The Eli Young Band, a musical band of brothers featuring Mike Eli, James Young, Jon Jones and Chris Thompson, cling fast to their Texas roots. The trailblazing group has come a long way since their formation in 2000 at the University of North Texas, with the multi-Platinum hitmakers’ dynamic career thus far producing four chart-topping singles; ‘Crazy Girl’, ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart’, ‘Love Ain’t’ and ‘Drunk Last Night’. ‘Crazy Girl’ also landed as Billboard’s No. 1 Country Song of the Year and won the ACM Award for Song of the Year, with the band also earning multiple award nominations, including from the GRAMMY, CMA, CMT, ACA and Teen Choice Awards. They made their UK debut at the Long Road festival last weekend (August 27th) and we were thrilled to catch up with them and reflect on what has been a fantastic career.
We’ve been a fan of the Eli Young Band since the ‘10,000 Towns’ album so it’s a privilege to talk to you guys, thank you for your time today.
Mike: Thank you very much, you’re welcome. We’re glad to be here in the UK to do it.
I know there’s no simple answer to this question, but what’s taken so long to get across the Atlantic?
Mike: Man, we feel like there have just been things, over the years, that have just gotten in the way. We were ready to come over in 2020 and all the plans were in place and we all know what happened there! It’s been a long journey, for sure, but we’re thrilled to be here now.
You’ve been making music for 20 years as a band. What’s the secret to your longevity and success?
James: It all started when when we met in college. We were all friends and buddies first so I think that helped when the music came next, it helped to solidify our unity and direction because we were all friends first.
Jon: I think we’re also a little stubborn, where it matters. Between the four of us we’ve also learned how to give and take with each other and allow our personalities to work which means we can keep each other in check but also stay out of each others’ way when we need to.
You’ve made music during a terrific period of change and upheaval in the music industry. What changes have benefitted the Eli Young Band and what haven’t?
Jon: Well, people are paying for music again, which is nice! (laughing) Not in the same way that it was like when we were growing up, but it’s better than it could be. Access to music to just insane nowadays and if you can capitalise on it you can be a gold selling band without ever leaving your living room!
Mike: The good stuff can also find its way into people’s hands without there being as many gatekeepers as there used to be. There were also walls that you hit that you couldn’t get your music past, no matter how good it was, and I think that now the way that music is just everywhere people don’t need influencers or gatekeepers to guide them anymore.
For a band of road warriors like yourselves, it’s good that live music makes money these days too, I guess? What’s the best and worst bits about being a ‘road band’?
Mike: The worst part is that once you have a family you have to be away from them for so long. There is an upside, these days, though, in terms of we now live in an age of technology that helps us stay connected and keep our relationships healthy when we are out for weeks at a time.
James: The upside is definitely the time we get to spend on stage, playing. All the other stuff is the work part, the playing is what brings the satisfaction and joy.
Chris: That work stuff is what you get paid for, right? The getting on stage part, we’d do for free! (laughing)
Is it easier being the Eli Young Band now that you have years and success behind you than maybe it was 10-15 years ago when you were striving and pushing against the industry?
Chris: We’re probably a little less schizophrenic than when we first started. We know how everything all works now and we are united in ways that we probably weren’t when we first started out.
Mike: When you get to where we’ve got to, you can start to say ‘no’ more often! (laughing) When we first started out we would do anything and everything and say yes to everything……
James: That’s what probably stopped us from coming to the UK till now to be honest……..
Mike: Because we would say yes to everything and the year would fill up and there would be just no time for anything else.
Jon: We were playing 120-150 shows a year some years and then add on press, radio dates and recording new music on top of that and there wouldn’t be time for anything else.
Are you making music now, more to please yourselves than anyone else, or have you always done that?
Mike: We’ve always made an effort to record songs that we knew we could play for the rest of our careers and have no regrets about them. I don’t know if we’ve always succeeded at that because, you know, hindsight is always a wonderful, 20/20 thing, but I know that we’ve always recorded for us and our fans first, and that has served us well.
Everyone talks about the hits like ‘Drunk Last Night’ or ‘Crazy Girl’ but I want to know what’s the best non-single or deep cut that the Eli Young Band has? For me it’s ‘Just Add Moonlight’ or ‘Lucky For Me’.
Mike: ‘Just Add Moonlight’, that’s a Will Hoge tune, who’s here at the festival today also. That song has come up a lot with us lately, a lot of people seem to be mentioning it. Both of those are good choices, we’re going to be playing ‘Lucky For Me’ later today. ‘Guinevere’ was never a single or a big radio song but it’s one that we always have to play live and if we don’t we get hate mail! (laughing) So, I’d say that one is probably our best deep cut.
Let’s talk about ‘When it Rains’, which is another song you still play a lot live these days. It sounds like you were going through a tricky emo period when you wrote that song. It sounds like REM or Counting Crows and that line about ‘starting off depressed and then everything else will be a pleasant surprise’ is such a hammer-blow!
Jon: Did you ever see the pictures of us during the ‘Jet Black and Jealous’ stage? We were going through a tricky emo period! (laughing)
James: That one was one of the earliest songs I’d ever written. We were right in the middle of college and bands like REM and Counting Crows and those college rock bands were an influence on me back then. We are all 90s kids who grew up listening to all that stuff so we tailored our writing a little around that and around Country too. It was kind of like a melting pot of influences when we first started.
I’m a huge Counting Crows fan alongside bands like Sister Hazel, and it was through those bands that I found your music, rather than through Country music.
Jon: I love that.
Mike: It’s funny how, over the years, so many people have compared us to Sister Hazel, especially in the tonality of my vocals. I take that as a huge compliment and we’ve always loved Sister Hazel.
You recorded and written with some big writers and artists over the years. Is there anyone working in Nashville right now that you’d like to get in a room with?
Mike: Jay Joyce. We’ve worked with him a little bit on some projects and we’d love to do some more stuff with him. There are just so many incredible songwriters in Nashville. Cam, who has stepped in at the last minute to headline this festival tonight, we are huge fans of hers, we’d love to work with her. The list is lengthy!
I can’t see you guys going down the HARDY, Wallen, Bailey Zimmerman kind of route really?
Jon: That’s not really our sound. That takes us back to that question of whether we want to write songs for us and our fans or whether we want to chase a sound that is super-popular right now. We are content with where we are and content with our space in the industry and in Country music. There’s a level of success that they have which isn’t appealing to us……..
Mike: Although I do think we could write something cool with those guys……..
James: There’s a meeting in the middle of the Venn diagram where I’m sure we could find some commonality and come up with something cool but it would need to be authentic to who we are and what we sound like.
What goals have the Eli Young Band still got left to achieve?
James: Shit, We’re doing one of them right now by being here! Being a band for as long as we have, our goal is not just to do something once. We want to be able to build something over here in Europe and then come back and play again, to be able to tour outside of the states on a regular basis.
Eli Young Band play London tonight (August 29th) and Glasgow tomorrow (August 30th) so grab a ticket to see them while you can!
