UCN Interview – The Roys: “We want to make music that gives people hope.”

12 years ago Liv Carter Comments Off on UCN Interview – The Roys: “We want to make music that gives people hope.”
Rural Rhythm Records

One of the freshest sounding acts in recent years is The Roys. Sister and brother Elaine and Lee Roy have managed to blend country music accessibility and commerciality with top-notch bluegrass storytelling and musicianship; a powerful combination that has been winning them many new fans everywhere they toured this year (which was many places!). On August 28, they will release their new album, New Day Dawning, via Rural Rhythm Records. I caught up with them at the Loveless Barn, following an IBMA press conference, just before they had to board their tourbus again. It has been really great watching them grow evermore successful and seeing their hard work be rewarded. With not one ‘filler’ track on the new disc we had much to discuss, but first, I had to get the most important thing out of the way…

UCN: I love the new record!
Elaine Roy: Oh, thank you!

UCN: It’s a 7-track disc. This was your choice, the label’s?
Lee Roy: It was a combination of our manager, Kirt Webster, and the label talking about how do we get product out quicker to the fans. If you want a full album, you need to do at least a year between projects, just because you need to recoup the cost of recording, manufacturing, publishers, writers. So, it was one of those things where they talked about doing it that way. We then talked about it as a team and took it a step further and talked about doing two EPs, six or seven months apart. We’ll have another one that will be coming out in March, and we’ll take a single off each one. And then we’ll worry about what we’ll do after that. *smiles*

UCN: And this way, you will have released more songs than would have been on a full album.
LR: Yes, it builds your catalogue up really quick, and in bluegrass you tour on what’s latest. You’re hitting the same group of festivals pretty much every 18 months, so each time you need to bring something new to survive. So far us, it was a way to put out a new project, which we needed to do anyway, and then to do it in a way that financially made sense. So we will have two products out within a year.

UCN: When did you start writing for this one?
ER: We started writing almost immediately after Lonesome Whistle. Whatever time we have off, we try to write. So we’ve been writing about a year. We went in and cut 14 songs, knowing we were going to do two EPs, and these were the first seven.

UCN: How did you decide on these cuts for this EP?
LR: It was kind of trial and error. We had these 14 songs tracked and then we sat in my studio and just played them. There were some that we immediately wanted out on this project, and then others who by default fell on this one or the next one, depending on the nature of the song, the tempo, the feel. I tried to vote Elaine out and tried to make all seven be my songs but it didn’t work.
ER: Oh, sure! *laughs*
LR: It’s one thing we just never seem to have a hard time with, is what songs to put together. The order is a different thing. There was one song that was going to be on this one that’s been moved to the next one so we switched a couple. You just look at the tempo and the feel.

UCN: And was is the aim to make me cry or just an unintended consequence? *smiles*
ER: Aw, I hope you cried for good things. *smiles*
UCN: It was ‘Daddy to Me’ and ‘Grandpa’s Barn.’ The last one I have heard live several times but the studio version is just amazing. Lee, you sound fantastic on this.
LR: That’s not me.

UCN: Oh, it’s a stunt double?
LR: Yes, it’s a stunt double, I had Josh Williams come in to sing that. *smiles*

UCN: Oh, ok, that explains it… *smiles* Those two songs are obvious family songs, but I was thinking the single, and the title track, they’re also kind of family songs; they’re about your support group.
ER: Yes, we always try to stay positive with our music. There is so much negativity already, I mean, you just turn on the TV and you don’t want to get out of bed. When we write we’re conscious of that and try to inspire people. We don’t know where our music ends up. It’s the world wide web now. People might type in “the roys” and find our music so I hope that it inspires people and gives them hope. It’s weird because even for me, I’ve gone through a whole bunch of stuff this year, personal stuff, and even listening to our songs helped me. So I hope it helps other people, that’s really our goal.

UCN: Music is therapy.
ER: Absolutely! It’s universal, it touches all kinds of people and that’s what we want to do with our music, for sure.

UCN: You again wrote with the wonderful Steve Dean.
ER: Yes, we wrote ‘Living Scrapbook.’

UCN: How was writing with him this time?
ER: It’s a song I brought to the table, I heard the phrase ‘Living Scrapbook’ and said to Steve: “I have a chorus, and maybe a verse. You might think it’s nothing but I’m just gonna sing it to you,” and he said “Sure, let’s do it.” I sang it to him and he fell in love with it, so we sat down and finished it. I mean, every single person on this earth has a living scrapbook. If you look at pictures on your wall, there are people who passed of who you wish you could step back into that picture and be with them. Or a memory of looking at pictures of us on the beach with Lee’s kids, or with our parents. You know, that’s my living scrapbook, so I hope it makes everyone appreciate their own living scrapbook because in a minute, it can change.

UCN: Another co-write I loved was ‘Grandpa’s Barn.’ I love that song so when I got the track list for this record and saw Larry [Alderman]’s name, I just loved it. Larry is all kinds of awesome, so what was that write like for you?
LR: That song just seems to have legs. It’s one of those things, you know. I really didn’t think we would top the full band version of it, that would again capture the essence of that song, but that’s where these guys like Larry or Steve are so strong. You look back on it and you go ‘wow, there’ nothing I would change here.’ You know, re-recording it is the time where you would go, ‘oh, I wish we would have said this.’

UCN: Or after playing it live for a while you want to make little changes.
LR: Yes, and looking back on it, we sang it a little differently just from over the last year singing it, but it’s just such an honor to write with people like that. And Larry will be the first to say he’s just a good ole boy from North Carolina and that’s what I love about him. His lyrics are real and he doesn’t care if it’s the proper way of doing it. If it sounds right and it feels right, then it is right, and that’s what I love about that.

