Eric Church Has Carolina on His Mind

Eric Church won over fans and (some) critics with his 2006 album, Sinners Like Me. Now, Church is gearing up for what may prove to be his busiest–and biggest–year yet. In the next few weeks he’ll be headlining his own tour and releasing his second album, Carolina. On Monday, Church took some time to chat with Pierce Greenberg in this exclusive interview for The 9513.

PIERCE GREENBERG: Let’s talk about the new album, Carolina. What were some of the differences between making this album and making Sinners Like Me?

ERIC CHURCH: I think with this album, I knew the fanbase this time. When I made Sinners Like Me, I hadn’t met any of these fans that we’ve met over the last three years touring. It’s been a good thing for me.

I know a lot of people don’t like the sophomore jinx or the sophomore record. There’s pressure and all that stuff. But for me, I felt like I had been out there and I had seen these fans—their hands up in the air, beers up in the air, what they sang. I shook hands with them.

I knew when we made this record, I wanted to do two things: I wanted to be true to who we were, but at the same time I wanted to take some chances and throw in a little diversity and maybe peel back another layer of who our fans think we are and show a little growth.

PG: When you sat down to write songs for this album, did that process change at all?

EC: I think, from a writing side, the difficult thing with us is I’m a guy who loves making records. I’m a fan of music history, and country music history and all music. I’m very respectful of the time that I’m being given to contribute some albums to that. In order to do that, in order to get the albums I wanna get—the quality album—it takes some time and that starts with the writing.

We’ve had the better part of three years to make this record. We started immediately after we put Sinners out. I’ve been writing and the label wanted me to put out a record sooner, and it just wasn’t ready. I’m not a guy that’s gonna make a lot of records—maybe I’ll make five in my career, one every three years.

We dot the “I”s, and cross the “T”s, and by the time a record gets out, I promise that it’s worth having.

From a writing side, I think it’s about, if you write 10 songs and you put all 10 on the record, chances are you didn’t write 10 great songs. I have to write 80-100 songs to find out what the true 10-12 best songs are and that takes time.

I try not to put a lot of pressure on myself, and that’s kind of what it’s become. And I’ve seen a lot more things with touring, and I’m married now. There’s a lot more stories. There’s a lot more storylines on this record than on Sinners Like Me.

PG: I was about to ask. How has married life been? Does Katherine come out on the road with you? Is it tougher than you imagined?

EC: It’s going great. I thank God that Katherine and I found each other, because she’s just perfect, especially for what I do.

We’ve been together a long time. We’ve been together six years, so she’s been with me the entire time I’ve been a recording artist. She’s just the perfect person to be with and she does come out. She always picks out NY, Chicago, the West Coast runs. She picks the best cities that I end up in.

PG: Why was “Love Your Love the Most” chosen as the lead single for the new record?

EC: We’ve got a pretty rocking, rollicking, live show. The guys always have their fists in air, beer in the air, the girls on their shoulders—fists in the air, beer in the air—so it’s always a hard thing when you play a ballad or an off-tempo. I find that the beer comes down and the fists come down. So I’m always looking for that song that can be a love song, but at the same time it plays like an anthem.

Of all the songs I’ve had, it doesn’t play like the kind of song it is. When you see the title “Love Your Love the Most,” you think that must be a pretty lovey-dovey kind of song. You have to see it live to see that it’s become one of our top songs.

It’s also the best start I’ve had at radio, maybe ever, but at least since “How Bout You” right now. It’s gonna be great to get out there. We’re really excited about it.

PG: I’m from North Carolina myself, so the title track “Carolina” really hits home for me. How do you hope that the song will resonate with fans across the country, not just in NC or SC?

EC: I think the song is about North Carolina, but at the same time it’s about home and it’s about missing home. No matter where you’re from, it’s very appealing. Everybody’s got that place that they call home, or that place they think about when somebody asks them where they’re from. And North Carolina is that for me.

We played Charlotte one night, and we left Charlotte and we had to get to Nashville the next day to catch a plane somewhere. And we drove by the exit where I live—and it had been about six months since I had been home—and that night we were too busy to stop. It was just a lonely, kind of homesick feeling and that’s where that started.

I think it’s gonna resonate, cause I’ve already seen it resonate. Not only sonically do people like the song, but no matter where you’re from, you can insert your own home and make it appeal.

PG: “Lotta Boot Left to Fill” makes a pretty rash statement to Nashville. Was there any opposition, or at least hesitation, from the label about releasing this song?

EC: They were a little nervous. Actually, the president, Mike Dungan, who I love, lets me be me and lets me make records and I couldn’t be luckier.

