…and what an elephant has in common with their next album
After wooing the crowds at C2C in March, Everette cemented their arrival on the UK stage with two fabulous shows at The Long Road festival, playing on the Front Porch and at one of the Interstate after show parties. Since then, they’ve been performing gigs in Glasgow and Manchester, winding up this latest UK visit with tonight’s show (Sept 2) at Union Chapel in London, where they are opening for Sara Evans – if you have a ticket, you’ll be in for a treat.
On the eve of their TLR weekend, they dropped two new singles – Make Me Want One and Run from their forthcoming new album Kings of the Dairy Queen Parking Lot SIDE B, due out on October 7.
We chatted to Anthony Olympia and Brent Rupard at TLR to find our more about their new music, future plans (including more beer!) and just how serious they are about coming to live in the UK with their families.
Thank you both for making time to chat. You just dropped new two new singles from the next album last night (Aug 26) and you’ve been busy promoting them on socials. Tell me more.
Anthony: It’s been two years since we put out Kings of the Dairy Queen Parking Lot Side A, then we released a couple of songs: A Man of Constant Sorrow* back in January and Gonna Be A Problem (released during C2C). To put out a body of more songs together, it’s like here’s a bigger picture of what we’re doing, it feels so good to kind of expand on that.
Brent: we recorded Side B with Side A a few years ago, we’ve been sitting on it for so long, to finally get it out is so relieving.
Anthony: Can you imagine being pregnant for two years!
That’s the same time as an elephant is pregnant – 22 months for anyone who is interested.
Anthony: Oh wow, we’re like an elephant – but with songs…. (laughter)
You co-wrote all eight tracks on Side B – you’ve said this album is different, some more rock ‘n’ roll, some more country, talk me through that. Are Make Me Want One and Run a good reflection of what’s to come?
Brent: I think it’s a good little bite of what’s to come through the whole plate. With Side B, I feel it paints the rest of the picture of who Everette is. What I love about it, some of my favourite records, like Wildflowers from Tom Petty, if you listen to it, you’ll have the song Wildflowers, which is kind of like a folk song, and then the next song is like Wreck Me or something, which is super rock ‘n’ roll. That’s what Side B is.
Like we have songs that are as country as a turnip green and right after that it’ll be something super rock ‘n’ roll like a song called Wild Woman… it wasn’t necessarily on purpose, but I think we’re just being ourselves because we’re inspired by so many different types of music. I’m excited for people to see the rest of the picture.
Will you be dropping any more singles or do we wait until October?
You wait…
And were you up in the early hours checking the streaming numbers for the new singles?
Anthony: I was up early but I just went for a jog around London because I needed to experience the empty streets. If you get into that too much, it can get to you…I let other people handle that. I need to connect with where I’m at.
Our music is out there and we are very thankful and we have some beautiful people working with us to make sure that train is full steam ahead. Luckily we’re here and I want to experience that.
That Front Porch gig earlier today… it’s such a special stage, what were your reactions when you first saw it?
Anthony: I couldn’t wait to get there. We’ve played a lot of different types of stages. We’ve played in the back of truckbeds and all other places through the years. It was super interesting, it felt like the thing that we’re trying to provide, no matter what kind of stage it is, and that’s a homey, let’s all connect together – we’re all here, less separation between artists and audiences. That Front Porch automatically goes like ‘hey, let’s hang out’.
Tell us more about coming back to the UK after being such a success at C2C on the pop-up stages.
Anthony: Honestly it was like ‘hey, do you want to do this’ and we’re like ‘hell yeah’.
When we got done with C2C last March, the whole time, even the first show we did we’re like ‘we have to come back, we have to come back’ we’ve been screaming it and everyone else in our team has been too. To immediately have this (TLR) pop up, we’re like ‘YES’ and now we’re here we’re like ‘we have to come back’. I mean we’re ready to move here.
You said that on the stage
Brent: It was a serious statement, we have talked about it, for a little bit anyway. Once we saw we were going to be at Long Road, we just started calling our friends like The Cadillac Three. They had already put Lindsay Ell on their tour, and Sara Evans, we’ve been on tour with her and we are managed by the same person, so we were trying to figure out how to make the most of our time here.
What have been some of your highlights so far?
Anthony: We flew in yesterday (Friday 26th) we dropped off our bags and immediately started walking around London. I think we walked maybe half a block and right into a pub (laughter). All of our people, Sara Evans’ band – we tour with them a lot – we we’re all friends and we’ve known several of them for years. We immediately get our cold beers, we’re cheers, and like we’re all here together. And the weather, it’s been great, and we were just here for C2C, so London feels so much more familiar now, like we’re coming back to home.
You’re playing Union Chapel Friday 2nd, have you had a sneak peak? It’s such an iconic venue.
No, but we’ve heard about it a lot.
We can’t wait, it will be amazing.
Elephants aside, what comes next….what are you working on now.
Brent: We never stop writing, face-to-face, over a computer, by mail … whatever.
We hope to be getting cuts from other artists too, we have that role where we’re just songwriters you know, and we write with other artists as well. We’re always working on music constantly. We’ve just had a meeting with our label and sent them a link of 34 songs.
And this is like cream of the crop stuff that we would be cool to put this out now, so as soon as Side B comes out, we’re kind of ready to go…here’s more.
I interviewed Austin Jenckes earlier this year and he said he’d been writing with you Anthony.
Anthony: I love him so much, he’s such a great guy. Some of my favourite songs I’ve written have been with him. He talked about me…God bless Austin, that’s awesome.
The challenge will be finding another name for the next album, you can’t call it Side C (laughter)
Anthony: Yeah….no Side C. Some of these songs probably are a couple of years (old) like from 2020 – maybe just call it Elephant.
One more question before you go, what’s the top thing the two of you want to do with the rest of your time here – you can’t say drink more beer.
I was gonna say drink more beer (laughter)
We did so much last time in London, my top thing is gonna be Union Chapel and we definitely want to meet more of you all.
*Everette’s reimagined version of Man of Constant Sorrow, is special to the duo as it was the theme song for the movie Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? and they named themselves after George Clooney’s character Ulysses Everett McGill.
Anthony and Brent bonded over their love of the film and the song itself, and when they covered it on TikTok, the response was overwhelmingly positive. Even Dan Tyminski, who recorded the award-winning song for the movie, joined them for a TikTok performance, the success of which paved the way for a recording session.
Their ongoing popularity saw Everette debut at the Grand Ol’ Opry in January to a standing ovation and by this July had played there six times. Having supported Brothers Osborne in the early part of 2022, this autumn sees them going on tour with their friends The Cadillac Three.
Make Me Want One and Run available now to stream
Pre-Order Kings of the Dairy Queen Parking Lot: Side B HERE
Kings of the Dairy Queen Parking: Side B Tracklisting:
1. “Run” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Ross Copperman)*
2. “Woo Hoo Hoo” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Aaron Raitiere)*
3. “Gonna Be A Problem” (Brent Rupard, Anthony Olympia, Harold Ryan Tyndell, Bryan Simpson)^
4. “She Got That From Me” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Bryan Simpson)*
5. “Wild Woman” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Aaron Raitiere)*
6. “Shunk As Drit” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Aaron Raitiere)*
7. “Make Me Want One” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Chris DuBois)*
8. “Get By” (Anthony Olympia, Brent Rupard, Matt Jenkins)*
*Produced by Luke Laird
^ Produced by Ben Phillips
You can keep up with Everette at https://weareeverette.com/