Emerson Drive released their new album this morning. Roll is a collection of songs that’s personal to the band.
“After the Believe album was done, it was kind of a weird time,” notes the band’s guitarist Danick Dupelle. “We didn’t have a single in the States, but that’s when Brad had a kid and [our fiddle player] David had his kids. We started slowing down and coming off the road a little bit, and it really opened up a lot of doors for some of us starting to write again. We never had the time before to write songs. We were always so busy. I started to concentrate on writing, and in one year, I think that I wrote 40-something songs. It felt good to finally have the chance to do it.”
“I think we’re at a point now in our career where we don’t really have a record label overseeing the project, which puts you in a spot where ultimately you get to decide every song that goes on and every lyric that gets written and the sound that comes out of the band, as well,” explains Mates. “That’s probably one of the key factors in us recording music that we feel might possibly be the strongest content that we’ve done yet for each individual in the band and as a band itself. If it works, we win. If it doesn’t work, at least all the weight is on our shoulders and you can’t kind of point the fingers at anybody else.”
“We’re happy about it,” adds Dupelle. “For the first time, we can call this our record.”
“We felt it was time to turn this thing up a bit and find a place where we are really identifying the instrumentation that we have in the group,” Mates says. “I really feel like that sets us apart from everybody else. I think we know our fan base fairly well, and I know that there are a lot of industry people out there who have heard Emerson Drive over the past decade. I really feel like this is the album and the sound that will keep our band moving forward for another 10 years.”
Announced this morning, the boys of Emerson Drive and Doc Walker will team up for the CMT Hitlist Tour, with special guest Aaron Pritchett.
