July 25, 2023 • 25 mins
Join Brooke Taylor (@Brookeradio) and Neon Union (@NeonUnionMusic) as they chat about their new EP Double Wide Castle Sessions. Andrew and Leo tell the story of how they met and how much they enjoy being a duo and some pretty exciting things in the works for the rest of this year. Grab a drink! Let's go Backstage.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:01):
Backstage. Welcome to backstage with Brook. You're all access past to music city
where nothing is off limits. Graba drink, let's go backstage. All
right, we gotta welcome Neon Unionto the podcast. Y'all. This song
(00:26):
I cannot like in the best waypossible. I love this song so much.
Y'all started teasing it on your socialmedia and everybody's like, what is
the name of this? How doI get it? You're like, dude,
I'm redneck rich. The definition ofredneck rich. Yes, spending all
your money to have fun, butlike, honestly, you can't take it
(00:48):
with you when you go, soyou might as well just spend it,
you know what I'm saying. Ifyou got it? Okay, before we
dive into kind of a little backstagebehind your guys's you know, life and
your career. What is something thatyou like to spend your money on that
would consider you redneck rich? Ohman, you can't say everything he spend
(01:14):
I'll keep it similar. Maybe somefishing gears, yeah, okay, you
do a lot of fishing. Yeah. Mine would probably be, honestly,
as as weird as it sounds,golfing. I mean, that's my version
of redneck rich golf clubs are notexpensive. Neither is playing golf back in
the YETI full of beers every day, and the band of laying golf is
not cheap. I I will justI'll drive the golf card for you.
(01:34):
But I'm terrible at golf. Yeah, and I don't want to disappoint you.
But I've never been fishing before thirtyfive years old. And I've never
been fishing. How is that evenpossible? Oh my god, you gotta,
yeah, you gotta. We gottatake you out. That's it,
we're going right, Okay. Iwant to start with you, Andrew um,
sort of your kind of your backstagehistory behind who you are. I've
(01:57):
I've met you guys in passing.My husband has sold your merchandise. Ye,
but I've never really kind of satdown with you and really understood who
you guys are as a group.And this is our first interview together.
Won't be the last. I'll tellyou that right now. Yeah, but
just who you are and you knowhow you guys came together as a group.
(02:19):
Sure. Yeah, I'm from PilotMountain, North Carolina. So like
Mayberry the Andy Griffith Show. Okay, literally, it's a real place,
it's called Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy, you know on the show is like
Mayberry and Mount Pilot, but everybodystill calls it that right, small town.
I did move to Nashville for collegeat one point. I did four
colleges in five years. So justping ponged around and bounce go. You
(02:43):
know, you gotta go there.Sometimes you just gotta figure it out as
you go. Um. But Imoved out to Nashville and I wasn't really
feeling school out here. But Iwas always writing songs. I mean I
started at a young age. Mydad probably got me playing his acoustic guitar
when I was in the fifth sixthgrade, and then got my first electric
guitar in like seventh or eighth grade, and yeah, just you know,
(03:07):
just started trying to learn it,and it became just like a hobby,
you know, like pick it uponce in a while, messed with it,
put it down for a couple ofmonths. It was always sports and
other stuff for me too. Butthen I think like late in high school
and early in college, I startedto realize, like taking the acoustic guitar
around the bonfire, you could bethe hero some nights. A lot of
a lot of drunk nights by bonfires, just screaming some songs and writing songs
(03:30):
about what me and my friends did. But uh, then I decided to
move back to I graduated from NCState finally and decided to move back to
Nashville. I worked for my dadfor like a year or two, family
business, and I was like,why am I? Why am I doing
this? I was selling floors inNorth Carolina. We love a good humble
beginning, that's right. Yeah,I love a good piece of carpet too.
(03:53):
Uh you think about these floors here? Yeah, well they look good.
That's some. It's like some lambingit, but all right, we're
up bawling on a budget over here. Lambing it is the way to go.
Just everybody knows. All right.They make it waterproof, now,
dude, not be afraid of lambingit. Now, that's a fact.
But ain't a piece being made thatwe can't lay, That's what I'll say.
(04:19):
So I moved out here, anduh, I worked at a store
called Carpet Dem when I first movedout here. Just sell floors all day
and go downtown and play music atnight. And actually had met some friends
out here before I moved back outhere and through some other mutual friends,
I met Leo and we were kindof strongly suggested to start working together.
(04:40):
And when somebody like Pitbull and someother people start telling you to work together,
you're like, all right, maybewe should give it a try.
It clicked right away, like theday after we shook hands, we started
recording songs together. So it alsoshout out to Whiskey Jam, because that's
kind of how we got our start. I had met some friends at Whiskey
Jam that introduced me to Leo.So ward is awesome. You know,
(05:00):
we love shout Whiskey Jam. Uhand then yeah, me and Leo shook
hands the first time I got inthe studio. But you can kind of
tell yeah, tell us Leo yourside of this and like kind of how
your journey in music began. Iwas born in Miami, and then we'll
go back and forth from Roald tannHundre to Miami. My family is from
there, and that's how I gotinto music. That's how I got into
(05:25):
country music. Really a lot onthat island. Country music, like classic
country music is big and reggae aswell, and so I grew up on
that and then went to school inthe States, and when I got to
middle school, I started a rockband, started writing songs like at the
age of twelve, but I wouldn'tsing it. I would just have I
(05:45):
would have like some girls singing.I'll just be in the back, like
I'll be the guy in the backand just I'll just play playing the background.
And then after I graduated high school, I started playing the bass guitar,
and I started touring with Lauren Hilland there's a couple other people,
and then started working with pit Bull. And that's how people will actually do.
One inspired me to be an artistbecause he would hear my songs about
(06:08):
who's this singing? Like it wasme. I just want to try to
write from other people like no,no, you're an artist. You gotta
do it all right, I'll tryit so casually, I just yeah,
yeah, I picked up the bass, started playing with Lauren here. Yeah.
I mean I would like practice guitar, like just close up from my
(06:32):
room for hours and I will sleepwith my damn guitar all the time.
