Brothers Osborne lead singer TJ Osborne has said that while the band haven’t sorted out the setlist for Download 2019 yet, it will be “mostly uptempo” with “a lot of dynamics.” The band will be making history in Donnington as they will become the first band to play at both CMA Fest and Download and with the festival being the UK’s leading hard rock festival, there has been much chat as to how the duo will approach the gig. Speaking exclusively to Maverick, TJ said that while other artists will be expected to go hammer and tongs for their sets at Download, having the ability to go full throttle and to be able to have something different to throw into the mix could end up leaving more of a mark. “We think that because it’s a rock festival, sometimes everyone that gets on stage – especially when they have short sets – just want to be loud for the entire time and sometimes being quieter ends up being more impactful,” TJ said. “We don’t know how we’ll approach it yet. We may go out and rock it the whole time, but even when our songs do rock, we usually put a lot of dynamics in them. “Sometimes they’ll shrink down real small and then they’ll rev back up again. I think we’ll mostly have an uptempo rocking set, but there will be a lot of dynamics in it, for sure.” Providing something the crowd can get on board with Much has been made of the decision for the duo to play the festival and playing to the hard rock/metalhead crowd is a bold move for the country rock band. However, while TJ isn’t quite sure what to expect in Donnington, he believes that there is no reason why the duo can’t go down well with the audience. “I don’t know what to expect! I wouldn’t say we’re necessarily nervous, but we’re very curious. We have no idea how it’s going to go. We’ve played different variations of rock stuff and had a very good response from that, but I think at the same time that the sound of rock and roll and the personification of rock and roll aren’t always the same thing. “We played this rock thing before and someone said, ‘oh you guys are country and you’re coming over to the rock stuff?’ and I said, ‘if Willie Nelson walked on the stage right now, you can’t tell me that no-one here wouldn’t think it was f***ing awesome. He doesn’t play rock and roll music, but he is rock and roll – he’s a badass. “I think even for people who like harder music, we can provide something sonically they still can attach to.” Leaving a mark Ultimately, the main thing that TJ wants to achieve is to show people in the audience who have been quick to judge or to write the duo off that in fact, they can deliver a good show – and he will be more than happy to hear those out who did so. “I want them to leave with that, feeling like ‘man, those guys are themselves, they’re authentic and real musicians’ and have people that maybe wouldn’t give us a shot, because they’ve heard we’re from Nashville or are a country band, be like ‘holy s***, I judged them and read a book by its cover rather than give it a shot.’” Brothers Osborne will be playing the Zippo Encore Stage at Download between 4pm-4:40pm on June 15.
