STAGE RIGHT SECRETS Volume 2, Issue 10
ASHTON KUTCHER AND DANNY MASTERSON -Spill on Part 3 of Netflix’s The Ranch and more!
Song Suffragettes - Cloves - Charlie Worsham - and more!
Interviews Cloves: 4-9 Kyle Reynolds: 10-13 Morgan Evans: 14-15 Charlie Worsham: 24-29 The Delta Saints: 30-32 Spencer Crandall: 33-34 Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson: 35-38
photo galleries Portugal. The Man: 16-17 Dan + Shay: 18-19 Hunter Hayes: 39-40 Poison: 41-42 Ryan Kinder: 43-44
f e at u r e s Introducing...Jordan Davis: 20-21 Festival Forecast: 22-23 Song Suffragettes: 45- 50 Craig Cambell’s Celebrity Cornhole Challenge: 51-52 A Day In The Life of The Foxies: 53-59
s ta f f PHOTOGRAPHERS Maggie Clark Kylie Rebecca Chelsea Cannon Jaime Schultz Ariel Kassulke Jacklyn Krol
Cover Photos Maggie Clark and Jacklyn Krol Editor In Chief Jacklyn Krol Design Editor Maggie Clark
WRITERS Giselle Kertis Jacklyn Krol Brianna Silva
Throwback photo: Noah Cyrus at Wango Tango by Amy Wolff
C L O V E S Photos by Maggie Clark Story by Giselle Kertis
It’s a rarity to find an artist that is able to captivate an entire audience without a major production or gimmick, but Cloves is the one in a million that can. With her breathtaking vocals and stunning lyrics, it’s no wonder that she only needs a microphone to blow a crowd away. We spoke with her after her sold out show at Nashville’s 3rd & Lindsley. SRS: Your music is phenomenal but it’s hard to classify or put a genre to it. What would you consider yourself? Cloves: I don’t know to be honest, I think it’s hopefully just a mix of all of my influences. I grew up listening to a lot of 90’s bands and big voices like Aretha (Franklin), so hopefully a sort of junction of that. SRS: Do you feel like genres do still matter today? Cloves: I mean, I think everything sort of bleeds into each other now a days anyway so it’s sort of becoming genreless. SRS: Where is the weirdest place you gained inspiration for or written a song? Cloves: I just write songs in a house... just normal in a room. I’m not one of those “go to some really exotic place to write a song” people. Just write a song in a house, cup of tea and a piece of toast! SRS: What do you look for in a good cowriter/ cowriting session? Cloves: I’ve written most of my album with the same guy called Justin Parker, who has been sort of a writing mentor to me. It’s just about
finding good chemistry with people, people that understand you. SRS: You have a playlist with thousands of followers on Spotify for drinking gin and tonic basically... Cloves: Songs to drink to! SRS: What are you currently jamming out to on it? Cloves: Definitely a bit of Black, I like his new record and a little bit of the classics.
SRS: So you have a new album you are working on and it’s coming out this year. Do you know a date yet? Cloves: I think it will be the end of the year. I’m wrapping it up now, it’s exciting! It’s been a very long process. SRS: Do you have songs ready and chosen? Cloves: Yes I do. SRS: What was the process like choosing the songs? Cloves: It was a process of me and Justin wrote most of the songs together and we took them into the studio with two guys who have been producing them with me and then we worked on all the arrangements of the records. Once we get the core of the song that we like, we find some sort of honesty and then we take it into the studio and find some sort of
creative direction. SRS: With your EP you had an amazing track list, it really did flow. How many track lists do you go through to find the perfect one? Cloves: To be honest I really have not started to order them yet! We have been playing them live a lot which gives you a good feeling of how songs work in order with each other. We’ve tried a few different set list options and I think that will help me choose the order of the album. When you play it live you get a true reaction to how people take it, so you have “that’s too low” or “that one needs to come up”. So it’s been experimenting live. SRS: Do you have an album title? Cloves: I do!