And yeah, that's that's how Igot to them. And that's through people.
I met Andrew and we've been takingit from there. To places I
never thought we'll get to know alittle by little with just working hard,
trying to knock stuff out. Yeah, you guys are you guys are grinding
(06:54):
right now? That's crazy. Andthen the next thing, you know,
Aaron ben Wood, who was ourmanager at the time and had helped kind
of get us, started cutting somesongs, introduced us to what I'd already
met Jay to Marcus to another friend. Jay was with Rascal Flats obviously,
and uh, we met with Jayin the office and the whole team one
day. We played like three orfour songs acoustic and Jay was like,
(07:15):
all right, I'll have y'all recorddeal tomorrow. We're like, what finally
happened? And we were just talkingkind of before the microphones turned on,
about how Nashville and the music industryit's just such a small place, because,
like you said, you can turnaround and like meet someone and then
the next day you're like, okay, we're signing papers to do something.
Yeah, and even even later youknow, like I had met um.
(07:38):
It's a crazy story, but Ihad met Jay through a friend of mine
named Tyler Eiffort. He's a footballplayer some people might know and no big
deal casual name drop, right,but he introduced because they were I think
Tyler was with c AA and maybethrough the booking agent. He had known
some friends in country music and hadmet Jay and uh, he came to
town one time just to hang andhe's like, hey, like, I
(07:59):
want to introduce you some that Mikecan help you. And we went and
played top golf, and of courseI'm just like, nice to meet you,
mister DeMarcus type thing. Right.Never thought anything of it, but
it was like probably seven or eightmonths later that me and Leo got that
meeting and I walked in and Jaywas like, what are you doing here?
Like it didn't like register, Iguess, and he's like, man,
you've come a long way. Goodto see you again. You know,
it is a small town. Younever know, Marcus, mister DeMarcus.
(08:20):
Now we're taking shots tequila? Ye. Do you guys have a preferred
beverage? I know we're just talkingabout taking shots. Do you guys have
something that you prefer? Yes?Uh, well, if it's beer,
I'm like a natty light guy.Okay, tequila guy like cuss some eagles
(08:41):
and this is do one that um, it's good goods tequila. He likes
it. I'm a Tito's guy.Okay, fun fact of the day.
And Natty Light was my very firstbeer. Girl, Okay, there we
go. I remember I was inhigh school. Mom, I'm sorry.
Um. I remember being at aparty and somebody handed me a beer and
(09:03):
like, you know, you thinkyou're like cool, right, You're like,
wow, I get to drink.This is so fun. And I
took a little tiny sip of thisbeer and I was just like yeah,
you know. And then you're justlike holding onto the beer thinking that you
look cool and it's full, andthey're just like poor, Yeah, I
promise I'm drinking. But now,I mean I love beer now too,
So it's like that acquired well.I mean most kids like think it's nasty
(09:28):
at first, but I specifically rememberthe first time my dad ever. I
was like, dad, let metry that. Let me try it.
He had a Heineken. I waslike probably eleven or twelve. That's my
first beer. And I wasn't findout weird all the time. And I
remember looking at my day like Iwant to try and I want to try
and he's like this is adult drink. He's like, you're not gonna like
it, but here and I tooka ship and I was like, it's
(09:48):
kind of like a bitter sprite andhe's like, give that man. Not
at all he expected. It didnot go well by a little brother.
I remember my grandma, we calledher nanny, and we were sitting at
Nanny's house one day and she alwayshad a Budweiser. She had a bud
heavy in her hand every single night, and my little brother thought it was
like a coke or something. Sohe would like ask her for a step
(10:09):
and she would every time give hima step, and he's a cloud.
She's like, you're not gonna likeit, but I mean you liked it.
Oh yeah, I did so randomlymy son too. My son,
it's like give that backs. It'sfunny you say, like my nanna would
never drink, Like I literally neverdrank. Didn't know that any you know
(10:31):
of us when when I got ofage drank or anything. And I remember,
like me and my cousin finding someliquor in the top of her cabinet
one time, and it was becauselike we didn't really remember, but we
did kind of that when we werekids and we had a cough. She
would get rye whiskey and pour itin a spoon and you take that.
That's what that's what's her cough medicine. Yeah, I mean it listen,
(10:52):
it worked. Okay, I'm sorry, big Pharma, but will be all
right. Okay, ye oh mygoodness. Okay, I want to touch
this really quick because I know thatthis past like a couple of weeks,
Stand and Shake kind of have openedup about like being in a duo and
how difficult it is because there's reallylike one person against one person. I
mean, you guys are a unitobviously, but not having that third person
(11:13):
to kind of be the liaison oflike hey man, listen, you gotta
calm down, or things like that, and like mental health and that sort
of journey when it comes to youguys being a duo. Are there ever
moments where you're just like, man, I don't like you right now,
but like we got to work thisout. Have you guys had that moment
yet? Not? Really? Notreally? I mean, when you're with
(11:33):
somebody as much as you are,they're like, I mean, I've told
Leo before, I'm tired of lookingat your big ass, you know what,
jokingly, but I mean we Ijust like whisper really soft and Leo's
ear when he gets upset and everything'sfine. You're like the big voice of
reason. We honestly are both likeso carefree, like we we just have
(11:58):
the person now, like nothing reallyrattles us. You know, maybe asses
in five years. I don't know. Yeah, you never know. I
mean, so far as it's beengood, I love that we never have
We never have an argument about whosings what or anything. Like a lot
of duos, there's one main voice. We're like a true dudo. We
flip flop verses and harmonies and everything. We'll just you'll rise on like I'm
gonna sing that part all right,I'll sing this part like, yeah,
(12:20):
never really been an argument. Well, and I think that's so important too,
because it is truly like you guysboth have such a beautiful craft to
share with the world. And thefact that you truly do get to like
caps it. You know, it'ssuch an awesome things. Get an arguments,
you know, Yeah, one ofthem gets jealous. You know.
