Eli Young Band’s almost 25 year celebrated career includes four No. 1 hits, with standout tracks like ‘Crazy Girl,' ‘Even If It Breaks Your Heart,' ‘Love Ain’t' and ‘Drunk Last Night.' The band has received critical acclaim and earned multiple nominations from the GRAMMYs, CMA, CMT, and more.
The Texas-born band, who first formed while attending the University of North Texas over two decades ago, has spent much of their career on the road. Now, they return to their roots, exploring themes of home, family, and the journey back with two newly released songs, their first in three years, ‘Home in a Hometown' and ‘I'm Yours, Amen.' Newly independent, the band have re-discovered a zeal and a fire and with over 140 more songs up their sleeve and a determination to play wherever they are wanted, 2025 promises to be a huge year for this iconic band. We caught up with vocalist Mike Eli and bassist Jon Jones to talk all about it.
Thanks for your time today, guys, we know just what busy people you are.
Mike: Thank you! It's busy but then when you factor in kids and the school run…..man, that brings another level of chaos to the morning! (laughing)
We last spoke in August 2023 when you were over for the Long Road festival and tour. Did we leave you with some good memories?
Mike: So many! We've talked about this quite a bit. We're so ticked off that we haven't been able to get back there yet. The plan was for us to come back in 2024 but with all the label changes and us recording new music, for whatever reason, it just didn't work out. The goal now is to make sure that we come back in 2025 – the next time we come we're not just coming for a week and half either, we want to be there for up to a month.
You've been so busy this year. It feels to me, as an outside observer, that you've got new music coming out, you've gone independent and returned to the Panhandle studio where you recorded your ‘Level' album and there seems to be this energy and zeal about the band.
Jon: There is! It feels like we've taken the reins back on our careers. It was nice to leave the label on good terms and kinda part as friends. We realised that where we are in our careers, they just couldn't offer us the outlet to put out music at the pace that we want to – we've got so many songs we want to get out there! We've, obviously, now got to pay for it ourselves, which is not always the best (laughing) but we can do what we want when we want now.
It feels very full circle recording at the studio where we went to university, where we met 25 years ago and it feels like coming home. We might look like different people 25 years on but the feelings are still the same!
What's been the secret to the band's longevity, do you think?
Jon: We're very stubborn people! We were friends before we started the band, which is helpful. We kinda made this decision a long time ago to do this for as long as we can and for as long as we enjoy it. We've found ways to continue to enjoy it together – working on things like an old married couple, you know? We know all the buttons to push with each other and we know, now, not what to push too, right? We all got married at the same time, we've got 9 kids between us all now and we're like one big family. At this point, we've probably pissed away all our other friends anyway! (laughing)
Mike: I know with the four of us that there is the right amount of honesty at the right time. A lot of times bands break up because of finances or because of animosity that builds up through a lack of communication. We try to communicate with each other and the right amount of honesty keeps you on the straight and narrow. We've had a few scary moments over the years in terms of whether or not we were going to keep going but we've come through those and we still like spending time together and playing music with each other.
You've recorded over 140 songs for this next phase of your career. How do you keep your writing ideas and chops fresh?
Mike: We don't! (laughing) There's a happy middle ground between us and what the fans want from us. There have been times when we've tried to write something new and push the limits on what we sound like and sometimes that doesn't work. There have been some songs and projects here and there that maybe went down the wrong road and we had to back track a little bit. We had to look at each other and say, ‘well, that was fun for a minute but the fans said no!'
When you are an artist you can get a little bored sometimes and want to try new things but there's also this place of knowing what your fans want from you. Post-Covid, we kinda re-discovered a passion for writing once we got off the road. The whole world stopped and I re-discovered my deep passion for music, my relationship with my wife and kids – I got to spend so much time with them that a match got lit and opened the floodgates for lots of ideas for songs. You will hear a lot of that stuff on this new record.
When the Spotify Wrapped stuff comes out in December, your cover of ‘Amy's Back in Austin' with George Birge will probably be my number one listened to song of the year. Did Little Texas have a big influence on you guys?
Mike: Oh, absolutely. Growing up in Texas we had this feeling of commonality with bands like Little Texas which made the songs mean even more to us – they were huge nationally but they were our guys, right? They had this organic rock n roll feel to their music which was a little bit outside of the Nashville Country music box too. Artists like that made me want to do what we do but to be outside of the box – to play Country music but to have a rock n roll foundation at the same time.