SRS: Your music videos are so visually incredible! Do you come up with the concept? How does it work? Cloves: We’ve sat down with the director with been working with, a guy called Philip Lopez. The first idea came out from a guy I work with and create stuff with, we came up with the idea of it being very visually dynamic. For “California Numb” we wanted something super simplistic that brought my personality across. We come up with the concept and Phillip runs with it.
KY LE R E Y N O L DS Photos by Maggie Clark
You may not know Kyle Reynolds tionship that did not work out if you lisname just yet but chances are if ten to the lyrics. SRS: Did you write the song? you watch one of the countless KR: I wrote it with my friend Sam Ellis, we also wrote a song called “Hold You television shows his music has been featured on like The Middle, Tighter” together. We wrote that in Nashville, TN and he co-produced it with a ESPN, Supergirl, you’ve heard his guy named Daniel Webber who’s super music. His latest single “Friday talented. We met a few months ago and Saturday Sunday” is sure to be a then me and Sam wrote it and then on crowd pleaser with a catchy beat the production side collaborated with him. and infectious lyrics. SRS: You are in Los Angeles quite a bit, is
SRS: You have a new single “Friday Satur- the vibe different than Nashville? day Sunday” are those your favorite days? KR: It’s very different. I think there’s pros KR: No but it was her favorite days, I’m just and cons to both. I think Nashville is a litkidding but I’m not really. It’s kind of just tle more homier, safe, a little less prideful about someone who wants to have fun on in certain situations. There’s going to be the weekends but can’t commit something really awesome people and not awesome the rest of the week. It’s just about a rela people wherever you go. I feel like are
producer/writers and a lot of my sessions in L.A. you have someone in the room who’s just the producer and just the top liner. That’s why there’s many more names on a pop song compared to a country song or singer songwriter song. I like writing in both environments for different reasons because you end up getting a different song depending on where you are. SRS: What went into writing the song? KR: “Friday Saturday Sunday” I wrote in Nashville at Sam’s house. The demo is pretty close to what the final product is, and pop music I feel like especially now the demo is typically very close to what the final product is going to be. It was produced in L.A. by Daniel Weber and there was additional production and mixing in L.A. by a guy named Quincy. It kind of bounced around, it was a mixture of Nashville and L.A.
SRS: You’re aesthetic for this new song is really yellow, what made you choose it? KR: Go Preds! I never in my whole time making music, I’m so in love with making the music part I’ve never focused on branding or just certain things like that, that are super important. I think as artists I think wish music was the most important thing, it still is to me. But as far as a career or commercially the whole package is really important. We were trying to figure out what the branding would be for the single, I don’t even know how it happened. We just landed on the color yellow. My manager Dan bought me these yellow shoes. The album art decided to be yellow, now my microphone stand is yellow. It’s a very random thing.
SRS: Can we expect a video? KR: There will be a video soon, with yellow. It will not be lacking in yellow. SRS: Is there more new music to come? KR: Right now we’re just doing single releases and then probably later next year do an E.P. Playing some more shows and touring a little bit. SRS: Are there any deciding factor to choosing your single? KR: There is, for a single is typically what is the hookiest song that would play on the radio. I want it to be a healthy balance of a couple songs that feel more radio and one that is just very where I don’t care about radio at all which would be considered an album cut. You know the songs on your records where you’re just where you know it’s not three minutes and thirty seconds, or not that super massive chords but you still love it. I want a song that’s like that. A lot of this new music’s theme in the new verses sharing my life and being very transparent through the verses and then having this kind of an-thematic and singalong chorus which is very much how “Friday Saturday Sunday” is.