Jealousy is an ugly thing. Man, it will it will, It'll show
(12:41):
somebody's character real quick. Yeah,I mean, and there's you know,
you got to always be prepared forafter any show. There might be when
you start to do pictures and whatever, there might be five people that really
wanted to talk to Leo and notme, Yea or Vice. You know
what I'm saying. You get thatall time, and you just you just
go with it. I mean,it is what it is. If if
people are wanting to come talk tohim, that means they like Neon Union.
(13:03):
If people want to come talk tome, that means they like Neon
Union. So I'm black. Weneed to like, we need we need
something at the airport from the gateagent. We're like this time. Oh
my gosh, I love seriously,I love y'all so much. I Andrew,
(13:26):
my husband talked about you guys alot when he was spending time with
y'all a lot, and he justalways talked about how good of a time
you guys were, and it reallyI mean, that's I guess that's what
makes it easy for us, isit's like, if it's not a good
time, then we don't you know, it's totally It's just that's all.
We make it a good time everywherewe go. Yeah, let's talk about
your favorite part of your career sofar. Is there a moment that stands
(13:48):
out to you where you're like,man faster or rewind, Like twenty years
before this, I could never haveeven dreamt that this happened. Yeah,
I mean for me, definitely,up to this point, he's been playing
the opry. Yeah do that becauseyeah, I kind of have the story
where like me and my friends cameto town. I've been back, I
had cousins that grew up here,had been back and forth to Nashville my
whole life. Country music had alwaysbeen a part of my life. I
(14:11):
had never been to the opera,and me and some friends came to town
and we were, you know,riding by the opery Land area and all
that and the Chaos area, rightyeah, the mall and the hotel and
all that, and they're like,let's go in the opera. So we
kind of like went through the frontdoor and they told us however much it
was forty dollars to take a touror whatever it was, and I just
kind of like froze. I waslike I can't do this. I'm gonna
(14:33):
wait. I was like I wasjoking, but I was like, I'm
gonna wait on my invite. Yeah, I mean I didn't. I didn't
think I'd ever be singing at theopera. Yeah. I mean I've done
shows, you know, playing withPittboy at the Wembley Stadium and Madison Square
Guard, but it's different ones whenyou're the artist. Yeah, And I
mean I would I would watch theOpera when I was a kid in TV
shows, but I'd never imagine howI'd be in that state. That's crazy.
(14:56):
Yeah. Well, and kind ofgoing back to your story, Leo,
about how you played for other artistsand now you being the artist.
Is that such a weird transition foryou or is it just like I mean,
I'm sure it's way cooler. It'sdefinitely cool. Yeah. I mean
I always had in the back ofmy head, but you know, I
never really tried until I got thatpush pit. You know. Yeah,
(15:18):
I gotta give this guy like somuch respect and props because, you know,
even just through our short journey,you play the Opry, or you
open up for Pitbull and play infront of fifteen thousand or whatever it might
be, and then the very nextweek you might PLoP down with an acoustic
guitar in front of twenty five peopleat a bar and for Leo to go
from like touring with Lauren Hill andPitbull and me in front of you know,
(15:41):
thirty thousand almost every night and thenbe totally okay with you know,
thirty five people in a bar.I'm like, that's you know, he
wanted to do it pretty bad forthe artist side so well. And I
feel like it's kind of like oneof those uh stories of how when you're
in high school, right You're youbecome a senior in high school and you're
(16:02):
like on top of the world,and then you go to college and you're
a freshman again. You know,it's like you have like do You've just
got new things to learn and you'vegot new experiences to make. And I
think it's such a cool and justlike beautiful thing. Yeah. I mean,
if this guy wasn't such a badass, I wouldn't I would be doing
it. It's team works, Okay, we got to talk about this EP,
y'all because if anything, if it'sif it's anything like Redneck Rich,
(16:25):
I'm there. I'm here for itat all times. Yeah. Do you
guys have a favorite song on theeph God? I have one. I
hate asking this question because I feellike it's always the ladies are gonna love
that one. Yeah, oh gosh, mom, might be my favorite,
might be American Dirt. Sorry,so good. I feel like when you
(16:48):
put out a piece of work,it's always such a not vulnerable side all
the time. But putting out youknow, your your hard work into the
world and being like, I hopeyou like it. You know, what's
that feeling like as an artist?It's a scary feeling, honestly, because
you just want to see people respondto it. And I feel like it's
(17:11):
a good thing and a bad thingthat the world is so easily able to
release music and or consume music.But also it's a scary thing because when
you're getting all these new songs poppingup every day and all these new artists,
it's hard to you know, getsomeone to believe in you. I
guess it is. And so yeah, at the end of the day,
quality that the quality wins. Yeah. Yeah, music speaks for itself.
(17:33):
So all we do is put putout stuff that we love and that we
enjoy or like, we hope theylove it. But it's like, if
you're having fun, yeah, wellwhat else matters? Right exactly? You
guys? Um, So I wantto talk about your family on the podcast.
I always like to talk about likethe backstage moments of you know,
the career and things that happen.Has there been ever a moment where your
(17:55):
family is like, I don't knowif this is a good idea, like
you know, trying to pay billthat you're you know, trying to make
it as an artist and things likethat. Oh yeah. My dad always
be like, you just live ina dream. This is on a dream.
You got to start doing um.You know. He would do car
repairs, that's over that you gottaget into the car repairs, this,
and that you gotta provide for yourfamily. I always say him, my
(18:17):
no, on one day, I'mgonna do something. I just you know,
I gotta believe in myself. Yeah. But now he's like, okay,
you're doing it. Okay, Iguess I kind of have a little
bit different side of it and thatlike my parents always supported me and believed
in it. But at the sametime, uh, my dad and my
(18:37):
mom both a lot of times werejust like you should be doing this,
this, this and this, Youshould be doing this, this, this
and this. It's kind of likeI got this, Like just trust me,
let me and so now my dad'dbe like, man, you were
right all along. You know,he'll say stuff like that, you're right,
wow. Yeah, but both ofmy parents. I mean, I
was working for my dad at thetime when COVID hit, and he was
like, look, we're either gonnabuckle down here and you're gonna start managing
(19:00):
a store or go back to Nashville. And he goes and I'm telling you
to get the hell out of here. Shout out to dad. He was
like, you're not You're not madefor this anymore. Go over there and
make something of yourself. Exactly.I forget love that. Man. Family
is such a cool thing. Andyou having uh, you know, kids
and a family when you're doing stuffon the road and having to leave family
(19:22):
and spend time away from them,is that difficult for you? Yeah?
