Everette, composed of Kentucky natives Brent Rupard and Anthony Olympia, is a country music duo celebrated for their heartfelt storytelling, dynamic sound, and magnetic stage presence. The pair, whose name pays homage to George Clooney's character in the film ‘O Brother, Where Art Thou?' have been making waves in the country music scene with their blend of traditional influences and contemporary flair.
Their debut EP ‘Slow Roll,' released under Broken Bow Records, showcased their unique sound and storytelling prowess, earning them critical acclaim and a growing fanbase whilst their most recent release, ‘Kings of the Diary Queen Parking Lot' was nothing short of a southern sensation. Newly independent, Brent and Anthony have dug deep into their southern heritage on their new, mostly acoustic EP ‘Keys to Kentucky' and, without losing their knack for humorous lyrics or backyard parties, have produced two of their most serious songs ever, showing the world a slightly different side to their songwriting skills. Read our review of the EP right here. We were thrilled to talk to them all about it.
It's lovely to touch base with the pair of you again today, thank you for your time. We last spoke when you were here for the Long Road festival in 2022 and there's been a lot of water under the bridge since then!
Brent: Thanks man, we appreciate the your time too.
Before we talk new music, let's take stock of the “Kings of the Diary Queen Parking Lot' era – did you achieve everything you set out to do with that release? I thought it was pretty great.
Anthony: Number one, we set out to make a record full of songs we were proud of and I think we did that. Number two, we were hoping for a little more success, whatever that looks like, with it.
Brent: That record was recorded right before the pandemic hit and there was a lot of excitement around it and then we all know what happened next! We were left with the dilemma of wondering whether to wait or release the record but because we were chomping at the bit we wanted to get the thing out there which might well not have been the best decision in hindsight. I'm glad we did it though because we wanted to get our music out to the people.
I read somewhere last year that there was 18 songs that didn't make it onto that project. Are some of those songs on your new EP ‘Keys to Kentucky' or are they all new writes?
Anthony: Man, we have so many songs, so many! (laughing) We write quite a bit and there were, honestly, more than 18 songs left over from the ‘….Dairy Queen' record. ‘High and Lonesome,' the first song we released for the new EP was written back in 2019 so some of the new songs are, in fact, old songs! That song, at the time, felt so damn good and I couldn't stop listening to it but wasn't sure where it fitted in amongst our other songs.
‘Kings of the Diary Queen Parking Lot' came out on Broken Bow records but ‘Keys to Kentucky' is an independent release. Are you enjoying the freedom of being independent now?
Brent: Yes. (laughing) There's benefits to both sides of things but we feel who we are now and the who the band is that we want to be, it feels better to have more control over our music and over the releasing of our music. Broken Bow were great to us, they were amazing but with a label there's always a lot of ‘hurry up and wait' and we had piles of songs that we wanted to get out there.
I interviewed Drew Baldridge recently. He's obviously having huge independent success with his ‘She's Somebody's Daughter' song at radio and his take was that you almost have to outwit the industry. Do you feel like that or are you not as concerned with the commercial metrics of being independent?
Anthony: Man, that's a great question. I'm sure both of our answers would be a little nuanced but speaking for myself, I have a hard time concerning myself with metrics and strategy and anytime I do I tend to get pissed off and uninspired. Anytime I concern myself with just the music – that's where I feel like I contribute best – that's what is in my heart. That's why you have a team because hopefully they will concentrate on the business side of things for you.
Brent: I know Drew and what's he's done is absolutely inspiring and incredible. I respect that so much but I am with Anthony. Every artist is different, some artists are also entrepreneurs and they can operate in both the the business and creative worlds, Drew is one of those guys and I respect that so much.
Let's talk about ‘Keys to Kentucky.' It's a great EP with a lot of different moods and styles all tied together with your sense of bluegrass-leaning, Appalachian soul. ‘High and Lonesome' is a fascinating song because it's a sad song but it's full of energy, which is a really interesting juxtaposition.
Anthony: It's kinda funny, you know, because a lot of bluegrass songs, a lot of rock n roll songs are inherently sad, even when they are uptempo. Sometimes emotions come out a little more honestly with a fast, uptempo beat.
Brent: That's a fun song to play live, for sure, even if the subject matter is a little more on the serious side.
Anthony: We wrote that with Aaron Ratiere, I love that human.
‘Picnic Table' has got a really cool vibe too. It also has my favourite line on the EP when you sing, ‘We ain't trying to change the world, just leave it lighter than we found it.'
Brent: Thank you, man. We wrote that song with our buddy, Jon Decious, when we were on the road with The Cadillac Three. We wrote that song in a van with him! I love that you love that line because as much as it's a light hearted song, that line brings the song down to a simple but meaningful level – we're all good people just hanging around trying to have a good time, let's all just get along. There's a deeper meaning to the song.
You mentioned The Cadillac Three so let's talk about the song, ‘Trippin' then because to me, that song sounds like a swampy Cadillac Three type of southern song. Please tell me there's a ballsy electric version of that song knocking around for release sometime in the future?
(laughing)
Anthony: It's funny………Yes, there is a ballsy, electric version stored away to answer your question directly and that was the first recording we did of that song. When we wrote it we were actually out on the road with Sara Evans. We were in the green room and I was messing around with my resonator when Brent started singing the melody. It did start off as a more acoustic thing but then when we went out on the road with The Cadillac Three we couldn't help but be influenced by them and the vibe out there. The electric version is pretty bad ass but we wanted this one to have a kind of gypsy / snakecharmer vibe to it which suits a more acoustic sound.