MORGAN EVANS S O
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SRS: Since it is CMA Fest, if money was no object what would your dream fan club party entail? ME: On the beach somewhere, we’d have a big stage with all of my favorite artists playing and a whole lot of tequila. SRS: We just watched your set performing your new single “Kiss Somebody”, can we expect a video? ME: I’m going to make it within the next month, when it comes out you’ll see all of the pictures as well. SRS: What would the concept look like? ME: Well it’s called “Kiss Somebody” so I would imagine there’s going to be a lot of kissing involved in this video. We haven’t made it yet so I can’t even drop secrets or anything. SRS: How did signing with Warner come about? ME: I’m from Australia and Warner down there I’ve been with for a while. I found out I was signing to the guys here in February this year, I got a call from Scott who’s one of the big decision makers here, and he was like ‘Man we love your music we’re ready to go, let’s do this! It’s going to be awesome.’ It was like an over the phone high five, then I gave him a real high five when I saw him again. I’m so happy, so stoked that I have an opportunity to put my music out here. SRS: You have your “American band” do you think you’ll continue with that or get actual band members? ME: I miss playing with a full band for sure but for the time being my American band works, she’s referring to my loop pedal by the way. I play beats into this pedal and it repeats them all. I’m having fun with that at the moment, especially for rooms like that for the show we just did, it feels like the right thing to do. When it feels like the wrong thing to do we’ll get some drummers, maybe just one, some guitar players and we’ll make it a little bit louder. SRS: Your song “Day Drunk” keeps getting stuck in my head, is there a song that always gets stuck in yours? ME: Yes, (sings) “Might get a little dirt on my boots” that has been in my head for like three months now.
P O RT U GA L . T H E M A N Photos by Ariel Kassulke
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Photos by Maggie Clark and Jacklyn Krol
INT RODUCING J O R D A N D AV I S Photos by Chelsea Cannon Interview by Jacklyn Krol
Meet country’s newcomer, Jordan Davis. Jordan just released his debut single, “Singles You Up” to country radio to widespread acclaim. Jordan co-wrote the catchy track and is the first single off his highly-anticipated forthcoming album via MCA Nashville. SRS: What have you been up to this week at CMA Fest? JD: A bunch of signings and actually being a fan which is really cool. We take off tomorrow for some shows in Carolina, just knocking around Nashville and hanging out. SRS: Your debut single is out to country radio now! JD: It’s pretty wild to have music out, it’s been awesome.
SRS: You have a lyric video out now as well. JD: It came out on Monday as well, it was a lot of fun to shoot. We actually have a really cool French bulldog in there. We gave him a shout out yesterday, he’s actually on Instagram I think. SRS: Are you a dog or cat person? JD: I’m a dog person. Nothing against cats, I just don’t like them. SRS: Now with the lyric video out can we expect a music video? JD: I hope so. I think that’s the next thing, lyric video then put a music video out. That would be a lot of fun to shoot. Maybe we’ll put the dog back in it. SRS: You grew up in Louisiana, is it different writing in Nashville?
JD: Not really, it’s pretty much the same everywhere. It starts with an idea, the scenery for me doesn’t affect it too much. SRS: Being in Nashville, there’s a great community of writers. What do you look for in a co-writing session? JD: Somebody that is not afraid to hold back as far whether it be emotional or iffy lyrics. Somebody that is really open and that tries to write the best song you can write that day, that’s the biggest quality I look for. SRS: You started in college not majoring in music, how did you get into it? JD: I wrote songs going back to when I was twelve years old. My mom played piano, my dad was a songwriter, and and my brother is an artist too, my uncle’s a songwriter. It’s something that was just around from a really early age.
Music has always been a part of me. SRS: What made you draw toward country music? JD: It had to be the lyrics. I started listening to guys like Kris Kristofferson so those guys have some of the best songs ever written. The first thing that drew me to it was the lyrics. SRS: Can we expect new music? JD: Absolutely! We have six songs finished and we’re going back in to finish a few more. The plan is to release a full record, hopefully we get out this year. I’m kind of getting ahead of myself after putting the single out I want to release more. It’s definitely coming! Check out JordanDavisOfficial.com for tour dates and to download “Singles You Up”!
Festival Forecast Windy City Smokeout City: Chicago, IL Dates: July 14-16 Headliners: Jake Owen, Kip Moore, Lee Brice Ones to watch: Morgan Evans, Chris Bandi, Levon Fun fact: This will be some of the best BBQ you will taste in the windy city! Jamboree in the Hills City: Morristown, OH Dates: July 13-16 Headliners: Thomas Rhett, Jason Aldean, Lady Antebellum Ones to watch: Waterloo Revival, Ashley McBryde, LanCo Vans Warped Tour City: traveling Dates: June 16-August 6 Headliners: Too many in each genre Ones to watch: Too Close To Touch, Neck Deep, Creeper, Courage My Love Fun fact: You can skip the line by donating to Feed Our Children Now at the front gate!