Yeah, I guess difficult. That'swhy I'll take my time with like writing
songs and making music while we're onthe road. So I could just you
know, keep my mind just forward. Let's sit down and just start thinking
like, oh, I'm gonna seemy kids this and I'm gonna yeah,
(19:42):
I'm not gonna do anything. I'mjust gonna be sad. So yeah,
just keep the blind yes, exactly, Yeah, until I can start riding
with you exactly. Yeah, whenwe get the bush. When that's right,
when you get the big old bus, then everybody's gonna come along with
him. Then it'll be fun onthe road. Yeah, that's right.
Let's talk about the rest of thisyear. I know you've got the EP
(20:03):
out um and something that you guysare looking forward to most about this year,
maybe not something that people know about, but just something that you're you're
you've got in the back of yourhead that you're like, maybe a dream
or maybe something that's already on thecalendar that you can't wait for. Hopefully
land tour. Yeah, we're workingon that so amazing. We got some
some news in the works. We'reswitching some things up. We can't really
(20:27):
say. I was like, you'retwiddling your fingers now, how much can
I say right now? How aboutthis? How about this? We're getting
back in the studio in the fall, so we're gonna have a full length
album coming. But the EP ishere this coming Friday. Yeah, that's
our that's our introduction to the world, our first time putting out a big
(20:48):
chunk of songs and saying here weare, and then we're we're just moving
forward. We're right back in thestudio to start doing some more songs.
I mean, listen, guys,we love you already, and I'm excited
for I mean, I've been doingthis for eleven years almost, and the
energy that artists bring in the studio, I feel like really says something about
them, and you guys have itand I've seen you guys perform and I
(21:08):
just know how much fun you guysare on stage and to watch. So
this journey is going to be funto watch. Why am I tearing?
We're super excited. Let's let's lightenthings up. So this gumball machine that
you knocked down before, Andrew itis right that there's a little there's a
(21:33):
little uh, there's a little notein there right there we actually need to
use. Yeah, you're going totake that out. And I should have
kept the one that fell out.Oh that's okay, Oh my gosh,
it was destined to be for me. I mean, well maybe maybe this
one. No, this is foryou guys to answer. These are this
is our random gumball machine. Yeah, okay, I don't know what it
says. So we're gonna we're gonnahear this for the first time. Is
(21:56):
it delicious? Is it? Ittastes just like a sticky note? I
remember that just like it was yesterday. You read because I don't know how
to read. All right, tellus an embarrassing story about yourself. That's
tough. It could be individual,it could be together, whatever you guys
want. Maybe this past weekend whenI was trying to go to the front
(22:19):
of the walkway on stage, didyou almost but like four times? I'm
I'm tripping on the same chord fourtimes, four time, and then the
last time my basses slammed on theground. Yeah, that wasn't pretty bad.
One this week was the bass?Okay, it was fine? Were
you okay? That was fine?All right? Have I had any recently?
(22:45):
I know I did one time jumpoff the drum riser and the snake,
which is the all the wires thatgo into one spot, caught my
ankle and then I hit my headon the Remember the screen that was hanging.
It was like a screen hanging allat once. I don't know if
anybody saw, but I literally hitmy head so hard I thought I couldn't
see for a second. Hey,isn't it funny that those you know,
(23:06):
it's like you learn things right asyou like perform on stage, like you
learn more about stage presence and thingslike that, but they don't teach you
how to recover from a fall.I've also unplugged. I just unplugged my
chord because I only got so muchcable. We're not wireless yet. Anybody
that has some wireless packs also,look you boys up, Come on,
(23:29):
people who build stages. Remember howdouble wide. That's why our album's called
Double Wide Castle. Me and Leocan't walk down the catwalk at the same
time. We've got to go oneafter the other. Listen. I am
all for like I have my myall of my social media is like herby
mom energy, right, like makeroom for us like hervy ladies. Okay,
so let's double wide forgett walkskys inclusivecotwalks. Right. Yeah, there's
(23:55):
already enough people falling as is.There's been tons of those videos out right,
little wider. I mean, Ernestjust busted his bed. There's something
in the air. What I loveabout what happened to Ernest is that when
he started falling, he leaped,which was like the best move I could
ever imagine like once you're going,I'm going, it's go. I think
he tried to maybe even get tothe crowd, like for a softer landing.
(24:18):
He's like, there's three women,I'm gonna jump on them instead,
and it was like a big ironbarrier came up like a foot and then
Carly Pierce ate it this week.But she, I mean, she recovered.
She posted about it. She waslike, let's make light of these.
I mean, Cameron Marlow did it. He took a hard fall.
Okay, guys, I need youto promise me something. There's something obviously
(24:40):
in the air right now with falling, so just be careful, right,
So, don't do my thing Ido anymore. Where I lean on Leo,
I go all the way parallel tothe ground like I'm a rock star,
but I just have an acoustic guitar. So it's really just just wait
until we got those double white catwalksand then you can lean it, kneel
all you want. You know.The other thing that happens to us because
(25:03):
we're big, this is no joke. When you start singing and you get
to jump in, the microphone startsdoing this just hitting you in the mouth
while you're singing, Yeah, it'sbig boy problems. We need to anchor
them down exactly something or just there'sgotta there's gotta be something. Okay,
we're thinking of some million dollar ideathat's happening right here. I'm gonna I'm
gonna keep you guys updated on whenI pitched a shark thing. I'll give
you guys a person, because Idon't think a mouthpiece would work. You
(25:26):
know, we can't really get GarthBrooks. You get Garth Brooks that just
oh yeah, or Jada Marcus ishe played BASSI had that little yeah,
we make fun of him with that. You guys seriously are such a good
time. Thank you, congratulations onthe epank you, thank you genuinely mean
(25:48):
excited for your guys' career. Yeahfor having us, Yeah, thanks for
having us, Thanks for doing this. We're glad to glad to be in
here with you, of course,
Backstage. Welcome to backstage with Brook. You're all access past to music city
where nothing is off limits. Graba drink, let's go backstage. All
right, we gotta welcome Neon Unionto the podcast. Y'all. This song
(00:26):
I cannot like in the best waypossible. I love this song so much.
