![\"DSC01117\"](\"https:\/\/bestbritishcountrymusic.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/07\/dsc01117.jpg?w=942&h=273&fit=942%2C273&resize=640%2C371\")
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JZ: How are you both?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: We\u2019re good, getting started with our Tuesday we just got back to Nashville last night. We\u2019ve been all over the US we\u2019ve been in California the other day and then all the way across the entire country in New Jersey yesterday.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: So you\u2019re covering a lot of ground on the US tour then?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Yes definitely!\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: So I wanted to talk about your songwriting process for the album, we know your guitar parts are really complex and we wondered if that came first or whether it was different every time?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Its definitely different every time I mean ‘Trouble is as Trouble Does’ started with that guitar lick, I came up with that one evening and showed it to Justin and we automatically knew what we felt like the song was about just from that guitar lick but then there are songs like \u201cNothing but the Silence\u201d which Justin had the idea for about 6 months before we wrote it so its always different.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: And what about the songs that have been featured in ‘Nashville’, because you\u2019ve had 8 featured in ‘Nashville’ now? Do you write those thinking that someone else is going to sing them or do you just write them and the programme comes along and says \u201cthey\u2019re great songs, can we feature them in the show?\u201d<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Yeah exactly, we\u2019ve always just wanted to write songs and ‘Nashville’ has been so great to just have been fans of the songs which has been so cool.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Yeah I don\u2019t think we ever set out to write with the intention of getting them on a TV show or anything for that matter, I think we only write songs to write songs haha.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Great, and where do your lyrical ideas come from?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: I think they come from everywhere, you know, sometimes you\u2019ll hear something or you\u2019ll see something and that\u2019ll spark something and sometimes things just pop into your head, ‘Trouble is as Trouble Does’ that line was just something that popped into my head so I wrote it down and then when I came up with that guitar lick I kind of just felt like this could go together so it definitely comes from all over the place you kind of never know when to expect it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: They stem from personal experiences most of the time whether its something you\u2019ve experienced directly, first hand or maybe you heard a story from a friend or something like that who\u2019s going through an experience and that inspires you but most of the time if not all the time they have a personal connection.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Do you have a favourite song to play live?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah: I think my favourite song to play live right now, I mean it can be different every time but my favourite to play live is ‘Never Gonna Love Again’ because its always a little different its always a little improvised when we get to the jam at the end so its always exciting to see whats going to happen, and I just love singing it, theres something about the melody and lyrics that I really love so its a lot of fun.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: For me I really love to play ‘Make a Liar Out of Me’ because thats just a lot of fun and usually we tend to play that near the end of the set so thats just exciting but you tend to love every moment in the show for a different reason so I really love to play ‘When the Right One Comes Along’ because thats usually the quietest most exposed part of the show so thats fun all by itself for a different reason.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Talking about playing live, you\u2019ve got a string of UK dates coming up including the Cornbury Festival which we\u2019ll be covering, and I was wondering if theres any big differences between UK audiences and US audiences and what you like about playing over here in Britain?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Justin: There are definite differences I think, UK audiences tend to love to sing with us a lot more which is really really fun, I don\u2019t know, either US audiences, I don\u2019t know whether they don\u2019t think they can or they just like to listen but its just so much fun when we play ‘When the Right One Comes Along’ and the UK tend to sing it with us I think its really cool and unique to the UK right now. They\u2019re both fun in their own right and theres a lot of similarities but there are subtle differences, but they\u2019re both great.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Great! We talk to a lot of UK artists and one of the questions we ask them is what are your main influences and I\u2019ve heard a lot of them mention you guys because you\u2019re fantastic all rounders; you\u2019re great vocalists, phenomenal guitarists and you write amazing songs so I just wondered, for all the people you inspire if you could firstly give them a message of what you feel is the secret to your success and how aspiring songwriters and performers can achieve a similar level?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Thats very sweet!<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Yeah, thats incredibly kind and makes us feel really, really good but I think especially because the way you said we\u2019re all-rounders, the way that we sing and play and write and thats all we\u2019ve ever wanted to be seen as, artists that do play and sing and write and so if people see us that way then thats the highest compliment we could ever get and we\u2019re incredibly grateful that they get inspired by us because we were inspired by somebody else in the same way. We always look up to people who write songs as well as sing and play, all-rounders, and inspired to get to that level and not accept anything less so I think if we can inspire people in that same way then thats great.