Chicago Open Air City: Chicago Dates: July 14-16 Headliners: Kiss, Korn, Ozzy Osborne Ones to watch: Code Orange, Hell or Highwater, Night Verses Fun fact: There’s the world’s biggest metal beer festival inside Open Air! Must see! KAROONDINHA City: Centre Hall, PA Dates: July 21-23 Headliners: Chance the Rapper, John Legend, Paramore, and more! Ones to watch: Colony House, Jordan Fisher, Dreamers Fun fact: Karoondinha isn’t just music, it also features yoga, dance workshops, wildlife tours, gourmet food, and more! FYF Fest City: Los Angeles, CA Dates: July 22-23 Headliners: Missy Elliott, Frank Ocean, Nine Inch Nails Ones To Watch: Daniel Avery, Andy Shauf, Cherry Glazerr Fun fact: They’re adding a new stage “Outer Space” with over fifteen artists performing extended sets!
C H A R L I E WO R S H A M Photos by Maggie Clark
If there was one country artist out there that you should bet on becoming a household name, it’s Charlie Worsham. Just seeing one song of his performed live, you can instantly tell how in love he is with creating and performing his music. Great music has the ability to go from being a recorded album with production value into just a performance with an acoustic guitar and singer while still maintaining that feeling and passion, Worsham has accomplished this with his latest album. What sets Worsham apart from other acts is the true passion and artistry for his music which is missing in many genres of music today. We caught up with Charlie at CMA Fest in Nashville, TN.
SRS: You’ve performed at CMA Fest for a few years now, do you have a favorite memory? CW: The Ernest Tubb midnight jams! SRS: You also had a party there celebrating your album. CW: It was a thrill to get to do that, we did another thing at Station Inn too which is my other favorite room. The Ryman, Station Inn, and Ernest Tubb Record Shop are my three favorite, if Nashville were a house on fire and you can only grab three things and then get out, those would be the three things I’d grab. SRS: Prior to this interview today we stopped at the Opry and quite a few staffers said that you were their favorite performer and person. How does that make
you feel? CW: This town has been very good to me. It’s something I try to never take for granted and I think a lot of it comes from all of the people I respect the most they wore different hats before they became the person we all know, we were talking about Dierks (Bentley) earlier and he worked at the Country Music Hall of Fame. So many Nashvillians that’s their story. My version of that story is I played guitar backing a lot of other people up on the road and in the studio, and you just develop great relationships that way and you get to know a person without the weirdness that comes from fame and the Opry is just special and being a musician I especially love the Opry band they’re practically legends, it’s cool to throw a song in there that they can jam on that they can show their bread and butter off. I’m back next week. SRS: You’ve done all of this touring and just got back from the U.K. CW: I’ve been three times to the U.K. and Europe now and it’s just one of my favorite things to do, I love getting to see the world and the fans over there are incredibly gracious and I hope to be back soon. SRS: You’re opening up for Tim McGraw and Faith Hill, Tim has been known to collaborate with artists. What song would you like to collaborate with him on? CW: Tim posts these videos of warming up before the shows singing these classic country songs. I’d throw a series of classic country songs out there like “The Gambler” by Kenny Rogers. That would be pretty fun I would love to hear him sing that, I think we could trade verses I could be the so-called Morgan Freeman of the