Y'all started teasing it on your socialmedia and everybody's like, what is
the name of this? How doI get it? You're like, dude,
I'm redneck rich. The definition ofredneck rich. Yes, spending all
your money to have fun, butlike, honestly, you can't take it
(00:48):
with you when you go, soyou might as well just spend it,
you know what I'm saying. Ifyou got it? Okay, before we
dive into kind of a little backstagebehind your guys's you know, life and
your career. What is something thatyou like to spend your money on that
would consider you redneck rich? Ohman, you can't say everything he spend
(01:14):
I'll keep it similar. Maybe somefishing gears, yeah, okay, you
do a lot of fishing. Yeah. Mine would probably be, honestly,
as as weird as it sounds,golfing. I mean, that's my version
of redneck rich golf clubs are notexpensive. Neither is playing golf back in
the YETI full of beers every day, and the band of laying golf is
not cheap. I I will justI'll drive the golf card for you.
(01:34):
But I'm terrible at golf. Yeah, and I don't want to disappoint you.
But I've never been fishing before thirtyfive years old. And I've never
been fishing. How is that evenpossible? Oh my god, you gotta,
yeah, you gotta. We gottatake you out. That's it,
we're going right, Okay. Iwant to start with you, Andrew um,
sort of your kind of your backstagehistory behind who you are. I've
(01:57):
I've met you guys in passing.My husband has sold your merchandise. Ye,
but I've never really kind of satdown with you and really understood who
you guys are as a group.And this is our first interview together.
Won't be the last. I'll tellyou that right now. Yeah, but
just who you are and you knowhow you guys came together as a group.
(02:19):
Sure. Yeah, I'm from PilotMountain, North Carolina. So like
Mayberry the Andy Griffith Show. Okay, literally, it's a real place,
it's called Pilot Mountain and Mount Airy, you know on the show is like
Mayberry and Mount Pilot, but everybodystill calls it that right, small town.
I did move to Nashville for collegeat one point. I did four
colleges in five years. So justping ponged around and bounce go. You
(02:43):
know, you gotta go there.Sometimes you just gotta figure it out as
you go. Um. But Imoved out to Nashville and I wasn't really
feeling school out here. But Iwas always writing songs. I mean I
started at a young age. Mydad probably got me playing his acoustic guitar
when I was in the fifth sixthgrade, and then got my first electric
guitar in like seventh or eighth grade, and yeah, just you know,
(03:07):
just started trying to learn it,and it became just like a hobby,
you know, like pick it uponce in a while, messed with it,
put it down for a couple ofmonths. It was always sports and
other stuff for me too. Butthen I think like late in high school
and early in college, I startedto realize, like taking the acoustic guitar
around the bonfire, you could bethe hero some nights. A lot of
a lot of drunk nights by bonfires, just screaming some songs and writing songs
(03:30):
about what me and my friends did. But uh, then I decided to
move back to I graduated from NCState finally and decided to move back to
Nashville. I worked for my dadfor like a year or two, family
business, and I was like,why am I? Why am I doing
this? I was selling floors inNorth Carolina. We love a good humble
beginning, that's right. Yeah,I love a good piece of carpet too.
(03:53):
Uh you think about these floors here? Yeah, well they look good.
That's some. It's like some lambingit, but all right, we're
up bawling on a budget over here. Lambing it is the way to go.
Just everybody knows. All right.They make it waterproof, now,
dude, not be afraid of lambingit. Now, that's a fact.
But ain't a piece being made thatwe can't lay, That's what I'll say.
(04:19):
So I moved out here, anduh, I worked at a store
called Carpet Dem when I first movedout here. Just sell floors all day
and go downtown and play music atnight. And actually had met some friends
out here before I moved back outhere and through some other mutual friends,
I met Leo and we were kindof strongly suggested to start working together.
(04:40):
And when somebody like Pitbull and someother people start telling you to work together,
you're like, all right, maybewe should give it a try.
It clicked right away, like theday after we shook hands, we started
recording songs together. So it alsoshout out to Whiskey Jam, because that's
kind of how we got our start. I had met some friends at Whiskey
Jam that introduced me to Leo.So ward is awesome. You know,
(05:00):
we love shout Whiskey Jam. Uhand then yeah, me and Leo shook
hands the first time I got inthe studio. But you can kind of
tell yeah, tell us Leo yourside of this and like kind of how
your journey in music began. Iwas born in Miami, and then we'll
go back and forth from Roald tannHundre to Miami. My family is from
there, and that's how I gotinto music. That's how I got into
(05:25):
country music. Really a lot onthat island. Country music, like classic
country music is big and reggae aswell, and so I grew up on
that and then went to school inthe States, and when I got to
middle school, I started a rockband, started writing songs like at the
age of twelve, but I wouldn'tsing it. I would just have I
(05:45):
would have like some girls singing.I'll just be in the back, like
I'll be the guy in the backand just I'll just play playing the background.
And then after I graduated high school, I started playing the bass guitar,
and I started touring with Lauren Hilland there's a couple other people,
and then started working with pit Bull. And that's how people will actually do.
One inspired me to be an artistbecause he would hear my songs about
(06:08):
who's this singing? Like it wasme. I just want to try to
write from other people like no,no, you're an artist. You gotta
do it all right, I'll tryit so casually, I just yeah,
yeah, I picked up the bass, started playing with Lauren here. Yeah.
I mean I would like practice guitar, like just close up from my
(06:32):
room for hours and I will sleepwith my damn guitar all the time.
And yeah, that's that's how Igot to them. And that's through people.
