Lady Antebellum

0:00What's up everybody we are... Lay and a bell and you're watching MSN Exclusives. I get you to sing the whole interview. You guys just give me a little Eagles performance. I love it. That's great. No, but let's talk about Goodbye Town because we premiered the acoustic video on MSN last week. It was really cool. So talk about that tune. Let's get some background behind it and start with that. I like how they call it the acoustic tune. It's like full band. Well, no, but it's a stripped down version. A little bit. No, I know.

0:45I want to know who from label decided to label it acoustic. Because I was watching, I said, I'm listening right here. acoustic. He's playing acoustic. He's playing acoustic. Yeah, all of our songs are acoustic. Yeah, he's... alternate liveers. Yeah, we wrote Goodbye Town with a guy named Josh Keir who we wrote Need You Now With. So we have some really good mojo in history with this guy. He always brings out something kind of dark in our writing. And he came out on the road one weekend. That's where we wrote most of this record. So you're going to see when the ones are time to write this. Yeah. So we get these writers that you know you gel with. And we're really comfortable. I mean, they ride on our bus with us, wake up. We'll get done with the show and you'll be on the bus and showing each other ideas. And this is one that he had a little bit of this idea started.

1:31And I don't know. We all kind of related to this thought of, I think, when you've had someone that you've maybe been with for a long time and then they either leave or break up and you see either them or see places that everywhere you go, just reminded of that person and it just drives you nuts. I feel like that theme is constant on the record. It's a lot of love and realizing that's for the better though. Yeah, I think so. There's a lot of that, of course. Looking back and on those sweet moments, like the first time love feeling. But with Goodbye Town, it is about a relationship. If you listen to the lyrics, like, you know, but for us, it's so much more than that. I think when the boys left their hometowns of Augusta, Georgia and then went to school but then took the risk to move to Nashville to become songwriters, it's like sometimes it takes something

2:20falling through the cracks or, you know, what's going to be that push for you to get you out to really chase your dream and to not be afraid to kind of try something new, you know? And so towards the end of this song, it has this really great outro that was honestly this beautiful accident and the studio that happened that we captured on tape that is one of my favorite parts of the whole record, that Charles things and it's kind of his freedom chance. It's like, and once you see the video too, he's like running out of this town. He's like, okay, I've had it. Like, I've reminisced about her. I've thought about her enough and she obviously saw a lot bigger world out there. And so I'm going to go find it too. I hurt my feet, by the way. I never told you about that. Don't run in boots. Never run in boots. Run in boots. Not reviving in. We need some insults. I know. It's Dr. Scholz.

3:06I was giving you a plug when you were getting some furays. You said in the middle of that, trying something new. So is anyone trying something new? Are there things you guys are going to try that are new? I mean, obviously the baby's a new thing. That would be very new. But other than Libby, what are some new things we're going to be trying this year? I don't know. Dave, I mean, I think more than anything, where once she gets, once she has her baby girl and gets settled in, we're going to go out on the road and try to grow the show, I think. Just keep trying new things in the show. We've got a big tour playing. We haven't announced it yet, because all the details are still coming through. But we're going to go. We're going to be hitting the road hard. And so the baby is going to get some prime time, road experience for sure. But other than that, I mean, I don't know. I mean, I think with this record,

3:52as far as trying something new, it was almost like getting back to the basics for us. I think our last couple records were so produced and so dramatic and almost perfect in a way. When I say perfect, there wasn't really. Sonically, yeah, I know what you mean. It's a little more slick. And so this record, we try to keep it a little bit more about the basic instruments, the basic tracked instruments, and really let the vocals kind of shine through. And how do you talk with the producer about letting those vocals shine through? How does that all happen? What are you just saying and letting him just do what he does? Yeah. I think naturally, for us, we wanted to find the best batch of songs. I feel like we sifted through everything we had for a long time, wrote a bunch for this record and got a lot of outside pictures that were great too. Downtown was an outside pitch. There's a song that we absolutely love called It Ain't Pretty.

4:38That was an outside pitch. And I feel like if you get the best songs, then you can really get out of the way of them and play them very minimalistic and keep them pretty stripped down and acoustic, if you will. That circle. Yeah, I know. But we try to keep the arrangements more from a live band perspective. You know, we play these songs on the road every night. So you don't want to be in there adding so much stuff that you can't recreate that every night. And so that was important for us as well. So do you write for the live show? I mean, knowing you were saying this is going to be a huge deal. Two are in everything and now there's lights and sound and these LED screens. Well, like the outro of Goodbyetters. Do you write the outro of Goodbyetters? I mean, that's all we're in there going, oh man, live. This is going to be so great. We're going to hear the audience. You know, we've got all these moments. Yeah. You know, we've got some songs before, like We On The Night that had that kind of chant thing too. And so those moments in the live show

5:23are what it's all about, you know. Well, because we wrote on the road, I think we had our thumb on the pulse of what our fans and what the audience every night was really kind of digging. And I think that really helped us in the songwriting process, but also when we got into record. So that was neat. It was a really relaxed way to record a record. I mean, we went in obviously, we always put pressure on ourselves. We're perfectionists. That's the way we are. But going into the studio off the road was definitely my favorite way we've ever recorded a record. Is that a necklace or a tattoo? It's a necklace. Wow. It looks like it's part of the shirt. Yeah, it does. I thought it was part of the shirt at the whole time. I know, it was driving me nuts. I said, yeah. And that's a really cool shirt.