movie and sort of tell you “I’m going to tell you about this old man on the train I met” and then take it away Tim! SRS: You also have more tour dates promoting your new album Beginning of Things, the track list flowed extremely smooth, how did you put it all together? CW: Well the track listing didn’t take that long, making the record was quite the journey. The funny thing about the track listing was that we knew sequence would be key cause we really made an album and I think it’s going to be a difficult record to introduce people to just one song at a time to for that reason you talked about, that flow. It’s a forty-five minute journey, we played around with a lot of different sequences and my old friend Eric who co-engineered and co-produced the record and mixed it, he came up with a sequence as usually happens I’m like ‘Oh no I think I’d switch this thing around’ and then about a week later I texted him and Frank (the other producer) a sequence that I liked and it was his original sequence. I didn’t like it until it was my idea (laughs). SRS: What was the writing process like for this album, any unusual places where you’ve gained inspiration for a song? CW: Myself, Ryan Tyndell, and Brent Cobb who are my co-writing buddies, we wrote a couple songs on this record together…we took a road trip and we left Nashville about 5 p.m. and as the sun was coming up we arrived in Destin, Florida on the beach. It was kind of cool cause I was living the lyrics to an old song of mine, “Young to See”. At midnight though we were in Montgomery, AL and we stopped at Hank Williams grave and we
sat around Hank’s grave for about fifteen minutes and sang a couple songs. As we were leaving one of us just kind of said to the air, out to the night with nobody there we go ‘Man, thank you Hank’. It had been dead quiet the whole time and as soon as we said ‘Thank you Hank’ a train whistled in the distance, so it was a sign. I think his spirit was with us on the rest of that journey for sure. SRS: What do you look for in a good co-writer? CW: Somebody that’s not afraid to get dumb, get vulnerable. I write best when I say all of the stupid things and get them out because writing is like digging a hole, you’ve got to get through the top soil to get to the real good clay you can use to make something useful. SRS: Do you have any favorite writers in town? CW: I do! This guy Travis Meadows who wrote “Riser” that Dierks (Bentley) recorded. He’s a great artist in his own right. I’ve been writing with a guy, Waylon Payne. He has a new record coming out soon that is going to blow minds. Hunter Hayes and I wrote recently, so great. He’s ridiculously talented. Obviously Brent (Cobb) and Ryan (Tyndell). Did you write this album on an acoustic guitar? CW: For this record we did, it was pen and paper and acoustic guitars. I had to present them and sell them to Chris Lacy at Warner and Frank my producer based on that. It was great for the songs, that’s how you know a song is great. Songs have a journey after you write them and record them, you keep trying new things and eventually a couple years in you tried just
about every way you can to reinvent the song live. I love that whole journey, I’m in the middle of it right now. I still love when you’ve just written a song and you can sing it with just an acoustic and a voice and you know it works, but it’s also fun to make it in the studio for sure. SRS: Have you played all of your songs live? CW: I have. There’s two or three that I’ve only played once or twice though. That’s what I love about this record is, I don’t go in with a set list, I’ve been playing solo acoustic a lot lately. I’ve tried using a set list twice and I failed miserably at those two shows. So I let the room kind of dictate what people are vibing on that tells me what to play. There are one or two songs that I don’t play that often. SRS: How is it coming up with which songs you’re going to play for an event or festival like CMA Fest? CW: Well you know we did a CMT Awards after party at Martin’s the other night and I got to play with the Midnight Jamboree band which is awesome and we did a set list and it kind of felt awkward doing the set list cause I’m so used to not having one. So I don’t know how to answer the question just yet because it’s different when you have a band. I’m going to be playing the HGTV Lodge here shortly and the thing about that is I won’t have a set list, I’m going to wait and see. I’m know what I’m going to start with and I know what I’ll end with. What songs do you start and end with? CW: I start with a song called “Please People Please” and usually end with “Southern By The Grace of God”. Everything in-between is up for grabs.
