We interview the boys from King Calaway about the success of their debut album ‘Rivers‘ and what’s up next.
How was C2C Berlin?
It went really well, it was a lot of fun – first C2C.
It’s been two years since you guys came together as a band. It’s been a bit of a whirlwind, can you even think back to that first meeting? Did you think that in less than two years you would be where you are now?
Caleb: One of my first memories, I remember our first hang, I was picking up Simon who was at the Country Music Museum.
Simon: Oh yeah, I was at the Country Music Hall of Fame like a real tourist. (laughs) We all got together that day. But no, to answer your question, did we expect to be here? I think we all had hopes to be doing well, but it’s really cool, like this European run we’ve just had has been so fun.
Were you all living in Nashville at the time?
Chad: A couple of us were – Jordan had moved there from Scotland, and then Chris is from there originally. I was living in Boston at the time, going to school up there, LA, Ohio.
I guess that must have been a big transition, firstly to become a band and then to move there. Did it all happen very organically coming together in the writing room and the studio, or was it a process of learning each other and learning what works?
Austin: It was a process for sure, but I think it felt really organic. I mean six guys from different parts of the world, probably doesn’t sound organic when you put them in a room but I feel like the music really connected us. We got together and played ‘Love The One You’re With’ and it really felt like a deeper connection than just talking. Once we started playing together, I feel like it was a more intimate setting. We really got to know each other better.
And what were all your musical backgrounds like, and what stage in your musical journeys were you at at the time?
Simon: I was coming to the end of a band with my two older brothers, where we played… We were an anthemic-ish pop band. We really looked up to Kings of Leon and Coldplay and those sort of bands. Moving into this was really cool, because I’d grown up with bands like Simon & Garfunkel, The Eagles. Being in such a harmony-based group was really exciting, the prospect of doing that.
Chris: I was in a rock band, Chad was in a rock band… I feel like we were all looking for something more, something different. I feel like King Calaway was a good fit.
Austin: I was in LA as a session bass player, so when I actually heard about this Nashville thing and was like ‘hey, maybe I’ll move to Nashville.’
Jordan: Yeah, so my dad actually mentioned to me that I should take a trip over to Nashville and I did and then I ended up moving there. I just started cutting my teeth down in Broadway, playing Tootsie’s and Honky-Tonk Broadway and things like that. Honestly, I’ve never been thrown in the deep-end more, down there they take requests for songs. You’ll be playing and they will turn around and shout out a song. You’ll have absolutely no idea what a song is, so you’d have to think on your feet.
Eventually, after about six months of playing down there, I managed to learn so many songs. I think it got to the point where I knew over 200 songs, which is just incredible considering you have to play them on the spot. Broadway is really impressive, it’s really cool. You watch musicians down there, who can just play things off the cuff and just do it.
I know you’ve been given the country label, but I feel like there are so many more different elements in your music. Was it a natural thing coming to that label or was it a hard decision?
Chad: No, I think we wanted to create our own lane. We’d all had a similar vision of being in a contemporary music band, but also having elements of Crosby Stills Nash and Young, having that idea of a six person band. Six instrumentalists, six vocalists and just adding stacked harmonies, it’s a little bit different but that lane hadn’t been filled yet.
‘Rivers’ your debut album did so well. Did you have a vision going into the studio of what you wanted that record to look like?
Austin: So we got into a band room for two weeks. After that, we had an album of what the album was going to look like. It’s different for us because we all play instruments. We don’t really make an album by starting with a laptop and writing the album in a room, it starts with instruments on. We took two, maybe three weeks, in a band room and after that we were ready to cut.
You recorded ‘I Did’ around a solitary microphone, which is a very different production-style. Was it a long process to find the right producer for the record?
Jordan: No, not necessarily.
Austin: I wouldn’t say there’s a lot of production on the album. If you were to listen to the demo – just the board mix when we went in to record the song and the engineer just hit record – what we did that day, if you listened to that as an MP3, it wouldn’t sound that different to what’s on the record. As far as production, there wasn’t a lot added to it and that’s kind of what we were going for.
I guess with so many instruments, you don’t really need it. You want the band to speak for itself…
Austin: That’s what we were going for on this project. We wanted to let ourselves shine and our talents.
Caleb: I think it was a breath of fresh air for everyone involved. Our producers and engineers involved in the record, they felt like it was real people playing real music. It felt like they were happy to be a part of it which was exciting for us.
I feel like there is that movement back toward authenticity in bands.
‘World for Two’ was the first song of yours I heard. What was the story behind that song and the process behind writing that?
Simon: So Ross Copperman who co-produced the album, he brought that song to us. When we were looking for songs for the album, because we’re six young guys who moved from home, we really wanted to touch on those themes – making your own in this world and finding things out. Things were so busy, the politics, the world, the coronavirus (laughs), we felt all-consumed and it felt like we were stepping away from all of that, that one was the first single because we thought that was the song that fans needed to hear, that escape.
I was going to ask you what is up next, but with everything going on that’s probably hard to gauge.
Jordan: We’re going to become the best online band.
Simon: Our website’s going to become amazing.
Jordan: You’re going to see some prime content.
Who’s most likely…
To trip over something on stage? Chad.
To say something they shouldn’t in an interview? Probably Jordan.
To drunk tweet? Chad.
To suffer a wardrobe malfunction? Chad – he split his pants in Berlin, it’s really been a test of character this trip.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… life.
Country music is… wonderful.
King Calaway are… a manufactured boy band (laughs).