I met Andrew and we've been takingit from there. To places I
never thought we'll get to know alittle by little with just working hard,
trying to knock stuff out. Yeah, you guys are you guys are grinding
(06:54):
right now? That's crazy. Andthen the next thing, you know,
Aaron ben Wood, who was ourmanager at the time and had helped kind
of get us, started cutting somesongs, introduced us to what I'd already
met Jay to Marcus to another friend. Jay was with Rascal Flats obviously,
and uh, we met with Jayin the office and the whole team one
day. We played like three orfour songs acoustic and Jay was like,
(07:15):
all right, I'll have y'all recorddeal tomorrow. We're like, what finally
happened? And we were just talkingkind of before the microphones turned on,
about how Nashville and the music industryit's just such a small place, because,
like you said, you can turnaround and like meet someone and then
the next day you're like, okay, we're signing papers to do something.
Yeah, and even even later youknow, like I had met um.
(07:38):
It's a crazy story, but Ihad met Jay through a friend of mine
named Tyler Eiffort. He's a footballplayer some people might know and no big
deal casual name drop, right,but he introduced because they were I think
Tyler was with c AA and maybethrough the booking agent. He had known
some friends in country music and hadmet Jay and uh, he came to
town one time just to hang andhe's like, hey, like, I
(07:59):
want to introduce you some that Mikecan help you. And we went and
played top golf, and of courseI'm just like, nice to meet you,
mister DeMarcus type thing. Right.Never thought anything of it, but
it was like probably seven or eightmonths later that me and Leo got that
meeting and I walked in and Jaywas like, what are you doing here?
Like it didn't like register, Iguess, and he's like, man,
you've come a long way. Goodto see you again. You know,
it is a small town. Younever know, Marcus, mister DeMarcus.
(08:20):
Now we're taking shots tequila? Ye. Do you guys have a preferred
beverage? I know we're just talkingabout taking shots. Do you guys have
something that you prefer? Yes?Uh, well, if it's beer,
I'm like a natty light guy.Okay, tequila guy like cuss some eagles
(08:41):
and this is do one that um, it's good goods tequila. He likes
it. I'm a Tito's guy.Okay, fun fact of the day.
And Natty Light was my very firstbeer. Girl, Okay, there we
go. I remember I was inhigh school. Mom, I'm sorry.
Um. I remember being at aparty and somebody handed me a beer and
(09:03):
like, you know, you thinkyou're like cool, right, You're like,
wow, I get to drink.This is so fun. And I
took a little tiny sip of thisbeer and I was just like yeah,
you know. And then you're justlike holding onto the beer thinking that you
look cool and it's full, andthey're just like poor, Yeah, I
promise I'm drinking. But now,I mean I love beer now too,
So it's like that acquired well.I mean most kids like think it's nasty
(09:28):
at first, but I specifically rememberthe first time my dad ever. I
was like, dad, let metry that. Let me try it.
He had a Heineken. I waslike probably eleven or twelve. That's my
first beer. And I wasn't findout weird all the time. And I
remember looking at my day like Iwant to try and I want to try
and he's like this is adult drink. He's like, you're not gonna like
it, but here and I tooka ship and I was like, it's
(09:48):
kind of like a bitter sprite andhe's like, give that man. Not
at all he expected. It didnot go well by a little brother.
I remember my grandma, we calledher nanny, and we were sitting at
Nanny's house one day and she alwayshad a Budweiser. She had a bud
heavy in her hand every single night, and my little brother thought it was
like a coke or something. Sohe would like ask her for a step
(10:09):
and she would every time give hima step, and he's a cloud.
She's like, you're not gonna likeit, but I mean you liked it.
Oh yeah, I did so randomlymy son too. My son,
it's like give that backs. It'sfunny you say, like my nanna would
never drink, Like I literally neverdrank. Didn't know that any you know
(10:31):
of us when when I got ofage drank or anything. And I remember,
like me and my cousin finding someliquor in the top of her cabinet
one time, and it was becauselike we didn't really remember, but we
did kind of that when we werekids and we had a cough. She
would get rye whiskey and pour itin a spoon and you take that.
That's what that's what's her cough medicine. Yeah, I mean it listen,
(10:52):
it worked. Okay, I'm sorry, big Pharma, but will be all
right. Okay, ye oh mygoodness. Okay, I want to touch
this really quick because I know thatthis past like a couple of weeks,
Stand and Shake kind of have openedup about like being in a duo and
how difficult it is because there's reallylike one person against one person. I
mean, you guys are a unitobviously, but not having that third person
(11:13):
to kind of be the liaison oflike hey man, listen, you gotta
calm down, or things like that, and like mental health and that sort
of journey when it comes to youguys being a duo. Are there ever
moments where you're just like, man, I don't like you right now,
but like we got to work thisout. Have you guys had that moment
yet? Not? Really? Notreally? I mean, when you're with
(11:33):
somebody as much as you are,they're like, I mean, I've told
Leo before, I'm tired of lookingat your big ass, you know what,
jokingly, but I mean we Ijust like whisper really soft and Leo's
ear when he gets upset and everything'sfine. You're like the big voice of
reason. We honestly are both likeso carefree, like we we just have
(11:58):
the person now, like nothing reallyrattles us. You know, maybe asses
in five years. I don't know. Yeah, you never know. I
mean, so far as it's beengood, I love that we never have
We never have an argument about whosings what or anything. Like a lot
of duos, there's one main voice. We're like a true dudo. We
flip flop verses and harmonies and everything. We'll just you'll rise on like I'm
gonna sing that part all right,I'll sing this part like, yeah,
(12:20):
never really been an argument. Well, and I think that's so important too,
because it is truly like you guysboth have such a beautiful craft to
share with the world. And thefact that you truly do get to like
caps it. You know, it'ssuch an awesome things. Get an arguments,
you know, Yeah, one ofthem gets jealous. You know.
Jealousy is an ugly thing. Man, it will it will, It'll show
(12:41):
somebody's character real quick. Yeah,I mean, and there's you know,
you got to always be prepared forafter any show. There might be when
you start to do pictures and whatever, there might be five people that really
wanted to talk to Leo and notme, Yea or Vice. You know
what I'm saying. You get thatall time, and you just you just
go with it. I mean,it is what it is. If if
people are wanting to come talk tohim, that means they like Neon Union.
