and will be used against you… *smiles*
PB: Oh, good! *smiles*

UCN: So, a #1 song…
Chris Lucas: Unbelievable.

UCN: Can you even describe what it’s like?
PB: It’s surreal. I don’t even know if it’s really hit me quite yet because, you know, I realize that I’ve worked for it my whole life. I know Chris has, I know Jaren [Johnston] has. For it to actually happen, it’s one of those dreams. You can actually tell people: ‘It really does come true with hard work and perseverance. Stay creative, continue to follow your dreams and there’s a chance that you’ll achieve it.’ And man, we’re living proof. I mean, Keith Urban?!

UCN: I know! *laughs*
PB: I mean, really? *laughs* It’s just like…wow!

UCN: It’s just so cool, I love it! I remember last year telling you guys that I hoped they’d single that song.
CL: Right!

UCN: For me, it’s genuinely the best written track on [Get Closer]. I just love the guy in the song. Can you tell me when you wrote it, did you have a specific view for that character?
CL: I think all three of us thought of ourselves as that character; being that character and how we were going to talk to this girl. I know I’ve been in that situation, Preston’s been in that situation and I’m sure Jaren has too, where you want to tell the girl ‘I know you’ve been hurt, I know you’ve been through the ups and downs.’ It was just what would you say personally to this girl to make her say ‘hey, come on, let’s do this,’ in a fun way, in a romantic way, in a poor boy romance kind of thing, and you say ‘hey, if you do this, you’re gonna fly!’
PB: Well, how do you tell someone who’s had their heart broken a lot probably… – At this point, she’s got a broken wing, she’s kind of hiding from the world. Well, she’s jaded, she’s hurt and she doesn’t trust just anybody. For you to come along and be different from all the other guys, you’re gonna have to come with a personality that says *snaps his fingers* ‘We’re gonna get you flying again, and we’re gonna get you believing in this love and in me, in us, in you.’ That was the spirit, from my perspective in the writers room. It was just being reassuring to her that there’s no doubt we see what someone else didn’t see. It’s like that old cliché phrase of ‘one man’s trash is another man’s treasure’…
CL: But not to get confused with the girl being trash… *smiles*
PB: Well, no. *smiles* But he basically has broken her heart and left her on the side. But we see someone of greater worth with her heart and her feelings.
CL: One of my favorite lines we did was ‘It’s been a while since I’ve seen that smile.’ It’s happened. I had this picture in my head where this girl’s smiling and I know she was crying three months ago. And it’s about time, I’m gonna make that smile come true, I’m gonna make her keep going.

UCN: My favorite line is ‘baby, look at you now,’ because it says so much in five words. The reason I like the guy in the song is because he’s encouraging. He’s not saying ‘because of me it’s going to be great’ but it’s more ‘I’m going to encourage you to make everything be great.’
CL: And it’s not like we’re repairing that wing with fancy cars and diamond rings. We’re repairing it with Duck Tape.

UCN: Exactly… *laughs* I love that!
CL: It’s that thing where you say ‘I’m going to help you, all you need is a little push.’

UCN: Well, that’s what I think makes the song stand out from the ‘Hallmark card songs’, as I tend to call them. And now it’s #1… *smiles* I just love that!
CL: Thanks!

UCN: I just love that it’s #1… I love the song, and I love that it got there.
CL: I like that Keith Urban picked it up, and made it #1.

UCN: That probably helped, yeah… *laughs*
CL: It helps a lot. *smiles*

UCN: Well, he probably hooked into the same thing we’ve been talking about.
PB: Well, it’s a poor boy romance and it’s just one of the old school ones. You can never go wrong if you’re just being honest with the girl, and just saying ‘I really see something special in you.’
CL: And it had that rock-country vibe, and who better to do it? I mean, seriously, he’s got that. He’s a slayer. He’s a rock slayer singing country music.

UCN: Oh yeah, he’s a rock star!
CL: He really is.

