Top Country is giving away 10 copies of WYATT’s new album, Shoulda Been Here Last Night! Enter to win below. Contest closes Thursday, November 7, 2013.
CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED
TC also got the chance to chat with the band about their new album and what it’s been like touring with the guys of the Your Town Throw Down Tour, check out the Q&A below!
Q
Can you tell us a bit about the process of creating your new album, Shoulda Been Here Last Night?
A
This album was over a year in the making. It was an incredible experience working with some really great writers like Kelly Archer, Ben Glover, Brian White and Tony Ramey. We also looked back at some of the songs that didn’t quite make the flow of the last album but were some of our favourites. We were also fortunate to receive some really great songs from other writers that we just couldn’t resist recording. In the end we narrowed down 10 songs from about 150 that we wrote or listened to and carved out what we felt best represented us and the WYATT sound, that ‘Rock n Roll with a Country soul’ attitude.
Q
How would you say this album compares to If I Had A Dollar and Hard Road?
A
This album is really the natural evolution that comes from confidence gained through the experience of getting some albums under your belt and maturing as a band. Understanding our process, strengths and limitations and exploiting them to their fullest. Working down in Nashville on the last album (If I Had a Dollar) gave us a really strong foundation to build this album with producer Mitch Merrett up here in Canada. I think it takes the sonic quality of the ‘Dollar’ album and combines it with what we really liked in the ‘Living, Loving and Losing’ attitude of the Hard Road album to give itself a real identity of its own.
Q
What’s a song from the album the band is particularly proud of and why?
A
There are a lot of really great tracks on this album including the current singles ‘Jesse James’ and ‘Roll the Windows Down’. The most personal track on the album comes from a writing session we did with Mitch Merrett and Kelly Archer (whom we wrote with on the If I Had a Dollar…album). In 2010 Danny lost his dad to cancer. For the memorial he wrote a Eulogy called ‘I Won’t Say Goodbye’ which looked at this life and the impact we have on people while we are on this earth. Using that as the basis for the song, we dug deep and created what we feel is a really powerful look at the relationship between a parent and child and what it means when you eventually lose that person.
Q
You’ve been opening dates on the Your Town Throw Down Tour with Deric Ruttan, Jason Blaine and Chad Brownlee, what has that been like?
A
Sharing an audience with established artists of that calibre is a great way to build your own fanbase and let fans know about who you are and the music you make. The Throw Down crew has been really great to work with, very supportive, and they know how to put a show together! The response from audiences to us has also been fantastic and ranged from, “So great to finally see you guys live” to “I didn’t know who you guys were before the show, but I’m a big fan now!” We are grateful for the opportunity to play in front of such great crowds, in incredible venues, to travel to parts of the country we hadn’t been able to get to yet. We can’t wait to come back!
Q
At the end of this month you are going home to play ‘Creative Mayhem’, a gala fundraiser for ‘Creative Kids’, can you tell us a bit about that?
A
Creative Mayhem is a fundraiser for ‘Creative Kids’, an incredible organization that supports under-privileged kids in accessing arts programs (visual, literary and performing arts). It has been done in the sports world (Kids Sport, Timbits) but this is one of the few programs started to give kids the opportunity to grow and pursue the arts regardless of financial limitations. This is our second year working with Creative Kids. Creative Mayhem is a gala fundraiser which will feature us along side Saskatoon born actor/director Kim Coates who is best known for his role as Alex ‘Tig’ Trager on the hit TV series ‘Sons of Anarchy’. Tickets are almost sold out for this event but can still be purchased at www.picatic.com. The event takes place October 30th, 2013 in Saskatoon, SK.
