Cady Stribling
Features Editor
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Ciara Benham
Staff Writer
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Students and community members crowded to the CFSB Center to welcome the Eli Young Band for a performance on Saturday, Feb. 22. Fans had been excited for the much anticipated concert and welcomed the multi-platinum award-winning band.
On Friday, Feb. 21, The News sat down with lead guitarist James Young for an exclusive phone interview.
Some answers have been slightly edited for clarity.
Are you all excited to perform tomorrow night?
“We are. It’s going to be fun. We’ve slowly been getting back into the new year playing shows, so we’re fresh and ready to rock out.”
I understand you and Mike met at the University of North Texas. How did the two of you begin making music together?
“We played acoustic shows at local bars around Denton, Texas, which is where we all met. People started calling us Eli & Young. That’s when we started writing our own songs, and we’d play every cover under the sun. Soon, not shortly after that, is when Jon and Chris jumped on stage, and the rest is history.”
What was it like coming from a small band in college to creating platinum songs, winning Academy of Country Music Song of the Year and being nominated for awards like at the Grammys and CMAs?
“We’ve been very blessed, and we knew we wanted to take it as far as we could. If you would’ve told me long ago that all this would have been in the cards… (laughs). But we were very serious about it, and it truly is a blessing that we’ve been able to make music together for 20 years since we all met in college. We’ve gotten to do a lot of great things, and we’ve been all over the world playing music. It’s been awesome.”
How was the college experience important to the band?
“I think college is when you find yourself and your passions, and you can really narrow down what you want to do with your life. College is about developing life-long friendships as well, and we did that with the band. It brought us all together and it prepared us to do what we love for a living.”
How would you best describe your newest single “Break It In”?
“‘Break It In’ feels like the right song for the moment for the Eli Young Band. We’ve been together for a while, and it feels like we’re just starting to break this thing in. [We are] now hitting our stride after all these years, which is awesome. It’s also a point in our lives where we all have kiddos as of recently. The first line of the song hooked me the moment I heard it—which is about breaking a ball glove in—[because it reminded me of when] I was outside with my son throwing the ball to him. So yeah, it’s got a dual meaning for us fan-wise and where we are in our personal lives as well.”
The music video shows snippets of the band over the last two decades. Why did you guys choose to highlight the band’s past for this music video?
“It was to show where we came from. We started out as crazy college kids playing music traveling around in an abandoned trailer and [it] shows where we are now. It was mainly to highlight that… and us feeling like we’re starting to break it in. Old codgers will have 100,000 miles on their truck and say ‘it’s just getting broke in!’”
Over the band’s 20-year career, what has been your most favorite moment?
“Winning an ACM was amazing. We kind of felt at that moment that we finally fit in the club a little bit, but longevity was always the key goal for us when we started out. To know that we’re still doing it all these years later, that’s a big highlight. We’ve gotten to go overseas to play for the troops… every year is a new thing, and we’re always looking for that next thing.”
Do you or the band have pre-show or post-performance rituals or traditions?
“We make sure to break off some time right before the show to have some quiet and get in the headspace. Nothing real exciting!”
How do you balance life as a dad and life as a successful musician who is often on the road?
“When we’re home, we’re home. We get back home a lot these days. We got all of our heavy touring out of the way when we first started. Before we had families, we’d be out on the tour bus for months at a time without a care in the world. We’ve been there, done that, so now we can fly home and be with our families for most of the week.”
Who did you listen to when you were growing up?
“We all came from a hodgepodge of influences. I was all over the place with George Strait, Waylon Jennings, Smashing Pumpkins, U2 and Stevie Ray Vaughan, being from Texas. As a guitar player, I listened to classic rock guitarists… yeah, we all came from a wide array of musical influences.”
What’s next for the band in 2020 and the new decade?
“Well, we’re going to be putting out more music. Hopefully in the beginning of this year we’ll go back in and cut some more songs. Right now we’re doing our own tours—theaters and festivals. We’ll be going over to the UK for the first time this year. We’ve played Canada, but we’ve never done a full-on tour all the way through, and we’re going to get to do that this year, so that’s exciting.
What advice do you have for college students who are following their dreams?
“If you want to be a songwriter, write 100 songs and maybe one will be great. If you want to do music especially, write your own songs, continually practice and work on the craft. You’ll never know where you land, so you gotta try a little bit of everything.”