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah: Yeah and I think one of the most important things for any aspiring artist is to just get out there and play. When we were starting out we would be out 4 or 5 nights a week, anywhere that would let us play and I think thats one of the best ways to home your craft and get to know your artistry. Just get out there and play!<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Another thing I hear people say a lot and in fact, a dream of my own, is to play at the Grand Ole Opry, and you\u2019ve done that over forty times now, and I just wondered if you could tell us what thats like?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Its amazing, we\u2019ll do it for the 46th time tomorrow night and it feels like the first time every time we do it and I think everyone says that but it really does and its just such an honour to stand where so many of your heroes have stood and stand still today and just to be able to do it and to have that opportunity is just the greatest honour.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Yeah its always over very quickly.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah: Yeah thats true haha!<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Thats the thing nobody really tells you, they kind of tell you that you\u2019ll feel nervous or its amazing and its wonderful and all of thats true, it feels amazing every single time but the thing that catches you off guard is how quickly it flies by, because you\u2019re doing two or three songs each performance because theres several artists playing throughout the show and it just feels like as soon as you go out on stage your walking off stage again.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: And going back to the album what were your main influences, not just writing the songs but coming up with the instrumentation that you wanted to use?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Its interesting we draw so much inspiration from so many different things I think most of the forms and the instrumentation for the record we had had for a long time, thats one thing that T-Bone said he was a fan of was the fact that we had already made up a lot of the arrangements before we went into the studio. I think a lot of that comes from listening to music like Fleetwood Mac or Led Zeppelin where the arrangements and parts were so important to the music and I think we drew a lot from that. We go a lot of different places on that record and just draw from everything we\u2019ve ever listened to, not just Country but Rock and everything like that and the biggest goal I think we had for the record was we wanted to do it all live so we pretty much used all the live arrangements that we were playing out already.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Whats it like now, with all the hard work you\u2019ve put in, to hear your songs on the radio or to hear people doing them as covers or to hear people singing them back to you at gigs?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Thats a dream come true, thats when you realise that your music has had enough of an impact on someone that they want to play it, that they want to cover it or that the radio is playing it, its just absolutely amazing, I don\u2019t think I can find the best word to describe how incredible that is!<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: A few sillier questions now, I was just wondering whats the strangest thing you\u2019ve ever written a song about? Either together or separately and it doesn\u2019t have to have been released or even left your bedroom!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Good question! Hmm, I\u2019m not sure I\u2019ve ever written anything weird or strange, have you Justin?<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: I wrote a song one time about being sleepy, just because that seemed like the only thing I could come up with at the time because I was genuinely sleepy it was a long winded dement about the trials and tribulations of being sleepy and unable to wake up.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: I like that one! We know your guitar skills are incredible and they\u2019re mesmerising for us as fans to watch and it probably takes a lot of concentration but I was just wondering if you ever let your mind wander when your on stage and if you have any mid-gig thoughts?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Every now and then I\u2019ll just like let my mind go and I go through my to-do list in my head, you want to be in the moment and sometimes for whatever reason you start to go and you end up, in trying to concentrate, concentrating on other things. Sometimes you lose yourself in the music and you think about where you are and you think, gosh how did I get here? That can be a pretty magical moment you know when we played the Opry for the first time all I could think about was all of the gigs that had come before that, that were not that great or less than desirable, those things that took up your time, paying you dues in a way. So sometimes if you let it wander its an opportunity to be very grateful.<\/span><\/p>\n \n JZ: In Manchester, Justin, we saw you break your guitar, I\u2019m sure you both have more than one so I just wondered if you had a favourite make and model?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: My stand by is the one that I have been playing for the last three or four years, I haven\u2019t broken it yet and its the Takamine TAN45C thats mine and thats the one I\u2019ve had for three years and it doesn\u2019t usually do me wrong but the last time I said that the pre-amp inside it blew up but hopefully nothing bad will happen this time with saying it again.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Yeah and mine was actually the one I was playing, the one I was beating into submission. I actually had it sort of repaired, they repaired it as best they could they sort of sealed all the cracks I put in it. I was still playing it on this past tour, its just my Takamine which is slightly different from Sarah\u2019s, just different enough so that the sounds are distinct.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Well I\u2019m glad they repaired it!<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: For now, it\u2019ll probably break again when we get back over there!<\/span><\/p>\n \n \n JZ: And what made you decide on the name ‘Striking Matches’?