5 September 2024

Eric, your newest single ‘Shadow of a Man’ is an upbeat track that lyrically delves into the struggles of losing yourself. Can you share the inspiration behind this track and any particular experiences that shaped its creation?  To my shame, I must confess I got into a fight with my best friend at the time, our drummer, because I had an argument with our bass player, my girlfriend at the time, and he, my best mate, jumped in. The next thing I knew, we were almost at it. I remember thinking: “Whoa, this ain’t me!” That was when I was in my teens, and I’m glad to say I learned a thing or two along the way. Or at least I hope I did. But I imagine it happens in all variations in relationships as well, where we find ourselves saying things we don’t mean to say. The chorus is kind of tongue-in-cheek, saying I usually remember faces, it’s names I can’t recall. But this shadow of a man I’m facing, I don’t recognise at all. Bob Dylan sang ‘I Threw It All Away,’ so I guess we’ve all been there, right? (I was a fool, I treated her so cruel, I threw it all away. Get it?)   It seems to be important for you to properly credit your band and collaborators. Why do you feel that this is an important thing to do as an artist?  It’s been years since I have played with the same band doing my own songs. In the nineties, I had my own band, but since I started as a recording artist (in 2004), I’ve hardly had the opportunity to tour with a band. My 2021 release ‘Song & Dance Man’ got us so much attention that I was able to properly tour and hold a band together.   Producer and multi-instrumentalist Janos Koolen brought in Lucas Beukers on upright bass, and we both knew and played with violinist Joost van Es before, and the whole thing fell together. The new album ‘Traveler’s Heart’ is a direct result of the joy of playing live together as a band. It inspired me to write a whole new batch of songs. I think it’s only fair to give credit where it’s due.    Collaboration is a big part of music today. Are there any artists you’ve recently worked with or plan to work with on future projects?  When I first went solo in 2004, it wasn’t long before a friend suggested we work together as four singer-songwriters and take turns singing lead and playing any instrument we’d like or would fit the song. We called ourselves Songwriters United. That was a lot of fun, especially because we all wanted to play the drums.   Iain Matthews asked me to be a part of Matthews Southern Comfort in 2017. He wanted to record new material, so we all wrote and made some pretty good albums too. We toured in the UK a few times. I remember listening to the radio as a kid and hearing the song ‘Woodstock’. Now I got to sing it with him and the new stuff as well, and that was pretty inspiring. I am honoured to have him sing on the new album. For the time being, we’re all involved in new solo projects. I am obviously busy with the ‘Traveler’s Heart’ release, and we have a tour lined up starting in September. And we’re hitting the theatres in ’25.      Read the full feature in our free digital magazine here: https://bit.ly/3WUe56j Never miss a story… Follow us on: Instagram: @Maverick.mag Twitter: @Maverick_mag Facebook: Maverick Magazine Media Contact Hannah Larvin, Editor, Maverick Magazine Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 920 Email: editor@maverick-country.com

Your latest single ‘Keys to Kentucky’ has been a hit among fans. Can you share the story behind this song and what inspired its creation?   We wrote this with our very good friend, Jon Decious. Jon is a great dude…eccentric redneck. It was actually our first time writing together, and we had spent half a day not getting anywhere…it’s like that sometimes. Then, Jon mentioned that he had some “half songs” that he’d been sitting on. He started singing a few lines, and Brent and I were both electrified. We dove right in, and the song just kinda fell out after that.  Keys to Kentucky was one of the songs that made us wanna record a record like this…more stripped back and organic.     ‘Dang the Whiskey’ seems to resonate with a lot of your listeners. How do you approach blending personal experiences with universal themes in your songwriting?   Most of the time, we probably lean towards the old idea of “not letting the truth get in the way of a good story”. But sometimes the truth….what actually happened…is exactly what needs to be said.  Every song is different. Some days, we might be feeling like we need to write something more zoomed out and universal, and some days we’re feeling more autobiographical.  We mostly tend to gravitate to whatever feels exciting or inspiring in the writing process. We also like to think about what’s going to feel awesome on stage, and sometimes the little extra spice of fiction might be what’s closer to how we feel than what actually happened in real life.      The visual aesthetics of your ‘Man Of Constant Sorrow’ video are quite striking. What was the creative process behind this visualizer?   Brent: When I was a kid I used to cue some music, stand at the closed garage door with a basketball cradled in my right arm and pretend that my team was getting introduced to an imaginary crowd of adoring fans. The garage door would dramatically move up slowly revealing me and my “team.” When the door was all the way up, I would take off towards the basketball goal doing lay ups. Weird kid. I know  That’s how the Man of Constant Sorrow video starts. Other than that, I think we were trying to just look like a garage band jamming for whoever will listen. Deep down, that’s still who we are.     What can fans expect in terms of musical direction and themes from the EP? Are there any new influences that have shaped this project?   In this record, you’ll hear the rawest version of Everette. We didn’t talk too much about wanting it to sound a certain way. Some of the songs we’d been playing live for a while, so they’d already been lived in a while and figured out.    Either way, we’re probably leaning more in the direction of artists like Don Williams, Brent Cobb, Shovels & Rope.      Read the full feature in our free digital magazine here: https://bit.ly/3WUe56j Never miss a story… Follow us on: Instagram: @Maverick.mag Twitter: @Maverick_mag Facebook: Maverick Magazine Media Contact Hannah Larvin, Editor, Maverick Magazine Tel: +44 (0) 1622 823 920 Email: editor@maverick-country.com