6:08It's a brilliant fashion. It's supposed to look like that, but it's not. It's perfect. You guys get over there? No, because you said something other than I wanted to touch on, you talked about the fans digging the tunes while you were writing this record on the road. And I think it was the most recent web episode. One of you said, tweet what your favorites are, the record. So what were some of those were their surprises of some of the came through? Across all over the board. Yeah, all over the board. I think that was the biggest surprise. It ain't pretty was definitely a favorite, which we kind of just knew. A lot of people were digging in Golden and Goodby Town. But then there were some other ones that kind of caught, you know, kind of came out of nowhere that we weren't. Better off now. Better off now that you're gone was one. It's just a good rocker that, you know, we love, but we just didn't think it would get such a response. You never know.

6:54I mean, that's the one thing we found out is you cannot predict. What the fans are going to gravitate towards. I mean, when we wrote Run To You off our first record, it was our first number one. And it almost didn't even make the record. We kind of got done with it and said, I don't know if this fits the rest of the record. And it'll be our favorite song. We'll never be a single. That's what we said. Sure enough, like, you know, that's been the theme. So that's why I think we'd love to get them involved too. Because it helps us, you know, kind of go, okay, what are we going to start playing live and kind of really help? You know, because if you see, you know, 50 to 1 over here on one song, then you know. It's got to be good. It's on the set of the show. Yeah. So, you know, there's a lot of that. But it is. We like to keep our fans really involved. And they'll let you know if they like it or not. Yeah. Sift through all the bad ones. Yeah. Yeah. But bad ones. Throw those out.

7:39Better off as the one my friend Will Hoad wrote? Yeah. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah. Love Will. Yeah. So when I was talking to talk some of this earlier, when you hear a song, you guys are all writers. So when you hear a song, you say, I want to put this on my record. What was it about that tune that was like, we need to do this needs to be ours? This was one that Charles championed from the very beginning that we all loved. Because this song's been around for what? Probably 12 years or something. Yeah. Yeah. You cut it way back. Mm-hmm. Not way, way back. But it was back when I was in college. Yeah. And I mean, I just remember loving it and listening to it with my friends. And just was in my eye to enjoy it and me, you know, kind of listening and go, man, we need a song like that. It's like, why can't we cut it? Yeah. And so, you know, just everybody does a lot about our first single love don't live here. Had a lot of that kind of cool, you know, just kind of rock and set a rock, we'll vibe to it.

8:24And we actually got Will Hogan to play harmonica on it. Yeah. The baby's heartbeat is on this record. Is this true? No, it didn't make it. OK. OK. So, but it did get recorded. Yes. We tried to record it. But our producer said the quality wasn't high enough for recording. So it didn't make the record. But I'm sure her cries will at some point. If not on the record in a demo. All right. Well, I'm already got first divs on managing. Unproducing baby speeches. Well, just producing the baby in general, whatever. We've already seen it. We've already seen it. It's like her name. It has to sound good. Like, because she's going to be famous. Like, she's going to be a singer. We were on the plane the other day. I said, totally have some names.

9:10And then there was one. I was like, no, that. That's a famous name. Well, then he's like, Hollywood create like Apple or something. Yeah. And he's got to give something to someone interesting. But do it. Tell the press that that's the name, but don't actually name it. Like, Megan, see what crazy, but it's like aiming. Yeah, exactly. So how has it changed being pregnant? Does it change the vocal performances? Does it change anything on the record the way you sound? I honestly think for the record, because we recorded the first half of the record and then went on a tour in Australia for a couple weeks. We started the record and then we came back. And that was when kind of the back half of the record was when I found out we were pregnant. But it definitely affected my confidence level. I feel like now and being the only girl in this area, it's going to sound really weird to y'all, I'm sure.

9:57But there's just a whole new level of confidence just in who I am and being a woman, like what your body's created to do. It's just crazy. It's been the neatest experience to go through challenging points and interesting, but really, really beautiful. And so I think that definitely worked its way into just my vocal performance and getting into the songs too. It's like, I mean, it's no secret when you're pregnant. You have hormones raging and you're feeling things a lot crying more on stage now. Are you thinking she works now? I haven't cried a whole lot, but now it's just the lung capacity thing trying to sing. But she's saying the student. Let me translate. She's saying the best she's ever sang for this record.

10:43So it helped? Yeah, I mean, absolutely. Like she's saying that confidence in the studio. I mean, songs like downtown, it ain't pretty. Get to me, the lead track off the record. I mean, we were sitting there listening because we're always there and it was like, whoa. She's got this strength behind her vocal now. So maybe she will be a superstar. I've got to let you guys go. So we do something called Five Questions. Five Quick Questions, one more dancers. Great. Road or Studio? Road. Both. Studio. Both, come on. OK, I'll let you go with it. Fine. Let's see. A little bit of E. Yeah. Yeah. Len, we're so close. We're so good, too. Leonard McCartney. Oh, McCartney. Yeah, McCartney. Yeah, McCartney. When you hear a song usually hits you first, lyrics, melody or rhythm. Melody. Melody. Maybe rhythm. Cool. Song you've written your most proud of. That's more than one word.

11:28It's allowed to be fine. Cool. Hey, one word, too. Need you now. Yeah, need you now. Sure. And in one word, Lady Antebellum. Redneck. Who I know. I don't know. Pregnant. Pregnant. Pregnant. Ormonal. Ormonal. Amazing. Island. Beauty. Thank you so much, guys. I appreciate it. Melody. No.