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Justin: Striking Matches, we were just sort of searching for something that was evocative of what we were doing live which tended to be pretty high energy. The reliance of the chemistry between each other and the intensity that could come out of us playing at each other or with each other. So Striking Matches just seemed fitting after we\u2019d thrown some things around, and that just seemed to be what worked the most and when we tried it on for size it really just sort of suited us.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Great! Finally I\u2019m sure you\u2019re just enjoying the success from your debut album at the moment and rightly so but I was just wondering where you wanted to go next? Are you enjoying touring and have any plans to take it elsewhere like Australia or Asia or are you thinking about writing and recording more for another album?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: I think both at the same time, you know, we\u2019d love to get to Australia and Asia and we\u2019d love to see more of the UK than we already have but we\u2019re always writing and we\u2019ve already got a list going of things we want to put on the next record and we\u2019re writing for it. That part I don\u2019t think ever stops, we\u2019re always planning ahead for the next musical adventure.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Yeah, you kind of always have something on the horizon and we\u2019re concentrating on how to make the second record better than the first so thats all a good thing, its an inspiring thing.<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah: We\u2019re so excited to be coming back and to be playing the Cornbury Festival, we can\u2019t wait!<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: We caught up with the pair at Cornbury Festival this year and this is what they had to say!<\/strong><\/p>\n So how did the US tour go?<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Yes, its always a lot of fun, a different energy back home as it is here, they\u2019re both really great and positive but they\u2019re different and its interesting to see, you almost kind of switch gears when you go back over there and then switch again when we\u2019re here, its fun.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Did you get to go any places that you\u2019ve never been before?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: Yeah, actually we had never played in Boston so we got to go there, a couple of places in the mid-west, we always like playing in Chicago, we got to go there, so we got to go to a lot of cities that we either hadn\u2019t been to in a long time or had never been to at all. Its funny because we only got as far as Chicago, you do everything in little pockets and the US is very large you find out haha!<\/span><\/p>\n \n JZ: Does the way you perform have to change or adapt much between Festivals and doing your own tour?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Justin: Yeah, definitely, the structure of the set is different, its so easy when its your own show and people have come to see you and they know all your songs and you kind of play a little more of the deep cuts and the ballads, play everything for the fans but at a festival when people don\u2019t know your music you kind of just have to play the things that will get their attention and they hear it and they think, what is that? Thats cool and hopefully they\u2019ll become a fan and they\u2019ll come to your shows and thats when you can really play every song you\u2019ve got.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Sarah, I read that you used to play Violin, do you still play?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: I don\u2019t, I grew up playing Clarinet and Violin in school and I played Violin all through college until I stopped going. I played all through senior year of high school and I never really got into it, I think I just played it because its what I did. In third grade you pick a string instrument and I just did it but I never got good, I was good at Clarinet, I had that in the bag but Violin, not so much, no one wants me to do that haha.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: But it did help transitioning to the Mandolin, right?<\/span><\/p>\n Sarah: Oh, absolutely! The strings are tuned the same so its good remembering where all the notes are.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Its a lot different because you don\u2019t have the bow technique but for someone who\u2019s a guitar player being able to play the violin I think it helps a lot with the mandolin.<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: Great, and on your debut album you co-wrote a lot with different collaborators, how do you go in there and start that off because obviously people write with different approaches?\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Sarah: I think its different every time. Sometimes one of us will have an idea or we\u2019ll both have an idea to take to that third person. I think everything on the record that we wrote with a third person started with one of our ideas. Usually when you\u2019re the artist and you\u2019re in a room with another writer they want to write something you\u2019re going to cut so they\u2019ll want to roll with what you want to do so its kind of always different. Sometimes you wont have anything and somehow something magically appears, sometimes it doesn\u2019t haha.<\/span><\/p>\n Justin: Its tricky, its an intangible thing that happens and sometimes it doesn\u2019t and you can\u2019t figure out why because everyone in the room\u2019s a great writer in their own right.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n JZ: So last time I asked you if you had any mid-gig thoughts, this time I wanted to know if you have a ritual or anything before you go on stage?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Justin: I think our ritual is probably not exciting because it is a ritual but its not like a turn around three times or anything we always just check the strings, check the tuning, check each other, check we have water and the cable works, its sort of just a checklist. We go through the setlist and the talking points we want to makesure we say things like we\u2019ll be back here in November or whatever, thats the ritual but its incredibly important because usually when you get on and the adrenaline starts going and the nerves start going, if you haven\u2019t planned everything before hand, you\u2019ll just forget.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"DSC01127\"](\"https:\/\/bestbritishcountrymusic.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/07\/dsc01127.jpg\")
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