Before he jetted back to the States, we got to interview Tebey about his love for the UK, ‘Denim on Denim’ and his duet with Marie-Mai.
What a weird time! It was sad not to get to see you perform at C2C, but I guess there is nothing you can do…
There is absolutely zero you can do. I mean I’m not upset at at all, I know everyone who runs the festival and I’m totally supportive of the decision. It is one of those things, it is what it is and people are upset – I get it, I read the comments.
I guess it’s been a nice chance though for you to get to explore more of London.
Well I used to live here. There’s always something new to explore, there’s always another shop, or museum or restaurant I’ve never seen but I love just walking around and seeing the streets because the vibe and the energy in this city is just wicked.
I feel like you are investing yourself in the UK audience – you were here for Country Music Week and now you’re back again. Is that really important to you?
It’s extremely important to me, because you have to show people that the fanbase here that you’re investing in them. I’m not just going to come over here for a few shows and then come back in four years.
I think it’s important that you recognise that and don’t see it as a tick-box exercise…
That’s hopefully why I’ll be successful. I see The Shires as a great benchmark, I mean I’m just so determined to break this market. I’m a huge Anglophile anyway, my grandparents are English and I’ve always loved it here. It’s in my blood. I’ve had so much songwriting success in this country that I just think hopefully we’ll make it happen.
Going back, obviously you’re from Canada, so what kind of music did you grow up with in terms of your musical background? You’ve had so many cuts across different genres…
I just grew up listening to everything. The music scene is very similar to the States, I mean we’re so close to America right? The thing is with us is that we look and sound like Americans, typically. So people don’t typically realise that there’s so many great Canadian artists – Lindsay Ell, Tim Hicks, James Barker Band. There’s a lot of great Canadian acts.
So was it always music then for you?
I’ve always been in it. I moved to Nashville when I was 16 to be in the music business. Writing songs for other people has afforded me to the opportunity to make a career as an artist as well.
Did you always know you wanted to make it as an artist in your own right as well as a songwriter?
I don’t know, to be honest with you. I knew I wanted to be an artist at some point, I just didn’t know when it was going to happen. I mean, to be honest with you, it still amazes me that people want to record my songs. I don’t take it for granted, because it could all be gone tomorrow really. I mean the fact that I’m able to have hit songs for other people is pretty cool. I think my focus has been more on the songwriting side of thing.
Looking through your discography, the range is just insane. When you write, do you write with a specific genre in mind?
I typically just try to write something that’s great. Obviously, if I’m writing a pop song, I know it. It can be very different, there are certain melody things that you can get away with in pop that you can’t get away with in country. It’s definitely hard, because I wear two different hats, it takes me a few days to get in the swing of things if I jump genres. If I’ve been writing a lot of country and I travel to Sweden to write some pop songs, it definitely takes a couple of days to make the switch. I just really try to write something that’s great.
Are there many songs that you’ve written, where they’ve been taken in a completely different direction to what you imagined?
Yeah, sometimes I’m pleasantly surprised, like One Direction, one of the songs I wrote for them sounded nothing like anything they’d done before but I think that’s why it worked. I rarely will put a target on the wall and try to hit it, because I think if you’re doing that you’re behind the curve, because if you’re sitting down and writing a song for One Direction then you’re likely writing something they’ve done before.
I think that’s actually kind of cool seeing the evolution of the song.
Yeah, I love seeing artists do what they do and taking songs. The first time I heard Harry Styles sing one of my songs, I thought this is really cool.
You’ve had some incredible success in country specifically, with cuts by Justin Moore and people like that. Are there certain people you gravitate toward in Nashville to write with?
It’s all about vibe, it’s always like that no matter what genre you write in. Everyone’s different, some people can just work with everybody. I’m not like that, I have a very specific personality and writing style so I have to really vibe with the person. I just like working with a small amount of people. Every so often, I’ll go out and feel like I’m doing a speed-dating, where a publisher will set me up with six or seven people and maybe one of those people I’ll truly connect with. You have to go through that in order to find the right relationships.
‘Denim on Denim’ I think was the first song of yours I heard. Would you say that’s the gateway song to your music?
Yeah, I mean I had had hits before back in Canada – our country version of ‘Wake Me Up’ the Avici song, was really big as well – but ‘Denim’ changed the game. It took months to record the song. I’m really hard on myself, I think at the end of the day I’m quite insecure about my songwriting, believe it or not. A lot of artists are like that. You overthink it. I remember hearing that song after we wrote it and thinking ‘yeah that’s cool.’ I didn’t think it was going to do what it did and it reacted so much with people, maybe it was because of the ‘Denim on Denim’ thing. If you knew it was going to be a hit, you’d have hits every single time but you never know.
It also depends on when you release it. Was that song one you’d held onto for a while or released pretty straightaway?
I sat onto it for at least four months, just because I like to let songs marinate. Everyone around me was losing their minds over this song saying it was going to be such a smash and I was like ‘I don’t know guys really?’ Then we put it out and it just changed everything.
The other song you’ve had recently is ‘The Good Ones’ with Marie-Mai. It was an incredible duet and your voices worked so well together, how did she come to be a part of it?
Thank you. It wasn’t even a duet – the original song was just a regular song that we sang on the demo. I had an ‘aha’ moment when I was in Canada coming back from a show in my rental car and I thought, ‘what if this is a duet and what if the girl sings the second verse.’ We approached her. We wanted someone outside of the genre because I feel like everyone is singing with the same people these days, I think Lauren Alaina is like the hot female at the moment. She’s incredible but everyone is singing with her and I don’t want to sing with the same people, so we tried to think of someone who was different.
So what’s next?
Coming back over for Country Music Week and then hopefully a tour, I’m invested in the UK. I’m in it for the long haul, I see The Shires as a benchmark and I want to get to where they’re at.
And can we expect any new music?
Yeah, I’ll have a new single in the next couple of months. It’s almost done.
Final Few
Wine or whiskey? Whiskey.
Record you couldn’t live without if you were stuck on a desert island? (laughs) Counting Crows – August and Everything After.
What’s your pre-show ritual? Vodka red-bull and that’s it.
Would you rather be only able to listen to country music or everything but country music? Erm… only country music.
Complete the sentence…
Music is… my life.
Country music is… awesome.
Tebey is… complex.