“The story of this record is that I fell back in love with music “
friends from Warner Brothers. We had a good day. SRS: That’s incredible, and another incredible thing you’re doing is a fund based on your arm tattoo. CW: Yes (points at Follow Your Heart tattoo). There are two parts to the fund now, I started the scholarship fund last year, the “Follow Your Heart Scholarship” we’ve raised about sixty thousand dollars SRS: Another cool aspect about your al to award young folks in Grenada who bum is the artwork which was shot in want to pursue a career in the arts. There’s your hometown. CW: Yes it was, little Grenada, Mississip- this girl who just got a full ride to where I went to college to a summer program pi. This record became such a personal at Berklee in Boston. A full ride, and she journey for me and being off the road might be going to Berklee. The day before for a while, while I was working on it I my album came out I got 501c3 status spent some time back home. The story which is a tax status for fundraisers and of this record is that I fell back in love with music. For somebody who has only we started the arts program, and I actually have this Giving Key, it’s the CMA done music ever, nothing else, that was quite a thing for me to get close to falling Giving Key and you can buy this through July. It puts money into CMA, I don’t out of that original fire but then getting know if a lot of people know this but it back. Being home helped me find it again. I would go through my hometown CMA has given over seventeen million dollars to music education. We received a and visit all of my favorite haunts like the airport, and some of the more daring grant for my arts program. high schoolers I went to school with they SRS: Were you very musical in school? would race cars down the runway. My old CW: I struck out at t-ball and never looked back. I thought for a minute karascience school teacher is now the mante but then I started playing music and I ager at the airport, the bait shop where didn’t want to hurt my fingers. my grandfather had his first business across the street and I walk in, those guys didn’t know me from all of this but they Be sure to check out knew me by my grandfather from my CharlieWorsham.com for latest resemblance. You walk in a room in my tour dates and purchase Beginhometown and people go ‘Hey are you Doc’s grandson?’ it just hit me. Then the ning of Things wherever music character of these places, I felt like I may is sold. never have a chance to document it in this way, so it was really fun to pick those spots and it was fun to share it with
T HE DELTA SAINTS Photos by Maggie Clark
If there’s one band you have to see live this summer, it’s the Delta Saints. This five piece rock band based out of Nashville, TN dropped their latest full length album Monte Vista to rave reviews. Ben Ringel and David Supica sat down with us in Nashville before their never ending string of tour dates throughout the United States. SRS: You’re one of the rare finds where I’m not sure exactly how to classify your music or genre. For people who haven’t heard your music what would you describe it as? Ben: It’s tough. We can say one thing and you can hear the same song we’re talking about and really not hear that. Just the nature of music and trying to be a band you have to pick something, we just call it rock n roll at this point. It started more roots-y and heavier blues influence. A more accurate way is rock n roll. Not being able to put into a genre is a blessing and a curse. SRS: Do you think genres are still important in music? Ben: There’s always a need to classify something. When someone asks you what style of music you play you want them to leave with a concise thought. It’s kind of the Wild West, I think people are coming out and stretching the borders of the genres which is a really fun thing to see and interesting. It’s a freeing thing when you make music and compete in that world.
SRS: What went into creating Monte Vista? Ben: All of last year was spent writing and then ripping the songs apart and then re-writing them, demoing, and then we finally recorded it in six days in December. It was a whole year process, it was the most infuriating and rewarding experience of our creative endeavors. We’ve been doing this for a while and to get confident in a way of writing a song specifically and completely ripping it apart and learn how to do it in a different way was incredibly tough. I was able to look back and realize this is the best we’ve ever done as far as writing and recording a record. SRS: What went into choosing the songs that made the cut? David: I feel like typically order is a huge thing, specifically the first and last track. We’ll all kind of break from recording and go into our separate corners for a week and come back with our track listing. In the past it’s literally been all over the board with knock down, dragged out fights. I feel like we’re all pretty close. This album’s track listing was very much implied with the songs, we were all on the same page. It was refreshing. SRS: How did you select the songs? David: We only had one B-side. We knew they were the songs. I’m really excited about the B-side we may try to redo it and do something with it. It’s called “Smile”, working title.