There's a couple of very serious songs on the EP in ‘No Vacancy' and ‘Another Man Down.' In ‘No Vacancy' you sing about urban sprawl and gentrification – did you have a particular place in mind when you wrote that song?
Brent: The idea came from looking at my hometown, Shepherdsville, Kentucky. When I left and moved away from home it was kinda this small, quaint town and every time I went back there would be some new industrial building going up on these lovely rural farms and it made me mad.
I was riding through there with a songwriter friend of mine named Bryan Simpson and I was telling him how my town hadn't always been like this and he said we should write a song about it. We probably wrote it somewhere around 8 or even 10 years ago. It was actually Anthony that brought it back to my attention after he told me how much he loved the song. It's finally made its way to a project!
‘Another Man Down' deals with addiction. I'm also picking up an Eric Church kind of vibe with the spoken delivery technique you use on the verses. That's a powerful song.
Anthony: That's so interesting that you drew that parallel. For sure, Eric Church has been an influence on us, as a writer and a singer and his production with Jay Joyce. When we were working on some songs Brent brought up the idea about writing about things that are more personal to us. The song is about a family member of his. We wrote it with Bryan Simpson again, he's also playing fiddle on the track too, we love that dude.
I had been listening to a lot of Aaron Ratiere's record and particularly the song ‘Single Wide Dreamer.' He starts that song off talking and then the chorus comes in and I always wanted to do something like that. It felt so honest and real when we tried it on ‘Another Man Down.' I feel like Brent maybe did it in two takes and it just so felt so right for the song, the talking in the verses.
Brent: I'm happy that you love the song. We've recorded a lot of light hearted and happy songs over the years and that's who we are at heart but I feel like there's also a space for heavier songs. My uncle passed away from addiction and I was imagining him in the hospital as he was passing away and the hospital staff just writing him off as ‘another addict.' I could be wrong, I wasn't there but it sparked this idea in me that the staff dealing with these issues day in and day out might get a little complacent or might look down on people, like my uncle, who had become addicts. I could be wrong about that but that was just where my head went. I wanted the song to shine a light on the fact that addicts are still human beings, right? My uncle was a great man, a good father who was sober for twenty-something years until he got trapped in it again.
Anthony: We just recorded a music video for that song last week and it was hard to play it over and over again. It's such a powerful song. It's even hard to play live sometimes because the idea haunts you a little and plays on your soul.
The longest song on the EP is 3 minutes and 17 seconds long. Does that mean you are now in your punk era?
(laughing)
Anthony: Dude, that's not intentional at all but it is hilarious! I think we were in the mode of ‘get in there, get it done and get out!'
Brent: We definitely are in our punk era! I'm not sure we've ever left it! (laughing)
Well……Independent, firing on your freedom, releasing music when you want……that's quite punkish?
Anthony: Damn right it is!
I reviewed Tracy Lawrence's new EP earlier in the year and was thrilled to see one of your songs, I Could Use One' on there. How did that make its way to him?
Anthony: Man, the song that almost didn't happen! We wrote that song a while ago and I was working on the demo, which Brent sang the crap out of, by the way. I felt I was trying to pull out too many production tricks with it rather than keeping it simple but we sent it out to various people and then just sat and waited. Sometimes when you turn a song into your publisher you get a bite pretty quick but this one just sat and then out of nowhere it was picked up.
Brent: I'm such a Tracy Lawrence fan. The little boy in me who grew up in the 90s hearing his voice on the radio is blown away by listening to him record one of our songs. One of his publishers picked it up, which is quite the old school thing these days because you usually have to write with the artist now or be in the camp of writers that the artist prefers to use. I've listened to Tracy's whole EP and, I could be biased, but I think his voice sounds the best on our song.
Is that something you'd like to do more of? Writing cuts for other artists?
Anthony: We write a lot and we never really hold anything back. We have families to feed and we need to put bread and bacon on the table, right?
Brent: I think it's kinda fun, too, writing for other artists – you have to use a different part of your brain. We just wrote recently with Larry Fleet whilst we were out on tour with him and I'm pretty excited about that song but now it's up to him to do with it what he will. The difference is when we record a song for us, we're the face of Everette and there's a different pressure that comes with that. Sometimes it's cool to just write a song with someone and let them run with it. It can be really fun to do that.
What's the plan for the rest of the year in terms of getting this music out to as many people as you can?
Anthony: We just figuring that out at the moment. We're trying to play as many meaningful shows as we can and keep shining a light on these songs that we're so proud of. It's a crapshoot and you never know which song will pop off but we're trying to do it our way and crack that code you referred to earlier. We love this music – We're so excited for people to hear it.
Brent: Step one if putting it out into the world and then step two is playing the shows. We're looking to come back to the UK and Germany as soon as we can, we love our people over there. We love coming across the pond.
Anthony: Every time we talk to our booking agents we're like, ‘We have to get back over to Europe,' every single time. It's a top three priority for us right now. We feel the love over in Europe, hell, we've even talked about moving over there before!
Brent: Honestly, we have. We've talked about moving over for a few months at least and touring the hell out of the place! I can guarantee that we will be back.
Check out Everette's new EP ‘Keys to Kentucky' – out now on all the usual platforms.