(13:03):
If people want to come talk tome, that means they like Neon
Union. So I'm black. Weneed to like, we need we need
something at the airport from the gateagent. We're like this time. Oh
my gosh, I love seriously,I love y'all so much. I Andrew,
(13:26):
my husband talked about you guys alot when he was spending time with
y'all a lot, and he justalways talked about how good of a time
you guys were, and it reallyI mean, that's I guess that's what
makes it easy for us, isit's like, if it's not a good
time, then we don't you know, it's totally It's just that's all.
We make it a good time everywherewe go. Yeah, let's talk about
your favorite part of your career sofar. Is there a moment that stands
(13:48):
out to you where you're like,man faster or rewind, Like twenty years
before this, I could never haveeven dreamt that this happened. Yeah,
I mean for me, definitely,up to this point, he's been playing
the opry. Yeah do that becauseyeah, I kind of have the story
where like me and my friends cameto town. I've been back, I
had cousins that grew up here,had been back and forth to Nashville my
whole life. Country music had alwaysbeen a part of my life. I
(14:11):
had never been to the opera,and me and some friends came to town
and we were, you know,riding by the opery Land area and all
that and the Chaos area, rightyeah, the mall and the hotel and
all that, and they're like,let's go in the opera. So we
kind of like went through the frontdoor and they told us however much it
was forty dollars to take a touror whatever it was, and I just
kind of like froze. I waslike I can't do this. I'm gonna
(14:33):
wait. I was like I wasjoking, but I was like, I'm
gonna wait on my invite. Yeah, I mean I didn't. I didn't
think I'd ever be singing at theopera. Yeah. I mean I've done
shows, you know, playing withPittboy at the Wembley Stadium and Madison Square
Guard, but it's different ones whenyou're the artist. Yeah, And I
mean I would I would watch theOpera when I was a kid in TV
shows, but I'd never imagine howI'd be in that state. That's crazy.
(14:56):
Yeah. Well, and kind ofgoing back to your story, Leo,
about how you played for other artistsand now you being the artist.
Is that such a weird transition foryou or is it just like I mean,
I'm sure it's way cooler. It'sdefinitely cool. Yeah. I mean
I always had in the back ofmy head, but you know, I
never really tried until I got thatpush pit. You know. Yeah,
(15:18):
I gotta give this guy like somuch respect and props because, you know,
even just through our short journey,you play the Opry, or you
open up for Pitbull and play infront of fifteen thousand or whatever it might
be, and then the very nextweek you might PLoP down with an acoustic
guitar in front of twenty five peopleat a bar and for Leo to go
from like touring with Lauren Hill andPitbull and me in front of you know,
(15:41):
thirty thousand almost every night and thenbe totally okay with you know,
thirty five people in a bar.I'm like, that's you know, he
wanted to do it pretty bad forthe artist side so well. And I
feel like it's kind of like oneof those uh stories of how when you're
in high school, right You're youbecome a senior in high school and you're
(16:02):
like on top of the world,and then you go to college and you're
a freshman again. You know,it's like you have like do You've just
got new things to learn and you'vegot new experiences to make. And I
think it's such a cool and justlike beautiful thing. Yeah. I mean,
if this guy wasn't such a badass, I wouldn't I would be doing
it. It's team works, Okay, we got to talk about this EP,
y'all because if anything, if it'sif it's anything like Redneck Rich,
(16:25):
I'm there. I'm here for itat all times. Yeah. Do you
guys have a favorite song on theeph God? I have one. I
hate asking this question because I feellike it's always the ladies are gonna love
that one. Yeah, oh gosh, mom, might be my favorite,
might be American Dirt. Sorry,so good. I feel like when you
(16:48):
put out a piece of work,it's always such a not vulnerable side all
the time. But putting out youknow, your your hard work into the
world and being like, I hopeyou like it. You know, what's
that feeling like as an artist?It's a scary feeling, honestly, because
you just want to see people respondto it. And I feel like it's
(17:11):
a good thing and a bad thingthat the world is so easily able to
release music and or consume music.But also it's a scary thing because when
you're getting all these new songs poppingup every day and all these new artists,
it's hard to you know, getsomeone to believe in you. I
guess it is. And so yeah, at the end of the day,
quality that the quality wins. Yeah. Yeah, music speaks for itself.
(17:33):
So all we do is put putout stuff that we love and that we
enjoy or like, we hope theylove it. But it's like, if
you're having fun, yeah, wellwhat else matters? Right exactly? You
guys? Um, So I wantto talk about your family on the podcast.
I always like to talk about likethe backstage moments of you know,
the career and things that happen.Has there been ever a moment where your
(17:55):
family is like, I don't knowif this is a good idea, like
you know, trying to pay billthat you're you know, trying to make
it as an artist and things likethat. Oh yeah. My dad always
be like, you just live ina dream. This is on a dream.
You got to start doing um.You know. He would do car
repairs, that's over that you gottaget into the car repairs, this,
and that you gotta provide for yourfamily. I always say him, my
(18:17):
no, on one day, I'mgonna do something. I just you know,
I gotta believe in myself. Yeah. But now he's like, okay,
you're doing it. Okay, Iguess I kind of have a little
bit different side of it and thatlike my parents always supported me and believed
in it. But at the sametime, uh, my dad and my
(18:37):
mom both a lot of times werejust like you should be doing this,
this, this and this, Youshould be doing this, this, this
and this. It's kind of likeI got this, Like just trust me,
let me and so now my dad'dbe like, man, you were
right all along. You know,he'll say stuff like that, you're right,
wow. Yeah, but both ofmy parents. I mean, I
was working for my dad at thetime when COVID hit, and he was
like, look, we're either gonnabuckle down here and you're gonna start managing
(19:00):
a store or go back to Nashville. And he goes and I'm telling you
to get the hell out of here. Shout out to dad. He was
like, you're not You're not madefor this anymore. Go over there and
make something of yourself. Exactly.I forget love that. Man. Family
is such a cool thing. Andyou having uh, you know, kids
and a family when you're doing stuffon the road and having to leave family
(19:22):
and spend time away from them,is that difficult for you? Yeah?