UCN: OK, moving on to your stuff – the new album, it’s been a slow build up. Was that on purpose?
CL: It’s 24 years now, we’re still trying to get it out…
PB: I like how you say ‘on purpose’. Yeah, it was on purpose. I like that. *smiles*

UCN: Well, sometimes it is. But then again, one of my friends has been trying to get a record out since October and it’s just politics.
CL: It is very political. It’s just waiting on the runway for your turn. We went through a label change from Stroudavarious to R&J Records now, and we’re sitting on it. They’re promising us this summer the album will be out. We’ve got a single coming out in May called ‘C.O.U.N.T.R.Y’. It’s not a deep song or anything like that. It’s a song me, Preston and Jeff wrote while we were drinking Maker’s Mark one night, you know. We just had fun with it.
PB: But you know, hopefully after having a #1 with Keith and building a little bit more credibility as songwriters, hopefully radio and the folks out there are going to hear ‘C.O.U.N.T.R.Y’ and say ‘you know, this is just the fun side, they’re just having a good time here.’ We didn’t think a lot about it, we just locked ourselves in room, like Chris says, with a few drinks and…
CL: Did something way out of the ordinary.
PB: Yes, we agreed that we weren’t going to think much and we were just going to have fun. So it’s like Chris says ‘Yes, Sir’ and I say ‘Yes, Ma’am,’ and then Steeley says ‘Sweet Home Alabama’, and we all looked at each other and said ‘hot damn!’ And it’s like, here we go, and we’re just having fun. *smiles* Sometimes, you know, we get caught up in so many songs, and trying to get the lyric just right, and trying to get the sentiment and the feeling just right, and then this particular night we were just like ‘No rules. Let’s just have fun.’ *smiles*
CL: It’s one of the biggest songs we do at our show. I mean, the serious redneck dudes out there, they love it! I mean, it talks about hunting , it talks about them driving a big pick-up truck, you know what I mean?

UCN: It does tick all the boxes in that sense, yes.
CL: And that’s what the song is meant to be, you know. It’s not like ‘what were they thinking?!’ Well, we just told you what we were thinking. *laughs* We just wanted to have fun. We wanted people to relax, especially with all the crap that’s going on right now in the world. We wanted a song that made people go ‘you know what, forget about everything.’ Just crank it up, make the subs bounce, you know what I mean? So, that’s what we did.

UCN: Well, for me, I’m not quite on a mission, but it’s getting there, about the songs that on purpose hit all the clichés…
CL: Right. That’s exactly what we wanted!
PB: We have a line in there that says ‘Camo, ammo, 12-point buck, *tsch-tschk*bang, *tsch-tschk* bang.’ Obviously, we’re just having a good time. *smiles*
CL: Yeah, and we’re looking at that and Jeff’s like “I love it!” And we’re like “OK, he loves it, that’s all I need to hear!” *laughs*

UCN: If Steele says it’s good enough, it’s good enough! *smiles* But, to me, there’s the difference. I mean, it’s not going to be my favorite song on the record…
CL: Sure.
PB: Oh, exactly.

UCN: But I also don’t mind it, it’s perfectly fine. And I’ve seen you play it live and it was great fun. Regular UCN readers know I occasionally go on tangents about those kind of songs – well, there’s really two ‘on purposes’; there’s what you guys did, where you say we want to have fun and you’re using the clichés almost ironically, and then there’s those who use them seriously. And that, I just can’t…
CL: Right. Yeah. You can’t.
PB: That’s cringeworthy. And you know, when people hear ‘C.O.U.N.T.R.Y’, I mean, some people might still dismiss it, but we seriously take what we’re saying and twist it every direction and make sure that we’re not saying it like someone else has said it before. Every single time.
CL: Yeah, if you’re gonna be cliché, why not be original, you know what I mean? You can be original while you do it too, you know.

UCN: I’m totally quoting you on that. *smiles*
CL: *laughs*You know, it is one of those songs, man. And the cool thing, on the album, there’s so much diversity. It’s every realm of country music. It’s the new country, it’s the old county, it’s the Rascal Flatts-type thing on there too with ‘Keep in Mind.’ There’s the integrity songs, the fun songs, and then I think two cliché songs that we just had fun writing; we didn’t care.
PB: What’s scary is the longer it takes for the album to come out, the more songs we have to choose from. We just cut six new ones this morning, we were in the studio. We are demo’ing them for Sony ATV, our publisher. They took the six best songs they felt we had, since ‘Fly’, we demoed them and got them ready to be pitched around town. We also just got a new, huge major cut with another artist. We can’t mention who it is but, man, it’s really big.

