It’s hard to believe it’s just over two years since Drake Milligan made his UK debut at C2C festival – but it’s safe to say fans here have taken him to their hearts ever since.
From a pop-up stage back in 2023 to making his main stage debut at the festival and a sold out UK tour last year, his rise has been nothing short of stratospheric. This weekend, he became the first ever Friday night main stage headliner at The Long Road, delivering an absolute barnstormer of a set that had the 30,000-strong crowd singing and dancing along all night!
During the festival, Laura Cooney caught up with Drake to talk about his headlining experience, his love for UK audiences, plans for new music and more.
How is your Long Road experience so far?
Incredible, incredible. We played last night. It was my first time headlining a festival period, and it was magical. I was just blown away at the amount of people that showed up, the amount of people that sang along. It's something that I'll probably remember forever.
It’s been phenomenal seeing how much your fanbase has grown in the UK in just a couple of years. What do you think it is that UK fans are particularly connecting with in terms of your music?
You know, I think I think a lot of it is our live show. And I've got a wonderful band around me. They’re amazing, and everybody has their own unique style on stage. And I've always made sure to incorporate that and people love that. And I think that far more than anything. You know, we first came over a few years ago to C2C and I brought the band over. And that's what advice I give to all my friends who are coming up, like, “Bring the band. Spend the money, lose money on your first time, it's gonna be worth it.” Because I'm glad we did and word gets around. It's such a country community here. And the word truly does spread everybody tells their friends and they tell their friends, and so it's kind of old school in that way. So I think that's part of it. I've spent a lot of time trying to figure it out because it's definitely new for me and not something that I thought would happen.
How do you find the experience of playing a festival compared to your own shows?
It's cool because I get to hang out and see other artists that don't get to usually see. So I love that aspect of it. I think it's more fun for fans that way. I do approach it a little differently, because you realise that not 100 per cent of those people bought a ticket to see you. You know, they might just be hanging out or they just want to go to the festival or whatever it is. So you kind of change a little bit of the set maybe, to play maybe a cover or an extra cover and so on. But you also want to, for the people that did maybe buy a ticket just to see you and spent all that money really just to see one artist, you want to deliver a show to them and try to play all the songs for them too. So energy wise, for me, I always want to keep the energy up in a festival and try to be the facilitator for that.
Are there any songs you’re particularly enjoying playing live at the moment?
We've been playing a lot of new songs, brand new songs, I just finished recording a record that is hopefully coming out soon and we've already been trying out some new songs from it. We played a number of them last night. It just helps us start to get into it, you know, find our little things like we have on every other song and kind of get used to it. But I feel like it's a special experience for a fan to be kind of in on it if they go to a live show and then get to hear those songs for the first time.
How do you feel that your music has evolved since you made your last album [2022’s ‘Dallas/Fort Worth’]?
Yeah, it's a good question. You know, the way I approach music is a little different now. Just because when I did my first record, I didn't know what my show was like, I didn't have a show. I was writing to make that show. And now it's a different approach too, because I realise that not everything I record, now I’ve got enough music out, not everything I record, I’m going to play.
But I keep in mind, maybe I want to fill a certain slot in the show, [or] I want a certain kind of energy in this part of the show that I'm not getting, so I should write something for it. And also just keeping in mind that maybe this is a song that is just meant to be recorded and enjoyed that way, and not really meant to be played live. But you never know. You never know what people are gonna gravitate towards. So it's nice. It's a freeing experience for me because I it's the first time I've gotten to make a record knowing what I was doing in a way. You know, I've got all this experience behind me over the last few years – knowing who I am and what my show's like and what my fans are like and what they like. So it’s been really fun.
Are there any songs that have surprised you in terms of how people responded to them? Or ones they’ve really connected to in ways you weren’t expecting?
Yeah, yeah. I mean, especially coming over here and playing songs like “Goin’ Down Swingin’”, which is a Western swing song. [It was] one of the first songs I wrote in Nashville. Vince Gill did a duet with me on it, and that always surprises me that fans react to that song. Because it's kind of a… you hate to say a dying art but there's not a lot of people that that play Western swing any more. But it's good to see that people all over the world still want that, and that whether they know what it is or not they’re like, “Oh this feels good. I like this”. So that one's been kind of surprising. But it's really cool to see.
Is there a song you’ve written that you’re particularly proud of?
Yeah, I would say, ‘Dance Of A Lifetime’, I'm very proud of. It was one of the first songs I wrote or co-wrote that I felt like was something special, and could mean a lot to people. Really I'm just proud of it because of what people have done with that song. You know, they're using in their weddings. That's what makes a song special, you know, people using it. It's not the songwriter. You could write the best song in the world but if nobody's using it in their lives then what good is it?
And then on the flip side of that – what’s the song you wish you could have written?
Oh, there's plenty. There's plenty of songs. You know, I love simple, simple, simple songs. And it's so hard in country music, too. It's all about simplicity, and conveying a message in a simple way. You know, they’re songwriters like Hank Cochran that I love, that wrote songs like ‘Make The World Go Away’. Willie Nelson's that way for me. I mean, a song like ‘Always On My Mind’ just says everything, very simply. People think it's easy to do. It's not. I spend a lot of time writing songs and it's hard to get all your points across that simply, and only the real greats can do it.
What’s still on your ‘wish list’ in terms of places you’d want to play, people you’d want to work with and so on?
Oh well, there's a big list. Yeah, yeah. I mean, there's so many artists nowadays that I am a big fan of, Lainey Wilson being one of them. We're going out on the road with [her] soon. And of course I still look up to all my heroes, like George Strait and Alan Jackson. To get to do something with some of those guys would be awesome one day. And there’s plenty of places I want to see. Anywhere there’s country music fans, I think I want to go. I would love to go over [to] Japan or something like that. I'd love to see it.
What does the rest of the year look like for you? You’ve mentioned touring with Lainey and new music – is that going to be the focus?
That’s the main focus for the rest of the year. We’ve had a very busy summer, we’re gonna round it out with Lainey. We’re playing some fun shows, like my headlining shows. I get to go back to Billy Bob's, probably my favourite venue in the world in Fort Worth. And so, yeah, we're rounding it out with some great shows and then hopefully, a record coming out too.
And lastly – you said in your set that you want to come back every year, so are there any plans to come back over to the UK after this trip?
We're making plans for sure to come back next year. So yeah, everybody should keep that on their radar because we're definitely making plans.
Interview by Laura Cooney. Drake Milligan’s latest EP, ‘Jukebox Songs’, is out now on This Is Hit/Stoney Creek Records.