Yeah, I guess difficult. That'swhy I'll take my time with like writing
songs and making music while we're onthe road. So I could just you
know, keep my mind just forward. Let's sit down and just start thinking
like, oh, I'm gonna seemy kids this and I'm gonna yeah,
(19:42):
I'm not gonna do anything. I'mjust gonna be sad. So yeah,
just keep the blind yes, exactly, Yeah, until I can start riding
with you exactly. Yeah, whenwe get the bush. When that's right,
when you get the big old bus, then everybody's gonna come along with
him. Then it'll be fun onthe road. Yeah, that's right.
Let's talk about the rest of thisyear. I know you've got the EP
(20:03):
out um and something that you guysare looking forward to most about this year,
maybe not something that people know about, but just something that you're you're
you've got in the back of yourhead that you're like, maybe a dream
or maybe something that's already on thecalendar that you can't wait for. Hopefully
land tour. Yeah, we're workingon that so amazing. We got some
some news in the works. We'reswitching some things up. We can't really
(20:27):
say. I was like, you'retwiddling your fingers now, how much can
I say right now? How aboutthis? How about this? We're getting
back in the studio in the fall, so we're gonna have a full length
album coming. But the EP ishere this coming Friday. Yeah, that's
our that's our introduction to the world, our first time putting out a big
(20:48):
chunk of songs and saying here weare, and then we're we're just moving
forward. We're right back in thestudio to start doing some more songs.
I mean, listen, guys,we love you already, and I'm excited
for I mean, I've been doingthis for eleven years almost, and the
energy that artists bring in the studio, I feel like really says something about
them, and you guys have itand I've seen you guys perform and I
(21:08):
just know how much fun you guysare on stage and to watch. So
this journey is going to be funto watch. Why am I tearing?
We're super excited. Let's let's lightenthings up. So this gumball machine that
you knocked down before, Andrew itis right that there's a little there's a
(21:33):
little uh, there's a little notein there right there we actually need to
use. Yeah, you're going totake that out. And I should have
kept the one that fell out.Oh that's okay, Oh my gosh,
it was destined to be for me. I mean, well maybe maybe this
one. No, this is foryou guys to answer. These are this
is our random gumball machine. Yeah, okay, I don't know what it
says. So we're gonna we're gonnahear this for the first time. Is
(21:56):
it delicious? Is it? Ittastes just like a sticky note? I
remember that just like it was yesterday. You read because I don't know how
to read. All right, tellus an embarrassing story about yourself. That's
tough. It could be individual,it could be together, whatever you guys
want. Maybe this past weekend whenI was trying to go to the front
(22:19):
of the walkway on stage, didyou almost but like four times? I'm
I'm tripping on the same chord fourtimes, four time, and then the
last time my basses slammed on theground. Yeah, that wasn't pretty bad.
One this week was the bass?Okay, it was fine? Were
you okay? That was fine?All right? Have I had any recently?
(22:45):
I know I did one time jumpoff the drum riser and the snake,
which is the all the wires thatgo into one spot, caught my
ankle and then I hit my headon the Remember the screen that was hanging.
It was like a screen hanging allat once. I don't know if
anybody saw, but I literally hitmy head so hard I thought I couldn't
see for a second. Hey,isn't it funny that those you know,
(23:06):
it's like you learn things right asyou like perform on stage, like you
learn more about stage presence and thingslike that, but they don't teach you
how to recover from a fall.I've also unplugged. I just unplugged my
chord because I only got so muchcable. We're not wireless yet. Anybody
that has some wireless packs also,look you boys up, Come on,
(23:29):
people who build stages. Remember howdouble wide. That's why our album's called
Double Wide Castle. Me and Leocan't walk down the catwalk at the same
time. We've got to go oneafter the other. Listen. I am
all for like I have my myall of my social media is like herby
mom energy, right, like makeroom for us like hervy ladies. Okay,
so let's double wide forgett walkskys inclusivecotwalks. Right. Yeah, there's
(23:55):
already enough people falling as is.There's been tons of those videos out right,
little wider. I mean, Ernestjust busted his bed. There's something
in the air. What I loveabout what happened to Ernest is that when
he started falling, he leaped,which was like the best move I could
ever imagine like once you're going,I'm going, it's go. I think
he tried to maybe even get tothe crowd, like for a softer landing.
(24:18):
He's like, there's three women,I'm gonna jump on them instead,
and it was like a big ironbarrier came up like a foot and then
Carly Pierce ate it this week.But she, I mean, she recovered.
She posted about it. She waslike, let's make light of these.
I mean, Cameron Marlow did it. He took a hard fall.
Okay, guys, I need youto promise me something. There's something obviously
(24:40):
in the air right now with falling, so just be careful, right,
So, don't do my thing Ido anymore. Where I lean on Leo,
I go all the way parallel tothe ground like I'm a rock star,
but I just have an acoustic guitar. So it's really just just wait
until we got those double white catwalksand then you can lean it, kneel
all you want. You know.The other thing that happens to us because
(25:03):
we're big, this is no joke. When you start singing and you get
to jump in, the microphone startsdoing this just hitting you in the mouth
while you're singing, Yeah, it'sbig boy problems. We need to anchor
them down exactly something or just there'sgotta there's gotta be something. Okay,
we're thinking of some million dollar ideathat's happening right here. I'm gonna I'm
gonna keep you guys updated on whenI pitched a shark thing. I'll give
you guys a person, because Idon't think a mouthpiece would work. You
(25:26):
know, we can't really get GarthBrooks. You get Garth Brooks that just
oh yeah, or Jada Marcus ishe played BASSI had that little yeah,
we make fun of him with that. You guys seriously are such a good
time. Thank you, congratulations onthe epank you, thank you genuinely mean
(25:48):
excited for your guys' career. Yeahfor having us, Yeah, thanks for
having us, Thanks for doing this. We're glad to glad to be in
here with you, of course,
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