By Athena Skapinakis
Advertising Manager
The Eli Young Band is on tour for their newest album “10,000 Towns,” and will be making a stop to perform at Bakersfield’s Fox Theater on Sunday, May 11, 2014. The award-winning country group is comprised of four members: Mike Eli, James Young, Jon Jones and Chris Thompson.
With Texas roots, the band grew in regional popularity before their current reputation. Upon its release, “10,000 Towns” hit No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums Chart, a first during their career. “Drunk Last Night” is their lead single (and my personal favorite from the album).
After speaking with EYB’s management team and agent, I set up a phone interview with Mike Eli, the lead singer of the band. Despite combatting some mishaps on the road such as the breakdown of the band’s tour bus, Eli was able to take the time out to kindly answer many of my questions.
Athena Skapinakis: How does it feel to have three singles from your new album reach #1 on the Country Charts?
Mike Eli: It’s incredible, you know? We’ve always felt lucky to play music for a living. Having number one really changes things for us. We were little band from Texas. We’ve had some growth and popularity just based on being a regional band. Once radio started to pick up on us and started playing our stuff on the radio—that changed things in a huge way for us. It’s a dream come true to be able to do that.
AS: How is this album different than your previous ones? Did you experiment with any new sounds or techniques?
ME: Every album we make we try to experiment a little more and more, but this record we kind of dove back into some of the stuff that we did with our previous record and did a little more of that on this album. Before the “Life at Best” record. Before the “Life at Best” record, we really experimented with different sounds. This record more than any album, we wanted to make sure that everything we recorded complimented the live show because playing live is why we do this. We wanted to make sure this album was full of songs that made the live show more and more exciting.
AS: You guys have won some awards like the CMA Song of the Year and MusicRow Awards Breakthrough Artist. Correct? What’s that like?
ME: We’ve won the ACM Song of the Year for “Crazy Girl,” which is pretty awesome. I grew up watching the ACMs and being able to get up on stage and accept an ACM award is pretty dang cool.
AS: What artist would you like to go on tour with or do a concert with?
ME: We’ve been really lucky to go on tour with a really lot of awesome acts. We’ve had a lot of those dreams come true. We got to do the Kenny Chesney tour. We’ve toured with the Dave Matthews Band. We toured with Rascal Flats. We’ve don’t a lot of tours that have been really awesome. We’d love to do a tour with Keith Urban one day. Even outside the genre and do anything with Springsteen. That would be incredible.
AS: Who is your role model for music?
ME: I think the four of us have a lot of different role models that have different influences. Springsteen is one of them. Don Williams when it comes to country. Those are huge influences for me.
AS: What’s your song-writing process like?
ME: We don’t really have a certain way that we write. I think that we’ve always tried to keep an open mind about the process. Because sometimes something really magical happens. We are on the road so much, and we’ve done a lot of writing on the record on the road.
I really enjoy writing at home. Sometimes, I’ll have artists come stay at my house. Writing in the living room I think is just one of those things, you pull from there a different place. There’s a comfortable feeling that happens when you’re writing at home.
AS: What or who inspires the songs that you write?
ME: We pull from real life. My wife has been my muse for a long time. But I think all four of us when we’re writing, we pull a lot from our past, the way that we’ve lived and the life that we’ve lived. We try to really write honest songs, and [songs] that we believe that our fans will like.
AS: When was the moment that you knew you wanted to pursue your music career and take it as far as you can go?
ME: All four of us always wanted this. We always dreamed of being artists and playing music for a living. As a band, we had started in college. We finished our degrees, and at that point, we had to make the decision of going with this or going out and using our degrees. That was kind of a pivotal moment for us when we had to make that decision, and obviously, the decision that we made.
AS: What’s the best and hardest part about being on tour?
ME: Being away from home is definitely the toughest part of what we do. Now that my wife and I have a little one at home, and John our bass player and his wife have a little one at home, we have to make sure that we get home as much as possible and remind our families what our face looks like.
AS: What your kids think about what you do?
ME: Our kiddos are babies. My daughter is 21 months old. But she’s still figuring it out, I think. She’ll grow up with this. It’s going to be natural to her. I’m hoping she’ll rebel and become a doctor.
AS: Do you think she might have the same interest in music and pursue that as well?
ME: I can tell that she already does. She really loves music, and she is constantly wanting me to play guitar and sing for her. I think that there is definitely a love there. I’ll definitely make sure that she’s playing an instrument and that music is a big part of her life. I think that as a father—and her mom would agree—that it’s whatever she wants to do. We’re going to open the doors for her, whether it’s sports or music, or whatever. Just make sure that the doors are open for her. It’s whatever door she wants to walk through. It’s her decision.
AS: Do you ever get nervous still when you perform?
ME: All the time. I think naturally that most artists and musicians are somewhat of introverts even though we seem very much an extrovert. That’s just kind of the nature of the game. You get up on stage and you’re giving your fans a huge part of who you are. You’re opening yourself. There’s a little bit of some vulnerability. Not every show, but some of the bigger ones definitely.
AS: So far, what’s your favorite show you’ve played?
ME: We’ve had a lot. I think playing Red Rocks is incredible. Playing at the Houston Rodeo for the first time was incredible because I grew up in the Houston area and playing at the rodeo is a big deal.
AS: What’s it like being on tour?
ME: It’s a lot of hurry up and go to the next place and wait for the next show. It can be draining. They’re really long days. Especially those of us have kids, we are used to waking up early, but then your evenings go well into the night. They become very long days, but it’s definitely a lot of fun.
AS: If you had not pursued music, what would you have done with your degree?
ME: I have a business administration degree in marketing. I’d be doing something along those lines, but I’d like to think I’d be in the music business in some way.
AS: What was your first show that you did?
ME: Well, when I was growing up I played a lot of opera houses. You go and sing church group songs, and there’s a bunch of singers. You do that and you play the George Strait tunes or the Garth Brooks tunes. I did a lot of that when I was younger. Then in college—that’s when we started the band—our first show as a band was in Oct. of 2000. We played at the R Bar in Denton, Texas. This was kind of a little dive bar that they actually had no stage. There were platforms behind the bar that we had to bring the platforms in for us to be able to set up a stage. It was pretty interesting.
AS: Did you guys know how popular you’d become?
ME: No. Well, there wasn’t any foresight to our success. Everything that we saw from 14 years ago to now, we kept our eye on the ball and kept our eye on what was happening at the moment. We knew something bigger was around the corner whether that was the next gig, writing a song, or cutting a record deal.
AS: What would you like to see happen in the future for you guys?
ME: We just want longevity. I think we just want to stick around. We want our fans to stick with us and keep up with our music. We don’t have to be the biggest band in the world—we’d love it—but to be able to keep doing this would be the ultimate goal for us.
AS: Do you have a favorite song that you sing?
ME: Off this record, we have a few, but it’s really hard to pick from the songs. We’ve put them on the album for a reason. We love them, but “Prayer for the Road” is probably my favorite on this album. “Dust” is probably a close second because it’s just a lot of fun to play live. “Drunk Last Night” has been awesome for us. I’d probably go with those three right now.
Tickets are available online at Valltix.com or through phone at (661) 324-1369.
The doors will open by 7:00 p.m. with the show starting at 8:00 p.m. Blackjack Billy will be a special guest, opening for EYB.