We love George, we've known him for a long time and so to be able to do that song with him was awesome. Our voices blended well together.
You can hear a passion on both ‘Home in a Hometown' and ‘I'm Yours, Amen.' They kind of fit together nicely as a duo. Is that why you released them first ahead of the other 140 songs!
Mike: We had cut five songs for the record already. One of which was cut whilst we were still figuring out whether we were still going to be with the label or not. These two songs felt right from that first batch – they speak to going to back to your roots. ‘Home in a Hometown' felt like the right song to kick off this new phase of our career and ‘I'm Yours, Amen,' is a lovely build up to the next song we are going to release in January.
It is hard to make these kind of choices although luckily we are not done mixing the other eight songs that are ready to go so it made the choice a little easier in that respect! (laughing)
Jon: We've probably got about 150 songs written and demoed and we'll have 13 recorded and finalised soon. It's kinda neat picking from the big bucket and then narrowing down into what's going to form a cohesive record project knowing that there's still plenty more choices in the bucket to go to if we want to.
Mike: The hard part of this process is that there are good songs that kinda can get left behind if they don't fit the feel of the record that is emerging. You can't just choose all the best songs if they don't fit the overall vibe of what the project is saying – you have to leave them on the shelf for the next record. Some of these songs were written during the ‘Love Talking' project but weren't right back then but maybe feel more in line with what we are doing now.
You could do what the kinds are doing these days and release all 150 on one album, right?
Mike: (laughing) I do love that approach though. As a fan of music and as someone who likes to sit with an album I want to hear the stories and read the booklet and find out as much as I can about the artist that has interested me and hear everything they've done. I'm glad that that door is still open for artists to choose to release in that way of they so want to.
You're out on tour right now……. How's that going?
Jon: We've got a handful of shows left this year. It feels like it's about time to be shutting down for the holidays, right? Thanksgiving right into Christmas – the holiday season takes over and we feel like we should be at home more. We're closing down the chapter of this year and have some rehearsals booked for January so that we can revamp the show a little, play with some versions of our songs and look at changing the set list around and refreshing it a little.
With 25 years behind you and a multitude of albums and EPs does the Eli Young Band setlist just pick itself these days or do you like to throw curveballs in there sometimes?
Mike: It's a little bit of both to be honest. We'll put together and rehearse a skeleton setlist but then over the year it kinda evolves and changes with songs coming in and out so that by the time we get to the end of the year our tour manager is like, ‘So, which version of this song are we playing tonight?' (laughing) Sometimes it depends on where we're playing, whether we've had certain requests for songs too. Sometimes it can even be in the middle of a show although I'm not sure that's always well received……
Jon: Out of all the people it effects, that throws our lighting guy off the most! (laughing) Which is hilarious. This year we focused on the 10th anniversary of ‘10,000 Towns' so we played some songs off that album that we hadn't actually played live before, which was a fun way to honour that album. Doing those things can be fun for some fans, for sure, and then sometimes I think we might just be doing that for ourselves! However, I do think that when you are watching a show, if the artists are having fun with their songs and are truly in it, it makes for a better experience for everybody.
Mike: You've still got to play the hits and then some of the newer songs – you have to try and find a happy middle ground that pleases everybody.
Jon: There are some artists who just don't like playing their hits after all those years and get spooked by nostalgia and all that but luckily, the four of us don't feel that way. It feels great to see the reaction on people's faces when you play the hits and the popular songs. If we left the stage one night and hadn't played ‘Crazy Girl' I think there would be a riot, right? (laughing) We'd probably get ripped apart online pretty quickly!
Have you mapped out the release schedule for 2025 then and when can we expect the new album?
Mike: We don't have a record label anymore so when can release songs whenever we want! (laughing)
Jon: And we can change out minds about it tomorrow too! That's the cool thing about it. The plan is to release a song about every eight weeks and we have an idea of what those songs will be but we're still waiting on final masters so we might change our minds on the order once we hear those. We might put it out as a whole package sometime in the summer. Hopefully by then we will have been in the studio again and so eight weeks after we release the record we can put another new song out there to keep the ball rolling.
Mike: We do have a new song coming out January 17th called ‘What Do Lonely People Do?' which is a killer tune. Writing a song like that feels really good. If people don't like that one……. that's the best you get outta me! (laughing) If people don't like that one, I should probably give up and go dig ditches or something!
Check out Eli Young Band's new music and tour dates right here and keep an eye on them in 2025 as it promises to be one hell of a year!