UCN: Are you at a point now where people come to you to write, or are those writes still set-ups?
LR: It’s a little of both. For us, in the fall when we slow down, we’ll reach out to our co-writers but there are others that have come up to us. One thing we do is that we try to spread it around so that people like Steve, Larry, Brian White, we still get in the room and we still write with them. Because those are the writers that got us here so I’m not gonna say ‘oh, I now have the opportunity to write with this person who’s just come off three #1 hits in a row.’ That doesn’t matter to me. I mean, I do welcome the chance to write with new people because that’s how you stay fresh and creative, but I also equally look forward to getting in a room with Larry or Steve. And I look forward to cross blending a lot of that stuff. You know, getting a guy like Brandon Rickman in a room with maybe Steve Dean and Elaine. People we know who haven’t written together, it’s cool to get them together and see what comes out of it.

UCN: Who else in on your writers wish list?
ER: Jerry Salley.
LR: Yes, Jerry’s one who’ve been forever threatening to write with. We’ve been on the books together but then had to cancel so I’m hoping we can finally get that set up. Carl Jackson, I’d love to write with him. Alan Jackson, you know, whatever. *smiles*
ER: Dolly Parton, but you know…

UCN: No, this is your list, you can wish for whomever you want! *smiles*
ER: Dolly Parton! *laughs*
LR: I look forward to this fall because it’s not as easy as you think to be on the road and go ‘Let’s write today.’ I’m looking forward to Elaine and I just getting together, having a day where maybe a meeting gets cancelled and we unexpectedly have the afternoon off and we say ‘let’s get together and write something.’ You know, ‘Still Standing’ was written like that. I think that’s how you stay creative and just let the juices flow. By the time we finally get to write, I think we’ll be itching to get some of these songs out.

UCN: And that will then be for the next full album after that.
LR: Well, we might do a standards record in the middle of that.

UCN: Oh cool!
LR: A lot of people are wanting to hear that. We do a great version of ‘9 to 5’ and different songs, and let Elaine reach on the songs she loves to sing, and me do my favorites. So I think we’ll do that in the middle but then there will be another project after that.

UCN: So it’ll be bluegrass version of older songs, or if they’re already bluegrass just your take on them.
LR: Yes, some are bluegrass. We do a version of a song that Lonesome River Band made famous, ‘Mary Ann.’ A lot of people ask us if we’re ever going to cut that, so we’ll cut that one and some other stuff and see where we’ll get to down the road. You never know what’s going to happen with us.

UCN: Which I think is not a bad way to describe bluegrass itself, I think. We’ve talked about this before but I think the genre is finally allowing itself to modernize and to grow.
LR: Yes, and I think it’s just about to bust and ready to blow wide open.

UCN: I agree. I mean, just yesterday someone said to me ‘I don’t like bluegrass. It’s depressing,’ so then I go ‘well, let me get you a record that’s not.’
ER: There’s still a bit of a stigma. But until you listen and you’re open to it, that’s when you really appreciate the true roots of it and the talent, and the pickers, and the stories behind the songs. So hopefully we can help open doors, and eyes, and hearts…

UCN: And minds.
ER: Yes, and minds. And all of that! *smiles*
LR: I think for us doing our brand of bluegrass, it’s one foot on the country line and one foot on the bluegrass line, and then everything in the middle. I think it helps carry that torch. Like in country music, not everyone wants to hear bar room songs, not everyone wants to hear ‘I love you’-songs, there’s something for everybody. I think that’s where bluegrass is really at right now. You’ve got people who are straight down the middle traditional bluegrass and then us who kind of touch the line of country, and I think that’s what’s going to help the format grow.

UCN: One of the UCN readers e-mailed me saying ‘you keep going on about Trampled by Turtles, what’s that all about?’ and I made the mistake of saying they’re a bluegrass band, which doesn’t even begin to describe them. But he goes ‘yeah I don’t like that,’ so I sent him off to go listen to the record and he loved it. I mean, it’s fast and it’s furious and just amazing. And I think that’s what you’re saying, is that people don’t always know how diverse it is now.
ER: Yes, exactly.

UCN: I think it used to be more if you didn’t sound exactly like *this* you weren’t accepted.
LR: Yes, and now bluegrass has stretched the boundaries. But it’s like country music, it’s stretched the boundaries to where it encompasses so many different people, and I think bluegrass is at that point now too.
ER: I think for us, when we play a bluegrass festival, people who haven’t heard us come up to us and go ‘oh my gosh, your songs are awesome, you’re gonna save bluegrass, you’re the new thing.’

UCN: Aw, that’s great!
ER: Yes, it’s so cool because we never know how they’re going to react or even if they are going to accept us, so it’s been really, really great.

UCN: And then when you play the more country-oriented festivals, like Country Thunder, what’s the reaction there?
LR: We get the same reaction! People come over and go ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe they finally put bluegrass on the main stage!’ *smiles*So we’re just going to keep doing what we’re doing, and find our little niche.

UCN: Well, it’s almost like widening everybody else’s niche.
ER: We hope so!
LR: It’s just opening ears to good music. Good music is good music, I don’t care what genre it is. There’s good music in all genres.

UCN: Oh, I am all for that! Thank you guys so much!
ER: Thank you!
LR: Yes, thanks for spreading the love of bluegrass!

New Day Dawning will be available everywhere good music is sold on August 28, 2012.

For more on The Roys and to find out their upcoming tourdates, please visit theroysonline.com

 

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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