Country music has an increasingly global reach. Australian artist and radio host Morgan Evans brings his global perspective to Country Wide Radio every other week on Apple Music Country, showcasing performers listeners will love from all over the world. In the latest episode, Morgan chats to Ward Thomas about the UK scene, their collaborations and starting their own environmental initiative, ‘Busking For Our Planet.’ Listen to the full interview on demand here.
Ward Thomas On The UK Country Music Scene…
It’s grown massively over the last kind of six years. But before, country music used to be misunderstood. People didn’t really understand what country music was over here until more recently. It used to be like Country and Western, but we’re like, no, no, no. That’s a different genre within the country umbrella altogether. I think it’s funny because when we went to Australia for CMC Rocks, it’s actually when we first met you [Morgan Evans]. I remember we were going Australia and it was way ahead. You guys are, I feel like, maybe 10 years or 20 years ahead of us. We’re a little bit farther behind. We’re just catching up. So, it’s still very much like a niche thing that people enjoy. And the people that come to the shows are still the people that have sought you out and looked for you. But it’s amazing. There’s a really wonderful community.
Ward Thomas On Working With James Blunt on ‘Halfway’…
Yeah, that was really fun! James wrote the song and he wanted it to be a duet. He’d originally planned for it to be a solo and he’s recorded it as a solo track but then he really wanted it to be a duet and it’s got a very country vibe to it. He wanted to get on the country band wagon! And he reached out to us, I think he’d worked with someone we’d worked with. He just got in touch and said ‘Do you guys fancy it?’ So we went and recorded some vocals, because he lives in Ibiza, it’s alright for some! So we FaceTimed him and he was there at the studio on a phone… which now is very normal but back then it wasn’t. So we sent him the vocals, it all got mixed and then we went on tour with him, right before everything went crazy and we had to lockdown. So, it was like a really small, lovely moment of momentum and then it all came crashing down. There was an after party after every show! We can’t really keep up with him and his band. We were always going to bed earlier than everyone else.
Ward Thomas On Working With Cam On The Song ‘Don’t Be A Stranger’…
We wrote that song, funnily enough, ages ago. But also we wrote it with another artist called Fiona Bevan. When we did the demo, I think that song just lent itself to having another voice on it as well. And we actually reached out to her because we just thought her voice would sound so great on this song and would just lift the choruses massively. And she said, “Yes, send the song I’d love to hear it.” And she heard it and she loved it, and she wanted to get involved. And so that was really, really fun because we’d met her a few times and she’s been really supportive of the both of us and we’ve done some social media stuff with her in the past. And she’s just so cool. Just the coolest person. So we were really excited that she wanted to sing on our song.
Ward Thomas On Fundraising Project ‘Busking For Our Planet’…
We really wanted to do something for our environment because we’re both really passionate about our environment. It’s the most important thing at the moment. We feel the planet is really suffering, and we wanted to do our bit in some way. And we thought, “Let’s sing. Let’s sing and busk.” That’s what we do best. Let’s do it every week, and try and raise as much money as possible. And we set a massive goal for us, which is like £100,000. It’s really fun as well for us to go out to different cities around the country and play in front of people. Again, we haven’t done that for more than a year. So to actually go out and see people in the flesh and play brand new songs and play covers and play old songs, it’s a busking environment where there’s no pressure. So it’s just quite fun. And it’s a really good way of us honing in on how we want to play our songs live when we finally go on tour in November.