UCN: When the recorder’s off you can tell me… *smiles*
PB: Yeah! *smiles* It’s really big. And we’ve got some momentum going, we’ve got some things happening, so we want to be ready for that. We’re staying ahead of the game just a few steps.

UCN: Well, that’s one of the reasons I wanted ‘Fly’ to do so well. I didn’t know you guys at all until like about two years before we met, and I misjudged you because what I heard was from people talking about you, rather than having the chance to talk to you myself and seeing the live show. I would get told it’s just redneck party stuff, and that’s not my thing. But then I met you, talked to you, and listened to the newer songs and realized ‘wow, these guys are really good writers.’
PB: Thank you. *smiles*
CL: We’re gonna send you some more new stuff.

UCN: One of the complaints I’ve heard has been ‘these days Nashville wants everything to be about trucks.’ (To Preston) You know where this is going… *smiles*
PB: Yeah… *smiles*

UCN: I was sent Kip Moore‘s single ‘Something ’bout a Truck’ with the assumption I wouldn’t like it. But I love it; it’s a good song.
CL: Yeah, it’s supposed to be that way.

UCN: My friend was like ‘but you’re always saying you don’t like the songs about trucks,’ and I’m explaining that the truck isn’t in there just to tick the cliché box; it’s in there because he’s telling a story about a truck! And, you know, your song ‘Trucks,’ I love it!
PB: Thank you. *smiles* You know, the next big cut we’ve got, Jeffrey Steele was on the phone with me one night and he was so excited. He was like “Dude, this is it!” We had ‘Fly’ going, it was around Top 40 and we knew it was going north. How far north, we didn’t know but it’s going to go up. So, we knew we had that momentum going and then all of a sudden this other artist picks up this song, and not only picks it up, but cuts it 72 hours later.

UCN: Oh, that’s awesome!
PB: It was just get in the studio, cut it, done, no questions. So we’re excited! And the subject matter is tried and true, old-school country subject matter.
CL: But we put a twist on it.
PB: And I said, “This is another one of those songs,” and [Steele] said, “Yeah, but what’s the name of it?”, and I told him the name and he just started laughing like Dr Jekyll. *smiles* And I go “What?” and he says “You just did the whole secret, you did the thing that works but you said it like no one’s ever said it.” And it’s like you were talking about, it’s just a little twist of the same old thing that always works, but really putting your own touch to it that’s totally original. And I got it, right then! And I was like, you know what, we can’t write songs that don’t feel that way every time. If we’re going to write about a coffee cup, it’s going to have to be something else than a coffee cup but the same old thing – do you know what I mean?

UCN: Yes, I do.
PB: Each one of these writing experiences, whether it’s about love, a broken heart, a truck, a dog, or the kitchen table, whatever it’s about, you’ve got to dig down, find the things that are going to be relatable to everyone who’s listening yet make them go ‘wow, I never thought about it that way.’ You know, that’s clever. It’s taught us a lot. And fortunately we’ve had some success stories to help teach us a lot too, you know? *smiles*

UCN: Yes, you can learn all these lessons and write all these songs but if no one’s paying attention… But now they are. *smiles*
PB: Yes, and that helped solidify some things. You think back to the write where you were like ‘man, I don’t know if I should say this’ and then you say it, and it works. And then you’re like, I’m never going to not bring an idea to the table that feels really cool.

UCN: It’s about being real. I’ve become friends with some really great writers here and everyone has that same thing of ‘as long as it’s real.’ One of them said it best in an interview and I’ve been using his phrase, he said “I’ve just become incapable of bullshit.” And I feel the exact same way!
CL: Amen to that! *smiles*

UCN: I just can’t do that anymore. With CRS now, people asked if I was going to be here the entire time but, no, I’m escaping to the Folk Alliance conference tomorrow.
PB: I love that…

UCN: It’s just, a lot of the radio stuff, I mean… Yeah…you know what I mean. *smiles* So I didn’t accept a lot of interviews.
PB: Well, thank you for doing ours, we appreciate it. And we saw your article yesterday. That was so nice of you! We tweeted it, we facebooked it, we retweeted it, it went everywhere! *smiles*

UCN: It’s really just become about honesty; it comes back every time, and now again we’re talking about it.
PB: And you took the time to get to know us and that means a lot to us, because it’s not just about the song, or the music, or the label, or the project, or CRS. The last time we talked, we all really connected on a level that was outside of music even, you know, just talking about life and things like that, and all of our perspectives. I think it helps when someone digs a little bit deeper, you know, scratches past the surface and says ‘who are these people?’ Then you begin to see that there’s more to it.
CL: Rather than taking the judgment of the book by its cover.