SRS: How do you decide on titles? David: Sometimes we’ll be designing the album cover and then be like “Track four needs a title, how about this?”. SRS: Have you come up with a song title on the fly? Ben: Our band name. We were writing songs and we had a gig coming up. We needed a name, band names suck. They’re so hard to come up with. Led Zeppelin made a killer name, I don’t know maybe they thought it sucked at the time, Audio Slave or Nirvana phenomenal band names. I have no idea how they do that. We’re sitting there trying to dig deep, in passing in a frustrated moment while we were drinking beer someone said The Delta Saints, and we said okay. SRS: Going back to your album did you think the location played a big part in the vibe? Ben: We recorded in Sound emporium studios here in Nashville. It is a monumental studio that has been here since 1969. A lot of my personal heroes, a lot of the guys who are the reason why I give a damn about songwriting. Everybody from Johnny Cash to Robert Plant, everyone has recorded there. It’s an unbelievable place. I think being there it lit a fire was through every one of the amount of genius that has been created and recorded in that room and you want to be a part of that. You don’t want to create crap where such amazing music has been put to tape. I think that was a huge part in motivation or fire, we were pulling twenty hour days, we did it in six days and it was definitely a race to the finish. I think the atmosphere made it
made it possible, it really gave us a unique motivation. SRS: How did you know if a cut was acceptable or not? Ben: It was just one hundred percent you’re going full speed, and it was relying on a lot of gut instinct. How did that take hit you? Ed (the producer) and I would be going back and forth on vocal takes. I would be like “Man, technically that was dead on. I hit every note on every run that I needed to but he’d be like “I didn’t connect with it”. Let’s do another one. It was crazy because he would hear it in two seconds in if that was the one. The nature of having so little time for better or worse, the focus was on the emotional presentation as opposed to the technical aspects which can get really muddy. SRS: Do you think you’d ever record an album that quickly again? David: I really liked it because second guessing is such an inherit part of the recording process that if we were given three months to record this I don’t think we could have recorded a better album, honestly. For me doing the work up front and just getting in the studio and throwing stuff to a wall and whatever sticks that’s what you got. I really like that process, I would push for it next time.
Be sure to pick up Monte Vista and check out their upcoming tour dates!
A Q & A WIT H S P E N C E R C R A N DA L L Photo by Maggie Clark
SRS: You have new music coming this week, what are you up to? SC: The single comes out on Friday, “I Thought We Broke Up” releases. We’ve been pushing that and getting it out to the world which means Facebook lives, Instagram takeovers, a big performance at Wildhorse Saloon on Friday so that will be really fun. Planning that out and making sure that I show up to places I need to show up. SRS: The cover art is pretty incredible for the single. SC: It’s pretty different, the song is pretty different and we wanted something that spoke to it. SRS: What went into making this new single? SC: It’s definitely a new sound for me, I think a next step and just something creatively I’ve been wanting to do and push the lines of what’s country and what’s not. We wrote this song with Scott Porter and Sammy Arriaga, kind of about one of Sammy’s love interests. He was just saying ‘Every time I see this girl we’re all over each other, gosh I thought we broke up’ and I was like “Wait! That’s a great song title right there.” We ended up writing it and the rest is history. We wrote it over at Sony where Sammy has his publishing deal. You never set out to write your next single but we did it, it was awesome. I love both of those guys and they’re great songwriters. SRS: What went into recording it?
SC: It was great. This is our first song writing with Ethan, he’s super young like twenty-four or twenty-five, a new producer in town. He just gets it. He’s one of those guys when we sat down with he was immediately total getting what we want to do, kind of pushing the lines. It was so much fun sitting in their basement, we have too much fun. SRS: You’ve been playing a lot of shows recently, did you test out the single? SC: We’ve been playing the new single for almost two months now, it’s been fun to preview it. I don’t do a lot of set up but I’m like ‘Here’s a new song give me a thumbs up or down. Let me know what you think’. We’ve gotten a lot of thumbs up, so we’re excited. SRS: Are you working on a music video? SC: Kind of, we’re working on a lyric video right now so that will be fun. It has a lot of different shots, its a little hybrid of a lyric and music video. SRS: What’s coming up next for you? SC: More tour dates and more music definitely. We’re independent right now without a record label. We have a lot of freedom, we can put out music whenever we want to and play shows and do whatever we want to. It’s great!
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R A N C H
Nashville’s Broadway is quite the popular tourist destination, even more so with CMA Festival in full swing while simultaneously hosting a party for Netflix’s The Ranch at the legendary Tequila Cowboy. Two of The Ranch’s stars Ashton Kutcher (Colt Bennett and Danny Masterson (Rooster Bennett) were in attendance greeting fans and answering questions about part three. Walking into the venue, we spotted Kutcher on stage, guitar in hand performing songs he came up with on the spot. Ironically Kutcher and Masterson presented Best Collaboration Video at the CMT Awards while they were in Nashville promoting part three.