He came to me and picked up the record and said, “First of all, I love the record, I think it’s another great record.” He said, “I played ‘Lotta Boot Left to Fill’ for our label, and I’ve gotta be honest, there were some nervous people in the room.” And I just kinda grinned and said, “That’s wonderful.” If they weren’t nervous, I’d be concerned. So, that song is meant to make a statement.

I’m not a big fan of reality TV shows. If you make a great record and you’re respective of the format and you go out there and play shows and do the things you’re supposed to do then I have no problem with you at all.

My problem comes when people come in and don’t make a great record, and they disrespect the format and they try to grab fame somehow versus actually participating in what the music is. And I think this song is about that and it’s about that statement. I’m OK with that.

PG: It seems to be pointing a finger at mainstream country. Do you not consider yourself part of the mainstream?

EC: I hope I’m the mainstream. I hope the mainstream becomes more of what we do, and I think somebody’s gotta wave the flag there. I think there’s a lot of artists out there right now that are considered mainstream that I think make great music.

I think that the stuff we sometimes point the finger at is the stuff that’s maybe in the mainstream that shouldn’t be. I think it’s the reverse of your question. I don’t find that we’re on the outside, I find that we’re on the inside, and we’re just trying to take care of the music.

Again, you come in and make a good record, I don’t care who you are or what you’ve done. Welcome. Fantastic. That’s important to the format and I think the format needs that.

This is the coolest format out there. I really believe that. We’re singer-songwriter-driven, we’re story-driven. The best singer-songwriters across the board—and I love all kinds of music, and study all kind of music—historically is the country music singer-songwriters—Cash or Waylon or any of those guys.

It’s important that we show the world that hey, you may think we’re this, but we’re really much cooler than we sometimes show. And I’m not the only guy. There’s a lot of new guys out there, and girls, that are waving the cool flag, waving the hip flag, and by the same token waving the very cool country music flag.

PG: Also, in “Lotta Boot” you say, “You sing about Johnny Cash/But the man in black would’ve whipped your ass.” Are you trying to say that you could hold your own against Cash?

EC: Nah. He would’ve whooped my ass too. I think a lot of that’s tongue-in-cheek. It’s an older song, I wrote that back after Cash had died. That song could’ve made the first record. I think it’s the oldest song that’s on this record. We just had so much attitude on the first record that we didn’t add it.

We started writing it when Cash had just died and everywhere I turned, it didn’t matter who it was, it was Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash, Johnny Cash. I felt a lot of people were just riding on his name at the time cause he was the cool thing.

I think that’s where the cinema of that song came from. Then again, it is tongue-in-cheek. There’s a lot of that in this song, and there’s a lot of humor in this song.

PG: When I first heard the song, I thought it may have been written regarding a certain tiff that you had with a certain mainstream country-pop boy band a few years ago. Did that have anything to do with it?

EC: I think once the record’s out there, it’s more irrelevant of what I think, and more relevant of what you think or what the consumer thinks. My job is to make the observation, I know the stories behind it, and it’s up to the people to make their own interpretations. So I can say that no, that wasn’t the main motivation for that one.

PG: So, in a couple of days you’re about to set off on the Young & Wild tour with Jonathon Singleton and the Grove. What can fans expect from this tour? Anything new?

EC: Everything is new with us. We’ve got a totally new show. We’re playing the new record which we haven’t played in it’s entirety yet. We’ve never played “Young and Wild” live and we’ve never played “Smoke a Little Smoke” live. I happen to think that both of them will play very well with our fan base.

It’s gonna be a great show. We’ve also added Ashley Ray to the tour. I’d been looking for a girl to open the show, and it had to be the right kind of girl. It had to be a girl that could go out there with a guitar and stand up against the crowd. It takes a special person to go out and do that.

I love Jonathon Singleton, I’ve known him a while—great songwriter. He’s gonna do really well.

For us, we’re gonna keep doing what we do. Our fans are very passionate, they sing every line. They bring it every night.

PG: We like to wrap up interviews on The 9513 by asking this question: What is country music?

EC: Country music is the greatest representation, musically, of real life. Simply, it’s become American music. Rock and roll used to be American music, I think it’s become country now. We’re a pretty big umbrella—we’ve got some pop, we’ve got some country, we’ve got some rock. We’ve got this thing to pull from that’s pretty broad and diverse.

I think the great thing about it is the growth we’ve seen country have from time-to-time. The contraction period—it always contracts to a truer place than it was before. I think that if we go through boom and bust and boom and bust, I think I see some really cool things right now.

There’s a lot of really good singer-songwriter-driven music, a lot of real cool country music out there right now. I haven’t seen the fan base this songwriter-driven in a long, long time. I’m very excited about the future, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.