UCN: Exactly! And that’s been important for me. Everyone gets a chance, and every song gets a chance. I got sent a song called ‘Tailgate Party,’ but it still got a chance. Unfortunately, it was what I thought it was… *smiles* But it got a chance.
PB: I want to throw a title at you and see what it does for you. *smiles*

UCN: Ok… *smiles*
PB: This is great how we’ve switched the interview!
CL: Yes, I like it!
PB: Ok, so here we go, this is great…
CL: Wait, tell me two titles…
PB: I’m gonna try this one…
CL: Ok.
PB: … ‘Bumpin’ Tailgates’

UCN: Oh dear…
PB: *laughs* Oh dear! *laughs*

UCN: *laughs* That could go either really well…
PB: Or…

UCN: Or the way of that other song! *laughs*
PB: I love it. I love it! *smiles*

UCN: But it will get a chance…
PB: I love the idea that “it could go really well”. I love that… *smiles*

UCN: Well…it could also go really, really well… *smiles*
PB: *laughs* I love that!
CL: The other one’s called ‘Love Drunk.’

UCN: Ooh, I like that! I like that a lot. One of the first things that came into my mind was the movie title ‘Punch Drunk Love,’ which is awesome. Yeah, I like that title.
CL: Great!

UCN: These are actual songs?
PB: These are actual songs we cut this morning. What about instead of hangover, ‘Hankover.’

UCN: Oh, that can only be good. *smiles*
PB: It can only be good! *laughs* I like how your brain works. There’s a slight pause, and then, ‘that can only be good.’ *smiles*

UCN: Yeah, I’m processing. I’ve also been mainlining caffeine all day. *smiles*
CL: We have one that’s huge. I think someone’s going to pick this one up if we don’t cut it. It’s called ‘Best Seat in the House.’ It’s about my dad who passed away and, no matter what, he’s still got the best seat in the house.

UCN: Oh, that’s cool…
PB: Yeah, he was there in the early stages [of LoCash Cowboys], and in the mid-life stages, and even after he’s passed on, he’s got the best seat in the house. He’s looking down like ‘I got it, I still see it.’ Eventually we’re all going to lose someone, if we haven’t already, and you have to look at that side of things and say ‘you know what, they’re watching, they’re with me.’
CL: That’s the cool thing about songwriting. We can write exactly how we feel in every different song. One day we’re feeling like ‘man, let’s get a little love drunk,’ you know what I mean? And then the next day we go ‘let’s bump some tailgates, man, let’s do this one!’
PB: I’m gonna send you all these songs that we cut this morning. I want to get your opinion on them. That’ll be fun.

UCN: And you know it’ll be real, whatever I say.
PB: Oh yeah! *smiles*

UCN: That’s important to me, if people bring me something, if I just go ‘oh it’s great, I love it’ to everything, that doesn’t mean anything.
PB: No, no way…

UCN: So you know if I throw my support behind something, I mean it.
PB: And you called this one! ‘Fly‘! Right from the beginning! *smiles*

UCN: From the very first time I heard [Get Closer]…
CL: Yeah, the record had only just come out.

UCN: The first time I listen to a record, I listen all the way through. There’s no doing anything else, just listening right the way through. And it was ‘Fly’ I picked out straight away! *smiles* That, and ‘Without You’ second.
CL: That’s a good song!

UCN: Yeah, it’s such a mature love song, and I like that.
CL & PB: You’re welcome!

 

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Liv Carter

Liv Carter

Liv is a career coach for creatives, and the people who work with them.
She holds several certificates from Berklee College of Music, and a certificate in Positive Psychology from UC Berkeley.
Her main influences are coffee, cats, and Alexander Hamilton.
Liv Carter

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