Photos and interview by Jacklyn Krol
The two joke on their future win “If we took over for Shooter (Jennings) and Lukas (Nelson)” Masterson laughs, Kutcher adds “If we did a music video of us playing them I think we could do it.” Music does play a significant role on the show, having all of the episodes titled after a country artist’s song. The show is focused in the country and almost have storylines or specifics related to storylines reminiscent from classic country songs. When bringing up the song titles as episode titles both Kutcher and Masterson were shocked that people actually noticed. Kutcher went on to talk about the fact that Garth Brooks, his personal “all-time
favorite” just tweeted him. Kutcher explained enthusiastically, “Brett Favre challenged me and Garth to this flex off to support the troops, Garth did it then tweeted at me.” Danny chimed in with a “Bro you made it”. Kutcher continues, “So then, here’s the craziest thing I haven’t told you this, I got an email from Garth inviting me and Mila to his show and I’m out of town. I saw him when I was thirteen years old he played in Iowa, I was in the aisle on the floor and I tipped my hat pointing at him saying ‘You!’ He took his hat off and goes ‘No, you!’ so. ” As Ashton continued telling the story he grew more and more excited, “I got an email and then I’m in Europe doing a show, and Mila was like ‘You gotta fly back, you have to go to the show’.” Kutcher expressed that he would love to have Garth songs as episode titles in the future citing The Thunder Rolls, The Dance or Friends In Low Places being favorites of his and hopefully future episode titles. Besides highlighting country music, The Ranch has the ability to be a comedy, drama, and real all within a singular show which is practically unheard of in sitcoms. Kutcher and Masterson are not only the leads, but also producers for the show. Kutcher shares, “I think for us as creators, we’re also producers on the show, I think what the characters do in a large way is coming out from our desire of what we want our characters to do. My challenge to the writers of the show is to write me a hard scene to act. hose hard scenes to act are always the scenes where it’s sort of fallen out of natural sitcom format where there’s real legitimate drama and having comedy amidst real drama
taking place in the characters’ lives. At the same time approaching social topics and making them funny.” Masterson added, “You see these guys struggling with life, the first season was kind of letting you know who these guys are and what their life is like. This next part we basically ripped the rug right out from underneath them. This whole season we’ve just been trying to stay afloat, fighting with each other, fighting with family, fighting with people moving out, getting other jobs, competing with each other, love triangles, doing the right thing.” All in all, loving this sitcom is extremely easy and has something for everyone. Being able to binge it is definitely a pro when it comes to partnering with Netflix Masterson said, “We also have a nice quality on the show where we’re able to have something be serious and stay serious and we can leave you on an episode of something terrible happening and it doesn’t need to be all wrapped up cause you know, you can just watch the next episode two seconds later, it’s one of the greatest things about partnering up with Netflix.”
The Ranch Part 3 is available to stream on Netflix now!
H U N T E R
H AY E S
Photos by Maggie Clark and Jacklyn Krol
P O I S O N Photos by Jaime Schultz
R Y A N
K I N D E R Photos by Maggie Clark
S O N G S U F F R AG E T T ES Photos by Jacklyn Krol and Maggie Clark
C R A I G C A M B E L L’ S F I F T CORNHOLE
H A N N UA L C E L E B R I T Y C HALLENGE Photos by Maggie Clark
A DAY IN T HE LIF E
WIT H T HE FOXIES Photos by Maggie Clark
ST R A I G H T F R O M T H E F OX’ S M O U T H A playlist by The Foxies lead singer Julia Bullock
1 - DISORDER BY JOY DIVISION 2 - DAWN OF THE DEAD BY DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? 3 - NOCTURNE BY WILD NOTHING 4 - I TOUCH MYSELF BY THE DIVINYLS 5 - THIS CHARMING MAN BY THE SMITHS 6 - NOTHING’S GOING TO HURT YOU BY CIGARETTES AFTER SEX 7 - TRUE BLUE BY DIRTY BEACHES 8 -SLEEPWAY BY SANTO AND JOHNNY 9 - BLINDED BY THIRD EYED BLIND 10 - ALL FUZZED OUT BY BEACH SLANG 11 - SLOP BY FORTH WANDERERS
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